The making of space and the losing of place : a critical geography of gentrification-by-bulldozer in the north of England.

Much like the economic system that drives and sustains it, gentrification is a dynamic phenomenon that is continuously evolving and diversifying to take advantage of new opportunities. The diversification and proliferation of gentrification takes different forms and envelops a range of geographies, actors and victims. Recently, state-led, 'new build' gentrification has emerged as the latest mutation of gentrification. To date, however, this particular form of gentrification has largely been associated with dis-used 'brownfield' sites, where the absence of a resident population precludes direct displacement. This thesis adds to academic understandings of new build gentrification by extending analysis to urban areas in the north of England, conceptualising Housing Market Renewal and similar programmes as particularly aggressive forms of state-led, new-build gentrification that involve the direct displacement of incumbent residents, demolition of existing housing and the erasure of meaningful places to assemble land for the purpose of redevelopment. Examining the place-meanings of working-class residents living in areas threatened with demolition, the thesis develops a geography of (new-build) gentrification that is focused on matters of home, place and place attachment. Advocating a deeper appreciation of people's prior emplacement, the thesis seeks to re-appraise the meaning and value of places that are too readily dismissed as 'disinvested' or 'decaying' by distanced 'outsiders', including policy-makers, planners and urban scholars. Using data from case studies in the north of England, the thesis further demonstrates how the state dispossesses people of their homes through a combination of discourse, attrition and compulsion. Finding evidence of the damaging impacts of displacement, the thesis concludes by calling for a re- orientation of gentrification research to adopt a more emplaced perspective, thereby strengthening the case for re-conceptualising displacement as a form of social harm

Mapping Alternative Impact: Alternative approaches to impact from co-produced research

No abstract available

A contrastive study of the rhetorical organisation of English and Spanish PhD thesis introductions

This paper presents an analysis of the introductory sections of a corpus of 20 doctoral theses on computing written in Spanish and in English. Our aim was to ascertain whether the theses, produced within the same scientific-technological area but by authors from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, employed the same rhetorical strategies to introduce the work presented. The analysis follows the Swalesian approach and is based on a move/step/sub-step model proposed for PhD introductions in Spanish (Carbonell-Olivares, Gil-Salom, & Soler-Monreal, 2009). The Spanish academic conventions appear to be that move 1 (M1- Establishing the Territory) and move 3 (M3- Occupying the Niche) are obligatory moves in PhD thesis introductions in Spanish, while move 2 (M2- Establishing the Niche) is optional. The structure of English thesis introductions reveals that they conform more closely to the M1-M2-M3 arrangement. Moreover, combinations of moves and patterns, cyclicity and embedding make their organisation more complex. The step analysis suggests that introductions in both languages rely mainly on the presentation of background information and the work carried out. However, the English introductions tend to stress the writer's own work, its originality and its contribution to the field of study. They also present more embedding and overlapping of steps and sub-steps than the Spanish texts. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.Soler Monreal, C.; Carbonell Olivares, MS.; Gil Salom, ML. (2011). A contrastive study of the rhetorical organisation of English and Spanish PhD thesis introductions. English for Specific Purposes. 30(1):4-17. doi:10.1016/j.esp.2010.04.005S41730

Hidden expectations: Scaffolding subject specialists' genre knowledge of the assignments they set

Subject specialists’ knowledge of academic and disciplinary literacy is often tacit. We tackle the issue of how to elicit subject specialists’ tacit knowledge in order to develop their pedagogical practices and enable them to communicate this knowledge to students. Drawing on theories of genre and metacognition, a professional development activity was designed and delivered. Our aims were to (1) build participants’ genre knowledge and (2) scaffold metacognitive awareness of how genre knowledge can enhance their pedagogical practices. The findings reveal that participants built a genre-based understanding of academic literacy and that the tasks provided them with an accessible framework to articulate and reflect upon their knowledge of disciplinary literacy. Participants gained metacognitive awareness of misalignments between what they teach and what they expect from students, their assumptions about students’ prior learning and genre-based strategies to adapt their practice to students’ needs. Our approach provides a theoretically grounded professional development tool for the HE sector

Issues of ideology in English language education worldwide: an overview

The relatively limited consideration of ideology in mainstream theory and research of teaching the English language to speakers of other languages has arguably prevented the problematization of many taken-for-granted perceptions and practices of the field. In this article I attempt to bring part of this marginalized body of scholarship on issues of ideology in the area of English language teaching (ELT) to highlight its potential insights for the field. The article sets out from a view of ideology as the most fundamental beliefs in any social practice, which may provide a less-formidable conception of the term and lessen the divergence among the minority of ELT researchers and professionals that do concern themselves with ideology. Then, after a brief sketch of the notion of ideology of language (education), I present an overview of aspects of this marginal but vibrant stream of thought on issues of ideology in ELT worldwide. Overall, the discussion is aimed to act as a call for the further understanding and embracement of sociopolitically-sensitive and ideologically-informed approaches to ELT theory, research, and practice

Critical literacy as a pedagogical goal in English language teaching

In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of the area of critical literacy as it pertains to second language pedagogy (curriculum and instruction). After considering the historical origins of critical literacy (from antiquity, and including in first language education), they consider how it began to penetrate the field of applied linguistics. They note the geographical and institutional spread of critical literacy practice as documented by published accounts. They then sketch the main features of L2 critical literacy practice. To do this, they acknowledge how practitioners have reported on their practices regarding classroom content and process. The authors also draw attention to the outcomes of these practices as well as challenges that practitioners have encountered in incorporating critical literacy into their second language classrooms