Understanding contextualised rational action - author's response

Understanding contextualised rational action - author's respons

The power of occlusion

The ability to control the terms of debate has powerful consequences for what is and is not considered a valid argument, and what does and does not get taken seriously as a description of the world. In this paper, we focus on the ways in which power is at work to pre-emptively exclude certain ideas and descriptions of relevant phenomena before questions about what should be done about that phenomena can even be asked. We describe this as the power of occlusion. Beginning with Gilbert Ryle’s notion of the category mistake, we go on to consider the various ways that have been employed to understand the market, focusing primarily on the (mutually exclusive) descriptions employed by Friedrich Hayek and Karl Polanyi. The essay ends with a survey of the ways in which unconditional basic income has been occluded from debates surrounding welfare reform, arguing that in order to confront the power of occlusion it is necessary to challenge many of our assumptions surrounding work and reciprocity

The equality implications of being a migrant in Britain.

Researching the equality implications of being a migrant in Britain is hampered by imprecise definitions of what a migrant is and by a lack of data on many equality groups (groups which share a common attribute in respect of age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation, as defined by the Equality Act 2006). The literature and evidence on inequalities tends to be more abundant on gender and race but remains focused on ethnic minority categories rather than on migrants as such. While the foreign-born population in the UK has increased from four to six million over the last decade, people arrive via different routes and with varying intentions. Much recent debate on the benefits and pressures resulting from immigration has been provoked by the large numbers of arrivals from Eastern Europe since 2004, but they, like other migrants from the European Union (EU), have freedom of movement guaranteed by EU Directives. Although they have to register or obtain authorisation to work legally (and 766,000 had registered by the end of 2007), there are few reliable statistics on their presence in specific areas or in the UK as a whole. Other migrants from outside the EU also come to the UK to work (about 200,000 in 2006) or study (309,000 in 2006). A number of migrants, estimated at between 310,000 and 570,000, are believed to be living in the country without formal immigration authorisation. In 2007, the largest group of those born abroad was from India (553,300), followed by those from Poland (423,300). There are significant differences in terms of gender and age between different national groups, comprising recent and established migrants, and in their experiences of employment and access to services. This heterogeneity makes policymaking based on averages or an assumed homogeneity meaningless or even dangerous

Developing a framework for the analysis of power through depotentia

Stakeholder participation in tourism policy-making is usually perceived as providing a means of empowerment. However participatory processes drawing upon stakeholders from traditionally empowered backgrounds may provide the means of removing empowerment from stakeholders. Such an outcome would be in contradiction to the claims that participatory processes improve both inclusivity and sustainability. In order to form an understanding of the sources through which empowerment may be removed, an analytical perspective has been developed deriving from Lukes�s views of power dating from 1974. This perspective considers the concept of depotentia as the removal of �power to� without speculating upon the underlying intent and also provides for the multidimensionality of power to be examined within a single study. The application of this analytical perspective has been tested upon findings of the government-commissioned report of the Countryside and Community Research Unit in 2005. The survey and report investigated the progress of Local Access Forums in England created in response to the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. Consideration of the data from this perspective permits the classification of individual sources of depotentia which can each be addressed and potentially enable stakeholder groups to reverse loss of empowerment where it has occurred

A Narnavirus in the trypanosomatid protist plant pathogen Phytomonas serpens

We describe here a new RNA virus (PserNV1) from the plant protist parasite Phytomonas serpens (family Trypanosomatidae, Kinetoplastida, supergroup Excavata). The properties of PserNV1 permit assignment to the genus Narnavirus (Narnaviridae), the first reported from a host other than fungi or oomycetes

12-Month Outcomes of the US Patient Cohort in the SONATA Pivotal IDE Trial of Transcervical Ablation of Uterine Fibroids.

Objective: The prospective SONATA pivotal Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) trial was performed in the United States (US) and Mexico to examine the safety and effectiveness of transcervical fibroid ablation (TFA) in the treatment of symptomatic uterine fibroids. This is an analysis of 12-month clinical outcomes in the US cohort. Methods: TFA with the Sonata System was performed on women with symptomatic uterine fibroids. The 12-month co-primary endpoints were reduction in menstrual blood loss and freedom from surgical reintervention. Symptom severity, quality of life, patient satisfaction, safety, and reductions in uterine and fibroid volumes were also evaluated. Results: One hundred twenty-five patients were enrolled and treated in the US. Both co-primary endpoints were achieved in this US-based cohort, as 65.3% of patients reported ≥50% reduction in menstrual bleeding and 99.2% of patients were free from surgical reintervention. Symptom improvement was noted by 97.4% of patients and 98.3% were satisfied. Ninety-five percent of patients reported reduced menstrual bleeding at 12 months, and 86.8% noted \u3e20% reduction. Significant mean improvements at 12 months were realized in both symptom severity and health-related quality of life (33.8 points and 45.8 points, respectively; all P\u3c0.0001). Mean maximal fibroid volume reduction per patient was 63.8%. There was a 0% incidence of device related adverse events. Mean length of stay was 2.5 hrs and 50% of patients returned to normal activity within 1 day. Conclusion: This analysis of US patients in the SONATA pivotal IDE trial demonstrates results consistent with those in the full cohort. TFA with Sonata significantly reduced fibroid symptoms with a low surgical reintervention rate through 12 months. These results support the efficacy and safety of the Sonata system as a first-line treatment for women affected by symptomatic uterine fibroids

A novel bunyavirus-like virus of trypanosomatid protist parasites

We report here the sequences for all three segments of a novel RNA virus (LepmorLBV1) from the insect trypanosomatid parasite Leptomonas moramango. This virus belongs to a newly discovered group of bunyavirus-like elements termed Leishbunyaviruses (LBV), the first discovered from protists related to arboviruses infecting humans

New migrants in England and their needs.

This research was commissioned in 2007 and maps new migrant communities in the UK. It includes a report, anecdotal information from stakeholder interviews and 11 locality studies which summarises and explain all available data sets