University of Bedfordshire Repository: Recent submissions
Now showing items 1-20 of 6954
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The consumer, the market and the universal aristocracy: the ideology of academisation in EnglandIn 2018, academies accounted for 72% of all English secondary schools, compared to 6% in 2009 (National Audit Office, 2018). English academy schooling conforms to marketizing trends in international education reform, but Conservative politicians have also attempted to promote particular moral values. This article analyses the tensions between neoliberalism and neoconservatism and applies this analysis to a concrete debate taking place within the Conservative Party in the 2000s and 2010s. It uses arguments made by an illustrative group of Conservative politicians to explore and analyse the tension between these two reform trends. The aim of this article is twofold. Firstly, it will present the key arguments which were marshalled by a selection of thinkers affiliated with the Conservative Party in favour of educational reform. It will do this by analysing Conservative articulations of the failure of state education; the role of the consumer and the relationship between democracy and the market. Secondly, it will explore the degree to which marketizing and traditionalist impulses in education reform should be considered complimentary or contradictory. I will conclude by arguing that the parent-consumer functions as a vanishing mediator between neoliberal and neoconservative ideological positions.
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How the signified went missing in twentieth-century economic theory: Mises, Hayek and Schumpeter and the abolition of valueThis article contributes to a growing literature on economic epistemologies by arguing that so-called ‘neoliberal’ ways of thinking are characteristic of a trend in wider social theory to privilege epistemological problematics over ontological ones. It will approach the shared nature of these epistemological precepts through an interrogation of the formal approaches to economic value used in the work of Schumpeter, Mises and Hayek and compare this with Derrida and Saussure’s understanding of linguistic value. Using a Marxian understanding of use-value, it will be argued that the movement to abolish the transcendental signified in post-structural philosophy is homologous to the abolition of objective value in economics. It will be claimed that the impulse to abolish the Thing shared by economic theorists and post- structuralists follows from a shared, though necessarily differently constituted, anti- socialism. In both cases, undermining the Thing is seen as a means of undermining organised socialist politics. I will conclude by arguing that these similarities demonstrate the need for neoliberalism and critique of neoliberalism to be historicised as part of a wider account of the relationship between contemporary capitalism, politics and the production of knowledge.
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Beveridge or Bismarck? choosing the Nordic model in British healthcare policy 1997-2015Historical and social science literature has a long tradition of interest in the Nordic model and its permutations and developments. This chapter will make two straightforward and related claims. First, that ideas about the Nordic model circulated in British political circles in the period 1997 to 2010 in the field of healthcare, and second, that this Nordic model was a departure from the ‘traditional’ social democratic conception of Norden, instead of relying heavily on New Public Management ideas. It will substantiate this claim using a policy diffusion model to analyse think-tank reports, political speeches, and articles from the popular and business press. I will claim that a dual process of policy learning was taking place in the 2000s with a group of broadly social democratic think tanks and media figures engaging with Nordic countries on the one hand and a group of free-market think tanks, journalists and the Conservative Party looking to Central European examples, especially Germany, on the other hand. Labour’s use of the Nordic model should, therefore, be seen as a means to defend taxation-funded healthcare against policymakers arguing for the adoption of a social insurance system. What Labour policymakers created was, in historical terms, a distinctive and quite British conception of the Nordic model which emphasised marketising and privatising aspects of Nordic reform trajectories that were consistent with Labour’s policy platform for the NHS.
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Artificial intelligence robot safety: a conceptual framework and research agenda based on new institutional economics and social mediaAccording to "Huang's law", Artificial intelligence (AI)-related hardware increases in power 4 to 10 times per year. AI can benefit various stages of real estate development, from planning and construction to occupation and demolition. However, Hong Kong's legal system is currently behind when it comes to technological abilities, while the field of AI safety in built environments is still in its infancy. Negligent design and production processes, irresponsible data management, questionable deployment, algorithm training, sensor design and/or manufacture, unforeseen consequences from multiple data inputs, and erroneous AI operation based on sensor or remote data can all lead to accidents. Yet, determining how legal rules should apply to liability for losses caused by AI systems takes time. Traditional product liability laws can apply for some systems, meaning that the manufacturer will bear responsibility for a malfunctioning part. That said, more complex cases will undoubtedly have to come before the courts to determine whether something unsafe should be the manufacturer's fault or the individual's fault, as well as who should receive the subsequent financial and/or non-financial compensation, etc. Since AI adoption has an inevitable relationship with safety concerns, this project intends to shed light on responsible AI development and usage, with a specific focus on AI safety laws, policies, and people's perceptions. We will conduct a systematic literature review via the PRISMA approach to study the academic perspectives of AI safety policies and laws and data-mining publicly available content on social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit to study societal concerns about AI safety in built environments. We will then research court cases and laws related to AI safety in 61 jurisdictions, in addition to policies that have been implemented globally. Two case studies on AI suppliers that sell AI hardware and software to users of built environment will also be included. Another two case studies will be conducted on built environment companies (a contractor and Hong Kong International Airport) that use AI safety tools. The results obtained from social media, court cases, legislation, and policies will be discussed with local and international experts via a workshop, then released to the public to provide the international community and Hong Kong with unique policy and legal orientations.
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Trilogy of strategies of disruption in research methodologies: article 3 of 3: The evocative power of tourism studies: positive interruption, interdependence, and imaging forward todayIn this third of three cousin articles on the call for disruptive qualitative research approaches, further treatment is proffered on the concerns and irritations that "soft science"/"subtle science" social scientists (and humanists, and posthumanists) are troubled by today. While the opening article (by Hollinshead, Suleman, and Nair here in Tourism, Culture & Communication) laid out the general case for the fit of disruptive qualitative research advances cum dissident interpretive research overtures in Tourism Studies to help atone for the field's long-recognized biases towards highly economic/linear/ empirical outlooks, the second article (by Hollinshead, Suleman, and Vellah) constituted a consolidation of the advanced social justice orientations being aired across the trio of articles. In this third of the three bedfellow articles, the authors (Hollinshead, Suleman, and Lo) now provide further critique on the soft science constructions and the subtle science thinking that have been promoted within the landmark text on advanced qualitative and interpretive praxis by Brown, Carducci, and Kuby (entitled Disrupting Qualitative Inquiry). In this third article, the need for such dissident developments within Tourism Studies is provided with respect to a number (10) of common ontological issues encountered in research into tourism/travel today, such as the difficulty in researching the shadowy and indistinct "unique ways" in which foreign peoples differ from each other. At the end of this article, a further 15 terms are made manifest for the cumulative glossary being developed across the three companion articles. These terms include "critical ethnography" (vis-à-vis the revised cognitive practices of tourism) and "unsettlement" (vis-à-vis the rhetorics of futurity of tourism). This third article—like its two predecessors—is notably Deleuzian in hue, although readers should spot the conceptual mark of (Arturo) Escobar (and considerations of pluriversality that emanate from "The South") in places.
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Developing training materials for entrepreneurial skills: identifying processes, principles and core skills through case studiesThe study reported in this paper aims to address the challenge of entrepreneurial skills shortage by sharing the experience and findings of developing entrepreneurial skills for women and young graduates in the agri-food and creative sectors through effective online training material development and implementation. To achieve this aim, this paper analyses four projects, and identifies common themes in terms of projects, processes, principles, and core skills for developing online training materials. All four projects provide online training materials combined with multiple complimentary support schemes. Using the projects as case studies, this paper examines in particular the projects' aim and training objectives, processes and the core skills covered in the training modules. The findings of this paper are used to propose a framework for projects, processes and design principles, with the aim of enabling the development of entrepreneurial skills through effective online training design and implementation.
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A review of fuel cell technology for commercial vehicle applicationsThe demanding energy storage requirements of many commercial vehicle applications are extremely difficult to meet for pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) due to the limited energy density of batteries. Fuel cells appear to be the only viable propulsion technology that is able to meet commercial vehicle powertrain requirements with zero local greenhouse gas emissions. Since almost all fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) contain a high voltage battery, some additional complexity is introduced since the hybrid energy storage system must be sized and controlled appropriately. An understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each system is therefore essential in FCV design. The aim of this technology review is to provide an overview of fuel cell technologies in commercial vehicle applications including assessments of alternative powertrain and fuel cell types, advantages and disadvantages of fuel cell and battery systems and the implications of these on the powertrain sizing as well as control considerations of FCVs.
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Crowdsourced linked data question answering with AQUACOLDThere is a need for Question Answering (QA) to return accurate answers to complex natural language questions over Linked Data, improving the accessibility of Linked Data (LD) search by abstracting the complexity of SPARQL whilst retaining its expressiveness. This work presents AQUACOLD, a LD QA system which harnesses the power of crowdsourcing to meet this need.
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From 'no further action' to taking action: England's shifting social work responses to extra-familial harmIn 2018, England’s safeguarding guidelines were amended to explicitly recognise a need for child protection responses to extra-familial harms. This article explores the feasibility of these amendments, using quantitative and qualitative analysis of case-file data, as well as reflective workshops, from five children’s social care services in England and Wales, in the context of wider policy and practice frameworks that guide the delivery of child protection systems and responses to harm beyond families. Green shoots of contextual social work practice were evident in the data set. However, variance within and across participating services raises questions about whether contextual social work responses to extra-familial harm are sustainable in child protection systems dominated by a focus on parental responsibility. Opportunities to use contextual responses to extra-familial harm as a gateway to reform individualised child protection practices more broadly are also discussed.
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Transitional safeguarding: transforming how adolescents and young adults are safeguardedThis article argues for a transformation in the protection and safeguarding needs of young people during their transition between childhood and adulthood. In order to explore with local authorities how they would address some of these challenges, the authors facilitated four national workshops with principal social workers, senior and middle managers (n = 88) from approximately one-third of Local Authorities in England (n = 52) from both Children and Adult social services. Participants discussed enablers and barriers to local and regional approaches to transitional safeguarding at practice, managerial, strategic and multi-agency levels. Findings from the workshops showed many examples of commitment to improvement and change, despite funding constraints and system barriers. No single local authority had a coherent and comprehensive approach to Transitional Safeguarding. Although some partnerships had started to lead innovation, it was still too early to demonstrate any effective impact throughout all systems, including whether outcomes for young people had improved. Participants also emphasised that young people should be involved as key stakeholders in developing appropriate responses. The system changes required to improve Transitional Safeguarding practices are complex and involve a re-configuration of the ‘risk’ versus ‘rights’ paradigms that permeate societal responses to the protection of young people.
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Gaming enhances learning-induced plastic changes in the brainDigital games may benefit children's learning, yet the factors that induce gaming benefits to cognition are not well known. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of digital game-based learning in children by comparing the learning of foreign speech sounds and words in a digital game or a non-game digital application. To evaluate gaming-induced plastic changes in the brain, we used the mismatch negativity (MMN) brain response that reflects the access to long-term memory representations. We recorded auditory brain responses from 37 school-aged Finnish-speaking children before and after playing a computer-based language-learning game. The MMN amplitude increased between the pre- and post-measurement for the game condition but not for the non-game condition, suggesting that the gaming intervention enhanced learning more than the non-game intervention. The results indicate that digital games can be beneficial for children's speech-sound learning and that gaming elements per se, not just practice time, support learning.
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Mentoring at times of crises: personal reflections on mentoring relationships during COVID-19COVID-19 presented a huge challenge for practice, education and all interactions, and mentorship was no different. The purpose of this commentary is to reflect on the juxtaposition between mentors and mentees in dental education during COVID-19. This commentary will focus on the interaction between mentor/mentee outside clinical practice and in relation to supporting and mentoring dental practitioners in the context of postgraduate education. The aim is to share our learning from this experience with other dental educators beyond COVID-19.
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Genomic insights into recent species divergence in Nicotiana benthamiana and natural variation in Rdr1 gene controlling viral susceptibility.One of the most commonly encountered and frequently cited laboratory organisms worldwide is classified taxonomically as Nicotiana benthamiana (Solanaceae), an accession of which, typically referred to as LAB, is renowned for its unique susceptibility to a wide range of plant viruses and hence capacity to be transformed using a variety of methods. This susceptibility is the result of an insertion and consequent loss of function in the RNA dependent RNA polymerase 1 (Rdr1) gene. However, the origin and age of LAB and evolution of N. benthamiana across its wide distribution in Australia remains relatively underexplored. Here, we have used multispecies coalescent methods on genome-wide single nuclear polymorphisms (SNPs) to assess species limits, phylogenetic relationships and divergence times within N. benthamiana. Our results show that the previous taxonomic concept of this species in fact comprises five geographically, morphologically and genetically distinct species, one of which includes LAB. We provide clear evidence that LAB is closely related to accessions collected further north in the Northern Territory; this species split much earlier, c. 1.1 million years ago, from their common ancestor than the other four in this clade and is morphologically the most distinctive. We also found that the Rdr1 gene insertion is variable among accessions from the northern portions of the Northern Territory. Furthermore, this long-isolated species typically grows in sheltered sites in subtropical/tropical monsoon areas of northern Australia, contradicting the previously advanced hypothesis that this species is an extremophile that has traded viral resistance for precocious development.
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A philosophical inquiry into subject English and creative writingTable of Contents Part I: Aims & Scope of the Book Chapter 1 Writing in, about, & from the Classroom Chapter 2 Mapping the Terrain of Schooled English & Creative Writing Part II: Problems of Knowledge Chapter 3 Problems of Individual Knowledge Chapter 4 Problems of Curricular & Disciplinary Knowledge: The Curious Case of School English Chapter 5 Reading, Writing, & a Very Rough Sketch of Revised English Studies (Coda to Part II) Part III: Writing Beyond the English Studies Classroom Chapter 6 Thinking as a Kind of Writing, Writing as a Kind of Philosophy; or, On Lightbulb Moments
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A commentary on soccer match-play simulations for applied research and practiceSoccer is a fast-growing area of research, demonstrated by a 10-fold increase in the number of PubMed articles derived from the search term ‘soccer’ between 2001 and 2021. The scope of contemporary soccer related articles ranges from match-play observations to laboratory evaluations of performance. The activity profile of soccer match-play is variable and techniques to collect data within matches are limited. Soccer-specific simulations have been developed to simulate the evolving demands of match-play. The evolutionary designs of novel simulations provide a reproducible exercise stimulus for varying researcher and practitioner objectives. The applied researcher can utilise simulations to investigate the efficacy of nutritional interventions and environmental stress on performance, while assessing the physiological and biomechanical responses to representations of match-play. Practitioners can adopt simulations for rehabilitation to progressively facilitate return-to-play processes, while implementing extra top-up conditioning sessions for unused and partial-match players. However, there are complexities involved with the selection of varying simulations which are dependent on the research question or practical application. There also remains a paucity of published information to support researchers and practitioners in selecting from differing simulation models. To assist with researcher and practitioner interpretations, we present a commentary of the current simulations to inform decision-making processes for research and training purposes and enhance the application of future research. An objective scoring system was adopted for rating the research and practical applications of each simulation design. Overall scores of 22, 16 and 18 out of 36 were revealed for free-running (n = 7), non-motorised- (n = 4) and motorisedtreadmill-based simulations (n = 4), respectively.
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Growing sideways: re-articulating ontologies of childhood within/through relationships and sexuality education (RSE)This article presents a collaborative reflective-thinking-writing project that draws from the authors’ experiences of co-productive and critical inquiry with children in the field of gender, sexualities and education. Integrating our collective concerns regarding how childhood can be negatively framed and policed within/through RSE, we explore how these ontological boundaries might be queered through a collective engagement with the possibilities for/of RSE that is affirmative, playful and co-produced with, rather than for, children.
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Enacting whole-school relationships and sexuality education in England: context mattersEvidence from intervention evaluations suggests that achieving meaningful and lasting social, behavioural and attitudinal change from relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) in schools requires more than just a curriculum. Whole-school approaches appear particularly promising since they work at multiple levels. For instance, they may: engage with carers, communities and local services; address iniquitous cultures and norms; change school policies and practices; and actively involve young people themselves. They have also been advocated to tackle sexual harassment and abuse in schools. Currently, however, such approaches have not been rigorously evaluated in the UK. This article focuses on the whole-school elements of two recent RSHE pilot studies conducted in English secondary schools. We describe how these elements were variably enacted in different settings. We analyse contextual factors that help account for these differences, including: teacher and departmental professional identity and autonomy; broader education policy including high-stakes testing and school inspection judgements; the significance of support staff; and staff–student relationships and partnerships. We argue that the likely impact of whole-school approaches and RSHE in schools more generally will depend on attending to all of these factors. The paper contributes firstly to debates about the theory and practice of RSHE by highlighting the significance of processes and cultures beyond the classroom in enabling or constraining positive change. Secondly it contributes to scholarship that elucidates the role of contexts, broadly defined, in understanding the enactment of policy and practice.
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Editorial: Special issue on "Bright ICT: security, privacy and risk issues"Bright ICT, a 2015 initiative of the Association of Information Systems introduced by Prof J.K. Lee, refers to the grand vision of a bright society enabled by ICT. Bright ICT research involves taking a holistic view at the design of ICT enabled future society (Lee, 2016; Lee et al., 2018). This concept entails the development of relevant technologies, business models, public policies, social norms, international agreements, metrics for measuring national progress and preventing undesirable activities on the Internet. It is also at the center of discussions on adoption or modification of technologies, policies, and organizations from which new business models—that create a bright safe internet—can evolve. As a double edge sword, technology creates huge benefits such as the use of mobile phones for healthcare access but create challenges such as delayed access to healthcare providers (Haenssgen & Ariana, 2017). Legal frameworks such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and opt-in/out rules that are promulgated to protect individuals’ private data have dual effect of reducing users’ information sharing intentions and giving power to a few Tech market players (Johnson et al., 2020).
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Review of: Engaging with linguistic diversity: a study of educational inclusion at an Irish primary schoolreview of Engaging with linguistic diversity: a study of educational inclusion at an Irish primary school edited by David Little, Deirdre Kiwan, Victoria Pugh and Daniel Hughes, London, Bloomsbury, 2019, 190 pp., £26.00 (paperback), ISBN: 978-1-350-07203-9
