Categorical models for equivariant classifying spaces

Starting categorically, we give simple and precise models of equivariant classifying spaces. We need these models for work in progress in equivariant infinite loop space theory and equivariant algebraic K-theory, but the models are of independent interest in equivariant bundle theory and especially equivariant covering space theory.Comment: 29 pages. Revised version, to appear in AGT. Considerable changes of notation and organization and other changes aimed at making the paper more user friendl

Diagram spaces, diagram spectra, and spectra of units

This article compares the infinite loop spaces associated to symmetric spectra, orthogonal spectra, and EKMM S-modules. Each of these categories of structured spectra has a corresponding category of structured spaces that receives the infinite loop space functor \Omega^\infty. We prove that these models for spaces are Quillen equivalent and that the infinite loop space functors \Omega^\infty agree. This comparison is then used to show that two different constructions of the spectrum of units gl_1 R of a commutative ring spectrum R agree.Comment: 62 pages. The definition of the functor \mathbb{Q} is changed. Sections 8, 9, 17 and 18 contain revisions and/or new materia

Continuous functors as a model for the equivariant stable homotopy category

In this paper, we investigate the properties of the category of equivariant diagram spectra indexed on the category W_G of based G-spaces homeomorphic to finite G-CW-complexes for a compact Lie group G. Using the machinery of Mandell, May, Schwede, and Shipley, we show that there is a "stable model structure" on this category of diagram spectra which admits a monoidal Quillen equivalence to the category of orthogonal G-spectra. We construct a second "absolute stable model structure" which is Quillen equivalent to the "stable model structure". Our main result is a concrete identification of the fibrant objects in the absolute stable model structure. There is a model-theoretic identification of the fibrant continuous functors in the absolute stable model structure as functors Z such that for A in W_G the collection {Z(A smash S^W)} form an Omega-G-prespectrum as W varies over the universe U. We show that a functor is fibrant if and only if it takes G-homotopy pushouts to G-homotopy pullbacks and is suitably compatible with equivariant Atiyah duality for orbit spaces G/H_+ which embed in U. Our motivation for this work is the development of a recognition principle for equivariant infinite loop spaces.Comment: This is the version published by Algebraic & Geometric Topology on 8 December 200

Embodiment, Transparency and the Disclosiveness of Failure

In this paper, I want to argue that embodiment is characterised by a plasticity which entails that it can include both the biological limb and the ‘artificial’ tool, as evidenced by recent research in cognitive science. Moreover, I want to claim that it is only in failure that the embodied limb and tool are phenomenologically distinct. I will go on to argue that this claim is essential for understanding the phenomenon of failed embodiment, such as that found within the clowning tradition, before concluding with a short provocation regarding the social and political implications of such a view

House of Commons Select Committee on Transport: Inquiry into Urban Congestion Charging

INTRODUCTION This evidence, submitted to the Select Committee for its inquiry into Urban Congestion Charging, is based on my research into the subject, and professional involvement in studies of methods for managing the demand for urban travel, over the last twenty years. In the 1970s I was responsible, within the Greater London Council, for their studies of the use of comprehensive parking control, physical restriction of road space, and supplementary licensing (a low technology method of congestion charging) as methods of traffic restraint. At the same time, I was an adviser to the World Bank in its study of Singapore's area licensing scheme which is still the only congestion charging system in operation. In the 1980s I was an adviser to the US Transport Research Board in its investigation of appropriate methods for managing urban traffic, and to The MVA Consultancy in its study of electronic road pricing for Hong Kong. Since 1987 I have been involved, as a director of The MVA Consultancy, in a series of integrated transport studies in London (for the London Planning Advisory Committee), Birmingham, Edinburgh, Bristol and Merseyside, each of which has investigated the role of congestion charging as part of a wider transport strategy. I am currently directing a programme of research, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which is assessing the relative impact on urban road networks of different methods of imposing congestion charging, on their own and in combination with traffic signal control and bus priorities. This research has used Cambridge and York as case studies. In addition, I am currently acting as one of the technical advisers to the Department of Transport's study of congestion charging in London. (Continues..

Rearticulating the case for minority language rights

While advocacy of minority language rights (MLR) has become well established in sociolinguistics, language policy and planning and the wider human rights literature, it has also come under increased criticism in recent times for a number of key limitations. In this paper, I address directly three current key criticisms of the MLR movement. The first is a perceived tendency towards essentialism in articulations of language rights. The second is the apparent utopianism and artificiality of 'reversing language shift' in the face of wider social and political 'realities'. And the third is that the individual mobility of minority-language speakers is far better served by shifting to a majority language. While acknowledging the perspicacity of some of these arguments, I aim to rearticulate a defence of minority language rights that effectively addresses these key concerns. This requires, however, a sociohistorical/sociopolitical rather than a biological/ecological analysis of MLR. In addition, I will argue that a sociohistorical/sociopolitical defence of MLR can problematise the positions often adopted by minority language rights' critics themselves, particularly those who defend majoritarian forms of linguistic essentialism and those who sever the instrumental/identity aspects of language. Implications for language policy and planning will also be discussed