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This chapter explores the role that birdwatching plays in The Archers. It demonstrates some significant similarities between the way that birdwatching is portrayed in…
This chapter explores the role that birdwatching plays in The Archers. It demonstrates some significant similarities between the way that birdwatching is portrayed in present-day Ambridge, and the way it was presented in both fictional and non-fictional literature of the 1940s. These similarities suggest that birdwatching in Ambridge is an activity that tends to perpetuate traditional class and gender divisions. Particularly in terms of gender, this is a surprising discovery, given the many strong female characters in the show, and suggests that cultural assumptions about gender and birdwatching run deep in UK society today. The chapter warns that a failure to recognise these assumptions not only hampers the progress of women who aspire to be taken seriously as ornithologists, but also risks reinforcing dualistic thinking about humans and nature at a time when the environmental crisis makes it more important than ever to recognise the ecological interconnectedness of human and nonhuman worlds. However, the recent development of Kirsty Miller’s storyline, in which she is rediscovering her earlier love of the natural world, not only offers hope of a shift away from this traditional bias but also opens a space for a more nuanced examination of the importance of birds in human–nature relations.
This chapter explores the queasy relationship between food and sex on The Archers. For listeners, food provides an imaginative reference point; consumption of food hints…
This chapter explores the queasy relationship between food and sex on The Archers. For listeners, food provides an imaginative reference point; consumption of food hints towards characters embodiment and occupation of physical space. To the extent that these characters have boundaries, the way they approach and react to food reveals their rigidity or permeability, and the tones in which characters offer, provide, prepare, coax and force food upon one another tells us a lot about the sexual politics at play in Ambridge. In The Archers, women cook and men eat. Characters who rebel against this norm often subvert traditional masculinity in other ways.
Through close reading (and obsessive listening), this chapter analyses the ways in which food allows the relationships on The Archers to act as foils to one another. It also explores: food as metaphor; food used both to sustain and fortify the boundaries of the self and to besiege the ego boundaries of others; how characters are given weight in acoustic space; female emancipation; male helplessness; the hunger/satiety/aural claustrophobia of listeners.
The aim of this paper is to explore inheritance planning amongst small business owners, which is important due to the complex nature of a business proprietor's estate and…
The aim of this paper is to explore inheritance planning amongst small business owners, which is important due to the complex nature of a business proprietor's estate and the fact that the latter sometimes have specific aspirations regarding the succession of the enterprise.
The article highlights the problems that can arise if a business owner dies intestate and then considers the levels of will ownership amongst small business owners in South Wales and attitudes to inheritance planning.
The primary research conducted found that a significant number of small business owners have not made a will (51 percent) and that the reasons for not doing so are complex and varied.
Several themes emerged from the study, such as the importance of contact with professional advisers, the impact of culture on inheritance planning, reliance on trust, the problems associated with complicated family circumstances and the effect of the current economic climate on attitudes to inheritance planning
LIBRARIES have come impressively into the public picture in the past year or two, and seldom with more effect than when Their Majesties the King and Queen opened the new Central Reference Library at Manchester on July 17th. In a time, which is nearly the end of a great depression, that the city which probably felt the depression more than any in the Kingdom should have proceeded with the building of a vast store‐house of learning is a fact of great social significance and a happy augury for libraries as a whole. His Majesty the King has been most felicitous in providing what we may call “slogans” for libraries. It will be remembered that in connection with the opening of the National Central Library, he suggested that it was a “University which all may join and which none need ever leave” —words which should be written in imperishable letters upon that library and be printed upon its stationery for ever. As Mr. J. D. Stewart said at the annual meeting of the National Central Library, it was a slogan which every public library would like to appropriate. At Manchester, His Majesty gave us another. He said: “To our urban population open libraries are as essential to health of mind, as open spaces to health of body.” This will be at the disposal of all of us for use. It is a wonderful thing that Manchester in these times has been able to provide a building costing £450,000 embodying all that is modern and all that is attractive in the design of libraries. The architect, Mr. Vincent Harris, and the successive librarians, Mr. Jast and Mr. Nowell, are to be congratulated upon the crown of their work.
One of the main features of the reform of the Mental Health Act 2007 was the introduction of community treatment orders (CTOs). CTOs represent a fundamental shift in the…
One of the main features of the reform of the Mental Health Act 2007 was the introduction of community treatment orders (CTOs). CTOs represent a fundamental shift in the rights of people with severe mental health problems, who have been detained in hospital under section 3 of the Mental Health Act and subsequently discharged. The call for the introduction of CTOs or similar legislation has been a feature of mental health policy over the past 20 years. Despite the detailed discussion of the relationship between ethnicity and psychiatry, there has been very little attention paid to the way that race was a factor in the community care scandals of the 1990s. This article, through the consideration of two very high profile cases ‐ Christopher Clunis and Ben Silcock, explores the media's influence on the construction of the debate in this area. In particular, it explores the way that the media reporting of the two cases had a role in not only perpetuating racial stereotyping, but also the stigmatising of those experiencing acute mental health problems. In addition, with the use of government papers obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, it considers the response to and the attempts to influence the media debate at that time.
This paper aimed to examine the impact of the removal of bottled water on the campus community. This paper presents the findings of a survey conducted at the first…
This paper aimed to examine the impact of the removal of bottled water on the campus community. This paper presents the findings of a survey conducted at the first Australian university to remove single-use bottled water from sale on a small regional university campus. The removal of bottled water from sale at the university formed part of the university’s commitment to environmental sustainability.
The study was conducted substantially by undergraduate students who participated in an action learning project in which they assisted in the design, implementation and analysis of an online snapshot survey made available to all staff and students of the university.
The results indicated some evidence of changes to pro-environmental behaviors such as increased use of re-fillable bottles, but there were less desirable outcomes such as drinking less water. Community perceptions were dramatically polarized. Restrictions on freedom of choice, concerns about health as a result of increased use of high-sugar drinks and the continued availability of other plastic drink bottles were provided as strong objections to the removal of bottled water from sale on campus.
The study provides useful insights for university sustainability planners and administrators about the complex range of issues associated with the implementation of sustainability initiatives on a university campus.
While extensive literature exists about the environmental impacts of bottled water, few studies have explored the impacts or community responses to the removal of bottled water in the university context.