The effect of baffles on tank sloshing, part i

Testing of cantilevered flexible, hinged, and slamming baffles by subjection to sinusoidal variation in water far from free surface - effect on tank sloshin

Rhodium-catalysed hydroformylation of N-(2-propenyl)-β-lactams as a key step in the synthesis of functionalised N-[4-(2-oxoazetidin-1-yl)but-1-enyl]acetamides

Biologically relevant functionalised N-[4-(2-oxoazetidin-1-yl)but-1-enyl]acetamides have been prepared in a two-step approach starting from N-(2-propenyl)-beta-lactams, involving initial rhodium-catalysed hydroformylation followed by subjection of the obtained aldehydes to Staudinger reaction conditions after initial imination

The autonomous life: a pure social view

In this paper I propose and develop a social account of global autonomy. On this view, a person is autonomous simply to the extent to which it is difficult for others to subject her to their wills. I argue that many properties commonly thought necessary for autonomy are in fact properties that tend to increase an agent’s immunity to such interpersonal subjection, and that the proposed account is therefore capable of providing theoretical unity to many of the otherwise heterogeneous requirements of autonomy familiar from recent discussions. Specifically, I discuss three such requirements: (i) possession of legally protected status, (ii) a sense of one’s own self- worth, and (iii) a capacity for critical reflection. I argue that the proposed account is not only theoretically satisfying but also yields a rich and attractive conception of autonomy

Diversity, inequality and a post-structural politics for education

This paper considers the contribution to understanding educational inequalities offered by post-structural theories of power and the subject. The paper locates this consideration in the context of the ongoing endeavour in education studies to make sense of, and identify ways of interrupting, abiding educational exclusions and inequalities. The paper examines the potential of Judith Butler's work, in particular her engagement with Foucault?s concepts of productive power and subjectivation, and the articulation of these ideas with the notion of the performative constitution of subjects, for making sense of the processes through which students come to be particular sorts of subjects of schooling. The paper argues that taking up these understandings not only enables us to better understand the endurance of particular configurations of educational inequalities, it also opens up new possibilities for interrupting these through a post-structural politics that seeks to displace prevailing discourses and constitute students differently through every-day practices of preformative reinscription

Social Work, Power and Performativity

In recent years, there have been a number of epistemological developments in social work. Further, there have been a number of theoretical approaches that have attempted to ground the concept of ‘power’ to understand organizational practice such as Marxist thought. At the same time, the insights of French social theorist Michel Foucault have been captivating to the disciplinary development of social work in illuminating power relations and subject positioning between helping professions and clients. To move beyond this, and in order to theoretically interrogate the relationship between social theory and professional power, this article draws from the neo Foucauldian-Feminist philosopher Judith Butler – especially regarding Butler's (1990, 1993 and 1998) powerful work on ‘performativity’. This article attempts to generate new theoretical insights to understanding contemporary social work through the conceptual tools of Butler

Contemporary Representations of the Female Body: Consumerism and the Normative Discourse of Beauty

In the context of the perpetual reproduction of consumerism in contemporary western societies, the varied and often contradictory principles of third wave feminism have been misunderstood or redefined by the dominant economic discourse of the markets. The lack of homogeneity in the theoretical debates of the third wave feminism seems to be a vulnerable point in the appropriation of its emancipatory ideals by the post-modern consumerist narratives. The beauty norm, particularly, brings the most problematic questions forth in the contemporary feminist dialogues. In this paper I will examine the validity of the concept of empowerment through practices of the body, practices that constitute the socially legitimized identity of women in a consumerist western society. My thesis is that the beauty norm is constructed as a socio-political instrument in order to preserve the old, patriarchal regulation of women’s bodies. Due to the power of invisibility of the new mechanisms of social control and subjection, the consumerist discourse offers the most effective political tool for gender inequality and a complex discussion about free will and emancipation in third wave feminism debates. This delicate theoretical issues question not only the existent social order, but the very political purposes of contemporary feminism

Confession and political normativity: control of subjectivity and production of the subject

The theme of confession, present in the reflection of Michel Foucault since the early 1960s, pursued the same direction of his researches from the late 1970s concerning the problem of government and the studies of governmentality. Under this perspective, confession is taken as recognition through which the subject authenticates in himself or herself his or her own actions and thoughts. Therefore, it is not only a verbal act by means of which the subject states the truth of his or her being; confession also binds the subject to truth, throwing him or her in a relation of dependency regards the other, and, at the same time, modifying the relationship that he or she establishes with himself or herself. According to Foucault, this is what explains the massive growth of practices of confession in Western societies up until their actual inscription at the heart of procedures of individualization typical of modern political power. This paper explores Foucault’s analysis of confessional practices and its recent developments in the work of Giorgio Agamben (Opus Dei. Archeologia dell’Ufficio, 2012) and Roberto Esposito (Due. La macchina della teologia politica e il posto del pensiero, 2013).El tema de la confesión, presente en la reflexión de Michel Foucault desde principios del decenio de 1960, persiguió la misma dirección de sus investigaciones a partir de finales de 1970 en relación con el problema del gobierno y de los estudios de la gubernamentalidad. Bajo esta perspectiva, la confesión se toma como reconocimiento a través de la cual el sujeto autentica en sí mismo sus propias acciones y pensamientos. Por lo tanto, no es solo un acto verbal por medio del cual el sujeto establece la verdad de su ser; la confesión también une el sujeto a la verdad, colocándolo en una relación de dependencia con el otro y, al mismo tiempo, cambiando la relación que él establece consigo mismo. Según Foucault, esto es lo que explica el crecimiento masivo de las prácticas de la confesión en las sociedades occidentales hasta su inscripción efectiva en el corazón de los procedimientos de individualización del poder político moderno. Este artículo explora el análisis de Foucault de las prácticas confesionales y sus recientes avances en el trabajo de Giorgio Agamben (Opus Dei. Archeologia dell’Ufficio, 2012) y Roberto Esposito (Due. La macchina della teologia politica e il posto del pensiero, 2013)

‘Subjects and Objects: Material Expressions of Love and Loyalty in Seventeenth-Century England’, in special section on ‘Loyalties and Allegiances in Early Modern England’ in Journal of British Studies Vol. 48: 4 (October, 2009)

This article investigates how and where the emotive relations between subject and state were forged and how these ideas were manifested in early modern England. McShane describes an affective economy of loyalty, embodied in cheap and accessible political commodities: decorated objects made of clay, metals, and paper, on which precious household resources of time, money and emotion were spent. She argues that by engendering, inculcating and insinuating codes of political love into people’s ‘emotional, sensual, representational, and communicative’ lives, ‘loyal’ goods acted as vehicles and texts for what Victoria Kahn describes as ‘the supplementary role of the passions’ in ‘forging political obligation’ and the reformulation of ‘the duty to love’ of both subject and king in 17th-century England. McShane’s research contributes to a growing theme in scholarship, namely the active consumption of politically significant goods. This essay extends the range of objects under examination to include quotidian household items, shedding light on the dissemination and construction of early modern loyalty across a much wider social scale. The research draws on an extensive survey of collections held at the V&A, the Museum of London, Ashmolean Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum and Burrell Collection. Importantly, by putting illustrated print products back together with other political commodities in the early modern home, creating a broad archive of objects and text-objects where each informs the other, McShane’s approach challenges the typical social historical methodology, which uses material culture as merely illustrative of textual sources. This article was part of a special section on loyalty and allegiance in early modern England, co-edited by McShane with Dr Ted Vallance for one of the leading scholarly journals in the field. The material was drawn from a workshop on the topic held at the University of Liverpool funded by the British Academy, University of Liverpool and the Scouloudi Foundation (2007)