Cultural policy, literature and readership in revolutionary Cuba: the view from the 21st century

This article presents a fresh perspective on cultural policy in revolutionary Cuba, focusing specifically on the centrality of dialogue with the general readership to the production, reception and regulation of literature. It first summarises the positions regarding revolutionary literature that have been asserted and essayed at various points along the sometimes chaotic trajectory of revolution in Cuba. It then examines reading-related policies and recent attempts within Cuba to re-orient reading practices in the aftermath of the Período Especial [Special Period], and ends by presenting current Cuban debates on the need to mitigate dialogic breakdown between literary text and readership.

All friends now? Critical conversations, West Indian literature and 'The Quarrel with History'

In this essay Alison Donnell returns to the material object of Edward Baugh's essay, published in the pages of the Trinidadian little magazine Tapia in 1977, in order to re-read the force of its arguments in the context of its own politicocultural history and to assess the significance of its publication venue. Donnell attends to Baugh's own standing in the highly charged field of Caribbean literary criticism as a critic of both Walcott and Naipaul, and acknowledges his creative contribution to this field as a poet. She also considers how, in the years between the original publication of Baugh's article and its republication, the questions of historical invisibility have entered newly disputed territories that demand attention to how gender, indigeneity, spirituality, and sexuality shape ideas of historical and literary legitimacy, in addition to those foundational questions around a politics of race and class.

Writing westwards: medieval English literature and its early modern Irish audiences

Quite a few texts from England were translated into Irish in the fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. The number of these texts was significant enough to suggest that foreign material of this sort enjoyed something of a vogue in late-medieval Ireland. Translated texts include Mandeville’s Travels, Guy of Warwick, Bevis of Hampton, Fierabras and a selection of saints’ lives. Scholars have paid little attention to the origins and initial readerships of these texts, but still less research has been conducted into their afterlife in early modern Ireland. However, a strikingly high number of these works continued to be read and copied well into the seventeenth century and some, such as the Irish translations of Octavian and William of Palerne, only survive in manuscripts from this later period. This paper takes these translations as a test case to explore the ways in which a cross-period approach to such writing is applicable in Ireland, a country where the renaissance is generally considered to have taken little hold. It considers the extent to which Irish reception of this translated material shifts and evolves in the course of this turbulent period and whether the same factors that contributed to the continued demand for a range of similar texts in England into the seventeenth century are also discernible in the Irish context.

Delivering sustainability therapy in Sustainable Development projects

This paper explores the apparent contradiction between the 'linearity' of most Sustainable Development projects, with time-bound and defined outputs achieved at a fixed cost, and an implied 'circularity' of the theory whereby there is no 'end'. Projects usually have clear parameters within which they are implemented, and the inclusion of elements such as the need for accountability, measurable impact and,value for money' have grown in importance. It could be argued that we live in a 'projectified' and therefore linear world. The paper explores the potential contradiction between 'linearity' and 'circularity', and suggests that one way around this is to frame the project within a form of the Kolb Learning Cycle heuristic. This will facilitate a rationalisation from those implementing the sustainable development project as to why decisions are being made and for whom. If these questions are opened up to the project stakeholders, including beneficiaries, then the Kolb cycle could encourage learning and understanding by all involved. It could also provide Sustainability Therapy to those trapped in processes, which they find orthogonal to their own perceptions. It is suggested that such learning, therapy and reflective practice should be a valid output of the sustainable development project, although typically the focus is only upon the final outputs and how they feed into policy. Ironically funders would be well advised to take a broader perspective in order to achieve true 'value for money' within such projects, even if learning is not an easily measurable or tangible outcome. These points are explored within the context of the wider literature and experience with a sustainable development project undertaken in Malta. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Risk pricing practices in finance, insurance and construction

A review of current risk pricing practices in the financial, insurance and construction sectors is conducted through a comprehensive literature review. The purpose was to inform a study on risk and price in the tendering processes of contractors: specifically, how contractors take account of risk when they are calculating their bids for construction work. The reference to mainstream literature was in view of construction management research as a field of application rather than a fundamental academic discipline. Analytical models are used for risk pricing in the financial sector. Certain mathematical laws and principles of insurance are used to price risk in the insurance sector. construction contractors and practitioners are described to traditionally price allowances for project risk using mechanisms such as intuition and experience. Project risk analysis models have proliferated in recent years. However, they are rarely used because of problems practitioners face when confronted with them. A discussion of practices across the three sectors shows that the construction industry does not approach risk according to the sophisticated mechanisms of the two other sectors. This is not a poor situation in itself. However, knowledge transfer from finance and insurance can help construction practitioners. But also, formal risk models for contractors should be informed by the commercial exigencies and unique characteristics of the construction sector.

Integration of chaos theory and mathematical models in building simulation: Part I: Literature review

Current mathematical models in building research have been limited in most studies to linear dynamics systems. A literature review of past studies investigating chaos theory approaches in building simulation models suggests that as a basis chaos model is valid and can handle the increasingly complexity of building systems that have dynamic interactions among all the distributed and hierarchical systems on the one hand, and the environment and occupants on the other. The review also identifies the paucity of literature and the need for a suitable methodology of linking chaos theory to mathematical models in building design and management studies. This study is broadly divided into two parts and presented in two companion papers. Part (I) reviews the current state of the chaos theory models as a starting point for establishing theories that can be effectively applied to building simulation models. Part (II) develops conceptual frameworks that approach current model methodologies from the theoretical perspective provided by chaos theory, with a focus on the key concepts and their potential to help to better understand the nonlinear dynamic nature of built environment systems. Case studies are also presented which demonstrate the potential usefulness of chaos theory driven models in a wide variety of leading areas of building research. This study distills the fundamental properties and the most relevant characteristics of chaos theory essential to building simulation scientists, initiates a dialogue and builds bridges between scientists and engineers, and stimulates future research about a wide range of issues on building environmental systems.

Small business lease reform - can the UK learn from the Australian experience?

This paper addresses the commercial leases policy issue of how to deal with small business tenants. The UK has adopted a voluntary solution to commercial lease reform by using Codes of Practice which is in contrast to the legislative approach adopted by Australia to attempt to solve its perceived problems with small business retail tenancies. The aim of the research was to examine the perceptions of the effectiveness of the legislation in Australia and discuss any implications for the UK policy debate. The research used a combination of literature and legislation review and a semi structured interview survey to investigate the policy aims and objectives of Australian Federal and State Governments, identify the nature and scope of the Australian legislation and examine perceptions of effectiveness of the legislation in informing small business tenants. The situation is complicated in Australia due to leases being a State rather than Federal responsibility therefore the main fieldwork was carried out in one case study State, Victoria. The paper concludes that some aspects of the Australian system can inform the UK policy debate including mandatory information provision at the commencement of negotiations and the use of lease registrars/commissioners. However, there are a number of issues that the Australian legislation does not appear to have successfully addressed including the difficulties of legislating across partial segments of the commercial property market and the collection of data for enforcement purposes.

The status of literature: English teaching and the condition of literature teaching in schools

Although the curriculum subject of English is continually reviewed and revised in all English speaking countries, the status of literature is rarely questioned i.e. that it is of high cultural value and all students should be taught about it. The concerns of any review, in any country, are typically about what counts as literature, especially in terms of national heritage and then how much of the curriculum should it occupy. This article reports on three inter-related pieces of research that examine the views of in-service, and pre-service, English teachers about their experiences of teaching literature and their perceptions of its ‘status’ and significance at official level and in the actual classroom; it draws attention to how England compares to some other English speaking countries and draws attention to the need to learn from the negative outcomes of political policy in England. The findings suggest that the nature of engagement with literature for teachers and their students has been distorted by official rhetorics and assessment regimes and that English teachers are deeply concerned to reverse this pattern.

Breathable roofing membranes and bats: interactions, outcomes and predictions

In order to achieve sustainability it is necessary to balance the interactions between the built and natural environment. Biodiversity plays an important part towards sustainability within the built environment, especially as the construction industry comes under increasing pressure to take ecological concerns into account. Bats constitute an important component of urban biodiversity and several species are now highly dependent on buildings, making them particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic and environmental changes. As many buildings suitable for use as bat roosts age, they often require re-roofing and traditional bituminous roofing felts are frequently being replaced with breathable roofing membranes (BRMs), which are designed to reduce condensation. Whilst the current position of bats is better in many respects than 30 years ago, new building regulations and modern materials, may substantially reduce the viability of existing roosts. At the same time building regulations require that materials be fit for purpose and with anecdotal evidence that both bats and BRMs may experience problems when the two interact, it is important to know what roost characteristics are essential for house dwelling bats and how these and BRMs may be affected. This paper reviews current literature and knowledge and considers the possible ways in which bats and BRMs may interact, how this could affect existing bat roosts within buildings and the implications for BRM service life predictions and warranties. It concludes that in order for the construction and conservation sectors to work together in solving this issue, a set of clear guidelines should be developed for use on a national level.