The Ru.Lag: the Kremlin’s New Empire of Forced Labor

In 2022, Russia reinvaded Ukraine, scaling up a military conflict that began in 2014 with its sudden annexation of Crimea. With the invasion came the establishment of filtration camps, to divide up captured Ukrainians into civilian and combatant groups, for deportation, imprisonment or release. At time of writing, over one million Ukrainians and at least 240,000 children have been confirmed to have been sent to Russia, but the actual numbers are estimated to be far higher. These Ukrainians are caught in a two-way human pipeline that has also led to the conscription of Russians, mainly from ethnic minority or rural areas, to fight and die in the war. We argue that the Kremlin’s war has given rise to a new form of governance characterized by a set of laws, policies, and practices that can be introduced at will through presidential decrees, and marshalled to create a state-wide system of oppression – a Ru.Lag, weaponizing transportation, deportation and forced labor. The Kremlin’s war machine depends on state direction, not only of the military-related industries but also of legislative and judicial institutions. The Ru.Lag reaches all present on Russian-controlled territories, regardless of their nationality, and through its utilitarian commodification of human bodies and disregard for individual autonomy evokes the Soviet Gulag of old

From decolonisation to authoritarianism: the co-option of the decolonial agenda in higher education by right-wing nationalist elites in Russia and India

This article discusses how the critique of the monopoly of Western liberal thought through the decolonisation movement that was intended to increase the number of voices heard has been co-opted by nationalist politics in India and Russia. The debates in higher education in these countries reflect current key questions on the nature of the Indian and Russian nations—both under respective nationalist governments—where both are advocating a cutting off from Western modernity. Using Mignolo’s concept of “de-linking” that was intended to raise up non-Western ways of thinking, the article shows that India and Russia have adapted and simplified decolonial discourse to reject “Western-influenced” critiques of development, inequality, and authoritarianism. Under political pressure from these authoritarian regimes, universities have helped to embed repressive majoritarian politics through anti-Western rhetoric disguised as de-linking, enabling democratic backsliding by discrediting opposition. This is done to protect a new identity based upon state conceptions of traditional values, paradoxically erasing minority voices that do not fit neatly into the unified national narrative. When universities are branded as Western agents for being critical of local traditions and schools of thought, the space for critical thinking and democratic debate is ultimately removed, leaving those who oppose Putin and Modi with no safe way to engage with political discourse, and this actually undermines the intentions of decolonial philosophy

Rapid evidence review of good practical science

There is a clear need for more high-quality studies of practical work that have a tightly-defined focus and a rigorous methodological approach. We are confident that this finding would persist in a more extended review than a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA), which is necessarily limited in scope. We would not recommend conducting a more in-depth, more traditional systematic review at this stage. There is a wealth of commentary on the purpose and usefulness of practical science, but very few robust studies. A more extensive search encompassing the grey literature would undoubtedly identify more studies, but they are unlikely to add significantly to the current knowledge base. This REA has highlighted the need for more evaluations of practical science in its various guises. There is a requirement for research that is clear in its aims, focus and definitions; has a sound methodology with adequate sample sizes and appropriate outcome measures; and is designed to shed light on the usefulness of practical science work across different contexts and for different purposes. Drawing from the literature, the report identifies five main purposes of practical science.These are to enhance student performance in conceptual understanding; practical skills; non-subject specific intellectual and personal attributes; attitudes towards science; and understanding of how science and scientists work. There is currently a much greater evidence base around practical work improving physical skills and dexterity compared with the other four purposes of practical work defined in this report

Pathways and prospects in cancer research: Securing futures and negotiating boundaries

This paper draws on literature from the sociology of expectations to explore accounts of experts in cancer research and clinical practice. The cancer specialists’ accounts presented in this article are taken from interviews undertaken as part of a project that aimed to develop a research agenda for the next ten to thirty years that will achieve early detection and prevention in the four main cancers: (i) bowel and colorectal, (ii) prostate, (iii) lung and (iv) breast. Drawing on secondary analysis of the interviews, this article provides a sociological exploration of both the experts’ versions of the future and the interactions between the interviewer and research participant to show expectation in the making: the competing stories of what is and what ought to be the focus of cancer research now and in the (near) future. The building of a cancer research agenda is shown to be a contested future, represented by a dominant and resistant view of the cancer problem, in which cancer specialists must engage in performative strategies and boundary work to frame the present problem: what cancer is and how it can be detected and, subsequently, to claim credibility for a future pathway

SCAFFOLDING FOR IMPACT: ACTIVE LEARNING IN FORENSIC EDUCATION

Forensic science programs attract students from a range of scientific disciplines including chemistry, biology, psychology and engineering. At the tertiary level, these students are expected to demonstrate a mastery of forensic principles with the ability to apply them in practice. However, there has been little investigation of effective pedagogical approaches to achieve these outcomes in forensic education. Active learning has long been recognised within other scientific disciplines as an effective means of promoting mastery, motivation, and higher-order thinking skills. Despite this, active learning has yet to be systematically evaluated within a forensic context. This project applied a mixed methods approach to evaluate how active learning strategies influence students’ academic achievement and attitudes towards learning in an introductory forensic science unit. The outcomes and implications of these results will be discussed in relation to establishing scholarly practices for forensic education and training