Immigration and Perceptions of the Political System in Britain

Recently published research contends that concern about immigration is weakening the British political system by creating distrust in the elites and institutions in this system. Some may challenge this finding because the public opinion data used to illustrate this relationship is limited to the period of the recent Labour government, raising the possibility that it was an artefact of that era and thus may no longer hold. Using the most recent round of the European Social Survey (2010–11), this paper investigates whether this finding holds in the present era. The findings indicate that under the current Conservative‐Liberal Democratic government, concern about immigration is still related to negative perceptions of the political system. This finding, along with those reported in previous research, points to potentially serious negative consequences for the functioning of the British political system, which are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.     

Towards a multimodal ethnohistorical approach: a case study of bookplates

ABSTRACT

This study uses four examples of bookplates printed in Edwardian Britain (1901–1914) to demonstrate how the adoption of an ethnohistorical approach to social semiotics can vastly strengthen multimodal analysis. It argues that situating choices of image, colour, typography and materiality in archival research and the broader sociohistorical context of the Edwardian period can help to uncover the external motivations for a bookplate’s structure. The case study reveals that bookplate designs were primarily influenced by the social status and wealth of owners, as well as the specific, well-established norms of the bookplate genre. It also highlights the significance of connecting semiotic choices to the traditions of Edwardian society and the ways in which meanings can shift over time. The findings demonstrate the importance of grounding hypotheses concerning the function and form of artefacts in concrete historical documents, in addition to the vast potential of this methodology for exploring other texts within a particular historical period.     

Social process in grizzly bear management: lessons for collaborative governance and natural resource policy

In this study, we analyze a case of governance in natural resource management. Building on the limited body of literature on termination and using methods of problem orientation and social process mapping, we examine a stakeholder engagement process designed to address conflicts in grizzly bear management in Banff National Park, Alberta. Terminated in 2009 after several years of collaboration, this stakeholder engagement process explicitly used the policy sciences framework to cultivate dialogue, improve participants?? decision-making skills, and make consensus-based recommendations for grizzly bear management. Our analysis demonstrates the utility of undertaking social process mapping and problem orientation in order to understand a natural resource policy problem. We include recommendations to foster a social process that allows for clarification and advancement of the common interest in stakeholder groups, insights into how social process can contribute to policy termination, and reflections on the practical, collaborative use of the policy sciences to solve problems of governance. This analysis complements other articles on this case that examine stakeholder perspectives, initial outcomes, and decision process, collectively providing a thorough policy analysis.     

Determining sex of the posterior ilium from the robert j. Terry and william m. Bass collections

Morphological traits of the posterior ilium are commonly used for sex determination in bioarcheological and forensic skeletal analysis. This study was designed to compare the classification correctness of standard scoring systems and measurements of the posterior ilium, including using logistic regression, to develop new formulae to predict sex. Metric measurements and morphological scores for the preauricular sulcus (PS), the elevation of the auricular surface, and the greater sciatic notch width were recorded for 97 males and 101 females of both European and African ancestry from the William M. Bass and Terry Collections. Correct classification of sex was high using individual traits such as the greater sciatic notch score (88.4%), the presence or absence of a PS (78.8%), and the scoring of a present PS as 1, 2, or 3 (100%). Furthermore, an equation combining multiple traits of the posterior ilium had a high classification of 94.9%.     

Before there Is a Table: Small Wins to Build a Movement against Sexual and Relationship Violence in a University Context

Addressing sexual and relationship violence (SRV) on campuses requires coordinated engagement from all members of the campus-community; however, many campuses do not yet have the infrastructure or institutional commitment to build an all-campus action plan. In such cases, campuses lack the metaphorical table around which collaboration happens. This paper presents tensions and lessons learned so far from a faculty-staff-student partnership to build a movement toward university-wide collaborative practice. Through iterative, collaborative reflection on our context, practice, and intermediate outcomes, we identified recommendations for improving praxis in campus-based, intersectional anti-SRV organizing. Our analysis explores how our individual positionalities both open up and limit our potential to move this work forward. We share our guiding values and frameworks, including intersectional feminist attention to power and oppression; centering survivors and students; strategic collaboration within systems; and integrating self-care and other supportive practices for building a sustainable movement. Our emergent strategy, illustrated through ten lessons/tensions and four case examples, focuses on finding close collaborators with shared SRV analysis; making the best use of resources and spaces we control; identifying meaningful “small wins;” and pursuing opportunities to connect to others through positive collaborations. Efforts to intentionally raise awareness and grow strategic institutional connections build momentum toward institutionally-supported campus-wide evaluation and reimagining of prevention and survivor-support efforts. While feminist collaborative social change is challenging, we celebrate and learn from our “two steps forward” to sustain us through the inevitable steps back. We write to stir a conversation where we help each other interpret and learn across our varied contexts.     

Fate and Behavior of Gunshot Residue—A Review

A review of the literature concerning the fate and behavior of gunshot residue (GSR) is presented. A number of concomitant parameters including firearm and ammunition type, plume and GSR material characteristics, travel distances, chemical composition and GSR morphology are critically discussed in relation to their effects on the distribution and deposition, transfer and persistence processes of GSR. The underlying mechanisms associated with such processes are also considered. Knowledge of these processes on GSR materials could provide valuable information concerning scene preservation and subsequent forensic sampling. The number of GSR particles deposited can vary significantly with each firearm discharge, highlighting the potential to produce distinctive data in each individual case. With the continual development and compositional changes of new ammunition types, further evaluation of the effect these processes may have on GSR evidence and their possible influence on the interpretation of the analytical results should be given due consideration.     

Examining the Role of School Resource Officers on School Safety and Crisis Response Teams

School resource officers (SROs) are being increasingly employed in schools to respond to incidents of school violence and to help address safety concerns among students and staff. While previous research on school safety and crisis teams has examined the role of school mental health professionals’ and administrators, fewer studies have evaluated the role of the SRO. The current study examined differences between SROs, school administrators, and school mental health professionals (i.e., school psychologists, school counselors, social workers) regarding experiences with crisis events, as well as perceived effectiveness of crisis prevention and response strategies. The most common crisis events across professionals included student assaults, drug offenses, and mandated child abuse and neglect reporting. While SROs and school mental health professionals had similar ratings of school safety strategies, school administrators had less effective appraisals of crisis response plans and crisis postvention activities. Implications for practice and future directions for research are reviewed.     

Of Time and Causality: A Simple Test of the Requirement of Social Capital in Making Democracy Work in Italy

Using survey data from The Civic Culture study, this research note revisits the idea that institutional development across the regions of Italy differs because of varying levels of social capital. The findings indicate that – according to the earliest survey data available from Italy – it is unlikely that differences in the development of regional institutions between the North and the South were a result of differences in social capital between the two regions. The article ultimately contends that social capital is likely to be important for institutional (and economic) development, but that (a) it does not appear to be a prerequisite for either and that (b) it can develop far more quickly than expected; this implies that impersonal trust and a participatory culture are not resources that societies must wait for several centuries to acquire, but that perhaps they can be fostered by the development of powerful democratic institutions.