Reflections in the Classroom: Learning to Market Education

Reflective practice has become a key trope within debates around teaching and learning in higher education. Yet, beneath this anodyne rhetoric, teachers and students are being disciplined in a manner that aligns so-called “standards” and professional development with the corporate strategies of educational institutions. Educational developers who seek to promote “standards” and “accountability” in the learning environment enforce the practice of “reflection” as a key educational experience and tool. Repetitive reflective exercises become the means and the monitoring of education. How should anthropology, a discipline that focuses on dynamics of diversity and structure, respond to this discourse, and the generic teaching methods that it promotes. And what are the links between these initiatives and the marketing of higher education as a quality-assured educational product? This article compares the author’s experience of teaching English to European teenagers in a small community centre to teaching anthropology to undergraduates in a large university. It uses the case of the HEA accredited teaching course that was meant to bridge these two, apparently distinct educational realms

An (unintentional) façade of democratic debate

A review of the Colombian peace process. The article considers the actual extent of debate in a series of meetings and conferences in the UK that were held to analyse the peace process. The argument is put forward that the illegality, and thereby absence, of FARC at these meetings has contributed towards a distortion of events and arguments. Furthermore, it has left the current Colombian administration appearing as a far more inclusive and democratic institution than might be the case. The article welcomes the the interaction of the Colombian government in these UK meetings but suggests that measures are taken: i) to prevent the marginalization of FARC from democratic debate; ii) to limit the potential to breach Human Rights by the Colombian state; and iii) to define the difference between political violence and violent criminality

COVID‐19 and competitive markets of securitisation

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Anthropology is companion studies: a study of violent relations during fieldwork with my family

Companions in the field influence ethnography, so affecting research position whilst providing research insights. The research of violence takes place within the relations of violence being studied. Family companions who used to live in a field site are entwined in those violent relations. Capacity for violent threat or suffering is connected to the companions of family. Reporting on companions is problematic. Where anonymity is compromised, key information has to be withheld, which in turn, leads readers to question integrity. The ethical balance between author, companions and reader reveals more about the relationality of violence. As anthropology turns towards analysing a relational positioning between multifarious companions, the study of family companions expands to consider how intimate companions, of one kind or another, unavoidably shape ethnography. The paper contributes to understanding violence, the research of violence, accompanied fieldwork and methodology in relational anthropological frameworks

[Review] Charlotte Walk-Said and John D Kelly, ed. (2015) Corporate social responsibility? Human rights in the new global economy

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Why Colombia voted ‘no’ to peace with FARC

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Efficient Computation of the Kauffman Bracket

This paper bounds the computational cost of computing the Kauffman bracket of a link in terms of the crossing number of that link. Specifically, it is shown that the image of a tangle with $g$ boundary points and $n$ crossings in the Kauffman bracket skein module is a linear combination of $O(2^g)$ basis elements, with each coefficient a polynomial with at most $n$ nonzero terms, each with integer coefficients, and that the link can be built one crossing at a time as a sequence of tangles with maximum number of boundary points bounded by $C\sqrt{n}$ for some $C.$ From this it follows that the computation of the Kauffman bracket of the link takes time and memory a polynomial in $n$ times $2^{C\sqrt{n}}.

Eradication, Containment, Management and Restoration. A report to the European Commission Working Group 3 on Invasive Species Policy

• Working Group Invasive Species n. 3 • Task 3.1: Eradication, Containment, Management and Restoration o Objective o Scope o Definitions o Eradication o Containment o Mitigation o Coexistence and Acceptance o Restoration o The Role of EU and MS o Practical considerations o References OBJECTIVE To minimise the damage caused by established IAS to species, habitats, ecosystem function and services, economic activities, together with human and animal health. To be achieved, where possible, by the eradication of IAS and, where impractical, the limitation of their impact, further spread and management of the consequences

\u27Massa Day Done:\u27 Cricket as a Catalyst for West Indian Independence: 1950-1962

This thesis examined the manner in which West Indies cricket became a catalyzing force for West Indians in moving towards political independence from Britain during the period 1950-1962. West Indians took a game that was used as a means of social control during the colonial era, and refashioned that game into a political weapon to exact sporting and especially political revenge on their colonial masters. Analyses (CDA, narrative analysis, examination of calypsos and cartoons) of the historic cricket tour to England in 1950, the decolonization movement, and the appointment of Frank Worrell as the first black captain of the team, among other significant indicators and events, revealed recurring narratives that linked the success of West Indies cricket to a readiness for political independence from Britain. These narratives reflected a feeling that “the time was now” for West Indians to forge a political identity for themselves separate from the subservient pupil of the British master. Politicians utilized rhetorical strategies that appealed to feelings of racial unity to fuel their push for political independence. Taken together, the overriding narrative revealed by this analysis applied to selected newspaper articles and political speeches, could be encapsulated in the epithet, “massa day done”. The discourse emanating from the success of West Indies cricket set West Indians on a course toward political autonomy from Britain