Narratives of power: bringing ideology to the fore of planning analysis

This Special Issue starts from the premise that the concept of ideology holds significant analytical potential for planning but that this potential can only be realised if ideology is brought to the fore of analysis. By naming ideology and rendering it visible, we hope to bring it out from the shadows and into the open to examine its value and what it can tell us about the politics of contemporary planning. The papers in this Special Issue therefore seek to contribute to established academic debates by exploring some of the ways ideology can be deployed as a tool in the analysis of planning problems. This article introduces the Special Issue by exploring the various accounts in the papers of i. what ideology is; ii. what its effects are; iii. where ideology may be identified and iv. what different theories of ideology can tell us about planning. There inevitably remain many un-answered questions, paths not taken and debates left unaddressed. We hope other scholars will be inspired (or provoked) to address these omissions in the future

Planning Network UK (PNUK): a manifesto for planning and land reform

The Manifesto is an analysis of the shortcomings of the current planning and land policy system in the UK with a number of policy proposals for refor

The Labour Market Impact of the Run on Northern Rock: Continuity and Evolution in an old Industrial Region

The Northern Rock mortgage bank was a high profile casualty of the credit crunch in 2007. A longitudinal investigation focused on the redundancy and resettlement of employees at the bank provides a case study of the labour market impact of the banking crisis on the North East of England. An evolutionary geographical political economy approach indicates that Northern RockÕs growth and decline was shaped by its location in an old industrial region, and echoes the historical position of the peripheral region in the spatial division of labour. The Northern Rock case highlights the enduring occupational structure of the regionÕs labour market, and suggests older industrial regions may suffer from a process of Ôoccupational disadvantageÕ that restricts their ability to adapt to economic change.Financial crisis, Northern Rock, Labour market impact, Evolutionary geographical political economy

Three-dimensional localization of CENP-A suggests a complex higher order structure of centromeric chromatin

The histone H3 variant centromere protein A (CENP-A) is central to centromere formation throughout eukaryotes. A long-standing question in centromere biology has been the organization of CENP-A at the centromere and its implications for the structure of centromeric chromatin. In this study, we describe the three-dimensional localization of CENP-A at the inner kinetochore plate through serial-section transmission electron microscopy of human mitotic chromosomes. At the kinetochores of normal centromeres and at a neocentromere, CENP-A occupies a compact domain at the inner kinetochore plate, stretching across two thirds of the length of the constriction but encompassing only one third of the constriction width and height. Within this domain, evidence of substructure is apparent. Combined with previous chromatin immunoprecipitation results (Saffery, R., H. Sumer, S. Hassan, L.H. Wong, J.M. Craig, K. Todokoro, M. Anderson, A. Stafford, and K.H.A. Choo. 2003. Mol. Cell. 12:509–516; Chueh, A.C., L.H. Wong, N. Wong, and K.H.A. Choo. 2005. Hum. Mol. Genet. 14:85–93), our data suggest that centromeric chromatin is arranged in a coiled 30-nm fiber that is itself coiled or folded to form a higher order structure

Running up Blueberry Hill: Prototyping whole body interaction in harmony space

Musical harmony is considered to be one of the most abstract and technically difficult parts of music. It is generally taught formally via abstract, domain-specific concepts, principles, rules and heuristics. By contrast, when harmony is represented using an existing interactive desktop tool, Harmony Space, a new, parsimonious, but equivalently expressive, unified level of description emerges. This focuses not on abstract concepts, but on concrete locations, objects, areas and trajectories. This paper presents a design study of a prototype version of Harmony Space driven by whole body navigation, and characterizes the new opportunities presented for the principled manipulation of chord sequences and bass lines. These include: deeper engagement and directness; rich physical cues for memory and reflection, embodied engagement with rhythmic time constraints; hands which are free for other simultaneous activities (such as playing a traditional instrument); and qualitatively new possibilities for collaborative use

Hyperspectral imaging for erosion detection in wind turbine blades

Inspection of wind turbine blades is required to identify any defects or failures and decide on any remedial actions e.g. blade repair or replacement. Traditionally, inspections have been performed by rope access technicians who visually inspect the blades and record damage using standard photographic equipment. Recent developments have seen an increase in popularity in the use of remote based inspection techniques using ground mounted cameras and cameras installed on Remotely Operated Aerial Vehicles, more commonly referred to as drones. Whilst these techniques remove the need for human access to the blades, imaging is performed remotely and does not always provide adequate image quality using standard high definition cameras. As a result, there is a growing interest in imaging techniques based on other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Laboratory and field based trials are required to properly examine this potential and understand which frequencies can be applied to imaging blades. This paper demonstrates a Hyperspectral Imaging technique in its application to imaging surface defects on a section of wind turbine blade in a laboratory

Feel the force: Using tactile technologies to investigate the extended mind

We describe the motivations behind the E-Sense project which will investigate augmented perception by building a range of novel tactile interfaces. As well as exploring the practical utility of these systems for real world tasks, we are particularly interested in the following question: how can we design tactile interfaces to mediate novel sensory information so that the user experiences the technology as an extension of themselves

Designing an incubator of public spaces platform: Applying cybernetic principles to the co-creation of spaces

The paper is based on the experience of creating and piloting a functioning ‘Incubator’ crowdsourcing platform for designing public spaces in an estate regeneration project in South London. The paper uses a cybernetics framework to analyse and present the way the platform itself was created and how issues of effectiveness, efficiency and equity were dealt with. It explores the generic qualities of interface and reviews applications of variety reduction in established crowdsourcing CS) models. It briefly presents the legal and socio-spatial parameters (like property rights) associated with the creation of the Incubators platform as well as the generic rules applicable to human-spatial relationships, based on studies exploring human-spatial interactions. Practical constraints including costs, catchments, life-span and meaningful feedback are looked into, followed by a discussion on social and political limitations associated with this form of public participation. The paper explains how those constraints where taken into account when establishing the operational parameters of the software platform and the experiences gained from the operation of the platform. Challenges and complications, such as the exclusion of actors, are identified together with the responses encountered in practice. While the Incubators platform succeeded in attracting younger planning participation demographics, older demographics were marginalised by the platform’s graphical user interface and social networking features. These findings highlight why, in spite of what it promises, ‘crowdsourced urbanism’ is prone to similar traits with those of analogue participation. In that sense, creating a CS platform which could convey the grass-roots ideas of actors and users of urban spaces in an efficient way that could be applied to a broad range of planning systems, appears to be a challenge