“Home Again”: The Contrasting Experiences of Richard D. Dunphy and Lewis A. Horton

Union veterans returning home from the war in 1865 faced a myriad of experiences and reacted to the return to civilian life in a variety of ways. Richard D. Dunphy and Lewis A. Horton, both double-arm amputee veterans of the Navy, ably demonstrate the differences in experience and reaction to the war and life afterwards. [excerpt

Student leadership in the middle years: A matter of concern

Traditionally, student leadership has been seen as the prerogative of senior students. Very little research has been conducted on how schools nurture and develop leadership skills in students in the middle years of schooling. This article provides an overview of student leadership in six secondary schools with a particular focus on student leadership opportunities in the middle years. These schools were drawn from the Government, Catholic and Independent sectors in Western Australia. Specifically, the opinions and experiences of either principals or their delegates were sought in order to develop a sense of the importance placed on student leadership in the middle years and the types of leadership opportunities available to students. Initially, the literature is reviewed on student leadership per se and student leadership in the middle years. This review is followed by an outline of the purpose, research question and significance of the research. The research methodology is then explained, providing a summary of participants, the school contexts and methods of data collection and analysis. The subsequent section on results and discussion highlights three themes: the role of teacher leaders, student leadership structures in middle years and the holistic development of middle year students. The article concludes by providing a number of recommendations, in particular, the need to gain a ‘student voice’ in any understanding of student leadership at the middle school

The political economy of Brexit and the future of British capitalism first symposium

The political economy of Brexit generates new challenges for the UK’s national business model and for European capitalism more broadly. Two symposia examine the implications of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in key economic policy areas. These symposia contribute to two main bodies of academic literature: the political economy literature on varieties of capitalism, with a specific focus on the UK, and the political economy literature on key economic policy areas of the EU. This short introduction to the first symposium first outlines the key features of the British variety of capitalism and highlight the main questions raised by Brexit in that respect. It then summarises the main findings of the papers of the first symposium and tease out some common themes

Principals: Catalysts for promoting student leadership

The role of the principal is pivotal in the development of student leadership within schools. As well as assuming a heavy administrative workload and undertaking numerous complex and time-absorbing responsibilities, the principal plays a significant part in facilitating student leadership development initiatives—in essence, this person becomes the steward of student leadership. This stewardship most often takes one of two forms: through direct or indirect involvement. A principal advocating stewardship through direct involvement is personally engaged in leadership activities, and works closely with student leaders. By contrast, indirect involvement requires the principal to empower colleagues with the responsibility of personally engaging with leaders, and to be involved in the philosophical and organisational components of the leadership program. Both forms have merit. This article underscores the importance of including student leadership programs within schools and examines the manner in which the principal can engage directly or indirectly in developing student leadership

Rebuilding the fortress? Europe in a changing world economy

Two rival visions of Europe’s place in the world economy competed for primacy throughout the post-war era. The idea of an ‘Atlantic Europe’ promoted close economic ties to the United States and integration into the liberal international order. An alternative ‘Fortress Europe’ vision aimed to carve out a sphere of relative European autonomy backed by trade barriers and industrial protectionism. While many argued that the ‘Fortress Europe’ vision was defeated during the globalization of the 1990s and 2000s, concepts such as economic sovereignty, industrial strategy and ‘strategic autonomy’ have returned to EU circles. Is a rebuilding of ‘Fortress Europe’ taking place in this context? This paper argues that the old tension between ‘Atlantic’ and ‘Fortress’ Europe is re-emerging but in a new form and under a new set of international conditions. A ‘selective fortification’ of European industrial strategy and trade policy is taking shape, as EU policymakers develop targeted instruments and institutional capacities that aim to insulate European firms from new patterns of international competition. The selective refortification of European capitalism has implications for debates within international political economy (IPE) on the future of liberal international order, new patterns of competitive regionalization, and the restructuring of the relation between the state and global capitalism

The Legitimation of Post-Crisis Capitalism in the United Kingdom: Real Wage Decline, Finance-Led Growth and the State

Since the 2008 financial crisis, capitalist development in the UK has been marked by both continuity and change. Whilst the Coalition government effectively re-established the UK's ‘finance-led’ growth model, it simultaneously broke with the legitimation strategy which New Labour had advanced in the pre-crisis conjuncture. The Coalition advanced a distinctive ‘two nations’ strategy which sought to secure a limited but durable base of support in a context of fiscal consolidation. This strategy was conditional upon the deep and unprecedented period of real wage decline which took hold in the post-crisis conjuncture. However, the Coalition successfully transformed this potential liability into a political asset, constructing a series of ‘moralised antagonisms’ between wage earners and welfare recipients, on the one hand, and private and public sector workers, on the other. Whilst this strategy secured a limited base of popular support, it also re-embedded a series of structural weaknesses within post-crisis UK capitalism. These imbalances are likely to undermine the stability of the UK’s finance-led growth model in the future and will condition British politics as the country embarks upon the process of leaving of the EU

Rotational Doppler velocimetry to probe the angular velocity of spinning microparticles

Laser Doppler velocimetry is a technique used to measure linear velocity, ranging from that of exhaust gases to blood flow. A rotational analog of laser Doppler velocimetry was recently demonstrated, using a rotationally symmetric interference pattern to probe the angular velocity of a spinning object. In this work, we demonstrate the use of a diffraction-limited structured illumination pattern to measure the angular velocity of a micron-sized particle trapped and spinning at tens of Hz in an optical trap. The technique requires no detailed knowledge of the shape of the particle, or the distribution of scatterers within it, and is independent of the particle's chirality, transparency, and birefringence. The particle is also subjected to Brownian motion, which complicates the signal by affecting the rotation rate and the rotation axis. By careful consideration of these influences, we show how the measurement is robust to both, representing a technique with which to probe the rotational motion of microscale particles