Telling stories of 21st Century welfare: the UK Coalition Government and the neo-liberal discourse of worklessness and dependency’ Critical Social Policy

Policy documents are a useful source for understanding the privileging of particular ideological and policy preferences (Scrase and Ockwell, 2010) and how the language and imagery may help to construct society’s assumptions, values and beliefs. This article examines how the UK Coalition government’s 2010 Green Paper, 21st Century Welfare, and the White Paper, Universal Credit: Welfare that Works, assist in constructing a discourse about social security that favours a renewal and deepening of neo-liberalization in the context of threats to its hegemony. The documents marginalize the structural aspects of persistent unemployment and poverty by transforming these into individual pathologies of benefit dependency and worklessness. The consequence is that familiar neo-liberal policy measures favouring the intensification of punitive conditionality and economic rationality can be portrayed as new and innovative solutions to address Britain’s supposedly broken society and restore economic competitiveness.

Unheard Voices: Stories from the Troubles

Produced in association with WAVE Trauma Centre, this short film records the experiences of six victims and survivors of the Northern Irish Troubles. Filmed and edited collaboratively, UV addresses issues of trauma, loss, justice and recovery. The story-tellers range from a police widow, to the brother of a sectarian victim, to a youth worker who lost is legs in an explosion. This film has been screened, with public discussions, between 2010 and 2012 by the Good Relations Departments of the following Borough and City Councils - Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, Lisburn, Ballymena, Coleraine, Moyle and Newtownabbey. It has also been screened at the Hallwells Contemporary Arts Centre, Buffalo, and at St Bonaventure University, NY (2012)

http://www.wavetraumacentre.org.uk/about-us/wave-projects/unheard-voices

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This 30 minute documentary film was produced in collaboration with WAVE Trauma Centre, Belfast. Working closely with six survivors of the Troubles violence in Northern Ireland through all stages of production and exhibition, the film contributes to on-going discussions about dealing with the conflicted past in a contested present. The role of storytelling, identified by two government reports – the Bloomfield Report and the Eames-Bradley Report - as an important method of addressing the violent past, is one of the key research questions involved in the research. Public screenings and discussions have been organised by the Good Relations Departments of seven borough councils (Belfast, Lisburn, Derry, Ballymena, Newtownabbey, Coleraine and Moyle). The film has also been screened in New York State and London. One of the recurring themes brought up in these public discussions in the role and limits of storytelling alongside the legal issues of justice, prosecutions and reparations. An accompanying co-written article with PhD student, Jolene Mairs, 'Unheard Voices' in Mc Keogh, C. and O'Connel, D. (eds) (2012) Documentary in a Changing State,Cork University Press, is part of the portfolio presented for REF.

Temperature and water potential relations of tropical Trametes and other wood-decay fungi from the indigenous forests of Zimbabwe

Three isolates each, of nine different Trametes and five other wood inhabiting basidiomycetes, were collected from the indigenous forests of Zimbabwe, and the impact of temperature (20-60 degrees C), osmotic and matric potential (-0.5 to - 8.0 MPa), and their interactions on in vitro growth compared. Generally, there was no significant difference between growth of isolates of the same species in relation to temperature. Temperature relationships of the species studied correlated well with their geographic distributions. Species occurring in hot, dry regions tolerated a wide temperature range, with some showing unusually high thermotolerance (55 degrees, T. socotrana, T. cingulata and T. cervina). There were significant intra-strain differences for individual species in relation to solute potential on glycerol-modified media. Generally, growth of ail species was better on glycerol- and KCl-modified osmotic media than on a metrically-modified medium (PEG 8000) at 25, 30 and 37 degrees. The limits for growth on the osmotic media were significantly wider than matric medium, being - 4.5 to - 5.0 and - 2.5 to - 4.5 MPa, respectively. An Irpex sp. grew at lower water potentials than all other species, with good growth at - 7.0 MPa. This study suggests that the capacity of these fungi for effective growth over a range of temperatures, osmotic and matric potentials contributes to their rapid wood decay capacities in tropical climates.

Wood degradation, and cellulase and ligninase production, by Trametes and other wood-inhabiting basidiomycetes from indigenous forests of Zimbabwe

Nine species of Trametes and five other wood inhabiting basidiomycetes, were collected from the indigenous forests of Zimbabwe and analysed for cellulases, ligninases, extracellular phenolases and wood degrading ability for the first time. Cellulase enzyme activities varied widely among the species. After 15 d growth exo-glucanase activity had increased in the majority of species whilst Biter paper activity showed the opposite trend, being greatly reduced in all species on day 15 compared to day IO. Endo-glucanase activity was relatively uniform at both sampling times. The fungi were more active against water soluble cellulose derivatives than filter paper cellulase. In all the fungi tested, cellulose activity on filter paper was significantly less than endo- and exo-glucanase activities. The highest cellulase activity was expressed by Cerrena meyenii (683 U mg(-1)) Phaeotrametes decipiens, Trametes modesta, and T. pocas also expressed relatively high cellulase activity on all types of cellulose tested. All Trametes species tested positive for extracellular phenol oxidases whilst Fomotopsis spragueii and Irpex stereoides tested negative. Ail but one of the Trametes species in the study were able to degrade two different lignin preparations in tests for lignin degradation. T. menziesii was unable to degrade both lignin preparations although it had tested positive for production of extracellular oxidase. The species in this study degraded hardwood to a greater extent than softwood. Eight of them caused more than 80% dry weight loss of wood blocks during 70 d incubation. Those fungi that expressed high cellulase activity also caused high weight loss on wood.

Indigenous Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Assemblages Protect Grassland Host Plants from Pathogens

Plant roots can establish associations with neutral, beneficial and pathogenic groups of soil organisms. Although it has been recognized from the study of individual isolates that these associations are individually important for plant growth, little is known about interactions of whole assemblages of beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms associating with plants. We investigated the influence of an interaction between local arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal and pathogenic/saprobic microbial assemblages on the growth of two different plant species from semi-arid grasslands in NE Germany (Mallnow near Berlin). In a greenhouse experiment each plant species was grown for six months in either sterile soil or in sterile soil with one of three different treatments: 1) an AM fungal spore fraction isolated from field soil from Mallnow; 2) a soil pathogen/saprobe fraction consisting of a microbial community prepared with field soil from Mallnow and; 3) the combined AM fungal and pathogen/saprobe fractions. While both plant species grew significantly larger in the presence of AM fungi, they responded negatively to the pathogen/saprobe treatment. For both plant species, we found evidence of pathogen protection effects provided by the AM fungal assemblages. These results indicate that interactions between assemblages of beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms can influence the growth of host plants, but that the magnitude of these effects is plant species-specific.

Violence and social memory in twentieth century Belfast:Stories of Buck Alec Robinson

This article explores the life and commemoration of Buck Alec Robinson. A feared loyalist killer in 1920s Belfast, in more recent times he has featured as a lion-keeping “character” on wall murals and in tourist guide books. Robinson is employed as a case study to investigate two separate but, in this case, interlinked historiographical debates. The first involves Norbert Elias’s analysis of the decline of violence. The second relates to discussion of the analysis of social memory in working class communities, with violence being placed therein. The article supports historical assessments suggesting that the “civilizing offensive” had an uneven impact. That point is usually made in the context of working class men. This article extends it to political elites in Belfast and probes their flirtations with violent hard men. The case is made that it is a mistake to assume the “civilizing” dynamic is to be understood as a teleological or top-down process.

Speaking Out Against Rape:Feminist (Her)Stories and Anti-Rape Politics

In 1976, Susan Brownmiller published 'Against Our Will', widely credited as the founding text of feminist anti-rape theory, in which she famously declared that rape was 'nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear'.While the scholarship and politics of Against Our Will have been subjected to numerous and compelling critiques, the work retains canonical and even foundational status within feminist anti-rape politics. In this article I attempt a critical re-examination of feminist (her)story telling practices. By situating the story told in Against Our Will beside and within Brownmiller's story of the creation of the book and her own coming-to-consciousness, a more general reexamination of the role of women's speech and (her)story-telling in feminist anti-rape politics is afforded. This re-reading draws out two central aspects of the politics of (her)story-telling which can be found in Brownmiller's work and in the Joan W. Scott quotation above. Firstly, the need to be recognised as a 'just source' of women's stories has resulted in the granting of epistemological primacy to stories of women's experience or personal statements. Secondly, the desire to compensate for the lack of a 'classical myth' to authorise women's claims, resulting in an attempt to imbue these feminist (her)stories with their own mythology.