Making history beyond neoliberalism: Response to Roper

Roper (2011a, p. 39) sums up his account of neoliberalism in New Zealand with the following conclusion: “In the absence of a major upsurge in working class and social movement struggle, the neoliberal policy regime is likely to remain firmly in place.” The bulk of his article lends weight to this conclusion in the course of offering a detailed analysis of National’s neoliberalism and New Zealand’s social inequality. In his final assessment Roper turns to list mid-range factors that underpin his conclusion. In particular, he refers to structural constraints resulting from the neoliberalisation of New Zealand’s financial regime; neoliberalisation of the outlooks of successive New Zealand Governments since 1984; and the balance of class forces in favour of capital (pp.37-8). This response focuses, first, on building a sympathetic analysis of these mid-range factors which are linked here with the form and dynamic of the ‘neoliberal model of development’ (Neilson, 2011). In his conclusion Roper also states that if there is an upsurge in social movement and working class politics ‘then the question of alternatives to neoliberalism will come to the forefront of New Zealand politics’ (Roper, 2011a, p. 39). The second theme of this essay is linked to an exploratory discussion of why this might or might not happen and how more specifically a ‘counter-hegemonic project’ could be more consciously constructed and actively pursued

High Temperature Superfluidity in Double Bilayer Graphene

Exciton bound states in solids between electrons and holes are predicted to form a superfluid at high temperatures. We show that by employing atomically thin crystals such as a pair of adjacent bilayer graphene sheets, equilibrium superfluidity of electron-hole pairs should be achievable for the first time. The transition temperatures are well above liquid helium temperatures. Because the sample parameters needed for the device have already been attained in similar graphene devices, our work suggests a new route towards realizing high-temperature superfluidity in existing quality graphene samples.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, effect of screening on superfluidity include

The Effectiveness of School Placements in Facilitating Student Teacher Learning and Professional Development

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Beyond Mainstream Labour Market Theory And Precarity: Towards An Alternative To The Neoliberal Model Of Development

This paper contextualises contemporary precarity within a mid-range focus on labour market segmentation that takes Marx’s long-range theory of the ‘relative surplus population’ as its point of departure. It also briefly outlines an alternative ‘model of development’ which could address the increasing precarity of a growing proportion of the world’s population. It first sets out a critical analysis of core elements of mainstream accounts of the labour market, which is a point of comparison in the later sections. The paper ends with an exploratory discussion about how neo-Marxist analysis can supplement Keynesianism, and how both need to be re-focused more clearly on the need to design a post-neoliberal model of development

Convergence and Divergence: Notes On Comparing Australia and New Zealand Experiences of Industrial Relations

This paper attempts to explain the divergence of paths in the field of industrial relations between Australia and New Zealand under Labour in the eighties. Key themes in the paper concern stale autonomy, the relationship between the union movement and the Labour party in each country, and the different strategic contexts within which policies were formulated and pursued. This paper has its origins in a joint project undertaken by Mark Bray and myself, which will eventually come out as a chapter of a book comparing Australia and New Zealand under Labour governments in the eighties. The chapter attempts to explain why there has been increasing divergence between Australian and New Zealand industrial relations regimes in the eighties and nineties. This paper takes up some themes of divergence and convergence which arose while working on the chapter but could not be developed in that forum

Making Socialism within Capitalism

Review of Jonathan Boston, Transforming the Welfare State. Techno-welfarism as a solution to Aotearoa New Zealand’s decaying social security system

Using magnetic stripes to stabilize superfluidity in electron-hole double monolayer graphene

Experiments have confirmed that double monolayer graphene cannot generate finite temperature electron-hole superfluidity. This has been shown to be due to very strong screening of the electron-hole pairing attraction. The linear dispersing energy bands in monolayer graphene prevent attempts to reduce the strength of the screening. We propose a new hybrid device in which the two sheets of monolayer graphene are placed in a modulated periodic perpendicular magnetic field. Such a magnetic field preserves the isotropic Dirac cones of the original monolayers but it reduces the slope of the cones so that the monolayer Fermi velocity $v_F$ is smaller. We show that with current experimental techniques, this reduction in $v_F$ can sufficiently weaken the screening to permit electron-hole superfluidity at measurable temperatures.Comment: Revised version. MultiSuper collaboration: http://www.multisuper.or

Permeability evolution across carbonate hosted normal fault zones

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Total E&P and BG Group for project funding and support, and the Industry Technology Facilitator for facilitating the collaborative development (grant number 3322PSD). The authors would also like to express their gratitude to the Aberdeen Formation Evaluation Society and the College of Physical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen for partial financial support. Raymi Castilla (Total E&P), Fabrizio Agosta and Cathy Hollis are also thanked for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve the standard of this manuscript as are John Still and Colin Taylor (University of Aberdeen) for technical assistance in the laboratory. Piero Gianolla is thanked for his editorial handling of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin