Who Can Represent the Nation? Elite Athletes, Global Mega Events and the Contested Boundaries of National Belonging

For those studying national belonging, elite athletes competing in international mega events offer particularly compelling case studies as they represent the nation during periods of sustained media attention and heightened emotional registers. But when compared with other types of representatives – such as heads of state, ambassadors, political leaders – they have received much less scholarly attention. This article analyses reporting of the ‘Plastic Brits’ debate, where elite athletes brought in to represent Britain at the Olympics were subject to ongoing scrutiny and critique. Developing an analytical framework that uses insights from Elias, Goffman and Hage, we focus on three key issues. First, how a taken-for-granted ‘logic of nationalism’ underlies discussions about which athletes should (not) represent Britain. Second, how the nation’s boundaries are discursively marked with reference to a range of everyday features. Third, the use of different ‘destigmatisation strategies’ by athletes caught up in the ‘Plastic Brits’ debate

Media events and cosmopolitan fandom:"Playful nationalism' in the Eurovision Song Contest

Academic literature on media events is increasingly concerned with their global dimensions and the applicability of Dayan and Katz's (1992) theoretical concept in a post-national context. This paper contributes to this debate by exploring the Eurovision Song Contest as a global media event. In particular, we employ a perspective from 'inside the media event', drawing upon empirical material collected during the 2014 Eurovision final in Copenhagen and focusing on the experiences of fans attending the contest. We argue that the ESC as a media event is experienced by its fans as a cosmopolitan space, open and diverse, whereas national belonging is expressed in a playful way tied to the overall visual aesthetics of the contest. However, the bounded and narrow character of participation render this cosmopolitan space rather limited

‘Team GB’ or ‘Team Scotland’? Media representations of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ at London 2012 and Glasgow 2014

This article critically reflects upon media coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, scrutinising the emergent discursive constructions of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ through an examination of both London-based (English) and Scotland-based publications. Drawing upon Dayan and Katz’s (1992) portrayal of ‘media events’, the article explores how both events presented competing sites of symbolic struggle during a period of constitutional and political turmoil. Consideration is given to the existence of a ‘hegemonic Britishness’ in print media narratives of these events, as evident in the emergent connotations associated with ‘British nationalism’ and ‘Scottish separatism’

Reviews and bibliographical notices

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A triple carboxylic acid-functionalized RAFT agent platform for the elaboration of well-defined telechelic 3-arm star PDMAc

This communication describes the synthesis of a triple acid-functionalized RAFT agent and its use to prepare well-defined 3-arm star polymers of N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAc). A simple esterification reaction allowed the convenient integration of three electron-rich naphthalene recognition units on the RAFT agent platform and subsequently the elaboration of a naphthalene end-decorated telechelic 3-arm star PDMAc. This functionalized star polymer was further exploited to build a hydrogel with a complementary homoditopic host unit featuring tetracationic macrocycle cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene) units

Chain transfer kinetics of acid/base switchable n-aryl- n-pyridyl dithiocarbamate RAFT agents in methyl acrylate, n-vinylcarbazole and vinyl acetate polymerization

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by American Chemistry Society in Macromolecules on 14/05/2012, available online: https://doi.org/10.1021/ma300616g ©American Chemical Society. The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.The structures of the "Z" and "R" substituents of a RAFT agent (Z-C(S)S-R) determine a RAFT agent's ability to control radical polymerization. In this paper we report new acid/base switchable N-aryl-N-pyridyl dithiocarbamates (R = -CH 2CN, Z = -N(Py)(Ar)) which vary in substituent at the 4-position of the aryl ring and the use of these to control molecular weight and dispersity. In their protonated form, the new RAFT agents are more effective in controlling polymerization of the more activated monomer, methyl acrylate (MA), whereas in their neutral form they provide more effective control of the polymerization of less activated monomers, N-vinyl carbazole (NVC) and vinyl acetate (VAc). For each polymerization, the apparent chain transfer coefficient (C trapp) shows a good correlation with Hammett parameters. Dithiocarbamates with more electron-withdrawing aryl ring substituents have the higher C trapp. This demonstrates the influence of polar effects on C trapp and supports the hypothesis that the activity of these RAFT agents is determined by the availability of the lone pair of the dithiocarbamate nitrogen.The authors gratefully acknowledge the Capability Development Fund of CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering for financial support.Published versio

Side-chain supramolecular polymers employing conformer independent triple hydrogen bonding arrays

Derivatives of thymine have been extensively used to promote supramolecular materials assembly. Such derivatives can be synthetically challenging to access and may be susceptible to degradation. The current article uses a conformer-independent acceptor-donor-acceptor array (ureidopyrimidine) which forms moderate affinity interactions with diamidopyridine derivatives to effect supramolecular blend formation between polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) polymers obtained by RAFT which have been functionalized with the hydrogen bonding motifs

Review of the genus Pleurotroppopsis Girault (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) with interspecific phylogenetic relationships based on morphological characters

Cao, Huan-Xi, Dale-Skey, Natalie, Burwell, Chris J., Zhu, Chao-Dong (2022): Review of the genus Pleurotroppopsis Girault (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) with interspecific phylogenetic relationships based on morphological characters. Zootaxa 5190 (4): 451-484, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5190.4.