Attitudes towards the ‘stranger’: negotiating encounters with difference in the UK and Poland

Due to recent intensification in international mobility in Europe, its citizens are exposed to a much wider range of lifestyles and competing attitudes towards difference. Individuals are, therefore, increasingly likely to encounter ‘strangers’ and are, therefore, required to negotiate discontinuities and contradictions between the values that are transmitted through different sites. In response, the article explores the concept of the ‘stranger’ through original data collected in the UK and Poland. The article highlights that the construction of who is a stranger depends on national historical contexts, core values and related visions of the society. The UK and Poland have very different histories and experiences with social diversity, impacting on the ways in which individuals negotiate strange encounters. In both countries, the ‘stranger’ is often seen in a negative way and in relation to the minority groups that are perceived to be visibly different, distinct or ‘unknown’ in contemporary times. In Poland, this is now largely articulated through sexual prejudice (homophobia), whilst in the UK, attitudes towards the ‘stranger’ are largely conveyed through religious prejudice (Islamophobia). As such, the article offers a means of understanding how encounters with difference ‘produce’ strangers in different contexts

Students Studying Students and Reasoning about Reasoning: A Qualitative Analysis

In this work, a faculty member takes a journey along with students as they enhance their understanding of how people solve mathematical problems through a mainly qualitative statistical project. Student authors of this paper registered for a problem solving seminar led by the faculty author, and then created and analyzed self-built assessment tools to explore problem solving techniques. Here we share our findings and recommendations, which we hope will inspire others to explore novel pedagogical techniques in the teaching of mathematical problem solving. We incorporate into our presentation ur voices, reflecting on how we and others solve problems

Narratives of settling in contexts of mobility: A comparative analysis of Irish and Polish highly qualified women migrants in London

Adopting a spatio-temporal lens, this article explores how highly qualified migrant women negotiate relationships and career motivations in specific socio-structural contexts. Comparing migration experiences of Irish and Polish women in London, I explore similarities within and differences between these groups. Having joined the EU in 1973, Ireland can be regarded as part of “old EU”, while Poland joining in 2004 is part of the “new” wave of EU members. Migration from old and new member states is often discussed separately using different framing. This article contributes to understanding migration in three ways. Firstly, by developing comparative analysis, which goes beyond narrow and static migrant categories. Secondly, by challenging the temporary/transient versus permanence/integration dichotomy to explore a “sliding scale” of migrant trajectories. Thirdly, by illustrating how evolving relationships, through the life cycle, may enable but also hinder migrant women's opportunities for settling in or moving on

Developing a Citizen Social Science approach to understand urban stress and promote wellbeing in urban communities

This paper sets out the future potential and challenges for developing an interdisciplinary, mixed-method Citizen Social Science approach to researching urban emotions. It focuses on urban stress, which is increasingly noted as a global mental health challenge facing both urbanised and rapidly urbanising societies. The paper reviews the existing use of mobile psychophysiological or biosensing within urban environments—as means of ‘capturing’ the urban geographies of emotions. Methodological reflections are included on primary research using biosensing in a study of workplace and commuter stress for university employees in Birmingham (UK) and Salzburg (Austria) for illustrative purposes. In comparing perspectives on the conceptualisation and measurement of urban stress from psychology, neuroscience and urban planning, the difficulties of defining scientific constructs within Citizen Science are discussed to set out the groundwork for fostering interdisciplinary dialogue. The novel methods, geo-located sensor technologies and data-driven approaches to researching urban stress now available to researchers pose a number of ethical, political and conceptual challenges around defining and measuring emotions, stress, human behaviour and urban space. They also raise issues of rigour, participation and social scientific interpretation. Introducing methods informed by more critical Citizen Social Science perspectives can temper overly individualised forms of data collection to establish more effective ways of addressing urban stress and promoting wellbeing in urban communities

‘Other’ Posts in ‘Other’ Places: Poland through a Postcolonial Lens?

Postcolonial theory has tended to focus on those spaces where European colonialism has had a territorial and political history. This is unsurprising, as much of the world is in this sense ‘postcolonial’. But not all of it. This article focuses on Poland, often theorised as peripheral to ‘old Europe’, and explores the application of postcolonial analyses to this ‘other’ place. The article draws upon reflections arising from a study of responses to ethnic diversity in Warsaw, Poland. In doing so we conclude that postcolonialism does indeed offer some important insights into understanding Polish attitudes to other nationalities, and yet more work also needs to be done to make the theoretical bridge. In the case of Poland we propose the ‘triple relation’ be the starting point for such work

In re: ‘Experimental Music’

John Cage is universally associated with the phrase experimental music. But what did that phrase mean, for Cage and for Cage’s predecessors? I begin with Cage and Lejaren Hiller, both writing important texts on ‘experimental music’ in 1959. From there, I trace the phrase backwards, eventually reaching Emile Zola, Gertrude Stein, and William James. A final section traces the phrase forward to Cage and Hiller’s collaboration on HPSCHD (1969)

Conviviality by design : the socio-spatial qualities of spaces of intercultural urban encounters

This paper presents findings from a mixed-method research project which explored use of outdoor spaces and social connections in Bradford, a post-industrial city in the north of England with a highly ethnically diverse population. Data was collected through micro-scale behavioural mapping of public spaces (analysed using GIS) and both on-site and in-depth interviews. The integration of these methods allows a focus on intersectional identities and social values for everyday conviviality situated in different typologies of public open spaces (parks, squares, streets) in city centre and suburban neighbourhoods. The analysis offers nuanced insights into the socio-spatial aspects of conviviality: patterns of activity by diverse users, situations in which encounters are prompted, and the implications of negotiating differences in relation to perceptions of self, others, and the environment. We discuss the relevance of the urban public realm for shared understandings of diversity, qualities of visibility, lingering and playfulness, and the importance of threshold spaces. We explore racialised and excluding experiences and how these relate to mobility and territorial patterns of use, specifically with relation to gender. The paper highlights connections between intercultural encounters and urban design practice, with implications for well-being and integration in ethnically diverse urban areas

Evaluation of selected spice plants extracts under their controls of antimicrobial properties and content of phenolic acids

W badaniach wykonano analizę obecności fenolokwasów w roślinach przyprawowych, takich jak: imbir, koper, kwiat nagietka, lubczyk i tymianek. Rośliny dobrano ze względu na częste wykorzystywanie ich w przygotowaniu potraw. Ekstrakty etanolowe z roślin, w których występuje duża różnorodność fenolokwasów oraz duża zawartość związków fenolowych, tj. koper, lubczyk i tymianek, powodowały zahamowanie wzrostu w hodowli bulionowej wybranych mikroorganizmów, pozostałe zaś wykazały stymulację wzrostu badanych szczepów. Najsilniejsze właściwości przeciwbakteryjne ekstraktu z lubczyka wykazano po 24 h inkubacji w odniesieniu do bakterii Escherichia coli (93%) i Staphylococcus aureus (87%), a po 48 h Pseudomonas aeruginosa (96%), Bacillus subtilis (91%) oraz w stosunku do grzybów Candida albicans (90%). Ekstrakt z tymianku również wykazuje właściwości hamujące namnażanie się bakterii, ale tylko w stosunku do dwóch szczepów: Staphylococcus aureus po 24 h inkubacji (82%) i po 48 h inkubacji (89%) oraz Escherichia coli po 48 h inkubacji w odniesieniu do bakterii (85%).Natural or processed spices are parts of herbal plants used as food additives. They stand behind themselves because of their taste or aroma. In agri-food processing spices play a major role giving the products an attractive aroma, color, prolonging durability and enhancing the taste. In dependence of their chemical composition, they remind of a varied way of raising the senses of man or animals. They can stimulate appetite, increase secretion of food, regulate intestinal peristalsis, accelerate excretion, stimulate or calcify, affect kidney and heart function and bacteriostatic or bactericidal action. The aim of this work is to evaluation the antimicrobial properties and the content of phenolic acids in selected spice plants. The paper presents an analysis of the presence of phenolic acids (anisic, cinnamic, ferulic, gallic, gentisic, caffeic, p-coumaric, syringic, vanillic) in ethanol extracts of spice plants such as ginger, dill, marigold flower, lovage, parsley and thyme. Ethanol extracts with plants that contain high quality phenolic compounds, i.e. dill, lovage and thyme, caused an inhibition of growth in broth cultures selected microorganisms, whereas the others showed stimulation of the growth of tested strains. The strongest antimicrobial properties were observed for lovage extract after 24 h of incubation in reference to Escherichia coli (93%), Staphylococcus aureus (87%), and after 48 h Pseudomonas aeruginosa (96%), Bacillus subtilis (91%) and Candida albicans (90%). Thyme extract also exhibits the properties of inhibiting bacterial growth but only in respect of two strains: Staphylococcus aureus after 24 h of incubation (82%), after 48 h of incubation (89%) and Escherichia coli after 48 h of incubation (85%)

Zastosowanie spektroskopii w bliskiej podczerwieni (NIR) do analizy wybranych parametrów jakościowych naturalnych miodów pszczelich

W pracy podjęto próbę zastosowania spektroskopii w zakresie bliskiej podczerwieni (NIR) umożliwiającej, poprzez analizę widm, szybkie określenie ilościowe jak i jakościowe poszczególnych składników decydujących o jakości naturalnych miodów pszczelich. W przypadku metody jakościowej analiza widm podstawowych pozwala na rozróżnienie miodów spadziowych, sztucznych oraz nektarowych, natomiast wykorzystanie specjalistycznego oprogramowania (TQ Analist) umożliwia określenie odmiany miodów nektarowych. W metodzie ilościowej przy analizie pierwszej pochodnej widm uzyskano mniejsze współczynniki niezgodności w porównaniu z analizą widm podstawowych