The Strategic Defence Review is an incoherent mess of stalled (but unresolved) decision making: it creates future problems that will not go away

This week’s review of Britain’s defence spending is the opening salvo of the coalition’s plans to review spending across government. David Cameron and George Osborne have walked a finely balanced line of compromise to appease the defence establishment, argues Chris Brown. But this approach has led to a raft of unsustainable proposals that, in the end, leave key issues to be resolved later o

Critique and complexity : presenting a more effective way to conceptualise the knowledge adoption process

The process of ‘knowledge adoption’ is defined as the means through which policy-makers digest, accept then ‘take on board’ research findings. It is argued in Brown, however, that current models designed to explain knowledge adoption activity fail to fully account for the complexities that affect its operation. Within this paper, existing frameworks are explored and critiqued, and an alternative approach is presented. It is argued that this alternative conceptualisation provides a more effective explanation of the knowledge adoption process and significantly improves on extant work in this area

Difficult decisions lie ahead over Syria. But these decisions are mainly for the Turkish leadership rather than the British Cabinet

The siege of Homs continues and Syrian opposition groups are claiming that acts of genocide are being carried out by the Assad regime. Chris Brown notes that while the UK can no longer play a key military role, the responsibility to protect civilians could lead to encouraging and supporting a Turkish-led operatio

The 'policy-preferences model' : a new perspective on how researchers can facilitate the take-up of evidence by educational policy makers

The phrase ‘knowledge adoption’ refers to the often-complicated process by which policy makers ‘take on board’ evidence. While models have been put forward to explain this activity, this paper argues that such models are flawed and fail to fully address those complexities affecting the successful realisation of knowledge adoption efforts. Existing frameworks are examined, critiqued and an alternative, sociologically based approach presented. It is argued that this alternative conceptualisation provides a more effective account of the knowledge adoption process. The paper illustrates how this model has been tested and examines its implications for both research impact and evidence-informed policy making

Resisting the Far-Right: Indigenous Perspectives, Community Arts and Story-Based Strategy

This article explores how we might resist and confront anti-immigration and anti-refugee politics by addressing the social and historical well-spring from which these discriminatory and damaging politics emerge and take sustenance. In doing this, I draw upon the concept of story-based strategy and the idea that our potential to address this issue relies on our capacity to fundamentally shift the dominant ways in which people understand and engage with it. This discussion occurs with reference to one practical application of story-based strategy – a community-arts project titled Stories of Hope and Migration – which attempted to re-frame the migration and refugee debate in Australia by funnelling it through a localised Indigenous perspective. In so doing, this article challenges the way in which early British migrants and their descendants have continually excised themselves from the rhetoric of migration, and furthermore, suggests that through a more nuanced conversation regarding the migration stories of all non-Aboriginal people, we might better promote a more historically aware, compassionate and inclusive society

In its delivery of new aircraft carriers, the MoD has sacrificed short term affordability for long term value for money, a decision that may also leave the UK with a reduced defence capability.

Like most other government departments, the Ministry of Defence has not been spared George Osborne’s axe, and plans to procure two new large aircraft carriers have been significantly affected. In light of a new government report on their construction, Chris Brown finds that we may be about to build carriers only to put them straight into mothballs, and that we may have traded short term savings for long term capabilities.

Can only front line service cuts save Defence expenditure?.

Defence cannot be exempt from the coalition government’s emergency budget, and the ‘pain’ that David Cameron has promised. Professor Christopher Brown of LSE’s International Relations department takes a look at what might be cut – and finds that the ‘big-ticket’ items such as the Eurofighter and Trident might not be easy to cancel.

Conformity, deformity and reformity

In any given field of artistic practice, practitioners position themselves—or find themselves positioned—according to interests and allegiances with specific movements, genres, and traditions. Selecting particular frameworks through which to approach the development of new ideas, patterns and expressions, balance is invariably maintained between the desire to contribute towards and connect with a particular set of domain conventions, whilst at the same time developing distinction and recognition as a creative individual. Creativity through the constraints of artistic domain, discipline and style provides a basis for consideration of notions of originality in the context of activity primarily associated with reconfiguration, manipulation and reorganisation of existing elements and ideas. Drawing from postmodern and post-structuralist perspectives in the analysis of modern hybrid art forms and the emergence of virtual creative environments, the transition from traditional artistic practice and notions of craft and creation, to creative spaces in which elements are manipulated, mutated, combined and distorted with often frivolous or subversive intent are considered. This paper presents an educational and musically focused perspective of the relationship between the individual and domain-based creative practice. Drawing primarily from musical and audio-visual examples with particular interest in creative disruption of pre-existing elements, creative strategies of appropriation and recycling are explored in the context of music composition and production. Conclusions focus on the interpretation of creativity as essentially a process of recombination and manipulation and highlight how the relationship between artist and field of practice creates unique creative spaces through which new ideas emerge

Tips for Transitional Jobs Programs Serving People Experiencing Homelessness

This brief offers recommendations for employment programs using the TJ model to serve jobseekers who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. These recommendations reflect the most relevant research findings as well as the experiences of expert TJ practitioners