Presents of the Midlands: domestic time, ordinary agency and family life in an English town

Focusing on the everyday lives of middle-class English families in a medium size town situated in the Midlands, this doctoral thesis contributes to anthropological debates on the topics of human agency, time, domesticity, mothering, and kinship. Organized upon the idea that cultural models of time are inextricably linked to understandings of agency (Greenhouse 1996), the thesis links Moore s (2011) post-vitalist theoretical framework and the work of Foucault (1990, 2000) on ethical practices, with Gershon s (2011) critique of neoliberal agency . The concept of ordinary agency is proposed for situating everyday actions as significant actions that contribute to social transformation. Three cultural models of time are identified spontaneity, anticipation and family time and the types of ordinary agencies that they engage are described in three dedicated chapters. The first chapter discusses the theoretical framework of the thesis. The second chapter addresses methodological issues, and discusses the methods that the author developed during her ethnographic fieldwork for looking at people s relationships with time. The third chapter addresses the time mode of spontaneity, presenting ethnographic examples of digital media use at home, and introducing theoretical tools for situating the forms of agency engendered by spontaneity. The fourth chapter looks at the time mode of anticipation in relation to mothering, motherhood and care. This chapter is accompanied by a video component, titled Mum s Cup and situated in the appendix of the thesis. Based on material that the participants filmed in solitude, for a self-interviewing with video task, Mum s Cup is a visual point of departure for theorising the Mother-Multiple ontological position that is described in chapter IV. Alongside providing a visual ethnographic lever for endorsing a theoretical concept, the video project also reflects on the relationship between the researcher and the participants, a relationship that, for various reasons (some related to length limitations), is not fully described in the textual corpus of the thesis. Discussing two types of domestic sociality, the fifth chapter looks at family time and at the forms of agency engendered by the idea and by the experience of having a family-style lifestyle (Strathern 1992), and it draws on, and contributes to, bodies of literature on English kinship. The last chapter addresses the context of the research which is an interdisciplinary project looking at domestic energy consumption ; it situates the position of the author in relation to the domestic sustainability agenda and to debates on interdisciplinarity, and it formulates ideas about possible applications that the anthropological knowledge gained by the author through her research could have in relation to the context that originally framed and facilitated the research

Public kiosk

Kiosks are more public, more intimate and more approachable than shops. They have a sociality that shops lack. By taking away the commercial profit-making utility of the kiosk we can capture its social dimension. The kiosk shows how socialism exists inside capitalism, trapped in financial exchanges we can see glimpses of a world of public exchanges. For the Common Ground event Freee produced 3 banners for the ‘Demonstrate’ space. Suspended over the reception desk the slogans read ‘All information will be common’, ‘Advertising For All; Or For Nobody At All'; 'Reclaim Public Opinion’ and 'Borders are for Crossing'. We also sited the Public Kiosk, made collaboratively with Curating PhD students at University of Leicester. By taking away all retail aspects of the kiosk and replacing its branding and advertising with opinions/beliefs garnered from visitors to this event we can draw out its full social potential. We published people's opinions in and on the kiosk throughout the day. The banners were adjusted by the graphic designer James Smith

Theoretical modeling and experimental study of sodium oleate properties for wastewater cleaning with magnetic nanoparticles stabilized with oleate

We present some preliminary results regarding possible reducing of environment phenol contamination with nanotechnology involving. Magnetic nanoparticles stabilized in water dispersion with oleate were prepared for experimental testing of their interaction with wastewater samples containing phenol residues from industrial and sanitation sources. Magnetite with moderate level of cobalt doping was synthesized by co-precipitation method in the form of nanoparticles; further their surface was modified by the reaction with sodium oleate solution. Quantum chemical simulation of oleate structure recommended it for the interaction with water dipolar molecules as well as with metal cations at the nanocores surface. Transmission Electron Microscopy confirmed fine granulation of the prepared sample meaning significant total surface of nanoparticle sample. Phenol loaded water model was let to interact with magnetic nanoparticles in various reaction conditions. Phenol absorbance in the main spectral band showed the concentration diminution following magnetic nanoparticle action in the presence of ultraviolet radiation and hydrogen peroxide supply. Further experiments are planned for the better optimization of the phenol concentration decreasing in the large volumes of wastewater with adequate nanostructures, able to develop efficient interaction mechanisms with pollutant molecules

Evaluarea cipermetrinului din struguri și posibila remanență la vinuri

The use of insecticides in crops is needed to provide an increase of production at relatively low cost. Lately increased chemisationto crop led to problems in the food, but also directly with animal health or in directly to human consumption. In the present work we propose to study such a substance, namely cypermethrin, which is used widely by human society. The method used is sensitive (SBSE-GC-MS) with a limit of ppb-level for identification and quantification relatively wide interval. We try to eliminate the intermediate steps in order to reduceother influences. Results showed the presence of these substances in grapes, but in relatively low concentrations and lack of it to wine, below the quantification limit of 1 pp

LEEDR: what are the results? Participant feedback for H99

The LEEDR project was a four-year study that explored energy consumption in family homes. 20 households took part, being involved for about three years. Insights were fed back to the participants at the end of the project in the form of a unique, tailored book for each family. This book represents the style, formatting and information content of those books. This version has been called ‘H99’ and it is an amalgam of chapters from multiple homes, and therefore should not be used as a source of data or analysis: please refer to publications. The information contained here has been released generally in the hope that it might inspire and inform the development of feedback from other similar projects