bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introduction
Authors: Nancarrow Susan , Borthwick Alan
Published: September 2021

This chapter introduces how the book compares the allied health professions, both as a collective and as individual disciplines, in Australia and the UK. Australia and the UK were chosen as a basis for comparison because the allied health professions have emerged in each jurisdiction from similar philosophies, regulatory structures and training approaches, which allows meaningful comparison. The different funding and system contexts provide a comparative basis to understand the impact of different features on allied health professionalisation. It starts from the position of the similarities between the allied health contexts in both countries. Politically, neo-liberalism has been influential in driving the healthcare funding models and accountabilities in both nations, though different healthcare funding systems have facilitated varied flexibilities within the allied health workforces in each context. The modern allied health professions were heavily shaped by the formal organisation of labour that emerged within the colonies of the British Empire as a result of the Industrial Revolution. This book is largely focused on the way in which the allied health professions have emerged and developed within a Western context.
Diversity in the allied health professions
Authors: Nancarrow Susan , Borthwick Alan
Published: September 2021

This chapter is dedicated to an analysis of diversity within the allied health professions, including the intersectional relationships between gender, class, ethnicity, interprofessionality and cultural competence. The chapter explores the complex interplay of the intersectionality in the allied health professions. Gender and the patriarchal origins of the health professions have shaped professional repertoires, the roles individuals adopt within their professions and their interrelationships with other professional groups. The picture is far from complete and requires further investigation, but clearly the allied health professions need to understand the way their gendered histories can influence their current and future opportunities. The role of ethnicity, cultural competence and cultural safety is poorly understood within the allied health professions. All professions face challenges of how to best meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse populations who may also experience other inequities that impact on their health and wellbeing. The heterogeneity of the allied health professions mean that each discipline will face unique challenges in best meeting the needs of their specific populations and in a variety of contexts.
Education, capability and skills
Authors: Bynner John , Heinz Walter R.
Published: September 2021

This chapter extends the topic of learning more broadly than in previous chapters, focusing initially on the implications of digitalisation for both the content and delivery of education Such functions extend in the digital society to the specific knowledge and skills needed to operate effectively within every part of it, i.e. mastery of the ‘Internet of Everything’. Because of the speed of technological transformation attention is drawn to the challenges digitalisation presents to management of education and the taught curriculum. The chapter also considers the distinctive contributions informal and formal education make to generic skills and lifelong learning, the central aim of which is building in a changing world, capabilities that match economic and life course needs. Amartya Sen’s unifying ideas about freedom to achieve also have a central role.
New micro-mobilities and aging in the suburbs
Authors: Dean Jennifer , Donato Edward
Published: September 2021

This chapter discusses the World Health Organization's (WHO) launch of the Age-Friendly Cities (AFCs) program as a response to the global trend towards aging populations and increasing urbanization. It outlines the WHO's anticipation that by 2050, approximately 22 percent of the global population will be over the age of 60 years, with the majority residing in sub/urban areas. It examines the intensity of older adults that will be felt in small and mid-sized cities where the mean older adult dependency ratio will grow by 103 percent and 90 percent respectfully by 2036. The chapter considers the certainty of demographic change and the heterogeneity of the older adult population, which acquires a time-sensitive need to understand how to support older adults who desire to age in place or live safely and independently in their existing communities. It looks at academic literature that links built environments and human health.
Aging in rural Canada
Authors: Channer Natalie S. , Biglieri Samantha , Hartt Maxwell
Published: September 2021

This chapter provides a snapshot of Canadian rural demographic trends, an overview of the state-of-the-art thinking on rural aging, and contextual framing for in-depth research. It cites key debates on rural aging in relation to the built-environment and the extent to which it disserves the older population. It also talks about the limitations associated with lack of funding, service availability, and geographical isolation in rural environments. The chapter highlights the importance of service accessibility, particularly to the almost quarter of a million low-income, older-adult rural residents. It summarizes the existing research on aging in Canadian rural communities and further unpacks the challenges and benefits of rural aging.
Supports and limitations of aging in a rural place for women aged 85 and older
Authors: Bryanton Olive , Weeks Lori E. , Montelpare William
Published: September 2021

This chapter discusses women over the age of 85 years that live in a rural environment, such as that of Atlantic Canada, which are often considered to be an invisible cohort. It explains the invisibility of women that is primarily due to social isolation which occurs when older adults lose members of their social networks, including friends and family. It also analyzes the issue with aging women that is compounded by living in rural areas since geographical distance from others and lower populations pose additional challenges to daily social interaction. The chapter emphasizes the important of recognizing that women comprise a larger proportion of older adults because they are more likely to live longer. It points out how the imbalance in population will have serious sociodemographic impacts as women will have higher levels of frailty, depression, and widowhood while having less education.
Estimation of the human capital depreciation rate: an international comparison and policy implications in South Korea
Authors: Ban Ga Woon
Published: September 2021

This chapter emphasizes skills retention instead of human capital accumulation, which is prominently featured in the social investment literature. The chapter discovers strong empirical support for the so-called use-it-or-lose-it hypothesis, which is that utilising people's skills at work is critical to retaining human capital. Considerable cross-national differences in human capital depreciation across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) world point to workplaces as the key site, as differences in workplace organisation may shape differences in how skills are used and, accordingly, differences in human capital depreciation. Considering the differences in skills depreciation, the chapter calls for tailored policy interventions rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. It argues that countries should take different approaches to preserving human capital, depending on their unique patterns of human capital use and depreciation.
Religion and populism: the Aksi 212 movement in Indonesia
Authors: Fanany Ismet , Fanany Rebecca
Published: September 2021

This chapter discusses how a manifestation of populism as a force in Indonesian society emerged in the Aksi 212 (212 Action), a politico-religious movement that came to prominence as a reaction to a statement made by the then governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (popularly known as Ahok), that many Muslims perceived as blasphemous. As the movement grew, it became increasingly clear that populism, in this context, does not represent an attempt to include the whole Muslim public and is, in fact, exclusionary, reflecting the specific views and interests of one part of the Muslim population against other groups that share the religion but have different theological and ideological views. Its supporters see it as offering material inclusion for Indonesian Muslims through creating pressure for policy that supports their interests. It provides for symbolic inclusion by creating public discourse about the position of Muslims in Indonesian society who should, according to the view of supporters, be prioritised. And it offers political inclusion by positioning Muslim parties and candidates in advantaged positions, including the idea that the office of the president and other high-level positions must only be occupied by Muslims.
Introduction
Authors: Gal John , Köngeter Stefan , Vicary Sarah
Published: September 2021

This chapter discusses a number of themes that underlie this edited volume on the transnational history of the Settlement House Movement. The themes include the motivations for establishing settlement houses and the differences and similarities that these had on the transnational translation of this idea; the unique role of women in the Settlement House Movement; and the Movement’s impact on the social work profession and upon social work and sociological research. The diverse cases discussed in this book offer an insight into the development of settlement houses in various countries and present a corrective to the tendency within social work to associate settlement houses exclusively with a change-oriented, community-based, social reform agenda. They do not only contribute to knowledge on a key element in the emergence of social work but also introduce a unique historical approach to the study of the Settlement House Movement, which adopts a critical and transnational perspective.
Between social mission and social reform: the Settlement House Movement in Germany, 1900–30
Authors: Wietschorke Jens
Published: September 2021

This chapter provides an overview of the development and characteristics of the German settlement movement and traces both the currents of social reform as well as the actors to which they were linked. Using the example of the Soziale Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berlin-Ost (social working group Berlin-East) in particular, it will be shown that the social missionary approach of the German Settlement House Movement is due especially to its anchoring in the bourgeois youth movement and its strong Protestant character. Furthermore, the chapter sheds light on the area of social research in the Berlin settlement house which helped to establish further professional networks. This creates a picture of a historical variant of community work that is both independent and unique in an international context, and in which fundamental theological-ethical positions as well as certain currents of social reform, social research and social work converged in a specific way.
The English settlements, the Poor Man’s Lawyer and social work, circa 1890–1939
Authors: Bradley Kate
Published: September 2021

The settlement movement in England brought about and worked in tandem with other reformist movements: such as the spread of ‘poor man’s lawyer’ services. The provision of these free legal advice clinics was a means of usefully applying the legal skills of residents at male-led settlements, as well as creating a form of social work that was acceptable for upper- and middle-class men to do.  Settlement provision of legal advice also closely intersected with the social work they undertook, from direct interventions in helping needy families, to training social workers in aspects of law, as well as to seeing legal advice as a key element in community development.
Conclusion
Authors: Vicary Sarah
Published: September 2021

This chapter concludes the book by drawing together the themes from each of the chapters. It considers the place of the Settlement House movement within the development of social work, social welfare and research and comments upon the way in which a comparison of Settlement Houses as they have developed in different national contexts signify a more complex perspective. Examining the role of historical research and, particularly, the contribution that this methodological approach can have within social work and social work education it uses examples provided within the chapters. It concludes by discussing the role the Settlement House movement holds in the continued development of social work, social welfare and research.
Health and illness research: value-free or value-laden?
Authors: Alderson Priscilla
Published: September 2021

This chapter asks whether health research can and should be value-free. It questions whether facts can be separated from values, and then considers: health-related rights; dignity in healthcare; truth, trust and consent; values and ethics in health research. The chapter also looks at: what critical realism can add on important ethical concerns that are missing or under-examined in other paradigms; health research paradigms and ethics; ethical naturalism and moral realism; learning from other major theorists: advocacy on many levels and, finally, the chapter compares the approaches to values in realist evaluation and in critical realism. In the detailed example, Graham Scambler combines critical realism with Habermas’s theories.
Ideology and us
Authors: Beresford Peter
Published: September 2021

This chapter takes the next step and focuses on ideology's relations with 'us' — the people on the receiving end. The chapter argues that there has been little exploration of the whys and wherefores of nature of ideology. Here the story seems to be one of a widespread lack of both familiarity and ease with the idea. Starting with the individual, the chapter explores how ideology impacts on us personally. It considers the idea of people's personal ideology, the forms it may take and what may shape it. Ultimately, the chapter examines the ideological context of our individual experience, examining two extreme ideologies of the twentieth century and the broader insights they offer as case studies.
Learning to work together: the key to inclusive involvement
Authors: Beresford Peter
Published: September 2021

This chapter moves on from individual involvement to how we can learn to work together to take collective action that maximises our power to bring about change. It continues to explore this from the perspective of disabled people and their movement because of the particular barriers and disempowerment they have successfully challenged and the broader insights this offers. The chapter recalls that the previous section discovered that there is a third concept central to this relationship between participation and ideology: power — and inequalities of power. Participation at its most meaningful is about recognising the significance of power and challenging such inequalities of power. Ultimately, the chapter analyzes the pressures and circumstances that can operate to make people want to get involved and how we can take the first crucial steps to do this inclusively together, challenging individualisation and the limitations of traditional approaches to collective action.
Developing our own organisations
Authors: Beresford Peter
Published: September 2021

This chapter develops the discussion about working together by exploring how to have a real say — how we can develop our own organisations, as a basis for self-organization, rather than merely serving other people's causes. It looks beyond identity politics and the limitations associated with them, to focus on organising on the basis of shared experience, particularly of discrimination and exclusion. The chapter provides a basis for self-organizing around common understandings and strongly internalised goals arising from the desire to challenge oppression. It then returns to the self-organizing of disabled people, which has highlighted the difference between traditional processes where non-disabled people controlled the agenda and one where disabled people seek to speak and act on their own behalf, setting up and controlling their own organisations. Ultimately, the chapter mentions the case study of a 'user-led organisation', Shaping Our Lives, in which the author has been actively involved. Like other self-run organisations, it has done things differently to achieve different objectives, offering helpful insights for advancing participatory ideology in practice.
Thatcherism and its Legacy
Authors: Cummins Ian
Published: September 2021

This chapter will examine the ideological underpinnings of what came to be known as Thatcherism before going on to outline the main themes in welfare and penal policy in the period (1979-90). The influence of Thatcherism is fundamental to an understanding of welfare and penal policy in the twenty-five years since her defenestration from Downing Street.
Welfare and Punishment in a ‘Stark Utopia’ (1979–2015)
Authors: Cummins Ian
Published: September 2021

Polanyi (1957) described the notion of a self-regulating global system a “stark Utopia.” This chapter uses this as a starting point to examine the broad themes in the development of welfare and penal policy in a period dominated by free market economics Fukuyama (1992) presents the triumph of free market economics as an inevitable conclusion of trends in human history. It is also presented as the final stage development has ceased or is complete. Polanyi’s analysis is presented a counterpoint to this analysis. Polanyi asserts the primacy of politics. Thus, it is impossible to separate economic and political development. Prosperity of the post war period can thus be viewed as a direct result of the advances in politics and civil society that occurred in the period.
Austerity and the Big Society
Authors: Cummins Ian
Published: September 2021

This chapter will examine welfare and penal policy under the Coalition Government. The politics of austerity will be explored arguing that the Coalition used the cover of the financial crisis to undertake a fundamental retrenchment of the welfare state. This chapter will argue that Cameron’s notion of the Big Society should not be dismissed as a political gimmick or rhetoric. It reflects an aspiration for a recasting of the relationship between citizens and the social state. This recasting is presented as a fiscal necessity but is actually driven by a politics that is underpinned by the othering of the poor. Cameron and the Coalition’s claims to social liberalism followed a series of policies that shredded the social state.
Early Life Transitions Increase the Risk for HIV Infection: Using Latent Class Growth Models to Assess the Effect of Key Life Events on HIV Incidence Among Adolescent Girls in Rural South Africa
Authors: Pettifor Audrey , Agnew Emily , Neilands Torsten B. , Ahern Jennifer , Tollman Stephen , Kahn Kathleen , Lippman Sheri A.
Published: September 2021

Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in sub-Saharan Africa are at very high risk of HIV infection. 6% of adolescent AGYW ages 15-19 are infected with HIV, increasing to over 17% by age 20-24. Adolescents matter and yet we have limited, rigorous information on what matters for adolescents living in developing countries and how we can best help them transition safely to adulthood. This chapter uses longitudinal data on a cohort of over 2,000 adolescent girls in rural South Africa who have been followed over 8 years as they transition from adolescence into early adulthood to examine how the timing and occurrence of multiple, non-repeatable social and behavioral determinants shape the risk of HIV acquisition over the adolescent life course. The analysis uses multiple event process survival mixture modeling to examine how key exposures such as childhood sexual abuse, depression, household shocks, poverty, parental loss, early pregnancy, school leaving and gender based violence shape HIV risk during adolescence. This is a unique opportunity to examine key behavioral and social life events in combination and longitudinally among young women in rural Africa, providing unique insights into when best to intervene and on what.
Territorial Politics and Devolution in Scotland
Authors: Bradbury Jonathan
Published: September 2021

This chapter addresses territorial politics and the introduction of devolution in Scotland. It discusses the validity of the proposition that, even in Scotland, resources were weak relative to reformers' aspirations. Throughout, the chapter addresses the movement for territorial change in Scotland and explores the proposition that in the context of power politics and resource deficiencies, it adopted constrained aims and incorporated an instrumentalist approach to achieve them. Equally, the chapter considers how the British Labour leadership politically managed the emergence of devolution proposals, and explores the idea that in the context of similar relative resource deficiencies, it adopted a code focused on achieving indirect central control. Finally, the chapter considers the policy process by which devolution proposals were created, both in opposition and in government, and the extent to which it contributed to their perceived effectiveness and legitimacy, and whether Scottish devolution overall could be considered to be a successful reform. To address these issues and theoretical questions, the chapter develops chronologically. Section one focuses on territorial politics and the political debate on the constitutional question in Scotland and at the UK centre in the 1980s. Section two addresses the preparation of devolution policy in Scotland during the 1990s and the significance of the referendum on Scottish devolution held in September 1997. Finally, section three considers the Blair government's preparation of devolution policy 1997–8, the Scotland Act 1998 and plans for its implementation.
Territorial Politics and Devolution in Northern Ireland
Authors: Bradbury Jonathan
Published: September 2021

This chapter addresses territorial politics and the introduction of devolution in Northern Ireland. The chapter focuses on the nature of the territorial strain provided by Northern Ireland, examining the resources feeding nationalist pressures for change in Northern Ireland on the one hand and sustaining UK rule on the other. The chapter explores how recognition of resource weaknesses and constraints influenced nationalist and unionist political elite leadership, and the codes, strategies and goals that they each developed. The chapter also focuses on the codes, strategies and goals pursued by UK central government. In examining the role of UK central government, the chapter acknowledges that the political violence had meant that a long-standing approach of indirect control via collaborative local elites in the Northern Ireland Parliament had had to be abandoned in 1972, to be followed by direct UK rule. Nevertheless, the discussion explores how we should analyse UK centre approaches in terms of various phases of efforts ultimately to restore indirect control via collaborative elites and thus the centre's own relative autonomy from Northern Ireland affairs. Finally, the chapter focuses on the constitutional process which led to the Good Friday Agreement, by which devolution proposals were created, and the extent to which it contributed to their effectiveness and legitimacy. The chapter evaluates to what extent we should see this as a successful territorial constitutional reform.
Territorial Politics, Regionalism and England
Authors: Bradbury Jonathan
Published: September 2021

This chapter addresses the reform of government in England over the entire period between 1997 and 2007. First, the chapter considers the nature of the territorial strain, problem and resources for change present in England. Second, the chapter considers peripheral elite leadership in England — whether through intermediate English elite or English regional elite leadership — and the codes, strategies and goals pursued. It explores further the thesis that movements for territorial change also in England adopted indirect instrumental cases for territorial reform rather than direct identity-based ones, emphasising functional arguments and the development of institutional mechanisms for gradual decentralisation, rather than major root and branch reform. Third, the chapter analyses the approach of UK central government, and in particular that of the British Labour leadership both in opposition before 1997 and in government afterwards. Here, we should note that Bulpitt suggested that the English governing code had tended to parallel the indirect local elite assimilation approach used territorially in the rest of the UK. Nevertheless, under modernisation projects since the 1960s, including those of the Thatcher–Major governments, the overall government strategy was a promotional one, often requiring direct central intervention in the short term to realise central governing projects. Finally, the chapter assesses the policy process by which English reform was developed, the extent to which it may be seen as effective and legitimate, and judged as successful or not in sustaining a new centre.
Introduction: Human Security and the Emergence of Body Counts
Authors: Hamourtziadou Lily
Published: September 2021

How do we understand human security and casualty recording in the 21-century, our fundamental human rights and the importance of recording their violation? Human security and human rights are mutually reinforcing, as they identify the rights that need to be protected and recognise the ethical and political importance of securing the holders of those rights. Protecting human rights and upholding humanitarian law are essential to human security, which makes imperative the need to highlight the insecurity caused by armed conflict through assessing the impact on civilian life. Casualty recording bodies like Iraq Body Count have emerged, in order to record the toll the War on Terror took on those the Geneva Conventions called protected persons. The recognition of the importance of the right to life, security and liberty has placed great demands on governments and organisations to closely monitor and record human deaths from armed violence, and, by documenting those deaths in as much detail as possible, to give a human face to victims of war.
The Beginning of the End of Sectarian Violence? Writing the War 2008–2009
Authors: Hamourtziadou Lily
Published: September 2021

The security of the 2008-2009 period is assessed through editorials and annual security analysis. The narrative continues both ‘live’, as events are recounted through the editorials, and reflective. It looks at the consequences of state collapse, at the impact of enforcing a neoliberal system on Iraq, in terms of exploitation and economic insecurity, but also in terms of leading to deepening socio-economic divisions which have marginalised, alienated and angered millions of people, thus increasing instability and insecurity, nationally and regionally. Iraq’s economic transformation that has led to low standards of living, dismal economic and employment conditions, energy and food shortages, all of which plague Iraq today, is discussed within the context of power, leadership and hegemony. Causes and weapons of war, nation-building ‘military style’, community trauma, energy security and state vulnerability are also discussed within the framework of a discussion on threats, risks and impact.
Introduction: The Alchemy of War
Authors: Waldman Thomas
Published: September 2021

This chapter asserts that a recurring theme throughout the history of war — although not necessarily always the most prominent one — concerns the efforts of belligerents to somehow limit, minimize or evade the various liabilities associated with its conduct. It argues that vicarious warfare is an extreme form of the strategic alchemy, and contemporary America is its most enthusiastic guild. The chapter then elaborates the symbol of the squared circle in alchemy which represented the elements that would combine to create the philosopher's stone. It employs a similar idea to capture the way actors seek to 'produce' less burdensome wars through reduced costs and requirements, whether in terms of, among other things, blood, treasure, political capital or material resources. In war, this translates into a form of denial with regard to the serious costs that might have to be incurred or the level of investments in material, social, political and even emotional capital required to realize objectives, resulting in a mismatch between ends and means. Ultimately, the chapter charts the emergence of America's general preference to fight its wars: delegating fighting to proxies, limiting the exposure of its own military forces to danger, and operating in the shadows through the use of special forces, covert practices and evolving offensive cyber techniques.
Consequences
Authors: Waldman Thomas
Published: September 2021

This chapter considers some of the prominent strategic consequences arising from the prosecution of vicarious warfare over recent times. The chapter reveals its principal operational manifestations to further scrutiny with the aim of uncovering its central dynamics and shedding greater light on the often counterproductive strategic consequences of this form of war, at least as it has been conducted by the United States over recent times. It begins by presenting core Clausewitzian insights that can aid appreciation of the political dynamics underlying the use of force, and specifically as they apply to vicarious warfare. This helps explain how apparent tactical gains can shroud serious deficiencies in strategic terms. The chapter then shifts to outline how these dynamics play out in relation to three 'Ds' of delegation, danger-proofing and darkness, which are employed as short-hand descriptors for some of the central practices that have characterized contemporary US vicarious warfare.
Work and Personality Change
Authors: Wang Ying , Wu Chia-Huei
Published: September 2021

This book provides an advanced and contemporary understanding about personality at work, with a particular focus on the change perspective of personality. Thus far, the majority of research focusing on personality at work takes a more static perspective, assuming that personality is fixed and stable. However, an increasingly prominent research line over recent years have started to indicate that personality is not fixed, and that personality can be changed by work and vocational experiences, such as employment status, career roles, and job characteristics, and deliberate training and interventions. This perspective is in line with various studies on personality in the general life domain, which reinforces the changing nature of personality. This book extends from this line of research, with a particular focus on personality change in the work context. By reviewing latest research evidence in this area and also drawing on research in the broader personality and social psychology domain, this book provides a conceptual development on how personality can be changed via work, by societal, organisational, and job-related factors, as well as how individuals can take an active approach in changing their personality at work.
‘Staying at Home’ or ‘Choosing to Work’
Authors: Hamilton Patricia
Published: September 2021

This chapter focuses on the effort to balance work and family as one of the defining features of contemporary parenthood. It discusses the conflict between staying at home or working outside for women, which has been captured in the prevailing mommy wars discourse. It also explores the discourse about women's recent entrance into the paid workforce, which has revealed a variety of unresolved obstacles that must be overcome in order for women to meet both the economic responsibilities as good citizens and the requirements of raising good citizens. The chapter recounts how black women have been socially positioned as workers and forced to balance work and motherhood for generations, from slavery through colonialism and into the postwar period. It focuses on the narratives of two black mothers living in Canada, where one chooses to stay at home while the other opts to return to work.
Counterfactual Criminology
Authors: McGregor Rafe
Published: September 2021

Counterfactual knowledge is knowledge of reality that is provided by the exploration of alternatives to that reality. Ideal counterfactuals pair a particular set of circumstances with a preferred response to those circumstances. Probable counterfactuals simultaneously represent an alternative to reality and suggest that this alternative may be partially or totally true. The counterfactual value of an exemplary narrative is the extent to which the narrative representation provides knowledge of reality by means of exploring alternatives to that reality. This chapter demonstrates that narrative fictions can be valuable to criminology in this way using two case studies: ITV’s Broadchurch 3 (2017) television series (an ideal counterfactual) and (2) Marlon James’ (2014) novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings (a probable counterfactual).
Norm Diffusion in International Peace Mediation
Authors: Vuković Siniša
Published: September 2021

This chapter elucidates the relevance of norm diffusion as a strategic tool through which mediators assert not only their control over the peacemaking process, but manage to use it to institute, consolidate and boost their international relevance, credibility and reputation more generally. While both legitimacy and soft power have received ample attention from various subfields in social sciences, surprisingly, very little is known about the role they play in international mediation broadly, and norm diffusion through mediation in particular. Building on existing international relations literature on legitimacy and soft power, the chapter aims to address this gap and examine which factors enable or deter norm diffusion through mediation, and their impact on mediators’ choices in peacemaking.
Rethinking Mediation During Contested Regime Transformation and Episodes of Mobilization
Authors: Tarnaala Elisa
Published: September 2021

This chapter explores the ways in which structural condition such as political institutions, historical legacies and economic realities shape the limits of what is possible in mediation and resulting peace processes. Mediation scholarship focusing on international diplomacy and formal processes has paid little attention to the interplay between contested political processes ats regime level and the collective action of ordinary people in demonstrations, protests and revolutions. Yet both regime type and previous patterns of mobilisation and protest impact the space for manoeuvre in mediation. The chapter highlights how pre-existing configurations of political contestation, as well as unexpected manifestations of political agency affect what is deemed possible by both the regime and outside contenders, making these dynamics important aspects of a peace mediation process.
The Business of Peace and the Politics of Inclusion: The Role of Local Business Actors in Yemen (2011–16)
Authors: Kaye Josie Lianna
Published: September 2021

This chapter explores the role that businesses played in Yemen 2011-2016 and their place in the strategies of UN mediators. Research demonstrates that businesses – including ‘formal’ and ‘informal’, ‘licit’ and ‘illicit’ play distinctly political roles in war to peace transitions, as conflict instigators, mediators, benefactors and beneficiaries; indeed, such actors are normally deeply enmeshed simultaneously in the production of statehood, and in processes that undermine it through networks of patronage, nepotism and corruption. Yet the increasing recognition of the negative and positive roles played by businesses in countries in conflict has yet to translate into the consistent inclusion of these so-called ‘economic actors’ in peace negotiations and of ‘economic issues’ in peace settlements. The marginalisation – and in some instances omission - of such actors sheds light on and calls into question the discourse on inclusive peace processes.
The Ironic State
Authors: Brassett James
Published: September 2021

In this book, James Brassett builds on his prize-winning research to demonstrate how British comedy can provide intimate and vital understandings of the everyday politics of globalization in Britain. The book explores British comedy and Britain’s global politics from post-war imperial decline through to its awkward embrace of globalization, examining a wide variety of comedic mediums, such as the popular television show The Office and the online satire The Daily Mash. Touching on issues such as empire, the class system and capitalism, the author demonstrates how comedy offers valuable insights on how global market life is experienced, mediated, contested and accommodated.
Austerity and the Rise of Radical Comedy
Authors: Brassett James
Published: September 2021

This chapter picks up previous strands from the ‘new satire’ to argue that the global financial crisis and the rise of austerity politics provided fertile ground for the return of ‘radical comedy’. Here the work of Russell Brand and Stewart Lee is discussed in terms of its ability to question and subvert the dominant mode of market agency: the neoliberal subject. For Brand, this is an opportunity to engage in wider themes of radical democracy, whereas Lee provides a more nuanced deconstruction of our place in global capital/ media flows.
Socially Appropriate and Credentialled: The Struggle for the Working Self
Authors: Farrugia David
Published: September 2021

This chapter focuses on the experiences of young people who have experienced substantial periods of unemployment and marginalisation. For the young people in this chapter, work is a realm that is unwelcoming and governed by rules that they constantly strive to follow, but feel are denigrating of their sense of self. If work is a realm of self-realisation, then these young people demonstrate the consequences of being marginalised from this socially critical identity practice. Rather than cultivating aspects of themselves into economic value as do young people in the previous two chapters, these marginalised young people aim to make themselves socially appropriate to the world of work – to cultivate modes of personal presentation and relating to others that they hope will convey the impression of the appropriately disciplined worker. When this is unsuccessful, young people experience unemployment as a manifestation of their own personal valuelessness, even when they are aware of the high levels of youth unemployment that their localities experience. In this sense, they are excluded from the modes of self-realisation offered by the work ethic, and work becomes an arena of degradation and risk.
Austerity and State Rescaling
Authors: Davies Jonathan S.
Published: September 2021

The story of austerity is entwined with experiments in city-regionalism, authoritarianism, fiscal and political centralisation and downloading or scalar dumping. Interpenetrating institutional, territorial and scalar restructurings have significant implications for politics and governing cultures, and relations between local states and citizens. This chapter focuses on the evolving powers and liabilities accruing to sub-national governments in the period since the Global Financial Crisis, read through revenue streams, fiscal rules and changes to spatial and jurisdictional capacities. The key finding across the eight cities is that municipalities face a variable and increasing mix of upward and downward constraints undermining their political capacity. Considered from the standpoint of governability, state rescaling in the period since the Crisis has tended to consolidate disciplinary neoliberalism, creating additional pressures on local governments to reinforce their tax bases through place-marketing. These processes also make cities more governable for national and provincial elites, pushing local state mechanisms into closer alignment with the administrative and financial priorities of upper tier apparatuses.
Every Epoch, Time Frame or Date that Is Solid Melts into Air. Does It? The Entanglements of Global History and World Society
Authors: Albert Mathias
Published: September 2021

This chapter explores the possibilities of a fruitful exchange between world society theory and global history approaches. It uses turning points in analyzing the quality of the accounts of the exchange and confirms whether these accounts of significant change can be linked to one another. It also mentions the unification of global history and world society theory in rejecting any obvious 'telos' of history. The chapter explains that in global history, the rejection takes the form of a narrative in which history unfolds as nothing but a transformation of complexity, while in world society theory it takes the form of a theory of social evolution. It discusses possible substantive overlaps between global history and world society theory, which focuses on epochal change, the role of the long nineteenth century, and the role of single big events or turning points.
Open-and-Shut Case
Authors: Kitchin Rob
Published: September 2021

This chapter details a conversation between open data advocates and a civil servant in charge of the process, which reveals the challenges of getting government data made open. Without an injection of funds, an open data initiative called the Regional Data Lab, was in danger of winding down. Government had very little interest in making their data available, and even less enthusiasm for spending money during austerity. And open data was not free data; somebody had to pay for the labour of preparing data for release and building the necessary data infrastructure. What the Regional Data Lab does is take what data are already openly available and make them useable for those that lack the skills to build their own tools so they can use them in formulating policy. Rather than negotiating separate contracts every time, it would make more sense to simply centrally fund the Regional Data Lab to provide a suite of core data services. However, the advocates are more interested in the development of a national open data repository and access to more data, and a coordinated approach to providing data analytics for the public sector.
The Secret Science of Formulas
Authors: Kitchin Rob
Published: September 2021

This chapter reveals how choices and decisions concerning the analytics applied to data shapes outcomes, through an account of a working session between academics and a government minister to devise and implement an 'objective' method for allocating government funding. The nub of the problem was the Minister had a very particular outcome in mind. He wanted the investment from his new scheme to be spread across as many constituencies as possible, and certainly the ones that traditionally voted for his party or those that might swing away from the government. However, he did not want to be seen to allocate the funding on political grounds, nor run the scheme on a competitive basis. Instead, he wanted to be able to say that the monies had been apportioned using a statistical formula that assessed need objectively. Creating a formula for producing a map that pleased the Minister proved to be trickier than anticipated. In part, this was because he had his own ideas about which variables were good indicators of relative deprivation and need.
Data Futures
Authors: Kitchin Rob
Published: September 2021

This chapter explores what kind of data future we want to create and strategies for realizing our visions. It highlights the need to enact 'a digital ethics of care', and to claim and assert 'data sovereignty'. An ethics of digital care is practising reciprocal and nonreciprocal care with respect to digital life, including data practices: that we care for ourselves and others in ways that we expect to be treated, and are supportive and promote wellbeing and not exploitative. This means acting in moral ways with respect to the generation and use of data. Accompanying an ethics of digital care should be digital rights and entitlements. Data sovereignty is the idea that we should have some authority and control over data that relates to us and that other individuals, companies, and states should recognize the legitimacy of that sovereignty. In other words, we should have a say in what data are generated about us and have an ownership stake in those data that dictates how they are treated and shared, and for what purpose they can be used.
The Whiteness of Communication Studies
Authors: Timcke Scott
Published: September 2021

This chapter examines the role of data and whiteness in American social life. It aims to critique the 'cognitive economy of racial domination' as it manifests in this broad area of scholarship. Conceptualizing the reverberations and continuations of this domination requires temporarily setting aside the general canonical literature in communication theory. Directly and indirectly, it builds upon those who have also critiqued previous iterations of this racial domination. This includes Stuart Hall, who theorized identity as indeterminate, laden with multiplicities that are always in a process of becoming, Paul Gilroy, who did much to show how identity was connected to the development of circuits of accumulation during the course of modernity, and Sut Jhally, whose longstanding analysis of race in American media culture is the benchmark for any meaningful critique of contemporary life. In the last two decades, demographic shifts and hiring trends in the US and UK academic systems have taken some of the sharpness from the whiteness of communication theory. However, this does not mean that marginalization does not continue. Curriculums and faculty compliments do change, but they do under the long shadow of an Anglo-American colonial present where concurrently amnesia of and nostalgia for Pax Britannica justifies Pax Americana. The chapter addresses issues like misrecognition and ideology, and undertakes a study of the considerable amount of violence required to maintain racial hierarchies, both in the United States and elsewhere in the world.
Ideas, Voice and Attraction
Authors: Breslin Shaun
Published: September 2021

The chapter outlines the evolution of interest in China in the importance of developing ‘soft power’ resources, and what this power was meant to achieve. It then draws a distinction between different dimensions of non-hard power resources, arguing that much of what is done by the Chinese leadership is best thought of as an exercise in nation branding or international political marketing. It is a state led project designed to create a preferred understanding of what China is and what it stands for, and to influence (or even control) the way that China is spoken about and debated in other countries. It also discusses the way in which the soft and the hard come together in the actions and preferences of Chinese consumers, and concludes with a discussion of Chinese ‘crisis diplomacy’, with a specific focus on what was done and said during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.