From Leadership to Growth: lessons learnt from the LEAD Wales and Leading Growth Programmes 2010-2015

The final report of the LEAD Wales and Leading Growth programmes 2010-2015

A Most Curious Lack of Curiosity: Global Unions as the Missing Link in Labour Movement Studies

This paper is based on the author’s contribution to ‘The Research Agenda for the Left Today’ panel held during the Society for Socialist Studies 2006 conference. It argues that, despite the recent renewal of academic interest in labour movements, there is a gap in contemporary research on organized labour around the existence of and potential future role for actually existing global trade unions. The purpose of this paper is to spark an interest amongst left academics in a future research project on the organizations which comprise the recently created Council of Global Unions, and in particular the recently created International Trade Union Confederation. After a brief introduction to the history of these organizations and an outline of their activities, the author offers a number of questions that may prove interesting for those concerned about the future direction of organized labour at the global level

A Global Picture of School Social Work in 2021

The article provides a global picture of school social work in 2021 using data gathered by the International Network for School Social Work. School social work is a growing specialty around the world. There are school social workers practicing in more than 50 countries. School social workers support students\u27 educational success, especially those who are marginalized by poverty, oppression, disability and other personal or social problems. Ideally school social workers practice within a multi-disciplinary team to address wide-ranging barriers to education and participate in preventive programs for all students. The article describes the growth of school social work around the world, various models of practice, the role of specialty professional associations, training and standards, and the growth of school social work literature. Changes in the role and practice of school social work since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020/2021 are included. International communication among school social workers has grown via publications, conferences and the International Network for School Social Work, and continues to assist expansion of the specialty around the world. Implications for the future of social work in education are discussed, a list of national school social work associations is provided and references include literature on school social work from various countries

O Arweinyddiaeth i dwf: Gwersi a ddysgwyd o raglenni LEAD Cymru ac Arwain Twf.

Adroddiad terfynol rhaglenni LEAD Cymru ac Arwain Twf 2010-201

Colour, seeing, and seeing colour in medieval literature

This thesis re-approaches medieval literature in terms of its investment in visuality in general and chromatic perception in particular. The introduction raises the philosophical problem off-colour: its status as an object for science, role in perception, and relationship to language and meaning as expressed within inter-subjective evaluation. Two modes of discourse for colour studies of medieval literature are proposed: the phenomenological (from the philosophical tradition of such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty) seeking localised networks and patterns of inter-subjective, embodied, perceptual meanings and values; and linguistic (informed by the philosophical psychology and language philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein), focusing on the lexicalisation of colour experience and creation of semantic distinctions corresponding with changing colour concepts, which in turn shape individual perceptions (both first-hand experience and that of reading). Part One introduces key medieval ideas and theories pertaining to visual perception in general, and chromatic perception in particular. The authority for, and influence on medieval writers of Plato's Timaeus, Aristotle's De Anima and Parva Naturalia, and relevant biblical material is considered. Subsequent chapters explore Patristic and Neo-Platonist developments in extramissive thought, locating within this tradition the roots of a synthesis of natural philosophy with Christian theology that is found in later medieval thought and its dealings with perception and colour. A key movement in the theology of light in relation to colour is connected to the wider philosophical movement from largely "extramissive" to largely "intromissive" models of perception. This shift in theory and its significance for colour perception is explained in terms of the impact of Aristotle's material colour theory as found in De anima and the De sensti et sensato section of his Parva Naturalia from the late twelfth century onwards. The part concludes with a detailed study of the nineteenth chapter of Bartholomaeus Anglicus's thirteenth-century encyclopedia, De Proprietatibus Rerum, which provides access to an important range of ideas and sources relevant for accessing the medieval mind in its intellectualized perception of colour. Lastly, such philosophical and theological sources and ideas as are found in Part One are compared with relevant examples from literary texts, ranging from the Middle English poem, The Parliament of the Three Ages, to Christine de Pisan's Le Livre de la Cite des Dames. Part Two treats colour perception in relation to a particular medieval phenomenon: the rise of medieval heraldry and the armorial function of the herald. It considers the spiritual and secular ideologies of chivalry and their relationship to armorial displays as found portrayed and construed in various genres of chivalric literature. Texts under discussion include books of chivalry and arms from the early thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, such as those principally indebted to New Testament armorial allegory and motif (from writers such as Ramon Llull to Geoffrey de Charny), to later fourteenth-century treatises employing Aristotle’s De sensu et sensato to establish a secular hierarchy of chivalric colours. The study culminates with Part Three, offering responses to and discussions of particular medieval fictions in terms of their phenomenological, linguistic and intertextual treatment of colour perception. Medieval texts addressed include, amongst others, Le Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, and four Middle English metrical romances: Sir Gowther, Sir Amadace, Sir Launfal and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight