Pagans and Satan and Goths, Oh My: Dark Leisure as Communicative Agency and Communal Identity on the Fringes of the Modern Goth Scene

Goth music's cultural terrain has been extensively mapped in the first decade of this century. Through a dark leisure framework, the present article examines the way in which parts of the Goth scene embraced paganism and, latterly, Satanism, as actual practices and ontologies of belief. Ethnographic research and case studies on paganism and Satanism in Goth subcultures are used. This paper argues that being a pagan or Satanist in the fringes of the Goth scene is a way of using dark leisure to resist, usefully and meaningfully, the fashionable but instrumental globalised choice of mainstream popular culture

What’s the Difference: A Study of the Nature and Extent of Racism in Rugby League

At the start of the 1993/4 season the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) and the Professional Footballers' Association launched the 'Let's Kick Racism Out of Football' campaign which subsequently gained the support of the Football Association, the FA Premier, the Endsleigh League and the Football Trust (CRE/PFA, 1994). That campaign led to discussions between the Rugby Football League (RFL), Leeds City Council and the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) with a view to taking action to address racism in rugby league. Some sports though have become renowned as being sites for racialist confrontations, most notably football, as recorded in Hill's (1989) account of John Barnes' experiences and Holland's (1994) work on the terraces at Newcastle, Leeds and Bolton. General impressions suggested that the position in rugby league was not as bad as in football, but racist abuse and occasional incidents of banana throwing and monkey chants have all been recorded at rugby league matches. Concern about racism at matches has also been expressed recently in the letters pages of the rugby league press and players have talked about their own experiences on television. Since we live in a racist society it would be remarkable if there was no evidence of racism in sport. Nonetheless, as the National Governing Body of the sport, the RFL recognised that this was not a reason for taking no action if it were demonstrated that there are cases of racism in rugby league. However, before embarking on direct action it was decided that information was needed on the nature and extent of racism within the game. To that end Leeds Metropolitan University was asked to survey attitudes and it was agreed that this investigation should have three main components: a) the attitudes of the clubs b) the attitudes of (black and white) players c) the attitudes of spectators At this stage we have been concerned only with the professional game, thou

Determination of Structural Characteristics of Old-Growth Forest in Ukraine Using Spaceborne LiDAR

A forest’s structure changes as it progresses through developmental stages from establishment to old-growth forest. Therefore, the vertical structure of old-growth forests will differ from that of younger, managed forests. Free, publicly available spaceborne Laser Range and Detection (LiDAR) data designed for the determination of forest structure has recently become available through NASA’s General Ecosystem and Development Investigation (GEDI). We use this data to investigate the structure of some of the largest remaining old-growth forests in Europe in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. We downloaded 18489 cloud-free shots in the old-growth forest (OGF) and 20398 shots in adjacent non-OGF areas during leaf-on, snow-free conditions. We found significant differences between OGF and non-OGF over a wide range of structural metrics. OGF was significantly more open, with a more complex vertical structure and thicker ground-layer vegetation. We used Random Forest classification on a range of GEDI-derived metrics to classify OGF shapefiles with an accuracy of 73%. Our work demonstrates the use of spaceborne LiDAR for the identification of old-growth forests

Synergistic Use of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 to Map Natural Forest and Acacia Plantation and Stand Ages in North-Central Vietnam

Many remote sensing studies do not distinguish between natural and planted forests. We combine C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (Sentinel-1, S-1) and optical satellite imagery (Sentinel-2, S-2) and examine Random Forest (RF) classification of acacia plantations and natural forest in North-Central Vietnam. We demonstrate an ability to distinguish plantation from natural forest, with overall classification accuracies of 87% for S-1, and 92.5% and 92.3% for S-2 and for S-1 and S-2 combined respectively. We found that the ratio of the Short-Wave Infrared Band to the Red Band proved most effective in distinguishing acacia from natural forest. We used RF on S-2 imagery to classify acacia plantations into 6 age classes with an overall accuracy of 70%, with young plantation consistently separated from older. However, accuracy was lower at distinguishing between the older age classes. For both distinguishing plantation and natural forest, and determining plantation age, a combination of radar and optical imagery did nothing to improve classification accuracy

Nazi Punks Folk Off: Leisure, Nationalism, Cultural Identity and the Consumption of Metal and Folk Music

Far-right activists have attempted to infiltrate and use popular music scenes to propagate their racialised ideologies. This paper explores attempts by the far right to co-opt two particular music scenes: black metal and English folk. Discourse tracing is used to explore online debates about boundaries, belonging and exclusion in the two scenes, and to compare such online debates with ethnographic work and previous research. It is argued that both scenes have differently resisted the far right through the policing of boundaries and communicative choices, but both scenes are compromised by their relationship to myths of whiteness and the instrumentality of the pop music industry

Khat-chewing, Moral Spacing and Belonging: Sociological Insights into the Cultural Space of the mafrish in the Leisure Lives of Older and Middle-aged British-Somali Males

This paper explores the relationship between khat-chewing and feelings of collective sociality amongst older and middle-aged men living in Britain's Somali diaspora. The research's core investigates the feeling of moral connectivity, a sense of belonging with others based around a shared reading of Somali-British identity. Here, the paper explores how the leisure practice of khat-chewing in the space of the mafrish symbolises this sense of belonging through promoting conventional understandings of Somaliness, connected to traditional readings of masculinity and identity. While such leisure is understood to offer a site of collective belonging for the older and middle-aged men who chew khat, it is also explored how khat-chewing creates conflicts, particularly amongst those who question the 'imagined community' constructed in such spaces. The analyses highlight how this leisure practice fractures families and the broader community, instigating a feeling of cultural dissonance amongst women and some youth, problematising the cultural foundations of identity and community constructed in khat-chewing sessions

The impact of COVID-19 control measures on air quality in China

The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China in January 2020 prompted substantial control measures including social distancing measures, suspension of public transport and industry, and widespread cordon sanitaires ('lockdowns'), that have led to a decrease in industrial activity and air pollution emissions over a prolonged period. We use a 5 year dataset from China's air quality monitoring network to assess the impact of control measures on air pollution. Pollutant concentration time series are decomposed to account for the inter-annual trend, seasonal cycles and the effect of Lunar New Year, which coincided with the COVID-19 outbreak. Over 2015–2019, there were significant negative trends in particulate matter (PM2.5, −6% yr−1) and sulphur dioxide (SO2, −12% yr−1) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2, −2.2% yr−1) whereas there were positive trends in ozone (O3, + 2.8% yr−1). We quantify the change in air quality during the LNY holiday week, during which pollutant concentrations increase on LNY's day, followed by reduced concentrations in the rest of the week. After accounting for interannual trends and LNY we find NO2 and PM concentrations were significantly lower during the lockdown period than would be expected, but there were no significant impacts on O3. Largest reductions occurred in NO2, with concentrations 27.0% lower on average across China, during the lockdown. Average concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 across China were respectively 10.5% and 21.4% lower during the lockdown period. The largest reductions were in Hubei province, where NO2 concentrations were 50.5% lower than expected during the lockdown. Concentrations of affected pollutants returned to expected levels during April, after control measures were relaxed

Negotiations of minority ethnic rugby league players in the Cathar country of France

This article is based on new empirical, qualitative research with minority ethnic rugby league players in the southwest of France. Drawing on similar research on rugby league in the north and the south of England, the article examines how rugby league, traditionally viewed as a white, working-class male game (Collins, 2006; Denham, 2004; Spracklen, 1995, 2001) has had to re-imagine its symbolic boundaries as they are constituted globally and locally to accommodate the needs of players from minority ethnic backgrounds. In particular, the article examines the sense in which experiences of minority ethnic rugby league players in France compare with those of their counterparts in England (Spracklen, 2001, 2007), how rugby league is used in France to construct identity, and in what sense the norms associated with the imaginary community of rugby league are replicated or challenged by the involvement of minority ethnic rugby league players in France. Questions about what it means to be (provincial, national) French (Kumar, 2006) are posed, questions that relate to the role of sport in the construction of Frenchness, and in particular the role of rugby league (and union). © Copyright ISSA and SAGE Publications

Managing and monitoring equality and diversity in UK sport: An evaluation of the sporting equals Racial Equality Standard and its impact on organizational change

Despite greater attention to racial equality in sport in recent years, the progress of national sports organizations toward creating equality of outcomes has been limited in the United Kingdom. The collaboration of the national sports agencies, equity organizations and national sports organizations (including national governing bodies of sport) has focused on Equality Standards. The authors revisit an earlier impact study of the Racial Equality Standard in sport and supplement it with another round of interview material to assess changing strategies to manage diversity in British sport. In particular, it tracks the impact on organizational commitment to diversity through the period of the establishment of the Racial Equality Standard and its replacement by an Equality Standard that deals with other diversity issues alongside race and ethnicity. As a result, the authors question whether the new, generic Equality Standard is capable of addressing racial diversity and promoting equality of outcomes. © 2006 Sage Publications

Pollutant emission reductions deliver decreased PM₂.₅-caused mortality across China during 2015-2017

Air pollution is a serious environmental issue and leading contributor to the disease burden in China. Rapid reductions in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and increased ozone concentrations have occurred across China, during 2015 to 2017. We used measurements of particulate matter with a diameter  1000 stations across China along with Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) regional air quality simulations, to explore the drivers and impacts of observed trends. The measured nationwide median PM2.5 trend of −3.4 µg m−3 year−1, was well simulated by the model (−3.5 µg m−3 year−1). With anthropogenic emissions fixed at 2015-levels, the simulated trend was much weaker (−0.6 µg m−3 year−1), demonstrating interannual variability in meteorology played a minor role in the observed PM2.5 trend. The model simulated increased ozone concentrations in line with the measurements, but underestimated the magnitude of the observed absolute trend by a factor of 2. We combined simulated trends in PM2.5 concentrations with an exposure-response function to estimate that reductions in PM2.5 concentrations over this period have reduced PM2.5-attribrutable premature morality across China by 150 000  deaths year−1