Are political statecraft and populism compatible? Lessons from Corbyn and Trump

Although Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump share no common ideological ground, as political strategists they both reject the political establishment and the rules of traditional statesmanship. Kingsley Purdam, Dave Richards, and Nick Turnbull draw on Jim Bulpitt’s statecraft theory to argue that, in the long-run, the imperative for sound statecraft will win out over temporary populism

Dr Salman visiting his family

Cuando el Dr. Salman me envió algunas fotos de referencia, instantáneamente supe que tenía que elegir la foto en la que se basa esta pintura; aunque era una escena compleja con varias figuras, la narrativa que presentaba era muy poderosa y emotiva. Quería evitar el sentimentalismo, y creo que la atrevida técnica del empaste que usé, con pintura al óleo espesa y un pincel grande, ayudó con esto. Se trataba principalmente de transmitir emociones crudas de una manera expresiva, sin incluir muchos detalles. Además, convertirla en una imagen fácilmente legible solo con pinceladas sueltas, sin delinear todo, fue un verdadero desafío. Espero haberlo logrado.When Dr. Salman sent me some reference photos, I instantly knew I had to choose the photo this painting is based on; although it was a complex scene with several figures, the narrative it presented was very powerful and emotional. I wanted to avoid sentimentality, and I think the bold impasto technique I used, with thick oil paint and a large brush, helped with this. It was mainly about conveying raw emotions in an expressive way, without including many details. Also, turning it into an easily readable image with just loose brushstrokes, without outlining everything, was a real challenge. I hope I have succeeded

Designing Parametric Matter

This paper presents a series of design experiments that seek to move beyond today’s computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacture (CAD/CAM) technologies and investigates alternative material practices based on programmable self-assembly. When using CAD software, 3D designs can be rendered extremely flexible and adaptable such that changes to an objects size, colour, transparency, topology, or geometry can be made quickly and easily. However, once digital designs are converted into physical objects via typical CAM technologies, this capability for adaptation usually dissolves as objects are typically fabricated using inert materials and no consideration of a material’s computational abilities. The series of design experiments discussed in this paper help to rethink and re-imagine the possibilities of design and making with adaptive fabrication processes. The design experiments explore mineral accretion and generative paint recipes. Mineral accretion is predominantly controlled via a process of electrolysis to produce adaptable crystal structures that are grown on cathode scaffolds within a volume of seawater. The generative paint experiments expand on the mineral accretion work to explore how material self-assembly can be guided using less restrictive scaffolds. The experiments reveal how ‘contrast’ can be exploited within the design process as a means of guiding and monitoring material scale self-assembly. Through reflection of these material experiments, this paper seeks to provoke discussion about the role of design within future manufacturing systems, and the possible physical properties of future designed objects

Study Skills: neoliberalism’s perfect Tinkerbell

We argue that current approaches to Study Skills support are presented as being a panacea for resolving the issues presented by neoliberal approaches to educational expansion. We argue that for such a panacea to be believed pedagogically effective, four key tenets must be adhered to: Study skills is a definable entity; it is valuable for every subject; it can be embedded, and; Study Skills helps students succeed in their subjects. We argue these tenets are devoid of any sound pedagogical basis, yet that they are ideal for, and align with, neoliberal ideologies and free market political economy. We consider the organizational structuration of Study Skills as underpinned by Lukes’s third dimension of power, outlining how Study Skills represents a constitutive fantasy, a magical Tinkerbell for all to believe in that solves everyone’s problems. We propose HE dispels this Tinkerbell by ceasing to believe in it, and instead resources subject-based support

Using physical objects as a portal to reveal academic subject identity and thought

We are lecturers who help students studying subjects that use word-based writing, non-word based writing such as Mathematics, and non-text based language such as visual semiotics. To access examples of such language with subject lecturers we have found traditional interviews or focus groups ineffective, and realised that in these, although lecturers could talk about key psychological elements of the language, they had no focus to produce any examples of it. However, we suspected that providing a physical object to describe and discuss would create a context for lecturers to produce the language. Thus, we gave a brightly coloured teapot to Nursing, Psychology, Design, and Engineering lecturers to describe and evaluate in their subjects. This gave us almost instantaneous access to the subject context. For example, Nursing lecturers described and evaluated the teapot for hygiene and patient safety, Engineering lecturers did so for material properties and calculations required. Unexpectedly, many lecturers related how an identity underpinned their language. Thus, the teapot operated as a portal to reveal academic subject identity and thought. We relate how this has helped us in our teaching and suggest ways others can use physical objects in qualitative research to access and research identity and thought

Avoiding dialogues of non-discovery through promoting dialogues of discovery.

International students and direct entrants—those entering a higher year of a degree—often come from socio-economic or cultural backgrounds different from traditional students, and have different educational backgrounds. It is assumed such students need help with unfamiliar assessment tasks such as essays, reports, and so on, and many sources aim to help with these elements. Further assumptions are that dialogue helps, and that the words used in such dialogue will be understood similarly. Yet, if the assumed meanings of the words actually differ, then such dialogue is based on a false assumption; rather than genuine dialogue, what actually occurs is an exchange of monologic utterances. This article is a structured narrative of our ongoing research into how key assessment task words such as ‘discuss,’ ‘analyse,’ and ‘critically evaluate’ are understood differently in higher education. We describe how such differences are perpetuated through Martin Buber’s (1947) ideas of monologic utterances, and what we call ‘dialogues of non-discovery’. Here we detail a research-based approach to promote genuine and technical dialogue: what we call ‘dialogues of discovery.’ We first introduce a dialogue that led to the genesis of the study and theoretical context of our dialogues with the literature. We then detail our methods of data collection in a section of ‘dialogues of exploration’. We present our findings in the form of categorizations of the different elements underpinning people’s understandings of ‘the word.’ Our own categorizations of these elements encourage dialogue around the elements of language, culture, stakeholder, subject, weight, and development over time. This is an approach we term an ‘anti-glossary approach’ in that it is opposite to, and against, ‘fixing’ or ‘ossifying’ the language in a glossary. In the Bakhtinian tradition of ‘incompletedness,’ we conclude by encouraging readers to take and adapt our findings as an ‘anti-glossary’ approach to engage in genuine and technical dialogue with their students. In this way, we believe the quality and depth of student work can improve

Challenging the power invested in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS): Why determining ‘English’ preparedness needs to be undertaken within the subject context

Higher Education (HE) institutions worldwide base international student recruitment on the assumption their preparedness in ‘English’ is assured if they reach a certain level in tests such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). This assumes an abstract objectivist view of language that sees the ‘English’ as removable for testing in any context. However, in an individual subjectivist view of language, ‘English’ is inextricably linked with context, i.e. subject content that symbiotically connects thought and meaning. In this paper, we outline these views of language and consider the ‘English’ of IELTS. Next we detail interviews and focus groups we conducted with lecturers in subject areas of Design, Nursing, Engineering, Business, Computing, and Psychology. These researched the ‘English’ required in subjects and the thinking underpinning it. We then present and discuss results around three themes of ‘How ‘English’ is specific to the content of subjects’; ‘How the ‘English’ of subjects is underpinned by unique ideological and psychological elements’ and; ‘How the non-textual elements of different subjects are intertwined with their ‘English’’. Our results illustrate why we need to challenge the power invested in IELTS, and why determining English preparedness needs to be undertaken within the subject context

An ``Improved" Lattice Study of Semi-leptonic Decays of D-Mesons

We present results of a lattice computation of the matrix elements of the vector and axial-vector currents which are relevant for the semi-leptonic decays $D \rightarrow K$ and $D \rightarrow K^*$. The computations are performed in the quenched approximation to lattice QCD on a $24^3 \times 48$ lattice at $\beta=6.2$, using an $O(a)$-improved fermionic action. In the limit of zero lepton masses the semi-leptonic decays $D \rightarrow K$ and $D \rightarrow K^*$ are described by four form factors: $f^{+}_K,V,A_1$ and $A_2$, which are functions of $q^2$, where $q^{\mu}$ is the four-momentum transferred in the process. Our results for these form factors at $q^2=0$ are: f^+_K(0)=0.67 \er{7}{8} , V(0)=1.01 \err{30}{13} , A_1(0)=0.70 \err{7}{10} , A_2(0)=0.66 \err{10}{15} , which are consistent with the most recent experimental world average values. We have also determined the $q^2$ dependence of the form factors, which we find to be reasonably well described by a simple pole-dominance model. Results for other form factors, including those relevant to the decays \dpi and \drho, are also given.Comment: 41 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript file containing 14 figures, LaTeX, Edinburgh Preprint 94/546 and Southampton Preprint SHEP 93/94-3