Co-designing Speakers Corner

“What might a twenty-first century Speakers’ Corner look like and how should the design process ensure that local people can contribute?” The paper considers this question through describing a three year collaboration between MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environments (MACPfNE) at CSM, and the Speakers’ Corner Trust (SCT). SCT is a charity promoting public debate and active citizenship to revitalise civil society in the UK. It pursues its aims by forming local Committees which ‘own’ and steer the establishment of Speakers’ Corners as platforms for public engagement. MACPfNE is an innovative course that encourages multidisciplinary collaboration and the use of narrative as a tool to develop user focused environments. Working closely with SCT, MACPfNE staff and students developed a methodology whereby communities co-create their own physical manifestation of Speakers’ Corner to suit needs and environment. The methodology and its theoretical foundation were developed through a series of live projects, including: a generic mobile Speakers’ Corner prototype, tested at the Global Forum for Freedom of Expression in Oslo; the co-design with local school children, followed by implementation of London’s second Speakers’ Corner in a community park in North London; and a pilot project to co-design Speakers’ Corner in every school playground

Can Climate Change Mitigation Policy Benefit the Israeli Economy? A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis

The growing attention to global warming due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the process of fossil fuel--based energy production is expressed in the Kyoto Protocol, which prescribes, on average, a 7 percent reduction in GHG emissions for developed countries. Although Israel was not included in the list of the obligated countries ("Annex A"), it should consider the economic implications of participating in the emission reduction effort, as such a commitment becomes highly feasible following the Bali roadmap which oblige a successor to the Kyoto Protocol to launch negotiations including all parties to the UNFCCC on a future framework, stressing the role of cooperative action and of common though differentiated responsibility. This study aimed to quantify the economy-wide consequences for Israel of meeting the targets of the Kyoto Protocol, employing a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model of the Israeli economy. Initially, to this end, we constructed a social accounting matrix (SAM) to serve as a benchmark by combining physical energy and emission data and economic data from various sources. The efficacy of decentralized economic incentives for CO2 emission reduction, such as carbon taxes on emissions and auctioned emission permits, was assessed in terms of their impact on economic welfare. In addition, we tested for the ensuing so-called double dividend. Two distinct cases were analyzed. In the first one, we tested a revenue-neutral environmental policy which proportionally cut pre-existing taxes. Labour supply was assumed to be exogenously fixed. The results showed that, although significant CO2 emission reduction can be achieved, followed by modest economic cost, no double dividend could be discerned. Next, in order to check for the employment double dividend (lower CO2 emissions and lower unemployment), we introduced labor market imperfections, with the aim of cutting income tax. The results of this case indicate that an employment double dividend is possible under a rather standard set of assumptions. Moreover, for higher substitutability between the energy composite input and the labor-capital one, an even “strong” form of double dividend can be obtained. We performed several sensitivity analyses with respect to the modeled production function, which re-confirmed the finding that higher substitution possibilities lead to lower welfare costs 3 associated with a given emission reduction target. We qualify this general result by also showing that the opposite holds when the emission tax rate is held constant, rather than reduced. It may be concluded on the basis of this analysis that a double dividend may be an achievable goal under a GHG emission reduction policy in the case of economies such as Israel. The CGE approach applied in this research is adopted for the first time to the Israeli economy and should contribute to better informed debate on environmental policy in Israel.Computable General Equilibrium, Climate Change, Environmental Policy, Double Dividend, Israel

Technical Bulletins: Attention General Law Mayor-Aldermanic Municipalities: Your Revised Charter Is Effective July 1

An improved charter for 52 Tennessee towns and cities is the result of Public Chapter 154, 1991, signed by the governor in April

Technical Bulletins: Veteran\u27s Reemployment Rights

This Technical Bulletin discusses the Federal Veterans Reemployment Rights Law (VRR), under which a person leaving a civilian job, voluntarily or involuntarily, to enter active duty in the Armed Forces, has a right to return to that job after discharge, if that person meets a given set of criteria

Transitions Between Radial and Bipolar Liquid Crystal Drops in the Presence of Novel Surfactants

Liquid crystals (LCs) are a class of molecules that form a variety of configurations easily influenced by external interactions. Of particular interest are rod-like LC molecules confined to a spherical geometry, which have a competition between interfacial tension and elastic deformations. The configuration of the liquid crystal inside a droplet can be controlled using surfactants, influencing the boundary conditions, in an oil-in-water emulsion. I tested the effects of novel surfactants on the configuration of the LC droplets. These novel surfactant molecules, synthesized by collaborators, are oligomers with either a variable length hydrophobic domain or protein sensitive hydrophilic domain. I tested the equilibrium configuration and dynamics of configurational changes, comparing experimental results to simulations performed by collaborators. We find that configuration transitions can be triggered by the addition of a control surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), but not the novel surfactants. The SDS concentration at which the phase transition occurs appears to depend on the droplet diameter and I observed a hysteresis in the SDS concentration of the phase transition, both of which depend on the novel surfactant present

Technical Bulletins: Veterans Re-Employment Rights

This Technical Bulletin discusses the Federal Veterans Reemployment Rights Law (VRR), under which a person leaving a civilian job, voluntarily or involuntarily, to enter active duty in the Armed Forces, has a right to return to that job after discharge, if that person meets a given set of criteria

Paul\u27s Wife: Messages from the Past

Graduate winner: 1st place, 2015, 28th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competitio