Birmingham Stories: local histories of migration and settlement and the practice of history

Over the last decade research on the history of ethnic minority migrant communities in Birmingham and the West Midlands has grown with investigations looking at postwar migration and settlement; ‘race’ thinking and racism; social movements and community activists; faith communities; national identity; issues of surveillance; the local state; public histories and narratives of the city; urban histories and sources; and visual evidence and history. Much of this research has been matched by the presentation of a sustained argument for new narratives of the city’s (and by implication the nation’s) history which recognizes that there is a need for a radical transformation of social memory in order to better reflect the cultural diversity and difference that is a part of everyday lived reality. This article aims to do two things: first to summarise research to date on the ethnic minority history of Birmingham and to locate it within a historiography that goes back to Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (1938); and second to look at the nature of the historical practice associated with writing local histories of migration and settlement and by doing so to relate this practice to Edward Said’s (2003) idea of ‘communities of interpretation’ and the role of historians in contemporary society

Exploring supplementary education: margins, theories and methods.

Existing knowledge of supplementary education, that is education organised and run by political, faith or ethnic groups outside of formal schooling, is patchy. This article is an exploration of the histories of supplementary education in the twentieth century. It is organised into three sections. \ud The article begins by reviewing some existing literature and argues that supplementary education has been a topic of marginal concern for social historians, sociologists and historians of education. This marginal status has often been reflected in the way in which a dominant account of the history of supplementary education has entered the research literature despite a rather selective evidential base. The second section of the article deploys an expansive definition of education, and presents some new historical evidence concerning African Caribbean and Irish supplementary education. A final arguments section reflects on the significance of supplementary education and suggestions some topics for a future research agenda.\u

Information geometry in quantum field theory: lessons from simple examples

Motivated by the increasing connections between information theory and high-energy physics, particularly in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, we explore the information geometry associated to a variety of simple systems. By studying their Fisher metrics, we derive some general lessons that may have important implications for the application of information geometry in holography. We begin by demonstrating that the symmetries of the physical theory under study play a strong role in the resulting geometry, and that the appearance of an AdS metric is a relatively general feature. We then investigate what information the Fisher metric retains about the physics of the underlying theory by studying the geometry for both the classical 2d Ising model and the corresponding 1d free fermion theory, and find that the curvature diverges precisely at the phase transition on both sides. We discuss the differences that result from placing a metric on the space of theories vs. states, using the example of coherent free fermion states. We compare the latter to the metric on the space of coherent free boson states and show that in both cases the metric is determined by the symmetries of the corresponding density matrix. We also clarify some misconceptions in the literature pertaining to different notions of flatness associated to metric and non-metric connections, with implications for how one interprets the curvature of the geometry. Our results indicate that in general, caution is needed when connecting the AdS geometry arising from certain models with the AdS/CFT correspondence, and seek to provide a useful collection of guidelines for future progress in this exciting area.Comment: 36 pages, 2 figures; added new section and appendix, miscellaneous improvement

An Action for Extended String Newton-Cartan Gravity

We construct an action for four-dimensional extended string Newton-Cartan gravity which is an extension of the string Newton-Cartan gravity that underlies nonrelativistic string theory. The action can be obtained as a nonrelativistic limit of the Einstein-Hilbert action in General Relativity augmented with a term that contains an auxiliary two-form and one-form gauge field that both have zero flux on-shell. The four-dimensional extended string Newton-Cartan gravity is based on a central extension of the algebra that underlies string Newton-Cartan gravity. The construction is similar to the earlier construction of a three-dimensional Chern-Simons action for extended Newton-Cartan gravity, which is based on a central extension of the algebra that underlies Newton-Cartan gravity. We show that this three-dimensional action is naturally obtained from the four-dimensional action by a reduction over the spatial isometry direction longitudinal to the string followed by a truncation of the extended string Newton-Cartan gravity fields. Our construction can be seen as a special case of the construction of an action for extended p-brane Newton-Cartan gravity in p+3 dimensions.Comment: 16 pages; v2: references added; v3: 18 pages, published versio

The Supply Side Effects of Climate Change on Tourism

Assuming nothing is done to address greenhouse gas emissions, sea levels across the world are anticipated to rise by between 0.2m and 1m over this century. Higher sea levels can be particularly devastating to small states. It is expected that rising sea levels will result in coastal squeezing and the loss of their main tourist attraction, beach tourism. Climate change is also forecasted to result in more severe storm activity, which could also lead to flooding and damage from storm force winds. This study attempts to quantify the potential supply-side effects of climate change on tourism in the small island state of Barbados. Using a database of 181 hotels, a model is employed to evaluate the effects of coastal squeezing and storm activity on accommodation establishments.Climate Change; Tourism; Caribbean

Grosvenor House, London, Coronation Menu, 1953

https://arrow.tudublin.ie/menus/1019/thumbnail.jp

The School album: images, insights and inequalities = L'àlbum de l'escola: imatges, introspecció i desigualtats

Les fotografies, tal com Elisabeth Edwards va observar al seu article sobre la fotografia de Susan Meiselas, són «objectes culturals» fets per «projectar certs significats i provocar certs afectes». Tradicionalment, els historiadors que han treballat amb imatges han tingut interès, en general, a extreure'n l'evidència de la materialitat del passat, i això es pot portar a terme a través de mirar el que s'ha fet present en una imatge. No obstant això, el significat o els significats que se'n poden extreure sempre estan emmarcats en el context que les imatges mateixes proporcionen, i el fet d'observar sempre té una qualitat subjectiva que perfila les idees que es creen, en forma de diàleg, entre la imatge i els significats que se n'han construït amb posterioritat. A partir de les imatges d'un àlbum fotogràfic de l'escola Floodgate Street Infant School de Birmingham (Anglaterra), dels anys vint del segle XX, aquest breu assaig explora la naturalesa d'aquestes imatges, els seus significats amagats i la importància de contextualitzar- les. L'exploració visual d'aquestes imatges s'agrupa en quatre diferents categories de context: l'arxiu com un lloc de la memòria; la mirada experta; les tecnologies de l'exhibició; i la singularitat de la imatge. Aquest assaig també té en compte la idea de la «biografia social» d'una imatge i com la digitalització pot transformar imatges originals i els seus significats.Las fotografías, así como Elisabeth Edwards observó en su artículo sobre la fotografía de Susan Meiselas, son «objetos culturales» hechos para «proyectar ciertos significados y provoca ciertos afectos». Tradicionalmente, los historiadores que han trabajado con imágenes han tenido interés, en general, en extraer la evidencia de la materialidad del pasado, y esto se puede llevar a cabo a través de mirar lo que se hace presente en una imagen. Sin embargo, el significado o significados que se pueden extraer están siempre enmarcados en el contexto que ellas mismas proporcionan, y el hecho de observar siempre tiene una cualidad subjetiva que perfila las ideas que se crean, en forma de diálogo, entre la imagen y los significados que se han construido con posterioridad. A partir de las imágenes de un álbum fotográfico de la escuela Floodgate Street Infant School de Birmingham (Inglaterra), de los años veinte, del siglo XX, este breve ensayo explora la naturaleza de estas imágenes, sus significados ocultos y la importancia de contextualizarlas. La exploración visual de estas imágenes se agrupa en cuatro diferentes categorías de contexto: el archivo como un lugar de la memoria; la mirada experta; las tecnologías de la exhibición; y la singularidad de la imagen. Este ensayo también tiene en cuenta la idea de la biografía «social» de una imagen y como la digitalización puede transformar imágenes originales y sus significados.Photographs, as Elizabeth Edwards noted in her essay on the photography of Susan Meiselas, are «cultural objects», made to «project certain meanings and elicit certain affects». Traditionally, historians, when they have worked with photographs, have been generally concerned with extracting evidence about the materiality of the past. This is done by looking at what is made present in an image. However, the meaning[s] we take from photographs are always framed by the context in which we come upon them and looking always has a subjective quality which shapes the ideas that are formed in dialogue with an image and the meanings that are then constructed. Using a 1920s school photographic album of Floodgate Street Infant School from 1920s Birmingham, England this small essay will explore the nature of images, their hidden meanings and the importance of contextualizing the visual. This exploration of the visual is grouped around four different categories of context the archive as a site of memory; the knowing gaze; the technology of display; and the singularity of the image. The essay also considers the idea of the «social biography» of an image and how digitization can transform original images and their meaning