Gendered Harm and Structural Violence in the British Asylum System

Britain is often heralded as a country in which the rights and welfare of survivors of conflict and persecution are well embedded, and where the standard of living conditions for those seeking asylum is relatively high. Drawing on a decade of activism and research in the North West of England, this book contends that, on the contrary, conditions are often structurally violent. For survivors of gendered violence, harm inflicted throughout the process of seeking asylum can be intersectional and compound the impacts of previous experiences of violent continuums. The everyday threat of detention and deportation; poor housing and inadequate welfare access; and systemic cuts to domestic and sexual violence support all contribute to a temporal limbo which limits women’s personal autonomy and access to basic human rights. By reflecting on evidence from interviews, focus groups, activist participation and oral history, Gendered Harm and Structural Violence provides a unique insight into the everyday impacts of policy and practice that arguably result in the infliction of further gendered harms on survivors of violence and persecution

Shaping your department's success: an audit tool for language departments in higher education

Shaping a successful future for languages means shaping a successful future for language departments. This audit is designed to help staff form a holistic view of the strengths and weaknesses of their department with particular attention to 1) Institutional context and strategy, 2) Research, 3) Teaching and learning, 4) Curriculum, 5) Public engagement and 6) Staff roles and staff development. The tool helps to identify where action is needed and assists in developing an action plan to address weaknesses and consolidate existing strengths. The audit can be used by individuals as a managerial tool, but it is better suited to being used a discussion document in a group exercis

“Easy to chronicle, bewildering to practice”: E.M. Forster

Lighthearted contribution to an online blog recording biographers' views as to how their subject would experience the present day. Focuses on English novelist E.M. Forster

New York City Boy: a conversation with Edmund White

Interview with American gay novelist, biographer, memoirist and author Edmund White on the publication of his memoir City Bo

Who’s human? Developing sociological understandings of the rights of women raped in conflict

International approaches to human rights have, until recently, largely overlooked the experiences of women in conflict, displacement and crisis. Although women's human rights are progressing on paper, rape and sexual violence continues at mass levels in conflict and civil unrest with few consequences for perpetrators and very little emphasis on preventions. Sociology has itself been slow to engage in discourses around human rights, and even slower progress has been made in developing sociological understandings of gender and human rights. This contribution argues that overlooking gendered inequalities leaves the violation of women at the bottom of a priority list regarding international humanitarian law, and that sociological approaches highlighting and challenging women's subordination may support prevention and conviction at localised and international levels

Bimetallic devices for stirring fluids

Device consists of helical heating coil inside cylinder and affixed at one end. Piston is fastened at other end and is free to move axially through cylinder. Electrical power extends coil when applied to conductors. Bimetallic stirrer may also be made in vane form

Shock-layer radiation measurement

Method and apparatus for measuring shock layer radiation distribution about high velocity object

Bimetallic fluid displacement apparatus

Stirring and heating stored gases and liquids is accomplished by using the deformation of a bimetallic structure which deforms significantly when heated. The deformation is used to effect gradual or impulsive motion of a piston, vane, wire, or diaphram for displacement of the fluid. The heated bimetallic is also employed for heating the stored fluid

The application of network analysis to assess the structure and function of aquatic food webs : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

The health of aquatic communities is under threat globally by anthropogenic impacts. A healthy ecological community is one that maintains its structure and function over time in the face of disturbance (i.e., they are stable). If we are to effectively monitor change in ecological health and instigate appropriate environmental management responses, then we first need to measure ecological health appropriately. Most methods of indicating ecological health in rivers measure structural aspects of a community, with little attention given to functional aspects. Ecological network analysis (ENA) provides a range of food web metrics that can measure both structural and functional aspects of ecological communities. The aim of this thesis was to apply ENA metrics to assess the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems and explore how they may change with habitat. In a general comparison of aquatic ecosystems, I found that rivers, lakes and estuaries have structurally similar food webs, except have lower neighbourhood connectivity which is reminiscent of unstable habitats. Through species extinction simulations of aquatic energy flow networks, I showed that aquatic food webs were most stable when trophic cascades were weak and average trophic levels were small. In examining the effects of riparian deforestation in Taranaki rivers, dietary changes altered the structure of riverine macroinvertebrate communities considerably and drove greater community respiration. In the Hutt River, I modelled changes in the biomass of trout (exotic predator) and periphyton, and showed that more periphyton, but not more trout, can result in greater community temporal variability. Furthermore, increased trout and periphyton can drive more interspecific competition. I also demonstrated the need for managers to consider the impacts of decisions on adjacent ecosystems as well as target ecosystem by showing that the Hutt River and Wellington Harbour respond substantially different to increases in algal biomass. Finally in rivers differing in nutrient enrichment the Manawatu, I showed that food webs in enriched rivers may be more stable to random species loss but more susceptible to species loss from floods. Similarly to riparian deforestation, highly enriched rivers had greater community respiration (excluding microbial activity), which may exacerbate hypoxic conditions and drive the loss of sensitive species

Valuing Lives Equally and Welfare Economics

Welfare economics, in the form of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, is at present internally inconsistent and ethically unappealing. We address these issues by proposing two ethical axioms: society prefers Pareto improvements and society values lives lived at a "standard" level of health and income equally. We show that there exists a unique social preference ordering satisfying these axioms. Welfare economics is reconstructed to produce rankings consistent with this social preference ordering. The result is we should always measure willingness to pay in life years, not money units. A standardized life year becomes an interpersonally comparable unit of value.aging, health, welfare economics