Television sport in the age of screens and content

The death of television has been long predicated in the digital age, yet it remains a powerful mediator of live sports. This article focuses on football and examines the implications for the sport of the move to an age of screens and content. These may be large screens in public places or in our homes or those at work or smaller screens carried in the palm of our hands, but what we use them for, how content gets onto those screens, and the implications for sports and sports fans remain compelling questions in the digital age. The article argues that through reflecting on major media sport events such as the FIFA World Cup, we see patterns of continuity in the role played by television as well as evidence of change

Systems Practice: How to Act in a Climate-Change World

It is now accepted that humans are changing the climate of the Earth and this is the most compelling amongst a long litany of reasons as to why, collectively, we have to change our ways of thinking and acting. Most people now recognise that we have to be capable of adapting quickly as new and uncertain circumstances emerge: this capability will need to exist at personal, group, community, regional, national and international levels, all at the same time. Systems Practice is structured into four parts. Part I introduces the societal need to move towards a more systemic and adaptive governance against the backdrop of human-induced climate change. Part II unpacks what is involved in systems practice by means of a juggler metaphor; examining situations where systems thinking offers useful understanding and opportunities for change. Part III identifies the main factors that constrain the uptake of systems practice and makes the case for innovation in practice by means of systemic inquiry, systemic action research and systemic intervention. The book concludes with Part IV, which critically examines how systems practice is, or might be, utilised at different levels from the personal to the societal. The development of our capabilities to think and act systemically is an urgent priority and Systems Practice aims to show how to do systems thinking and translate that thinking into praxis (theory informed practical action) which will be welcomed by those managing in situations of complexity and uncertainty across all domains of professional and personal concern

Voltaire\u27s Convincement

The aim of this essay is to trace the evolution of Voltaire\u27s perspective toward Quakers and Quakerism during the course of his life. The record begins when in 1726 he was forced into exile and chose to go to England. In the course of his three-year stay there, he wrote letters to his friend-letters which were published in 1733 in English under the title \u27Letters Concerning the English Nation\u27 and in French with the title \u27Lettres Philosophiques\u27. Four of the 25 letters are devoted to Quakerism. We endeavour to depict, through his writing, Voltaire\u27s changing attitude toward Quakerism from one of mild disdain�� through ambivalence and fmally to outright admiration. This unfolding begins with a summary of his letters on Quakers and proceeds to a description of French attitudes toward Quakerism in the early 18th century. The essay culminates in an account of miscellaneous reactions to Voltaire\u27s letters and eventually to what we feel was his \u27convincement\u27, as this is reflected in his later writings

The Court of Appeals as the Middle Child

It’s said that middle children are most likely to be forgotten in the chaos of family life. The same could be said of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, which in 2016, mark their 125th anniversary, and which are the middle child of the federal judicial family. As too few people, even academics, know, the courts of appeals were created in 1891 by the Evarts Act, more than a century after the Constitution and the First Judiciary Act. The history of the courts of appeals has accordingly hovered somewhat uneasily next to that of the U.S. Supreme Court and the district courts. Setting aside the rare times when an appellate court strikes down or stays an important national statute or program, our work remains largely below the radar of American public debate. In contrast to our sibling Article III courts, district and Supreme, our intermediate appellate character is stunted in three different ways