Gendering transnational radio: women listeners and the BBC Empire and Overseas Services, 1932–1967

ABSTRACT

The BBC World Service, today a respected broadcaster on the global stage, had its origins in the BBC Empire Service of the 1930s. Shortwave radio broadcasts from London explicitly targeted isolated white men in the geographically dispersed British colonies and dominions, with the intention of strengthening them in their imperial endeavours. BBC staff positioned women at the margins of programming and scheduling decisions. Yet for some women listeners radio was a crucial constitutive element of their multi-sensory empire (and post-empire) experience. This paper draws on the BBC Written Archives collection to explore the neglected topic of gender in relation to international broadcasting, focusing on how white women ‘exiles’ and settlers used and understood radio in their daily lives from the 1930s to the 1960s. BBC Overseas broadcasting, as the Empire and later General Overseas Services, provides a fruitful channel into further exploration of the gendered nature of the transnational domain, illustrating women's agency in the complex webs of empire.     

Entangling carbon lock-in: India’s coal constituency

This article investigates how energy security in the Anthropocene is entangled in diffuse ways with materiality. In particular we examine the social-material entanglement of humans and coal in India and how coal manifests itself differently across social life in the country. Focusing on a single material allows us to study how the Anthropocene creates, and is created by, particular appropriations of the material world. It offers a corrective to some Anthropocene literature that avoids discussing the complex, “everyday,” social impacts that fossil fuels have, particularly in the developing world. These intertwined impacts add to the complexity and difficulty in the process of decarbonizing societies, or in transitioning to a sustainable energy future.     

Why They Leave: An Analysis of Terrorist Disengagement Events from Eighty-seven Autobiographical Accounts

A deeper understanding of terrorist disengagement offers important insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to persuade individuals to leave these groups. Current research highlights the importance of certain “push” and “pull” factors in explaining disengagement. However, such studies tell us very little about the relative frequencies at which these hypothesized factors are associated with leaving in the terrorist population. Using data collected from eighty-seven autobiographical accounts, we find that push, rather than pull, factors are more commonly cited as playing a large role in individuals' disengagement decisions and that the experience of certain push factors increases the probability an individual will choose to leave. Importantly, disillusionment with the group's strategy or actions, disagreements with group leaders or members, dissatisfaction with one's day-to-day tasks, and burnout are more often reported as driving disengagement decisions than de-radicalization. Finally, our results suggest that ideological commitment may moderate one's susceptibility to pull factors.     

Carceral Pride: The Fusion of Police Imagery with LGBTI Rights

This paper reflects upon the adoption of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) rights discourse and imagery in police public relations and problematises the construction of police as protectors and defenders of gay liberties and homonormative life. Building from a foundational conceptualisation of policing as a racial capitalist project, it analyses the phenomenon of police rainbow branding practiced in nominally public spaces, such as Pride parades, and online through news media and social networking sites. Drawing on critiques of queer liberalism and complicities with state violence, the paper explores the contours of carceral homonationalism, arguing that ‘officially anti-homophobic’ police image work attempts to obscure the role of the carceral state in (re)producing sexual and gender oppression. However, this image work has also given rise to new forms of political action. Counter-movements against police and ‘carceral pride’ are actively reworking the distributions of space and visibility within LGBTI movements.     

The Housing and Planning Act 2016: Rewarding the Aspiration of Homeownership?

In May 2016 the Housing and Planning Act 2016 became law, the first purely Conservative government intervention on housing in England since the 1990s. This article examines the Act's key provisions pertaining to social housing and the government's stated aim of increasing rates of homeownership. The Act, through the Starter Homes Scheme, extension of the right to buy to housing association tenants and changes to security of tenure in the social sector, has been heralded as a ‘landmark’ piece of legislation. This article scrutinises these policy measures and assesses their effectiveness and likely impact. It is contended that the Act exposes the government's promotion of homeownership above all other housing tenures. The article further explores the deep moralisation at the heart of the homeownership narrative and the intensification in the residualisation of social housing in England which, it is argued, is the inevitable consequence of the reforms.     

Patient perceptions of schizophrenia in forensic and general adult psychiatry

This study explores the illness perceptions of patients with schizophrenia in forensic settings and contrasts their views with those of a general adult psychiatry sample. It was hypothesised that forensic psychiatric patients would have more negative illness beliefs than general adult patients. A cross-sectional survey was used. Forty forensic patients and 32 general adult patients with schizophrenia were recruited. They completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire for Schizophrenia (IPQS), a valid and reliable measure of illness perceptions in mental health problems. Forensic patients perceived their illness to be less chronic, less cyclical, and had a lower negative emotional response to illness. Our results did not support our original hypothesis and possible reasons are explored. Acknowledging patient’s views when formulating management plans could permit more effective individually tailored treatment.     

Factors associated with stalking persistence

The longer stalking persists, the more damaging its effects. Despite this, little research has explored factors associated with stalking persistence, making it difficult to drive strategies that encourage desistance. This study examined risk factors associated with persistence in a sample of 637 participants from Brisbane (Australia) classified as ex-intimate stalkers. A self-report perpetration questionnaire was used to measure stalking duration (low/moderate/high) and risk factors for persistence. Findings identified marked differences in the nature of risk factors for moderate (1–12 months) as opposed to high persistence (>1 year). Ex-intimate stalkers were more likely to be moderately persistent (versus low and high persistence) if they had higher attachment anxiety, amorous motives, constantly ruminated about the victim and were feeling hurt. Ex-intimate stalkers were more likely to be highly persistent (versus low and moderate persistence) if they were aged over 30, had some tertiary education, had higher attachment avoidance, did not have amorous motives, wanted to frighten/hurt the victim and felt angry. Feeling suicidal and/or unable to cope was associated with both moderate and high persistence. Findings suggest it is crucial to differentiate risk factors for moderate and high persistence. Furthermore, ex-intimate stalking that persists the longest may be the most malicious.     

Improving forensic responses to residential burglaries: results of a randomized controlled field trial

Objectives

Residential burglaries (or break and enters) can cause great concern to the public but are typically a routine police job. The present study sought to evaluate an enhanced police approach to this high-volume crime by emphasizing police–victim interactions and more thorough forensic examinations.

Methods

Scenes of crime officers (forensic examiners) were randomly assigned to either a control (business-as-usual) or experimental condition. Officers in the experimental condition received additional training and resources to upskill them in DNA and fingerprint evidence collection and crime scene evaluation. Experimental officers also received additional training on procedurally just approaches to dealing with victims and were encouraged to be more thorough and spend more time at these high-volume crime scenes.

Results

The trial revealed that the enhanced, experimental, approach offered a number of benefits, including greater evidence collection, identification, and incidents solved. Further, this enhanced approach boosted victims’ perceptions of officers’ procedural justice and satisfaction with the procedures used. However, this approach was more costly in relation to time, and the additional collection of extra DNA evidence did not greatly add to the crime solvability of these incidents.

Conclusions

High-volume crimes such as break and enters have a significant impact on the victims and often go unsolved. This study provides causal evidence that enhancing officers’ attendance and attention to victims and evidence at these scenes can increase solvability and enhance victim experiences.