Reflexive Learning and Performative Failure

In this paper we emphasize the importance of context for student learning. Based on reflective logs and interview data, we explore how students learn outside of the classroom as they undertake an experiential dissertation project. We identify three different forms of reflexive learning and critique, all triggered by some form of performative failure; scholarly critique, engaged critique and engaged action. Drawing on Butler’s theory of performativity we illustrate how reflexivity is not purely the action of any individual student, rather it is a practice that is co-created within a certain context. As such, we contest individualistic understandings of reflexivity and encourage a careful consideration of the places students and managers are encouraged to be reflexive

Enabling local rapid change solutions to the Climate Emergency

Three quarters of UK Local Authorities (LAs) have declared Climate Emergencies. Most include an ambition for carbon neutrality by 2030. Yet a lack of clarity on a national policy framework through to 2030 means that LAs now face the challenge of creating an enabling environment to respond to urgent Climate Emergency targets. This paper reviews the implications of the LA Climate Emergency Declarations for local policy making in respect of low carbon retrofit. It will focus on evidence from a council whose dedicated project team is creating and implementing 2030 Climate response strategies, as well as built environment practitioners who have expertise to deliver retrofit services. Using documentary evidence and expert testimony, this paper will explore the gaps in creating an enabling environment/policy roadmap to 2030, the role might local government play in delivering large scale domestic retrofit, and how to align the various stakeholder groups. The paper finds that despite the simplistic term ‘retrofit’, the domestic retrofit landscape is far from simple. It is not a homogenous entity, rather a complex, multi-layered and segmented eco-system. We propose reviewing this segmentation through the lens of ‘first-mover’ which would help clarify where efforts should be focused, and which measures could be taken to accelerate consumer engagement. The authors discover there is potential for Local Authorities to develop novel approaches to retrofit processes, by taking the role of ‘middle actor’, reshaping the customer journey and engaging a range of stakeholders to stimulate local economies and deliver on social and environmental goals. Open collaboration with third sector organisations can provide access to research, resources, and networks to help deploy rapid change solutions

The limitations of speech control: perceptions of provision of speech-driven environmental controls

This study set out to collect data from assistive technology professionals about their provision of speech-driven environmental control systems. This study is part of a larger study looking at developing a new speech-driven environmental control system

Partial suppression of the radial orbit instability in stellar systems

It is well known that the simple criterion proposed originally by Polyachenko and Shukhman (1981) for the onset of the radial orbit instability, although being generally a useful tool, faces significant exceptions both on the side of mildly anisotropic systems (with some that can be proved to be unstable) and on the side of strongly anisotropic models (with some that can be shown to be stable). In this paper we address two issues: Are there processes of collisionless collapse that can lead to equilibria of the exceptional type? What is the intrinsic structural property that is responsible for the sometimes noted exceptional stability behavior? To clarify these issues, we have performed a series of simulations of collisionless collapse that start from homogeneous, highly symmetrized, cold initial conditions and, because of such special conditions, are characterized by very little mixing. For these runs, the end-states can be associated with large values of the global pressure anisotropy parameter up to 2K_r/K_T \approx 2.75. The highly anisotropic equilibrium states thus constructed show no significant traces of radial anisotropy in their central region, with a very sharp transition to a radially anisotropic envelope occurring well inside the half-mass radius (around 0.2 r_M). To check whether the existence of such almost perfectly isotropic "nucleus" might be responsible for the apparent suppression of the radial orbit instability, we could not resort to equilibrium models with the above characteristics and with analytically available distribution function; instead, we studied and confirmed the stability of configurations with those characteristics by initializing N-body approximate equilibria (with given density and pressure anisotropy profiles) with the help of the Jeans equations.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Decentering the learner through alternative organizations

This paper builds on previous studies of experiential learning, reflexivity in management learning, and accounts of teaching through alternative organizations. We theorize management learning from the perspective of students who worked with and researched organizations that present an alternative to typical organizational forms and performative intent. Through an analysis of interviews and reflective diaries, we investigate how students learn in such environments and argue that theories of learning must account for how contexts, in which the performance of profit-orientation breaks down, induce reflexivity. In particular, we draw attention to the role such contexts play in challenging students to dwell in inconsistencies, ambiguities, contradictions and non-linear ideas. Drawing upon the work of Judith Butler’s theory of performativity we illustrate that such reflexivity is not an individual capacity but a contextual practice. Subsequently, by ‘decentering the learner’ we develop upon existing ideas on reflexive practitioners and develop the burgeoning literature on alternative organizations. We conclude by making the argument that management education, whether critical or not, needs to go beyond awareness and through to responsible action. Such action does not rely on more tools or concepts for individuals but experiences of inhabiting an increasingly ambiguous and complex world

Seasonal variations in Greenland Ice Sheet motion : Inland extent and behaviour at higher elevations

Peer reviewedPreprin

Embodying our future through collaboration: The change is in the doing

Contributors to this special edition have agreed that we want a future of ecojustice and ecological sustainability. Our paper unpacks experiences of oppression within the context of middle class academic privilege, undertaking resistances and working, in relationship, learning to live more sustainably in the Year of Living Sustainably. In this writing we argue the case for activism in the academy and collaboratively build resilience towards more sustainable ways of being. By co-writing and analysing fictionalised stories we demonstrate how contemporary universities contribute to the unsustainability of social and ecological systems. This paper presents a love story grounded in poststructural ecofeminist epistemology using collaborative autoethnography. Rather than re-presenting a heroic masculinist narrative of transcendence and success, we describe how our loving relationships support our activism