Reconfiguring ruins: Beyond Ruinenlust

What explains the global proliferation of interest in ruins? Can ruins be understood beyond their common framing as products of European Romanticism? Might a transdisciplinary approach allow us to see ruins differently? These questions underpinned the Arts and Humanities Research Council–funded project Reconfiguring Ruins, which deployed approaches from history, literature, East Asian studies, and geography to reflect on how ruins from different historical contexts are understood by reference to different theoretical frameworks. In recognition of the value of learning from other models of knowledge production, the project also involved a successful collaboration with the Museum of London Archaeology and the artist-led community The NewBridge Project in Newcastle. By bringing these varied sets of knowledges to bear on the project’s excavations of specific sites in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan, the article argues for an understanding of ruins as thresholds, with ruin sites providing unique insights into the relationship between lived pasts, presents, and futures. It does so by developing three key themes that reflect on the process of working collaboratively across the arts, humanities, and social sciences, including professional archaeology: inter- and transdisciplinarity, the limits of cocreation, and traveling meanings and praxis. Meanings of specific ruins are constructed out of specific languages and cultural resonances and read though different disciplines, but can also be reconfigured through concepts and practices that travel beyond disciplinary, cultural, and linguistic borders. As we show here, the ruin is, and should be, a relational concept that moves beyond the romantic notion of Ruinenlust

The Communication of Corporate-NGO Partnerships: Analysis of Sainsbury’s Collaboration with Comic Relief.

This study focuses on CSR communication using the example of Corporate-NGO partnership between British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s and Comic Relief. Questionnaires were distributed to 40 participants asking them about their consumer behaviour and opinion on partnerships. Using thematic analysis, two main themes have been identified in the data set: some consumers are sceptical towards cross sector partnerships because they assume selfish reasons behind the collaboration and view them as corporate PR tool. On the other hand, the majority of consumers evaluate Corporate-NGO Partnerships as appropriate and a gain for society at large. The analysis showed that Sainsbury’s customers know about the partnership with Comic Relief while non-customers lack awareness, and that the most successful means of communication of partnerships is the supermarket promotion

Making energy efficiency pro-poor : insights from behavioural economics for policy design

This paper reviews the current state of behavioural economics and its applications to energy efficiency in developing countries. Taking energy efficient lighting in Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda as empirical examples, this paper develops hypotheses on how behavioural factors can improve energy efficiency policies directed towards poor populations. The key argument is that different types of affordability exist that are influenced by behavioural factors to varying degrees. Using a qualitative approach, this paper finds that social preferences, framing and innovative financing solutions that acknowledge people’s mental accounts can provide useful starting points. Behavioural levers are only likely to work in a policy package that addresses wider technical, market and institutional barriers to energy efficiency. More research, carefully designed pre-tests and stakeholder debates are required before introducing policies based on behavioural insights. This is imperative to avoid the dangers of nudging

Distribución actual y dispersión del conejo europeo (Oryctolagus cuniculus) en Mendoza (Argentina)

El conejo silvestre europeo (Oryctolagus cuniculus) es una especie nativa de la parte suroccidental de Europa y septentrional de Africa y ha sido introducida en diferentes regiones del mundo incluyendo Australia, Nueva Zelanda y Sud América (Flux y Fullagar, 1983). En este último continente, el conejo se encuentra solamente en la parte meridional donde los primeros individuos fueron introducidos en Chile (tanto en Tierra del Fuego como en la parte central del país) y desde donde invadieron territorio argentino (Jaksic y Yañez, 1983; Zunino, 1989) (Fig. 1). En Argentina, el conejo se encuentra establecido en tres áreas bien definidas (Fig. 1): a) Tierra del Fuego e Islas Malvinas (Amaya y Bonino, 1981); b) Sudoeste de Santa Cruz (Clarke y Amaya, 1986) y c) Neuquén y sudoeste de Mendoza (Bonino y Amaya, 1984). En esta última área el conejo se encuentra en un proceso activo de expansión geográfica que le ha permitido colonizar con éxito gran parte de Neuquén y el sudoeste de Mendoza (Bonino y Gader, 1987).Peer reviewe

Genetic lineages of feral populations of the Oryctolagus cuniculus (Leporidae, Lagomorpha) in Argentina

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The invasion of Argentina by the European wild rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus

1. We provide an updated distribution and dispersal rate of the introduced European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus in Argentina. 2. According to our results this invasive species is currently colonizing parts of Mendoza and Neuquén Provinces, where rivers are very important in the spread of the rabbits, espe- cially in unfavourable areas. The maximun rate of dispersal registered in this study was 9 km/year. 3. Some information was obtained to indicate that the presence of this exotic species threatens agriculture, livestock, forestry, and natural ecosystems of the Patagonia regionPeer reviewe