Racial Identity and Voting: Conceptualizing White Identity in Spatial Terms

Recent political events have prompted an examination of the analytical tools and conceptual frameworks used in political science to understand voting and candidate choice. Scholars in the behavioral tradition have highlighted the empirical relationship between racial resentment and anti-black affect among white voters during and after President Obama’s successful run for re-election. The theoretical role of white identity within the context of the privileged status of this racial group has seen much less scholarly attention by political scientists, particularly with respect to racial group identification and its implications. To address this lacuna, we argue that racial identification among white voters can be conceived of as a utility-based trait relevant to candidate choice, combining a social-psychological approach of group membership together with a rational choice perspective. This conceptualization of the political utility of white racial identity provides wider conceptual latitude for empirical tests and explanations of voting in U.S. elections

Imperialism and accountability in corporate law: the limitations of incorporation law as a regulatory mechanism

This article discusses the limitations of the law incorporating a corporation (‘incorporation law’) as a control or governance mechanism in a world where it is increasingly difficult to prevent corporations choosing the incorporation law which suits them best. It uses as an example of the globalising pressures in this field three important cases on the right of establishment in the European Union

“A figure of a nude woman”: Art, Popular Culture, and Modernity at the Canadian National Exhibition, 1927

The Art Gallery of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto included in its display in 1927 three paintings of nudes. The ensuing debate carried out in newspaper editorials and letters to the editor extended beyond discussion of the paintings themselves to reveal concerns about being modern and negotiating cultural change in the 1920s. Perceived shifts in moral standards, popular culture, and women's bodies were key areas of unease. Issues pertaining to the challenge to established hierarchies and ways of ordering space and identity also became apparent in the discussions of class, gender, and age. Trois peintures de nus étaient exposées dans la galerie d’arts de l’Exposition nationale canadienne de 1927 à Toronto. Leur présence a suscité dans les éditoriaux et les lettres à la rédaction des journaux un débat qui transcendait les peintures proprement dites pour révéler des préoccupations sur la modernité et la négociation du tournant culturel dans les années 1920. L’évolution perçue des moeurs, la culture populaire et le corps de la femme étaient des sujets de malaise. Les questions entourant les défis à l’ordre établi de même qu’aux modes d’aménagement de l’espace et de façonnement de l’identité ont également émergé dans les débats sur la classe, le sexe et l’âge

A Debt to the Dead? Ethics, Photography, History, and the Study of Freakery

Do historians have an ethical duty to the dead? Using the context of the history of North American freak shows in the twentieth century in general and a photograph of “the Elephant Skinned Boys” in particular, this article explores the knot of historical practice, ethics, and the politics of archiving and publishing to question whether or not historical practice may perpetuate vulnerabilities and inequities. The fragments of archival documents can raise important ethical questions of vulnerability, reproduction, and historians’ complicity in the legacies of vulnerability and unequal power relations.Les historiens ont-ils des règles de déontologie à respecter à l’égard des morts? Se plaçant de manière générale dans le contexte de l’histoire des spectacles nord-américains où l’on montrait des phénomènes au cours du XXe siècle et utilisant en particulier une photographie des « Elephant Skinned Boys » (garçons à la peau d’éléphant), l’auteure se penche sur les liens entre la pratique historienne, la déontologie et la politique d’archivage et de publication pour se demander si la pratique historienne ne perpétuerait pas des vulnérabilités et des inégalités. Les fragments de documents d’archives soulèvent parfois d’importantes questions de déontologie concernant la vulnérabilité, la reproduction et la complicité des historiens dans la perpétuation de la vulnérabilité et de l’inégalité des relations de pouvoir

Partnership in Pensions? Responses to the Pensions Green Paper

The government's pensions Green Paper 'a new contract for welfare: partnership in pensions' proposes fundamental changes to the UK's retirement income system. Members of CASE and the Department of Social Policy at LSE have looked at the likely implications of the reforms for pensioner poverty, income security in old age, economic growth, the National Insurance system, tax reliefs, and women. Agulnik's analysis of redistributive effects of the State Second Pension (SSP) shows that it will result in much better benefits for low earners than would have been the case under SERPS. However, financing this improved provision through National Insurance contributions will mean that the burden of paying for the new scheme will be heaviest for those close to the upper earnings limit. Barr questions the macro-economic advantages of increasing the amount of funded pension provision via Stakeholder pensions. He finds there is no particular reason to favour the proposed balance of 60% private pension provision to 40% public provision over some other ratio. He also finds that Stakeholder pensions will not offer contributors complete income security in retirement due to uncertainties about investment returns, annuity rates and future inflation. Falkingham and Rake argue that the Government's proposals have failed to incorporate fully the needs of women. Women will be underrepresented amongst Stakeholder pensioners, and the exclusion of very low earners and carers with children over 5 from eligibility for the SSP will adversely affect women. Agulnik then looks at the proposed tax relief rules for Stakeholder pensions. While there are good reasons for the proposed £3,600 limit to tax relief on contributions, the retention of the existing rules for personal and occupational schemes is anomalous.new contract for welfare, partnership in pensions, UK retirement income system

Sensitive detection of methane at 3.3 μm using an integrating sphere and interband cascade laser

Detection of methane at 3.3μm using a DFB Interband Cascade Laser and gold coated integrating sphere is performed. A 10cm diameter sphere with effective path length of 54.5cm was adapted for use as a gas cell. A comparison between this system and one using a 25cm path length single-pass gas cell is made using direct TDLS and methane concentrations between 0 and 1000 ppm. Initial investigations suggest a limit of detection of 1.0ppm for the integrating sphere and 2.2ppm for the single pass gas cell. The system has potential applications in challenging or industrial environments subject to high levels of vibration

Optimal Sizing of Energy Storage with Embedded Wind Power Generation

Energy storage technologies are key to increased penetration of renewable energies on the distribution system. Not only do they increase availability of energy, but they contribute to the overall reliability of the system. However, the cost of large-scale storage systems can often be prohibitive, and storage needs to be sized appropriately, both to fill the energy gaps inevitable in renewable energies such as wind and to minimize costs. In this work, a Monte Carlo Simulation is performed to optimally size an energy storage system while minimizing overall system cost. 30 years of historical wind speed data are used to model the probabilistic behaviour of the wind and the seasonal variation of the wind is captured in the model. A generation adequacy assessment shows the system reliability increasing with energy storage. The energy storage is sized for reliable operation of the case study system with 60% wind penetration. The levelized cost of storage is calculated for the optimally sized level of storage and for the level of storage required to make wind power generation reliable