Liberalism, lack and living the dream : re-considering youth, consumer sovereignty and the attractions of night-time leisure in Magaluf

Much of the academic literature on alcohol-based leisure focuses on the pleasures of hedonism and youthful cultural exploration in environments free from the prescriptions, pressures and routines of everyday life. In this article – in which we present data from our ongoing ethnographic research exploring the experiences and attitudes of young British tourists in the Spanish resort of Magaluf on the island of Majorca – we argue that the standard liberal social-scientific image of youth leisure is naive and misrepresents its variegated reality. Our research indicates that many young British tourists gain little contentment from their holiday in the sun. Rather than embarking on a leisure experience composed of boundless freedom, choice, indulgence, excess and that is indicative of personal consumer sovereignty, many of our interviewees could identify the regimented and commodified nature of alcohol-based tourism. Rather than satisfaction, they felt an imprecise dissatisfaction. Drawing upon elements of psychoanalytic theory, we argue that underneath our interviewees’ accounts of drunkenness and promiscuity lies an obdurate but imprecise sense of lack. Yet, it is precisely this absence which only recharges their motivation to do more of the same the year after in similar destinations, thus confirming the presence, power and domination of consumer sovereignty

Hydration of Reactive MgO as Partial Cement Replacement and Its Influence on the Macroperformance of Cementitious Mortars

A recent quest for more sustainable cement-based construction materials has triggered the pursuit of technically viable alternatives of cement, making reactive magnesium oxide (MgO) one of the least known top contenders to reduce this sector’s environmental impact since it participates in the cement’s hydration reactions and presents enhanced carbon capture ability during its life cycle. In this study, two different commercially available reactive MgO samples were evaluated as partial cement replacements (at 10%, 15%, and 20%, by weight) in the production of mortars. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, differential thermal analysis (DTA), and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of cement, MgO samples, and resulting mortars were carried out. All specimens were evaluated in terms of their mechanical and durability-related performance (i.e., flexural and compressive strength, carbonation, water absorption by capillary action, and shrinkage). The main results suggest that, in spite of the decreased, albeit acceptable, performance with increasing incorporation of MgO as partial cement replacement, a significant decrease was observed in the shrinkage strain of cementitious materials