Contextualizing the curée ritual in Master of Game:hunting as a performance of social order

Abstract. The ritual nature of medieval hunting has been widely noted by historians. Noble hunting practices in particular have been examined as rituals designed to project notions of noble ascendancy over society. In the medieval era, the noble hunt is generally presumed to have been a spectacle designed to underscore the natural hierarchy of society. Although the ritualistic nature of medieval hunting practices has generally been acknowledged, the ritual forms that these practices embraced have nonetheless generally not been examined. The present thesis aims to address this shortcoming by examining the ritual formulae of Master of Game within their proper historical and ritual context. In so doing, Master of Game will be considered as a unique point in the evolution of medieval hunting rituals which discloses not only methods for the mimesis of power in the early 15th century but also how these methods drew on contemporary religious ritual forms to achieve meaning. Similarities between hunting rituals and religious rituals will be highlighted, as will the interpellative role of the spectator. In examining how power and ritual intertwine in Master of Game, this thesis argues that contextualizing hunting rituals affords a more nuanced understanding of the ideological aims and means of noble hunting in the medieval era

Prospects for flourishing in contemporary health care

This special issue of Health Care Analysis originated in an conference, held in Birmingham in 2014, and organised by the group Think about Health. We introduce the issue by briefly reviewing the understandings of the concept of ‘flourishing’, and introducing the contributory papers, before offering some reflections on the remaining issues that reflection on flourishing poses for health care provision

Flourishing in health care

The purpose of this paper is to offer an account of ‘flourishing’ that is relevant to health care provision, both in terms of the flourishing of the individual patient and carer, and in terms of the flourishing of the caring institution. It is argued that, unlike related concepts such as ‘happiness’, ‘well-being’ or ‘quality of life’, ‘flourishing’ uniquely has the power to capture the importance of the vulnerability of human being. Drawing on the likes of Heidegger and Nussbaum, it is argued that humans are at once beings who are autonomous and thereby capable of making sense of their lives, but also subject to the contingencies of their bodies and environments. To flourish requires that one engages, imaginatively and creatively, with those contingencies. The experience of illness, highlighting the vulnerability of the human being, thereby becomes an important experience, stimulating reflection in order to make sense of one’s life as a narrative. To flourish, it is argued, is to tell a story of one’s life, realistically engaging with vulnerability and suffering, and thus creating a framework through which one can meaningful and constructively go on with one’s life

Hanging In, Stepping up and Stepping Out: Livelihood Aspirations and Strategies of the Poor Development in Practice

In recent years understanding of poverty and of ways in which people escape from or fall into poverty has become more holistic. This should improve the capabilities of policy analysts and others working to reduce poverty, but it also makes analysis more complex. This paper describes a simple schema which integrates multidimensional, multilevel and dynamic understandings of poverty, of poor people’s livelihoods, and of changing roles of agricultural systems. The paper suggests three broad types of strategy pursued by poor people: ‘hanging in’; ‘stepping up’; and ‘stepping out’. This simple schema explicitly recognises the dynamic aspirations of poor people; diversity among them; and livelihood diversification. It also brings together aspirations of poor people with wider sectoral, inter-sectoral and macro-economic questions about policies necessary for realisation of those aspirations

Dialogic pedagogy in graduate teacher education research advisement: A narrative account of three teacher educators

Research methods courses often tend to focus on transferring technical information to students rather than offer a more dialogical approach to learning (Barraket, 2005; Kilburn et al., 2014). By drawing on the concept of self-study (Bullough & Pinnegar, 2001), through personal journals and retrospective reflections, this paper explores learning activities introduced in three teacher education graduate research methods courses to support student learning beyond the mastering of research skills or techniques. Narratives of three teacher educators illustrate how teacher candidates can dialogically reflect on research-related topics with peers, bring questions forward for discussion in class and online, apply their emerging technical research skills through collective analysis of a situation, and grow collective knowledge. Teacher candidates recognize the importance of research in their work, although their passion for conducting research is influenced by varied constraints, including research design, programmatic and personal limitations

A Social-Ecological-Infrastructural Systems Framework for Interdisciplinary Study of Sustainable City Systems

Cities are embedded within larger-scale engineered infrastructures (e.g., electric power, water supply, and transportation networks) that convey natural resources over large distances for use by people in cities. The sustainability of city systems therefore depends upon complex, cross-scale interactions between the natural system, the transboundary engineered infrastructures, and the multiple social actors and institutions that govern these infrastructures. These elements, we argue, are best studied in an integrated manner using a novel social-ecological-infrastructural systems (SEIS) framework. In the biophysical subsystem, the SEIS framework integrates urban metabolism with life cycle assessment to articulate transboundary infrastructure supply chain water, energy, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission footprints of cities. These infrastructure footprints make visible multiple resources (water, energy, materials) used directly or indirectly (embodied) to support human activities in cities. They inform cross-scale and cross-infrastructure sector strategies for mitigating environmental pollution, public health risks and supply chain risks posed to cities. In the social subsystem, multiple theories drawn from the social sciences explore interactions between three actor categories—individual resource users, infrastructure designers and operators, and policy actors—who interact with each other and with infrastructures to shape cities toward sustainability outcomes. Linking of the two subsystems occurs by integrating concepts, theories, laws, and models across environmental sciences/climatology, infrastructure engineering, industrial ecology, architecture, urban planning, behavioral sciences, public health, and public affairs. Such integration identifies high-impact leverage points in the urban SEIS. An interdisciplinary SEIS-based curriculum on sustainable cities is described and evaluated for its efficacy in promoting systems thinking and interdisciplinary vocabulary development, both of which are measures of effective frameworks

A randomised pilot feasibility study of eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing recent traumatic episode protocol, to improve psychological recovery following intensive care admission for COVID-19

© 2022 The Intensive Care Society. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1177/17511437221136828Background: Approximately 50% of intensive care survivors experience persistent psychological symptoms. Eye-movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) is a widely recommended trauma-focussed psychological therapy, which has not been investigated systematically in a cohort of intensive care survivors: We therefore conducted a randomised pilot feasibility study of EMDR, using the Recent Traumatic Episode Protocol (R-TEP), to prevent psychological distress in intensive care survivors. Findings will determine whether it would be possible to conduct a fully-powered clinical effectiveness trial and inform trial design. Method: We aimed to recruit 26 patients who had been admitted to intensive care for over 24 h with COVID-19 infection. Consenting participants were randomised (1:1) to receive either usual care plus remotely delivered EMDR R-TEP or usual care alone (controls). The primary outcome was feasibility. We also report factors related to safety and symptom changes in post-traumatic stress disorder, (PTSD) anxiety and depression. Results: We approached 51 eligible patients, with 26 (51%) providing consent. Intervention adherence (sessions offered/sessions completed) was 83%, and 23/26 participants completed all study procedures. There were no attributable adverse events. Between baseline and 6-month follow-up, mean change in PTSD score was −8 (SD = 10.5) in the intervention group versus +0.75 (SD = 15.2) in controls (p = 0.126). There were no significant changes to anxiety or depression. Conclusion: Remotely delivered EMDR R-TEP met pre-determined feasibility and safety objectives. Whilst we achieved group separation in PTSD symptom change, we have identified a number of protocol refinements that would improve the design of a fully powered, multi-centre randomised controlled trial, consistent with currently recommended rehabilitation clinical pathways. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04455360.Peer reviewe

Policy Analytical Capacity Inside and Outside of Government: A Case Study of Colorado Climate and Energy Issues

This paper examines the policy analytical capacity of government compared to the non-profit and private sectors and to the research/academic community. Based on original data from a 2011 questionnaire administered to policy actors in the context of energy and climate issues in the state of Colorado, the findings show that government is not as “hollowed out” as expected. While individuals from academia and consulting firms may have higher analytical capacity than government in conducting research, government is higher across most other measures. Nonetheless, nearly all respondents agree that government needs higher levels of policy analytical capacity to address climate and energy issues

Policy Analytical Capacity and Policy Activities

The study of policy process involves the study of policy actors - people involved in the development of public policy in a particular geographic area. This paper investigates policy actors in the context of Colorado climate and energy issues with a particular emphasis on the types and levels of their engagement in policy activities. The conceptual framework guiding this study centers on policy analytical capacity, the ability to acquire and use information in the policy process. High policy analytical capacity is expected to be associated with high levels, and more diverse kinds, of policy activities. The findings partly confirm the expectations. Actors from government and the non-profit sector report the highest policy analytical capacity and highest and most diverse range of policy activities. However, researchers, despite relatively high levels of policy analytical capacity, report involvement in just a few activities beyond conducting research. Actors with strong educational backgrounds in the physical sciences are more likely to be involved in conducting research whereas those with strong backgrounds in the social sciences are more likely to be involved in evaluating and appraising policies and working with the public. The conclusion contextualizes the findings by focusing on the relationship between technical and scientific complexity of climate and energy issues and the necessity for participating actors to possess high levels of policy analytical capacity