Body Commons: Toward an Interdisciplinary Study of the Somatic Spectacular

Recently, many Western societies have indulgently produced and consumed a new theatre of corporeality. In this paper, we explore the explosion of corporeal (kinesthetic) forms as evidenced in mass-media discourse—as evoked by ‘reality’ television shows like Dancing with the stars and So you think you can dance?, and in contemporary agent provocateurs such as the spectacle and spectacular(ised) Lady Gaga. Drawing on Turner’s (1992) notion of the ‘somatic society’, Shilling’s (2006) theorizing on the body sociological, and McLaren’s (1995) Freire-inspired examinations of critical pedagogy, we argue that these forms share, we suggest, commonalities with the spectacularised and politicised physcailties of sporting bodies oft-polemicised by body sociologists, feminist critics, and cultural studies scholars (to name but a few). Each is thrust into public sphere is heretofore unimaginably spectacular ways; each is judged, subjected, and disciplined along performative norms; each is transformed into somatic currency for capital accumulation. Thusly, we offer a new lens toward a radically-contextually, anti-disciplinary, corporeally-engaged, critical (public) body pedagogic

The Life of Prion: an investigation into the physiological role of a prion-like protein in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

For centuries, the threat of prion disease has plagued populations – whether it be in the form of scrapie ravaging through the sheep populations of Spain in the eighteenth century, fatal familial insomnia afflicting families in Italy, or an outbreak of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the UK triggered by the consumption of contaminated beef. The ability of prions to spread with such pathogenic intent whilst remaining incurable fuels the fire of public concern - yet delving beyond that classical view of prions has led to an enlightened appreciation of the role of such proteins throughout the biota of life. Prion-like proteins subvert the dogma of the one-to-one structure-function relationship traditionally held onto when considering the physiology of proteins. Instead, these proteins display structural polymorphism, capable of adopting different conformations under different conditions; this expands the capabilities of protein function and represents a mechanism for epigenetic coding, with protein conformation possessing the ability convey and propagate specific states for biological advantage without the need for DNA modification. The properties observed in many of these proteins, including those of multivalency and low complexity, predispose them towards phase separation, whereby localised concentration of biomolecules compartmentalise cellular activity. This ability confers upon an organism the ability to respond to stimuli in dynamic and transient fashions without needing to use cumbersome membrane-bound organelles. Using the Prion-Like Amino Acid Composition program, we have identified the stress-responsive protein ABU-13 as a potential prion in the nematode species, Caenorhabditis elegans. Phenotypic analysis of ABU-13 knockout animals has identified a non-redundant role for this protein in ER stress and innate immune responses – in keeping with previous evidence that this family of proteins is involved with a non-canonical unfolded protein response pathway of the endoplasmic reticulum. These knockout animals do not display defects in the activation of the stress-response gene hsp-4 upon tunicamycin treatment, suggesting that these effects occur independently of the canonical UPR pathway. In vivo and in vitro characterisation of ABU-13 has demonstrated a propensity for coalescence, reminiscent of a phase-separated organelle. This is further supported by the ability of this protein to bind RNA – a common feature of prion-like proteins involved with such transitions. Co-immunoprecipitation of ABU-13 confirmed an enrichment of ER and RNA-related protein interactions, supporting a role for this protein in ER stress responses. In addition to this, a number of glycosylation related terms were identified, pointing towards a role for ABU-13 in the folding quality control of such proteins. These punctated structures do, however, appear less mobile than traditional liquid-like condensates, as demonstrated by a slow FRAP recovery, indicative of a more hydrogel-like structure. To further investigate this, we extracted hydrogel-forming proteins from N2 animals using a biotinylated isoxazole precipitation, identifying a number of novel proteins that may be involved with in the formation of such solid-like structures. ABU-13, however, was not amongst this dataset, suggesting that if it were indeed involved in a physiological hydrogel, this transition is driven by another protein component. Overall, we propose that ABU-13 represents a phase-separating prion-like protein capable of modulating ER stress and immune responses, potentially via the regulation of RNA processing

The true self: A psychological concept distinct from the self

A long tradition of psychological research has explored the distinction between characteristics that are part of the self and those that lie outside of it. Recently, a surge of research has begun examining a further distinction. Even among characteristics that are internal to the self, people pick out a subset as belonging to the true self. These factors are judged as making people who they really are, deep down. In this paper, we introduce the concept of the true self and identify features that distinguish people’s understanding of the true self from their understanding of the self more generally. In particular, we consider recent findings that the true self is perceived as positive and moral, and that this tendency is actor-observer invariant and cross-culturally stable. We then explore possible explanations for these findings and discuss their implications for a variety of issues in psychology

Information Flow in Social Groups

We present a study of information flow that takes into account the observation that an item relevant to one person is more likely to be of interest to individuals in the same social circle than those outside of it. This is due to the fact that the similarity of node attributes in social networks decreases as a function of the graph distance. An epidemic model on a scale-free network with this property has a finite threshold, implying that the spread of information is limited. We tested our predictions by measuring the spread of messages in an organization and also by numerical experiments that take into consideration the organizational distance among individuals

Institutionalized inhibition: examining constraints on climate change policy capacity in the transport departments of Ontario and British Columbia, Canada

This paper examines the interaction between transportation policy and climate change policy in two Canadian provinces, British Columbia and Ontario. The concept of policy capacity is used to qualitatively measure the effectiveness of instruments in advancing goals in an area where established policy paradigms may not be congruent with new initiatives. A review of official policy documents and budgetary information on policy-related spending, as well as primary interviews with policy managers in relevant provincial ministries, reveals that overlapping policy goals and instruments may have created a situation of institutionalized policy inhibition, in which conflicting layers of policy goals and instruments constrain the available policy capacity

Special Issue Foreword: On the Political Economy of Amateur Athletics

In its most artless definition, political economy refers to the study of inter- and intrastate transaction—concerned in large part with the dialectics of state governance and the production/consumption functions therein. Many of us, with varying degrees of deliberation, have read the works of forerunning political economists such as Adam Smith (c. 1723-1790), David Ricardo (c. 1772-1823), Thomas Malthus (c. 1766-1834), John Stuart Mill (c. 1806-1873), Karl Marx (c. 1818-1883), and Thorstein Veblen (c. 1857-1929). These classic political economists and their contemporaries shared a concern for the extent to which land, labor, income, capital, and the population derived value from, and maintained contingency with, state polity. While each diverged from the others in how to best organize the State in relation to markets and exchange activities (and vice versa) so as to optimize the citizenry’s well-being, these scholars and their contemporaries laid the foundations for the long-standing field of inquiry fixed on exploring how various national political systems (democracy, monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, etc.), markets, and political and economic behavior could bring about national prosperity, maximize individual freedom, or raise collective utility

Transforming Piecemeal Social Engineering into Grand Crime Prevention Policy: Toward a New Criminology of Social Control

This Article focuses on the Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) approach in criminology, which expands the crime reduction role well beyond the justice system. SCP sees criminal law in a more restrictive sense, as only part of the anticrime effort in governance. We examine the “general” and “specific” responses to crime problems in the SCP approach. Our review demonstrates that the most serious barrier to converting SCP techniques into policy remains the gap that exists between problem identification and problem response. We discuss past large-scale SCP interventions and explore the complex links between them and SCP’s better known specificity and piecemeal approach. We develop a graded framework for selecting responses that acknowledge the local, political, and organizational issues involved in identifying and choosing them. This framework determines when SCP interventions and policies can be crafted on the macro level to eliminate or greatly reduce the problem everywhere, and when interventions should be limited to a piecemeal, local approach to eliminate only the specific problem. Finally, we situate this analysis within the general context of the relationship between science and policy, noting the challenges in converting scientific observations into broad social policy and the expansion of crime control beyond criminal justice into the realm of government regulation and partnerships with nongovernmental agencies

Transforming Piecemeal Social Engineering into Grand Crime Prevention Policy: Toward a New Criminology of Social Control

This Article focuses on the Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) approach in criminology, which expands the crime reduction role well beyond the justice system. SCP sees criminal law in a more restrictive sense, as only part of the anticrime effort in governance. We examine the “general” and “specific” responses to crime problems in the SCP approach. Our review demonstrates that the most serious barrier to converting SCP techniques into policy remains the gap that exists between problem identification and problem response. We discuss past large-scale SCP interventions and explore the complex links between them and SCP’s better known specificity and piecemeal approach. We develop a graded framework for selecting responses that acknowledge the local, political, and organizational issues involved in identifying and choosing them. This framework determines when SCP interventions and policies can be crafted on the macro level to eliminate or greatly reduce the problem everywhere, and when interventions should be limited to a piecemeal, local approach to eliminate only the specific problem. Finally, we situate this analysis within the general context of the relationship between science and policy, noting the challenges in converting scientific observations into broad social policy and the expansion of crime control beyond criminal justice into the realm of government regulation and partnerships with nongovernmental agencies

Optimising Residential Water Efficiency – The Josh’s House Project

Josh’s House is an innovative housing project in the suburb of Hilton, Western Australia consisting of two 10 Star NatHERS rated homes which are demonstrating a novel approach to the truly integrated design and implementation of residential urban water management supported by a uniquely high profile media campaign for the wider dissemination of knowledge to both the public and industry. This paper describes the design intent, implementation and commissioning of the waterbased components of the project and how its performance is being monitored with both building designs and performance data being made available to the wider community