The language of patriotism in France, 1750-1770

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Absolute monarchy in France

An original scholarly interpretation of the nature of the French monarchy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It argues that rather than seeing this monarchy as centralised and administrative, we should see it as a state formation replete with tensions and contradictions. Astute political management, patronage and clientage focused on the court as the centre of the political system, were all essential for the survival of the regime. The chapter thus takes issue with current interpretations in historical sociology, political science and history. The interpretation draws on wide secondary sources and the author's long archival acquaintance with the regime. 16,000 words

[Review] Jay M. Smith, ed. (2006) The French nobility in the eighteenth century: reassessments and new approaches

A 6,000 word review article discussing this book and recent approaches to the nobility in eighteenth-century France

Evaluability Assessment: A Systematic Approach to Deciding Whether and How to Evaluate Programmes and Policies

Evaluability assessment (EA) is a systematic approach to planning evaluation projects. It involves structured engagement by researchers with stakeholders to clarify intervention goals and how they are expected to be achieved, the development and evaluation of a logic model or theory of change, and provision of advice on whether or not an evaluation can be carried out at reasonable cost, and what methods should be used. To date, EA has been relatively little used in the UK, but it has begun to attract attention as a way of balancing the growing demand for evaluation with the limited resource available. As well as providing a sound basis for making decisions about whether and how to evaluate before resources are committed, EA can improve the translation of research into practice by ensuring that policy-makers and practitioners are involved from the beginning in developing and appraising evaluation options. Two EAs have recently been conducted in Scotland, which provide a model that can be applied to a wide range of interventions, programmes and policies at national, regional and local levels. What Works Scotland is keen to work with Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) to identify opportunities for EA

Field trip guide to the Onland Oligocene-Miocene Sedimentary Record, Eastern Taranaki Basin Margin

This field guide affords a north to south transect through examples of the Mesozoic to Quaternary sedimentary succession exposed in the Waikato, King Country and coastal strip of the eastern Taranaki basins, with particular focus on the Oligocene and Miocene deposits and how these link into the offshore parts of Taranaki Basin. The trip starts in Hamilton and ends at Tongaporutu on the north Taranaki coast, with overnight accommodation available at either Awakino or Mokau. Primarily under both local and more distant tectonic control, the stops provide examples of the various carbonate and terrigenous (locally volcaniclastic)-dominated facies associated with marginal marine, shoreline, shelf and slope-to-basin depositional settings, and their stratigraphic architecture and wider sequence stratigraphic context. Along the way, visits are recorded to basement greywacke, serpentinite and limestone quarries

Note on paramoudra-like carbonate concretions in the Urenui Formation, North Taranaki: possible plumbing system for a Late Miocene methane seep field

A reconnaissance study of calcitic and dolomitic tubular concretions in upper slope mudstone of the Late Miocene Urenui Formation exposed along the north Taranaki coastline indicates that they have a complex diagenetic history involving different phases of carbonate cementation and likely hydrofracturing associated with build up of fluid/gas pressures. The concretions resemble classical paramoudra in the European chalk, but are not siliceous and do not have a trace fossil origin. Stable oxygen and carbon isotope data suggest that the micritic carbonate cements in the Urenui paramoudra were probably sourced primarily from ascending methane fluid/gases, and that they precipitated entirely within the host mudstone below the seafloor. We suggest the paramoudra may mark the subsurface plumbing networks of a Late Miocene cold seep system, in which case they have relevance to the evolution and migration of hydrocarbons in Taranaki Basin, at this site perhaps focussed along the Taranaki Fault. The presence of dislodged and mass-emplaced paramoudra in the axial conglomerate of channels within the Urenui mudstone suggests there could be a connection between the loci of seep field development and slope failure and canyon cutting on the Late Miocene Taranaki margin