Space to participate : children’s rights and the Scottish town planning system

Children are often excluded or marginalised in public space, but it is increasingly recognised that this denies them certain rights enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). In particular, a child’s right to be heard in matters that affect them (Article 12), and the right to play, rest, leisure and access to cultural life (Article 31). The UK ratified this convention in 1991, but it has not yet fed through into the range of policy measure that may affect children, and amongst these is the town planning system in Scotland. This research examines what children’s rights mean for the town planning system, and how it can move towards a child-rights informed practice, focusing on middle childhood (ages 6-12). It takes a rights-based framework to conduct critical ethnographic participatory action research. This involves a live project around a local park restoration with children aged 9-12; interviews with professionals; and critical discourse analysis of policy. It finds that children in middle childhood are capable of participating in planning in a number of ways, but that planning research and practise are not well-placed, or supported at present, to do so. By bringing insights from other disciplines, empirical work, and analysis, the thesis ends by suggesting ways to make the participation of children in place and process more achievable in Scotland

Stepping outside normative neoliberal discourse: youth and disability meet – the case of Jody McIntyre

In May 2010, amidst the ‘global financial crisis’ a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government succeeded a 12-year reign of New Labour in the United Kingdom, and ushered in massive welfare cuts. Although New Labour tabled major welfare and disability benefit reform, they arguably did not activate the harshest of these. This paper focuses on the backlash of youth and disability in the form of demonstrations; two groups that are being hit hard by the political shift to work-first welfare in an era of employment scarcity. The case of young disabled activist Jody McIntyre is used to explore parallels and divergences in neoliberal and ‘populist’ discourses of ‘risky’, troubling’ youth and disability

BGS Groundhog® desktop Geoscientific Information System external user manual

BGS Groundhog is a software platform developed by the British Geological Survey (BGS) for the management and display of subsurface geological information. There are two main components; 1. BGS Groundhog Web 2. BGS Groundhog Desktop GSIS This user manual relates specifically to the Desktop GSIS component of the platform. The software is available under the UK’s Open Government Licence, which means the software is free to use, exploit and re-distribute for academic, personal, research or commercial purposes, subject to the terms of the UK’s Open Government Licence. Groundhog Desktop is intended as a basic GeoScientific Information System (GSIS*) – a software tool which facilitates the collation, display, filtering and editing of a range of data relevant to subsurface interpretation and modelling. It has been developed by the Modelling Systems software development team, with help and advice being provided by Holger Kessler, Steve Mathers and Ricky Terrington. This manual provides information on the use of the software for external clients

Metadata Deep Dive: Results from a Detailed Quality Assessment of NASA's Earth Observation Metadata

No abstract availabl

First, Do No Harm: Ideas for Mitigating Negative Community Impacts of Short-Term Study Abroad

This article presents the results from a research project on the host community impact of college students participating in university-sponsored international experiences. It ?nds that little reliable data is available on the impact that our students have on host communities. The article concludes that non-damaging international experiences require a substantial amount of planning, experienced group facilitation, and solid debrie?ng of students and community members. We recommend that geographers with a critical perspective and extensive foreign expertise should help guide the development of these experiences and urge their universities to screen study abroad for unintended negative outcomes on local communities

Homelessness prevention in the UK: policy briefing

There has been marked innovation and policy mobility1 on homelessness prevention since devolution. Using a five-category prevention typology (Universal, Targeted, Crisis, Emergency, Recovery) reveals how early developments in Scotland focused on Emergency Prevention - ensuring that all homeless people have an enforceable right to temporary accommodation. However, most effort has recently been expended on Crisis Prevention, whereby people at risk of homelessness within 56 days are assisted to remain or secure alternative accommodation. Legislative developments in Crisis Prevention in Wales and England have proved effective, albeit there is sometimes a gap between intentions of the law and current practice. Progress on Targeted Prevention with high-risk groups, such as those leaving prison, has been slower to develop across the UK. General homelessness risks have increased as a result of welfare reform and housing market pressures, undermining Universal Prevention. Single people sleeping rough or at risk often remain poorly protected, but there are promising policy initiatives underway, especially on Recovery Preventio