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As UK cities and towns become increasingly ethnically and culturally diverse, researchers have tuned into how people inhabit multiculturalism. Ethnographic approaches have focused on the kind of togetherness that people generate as they go about their everyday lives, observing the affective textures of interactions and happenings of the here and now in granular detail. Missing from these accounts is what crowdsourced data might add to understandings of how multicultural places are experienced. What is vital about this kind of data is that it is 'big', involving a diversity of voices similarly intent on messaging their experiences, presenting opportunities to scale up the affect of encounters and to quantify what is difficult to qualify. This paper brings Digital Geographies into conversation with research on everyday multiculturalism to examine qualitatively and quantitatively how social media use folds into and expresses various practices of sociality and connection. Our paper involves Twitter, Nando's and the city of Leicester in the UK to challenge and advance ways of understanding everyday multiculturalism in an era of global migration and ethnically complex populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is aimed toward examining the attention received by research papers through social and electronic media in business research. In recent years, altmetrics has emerged as a complementary measure of the impact of research works besides citation analysis and bibliometrics. Using the altmetric attention score (AAS) the paper is the first research of its kind to shed light on the characteristics of 100 papers receiving the highest online attention. Various predictors of online engagement with articles in business research journals having an impact factor greater than 6 are discussed. Data was collected from the Dimensions.ai database and analyzed using R statistical software. It is found that the Journal of Business Ethics contributed maximum papers with the highest AAS followed by the Journal of Business Research. Using the Kruskal-Wallis rank-sum test it was determined that AAS in business research is dependent upon article type, topics, and journal of publication. Most of the papers in high impact factor business journals have been contributed by the authors of USA, UK and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mending tears in translucent papers is a challenging task that requires mending materials with specific mechanical and optical properties. Recently, translucent films from microfibrillated cellulose have been suggested as an attractive alternative to traditional repair materials. We prepared custom films from a commercial microfibrillated cellulose suspension and compared their mechanical and optical properties as mending supports with commercially manufactured microfibrillated cellulose films and Japanese tissue. Tear mending of modern and historic translucent paper samples using the custom-made films and Klucel G or isinglass as adhesives showed satisfactory strength and resilience, and accelerated ageing tests yielded acceptable visual results. A case study on a translucent paper document from the collection of The National Archives, UK, is detailed. We conclude that custom-made tear mending materials from commercially available microfibrillated cellulose suspensions present a cost-effective and attractive approach for the mending of translucent papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the history of the only surviving autograph manuscript of Ode to a Nightingale, composed two hundred years ago in May 2019, and preserved since 1933 in the Fitzwilliam Museum. It tests Charles Armitage Brown's famous eyewitness account of the moment of composition against the physical reality of the manuscript, and examines its materiality in some detail. It also traces the history of the manuscript's fortunes through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and examines the role of collectors, curators and conservators in ensuring its survival and its continued presence in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this academic comic (or acadomic) I reflect on impacts to the creative process when reconceptualizing and recontextualizing a comics-based research (CBR) project as an acadomic for an edited book during the Covid-19 pandemic. The lockdowns intensified computer-mediated-communication (CMC) and I am compelled by two years of virtually exclusive engagement with digital technologies to explore the impact unrestrained online activities have on my creative comics practice, on my conceptions of research, and on my experiences as a teacher. Analysis of this process and its impacts is realized through a mixed research methodology that explores the impacts of conceptualizing and making an earlier acadomic, which in turn documents a comics-based research project between university students and a national charity as they successfully collaborate on the creation of a graphic novel. I probe the boundaries of academic writing by visualizing and performing Baudrillard's theoretical violence to critique digital intensification through metaphor, semiotics, and comics. The work for this article was undertaken during the rolling pandemic lockdowns in the UK and around the world from 2020 to 2022. Academic theory and the medium of comics problematize the digital simulacrum as I action a utopian pedagogy that supports balance between traditional and digital techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is based on a Keynote Lecture at the 2022 Colloquium of the Society for Educational Studies. It analyses the articles published in four leading journals in 2021 and compares these with the same journals 20 years earlier. Key findings include a considerable increase in authorship and multiple authorship and a very strong international dimension to authorship in current UK-based journals. Two-thirds of the papers were empirical, and by far the most common type of research design was qualitative interview studies, often of a very small-scale nature. Aspects of the teaching profession were the most common form of content, and there was also a focus on social class and multi-cultural issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016 the Government invited English local authority employers of social workers and university providers of social work qualifying programmes to apply jointly for funding to become social work teaching partnerships. This was in response to its concerns about the limited engagement of local authorities with qualifying training programmes. It was also part of the Government's strategy to ensure that students qualified as social workers with what it considered to be the right knowledge and skills and to improve their recruitment, retention and development and overall quality of practice. Following an evaluation of one partnership, this discussion paper addresses the evolution of these arrangements as found in consultations with representatives of 10 social work teaching partnerships (held 2017–18), the four original pilots and the six others that were subsequently funded. Drawing on a synthesis of the partnerships' reported experiences, this paper reports the variations in their approaches and sets out the challenges they faced and addressed, contextualising this in the policy landscape in which they were introduced and operated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internet has revolutionised our ability to communicate and connect across historic social, political and geographic divides. Where previously gatekeepers mitigated and negotiated access to mass media platforms, today potentially anyone – and any content – can reach millions of users in an instant. This development bears great opportunities for the democratisation of expression and the diversification of public discourse but has likewise broadened the impact of harm caused online. This raises the question how platforms and services can be regulated effectively to combat online harms without jeopardising free and open discourse. The paper explores the Online Harms White Paper published by the UK Government earlier this year and compares its regulatory approach with the infamous German Network Enforcement Law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are sound educational and examining reasons for the use of coursework assessment and practical assessment of student work by teachers in schools for purposes of reporting examination grades. Coursework and practical work test a range of different curriculum goals to final papers and increase the validity and reliability of the result. However, the use of coursework and practical work in tests and examinations has been a matter of constant political as well as educational debate in England over the last 30 years. The paper reviews these debates and developments and argues that as accountability pressures increase, the evidence base for published results is becoming narrower and less valid as the system moves back to wholly end-of-course testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the evolving historiography of 'sport' vis-à-vis the British Society of Sports History (BSSH), as per fluid and shifting definitions of what the term 'sport' means. It begins by discussing broad themes within the previous historiography of UK sport. Afterwards, it roughly quantifies the content of articles the BSSH's journal The Sports Historian/Sport in History during the period 1993–2021, with an emphasis on sporting forms and emerging trends. Finally, the author provides a similar discussion of the topics of conference papers at annual meetings of the BSSH during the period 2011–21. Throughout this article, the author, Chair of the Society from 2017 to 2019, attempts to provide some causal explanations for why certain sporting forms are popular points of discussion, how others are pushing the envelope of the term 'sport', and issues therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research exploring how working-class women experience UK Higher Education (HE) work has made evident recurring themes around social segregation and corresponding difficulties with feeling they belong. This paper develops this work by exploring the ways in which UK, HE based working-class women lecturers talk about their sense of belonging. It was found that, in contemporary UK HE, lecturing work is located within a marketised space where caring for students is central and the deployment of emotional labour to seen to be a necessary requirement to meet those demands. In addition, this labour is understood to be work that working-class women can readily take up, and as one of the few vehicles to enable feelings of value and belonging. However, this work is also devalued, unaccounted for and potentially harmful to those who do engage in it, therefore shoring up/ reinforcing a class and gender stratified UK academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reconstructs the opinions expressed by academic economists in front of the Radcliffe Committee, whose Report was a document of considerable importance for the post-war theory of monetary policy. The Committee provided one of the first official occasions to discuss the nexus between inflation and unemployment in Britain and the role of monetary policy in achieving price stability. Analyzing the Report, the Memoranda and the Minutes of evidence put forth in front of the Committee, the article documents the innovative aspects of the Radcliffe doctrine on monetary issues and its complex connections with Keynesian and Post-Keynesian monetary theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local journalism in the UK has been described as being in "crisis". Local newspapers have experienced years of declining circulations and staff cuts, leading to questions about how effectively those institutions can continue to perform normative functions of journalism. One of those is to report on the courts. Through analysis of 22 semi-structured interviews with local newspaper reporters who cover the courts beat, agency court reporters who supply the local press, as well as broadcast journalists involved in both local and national court coverage, this paper helps to establish how the daily newswork of court journalists has developed amid a turbulent period in journalism, especially local journalism. The research finds that court reporting has been less affected than other news beats but faces a series of challenges related to financial cuts and other pressures. While the local press has become even more essential to the provision of court reporting, a central part of the news media's fourth estate role, those challenges affect the ability of court reporters to perform this function. This paper recommends that policymakers consider using a form of public funding to guarantee the future of court reporting at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether enough highly qualified STEM workers are being educated and trained in the UK is an important question. The answer has implications not only for educators, employers and policymakers but also for individuals who are currently engaged in, or are considering entering, education or training in this area. Set against a policy backdrop that prioritises students studying more science for longer, this paper considers long-term patterns of participation in STEM education – from school science through to graduate entry into the highly skilled STEM labour market. Using a unique dataset that extends across seven decades and comprises many hundreds of thousands of students, the paper finds that patterns of participation in most STEM subjects have varied little over the period considered; suggesting that efforts to increase the numbers of students studying science in school has had limited impact on the throughput of students who study STEM, including the pure sciences, at university level and, subsequently, on the number of graduates who would be available to undertake highly skilled work in areas for which degree-level skills are a pre-requisite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge is an essential ingredient for economic development, growth and gaining a competitive advantage. In order to produce novel and valuable knowledge, it is advantageous, perhaps vital, to rely on insights gained from prior research efforts. Those knowledge spillovers (KS) provide the rationale for sustained economic growth and produce unique place-based knowledge spaces. Due to the spatial embeddedness and stickiness of knowledge, most investigations mainly pay attention to the localized nature of KS, but what about those spillovers from other jurisdictions, or perhaps even from across the globe? To analyse the role played by international KS, the present study investigates to what extent international KS shape the evolution of the UK science and technology space. The first step involves creating knowledge spaces following the methodology outlined by Kogler et al. (2013; 2017) for the period 2006-15. Subsequently, we are following the paper trail of publications and patents developed by UK authors and inventors to depict to what degree international KS in specific science and technology domains have contributed to the production of novel knowledge in the UK. The results indicate that four out of five citations made in publications and patents in the UK are the works of authors and inventors residing elsewhere. This has important policy implications considering recent tendencies to curtail trade and the free movement of labour, all of which contribute to the diffusion of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 1 January 1930 the Communist Party of Great Britain's (CPGB) new daily newspaper, theDaily Worker, was published for the first time. It was heralded by the CPGB as a maturing of the British Communist movement, and an opportunity for the Party to spread its message to a much wider audience than previous weekly newspapers would allow. With leading Party members in control of the paper, theDaily Workerwas very much a Party newspaper; however, the CPGB wanted it to be much more than an internal bulletin. This paper examines the attempts by the CPGB to create a newspaper that spoke both for and with the voice of the working-classes, whilst also spreading the Party's message. It will ultimately conclude that the CPGB's depiction of it as a paper ‘by the working-classes, for the working-classes’ reflected the Party's efforts at locating its own place within the working-class movement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The emergence of web analytics software has changed the way marketing is researched, monitored, planned, and managed, which suggests a new dimension of marketing interactions between firms. This paper describes digital marketing results in terms of customer attraction to e-commerce websites from different angles (cross-country, firm type, evolution) and investigates empirically how competitors' marketing activities affect a focal firm. Using a vector autoregression model applied to data for grocery e-commerce in the US, the UK, and France, we find differences across American and European firms in the composition of digital marketing techniques and the existence of interaction effects across firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-opetition is gaining increasing attention as a potentially useful form of inter-organisational collaboration model to improve firms' sustainable performance. However, limited previous studies have provided a clear substantive theory or offered empirical evidence for the process of sustainability-driven co-opetition. This paper explores how competing companies can collaborate in their supply chains (SCs) to achieve a higher level of sustainability performance by identifying drivers, facilitators and barriers of co-opetition. Based on two explorative case studies of co-opetition in the UK, the findings of this paper lead to a number of propositions and a theoretical framework for sustainability-driven co-opetition in SCs. This study contributes to the literature by providing a more in-depth understanding of co-opetition as a strategic capability for firms. This paper also proves the feasibility of a combined use of Resource-Based View and Network Theory perspectives in explaining a paradoxical inter-organisational relationship like co-opetition. A road map for sustainability-driven co-opetition in SCs is also provided as a heuristic decision model for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critiques recent developments in educational discourse through an analysis of two UK Government White Papers and three specific problems. We argue that the latter herald forms of 'biocreep'. Echoing the analysis of such phenomena in the work of Michel Foucault, this gradual extension of 'biopolitics' into the field of education is a tendency which has accelerated with the Coronavirus pandemic and raises many questions for policy analysis. First, we show how the White Papers' approach to life and its related assumptions embody an attempt to further entrench the techniques of biopolitical population management in secondary and further education settings. Second, our analysis of the two Papers shows not just a deepening discursive shift towards ways of instrumentalising educational processes, but also identifies a triple problem of political assemblage: primo, this shift relies on the assemblage of a 'problematic subject'; secondo, it simultaneously assembles the problem of value extraction; and tertio, it obscures the problem of desire or unruliness of the assemblages created. Just as discursive practices of instrumentation, administration and evacuation try to manage these assemblages, they remain unable to contain the three problems they enshrine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) has been regularly documented as a demanding area of practice within the United Kingdom (UK). The aim of this paper is to share a practice model developed in an under-resourced inner London borough. The HSB forum is formed of a multi-agency group of professionals and runs monthly providing a platform for practitioners to seek consultation for young people they are working with who are displaying HSB's. Initial feedback for the forum from practitioners has been consistently positive and they have valued specifically the opportunity to formulate, have clear directions, and the multi-disciplinary perspective. In addition, most reported feeling empowered to implement the recommendations suggested. Given the shared vulnerability factors between those displaying HSB's and other at-risk young people such as those who are being sexually exploited, this model provides an innovative way that practitioners can be supported by multiple agencies where there is a lack of specialist services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arguments presented here are offered in critical appraisal of Guy's contribution to the scholarship of colonial Natal and are informed by two primary concerns: the first is a politics of producing desegregated historiography, and the second is the need for local historical studies to relate to areas of wider scholarly concern, in this instance relating Shepstonian politics to liberalism and the nineteenth-century British Empire.Theophilus Shepstone and the Forging of Natal(2013) is Jeff Guy's magnum opus and a meticulously researched and richly detailed book. Guy's finely considered archival narrative builds a vision of a colony forged out of the local contingencies of Native administration centred around Shepstone's mediations of power. In this telling, it is out of the struggles between the powerful Shepstone; a small, fractious settler elite – his friends and enemies; and an intricate network of chiefly authorities that Natal is made. It is clear from this tome, as it is in his considerable body of earlier work, that Guy was not one to countenance theoretical generalisations about Shepstone's Natal. It is the contention of this essay that Guy's writing of this history of the colony is, at best, a history in part, and that connections and generalisations beyond these groups and beyond the colony are political and scholarly imperatives. In addressing this, I will draw on instances of my own research on race, sex, marriage and state-making to demonstrate the necessity of, and the possibilities for, a broader, more complex telling of the history of colonial Natal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British press, public and parliament are not generally thought to have played a significant role in the process of Britain’s decolonisation in Africa. Neither do most studies of the broad British metropolitan experience foreground the importance of African nationalism. This article begins to challenge both of these views by providing an assessment of the significance of the British press’s rather sensational treatment of an incident of late-colonial violence in the context of an African demonstration in Blantyre, Nyasaland, in 1960. African activists exploited the British press presence in Blantyre as a means of advancing the nationalist cause and fighting the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. British correspondents responded positively for a variety of ideological, political, personal, situational and institutional reasons. In addition, by 1960, the British press recognised the strength of African nationalism in the context of African violence and agitation across that continent in preceding months and years. Its critical articles, which interlocked with British parliamentary proceedings and specific sets of historical concerns, had important effects among two core readerships: sections of the white settler communities of the Federation, and the British Government. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the United Kingdom, people with non-white ethnicities are more likely to report being in worse health conditions and have poorer experiences of healthcare services than white counterparts. The voices of those of Black ethnicities are often merged in literature among other non-white ethnicities. This literature review aims to analyse studies that investigate Black participant experiences of primary care in the UK. We conducted a systematic literature review searching Medline, Web of Science, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Social Policy and Practice, CINAHL plus, Psych INFO and Global Health with specific search terms for appropriate studies. No publish date limit was applied. 40 papers (39 articles and 1 thesis) were deemed eligible for inclusion in the review. A number of major themes emerged. Patient expectations of healthcare and the health seeking behaviour impacted their interactions with health systems in the UK. Both language and finances emerged as barriers through which some Black participants interacted with primary care services. (Mis)trust of clinicians and the health system was a common theme that often negatively impacted views of UK primary care services. The social context of the primary care service and instances of a cultural disconnect also impacted views of primary care services. Some papers detail patients recognising differential treatment based on ethnicity. The review included the voices of primary care professionals where descriptions of Black patients were overwhelmingly negative. Views and experiences of Black groups may be radically different to other ethnic minorities and thus, should be teased out of broader umbrella terms like Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) and Black Minority Ethnic (BME). To address ethnicity-based health inequalities, culturally sensitive interventions that engage with the impacted community including co-designed interventions should be considered while acknowledging the implications of being racialised as Black in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on major accessions to British archive and library repositories made in 2013 related to women's history. These include the papers of flute teacher and photographer Isobel Evans, acquired by the Anglesley Archives in Anglesley, Wales, oral history recordings related to the Women's Land Army, acquired by the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service in Great Britain, and the papers of the Coalpit Heath Women's Institute in Bristol, England.

This paper draws on a multi-phase project that sought to understand and increase young children's engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) objects. The paper presents findings from one aspect of this project that involved using storytelling to support young children's agency with STEM objects in a UK science museum. The qualitative research involved observing and interviewing 25 children aged 4–7 years in family and school groups. The findings demonstrate the importance of acknowledging and promoting young children's agency in museum settings. They suggest that providing children with opportunities to exercise agency by them taking control and activating their prior knowledge and interests during museum visits increases their engagement, enjoyment, and confidence. The study also highlights the important role that adults, including parents, teachers, and museum staff, play in facilitating children's agency and increasing their engagement with museum objects and spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on an oral history project which focuses on former coalminers' experiences of education and training. It presents the stories of five participants, all of whom undertook significant programmes of post-compulsory education during or immediately after leaving the coal industry and achieved a degree of social mobility over the course of their working lives. The paper compares and contrasts their experiences with those which now exist in Britain's former coalmining communities which, it is argued, have been substantively attenuated over time, especially for young men. Whilst it is evident that individual choice and motivation can play an important role in helping (or hindering) young people's journeys through education and employment, the central argument of the paper is that individual labour market success lies at the intersection of structure and agency – although the data presented also demonstrate the extent to which opportunities available to young men in the former coalfields have been diminished by de-industrialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the digital era, journalists are targeted with online abuse including serious threats of violence. These censorship tactics are a direct threat to media freedom. Although the UK Government intended to tackle online abuse of journalists in the Online Safety Act 2023, provisions fit for that purpose never materialised. This paper reveals why that was the case and what can be done about it. It finds that there is ongoing tension in the press industry about press regulation, with implications for journalist safety; that the Government carved out special privileges for the press' online content but did not similarly protect journalist digital safety; that journalist safety was largely ignored in Parliament; and that repeated Government disintegration and shifting policies stripped away provisions that could have been improved to better protect journalists. This paper concludes with suggestions for how journalist safety can be better protected in the OSA regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic landscape of the UK has been significantly shaped by the intertwined issues of Brexit, COVID, and their interconnected impacts. The disruptions caused by Brexit and the COVID pandemic have created uncertainty and upheaval for both businesses and individuals. Whilst the effects of COVID are now receding, Brexit is still dominating headlines seven years after the referendum and is likely to do so for the foreseeable future. In this introduction, we provide an overview of the literature on Brexit. We review the reasons for leaving the European Union, as well examine the consequences of Brexit, with a focus on investment, economic growth, trade, unemployment, and financial markets. We then introduce the seven papers selected from the 'Post Brexit: Uncertainty, Risk Measurement and Coronavirus Challenges Conference' held at Birmingham Business School in June 2021, that advance the current literature on the effects of Brexit and COVID on the UK economy. Evidence in these papers suggests that Brexit and COVID are still clearly posing a severe strain on the UK's economy. However, some papers suggest that not everything about Brexit has been detrimental, or at least certain sectors of the UK economy are displaying a marked resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of neoliberalism affecting the higher education sector, critical research in marketing and management remains dominated by Western Eurocentric theories. As a result, non-Western researchers are expected to socialise with the Western theoretical discourse to succeed and progress in Western academia. In this paper, we reflected on our personal experiences as early career researchers from Southeast Asia who have studied and are currently working in the UK as we navigate around the structural expectations, challenges, and strategies in pursuing our research. We merged our voices with those of other doctoral students from non-Western backgrounds in the discipline to present some coping mechanisms that researchers like us adopt to avoid failure in academia. We argue that the conformity to Western academia and its hidden struggles produce risk-averse junior researchers; thus, limiting creativity, diversity, and potential growth in the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea for this Special Issue, ‘Gender, Physical Education and Active Lifestyles: Contemporary Challenges and New Directions’ developed from the interest generated by a one day conference held at Leeds Beckett University in September 2017. The conference marked 25 years since the publication of Sheila Scraton’s ground breaking, feminist analysis of Physical Education. As a pivotal text that has contributed to the growth of gender research within the UK and more broadly, it seemed fitting to mark this occasion. The reach of Sheila’s work was perhaps realised through the delegate body. Early career researchers mingled with established scholars from America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK. Building on this conference and a wider call for papers, we are delighted to offer two Special Issues of Sport, Education and Society. The first issue engages explicitly with the challenge of theorising and understanding gendered subjectivities and embodiment across a range of contexts. These papers reflect the diversity of theoretical approaches being employed with some drawing on feminist perspectives, and others using Bourdieu, intersectionality, critical whiteness studies, and masculinity studies. The collection of papers in the second issue seek to examine the different ways in which gender becomes implicated in pedagogical relations and practice. These range from accounts of teachers’ struggles to use critical pedagogies to address gender inequities in PE classes, to analyses of the wider pedagogical ‘work’ of the media in constructing understandings about gender, with several papers exploring these two aspects in combination. We hope you enjoy reading the papers across these two Special Issues as much as we have enjoyed the journey as the editorial team. Collectively the papers raise alternative questions and provide new insights into gender and active lifestyles, and importantly, all seek to make a difference in moving towards more equitable physical activity experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including human capital in Great Britain, industry renewal and restructuring in Sweden during the post-war era, and profit distribution in the restructuring of the Swedish pulp and paper industry.

The launch of the Transactions in 1923, exclusively for the publication of original scientific work, consolidated the standing of the Journal of the Textile Institute as a scholarly periodical, although the timing was fortuitous, reflecting the needs of the industrial research associations, then newly established in the UK following the 'neglect of science' controversy in 1916. The burgeoning output of papers from this source in turn acted as a major competitive stimulus for the transformation of textile technology in higher education from craft-based empiricism to scientific discipline, albeit incrementally. In the background was the apparent dichotomy between the industrial practitioner and the academic scientist. Higher education sought to bridge this gap while simultaneously adopting the ethos and practices of the applied science model for textile technology, thereby creating tensions internally which took many years to resolve. The paper reviews the emergence of textile technology as a scientific discipline during the inter-war years and acknowledges the defining role of the Transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK has the widest regional inequalities among the advanced industrial economies. These regional inequalities are not new, but the persistence of the so-called North-South divide has become more prominent in the public eye. The post-Brexit landscape was aligned with the political rhetoric of 'levelling up', although this was only vaguely defined. While related to tackling regional inequalities, there has been much ambiguity around the various dimensions of 'levelling up', and the scale of its ambition. Moreover, the recent UK government White Paper provides little indication of which alternative paths (weaker) regions should take to address the country's long-standing inequalities. Indeed, the approach seems to implicitly accept the status quo, especially given that the minutiae detail of achieving 'levelling up' and recognition of interregional dynamics was largely missing. 'Levelling up' clearly invokes huge challenges, not least because the UK's regional inequalities are not only wide, but longstanding. The papers in this special issue highlight some of these challenges and some potential new policy directions. We offer this collection as useful food for thought for both academics and policymakers from across the political spectrum as we continue to tackle the issues surrounding uneven regional economic growth, development, and opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the contribution of archival data and historical methods to impactful research in industrial relations, the sociology of work, management studies and Human Resource Management. Whilst archival methods are widely used in some of these fields of research, there has also been considerable debate in these fields over the challenges of conducting impactful research using archival data. The paper draws on archival records from the National Archives in the UK to explore the evolving relationship between private temporary employment agencies and the state over the 1980s. The paper highlights how the actions of specific labour market actors, particularly lobbying activities by private agencies, and the changing economic and political climate over the 1980s, impacted on perceptions and attitudes within government towards temporary employment agencies. In doing so, the paper sheds new light on the early evolution of what are now recognised as important dynamics shaping the contemporary employment agency industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores do-it-yourself (DIY) and maker practices within sound and electronics through a close reading of Electronics and music maker magazine, first published in the UK in 1981 by electronic component supplier Maplin electronics. Comparisons are made between these sonic cultures of making of the early 1980s and more contemporary activity and commentary within the field. Themes used to make these comparisons are community, activism, learning and teaching, and experimentalism. Differences and similarities between sonic DIY practices defined as orthodox and experimental are considered; questions relating to what constitutes sonic DIY practice in a changing sociotechnical landscape are raised; shifting community identities and tensions within sound technology interest groups are discussed; and motivations and methods for the support of learning sound electronics are compared. The paper makes a novel contribution to contextual histories and theories of DIY sound and technology practices, which typically cite radio hams of the early twentieth century and experimental music of the 1960s/70s as precursors to current activities. It brings a breadth of scholarship from the wider field of maker culture to bear on sound-specific DIY practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address complex issues, facilitated modelling aims to represent and accommodate plural worldviews from many stakeholders and experts. In these contexts, group homogeneity can become problematic when participants' plurality of perspectives and information is missing and people attending facilitated sessions have similar problem perceptions and interests. This is a challenge because it can lead to narrow discussion, groupthink and undermine output quality. Despite not being uncommon, effective approaches to deal with homogeneity are hardly reported. This paper presents a new role—the New Devil's Advocate—in which some facilitators leave their neutrality-oriented stance and act as the missing stakeholders. The paper illustrates a first application to a group model building process aimed at supporting the development of energy efficiency policies in the UK. To evaluate the results, workshop transcripts were coded, participants' and facilitators' feedback collected, and the modelling output assessed with respect to the New Devil's Advocate interventions during the workshop. Although the role performance appears to increase facilitators' workload and be influenced by role performers' personality and background, the analysis shows positive results as a promising practice to address homogeneity. Additionally, it offers a practical experience of how facilitation teams may temporarily abandon neutrality and intervene on content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that a shift in discourse about the nature and purpose of Further Education is under way in England. A recent White Paper, 'Skills for jobs: lifelong learning for opportunity and growth', issued by the UK government, is couched in terms which suggest that a prior reliance on the ideology of neoliberalism is now moving towards the objectives and instruments of what Michel Foucault termed biopolitics or the exploitation of life itself. I analyse the White Paper and related recent texts to show how a form of vitalist discourse accompanies attempts to accelerate potentially problematic processes of value-extraction. While these developments respond partly to the societal changes resulting from the threats to life of the Coronavirus pandemic and other existential crises, their likely impact suggests a shift in the discourses of lifelong learning: an existing apparatus of normalisation and control is now turning to biopolitical exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the impact of The Global Agenda (GA) process and focuses on its relevance for social work practitioners and educators in the United Kingdom (UK). It asks, is there a global social work profession? The paper explores three key elements. Firstly, to what extent is it possible to view the diversity of social work under the differing national frameworks, as a coherent, single professional identity? Secondly, to what extent are national concepts of social work related to global instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thirdly, are there universal theoretical models? Having explored these questions, The GA process unequivocally adopted the position that there is a global social work profession, that its members and practitioners do share core values, principles and practice models, that these models require constant review and revision, and that one purpose of the process was/is to stimulate those discussions and explore those narratives, as is evident in the four GA reports. This makes The GA process as relevant for practice and policy in the UK, as it is for other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational routes such as direct-entry have become a more attractive option for Chinese students, due to the pandemic-imposed travel restrictions in China. The rise of Chinese direct-entry students can potentially lead to a significant increase in demand for academic and non-academic support not only after their arrival, but also before their departure from China. By applying Schlossberg's transition theory, this paper seeks to develop a good understanding of the academic and social belonging of Chinese direct-entry students in the UK through re-analysing the portraits (written narratives) of a previous research project. The findings indicate that these students were feeling disconnected from the academic and social communities. The factors affecting their sense of belonging are described using the 4S framework, namely self, strategies, situation and support. The paper ends with recommendations to key university stakeholders on how the partner institutions in China and the UK can help enhance a sense of academic and social belongingness of Chinese direct-entry students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive science-informed approaches have gained considerable influence in education in the UK and internationally, but not much is known about how teachers perceive cognitive science-informed strategies or enact them within the contexts of their everyday classrooms. In this paper, we discuss the perceptions and experiences of cognitive science-informed strategies of 13 teachers in England. The paper critically explores how the teachers understood and used cognitive science-informed strategies in their teaching, their views of the benefits and challenges for different subjects and groups of learners, and their reflections on supporting factors and barriers for adopting the strategies in their schools. The teachers' accounts illustrate some of the many complexities of adopting cognitive science-informed approaches in real-life educational settings. Drawing on their narratives, the paper emphasises the importance of acknowledging different contextual dimensions and the dynamic interactions between them to understand when and how teachers enact cognitive science-informed approaches in their classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Global Financial Crash, there have been significant changes to the private rented sectors across the UK. The PRS has become increasingly important to providing housing to millions of homes and has gained increasing political and regulatory focus. At the same time, there has been a substantial increase in the number of short-term holiday lets enabled by online platforms such as Airbnb. There are concerns that this housing stock is being lost from residential housing and exacerbates issues of housing equality. This paper undertakes a case study of Airbnb growth in London to examine changes in listings and provides insight into Airbnb hosts. The extant literature and analysis in this paper support the argument of the loss of privately rented properties, with housing stock being reallocated as tourist accommodation, potentially displacing local communities. Finally, the paper analyses the struggles this poses for policymakers, communities and housing providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper presents autoethnographic strategies to manage cognitive dissonance in art teacher education. Dissonance, as a conflict in beliefs and actions, is discussed in educational research but not commonly in art education. By exposing the autoethnographic voices of three academic artist teachers based in the United Kingdom and Singapore, including that of one author, this paper identifies the constitution and location of cognitive dissonance in art education. Autoethnographic images and excerpts help reveal personal accounts of cognition whilst positioning dissonance in practice. Contributors to dissonance like belief and concept conflicts, demonstrative challenges and power relationships are also exposed. This paper recommends that educational stakeholders, such as education ministries, teacher education departments and school leadership teams collaborate to acknowledge, accept and begin to manage dissonance in art teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and environmental justice across generations is a fundamental attribute of sustainable development. In this article, which is also a call for papers for a future theme in Public Money & Management (PMM), we develop our case for further research on how governments and public service organizations seek to address sustainable development in their decision-making processes. We believe that accounting for social and environmental aspects is an underdeveloped area of research and practice that is worthy of further critical enquiry. We therefore call on researchers and practitioners to submit their research to a themed issue of PMM on managing and accounting for sustainable development in public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical education has historically relied on high stakes knowledge tests sat in examination centres with invigilators monitoring academic malpractice. The COVID-19 pandemic has made such examination formats impossible, and medical educators have explored the use of online assessments as a potential replacement. This shift has in turn led to fears that the change in format or academic malpractice might lead to considerably higher attainment scores on online assessment with no underlying improvement in student competence. Here, we present an analysis of 8092 sittings of the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA), an assessment designed to test the prescribing skills of final year medical students in the UK. In-person assessments for the PSA were cancelled partway through the academic year 2020, with 6048 sittings delivered in an offline, traditionally invigilated format, and then 2044 sittings delivered in an online, webcam invigilated format. A comparison (able to detect very small effects) showed no attainment gap between online (M = 0.762, SD = 0.34) and offline (M = 0.761, SD = 0.34) performance. The finding suggests that the transition to online assessment does not affect student performance. The findings should increase confidence in the use of online testing in high-stakes assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the discourse on the importance of the relationship between practitioner and young person as a defining tenet of effective youth work practice, recognising the privileged position occupied by Youth Workers in the social ecology of the young people with whom they work. Reflecting the ethical obligations inherent in this relationship, particularly its focus on enhancing young people's agency and developmental outcomes, the paper outlines how youth work practice infused with professional love aligns with conceptualizations of an ethic of care. Reporting on interviews conducted with Youth Workers practicing in different settings across one local authority area in the UK, the paper articulates how practitioners' ethic of care shapes their work with young people, and the extent to which love features as an element of their professional practice. Practitioners describe their motivation to express care that extends beyond legalistic interpretations of their 'duty of care' towards young people, using the language of care, love and nurture almost interchangeably. The paper demonstrates the importance of inclusion and reciprocity as fundamental elements of ethical practice, as well as the need to infuse practice with hope, suggesting the value of an affirmative ethic to complement a focus on love and care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]