Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Communities. Classes. Races“

Religious tolerance has become one of global issues in the world. So, Indonesia has regulation which specifies that the graduate competency standard for educational units for all grades is that students must accept the heterogeneity of faiths, communities, nations, races and classes. In this study, the textbooks which is published by the Educational Minister of Indonesia are also published under the category of Electronic School Books (ESB) in the form of electronic book (e-book). This study tried to examine the religious content reflected on three ELT textbooks currently used in Indonesia public high schools to teach Senior High School Students Grade X, XI, and XII

Numerous studies have shown that the language barrier may cause the difficulties among indigenous children in learning mathematics. Apparently, this is also the case among the Orang Asli students in Malaysia. As enshrined in the Malaysian Constitution, the Malay language is the national language spoken by Malaysians who are made up of various races. However, other races including the Orang Asli are free to use their respective languages in their daily lives. In the Malaysian education system, the medium of instruction used in mathematics classes is the Malay language. Since the Orang Asli students are only exposed to the Malay language after they enter formal education in a primary school, the use of the Malay language has become an obstacle for them to understand mathematical concepts. Accordingly, this concept paper discusses the position of the Orang Asli language in Malaysia, the medium of teaching and learning in mathematics classes in Malaysia, and the effectiveness of using the Orang Asli language in mathematics classes among the Orang Asli students. In addition, the code-switching approach that is widely practised in many countries is also discussed. Finally, the roles of various parties, including the Ministry of Education, the Department of Orang Asli Development, NGOs, teachers, parents and the Orang Asli communities in increasing the use of the national language among the Orang Asli students are also discussed. It is hoped that this concept paper can enlighten the language problems among the Orang Asli students in Malaysia and further improve their academic quality.

Early interactions between state administrators and forest-dwelling communities in eastern Africa yield significant insight into colonial attempts to grapple with difference across hierarchically conceptualized ‘races’, classes, tribes, and radically alternative livelihoods. In particular, uncertainties related to the governance of forest-dwellers resulted in a problematic known as the ‘Dorobo question’ in Kenya Colony, the former word being a corruption of the Maasai term for the poor, the sinful – and hence – the cattle-less. Drawing upon archival research in Kenya and the United Kingdom, I argue that halting attempts to govern such communities illuminate an historically and geographically specific dimension of late imperial Britain’s apparently ‘liberal’ biopolitics, which entailed not the ‘abandonment’ of populations, per se, but rather the elimination and subsequent transformation of livelihoods, ontologies, and sustainablities perceived as fiscally barren or otherwise of little use to the colonial state. Far from being resolved, however, the afterlives of these logics of elimination highlight the stakes of contemporary struggles over eastern African forests, and particularly so in the context of an emergent transition to ostensibly ‘green’ forms of capitalism in the region.

This article critically examines some of the recent works in Swiss national history. It argues that many of these works suffer, albeit in different ways, from a too narrowly construed, Eurocentric perspective. Consequently, they fail to offer an understandinf of how Switzerland both shaped and was shaped by processes of imperial globalisation since the 1500s. The article goes on to argue for a `post-patriotic` conception of Swiss national history that seeks to uncover how Swiss global entanglements fed into various hierarchies between gender groups, social classes, races and religious communities. The article ends with a historical example from 16th century Basel and Geneva, where book printers published books on the Spanish conquests of the Americas. The example illustrates how the historical beginnings of a Swiss nation and the beginnings of imperial globalisation in the 1500s were closely intertwined processes – and how the trajectories of Swiss history and the history of the world have remained intertwined ever since.

This article critically examines some of the recent works in Swiss national history. It argues that many of these works suffer, albeit in different ways, from a too narrowly construed, Eurocentric perspective. Consequently, they fail to offer an understanding of how Switzerland both shaped and was shaped by processes of imperial globalization since the 1500s. The article goes on to argue for a ’post-patriotic’ conception of Swiss national history that seeks to uncover how Swiss global entanglements fed into various hierarchies between gender groups, social classes, races and religious communities. The article ends with a historical example from 16th century Basel and Geneva, where book printers published books on the Spanish conquests of the Americas. The example illustrates how the historical beginnings of a Swiss nation and the beginnings of imperial globalization in the 1500s were closely intertwined processes – and how the trajectories of Swiss history and the history of the world have remained intertwined ever since.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common, chronic, inflammatory skin disease affecting Australians of all ages, races, ethnicities, and social classes. Significant physical, psychosocial, and financial burdens to both individuals and Australian communities have been demonstrated. This narrative review highlights knowledge gaps for AD in Australian skin of colour. We searched PubMed, Wiley Online Library, and Cochrane Library databases for review articles, systematic reviews, and cross-sectional and observational studies relating to AD in Australia for skin of colour and for different ethnicities. Statistical data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australian Bureau of Statistics was collected. In recent years, there has been substantially increased awareness of and research into skin infections, such as scabies and impetigo, among various Australian subpopulations. Many such infections disproportionately affect First Nations Peoples. However, data for AD itself in these groups are limited. There is also little written regarding AD in recent, racially diverse immigrants with skin of colour. Areas for future research include AD epidemiology and AD phenotypes for First Nations Peoples and AD trajectories for non-Caucasian immigrants. We also note the evident disparity in both the level of understanding and the management standards of AD between urban and remote communities in Australia. This discrepancy relates to a relative lack of healthcare resources in marginalised communities. First Nations Peoples in particular experience socioeconomic disadvantage, have worse health outcomes, and experience healthcare inequality in Australia. Barriers to effective AD management must be identified and responsibly addressed for socioeconomically disadvantaged and remote-living communities to achieve healthcare equity.

Indonesia is a large country that consists of various ethnicities, races, religions, social classes, and cultures, vulnerable to conflicts. It's necessary to maintaining the unity amid the diversity or ‘Kebhinekaan’. The objectives of the research to: 1) explore the characteristics of diversity; 2) analyze communal awareness through the activities of tolerance tourism; and 3) analyze the values of diversity in supporting the concept of tolerance tourism. Qualitative methods are used in this study. Researchers used participatory observation and document study technique to collect the data from relevant archives and documents, to interviews with relevant parties to explore the characteristics of ethnicities, cultures, and tolerance tourism. The study revealed a number of facts, including: a) the characteristics of diversity among the people in Singkawang City that have a distinctive paradigm in assessing diversity that actually originates from the wisdom of Malay, Chinese, Dayak culture, and other nations that have lived in the city; b) a high communal awareness in the activities of tolerance tourism to promote the sense of caring among ethnicities; and c) the diversity of multiethnic communities in supporting tolerance tourism by promoting the values of tolerance, mutual respect, and solidarity.

The geographical and phytocoenotic areas of the endemic of the Southern Urals Delphinium uralense that is a relic species of the ancient Pleistocene steppe were studied. Species is listed in the Red book of the Russian Federation (2008) and the Red Book of the Republic of Bashkortostan (2011). The main part of the geographical area of the investigated species is limited by the Zilair plateau located in the south-western tip of the Ural Mountains, within the Urals fold-block surface. The phytocoenotic area of this species includes the xerophytic communities referring to 2 classes, 3 orders, 4 alliances, 1 suballiance, 2 associations, 1 subassociation, 1 variantand 4 non-ranking communities The formation of the unique complex of xerophytic oak-larch sparse forests and rocky steppes in the southern Urals is linked with the occurrence of the mountainous steppe with larch groves, which were the remnants of the xerophytic mountain landscape —“Pleistocene floristic complex” (Igoshina, 1961, 1963). The enrichment the floristic composition of the complex took place in the late Pleistocene due to following facts: the appearance of rock and mountain-steppe Asian relict species (Ryabinina, 1993), the migration of Eastern Siberian elements to the West, the movement of European species to the East, the formation of the Urals endemic floristic races (Krasheninnikov, 1939). Later, in the Holocene, the Pleistocene floristic complex was enriched by some species of broad-leaved forests (including oak Quercus robur), the penetration ofthe south richsteppe flora, and replenishment of the floristic complex by the Pontic and Sarmatic species (Igoshina, 1961). As a result of mentioned above processes a unique complex of xerophytic rocky mountain steppes and of sparse oak and larch elfin woodswas formed in the Zilair plateau.

Climate change is the most important challenge for developing as well as developed countries. Pakistan is a developing country and has faced different types of natural disasters such as floods in the last 10 years. The rural areas of Pakistan are adversely affected by floods, which cause significant losses to crops, assets, and the household members face illness, health problems, loss of family income, and displacement. Approximately, 7016 villages with a cropped area of 473998 acres have been affected only in Punjab due to floods during the last four years. The impact of floods is not the same among the different regions, races, ages, classes, and gender. In this regard, a study was conducted to analyze the vulnerability of farm households in three flood-prone districts of Punjab province of Pakistan. These three flood-prone districts have different population size, and are located in high-risk flood region of Punjab was selected for empirical analysis. A well-structured questionnaire was used. Minimum 120 respondents were selected through a random sampling technique. A farm household survey was conducted and a vulnerability index was developed by using well-defined indicators. Three major dimensions of vulnerability were analyzed in detail such as exposure, adaptive capacity, and sensitivity. A multiple linear regression model was used to formulate the results. The analyzed results showed that flood was the main cause of the destruction of houses, livestock, and destruction of agriculture production. Results showed that farm household communities were the most vulnerable and floods hazard has a negative impact on the livelihood of human beings and the economy of Punjab as well.

Introduction. A revision of syntaxa was carried out within the framework of the classification of the Brown-Blanquet school identified in the Russian Arctic. A geodatabase (GDB) and GIS, which include several interconnected main modules (see: Matveyeva et al., 2019a, b), with information on species composition, structure, ecology, and geography of syntaxa of all levels, integrated in these databases, became the basis of the presented checklist. This is the first result of compiling information on the vegetation classification, performed with the prospect to produce Prodromus of syntaxa, identified in this territory, with detailed information (character/differential/diagnostic species, ecology, zonal position, geography, bibliography), available in the GDB. It will be in time included in the Prodromus and later will become the basis for a volume in multivolume series on the vegetation of the Russian Federation (see: Plugatar et al., 2020). Territory. The checklist contains information on syntaxa established in the Russian Arctic within the boundaries of the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (hereafter CAVM) (CAVM Team, et al., 2003; Walker et al., 2005; Raynolds et al., 2019), as well as on the Barents Sea coast of the Kola Peninsula, which is referred to the tundra zone in accordance with the zonation of the Russian Arctic flat territory (see: Matveyeva, 1998). The list includes syntaxa found north of the treeline — in the tundra zone (subzones of the southern, typical, and arctic tundra) and polar deserts.1 Hence, it follows that there are no syntaxa from the forest-tundra as well as those above the treeline in the mountains adjacent to the tundra zone (Putorana and Anabarskoe plateaus). The syntaxa from the territory of the «Russian Arctic» (Barentsburg, Pyramida) on the West Spitsbergen Island (Spitsbergen archipelago) are also not taken into account (their positioning is logical in Spitzbergern syntaxonomy). History. The study of the Russian Arctic plant cover began in the second third of the XIXth century in the north-east of the European Russia (Schrenk, 1855) and in Siberia on the Taymyr Peninsula (Middendorf, 1860–1867). After a significant break, it continued in the USSR in the pre-war time and intensified after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The most intense (both in the size of the studied areas and the numbers and duration of the field works) was the period from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s. Researchers working both in other zones and in the Arctic processed the obtained data in accordance with the approaches of the dominant classification, and the relevés were either not published or presented in a small (4–5) number for association. Despite the obvious limitations of this approach, there were published (both in the form of text with listing of few dominants and with relevé tables) both general (Gorodkov, 1935) and regional (Andreev, 1932; Bogdanovskaya-Giyenef, 1938; Smirnova, 1938; Dedov, 2006 [1940]; Aleksandrova, 1956, 1983; Gorodkov, 1956, 1958 a, b; Katenin, 1972) classifications, and checklists — a draft classification of vegetation of the whole Arctic (Aleksandrova, 1979) and classification of Taymyr vegetation (Matveyeva, 1985). In the late 1980s, Russian phytosociologists turned to the Brown-Blanquet floristic (= floristic-sociological (Theurillat et al., 2021), or ecological-floristic (Mirkin, Naumova, 2014)), classification system as the most conceptually substantiated, with generally accepted rules for describing communities in the field and the technique of relevé tabular processing, and also with clear rules for the formation of syntaxon names. In this system, the obligatory publication of the original data and the requirements for its validity when describing the basic syntaxon are strictly postulated, which provides an objective comparison and classification of any plant community types, in whatever system these data are not submitted. Just as it is impossible to imagine the development of taxonomy without the existence of herbarium collections, so it should be an axiom for phytosociologists that since the relevé is the only documentary reflection of a natural phenomenon named «plant community» (Matveyeva, 2008), it should be available for analysis to all syntaxonomists. Since the second decade of the XXth century, the followers of the Braun-Blanquet system have published thousands of relevés from different regions of the globe, which made it possible to produce a unified classification of vegetation from the Arctic to the tropics and its constant replenishment. Currently, the process of creating electronic databases (archives) of relevés, including the Arctic Vegetation Archive, which accumulates information on circumpolar vegetation is accumulated, is actively underway (Walker et al., 2018). The starting point when Russian tundra experts began to work consistently, following the principles of this classification, is the first International Meeting on the Classification and Mapping of Arctic Vegetation, which took place in 1992 in Boulder, CO (USA). For the publication of its data, a special issue of the Journal of Vegetation Science (1994, Vol. 5, N 6) named «Circumpolar arctic vegetation» (where 4 papers by Russian syntaxonomists were published) was provided. After 1992, when the intensity of field works decreased sharply, the number of publications with complete characteristics of the communities of the Russian Arctic increased rapidly.The proposed checklist of syntaxa is the result of this almost 30-year acti­vity. The checklist structure. The arrangement of syntaxa of class rank is mainly the same as in the EuroVegChecklist — hereafter EVC (Mucina et al., 2016): zonal and intrazonal communities of the polar desert zone (one class); zonal (one class) and landscape-forming intrazonal (five classes) communities of the tundra zone; intrazonal communities (13 classes), united into groups according to the gradients of moisture, snow depth and soil mechanical composition. A syntaxon is represented as follows: — higher units of the rank Class/Order/Allian­ce (Suballiance): number (for Class), abbreviated rank in English (Cl., Ord., All. (Suball.)), in square brackets — code (if any) from EVC (Mucina et al., 2016); full name, author(s) and year; below is a brief description in two languages: English — in general as in the cited paper with some corrections due to the specificity in syntaxon geography and ecology in the Asian part; Russian — partly in accordance with the English version and/or to Prodromus of higher vegetation units of Russia (Ermakov, 2012), sometimes with minor corrections or clarifications. For new orders and alliances within the zonal tundra class differential taxon combinations are listed; — syntaxa of the rank Association, Community Type, Community, established on the territory of the Russian Arctic: abbreviated rank in English (Ass., Com. Type, Com.), name, author(s) and year (besides association, the cited papers are included in the Refe­rences). If syntaxon was previously described by European/American authors outside the Russian Fede­ration, the link to the publication, where it was found in the Russian Arctic, is placed in brackets. The ­arrangement of associations is alphabetical; — syntaxa of units of a lower (within association) rank (subassociation and vicariant, variant, subvariant, facies): abbreviated rank in English (subass. and vicar., var., subvar., fac.), name, in brackets author, year (besides subassociation, the cited papers are included in the References). The arrangement of the syntaxa is as follows: typicum(-cal, -ca), inops, then alphabetically. For subass. typicum authors are not listed (Theurillat et al., 2021), but if it was described by another author and/or in another paper, then the link to it is given in brackets and the paper is included in the References. All names of syntaxa are given in the author’s edition (as it was published), including the endings of a typical syntaxon within an association (subassociation, vicariant, variant, facia) — typicum, typical, typica. In different papers, there are two English spellings of Russian surnames: Aleksandrova/Alexandrova, Andreev/Andreyev, Bogdanovskaya-Giyenef/Bogdanovskaya-Gienef, Pristyazhnyuk/Prystyazhnyuk, Savich/Savič. A uniform (the first one) spelling of the surname is used here. If there was something that caused a disagreement with the author’s decision (including the assignment of an association to a syntaxon of a higher rank), there is a superscript number before the syntaxon name, or before the author’s surname (when it is in brackets), referring to critical comments. Critical comments. 1 – The name is invalid or needs change because: 1a – no reference to the nomenclature type; 1b – published ineffectively (names published as ‘manuscript’ or ‘unpublished’); 1c – not accompanied by a sufficient diagnosis, no tables with original relevés; 1d – suggested by the author as preliminary; 1e – not obvious from what species syntaxon epithet is formed and it cannot be extracted from the diagnosis and/or tables); 1f – syntaxon with the same name was described earlier (including the case of inversion); 1g – the form of the syntaxon name does not correspond to Art. 10 of «International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature» — hereafter ICPN (Theurillat et al., 2021); 1h – the given nomenclature type belongs to a different syntaxon, validation does not correspond to ICPN; 1i – the relevé chosen as an association or subassociation nomenclature type does not contain the name-giving taxon of this syntaxon; 1j – there is a subspecies in the original diagnosis and in the tables, while in the syntaxon name the species name is used; 1k – the nomenclature type is given for 2 variants of the vicariant, among which there is no tyicum one; 1l – published or validated in 2002 or later with no indication of novelty (like, Ass. nov.). 2 – the author(s) did not place the syntaxon among the higher units. 3 – the author(s) placed the syntaxon in other higher units than suggested in this list. 4 – the syntaxon was renamed due to a change in its rank; in this checklist it is also given under a new name. 5 – the syntaxon is described by the author(s) in the Community rank but is assigned within the known association as a unit of it internal division. 6 – the author(s) assigned the syntaxon to this class with a question. 7 – the author(s) unreasonably (noted in literature) placed the communities in given syntaxon that needs revision. 8 – in the EVC there is only one author, while in the original source there are two. 9 – it is written that the title proposed by the first author was valid, but according to Principle II of the ICPN it is not. 10 – the author(s) of the syntaxon is(are) incorrect: the syntaxonomic units originally described in the framework of the ecological-physiognomic classification are invalid in accordance with Principle II (Art. 3d ICPN), and have been validated by subsequent authors. 11 – the author(s) assigned the syntaxon to this class/order, but did not refer to an alliance or placed in the alliance other than that proposed in this checklist. 12 – the author(s) attributed the syntaxon to this alliance, but as part of a different class/order, or not attributed to the class/order. 13 – the author(s) changed the rank of the syntaxon in comparison with the original description. 14 – the spelling of the syntaxon name does not correspond to the rules of the ICPN; the correct name [recte[ is given in square brackets. 15 – in the EVC the alliance is placed in another order. 16 – the author(s) of the syntaxon are incorrect, the first author (in brackets) did not give such a name, or incorrect year. 17 – the author(s) of the syntaxon incorrectly cited, priority belongs to other author(s) who published the name earlier and/or effectively. 18 – in the EVC the alliance is placed in synonyms for another alliance, which name was changed but not yet approved (nom. mut. propos). THE CHECKLIST — see the main text. Brief analysis of the composition. The checklist is based upon analysis of more than 70 papers, professionally reviewed and published, which contain more than 6,000 geobotanical relevés, that make available information on the composition and structure of 734 syntaxa ranging from association/community type/community to facies. At the mid-2021, the checklist includes 241 associations (152 subassociations and 25 vicariants, 190 variants and 61 subvariants, 13 facies), 35 types of communities and 17 communities from 62 alliances (6 suballiances), 33 orders and 20 classes. Most of the higher rank units — Class/Order/Alliance — are taken from the classification of vegetation in Europe (Mucina et al., 2016) Class. Of the 20 classes, 19 are in EVC (Mucina et al., 2016), to which we have assigned 207 associations, although we do not consider this decision final. A new class for zonal tundra vegetation Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani class. prov.2 so far is left in the provisional status. Conventionally is used the class Betulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis which contains willow scrubs in the valleys and on the interfluves. Order. Of the 33 orders 29 are in EVC. Among the known ones there is formally described Salicetalia glauco-lanatae so far located in Betulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis. Three orders (Arctophiletalia fulvae; Chamerio–Betuletalia nanae; Schulzio crini­tae–Aquilegietalia glandulosae) were described by Russian authors. Three new orders (Salici polaris–Hylocomietalia alaskani ord. nov. prov., Caricetalia arctisibiricae-lugentis ord. nov. prov., Eriophoretalia vaginati ord. nov. prov.) are suggested here in the provisional status, for establishing within the tund­ra zonal class Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani class. prov. Nameless order is proposed for communities dominated by mesophytic arctic and/or arcto­alpine herbs often with dwarf shrubs (Salix arctica/polaris/reticulata, Dryas octopetala/punctata) and few mosses on the southern slopes of hills and high river banks in the tundra zone of Eurasia; conventionally it is placed in the Mulgedio–Aconitetea. According to both species composition and habitat the order Arabidetalia caeruleae is moved from Thlaspietea rotundifolii (as in EVC) into Salicetea herbaceae. Alliance. Of the 62 alliances 36 are in EVC, 5 of which (Arctophilion fulvae; Caricion stantis, Chamerio angustifolii–Matricarion hookeri; Dryado octopetalae–Caricion arctisibiricae, Polemonio acutiflorum–Veratrion lobeliani) are described by Russian authors. Alliance Oxytropidion nigrescentis, validated in 1998 (Matveyeva 1998, p. 81), is given as valid. The following 8 alliances are valid: Aulacomnio palustris–Caricion rariflorae, Polemonio acutiflorum–Salicion glaucae and Rubo chamaemori–Dicranion elongati on the European North, Carici concoloris–Aulacomnion turgidi, Oxytropido sordidae–Tanacetion bipinnati in Siberia, Androsaco arctisibiricae–Aconogonion laxmannii, Aulacomnio turgidi–Salicion glaucae, Salici pulchrae–Caricion lugentis on Chukotka. Another 7 alliances have invalid names (suggested as preliminary, no nomenclature type was chosen, etc.). For 6 of these validation is necessary and quite simple. An exeption is the alliance Luzulo–Festucion rubrae (Ektova, Ermokhina, 2012), with all invalid associations (no both relevés and diagnoses); after the later are validated they logically could be placed in Loiseleurio-Arctostaphylion. Within the tundra zonal class the alliance Salici polaris–Hylocomion alaskani all. nov. is formally described and the alliances Cassiopo tetragonae–Eriophorion vaginati all. nov. prov. and Poo arcticae–Calamagrostion holmii all. nov. prov. are proposed provisionally. It is recommended to establish 6 alliances (in the checklist with no name) in classes Drabo corymbosae–Papaveretea dahliani (3), Betulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis (1), Thlaspietea rotundifolii (1) and Mulgedio-Aconitetea (1). Syntaxonomic decisions, other than those derived from the EVC, are made on the positions of 4 alliances within the higher-rank units: Caricion stantis was moved from Sphagno warnstorfii–Tomentypnetalia to Caricetalia fuscae; Dryado octopetalae–Caricion arctisibiricae — from Carici rupestris–Kobresietea bellardii to Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani class. prov. (see: Lavrinenko, Lavrinenko, 2018a); Potentillo–Polygonion vivipari is recognized (Koroleva et al., 2019) as different from Kobresio-Dryadion, synonym with which it is given in the EVC; the Honckenyo–Leymion arenarii is used compare to the EVC where it is the synonym of Agropyro–Honckenyion peploidis nom. mut. propos. Compared to the author’s decision, the alliance Carici concoloris–Aulacomnion turgidi from Loiseleurio procumbentis–Vaccinietea is moved to Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani class. prov. Suballiance. Of the 6 suballiances 4 (Androsaco arctisibiricae–Aconogonenion laxmannii; Astragalo pseudadsurgentis–Calamagrostienion purpurascentis; Caricenion rariflorae; Oxytropido vassilczenkoi–Dryadenion punctatae) are valid, and two (Anemono parviflorae–Salicenion and Pediculari lapponicae–Salicenion) require validation. The suballiance Caricenion rariflorae placed in the checklist in Scheuchzerion palustris was originally established within the Sphagnion baltici, which in the EVC is synonymous with the first name. Association. Of 241 associations only 34 are known outside the Russian Arctic, and the remaining 207 are new. The known ones are mainly on coastal bio­topes — marshes (15) and dunes (3) — and extremely wet habitats (9). There are 4 associations described earlier in Europe within the large landscape-forming classes (Dryadetum octopetalae, Empetro–Betuletum nanae, Loiseleurio-Diapensietum, Phyllodoco–Vaccinietum myrtilli) which distribution ranges are extended to the European North of Russia, and 3 within small intrazonal classes (Geranietum sylvatici, Potentillo crantzii–Polygonetum vivipari, and Rumici–Salicetum lapponi) found on Kola Peninsula. Only 2 associations, described by European (Dryado–Cassiopetum tetragonae) and American syntaxonomists (Sphagno–Eriophoretum vaginati), occur in the Asian part of the Russian Arctic (with new subunits within both). The most association-rich are 8 main classes. The two zonal classes include Drabo corymbosae–Papaveretea dahliani (20 associations) in the polar desert zone and Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani class. prov. (34 associations) in the tundra zone — 54 in total. 129 associations are identified in the 6 main classes of intrazonal vegetation: Be­tulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis (29 associations) Loiseleurio procumbentis–Vaccinietea 1960 (22 associations), Carici rupestris–Kobresietea (21 associations), Salicetea herbaceae (16), Scheuchzerio palustris–Caricetea fuscae (25 associations); Juncetea maritimi (16 associations) — 187 in total. The vegetation of other 12 classes is described locally geographically and selectively syntaxonomically. 37 associations were not assigned to any of the known classes. This, in particular, was the case with the vegetation of the polar desert zone (Matveyeva, 2006) before Drabo corymbosae–Papaveretea dahliani class was described in 2016. But it also happened when deciding to assign an association to some well-known class, authors stressed that they did this forcibly in the absence of an adequate unit. For example, before the proposal, albeit provisionally, of the class Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskanii class. prov., even zonal communities from the Arctic tundra subzone were placed in the Loiseleurio procumbentis–Vaccinietea class accentuating that they do not contain a single characteristic species of this class (Kholod, 2007). Community type is distinguished when author does not establish new association due to the small number (less than 10) relevés in one location, leaving this for the future There are 35 such units, most of which (9) are in the Drabo corymbosae–Papaveretea dahliani in the polar desert zone. It is worth noting two points: 1) almost never Community types reach the association status; 2) not all authors are stopped by a small number of relevés, when naming syntaxa, and many associations are based upon on less than not 10, but even 5 relevés. As a result, units of different status often contain equally little information about their composition. Community. This rank exists when there is only one relevé, due to both the type rarity and the lack of time. There are 17 such units, with 7 in the polar desert zone. Two main subordinate levels are used within the association: the first — subassociation and vicariant (not protected by the ICPN), the second — variant. Both reflect small but obvious differences in composition, abundance, constancy of species from the type of association (typicum), conditioned edaphically, locally-climatically, chorologically (Ellenberg, 1956; Braun-Blanquet, 1964) or indicate different stages of succession (Westhoff, van der Maarel, 1978). Differences in the listed characteristics from the type group (typicum) due to ecology are an undoubted reason for identifying several subassociations even in a landscape. To reflect similar differences due to the object location in several areas on latitudinal (in different tundra subzones) or longitudinal (in different sectors of the same zone/subzone) gradients in similar habitats (on the same landscape elements, with the same soil type), subassociation (a unit protected by the ICPN) is used as well. However, the desire to distinguish the reasons that caused such differences is also understandable. Hence, understandable is the interest to the concept of geographic vicariant, perceived by some Russian syntaxonomists working in the Arctic, which is reflected in the checklist (since the unit is not protected by ICPN, after the name in brackets there is a link to References). Leading European phytosociologists E. van der Maarel and W. Westhoff, who in 1993 reviewed an article by N. Matveyeva on the vegetation of Taymyr (Matveyeva, 1994), recalling the concept of geographical races (Becking, 1957), or vicariants (Barkman, 1958), recommended to use the status of a geographic vicariant to reflect changes in the composition of communities of one association related with a geographic location, leaving ecologically determined differences for subassociations.The need for such a division is reflected in the famous paper of F. Daniëls (1982) on Greenland, where the author distinguishes ecologically (habitat-differential) and geographically (area-differential) determined syntaxa, although uses only the name of subassociations. It is a great pity that the concept of a geographical vicariant, which was formed in the minds of the classics of phytosociology almost 60 years ago, did not find formal support: this unit was not included nor in the 3rd edition of the ICPN (Weber et al., 2000), neither in the 4th (Theurillat et al., 2021). The question of whether such a unit should be covered by the ICPN regulations «... can be resolved with the accumulation of experience in its application» (Weber et al., 2000, p. 6); the results of such experience are reflected in this checklist. Subassociation. There are 152 subassociations within 71 associations: most of all in the Carici arctisibiricae–Hylocomietea alaskani (24), slightly less in Loiseleurio procumbentis–Vaccinietea (21) and Betulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis (23), more than 11 in Carici rupestris–Kobresietea bellardii (16), Scheuchzerio palustris–Caricetea fuscae (17), Juncetea maritimi (12) and Thlaspietea rotundifolii (12). Usually there are 2–3 subassociations in one association. Vicariant. There are 25 vicarians in the 14 associations. 19 of these are latitudinal in associations of zonal, mire, snowbed (Matveyeva, 1994, 1998, 2006) and herb meadow (Zanokha, 1993, 1995a, b) communities within 3 tundra subzones and syntaxa, replacing them in the polar deserts on Severnaya Zemlya (Zanokha, 2001; Matveyeva, 2006. The appeal to the concept of vicariant on Taymyr, where in the only place on the Earth on the mainland at about 900 km a full latitudinal gradient from the tree line to the polar deserts is expressed (Matveyeva, 1998), is quite understandable and logical. The other 6 vicariants are longitudinal: 1 in the European North of Russia (Matveyeva, Lavrinenko, 2011) and 5 on Wrangel Isl. (Kholod, 2007). Variant. There are 190 variants within 66 associations. There are no clearly formulated rules regarding their fundamental difference from subassociations. It is also not obvious whether the level of variant is the next after subassociation in association subdivision, or these are units of the same rank: in 31 associations, variants are allocated within subassociations or vicariants, in 34 — directly in the association. There is no clear logic behind why even one and the same author follows the first way in some cases, and the second in others. Subvariant. This unit was used for the division of variants of technogenically disturbed vegetation (Sumina, 2012, 2018), where 54 subvariants (2–5 in each) were identified in 20 variants of 6 associations, as well as of the baydzharakh vegetation in the arctic tundra subzone in Siberia (7 subvariants). Facies. The unit without differentiaal taxa, recognized by the predominance (with a high abundance) of a species of the «normal» floristic complex of the association, due to particular or sometimes ­extreme abiotic factors, or under anthropogenic impact (Westhoff, van der Maarel, 1978). There are 14 facies in 2 associations of 2 classes on Wrangel Isl. (Kholod, 2007) and in 3 syntaxa of 3 classes in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra (Neshataev, Lavrinenko, 2020). Conclusion. One of the purposes of publishing this checklist is to draw the attention of northern phytosociologists to assessing the validity of syntaxa and the legality of their position in the Braun-Blanquet system. Our task was to bring together all available information, which is done in this article. Even a simple list of syntaxa makes it possible to assess the completeness of the geographical and syntaxonomic knowledge of vegetation. Geographically, sytaxonomic information is available for 12 of the 13 Russian floristic provinces (according to CAVM), in which about 130 districts have been investigated. The most studied provinces (from west to east) are Kanino-Pechora, Yamalo-Gydan, Taymyr, East Chukotka, Wrangel Island (the number of published relevés in each more than 600. There are no published data for the Kharaulakh province. It is not possible to say for sure to what extent the number of associations reflects the presence and distribution communities of 20 classes in different regions of the Russian Arctic. The completeness of the vegetation study depended on the tasks and on the possibility of their implementation. High attention to zonal vegetation is natural, since it is used for subdivision of the territory, for zonal division, and for maps of various scales. Both snowless (Carici rupestris–Kobresietea bellardii) and snowbed (Salicetea herbaceae) communities, as specific for the Arctic, are also always in the sphere of interests. Polygonal mires and bog-hollow vegetation (Scheuchzerio palustris–Caricetea) certainly require much more research, due to their vast areas in the eastern regions of the Siberian Arctic, where these types are not described. For the relatively well-studied shrub communities in the Asian part (conditionally assigned to the Betulo carpaticae–Alnetea viridis), validation of many syntaxa are required; the gap in the description of this object in the northern European regions has just begun to be filled. For 12 associations of grass-forbs communities on the well heated slopes conditionally positioned in the Mulgedio-Aconitetea, new orders and allian­ces, and, potentially, the class are necessary to be established. Unreasonably little data are available for raised bogs (Oxycocco-Sphagnetea), if even these are ­rather common of the southern regions of the tundra zone. Very scattered geographically and sparse syntaxonomic data are on the vegetation of naturally eroded mobile substrates (sand screes, gravel debris, landslides). In the Arctic, as in other regions of the globe, communities are placed in this class not by their species composition, but by habitat (unstable substrate), and the fact of the sparse cover. Only recently the zonal vegetation of polar deserts on horizontal surfaces with quite stable loamy substrates has been classified as a distinct class (Daniëls et al., 2016). In the list of habitat types with associated described Brown-Blanquet syntaxa from Arctic regions of Europe, Greenland, western North America, and Alaska, there are 5 classes (Walker et al., 2018) which are absent in our checklist: Juncetea trifidi Hadač in Klika et Hadač 1994, Saxifrago cernuae–Cochlearietea groenlandica Micuna et Daniëls in Mucina et al. 2016, Vaccinio-Piceetea Br.-Bl. in Br.-Bl. et al. 1939, Asplenietea trichomanis (Br.-Bl. in Meier et Br.-Bl. 1934) Oberd. 1977, Salicetea purpureae Moor 1958. Communities of these classes either exist in the Russian Arctic, but were not described (e. g. forest «islets» in tundra landscapes — Vaccinio-Piceetea, and the vegetation of rocks and rubble talus — Asplenietea trichomanis), or they exist, but are positioned in the other classes. An open question remains with Junce­tea trifidi on acidic substrates. Final conclusions on these classes will become possible after the thorough analysis of syntaxa throughout the entire circumpolar space. Even a very brief analysis of the available data revealed numerous cases of invalid names of syntaxa (no indication of the nomenclature type) or inconsistency names with ICPN rules (correct [recte] names are given for 43 ones); leaving the association outside of higher-level units or assigning one basic unit to ­several higher ones, etc. There are more such cases than we have noted now, especially taking into ­account the new edition of the ICPN (for example, the obligatory Latin or English terminology for denoting ranks and new units (ICPN 4th, Art. 3d, 3i, 3o, 5), mutation ­cases (Lat. mutatum, ICPN. 4th, Art. 45), inversions (Lat. inversum, ICPN. 4th, Art. 42) of names and autonym (Lat. autonym, ICPN 4th, Art. 13b, 4d). Now it becomes possible for each author to take measures to eliminate errors of various kinds to validate their syntaxa. Consolidated participation in joint publication is also possible. This is a necessary step for the next action — preparing the Prodromus of the vegetation syntaxa of the Russian Arctic with the expanded characteristics for all levels.

This thesis challenges established scholarship on fan cultures—based on foundational assumptions of fandom as an ‘imaginary community’ (Hill, 2016) bounded off from the mainstream—on a theoretical and methodological level. It traces these assumptions to canonised theoretical frameworks of Bourdieu’s (1984) economistic concept of cultural capital and to a lesser extent Foucault’s (1966) heterotopic spaces of otherness, and breaks with this tradition by placing fan/scholar practices in relation to the overarching socio-cultural structures and ideologies they remain part of. By synthesising a new theoretical framework from Bourdieu’s (1977) system of dispositions (habitus) and Foucault’s (1977) disciplinary notion of the panoptic sort (Gandy, 1993), I shift focus from mapping fandom to exploring scholarly sorting practices and the dispositional attitudes they serve. This not only explores naturalised fan scholarship practices, but also provides a means for scholars to move away from them. I then examine two academic case studies, analysing scholarly discourse of the BBC’s Sherlock and Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, chosen for their cultural omnipresence and abundance of scholarly discourse. Each case study is contrasted with over 400,000 words of discourse collected from 400 participant accounts through the transnational, multi-sited, ethnographic ‘Views on Fandom Project’. Through this triangulation, I demonstrate that scholar-fans implicitly draw from established brand, media, and fannish discourses, resulting in accounts that uncritically reproduce established, neoliberal value systems as the natural order of things. Through new theoretical pathways opened up by the framework of disposition and panoptic sorting—Sloterdijkian (2009) spherology and the Archerian (2012) reflexive imperative—I theorise the absence of scholar-fan reflexivity regarding these practices as attempts to maintain dispositional security. Additionally, I demonstrate that by focusing on fan/scholar dispositions, scholarship can break with this tradition of implicitly reproducing established discourses based on assumptions of fandom as bounded and different, and move on to critically analyse the complex relationships between fan cultures and the mainstream.

Within the UK the concept of the ‘city-region’ has gained increasing prominence in both academic and policy realms, particularly within the inter-related domains of spatial planning, public service delivery and economic development. However, our knowledge on the concept is currently limited in several respects. This includes a paucity of de-tailed accounts of how city-regions are formed and an over-reliance in existing analyses which consider city-regions as contingent responses to globalising economic impera-tives. The main aim of the thesis is to show how powerful city-regional narratives are materal-ised. To achieve this aim the research considers three key theoretical, methodological and empirical issues. In terms of theory, the research considers the role played by processes of narrative construction and institutionalisation in mediating the development of city-region agendas and subsequent material change. Methodologically, it asks how research can be designed to understand the relationship between these processes. Empirically, the research looks to increase our knowledge and understanding of these processes and events within South East Wales. South East Wales was identified as a fertile geographic location for research attention in light of the significant progression of a city-regional debate and the unique social, historical, institutional, and economic characteristics of the area. The research covers a period between 1992 and 2008 and explores the changing geographies of state spatiality and region-building processes operating in and around the case study area. The research approach draws on literature from several disciplines including human geography, political economy, international relations, and urban and regional planning. A three-stage analytical framework was developed to focus attention on particular elements of city-regionalism: i) the narrative construction of the city-region by key stakeholders; ii) institutionalisation of the narratives; and iii) materialisation of the city-region concept. Evidence was generated through the use of semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis and participant observation. The results indicate that greater attention should be given to the specific contexts in which city-regional agendas are promoted, including the roles played by personal relationships and the socio-economic conditions in the hinterland. The results also highlight the role played by the politics of scale as part of city-regional contestation and the tangible links which exist between discursive processes and the materialisation of city-regions.

This thesis aims to understand the politics, implications and interpretations associated with the transfer and mobilisation of sustainability concepts from elsewhere into Abu Dhabi. The emirate's pursuit of sustainability encompasses opportunities and also complexities which require trade-offs and creative solutions amidst the demands of globalisation and the existing authoritarian status quo. Exploring the rationale for the transfer of sustainability concepts from elsewhere into Abu Dhabi and its subsequent mobilisation in the local context expands our understanding of the different mechanisms, processes, platforms and change agents that enable sustainability-driven assemblages to thrive. By juxtaposing theoretical constructs from the academic literature on policy mobility, policy transfer and related governance, against empirical data in the areas of housing, transport, energy and urban design, nuanced meanings and experiences associated with the transfer and mobilisation of sustainability emerge. By situating Abu Dhabi's sustainability developments relationally within the context of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) nations, exploring the historical, social and political factors that have influenced the adaptation and interpretation of foreign sustainability concepts at multiple levels including the institutional level at Masdar and the UPC, this research on Abu Dhabi adds new knowledge to studies on policy mobility. Similarly, solutions that emerge as a result of concepts and actors moving and engaging across time and space expands our understanding of policy transfer processes in an authoritarian context. The nuances of the local context cannot be underestimated, particularly around the assertion of authoritarian power, persisting inequalities, and the forms of knowledge production and governance that emerge.

This thesis explores Chinese older people’s perception and experiences of ageing and age care in an urban neighbourhood in Beijing China. It is informed by a growing body of theoretical and empirical research regarding ageing and also draws upon research that has made linkage between ageing and place. However, little research has investigated older people’s experiences of ageing in a rapid changing urban neighbourhood and how these environmental changes affect their day to day lives in China. Thus, by conducting 34 in-depth interviews, participant observation in three urban neighbourhoods in urban Beijing and photography produced by the researcher, this study took a social constructionist stance and ethnographic research design to explore older people’s ageing experience in a rapidly changing environment, in this case, the role of the neighbourhood outdoor places in their day to day lives. The findings from this study demonstrate that the Western understanding of AIP is not sufficient to apply to the current social, economic and cultural context in urban Beijing. As the nascent concept of Ageing in place (AIP) has been embedded within broad socio-cultural institutions, numerous institutional legacies and socio-cultural factors directly and indirectly related to AIP serve as the discursive resources that shape and inform individuals’ disputant discourses. These factors not only frame their basic logics, vocabularies and moral reasoning but also shape their structural positions on housing access, pension rights and later-life care. Participants in these three neighbourhoods have been constantly constructing and reconstructing their understanding of ageing and AIP with the wider economic, political, social and cultural influences. These interesting perceptions of and attachment to neighbourhood engagement invite further theoretical reflections, as ageing and age care for older people in China have been greatly influenced by existing cultural norms, as well as new social trends, in a far more complicated and ambivalent fashion than commonly assumed and observers have envisioned.

This thesis investigates the question of how East Asian universities have engaged in urban processes as spatially grounded variegated social processes from the colonial era to recent decades by adopting a comparative urbanism approach. Historically, universities in the US and Europe have been influential urbanisation actors in their hosting cities, having occupied a substantial amount of land. The relationship between a university and its hosting city was often defined as ‘Town and Gown’; that implies an adversarial link, but this traditional relationship has changed. Universities in East Asia have also participated in urbanisation processes in diverse ways since their birth, but the dynamics behind this multi-faceted process has rarely been addressed. Using research data collected mainly from fieldwork in Singapore and South Korea, including 42 interviews and archival records, this thesis highlights the relationship between universities and cities in East Asia, focusing on three distinctive periods: the colonial, developmental, and postdevelopmental eras. In all these enquiries, land ownership by universities acts as a thread that weaves the diverse facets of the role of universities into different periods. The findings of this thesis can be summarised as follows: Firstly, colonialism has been influential in the university-urbanisation relationship. During the colonial era, the East Asian university emerged as a symbolic and political institution in the city. Various colonial and local actors surrounded the colonial universities to promote or fight against the ideology of imperialism, which demonstrates the diverse aspects of colonialism in cities of East Asia. Such legacies of colonialism are still found today. Secondly, the East Asian developmental state is a variegated concept. The university plays an important role in society, but the way in which the university engages with the developmental state has varied across geographies. The developmental state attempted to utilise universities to support rapid economic and urban development, but such efforts were not always successful. This finding challenges the conventional understanding that assumes a homogeneous conceptualisation of the East Asian developmental state. Lastly, the entrepreneurial character of East Asian universities has become increasingly evident while the presence of the state is still visible. Thus the role of East Asian universities in urban processes has also become more diverse and dynamic in the postdevelopmental state since the 1990s. While the entrepreneurial university has a long history in East Asia, the globalised and financialised interests are penetrating the university more actively through various urban development projects. This thesis concludes that there is an emerging need to recognise East Asian universities as land-based institutions playing an influential role in diverse and uneven urban processes. Investigating universities also provides an opportunity to identify linkages between their colonial legacies and contemporary urban processes in East Asia.

This thesis consists of four independent chapters on urban and development economics. Chapter 1 looks at the issue of distance and labour outcomes in urban areas of a developing country. It studies the effect of a housing relocation program on the labour supply and living conditions of low-income households across major cities in South Africa. For this, I use four waves of panel microdata collected between 2008 and 2014, and I exploit the arbitrary eligibility rules of the policy with a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to obtain causal estimates. In the short-term of two to four years following relocation, I find that the labour supply of recipient households decreases by one standard deviation, driven mostly by a decrease in female hours. I find evidence of a large increase in distance (km) to economic opportunities. This is likely to be an important factor behind the decline, directly or indirectly through within-family shifts in livelihood strategies. Evidence is limited regarding improvements in housing and neighbourhood quality. Chapter 2 examines how neighbourhoods where children grow up can play a significant part in shaping their opportunities later in life. It provides unique evidence in a developing country context by using the random allocation of households to ethnically segregated residential areas during apartheid in South Africa. The main observations come from a panel of young adults aged 14 to 22 at baseline and residing in the city of Cape Town. It covers 5 periods of their life between 2002 to 2009. I focus on black children in families living in former black-only residential areas. I find compelling evidence of neighbourhood effects on labour and educational outcomes in adulthood across deprived neighbourhoods. The differences are more marked for young women, suggesting a stronger hold of social norms and institutions for young men. Location, both in terms of access to jobs and access to higher quality public amenities (schools), social networks and the underlying human capital composition of the neighbourhood are positively correlated to having better socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood. Chapter 3 moves beyond socioeconomic outcomes, to study the relationship between extreme weather events and disease in developing cities. As climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent around the world, urban residents in developing countries have become more vulnerable to health shocks due to poor sanitation and infrastructure. The chapter empirically measures the relationship between weather and health shocks in the urban context of sub-Saharan Africa. Using unique high-frequency datasets of weekly cholera cases and accumulated precipitation for wards in Dar es Salaam, we find robust evidence that extreme rainfall has a significant positive impact on weekly cholera incidence. The effect is larger in wards that are more prone to flooding, have higher shares of informal housing and unpaved roads. We identify limited spatial spillovers. Time-dynamic effects suggest cumulated rainfall increases cholera occurrence immediately and with a lag of up to 5 weeks. Chapter 4 addresses questions related to the local impact of economic policies in developing countries. Specifically, I provide evidence on the local effect of a popular trade policy: export processing zones. The chapter examines the impact of their establishment on the levels of per capita expenditure across Nicaraguan municipalities for the period 1993 to 2009. Using the time and cross-section variation of park openings in a difference-in-differences framework, I find that on average consumption levels increased by 10% to 12% in treated municipalities. Yet, average effects mask significant disparities across the expenditure distribution. The results suggest that the policy benefited the upper-tail the most: expenditure levels increased by up to 25% at the 90th percentile. At the opposite end of the distribution, only the bottom decile registered a positive increase in expenditure levels of close to 10% across the period.

This thesis is an ethnographic study of urban development in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Drawing on 12 months of fieldwork, this manuscript explores the way that the city of Colombo is increasingly being re-imagined by policymakers, developers, government officials and elite residents as a “global city” similar to Singapore or Dubai. As my multi-sited project demonstrates, however, these visions of the new Colombo are far from being the current reality. Through chapters exploring diverse corners of Colombo including: a suspended Chinese-funded waterfront development project; a coastal fishing enclave; a new marketplace opened under the former government; and the city’s luxury apartment buildings, this thesis offers insight both into the varied forms of dispossession faced by the urban poor and working class as well as the aspirational projects designed to appeal to the Colombo elite. I argue that the primary principle governing Colombo’s urban development is the idea of “hubness,” an aspirational trope which emphasizes connection and mobility, especially across the Indian Ocean region. Rather than taking its island geography as a sign of insularity, many Sri Lankans hope to leverage what is now framed as the country’s “strategic location” to boost its appeal and transform Sri Lanka – and by extension, Colombo – into a major global hub connecting Asia, Africa and the Middle East. I argue that hubness as an ideal is both a spatial and temporal claim. Rather than being a self-evident statement of geography, hubness discourse is also a specific understanding of futurity. These complex entanglements of spatiality and temporality are present in each site. The ethnographic findings presented in this thesis point to the need to reconsider global city making as a process suffused with uncertainty, rather than as a straightforward, linear evolution. Global cities, I suggest, are not fixed or static entities, but contingent urban forms which are actively created as material and symbolic entities through various forms of dispossession and aspiration.

The Macpherson Inquiry (1999) was instrumental in forcing into the public domain the issue of police racism, which for decades had been an endemic part of police culture. My thesis, undertaken post Macpherson (1999), examined ongoing tensions in the policing of minority ethnic communities through a case study of policing in London’s ‘Little India’. My thesis highlights the continuing influence of racism in policing, describing a world of policing ethnically diverse communities that is far more complex, variable and contradictory than has yet been documented in the empirical policing literature. I describe how policing in Greenfield was a patchwork of continuity and change, illustrating how, despite the advances the police in Greenfield had made in eradicating overt racism from the organisation, passive prejudice remained rife among officers. Most notably, despite acknowledging Greenfield’s long resident Asian communities as the ‘indigenous population’, officers still had little knowledge about these communities, tending to classify them as ‘Asians’ in a way that obscured, rather than illuminated their diversity. Furthermore, while officers regarded ‘Asians’ as the established communities of Greenfield, new ‘problem populations’ - most notably Somalis, Muslims and travellers - emerged, with officers tending to engage with these communities in antagonistic ways, echoing themes from early studies of race and policing. Yet beneath this somewhat depressing overarching picture of policing, a more complex, contradictory network of attitudes and practice emerged, 3 encompassing both officers who were overtly hostile to ethnic diversity and also examples of inspirational officers committed to reforming the policing of minority ethnic communities. Having described policing in Greenfield, I conclude by discussing the wider ramifications for police legitimacy and democracy in Britain, arguing that until greater emphasis is placed on ensuring that the police support the equitable principles of democracy, the police in Greenfield and other areas will continue to fail the marginalised people who most need their services.

A key aim underpinning the regeneration of the Thames Gateway in the 1990s and 2000s was to ensure that the region’s existing ex-industrial communities were able to derive tangible social, economic and infrastructural benefits from the new development taking place on brownfield sites. A more inclusive and socially aware form of regeneration that learned the lessons from the property led regeneration that took place in the London Docklands in the early 1980s was promised. This study examines the extent to which this ambition has been achieved in Kent Thameside, one of the key ‘growth areas’ identified by the Government in the Thames Gateway. Using evidence from extended interviews with residents living in three existing Kent Thameside communities and key regeneration officials, as well as detailed observation of events and developments in Kent Thameside, this study examines the impact of the principal regeneration objectives relating to the area’s existing communities. It looks first at the extent to which new developments and existing communities have been integrated both physically and socially. It then considers the impact of policies which were designed to empower existing residents by enabling them to participate in the design and delivery of programmes relating to the area’s physical and economic regeneration. This study uses this analysis to examine whether the Kent Thameside regeneration model, which is predicated on the private sector led redevelopment of large, brownfield sites outside the existing residential footprint, is best placed to achieve to the regeneration objectives relating to existing communities. This study also considers what lessons can be drawn from the case study of Kent Thameside to inform our understanding of the policy and practice of regeneration in the wider Thames Gateway and the UK.

What makes science fiction genres better than others at challenging social conventions, especially gender? Are speculative works structured differently when addressed to traditionally under-portrayed individuals or communities? This collection of interviews elicits truly honest and thought-provoking responses that focus on the biographical dimension in speculative fiction, questions of intersectionality, genre (re)definitions and the politicization of fiction. It gives voice to women of different races, nations, classes and sexual orientations who write and edit speculative fiction – such as Ellen Datlow, Kathe Koja, Angela Mi Young Hur, Eugen Bacon, and Cat Rambo. The interviews clarify how the junction of genre and gender is a key element to understanding this literary field, while simultaneously contextualizing and theorizing the interview itself, as a literary genre and a research tool.

This chapter argues that definitions of the white working class, which have been used extensively, need to be reconsidered. Typically, these definitions focus on non-Hispanic white people without a college degree. Yet, using this definition, the billionaire internet entrepreneurs Bill Gates of Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook would be framed as members of the white working class. Clearly, this is not the case. Missing in the discussion on definition is how people themselves consider working-class life and social mores, and especially the importance of values and norms in shaping their lived experiences. The chapter assesses further the challenges of ascribing privilege to the white working-class communities who took part in the study. In the various discussions, “white” was often viewed uncritically and implicitly, and was dropped quickly, when exploring the lived experiences of the white working class by the research participants. The importance of working hard and being honest was emphasized, as well as the relevance of class. White working-class communities were viewed as classed, while communities of color were often raced.

The organic pollutants of soil like associated petroleum hydrocarbons are a major source of concern for food safety, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries of the world. The increasing concentrations of toxic compounds in agricultural soils contaminated with organic pollutants affect physiology, biochemistry and development and growth of crops, and overall productivity. Organic pollutants can degrade soil structure, disrupt microbial communities, and reduce soil fertility. Due to the difference in the composition and concentration of the different organic pollutants, they have impact on soil, on plant growth and development in different ways and at different rates. The current review aims to give an overview of the response of plants to organic pollution according to factors such as the type, composition, concentration, persistence of organic pollutants, type and characteristics of soil, plant species and climate. Petroleum hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are part of the most significant classes of organic pollutants, due to their long-term environmental persistence, long-term toxicity, bioaccumulation, and biomagnification properties of living tissues. Up to 90% of all petroleum hydrocarbons are deposited in the soil due to their high hydrophobicity, which improves the rapid interaction with soil particles and their permeability in the lower layers. Thus, this review summarizes the current state of research on the effects of organic pollutants, hydrocarbons especially, on physiology, biochemistry, development and growth of crops.

Coined in 1994 by a caucus of Black women activists, reproductive justice is the “human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities”.1 After the overturn of Roe v. Wade, access to reproductive healthcare is radically restricted across the U.S., compounding systemic race, gender, and class-based inequities that have always made healthcare inaccessible for many. The landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022 rolled back nearly 50 years of reproductive rights protections and unleashed a plethora of laws that make it more difficult to access reproductive health care, riskier to assist those seeking care, and precarious to teach about issues of race, gender, and sexuality. As stated in the dissenting opinion by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, “Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens.”2 In the U.S. today, bodily autonomy and academic freedom are geographically situated. Within this context of curtailed freedoms, architects and educators must confront the spatial realities of these restrictions. New dialogues must emerge at architecture’s intersectional edges – between designers, activists, social justice advocates, legal experts, public health practitioners, and students – to explore how the built environment can better support human lives.

Access to both electricity and clean drinking water is challenging in many remote communities. A self-powered water disinfection system, currently under development, can potentially address this challenge. In the proposed design, energy from water flowing through the system is harnessed using a pico turbine (nominal output power of 60 W) and used to power an electrochemical disinfection process. The characteristics of turbines at the pico-scale (less than 5kW) required for this system are not well researched, and off-the-shelf designs are either too bulky or too inefficient for this application. This paper presents a model developed to evaluate a new class of efficient pico-scale Francis turbines for this water disinfection system. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the turbine was developed in ANSYS® CFX® 17.1. The CFD model exploits the rotational symmetry of the turbine and draft tube fluid regions to reduce the computational cost in terms of time and memory. The turbine model is coupled with models of the electric generator and electrochemical cell to determine the balanced operating points. When validated against experimental data, the combined model showed good predictive ability despite its low computational cost: the modeled turbine efficiency is within 5% of the measured values across the operating range of the device. The current turbine design has a hydraulic efficiency above 60 % in its operating range, which is high for a compact turbine at this scale. The combined model was used with a parameterized version of the turbine geometry to identify key performance sensitivities, particularly with the blade trailing edge angle. Turbine efficiency was improved by more than 2 % across the allowable flow rates. The low computational cost of the combined model made it well suited for iterative design optimization, supplanting the need for lengthy experimental trials. Overall, the modeling approach presented here shows good promise for use in picoturbine design.

This paper examines whether language classes raises refugees' language proficiency and improves their socio-economic integration. Our identification strategy leverages the opening, closing, and gradual expansion of local language training centers in Denmark, as well as the quasi-random assignment of the refugees to locations with varying proximity to a language training center. First, we show that refugees' distance from the assigned language training center is as good as random conditional on initial placement. Second, we show that a one-hour decrease in commuting time increases total hours of class attended by 46 to 71. Third, we use this novel identification strategy to show that 100 additional hours of language class increases fluency in the Danish language by 8-9 percent, post-language training human capital acquisition by 11-13 percent and improve the integration of the refugees in the communities where they were initially placed, as measured by the lower exit rates from those same communities and an almost 70 percent reduction in mobility to the largest, most immigrant-dense cities in Denmark.

The instability and upheaval of violent conflict can break down patriarchal structures, challenge traditional gender norms and open up new roles and spaces for collective agency of women, sexual and gender minorities (SGM), and other marginalised groups (Yadav, 2021; Myrittinen & Daigle, 2017). A recent study on the gendered implications of civil war finds that countries recovering from ‘major civil war’ experience substantial improvements in women’s civil liberties and political participation—complementary aspects of political empowerment (Bakken & Bahaug, 2020). This rapid literature review explores the openings that conflict and post-conflict settings can create for the development of political empowerment of women and LGBTQ+ communities—as well as challenges. Drawing primarily on a range of academic, non-governmental organisation (NGO), and practitioner literature, it explores conflict-affected settings from around the world. There was limited literature available on experience from Ukraine (which was of interest for this report); and on specific opportunities at the level of local administrations. In addition, the available literature on empowerment of LGBTQ+ communities was much less than that available for women’s empowerment. The literature also focused on women, with an absence of information on girls. It is important to note that while much of the literature speaks to women in society as a whole, there are various intersectionalities (e.g. class, race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, rural/urban etc.) that can produce varying treatment and degrees of empowerment of women. Several examples are noted within the report.