DOSTĘPNOŚĆ KOMUNIKACYJNA MAŁYCH MIAST – ANALIZA PORÓWNAWCZA WYBRANYCH GMIN GÓRNOŚLĄSKO-ZAGŁĘBIOWSKIEJ METROPOLII I HOLANDII PÓŁNOCNEJ

The paper presents a research that allowed to create a ranking of the transportation accessibility of small towns in the Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis and in the Northern Holland on the basis of selected communes using taxonomic methods. Hypotheses stating that the share of cars is higher in communes with lower level of transportation accessibility and this level is higher among communes with higher population density and compactness of development were verified. On the basis of the results of the comparative analysis of selected small towns in Poland and the Netherlands, a clear difference can be seen especially in the number of cars in the towns, the travel time and the frequency of public transportation. The results of the study may serve as a benchmark for regional transportation policy.W artykule przedstawione zostały badania, które pozwoliły na stworzenie rankingu dostępności komunikacyjnej małych miast Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowskiej Metropolii oraz Holandii Północnej na podstawie wybranych gmin przy użyciu metod taksonomicznych. Zweryfikowane zostały hipotezy stanowiące, że udział samochodów jest wyższy w gminach o niższym poziomie dostępności komunikacyjnej a poziom ten jest wyższy wśród gmin o większej gęstości zaludnienia i zwartości zabudowy. Na podstawie wyników analizy porównawczej wybranych małych miast Polski i Holandii można dostrzec wyraźną różnicę widoczną przede wszystkim w liczbie samochodów w miastach, czasie podróży i częstotliwości kursów transportu zbiorowego. Wyniki badania mogą stanowić poziom odniesienia dla prowadzenia regionalnej polityki transportowej

A Numerical and Experimental Approach for Modeling Porosity Due to Entrapped Air and Volatiles Off-Gassing During Manufacturing of Composite Structures

High performance composite structures have strict requirements regarding acceptable levels of porosity. The impact can be significant on mechanical performance and mitigating the growth of voids can be a challenge given the complexity of the problem. The evolution of porosity can be summarized as a balance between sources and sinks which determine void growth or shrinkage. The primary sources of void growth include bag leaks, entrapped air in the system, off-gassing of volatiles, and cure shrinkage. Mechanisms which mitigate porosity include removal of air from the system and maintaining sufficient resin pressure during the process to keep volatiles in solution. In this paper, an approach for modeling the evolution of voids due to entrapped air and volatiles is presented. It has been shown in previous experimental studies that decreases in local resin pressure are linked to a higher likelihood of porosity formation. Results of the study are compared to experiments in which the local resin pressure was measured and micrographs of the panels were taken to characterize the porosity

Revisiting Jewson and Mason: The Politics of Gender Equality in UK Local Government in a Cold Climate

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd This paper revisits Jewson and Mason's seminal theoretical framework on liberal and radical approaches to equal opportunity policy and practice by applying it to our research on the implementation of the Gender Equality Duty in UK local government. Conducted at the height of Thatcherism, Jewson and Mason's research offers a useful platform for assessing equality initiatives in local government during periods of political hostility to equality underpinned by cuts to public services, which in more recent time is ascribed to austerity. Drawing on qualitative research in five case study local authorities, this paper assesses strategies for protecting and promoting gender equality practices and policies in the face of change within public services. We analyse three types of politics of equality (political philosophy, organizational politics and party politics) that feature in Jewson and Mason's analysis. In line with recent feminist research, our data indicate that equality specialists continue to use both liberal and radical discourses in instrumental ways to promote equality and resist change as described by Jewson and Mason, but these were more clearly framed within business case arguments influenced by the modernization agenda of the 1990s. Our data indicate that even business case arguments have been unable to protect equality initiatives from the 2010 coalition government's austerity and cuts agenda

Discourses of diversity, equality and inclusion: Trenchant formulations or transient fashions?

Using bibliometric analysis of published work, we examine the discursive trends, patterns and implications of three different anti-discrimination solutions (equality, diversity and inclusion) over a 40-year period from 1970 to 2010. The findings reveal that the anti-discrimination discourses are consistent with management fashions, in terms of both their trends and the rhetorical strategies used by proponents to establish the dominance of their favoured approach, particularly by denigrating previous approaches. Practitioner-facing academics play a key role in the process by giving shape, exposure and credibility to the anti-discrimination solutions, but not in creating them. Only by breaking free of the oppositional discursive patterns can the debate move on to anti-discrimination solutions that attempt to blend together equality, diversity and inclusion

Ethical Praxis and the Business Case for LGBT Diversity: Political Insights from Judith Butler and Emmanuel Levinas

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd This paper critically reconsiders debates about the business case for workplace diversity as exemplified in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activism. These debates have long suggested that there is an oppositional distinction between justifying diversity on self-interested business grounds and justifying it on the grounds of ethics, equality and social justice. This has led to an impasse between ethically driven diversity theory and activism, and the dominant business case approach commonly deferred to in managerial practice. As a way of mediating this impasse the contribution of this paper is to demonstrate how ‘ethical praxis’ can be deployed both despite and because of non-ethically motivated approaches to ethics in business. Drawing on Judith Butler's and Emmanuel Levinas's considerations of the relationship between ethics and the practice of justice, it is argued that critiques of the business case for diversity rely on a pure ethics that does not adequately recognize its connection to lived politics. Conversely, support for the business case evinces a politics that has failed to remember its origin in ethics. The paper positions ethical praxis as a political intervention undertaken in the name of ethics and uses this to suggest that the business case, despite its ethical poverty, holds potential to create real opportunities for justice in organizations