Fields of struggle: a Bourdieusian analysis of conflicts over criminal justice in England, c. 1820-1850

The nineteenth century ‘revolution in government’, from which a dramatically altered relationship between central and local government emerged, is of central concern to social historians. This article uses the work of Pierre Bourdieu to analyse the struggles between the magistracy in Cheshire and the Home Office over the centralisation of prisons and policing between the 1820s and 1840s. During this period legislative enactments increased the role of central government in monitoring and overseeing administrative management in both areas and this produced both direct and indirect conflict. The article argues that Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘field’, ‘capital’ and ‘habitus’ provide a framework for analysing the changing relationship between central and local government which makes evident the effects of divisions between and within social classes and enables the varying nature of the course and outcome of conflicts to be understood. Overall the analysis demonstrates the potential of the approach to be used more widely to explore the changing relationship between central and local government in other areas of social policy

Penal heritage: approaches to interpretation

This briefing paper provides guidance to the heritage industry on the ethical interpretation of penal heritage. It has a primary focus on the UK because of the recent closure and sale of a number of former prison sites. The paper explores a number of issues in relation to penal heritage interpretation and closes with a case study outlining work done in relation to the former Canterbury prison site purchased by Canterbury Christ Church University in 2014. The briefing paper was produced as part of the 'Dark Tourism in Comparative Perspective: Sites of Suffering, Sites of Memory' project funded by AHRC and LABEX

Sustainable value and trade-offs: exploring situational logics and power relations in a UK brewery's malt supply network business model

Conceptualising firms from a business ecosystem, value-, or supply- network perspective captures the boundary-spanning nature of value creation. However, the relationship dynamics that enable or inhibit sustainable value creation, as well as the understanding of how to resolve trade-offs in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), need to be better understood. To explore these, we present a comparative case study of how situational logics and power relations are embedded in business models within a UK brewer and its malt supply chain. The exploratory case illustrates how network-centric business model innovation (BMI) resolves the trade-off between economic and environmental value through the prioritisation of sustainability-related ‘cultural’ resources. These findings suggest that organisations seeking to implement sustainable supply networks need to pay greater attention to how they use business model innovation to institutionalise situational logics that enable or inhibit sustainable value creation and resolve trade-offs

Criminology picks up the gauntlet: responses to the Whole Earth exhibition

The Whole Earth? exhibition (http://www.hardrainproject.com/) currently hosted by several institutions of higher learning in the UK, Scandinavia and Australia, including Canterbury Christ Church University. The exhibition comprises of over 60 meters of images and text, reflecting on the consequences of our unsustainable living practices but crucially also seeks solutions and ways to enact positive change by issuing ‘university challenges’ relating to various disciplines. Criminology/criminal justice, while not mentioned by name in the exhibition challenges, includes various theoretical approaches (e.g. critical criminology, zemiology, green criminology and public criminology) with clear sustainability links. More broadly, issues of inequality and injustice (and ways of addressing them) can be linked to the four areas of environmental, social, economic and cultural sustainability (UNESCO, 2005). Indeed, Agyeman and colleagues (2003: 3) note how “justice and sustainability are intimately linked and mutually interdependent, certainly at the problem level and increasingly at the solution level.” The project seeks to facilitate responses to the Whole Earth? exhibition hopefully moving toward concrete actions and behaviours. The more direct approach involves various reflective activities and focus groups, using the exhibition as a key stimulus to thinking about criminology/criminal justice links to sustainability and what the discipline and its students, both as a group and individually, can and should do. The ‘photo blogging’ activity allows students to draw the connections to their local context and encourages them to develop a ‘critical lens’ through which to view the issues of (in)justice and (in)sustainability in their own communities. This is particularly important as the exhibition images and text focus mostly on the developing world, the photo blogging The project adheres to and seeks to further Education for Sustainable Development approaches and principles (UNESCO, 2004; HEA/QAA, 2014). It is explicitly values-driven and collaborative (students as co-authors of any dissemination of results). It is authentic (i.e. relating to real-world issues and experiences) and locally relevant, facilitating interdisciplinary thinking and critical problem-solving. The project also provides an opportunity for experiential learning (particularly through photo blogging) and greater engagement of students with their local communities. This both links to and expands the formal curriculum and in so doing encourages critical reflection on sustainability and justice (ibid, Cotton & Winter, 2010; Willmore & Tweddell, 2014). The hoped for long-term impacts include increased awareness of sustainability and justice among students that will hopefully last beyond the University as well as assist in on-going efforts to embed sustainability into the curriculum

Understanding customers' holistic perception of switches in automotive human–machine interfaces

For successful new product development, it is necessary to understand the customers' holistic experience of the product beyond traditional task completion, and acceptance measures. This paper describes research in which ninety-eight UK owners of luxury saloons assessed the feel of push-switches in five luxury saloon cars both in context (in-car) and out of context (on a bench). A combination of hedonic data (i.e. a measure of ‘liking’), qualitative data and semantic differential data was collected. It was found that customers are clearly able to differentiate between switches based on the degree of liking for the samples' perceived haptic qualities, and that the assessment environment had a statistically significant effect, but that it was not universal. A factor analysis has shown that perceived characteristics of switch haptics can be explained by three independent factors defined as ‘Image’, ‘Build Quality’, and ‘Clickiness’. Preliminary steps have also been taken towards identifying whether existing theoretical frameworks for user experience may be applicable to automotive human–machine interfaces

Scattering and Iron Fluorescence Revealed During Absorption Dips in Circinus X-1

We show that dramatic spectral evolution associated with dips occurring near phase zero in RXTE observations of Cir X-1 is well-fit by variable and at times heavy absorption (N_H > 10^24 cm^-2) of a bright component, plus an underlying faint component which is not attenuated by the variable column and whose flux is ~10% of that of the unabsorbed bright component. A prominent Fe emission line at ~6.5 keV is evident during the dips. The absolute line flux outside the dips is similar to that during the dips, indicating that the line is associated with the faint component. These results are consistent with a model in which the bright component is radiation received directly from a compact source while the faint component may be attributed to scattered radiation. Our results are also generally consistent with those of Brandt et al., who found that a partial- covering model could explain ASCA spectra of a low-to-high transition in Cir X-1. The relative brightness of the two components in our model requires a column density of ~2*10^23 cm^-2 if the faint component is due to Thomson scattering in material that mostly surrounds the source. We find that illumination of such a scattering cloud by the observed direct component would produce an Fe K-alpha fluorescence flux that is in rough agreement with the flux of the observed emission line. We also conclude that if the scattering medium is not highly ionized, our line of sight to the compact source does not pass through it. Finally, we discuss simple pictures of the absorbers responsible for the dips themselves.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (23 pages, including 11 figures

Expanding the Applicability of Press-Brake-Formed Tub Girders Through the Extension of the Maximum Span Length and the Evaluation of Pier Continuity

The Short Span Steel Bridge Alliance (SSSBA) is a group of bridge and buried soil steel structure industry leaders who provide educational information on the design and construction of short-span steel bridges in installations up to 140 feet in length. Within the SSSBA technical working group, a modular, shallow press-brake-formed tub girder (PBFTG) was developed to address the demand in the short-span steel bridge market for rapid infrastructure replacement solutions. PBFTGs consist of modular, shallow, trapezoidal boxes fabricated from cold-bent structural steel plate. A concrete deck, or other deck option, may be placed on the girder, and the modular unit can be shipped by truck to the bridge site. PBFTGs perform exceptionally well in simply supported, right, straight bridges utilizing current American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials Load Resistance and Factor Design Bridge Design Specifications’ (AASHTO LRFD BDS) Live Load Distribution Factors (LLDFs). The specifications limit the use of PBFTGs outside of these scenarios, despite the expectation they would perform well in a variety of other situations. More research and data are necessary to validate the current limitations in the AASHTO LRFD BDS and increase the applicability of PBFTGs into continuous spans and skewed bridges. The scope of this project was to expand the applicability and usability of the PBFTG system. This was performed in several stages. First, a complete understanding and background of PBFTGs, LLDFs, box-girder capacity determinations, link slabs, and the AASHTO LRFD BDS was provided. This understanding and background of the restrictions placed on PBFTGs provided insight when developing the methodologies to overcome these restrictions. Next, analytical modeling techniques were developed and refined utilizing complicated geometry and nonlinear finite element methods. These modeling techniques were benchmarked against numerous historical laboratory tests and live load field tests of in-service PBFTG bridges. Then, the analytical tools were employed in sensitivity and parametric studies on PBFTG bridge models, resulting in proposed simplified empirical LLDFs, which better predict live load distribution than those equations present in the AASHTO LRFD BDS. These tools were also used to assess the effect of bearing line skew on the capacity of PBFTGs. Finally, life cycle laboratory fatigue testing was performed on two PBFTGs joined by a full-scale link slab to assess the applicability of the joint in continuous PBFTG bridges. Results of this project demonstrate the use of PBFTGs can be expanded into continuous spans using link slabs and more accurate LLDFs may be used to increase the economic viability of the system in the short-span bridge market. In addition, the analytical tools developed during this study relating to the capacity of skewed PBFTGs will serve as the basis for future research in this field

Fatigue Performance of Uncoated and Galvanized Composite Press-Brake-Formed Tub Girders

The Short Span Steel Bridge Alliance (SSSBA) is a group of bridge and culvert industry leaders (including steel manufacturers, fabricators, service centers, coaters, researchers, and representatives of related associations and government organizations) who have joined together to provide educational information on the design and construction of short span steel bridges in installations up to 140 feet in length. Within the SSSBA technical working group, a modular, shallow press-brake-formed steel tub girder was developed. This new technology consists of cold-bending standard mill plate width and thicknesses to form a trapezoidal box girder. The steel plate can be uncoated or galvanized steel, as each is an economical option. Once the plate has been press-brake-formed, shear studs are welded to the top flanges. A reinforced concrete deck is cast on the girder in the fabrication shop and allowed to cure, forming a composite modular unit. The composite tub girder is shipped to the bridge site, expediting construction and reducing traffic interruptions.;The increased use of the press-brake-formed tub girders has led to the recognition that long-term service life testing of different steel types in this system have not been investigated. The cold-bending of the steel plate into the desired tub-girder shape creates residual stresses in the bends of the girder. At this time, the majority of prefabricated bridge elements undergoing fatigue testing are of traditional structural shapes. It is currently unknown if the high heat of galvanization affects the residual stresses in the bends of the tub girder.;The scope of this project is to determine if hot-dip galvanization affects the fatigue performance of a cold-bent shallow press-brake-formed steel tub girder. Two composite steel tub girders were constructed, one composed of an uncoated steel tub and the second composed of a galvanized steel tub. The composite system was fatigue loaded simulating a 75-year life in a rural environment. At a predetermined number of load cycles, a Service II load was applied to the system to observe the performance of the specimen. Strain gages were applied to the webs and bottom flange of each section to determine the actual moments induced in the system. Experimental results were used to evaluate any difference in the performance of the different steels used in the composite tub girder system. Results from this project show the type of steel does not have an influence on the fatigue performance of press-brake-formed tub girders