Locally-varying explanations behind the United Kingdom’s vote to the Leave the European Union

Explanations behind area-based (Local Authority-level) voting preference in the 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union are explored using aggregate-level data. Developing local models, special attention is paid to whether variables explain the vote equally well across the country. Variables describing the post-industrial and economic ‘successfulness’ of Local Authorities most strongly discriminate variation in the vote. To a lesser extent this is the case for variables linked to ‘metropolitan’ and ‘big city’ contexts, which assist the Remain vote, those that distinguish more traditional and ‘nativist’ val- ues, assisting Leave, and those loosely describing material outcomes, again reinforcing Leave. Whilst variables describing economic competitiveness co-vary with voting pref- erence equally well across the country, the importance of secondary variables – those dis- tinguishing metropolitan settings, values and outcomes – does vary by region. For certain variables and in certain areas, the direction of effect on voting preference reverses. For ex- ample, whilst levels of European Union migration mostly assist the Remain vote, in parts of the country the opposite effect is observed

A tool for assessing error in digital elevation models from a user’s perspective

A Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is a representation of geographic reality. The elevations recorded within DEMs have been shown to contain errors pertaining to sampling, measurement and interpolation (Fisher, 1998). Even a small amount of elevation error can greatly affect derivative products (Holmes et al., 2000). This can potentially have a significant impact on the application of DEMs in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) where first and second order derivatives are considered

Consolation as a unique outcome within a pastoral-narrative approach to grief

Consolation as a unique outcome within a pastoral-narrative approach to grief The pastoral counselling of those who grieve poses new challenges to pastoral care. Because of the shift away from a modernist paradigm, the grief process is now seen as an open-ended process, rather than a closed process that focuses on the mastering of the so-called tasks of mourning, and the avoidance of grief pathology. Recent grief theory suggests that the grief process cannot reach a point of closure. Grief counselling should therefore rather embark on a process of generating new meaning to the problem-saturated discourses surrounding death and loss. Narrative therapy is suggested as a means of grief counselling, as it makes use of the story analogy, which supports the notion of an open end to the grief process. In this study, the narrative is explored within the framework of Practical Theology. Both the master story of God and the grief-saturated stories of people are combined in a pastoral approach that envisages consolation as the unique outcome of the therapeutic process. Consolation is regarded as one of the secondary narratives in the greater narrative of God, as well as in the reformed theological vocabulary. It is suggested that a pastoralnarrative approach to grief will generate the consolation needed by the grief-stricken on their lifelong journey of coming to terms with their loss.Die pastorale begeleiding van persone met rousmart ná ‘n naasbestaande se dood stel tans nuwe uitdagings aan die pastor. Dié toedrag van sake is grootliks toe te skryf aan die huidige wegbeweeg van die modernistiese denkraamwerke wat sedert Freud se routeorie van die vroeë 1900’s ons denke oor rousmart oorheers het. Benaderings vanuit ‘n modernistiese raamwerk het die pastor veral in die rol van ‘n, beoordelaar van die sogenaamde rouproses geplaas. Die hulpverlener moes toesien dat die rouproses ‘suksesvol’ afgehandel word. Dít sou wees wanneer treurende persone weer begin energie belê in nuwe verhoudings en ideale (Kübler-Ross 1969; Spiegel 1977), of as naasbestaandes nie meer patologiese rou toon nie. Patologiese rou word beskou as byvoorbeeld die volgehoue ontkenning van die verlies, en die uiteindelike verwerping van hulp (Smith & Dreyer 2000:279). Indien hierdie uitkomste na die oordeel van die pastor bereik is, sou die rouproses as afgehandel beskou kon word. Tans gaan daar egter stemme op wat meen dat die rouproses ‘n oop einde moet hê, aangesien rousmart nooit werklik as afgehandel beskou kan word nie (Kübler-Ross & Kessler 2005:158). ‘n Nuwe paradigma vir die begrip van rou is derhalwe aan die ontwikkel, waarbinne die korrekte hantering van rou gesoek word in die rekonstruksie van sin en betekenis in die lewens van mense nadat hulle ‘n naasbestaande verloor het. Hierdie proses van betekenisskepping (Nadeau 1998:14), eerder as die blote kliniese nakoming van ‘routake’, neem nou ‘n kernplek in die hantering van rou in.http://www.hts.org.zahb201

Nostalgia as a pastoral–hermeneutical key for healing complicated grief in an Afro-Christian context

This research engaged complicated grief in an Afro-Christian context. The Afro-Christian context was described as one where traditional African beliefs form the bedrock of a unique strand of Christian faith. Christians within the philosophical and spiritual category of the African context harbour a unique outlook on death and, therefore, approach loss in a way that still embraces traditional views regarding the role of the departed. This provides for an extended grieving process, which opens the door for complicated grief as opposed to the notion of uncomplicated grief. The Christian text, where the resurrection of Christ stands central, challenges African views on the role of the departed and opens possibilities for the healing of complicated grief. In the light of this, nostalgia is investigated as a pastoral–hermeneutical key to understand and challenge the phenomenon of complicated grief in an Afro-Christian context. While nostalgia denotes a longing for the past, the distinction between restorative and reflective nostalgia provides valuable possibilities for pastoral work with complicated grief. It was argued that restorative nostalgia is indicative of attempts to restore the past and reflective nostalgia is indicative of a willingness to accept reality based on a cognitive and spiritual realisation that the past cannot be retrieved. It is thus contended that much pastoral potential resides within the notion of nostalgia when deployed in the context of complicated grief in an Afro-Christian context. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The contextualisation of practical theology and pastoral care in the African context requires an interdisciplinary approach which is mindful of the African context, the Christian faith as well the variegated contexts in which Africans currently live and believe

‘Listening’ as prerequisite for preaching in the 21st century

No abstract available

Estimating local car ownership models

Many studies in the transport demand literature have shown that income is an important factor in determining how many cars a household owns. When the models used to measure the strength of this relationship are estimated on cross-sectional data, they typically yield one overall value as the estimate. Local circumstances will, however, vary. This paper illustrates the use of the Geographically Weighted Regression technique to estimate the individual strength of this relationship for each of the United Kingdom electoral wards. Use of this type of model enables a wards’ income elasticity to be based on both the local estimate of the strength of this relationship and the current local level of car ownership. How the use of this local elasticity changes future forecasts of the size of the vehicle fleet is illustrated

Sparrows can't sing : East End kith and kinship in the 1960s

Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963) was the only feature film directed by the late and much lamented Joan Littlewood. Set and filmed in the East End, where she worked for many years, the film deserves more attention than it has hitherto received. Littlewood’s career spanned documentary (radio recordings made with Ewan MacColl in the North of England in the 1930s) to directing for the stage and the running of the Theatre Royal in London’s Stratford East, often selecting material which aroused memories in local audiences (Leach 2006: 142). Many of the actors trained in her Theatre Workshop subsequently became better known for their appearances on film and television. Littlewood herself directed hardly any material for the screen: Sparrows Can’t Sing and a 1964 series of television commercials for the British Egg Marketing Board, starring Theatre Workshop’s Avis Bunnage, were rare excursions into an area of practice which she found constraining and unamenable (Gable 1980: 32). The hybridity and singularity of Littlewood’s feature may answer, in some degree, for its subsequent neglect. However, Sparrows Can’t Sing makes a significant contribution to a group of films made in Britain in the 1960s which comment generally on changes in the urban and social fabric. It is especially worthy of consideration, I shall argue, for the use which Littlewood made of a particular community’s attitudes – sentimental and critical – to such changes and for its amalgamation of an attachment to documentary techniques (recording an aural landscape on location) with a preference for nonnaturalistic delivery in performance

Spatially varying explanations behind the UKs vote to leave the EU

Explanations behind area-based (Local Authority-level) voting preference in the 2016 EU referendum are explored using aggregate-level data. Variables describing the economic competitiveness of Local Authorities most strongly discriminate variation in the vote. To a lesser extent this is the case for variables linked to `metropolitan vs. traditional' values and relationships here tend to diverge spatially. Local Authorities in Scotland and London are distinct in their strong support for remaining in the EU. Whilst the difference for London can largely be accounted for using area-level data, this is less true of Scotland

Young Women and Consumer Culture

This article is presented as an intervention in the field of feminist media and cultural studies with particular reference to consumer culture. It is concerned with the seeming evasion of critique which can be detected in a number of recent feminist responses to the way in which modalities of ‘popular feminism’ have found themselves incorporated into women's genres of television, such as, in particular, the US series Sex in the City. This usage or instrumentalization of feminism (in its most conventionally liberal feminist guise) also provides corporate culture with the means of presenting itself to young women as their ally and even champion of ‘girls’ while at the same time earning seeming approval for adopting the mantle of social responsibility, which makes the concept of popular feminism more problematic than it first appeared. Such appropriation of popular feminist discourse by the commercial domain prompts a self-critique on the part of the author alongside an analysis of recent approaches toward consumer culture in cultural studies. The article continues by presenting a schematic account of how the commercial domain increasingly supplants state and public sector institutions in the intensity and dedication of its address to girls and young women. Whilst some may argue that the intersection of youthful femininity and the commercial sphere is not a new phenomenon, what is being explored here is the connection between this intensification of attention and the logic of current neo-liberal economic rationalities. The argument is, therefore, that it is by these means including the instrumentalization of a specific modality of ‘feminism’ that there emerges into existence a neo-liberal culture, with global aspirations, which has as its ideal subject the category of ‘girl’