23 research outputs found
Oxidation and metal-insertion in molybdenite surfaces: evaluation of charge-transfer mechanisms and dynamics
Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a layered transition-metal dichalcogenide, has been of special importance to the research community of geochemistry, materials and environmental chemistry, and geotechnical engineering. Understanding the oxidation behavior and charge-transfer mechanisms in MoS2 is important to gain better insight into the degradation of this mineral in the environment. In addition, understanding the insertion of metals into molybdenite and evaluation of charge-transfer mechanism and dynamics is important to utilize these minerals in technological applications. Furthermore, a detailed investigation of thermal oxidation behavior and metal-insertion will provide a basis to further explore and model the mechanism of adsorption of metal ions onto geomedia
Constructing the eastern european other: The horsemeat scandal and the migrant other
The Horsemeat scandal in the UK in 2013 ignited a furore about
consumer deception and the bodily transgression of consuming
something so alien to the British psyche. The imagination of the
horse as a noble and mythic figure in British history and sociological
imagination was invoked to construct the consumption of horsemeat
as a social taboo and an immoral proposition in the British media
debates. This paper traces the horsemeat scandal and its media framing
in the UK. Much of the aversion to horsemeat was intertextually
bound with discourses of immigration, the expansion of the EU and
the threat in tandem to the UK. Food as a social and cultural artefact
laden with symbolic meaning and national pride became a platform
to construct the ‘Other’ – in this case the Eastern European Other. The
media debates on the horsemeat scandal interwove the opening up of
the EU and particularly UK to the influx of Eastern European migration.
The horsemeat controversy in implicating the Eastern Europeans for
the contamination of the supply chain became a means to not just
construct the ‘Other’ but also to entwine contemporary policy debates
about immigration. This temporal framing of contemporary debates
enables a nation to renew and contemporise its notions of ‘otherness’
while sustaining an historic social imaginary of itself
In the heat of the moment: Bringing ‘Je suis Charlie’ into focus
In the immediate aftermath of the murderous attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, millions of people rallied round the slogan ‘Je suis Charlie’. The slogan conveyed a simple message: either you are in favour of free speech and the right to offend or you are against. This essay offers a critique of the slogan and its message. The first part raises and discusses the problem of framing: what, fundamentally, was the Paris attack about? The middle section discusses a blog that the author posted at the time, also written in the heat of the moment. This segues into the third and final part, which examines the language of rights, freedom of expression, and the meaning of the word ‘offend’. The conclusion drawn is that the slogan ‘Je suis Charlie’ is an obstacle to thinking through the issues raised by the Paris attack