The new trans-national politics of LGBT human rights in the Commonwealth: what can UK NGOs learn from the global South?

How should struggles for decriminalisation, human rights and equality in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity be taken forward? The chapter discusses this issue in a context where the British Empire’s legal legacy of criminalisation persists in most Commonwealth states. The chapter examines contemporary relationships between activisms in Britain and in those states, in the context of colonialism, imperialism and sexual nationalisms. The new London-based transnational politics of decriminalisation is analysed, led by NGOs such as Kaleidoscope, Human Dignity Trust, Peter Tatchell Foundation and Stonewall - increasingly seeking influence through the Commonwealth. The chapter then compares findings from this analysis of UK-based NGOs to themes from the findings of previous cross-national comparative analysis of struggles in Commonwealth states, and hence argues that UK activists have much to learn from the Global South. For example, African activists have criticised moves to link LGBT human rights to British development aid. Caribbean activists emphasise that regional international strategising existed prior to London-based transnational legal interventions; and the Voices Against 377 coalition in India suggests much to learn about innovative formation of alliances among social movements. The chapter thus presents a critical analysis of the new London-based transnational politics of LGBT human rights

A paradise, what an idea! Defending the English council estate

This paper highlights my research on the Middlefield Lane council estate in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, which was completed in 1965. The estate was the product of post-World War Two local and central government policy to provide new housing for working-class families, and of progressive, modernist, ideas in architecture and planning. ‘Progress’, however, has not been kind to council estates like Middlefield, which has been subject to a process of planned neglect, driven by disinvestment and decreasing support for the social democratic ideals of the welfare state. Strident critiques of the design and planning of the council estate from both media and academic sources have also underpinned a routinely negative view of these places to the point where they are routinely and stereotypically viewed as outdated, rundown and almost worthless. In contrast, this paper will celebrate the council estate. Through the examination of a number of overlooked physical details of the Middlefield Lane estate as it was originally planned and developed, the paper will call into question some of the criticisms that have been made of estates like this. By mixing architectural history, social history and, in particular, first-hand memories of the estate, the paper will show that it was a carefully planned environment with a rich and meaningful history and meaning of its own. In the final analysis, it will be argued that the estate was a model of the progressive optimism of the post-war decades, and that the deeper study of these estates can counteract the prevailing view that they are emblematic of a social democratic experiment that was, and still is, set up to fail

Darkness terrible in its own nature; Turner's Sublime in the common heathlands of South East London c.1796-7

When Viscount Torrington in 1791 described an expanse of common waste land in Lincolnshire as a ‘staring, black moor … a wild, dreary prospect’, it is understandable that this type of landscape could genuinely provoke a sense of threat and danger. This paper will examine some contemporary visual equivalents to Torrington’s description, JMW Turner’s dark and dense watercolour sketches of the common heathlands of Blackheath and Lewisham. On the face of it, these sketches appear to be typical products of a traditional view of Turner and his work: as an artist of the Sublime, and of a Romantic temperament. This paper will argue that these sketches were actually the product of a more conventional personal and artistic development, and will analyse them in relation to contemporary accounts of common heath and waste, and the more prosaic context of late eighteenth century urban development on the fringes of London. The paper will therefore consider some parameters of Romanticism – that while these sketches certainly accord with Burke’s typology of the Sublime via the experience of ‘darkness’, ‘privation’ and so on, they only accidentally evoke a modish and somewhat vicarious Sublime ‘thrill’ that could conveniently and safely be found in a very local and quite domesticated setting

The shepherd on the hill: comparative notes on English and German romantic landscape painting 1810-1831

The solitary figure in the landscape can be understood in relation to certain, fundamentally Romantic traits – solitude, contemplation, oneness with nature – and is most notably found in the work of Caspar David Friedrich. Less recognised however is the fact that the solitary figure can also be found in the landscape paintings of many English artists of the early nineteenth century, particularly within depictions of commonly held pastoral landscapes. Within the traditional terms of English art history, the landscape genre of this period has also been closely associated with the concept of Romanticism. This paper will study the use of the solitary figure in paintings of open, common field landscape, and will compare two paintings: Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘Landscape with Rainbow (The Shepherd’s Complaint)’ of 1810, and John Sell Cotman’s ‘The Shepherd on the Hill’ of 1831. It will examine the more conventional Romantic resonances of Friedrich’s painting in order to question whether Cotman’s shepherd is a comparative example of Romantic solitude and contemplation, or whether it was more of a prosaic image of a typically English ‘rustic type’ at a time when a particular sense of national identity was emerging that was closely associated with the countryside and country life. From there, it is hoped that we can begin to reconsider the conventional Romantic image of English landscape painting in the first three decades of the nineteenth century

United Kingdom: changing political opportunity structures, policy success and continuing challenges for lesbian, gay and bisexual movements

No abstract available

Foreword

No abstract available

Induced Parity Violation in Odd Dimensions

One of the interesting features about field theories in odd dimensions is the induction of parity violating terms and well-defined {\em finite} topological actions via quantum loops if a fermion mass term is originally present and conversely. Aspects of this issue are illustrated for electrodynamics in 2+1 and 4+1 dimensions. (3 uuencoded Postscript Files are appended at the end of the TexFile.)Comment: 10 pages, UTAS-PHYS-94-0

Large space structures testing

There is considerable interest in the development of testing concepts and facilities that accurately simulate the pathologies believed to exist in future spacecraft. Both the Government and Industry have participated in the development of facilites over the past several years. The progress and problems associated with the development of the Large Space Structure Test Facility at the Marshall Flight Center are presented. This facility was in existence for a number of years and its utilization has run the gamut from total in-house involvement, third party contractor testing, to the mutual participation of other Government Agencies in joint endeavors