It’s a great place to sit in the shade and enjoy a gelato. The base of the Flaminian Obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo on the northern end of Rome’s ancient quarter offers views of the twin churches of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria di Montesanto. But while enjoying the outlook, take a few minutes to marvel at how this 23-metre chunk of granite ended up where it has.

The Flaminian Obelisk was carved at the height of , during the reign of (1290 to 1279 BCE), the father of . “Carved” is a rather clinical expression for an astounding feat of engineering. Quarrying and moving a 263-ton chunk of granite – with the additional issue of not having access to any metal harder than bronze – is no mean feat.

The process used by the Egyptians was surprisingly straightforward. Initially, they levelled off the ground above a vein of granite. Then the rough shape of the obelisk was marked using hard stone pounders. Channels were carved in the rock around the shape of the obelisk before it was separated from the bedrock entirely by carving under its bulk.

Afterwards, the obelisk was shipped on barges nearly 900km north to the near modern Cairo and dedicated to the sun god – and of course to the memory of both Seti and Ramesses.

Egypt in vogue

Though much of our current obsessive cultural interest in ancient Egypt can be traced to key events such as the , other cultures at other times in history have had an equal interest in the land of the Pharaohs – and a similar penchant for creatively misrepresenting it.

At the height of the Roman Empire, “Egyptianising” architectural elements became very popular. Sites such as the in Tivoli, built in the second century CE as a retreat for Emperor Hadrian, is positively lousy with Egyptianised statues and architectural elements – including an Egyptian-style shrine dedicated to the .

While these imitations of Egyptian styles and fashions (creatively altered for a Roman audience) were extremely popular, several Roman rulers went a step further. Rather than simply imitating Egyptian architecture, they brought some home with them from Egypt.

After the defeat of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony in 30 BCE, the first Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar, set his sights on the Flaminian Obelisk which had remained for more than 1,200 years at Heliopolis. To commemorate his comprehensive victory, Augustus opted to bring the obelisk back to Rome on a specially designed vessel, which was later destroyed in a fire in Puteoli.

Upon its arrival in Rome, Augustus added a Latin inscription underneath the far older hieroglyphs of the obelisk, extolling his own triumphs as the new ruler of Egypt. To show off his achievement, he ordered the obelisk raised at Circus Maximus.

As Christianity rose to prominence and became the official state religion of the Roman Empire, the arena fell into decay and flooding eventually toppled the obelisk. It was gradually buried in alluvial soil, lying undiscovered for nearly 1,000 years until it was unearthed at the height of the Italian Renaissance in 1587.

Renaissance renewal

A product of the Italian Renaissance, (1521-1590) embarked on a wide-ranging programme of urban renewal in Rome shortly after his election to the Papal Throne. Ironically, while he is credited with , he had very little appreciation for the city’s own antiquity, ordering several ancient monuments demolished and the stone reused as building material.

When the Flaminian Obelisk was rediscovered in 1587, Sixtus charged the noted with the task of raising the monolith in Piazza del Popolo (at that time a place of public executions), a task which he accomplished in 1589. Fontana was experienced in the art of raising obelisks – three years earlier, he had been responsible for placing the (which is heavier than the Flaminian obelisk by nearly 100 tons) in St Peter’s Square. In an attempt to detract from the quite obvious pagan nature of the monuments, both were crowned with large crosses.

With this, the journey of the Flaminian Obelisk from an ancient Egyptian tribute to the sun god to a Renaissance curio was completed. But the monument’s impact on history continued – in 1921, a year before seizing power after the March on Rome, (1883-1945) led a march past the obelisk during the . Later on, the Flaminian Obelisk and the many other Egyptian and Roman obelisks found throughout the city prompted the dictator to create his own: which still stands in Foro Italico (then Foro Mussolini) bearing the Latin inscription MVSSOLINI DVX (Mussolini, the Leader).

The Flaminian Obelisk is a multicultural monument in many ways. It remains today in its square, a physical testament to the grandiose ideas of three rulers – each in their own way both secular and divine: Pharaoh Seti I, Emperor Augustus Caesar and Pope Sixtus V.

, Lecturer in Egyptology,

This article was originally published on . Read the .

We already know that younger people are often more likely to vote for left-wing parties than their , but it seems this trend is particularly pronounced among women. Younger women are the most left wing in their voting habits and older women the most right wing when we compared voters by age and gender. This is shown in a study using data on over 40,000 people from the / in Western Europe and Canada, 1989-2014.

This trend is summarised in the graph below. Negative numbers indicate more men voting for a left-wing party in a given country. Positive numbers indicate more women voting for a left-wing party. In almost all countries, women born after 1955 are more likely to vote for left-wing parties than men of the same age group. Conversely, in many countries, women born before 1955 are less likely to vote for left-wing parties than their male peers.

How people vote. Author provided

The research also showed that the gender gap in left-wing voting became larger for each new birth cohort. So, for example, the difference between women and men in left-wing voting was even greater for those born 1975-85 than it was for those born 1965-75. This suggests that over time we should expect women to become more and more left wing relative to men, as younger, more left-wing cohorts of women replace older, more right-wing cohorts in the population.

A woman takes part in a march for family values in Poland. EPA

The analysis shows that the decline of religiosity is crucial to explaining the trend. Older women are more religious and their religiosity is also more important for their vote choice compared to younger women. Religious voters are more likely to hold conservative social values and attachments to religious parties. This means that older women are more likely to vote for parties on the right – especially Christian democrat parties. Similarly, they are less likely to vote for parties on the left.

On the other hand, younger women tend to have a stronger preference for redistribution and see a larger role for the state compared to men. They vote for left-wing parties in line with these preferences. Older women are also more left wing in their economic policy preferences compared to men, but their greater religiosity trumps these preferences when it comes to their vote choice.

Chasing the ‘female vote’

Parties often make particular efforts to appeal to when campaigning. However, this analysis shows that there are considerable differences between younger and older women in their voting preferences. Appealing to the “women’s vote” might make less sense than, say, appealing to young women or older women.

This is a challenge for both left- and right-wing parties. Conservative and Christian democratic parties have historically had strong support among religious women, who are concentrated in older generations. However, this is now a cause for concern. Although older voters are more likely to turn out to vote than younger voters, the religious older generations are also becoming a smaller proportion of European electorates through generational replacement. Older generations die out and are replaced with new, secular ones. With an ageing support base and a decline in religiosity especially for women, Conservative or Christian democratic parties may no longer be able to rely on their traditional positions or messages.

Left-wing parties, especially Social democratic ones, need to think about whether their younger women supporters will stick with them as they age. If they do, this perhaps offers hope for these parties. As their traditional support base of the working class declines in size, they might find a new one in the form of younger cohorts of women.

However, in the intervening period, these left-wing parties will face a challenge of balancing the different values and priorities of their traditional base – older, working class men – and their new supporters – younger cohorts of women. Both left-wing and right-wing parties may have to start reexamining how they appeal to female voters.

, Lecturer in Politics,

This article was originally published on . Read the .

一直以来，人们都认為现代科技只能从西方传播到东方。然而，这次曼彻斯特中国研究院举办的圆桌论坛将目光聚集在了摩拜单车进驻英国的经歷上，该活动聚集了各界精英学者和权威人士在曼彻斯特大学一起讨论&濒诲辩耻辞;中国创新&谤诲辩耻辞;的话题。

早在2001年，曼彻斯特大学经济学名誉教授吉姆&尘颈诲诲辞迟;奥尼尔阁下首次提出&濒诲辩耻辞;金砖四国BRIC&谤诲辩耻辞;理论，预测巴西、俄罗斯、印度和中国将成為未来经济强国。 2015年，习近平主席访英开啟了中英关係的&濒诲辩耻辞;黄金时代&谤诲辩耻辞;，曼彻斯特与中国的联繫也愈发紧密、愈发频繁。

曼彻斯特大学最近成立的中国研究院，得到香港商人、慈善家和曼大名誉博士李啟鸿先生的慷慨捐赠，该研究院由李啟鸿博士和曼彻斯特大学校长南希爵士Dame Nancy Rothwell正式啟动。这笔捐赠将继续致力於促进英中两国关係发展，以及两国人民的相互理解，着重在世界领先的科学研究、社区拓展活动以及在曼彻斯特和中国的公开讲座上。与此同时，该笔捐赠还将在全英最大的大学博物馆&尘诲补蝉丑;&尘诲补蝉丑;曼彻斯特博物馆内建立一个全新的&濒诲辩耻辞;李啟鸿中国文化长廊&谤诲辩耻辞;，展出古代青铜雕塑、玉雕以及丝织品等文物。

曼彻斯特中国研究院院长、曼彻斯特大学中国政治专业教授Peter Gries葛小伟表示：&濒诲辩耻辞;感谢李啟鸿博士的慷慨捐赠与他的远见，让曼彻斯特中国研究院能够将英中双方的学者、公司、政府与民眾聚集在一起，充分发挥英中双边关係的潜力。此项捐赠也将会把曼彻斯特推向中国研究的最前沿。&谤诲辩耻辞;

&濒诲辩耻辞;将摩拜单车作為我们第一次圆桌论坛的主题是具有代表意义的，它很好地展示了中国人民和英国人民是如何共同合作，并带来显着效益的。&谤诲辩耻辞;

圆桌会议由曼彻斯特大学商学院科学与技术政策管理高级讲师Andrew James博士主持，活动还邀请到了摩拜单车欧洲区发展总监Steve Pyer，曼彻斯特英中协会执行董事Rhys Whalley，以及曼彻斯特大学商学院银行业高级讲师、社会责任与参与专业负责人Ismail Ertürk。

活动参与者还欣赏了由曼大教授、诺贝尔奖获得者－诺沃肖洛爵士受中国与石墨烯啟发创作的中国水彩画展。

曼彻斯特大学校长南希爵士还表示：&濒诲辩耻辞;摩拜单车进驻曼彻斯特、曼彻斯特中国研究院的建立都是这座城市以及大学和中国联繫不断加强的一系列成果之一。2015年，我们在大学校园接待了习近平主席，今年年初我与英国首相特蕾莎&尘颈诲诲辞迟;梅访华团一起前往中国，这不仅彰显了曼彻斯特大学在研究和创新领域的全球领导地位，还认同了曼彻斯特大学在英中关係中发挥的长期作用。曼彻斯特中国研究院的开啟标誌着曼彻斯特与中国的关係进入了一个全新的阶段。&谤诲辩耻辞;

早在2001年，曼彻斯特大学经济学名誉教授吉姆&尘颈诲诲辞迟;奥尼尔阁下首次提出&濒诲辩耻辞;金砖四国叠搁滨颁&谤诲辩耻辞;理论，预测巴西、俄罗斯、印度和中国将成为未来经济强国。2015年，习近平主席访英开启了中英关系的&濒诲辩耻辞;黄金时代&谤诲辩耻辞;，曼彻斯特与中国的联系也愈发紧密、愈发频繁。

曼彻斯特大学最近成立的中国研究院，得到香港商人、慈善家和曼大名誉博士李启鸿先生的慷慨捐赠，该研究院由李启鸿博士和曼彻斯特大学校长南希爵士Dame Nancy Rothwell正式启动。这笔捐赠将继续致力于促进英中两国关系发展，以及两国人民的相互理解，着重在世界领先的科学研究、社区拓展活动以及在曼彻斯特和中国的公开讲座上。与此同时，该笔捐赠还将在全英最大的大学博物馆——曼彻斯特博物馆内建立一个全新的“李启鸿中国文化长廊”，展出古代青铜雕塑、玉雕以及丝织品等文物。

曼彻斯特中国研究院院长、曼彻斯特大学中国政治专业教授Peter Gries葛小伟表示：“感谢李启鸿博士的慷慨捐赠与他的远见，让曼彻斯特中国研究院能够将英中双方的学者、公司、政府与民众聚集在一起，充分发挥英中双边关系的潜力。此项捐赠也将会把曼彻斯特推向中国研究的最前沿。”

&濒诲辩耻辞;将摩拜单车作为我们第一次圆桌论坛的主题是具有代表意义的，它很好地展示了中国人民和英国人民是如何共同合作，并带来显着效益的。&谤诲辩耻辞;

圆桌会议由曼彻斯特大学商学院科学与技术政策管理高级讲师Andrew James博士主持，活动还邀请到了摩拜单车欧洲区发展总监Steve Pyer，曼彻斯特英中协会执行董事Rhys Whalley，以及曼彻斯特大学商学院银行业高级讲师、社会责任与参与专业负责人Ismail Ertürk。

活动参与者还欣赏了由曼大教授、诺贝尔奖获得者－诺沃肖洛爵士受中国与石墨烯启发创作的中国水彩画展。

曼彻斯特大学校长南希爵士还表示：&濒诲辩耻辞;摩拜单车进驻曼彻斯特、曼彻斯特中国研究院的建立都是这座城市以及大学和中国联系不断加强的一系列成果之一。2015年，我们在大学校园接待了习近平主席，今年年初我与英国首相特蕾莎&尘颈诲诲辞迟;梅访华团一起前往中国，这不仅彰显了曼彻斯特大学在研究和创新领域的全球领导地位，还认同了曼彻斯特大学在英中关系中发挥的长期作用。曼彻斯特中国研究院的开启标志着曼彻斯特与中国的关系进入了一个全新的阶段。&谤诲辩耻辞;

Less well-known, but arguably a more pernicious problem, is the “glass cliff”. Originally recognised by academics Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam , this is the phenomenon of women making it to the boardroom but finding themselves disproportionately represented in untenable leadership positions.

Ryan and Haslam presented evidence that women were indeed starting to secure seats at boardroom tables. But the problem was that their positions were inherently unstable. These women would then find themselves in an unsustainable leadership position from which they would be ousted with evidence of apparent failure. The title of their paper sums it up: women are over‐represented in precarious leadership positions.

Subsequent research in an of has demonstrated that this is not an isolated issue, nor is it unique to certain industries or geographical locations. It reveals that women in top leadership positions seem to be routinely handed inherently unsolvable problems.

These are problems that they strive very hard to address – but no matter the effort, these problems cannot be solved. The women in charge are then still held personally accountable for failure, ultimately leading to their resignation or dismissal. This creates a damaging, self-fulfilling prophecy that women are unsuitable for leadership positions. Not only does it knock the confidence of the woman in question, it also makes organisations wary of recruiting women to these positions.

A chequered picture

The glass cliff theory and its supporting evidence appears, at face value, to be at odds with evidence from other sources which confirms that more women than ever before .

But the detail of gender representation in large organisations presents a more chequered picture. Plus, the snapshots and headlines of more women in the boardroom tend to lack the granular analysis of boardroom turnover – that women are more likely to be over‐represented on boards of companies .

There is also the more challenging question of why any organisation would actively set out to sabotage someone’s career, which is what the glass cliff situation appears to do. This is where the data gets really interesting.

A wider look at glass cliff scenarios that in most situations the women in question have experience of the organisation when they are recruited into the top position. They are not external hires, they are internal. This means that, in practice, these women are far more likely to have a fundamental understanding of the politics of the organisation, its culture and power brokers.

The evidence seems to suggest that these women find themselves with the choice of accepting a glass cliff position or resigning altogether. Having worked for many years to secure a leadership or executive role, it is perhaps less surprising to understand why these women feel a sense of obligation to take on what appears to be an impossible challenge.

Support structures

The size of the step up to a senior executive role should not be understated. Support, in the form of coaching and mentoring for senior executives, is repeatedly shown to be vital if they are to become successful and . What appears to be a common characteristic across glass cliff situations is that the women in these roles lack this ongoing support.

What remains unclear is whether this is because the organisation is unwilling to provide it. Or, worse, is blithely unaware that for a woman stepping up to an executive position with no clear role model or social support network, then she is likely to need even more help and likely of a different nature to her male colleagues.

The benign neglect shown by organisations towards female senior executives represents a worrying trend. It is all very well promoting women into the boardroom, but failing to support them when they are there is equally damaging. Arguably it undoes all of the good work, resources and effort to transition women into the boardroom in the first place.

Empirical evidence also demonstrates that women in particular suffer from . This is the idea that successful people feel that they have become successful through luck, not their own hard work or ability and will be “found out” and fired or demoted.

It is understandable that this is likely to be particularly acute when a woman is the only female around the boardroom table. Impostor syndrome isn’t confined to women, but it is , and it would seem that one of the possible explanations for a glass cliff scenario presenting itself is that organisations simply fail to consider that women in this position are likely to need a different kind of support in their new role.

Helping to create gender parity in boardrooms is widely shown to be beneficial on . But if organisations aren’t keeping good people in the boardroom because of a failure to appreciate individual differences, then this last hurdle arguably undoes all of the good work that quotas, all-female shortlists, and gender pay gap reporting strives to achieve.

, Part-time PhD Researcher,

This article was originally published on . Read the .

He shows no signs of lowering his goal tally as the season goes on, with commentator and former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher Salah as a strong contender for another Player of the Year award. In a league that is regularly touted as so open that any team can win, lose, or draw against any other, unpredictability is the name of the game. Yet this season, Salah’s consistent goalscoring record seems to buck that trend. Salah’s counterattacking form was of particular concern for Manchester United when they played Liverpool on March 10, as they sat deep and defended against the Merseyside club for much of the match.

Beautiful though they are to watch, what I find most interesting about Salah’s goals are his celebrations and their reception. Because consistently, Salah does two things after scoring. First, he hugs his teammates, a typical response. But then, he , the Islamic act of prostration.

Sujood normally occurs twice in every section of salaat – a word commonly mistranslated as prayer (following its Arabic root, salaat is better translated as “connection”). A Muslim who performs salaat the requisite five times daily finds themself in sujood 34 times each day. In Islamic thought, sujood is perceived of as the physically lowest, but spiritually highest, position a person can take. Salah’s performance of sujood outside of salaat, then, is a specific expression of gratitude for goals scored.

Though Premier League footballers are Muslim, Salah is the only one who regularly prostrates on the pitch.

Getting goals

Liverpool fans have taken note. After his recent Champions League goal against the Portuguese side Porto in Liverpool’s 5-0 victory, praising him:

Mo Sa-la-la-la-lah, Mo Sa-la-la-la-lah
If he’s good enough for you he’s good enough for me.
If he scores another few then I’ll be Muslim too.
If he’s good enough for you he’s good enough for me.
He’s sitting in the mosque that’s where I wanna be.

The chant, which is a rewrite of lyrics from the 1996 song by British power pop rock trio, Dodgy, quickly went viral on Twitter and YouTube. News outlets including and laud the chant as a demonstration of inclusivity. It is catchy, for sure. But is it inclusive? It’s not quite that simple.

Salah’s work and the chant itself fit squarely into two common narratives: that of the good Muslim/bad Muslim; and the good immigrant. Articulated by , among others, portrays the “good” as those who appease society by accepting majority values and customs, while the “bad” are those who resist it religiously, culturally, or politically.

Being good

The “good” Muslim is the , who stopped worshippers from beating up a terrorist named Darren Osborne after he drove a van into a crowd during Ramadan 2017. The “bad” Muslim is the , who refused to allow police to search his laptop and mobile phone under Schedule 7 powers granted to the British government by the Terrorism Act.

This binary maps onto those immigrants who are perceived of as “good”. In his note that opens , editor Nikesh Shukla references writer Musa Okwonga when arguing:

The biggest burden facing people of colour in this country is that society deems us bad immigrants – job-stealers, benefit-scroungers, girlfriend-thieves, refugees – until we cross over in their consciousness, through popular culture, winning races, baking good cakes, being conscientious doctors, to become good immigrants.

Salah is one of those good immigrants.

And here is the paradox of his sujood. Being praised by non-Muslim Liverpool supporters as “good” is positive, of course. But it is conditional. The chant makes clear that it is only “if” Salah continues to score goals that his displays of Muslimness will be accepted. It is only “if” he remains good that he will continue to be worshipped by them. It is only “if” he furthers his professional excellence that opinions about Islam may shift.

Addictive as it is, the chant flies in the face of spoken word poet Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan’s that society move beyond loving the Muslim who excels in athletics or bakery to include those who “don’t offer our homes or free taxi rides after the event” and are “wretched, suicidal, naked, and contributing nothing”. The double-edged sword of Salah’s sujood is that it is tied to his excellence on the field.

If he stops scoring, he will stop performing sujood. As a result, fans will love him – and Islam – a little less.

, PhD Canddiate in Anthropology, Media, and Performance,

This article was originally published on . Read the .

, and ,

Fatbergs – enormous solid masses of oil, grease, wet wipes and other hygiene products that congeal together to cause major blockages – are wreaking havoc on the of cities around the world. A 130 tonne specimen described as a “monster” recently caused backups in sewers in , and the cities of , and have also all experienced similar issues in recent weeks.

Fatbergs are , but have attracted increased attention in recent years as struggle to cope with an increased consumption and disposal of everyday products like fats, oils and greases from cooking. This is a particular issue for cities like London with Victorian systems. The visceral disgust that runs alongside the image of fatbergs lingering under the city, and the potential impact they will have on , means that they will remain a topic that demands attention.

Strategies are already being put in place in order to . Current water industry tactics tend to focus on removing sewer blockages and reducing the fats, oils and greases that enter sewers from commercial sources (such as ). But around three quarters of the fats, oils and greases in sewers , making household disposal a key priority for change.

Awareness campaigns directed at the public currently focus on . Current advice is that cooking fats, oils and greases should be disposed through food or solid waste recycling. But there is little information on how we can dispose of other products – like that fatty off milk at the back of the fridge – without pouring it down the sink. The mucky complexities of how people actually deal with fats, oils and greases in the home suggests that the solution might need to be more complex than awareness campaigns.

In a we suggest that changing people’s broader behaviour related to food waste and disposal of fatty products is not going to be easy to change – and that we also need to look beyond the plughole.

Down the plughole

Fats, oils and greases are changeable, often smelly, visceral materials. The way we dispose of them is tied to attempts to reduce their impact on our kitchens and in our lives, and this becomes entrenched in our everyday habits and routines.

They can be troublesome materials to handle. The fact that they are liquid at cooking temperatures, and often at room temperature, makes them simpler to dispose of via liquid waste than via solid waste channels, yet their tendency to solidify and accumulate in the specific physical and chemical conditions of drains and sewers makes this disposal highly problematic. Fats, oils and greases are not only difficult to deal with, but many also find it unpleasant.

Evidence from research into suggests that when food begins to deteriorate, its material properties – and the bodily reactions caused by its appearance, smell and feel in the people handling it – play an important role in how it is discarded. The more effectively and reliably it can be sealed off and ejected from the home with minimal human contact, the better.

suggests that if the same is true of householders’ reactions to leftover fats then successful interventions to divert fats, oils and greases from sewers will mean providing an alternative, yet similarly effective, option for quick and seemingly hassle-free disposal than the kitchen sink.

These ideas of disgust, dirt, smell, and convenience are also likely underpinning similar dynamics for the disposal wetwipes, nappies, and other hygiene products down the toilet rather than the bathroom bin.

Beyond the kitchen sink

But crucially, fats, oils and greases do not end up in our sewers purely due to decisions related to disposal at the kitchen sink. Rather, actions throughout the stages of food provisioning – including shopping, food preparation, cooking, dealing with leftovers, and clearing up – leads to fats, oils and greases entering sewers.

Another way of thinking about the issues is in regards to tracing the numerous decisions that occur in the process of carrying out routine household tasks: moments in which resources are used up and waste is produced. This is broader than just individual behaviours and involves a consideration of all of those moments where waste fat is indirectly or directly produced - such as when we are choosing what to cook; how much oil to use; whether to reuse that rendered meat fat from the Sunday roast in the next meal we cook or discard it.

Insights into what shapes behaviour at these points lead to a range of implications and recommendations for policies and intervention programs. For example, there needs to be a recognition that disposal of products like fats, oils and greases is part of a wider set of kitchen practices that are in turn shaped by wider systems of food provision (supply chains, retail, and so on) as well as waste disposal facilities.

Interventions that influence household behaviour therefore don’t just need to target the household but could involve product innovations that reduce likelihood of excess fat oil and grease production – for example, fryers that use less fat. Retail environments and packaging could be used as means of changing social norms. could be rethought. Effective alternative waste fat and oil disposal infrastructures could be envisioned.

Rather than fatbergs just being seen as a water industry issue there needs to be greater collaboration across sectors (water, energy, food) to deal with the problem. Potential solutions need to range from the level of the household right through to new infrastructures that are experimenting with turning this mucky fatberg problem into and .

, Lecturer in Human Geography and the Sustainable Consumption Institute, and , Postdoctoral Research Associate,

This article was originally published on . Read the .

,

Welfare reform and austerity in the UK has led to in public spending on services that support older people. Age UK has highlighted how nearly have unmet social care needs. This is of particular concern as the winter months approach.

In ongoing research on food insecurity in older age, my colleagues and I have analysed survey data and interviewed older people who use foodbanks. We’re finding that many older people are at risk of under-nutrition because of poverty, or because they don’t get the support they need to shop, cook and eat.

While many older people have been less affected by the recent recession than other age groups, in part because of the protection for pensions, poverty can persist in old age. from 2015 shows that 1.6m pensioners live below the relative poverty line, and 8% of pensioners are in persistent poverty – defined as having spent three years out of any four-year period in a household with below 60% of median income.

Poverty and social isolation

Around 20% of older people have little or no private pension, housing or material wealth and retiring with debt is . There are 3.8m people aged 65 and older living and evidence from Age UK that nearly one million people in this age group always or often feel lonely.

Older people living alone eat less. This can lead to under-nutrition – a major cause of functional decline among older people. It can lead to poorer health outcomes, falls, delays in recovery from illness and longer periods in hospital, including delayed operations.

Evidence from the National Nutrition Screening Survey suggests that an estimated 1.3m people aged over 65 in the UK or energy in their diet. On admission to hospital, 33% of people in this age group are identified as being at risk of under-nutrition.

Data we are analysing from the 2014 English Longitudinal Study of Ageing suggests that for around 10% of people aged 50 and over “too little money stops them buying their first choice of food items” and this has increased consistently since 2004. Evidence from the in 2012 found that 12% of people aged over 65 had often or sometimes: “skimped on food so others in the household would have enough to eat”.

Embarrassment and stigma

The consistently highlights the issue of unmet need among some older people. For example, 6% of people aged over 65 reported that they had not received help from anyone with shopping for food in the last month. In addition, 19% of this age group reported needing help to leave their home.

Evidence suggests that as food insecurity has increased in , many older people have become reliant on food banks. In 2016, the food redistribution charity FareShare said that were aged over 65.

Our interviews with older people using food banks have highlighted the challenges many older people can face. Some were having food parcels delivered by the food banks as they were unable to go themselves or did not want to be seen going.

Embarrassment and stigma were also a concern for one 69-year-old man who told us how he preferred coming to the food bank than asking family or friends for help. “I don’t believe in asking others, I don’t want to upset people,” he said. Another 65-year-old man told us: “My family would help but I don’t like to ask them, they have their own families to look after.” Others, however are either unable or too embarrassed to visit a food bank.

Food or warmth

One 54-year-old man said: “I can go for a couple of days without food… the gas is cut off and I get hot water from the kettle to wash.” There was also evidence that some older people were not fully recognising their nutritional needs. As one 60-year-old woman said: “When you are on your own… sometimes I don’t cook, depends how I feel.” Another 65-year-old man revealed his poor diet, stating how when he had no food he would: “Just eat cornflakes.”

Counting the pennies. Kingsley Purdam, Author provided

Other people chose to cut back on food during the winter due to the costs of heating their home – suffering the cold as a result. As one 72-year-old woman stated: “Sometimes I just go without putting the heating on.”

An increasing number of older people are constrained in their spending on food, many are skipping meals and are not getting the social care support they need. Emergency food parcels are an inadequate and unsustainable way of addressing the issue of food insecurity.

There are currently 10m people in the UK aged over 65, but this is to increase to 19m by 2050 – that’s one in every four people.

As the size of the older population continues to grow, the reductions in local authority spending on social care raise concerns about their long-term welfare. Given the follow-on costs to the public purse, including in terms of healthcare, the government must do more to combat food insecurity amongst older people.

, Senior Lecturer,

This article was originally published on . Read the .

,  by ,

According to the strategy, which is set to be put into practice over the course of this parliament, the war will be waged primarily through behaviour change tactics. The enemy – otherwise known as the “litter lout” – will be conquered through a combination of education and punishment. The troops will be recruited from the people who live in the trash-strewn streets of English towns and who visit the windswept, plastic-littered beaches of its coasts.

Introducing the strategy, the Minister for Local Government, , lamented that England’s public spaces are being spoiled by “the behaviour of a selfish minority”. But this simplistic focus on the litterer overlooks the other significant causes of one of England’s messiest problems.

A flawed plan

No doubt some litter is dropped intentionally. that young men on low incomes are the most likely culprits. These lads can be lazy, disrespect the local environment, or simply get their kicks from flouting authority. Some rubbish is also illegally dumped by builders and traders to . They take advantage of hidden alleyways, free council clear-ups, and a general perception that no one in an already messy (and usually deprived) area will care.

But in Moss Side, in the city of Manchester, suggests that much of the litter which defiles cities is the unintended result of deep structural issues.

Austerity cuts have meant that the local authority has fewer resources to cope with rubbish. Wheelie bins were in 2016, to nudge people to produce less waste and recycle more, but today they are often filled beyond capacity, leaving escaped rubbish blowing in the wind. Bits of trash get kicked into the streets by overworked bin men. Hard-up people search bins for food and other valuables, leaving rubbish on the ground. Birds and animals pick through bags, distributing waste far and wide.

'Litter critter'. ,

Even though the strategy makes brief mention of some of these other causes, the complexity of the problem is obscured by its narrow focus on individual behaviour change and the need for education. Yet this line is hard to swallow in Moss Side, which is home to a large population of students studying at universities with award-winning sustainability education programmes. Locals regularly find students’ unwanted stuff, uneaten food and reams of recyclable course notes in back alleys, before it all gets cleared at the council’s expense, or scattered by the breeze.

My research raises some important challenges to the litter strategy, based on doorstep interviews and focus groups with local people – several of whom are community activists with a Manchester Clean City award-winning group called .

The strategy champions litter-picking by “huge numbers of enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers” and seeks to empower community groups to do more by establishing awards and national cleaning days, similar to in 2016. But activists on the front lines aren’t convinced that volunteers are always best placed to tackle the local litter problem in their neighbourhoods.

, and often lack the power needed to change their circumstances. As a result, communities with the worst rubbish problems are also most likely to feel defeated by it, and least capable of self-organising in response. According to , Moss Side’s population is dominated by transient singles in low-rent, shared housing, and over 60% of households contain people who require high or very high levels of support.

'Not easy for everyone'. ,

The matter of transience and the impacts of austerity in places like Moss Side mean that there are fewer people with the necessary skills, time and networks to take action. While the litter strategy on this point, its response is to promote the use of rubbish reporting apps and emotive messages to motivate people in deprived areas to join the battle against the mess which blights their lives.

But even if these communities could be trained up and empowered, the question remains whether it is right that local people should take on the job of cleaning up litter when the government’s strategy is so soft on its producers.

Straight to the source

The litter strategy seeks to “reduce the potential for packaging to become litter”, mostly by using anti-litter labels on packaging. There is very little that indicates an intention to regulate and legislate at the source; litter lies at the end of process that involves production, consumption and disposal – this is a chain in which the consumer (and potential litterer) is the weakest link, with the least power.

While the authors embrace the unproven theory of nudge without question, they suggest that more research is needed before implementing tried and tested schemes, which have been proposed, or proven effective in other countries.

This twisted logic has resulted in a strategy that rather than requiring manufacturers to make them nontoxic and ; one which encourages communities to organise regular clean ups, rather than penalising fast food companies when their branded litter is found in the street; one which makes recycling easier for individuals, but fails to implement (which rewards recyclers with cash) or ban the sale of single-use plastic packaging, as has been done in .

Educating individuals and empowering communities will not put an end to the volumes of packaging that blight urban spaces. Reducing litter at its source and moving towards a “zero waste society” – as embraced – has to be the number one tactic in the battle against litter.

, Reader in environmental politics,

This article was originally published on . Read the .

,

As stories of Russian “information warfare” in continue to mount, governments, intelligence agencies and journalists are fretting over the influence of global media outlets funded by autocratic governments. But while these organisations are clearly meant to serve their sponsor governments’ agendas in various ways, is the West right to be so worried about them?

Information campaigning in various forms is as old as politics itself, and nor is it the sole province of political bogeymen. Research shows that at influencing foreign public opinion, and businesses, politicians and states all use the mass media strategically for their information campaigns.

Whether this is public relations, public diplomacy, or propaganda is a . But the names we give a particular information campaign not only reflect our inferences about its aims; they can in fact .

A case in point is the Kremlin-funded international broadcaster RT, formerly Russia Today. The network has for its “misleading” coverage, even as it gathered for its investigative reporting. It was even in 2011 as an example of an “information war” she said the West was losing – unwittingly describing things to come in .

The network’s PR strategy skilfully uses these criticisms to cater to the biases of an anti-establishment generation. Its motto encourages viewers to “Question More”, and its various have successfully exhibited Western contempt and suspicion as a .

Yet despite the concerns of high-ranking figures, the US State Department has claimed none of the US$80m recently allocated by Congress for informational countermeasures, and the bulk of the funds will . Some fear that the US is by leading a counter-disinformation offensive, leaving the legwork to initiatives like the dashboard, which claims to track Russian-backed influence campaigns across the web and social media.

But just how much influence RT and similar outlets wield is very much open to question.

Flattering bias

While many in US intelligence and politics seem to take RT’s self-reported audience figures as read, the channel’s official data is optimistic compared to its . And despite RT’s at being “the most watched news network on YouTube”, most of its views go to apolitical clickbait human interest stories and coverage of natural disasters.

Some that RT’s smaller political audience is self-selecting: those who mistrust the mainstream establishment and are partial to conspiracy theories. However, this is all guesswork: so far, there has been little scholarly attention to RT’s audience engagement, despite its social media advantage over its competitors during events. (糖心Vlog官方 and Open University will soon address this knowledge gap with the project, the first systematic examination of RT’s audiences, ethos and multiplatform output.)

While RT may have limited capacity to influence those not already sympathetic to its aims, its reach across social and traditional media, and freedom from any commitment to impartiality, equip it perfectly for an atmosphere of rumour and counter-rumour.

This brings us back to Donald Trump and his ongoing crusade against the mainstream media.

Trump echoes RT’s that all news reporting is biased in some way, and his social media output clearly flatters the views of his followers and allies. Trump’s tweets are, intentionally or not, perfectly calibrated to exploit the same effect as RT: audiences content that accords with their political beliefs, and that does not correspond to their biases.

This effect is even clearer where people have strong political beliefs and social media networks, because algorithms into our social media experience. Counterintuitively, we’re most likely to enter into debate with people with similar views to our own, not those who we perceive as and who can offer an alternative world view.

Worst of all, if much of your social media following is made up of automated “bots” primed to repeat, circulate and amplify particular messages – as in Trump’s case – then the volume of echoes increases exponentially. The result? Political opinions are polarised, with completely fabricated stories more widely (and ) than genuine news.

Playing the mainstream

These patterns are strongest among more groups, especially those on the political “fringe”. While less partisan audiences still , the agenda of the mainstream media is nonetheless shifting in response to fringe groups’ online interactions. As mainstream outlets report on social media trends, they amplify , particularly when the stories reflect their ideological stance.

But the effect is not uniform across the political spectrum. shows that conservative news websites are more likely than liberal ones to propagate fabricated stories, and conservative individuals are more likely to believe them – but that liberal media outlets are more likely to change their agenda in response.

Crucially, fact-checking disputed stories does not help. Fact-check articles are than the stories they attack, and can actually help to audiences who are prone to . More than that, merely fact-checking articles on fringe topics only makes those topics .

Fears about particular outlets’ “propaganda” stories are misplaced, since those stories generally only influence self-selecting “fringe” groups. What’s really concerning is how these groups repeat and amplify their preferred messages, and how their efforts influence media agendas and shift the parameters of political debate. With trust in the media , people are increasingly consulting partisan alternatives.

That not only opens the field for players like RT, but polarises social discussion to the point of outright conflict. And as recent events in prove, that conflict is not confined to the online world.

, Post-doctoral Research Associate, Reframing Russia for the Global Mediasphere,

This article was originally published on . Read the .

糖心Vlog官方 has launched an innovative crowd-funding platform to help staff and students raise money for socially responsible projects at home and abroad, which is already helping a cancer awareness organisation and a project to provide medication to children in Madagascar.

The University’s Development and Alumni Relations team has established the platform to bring the many fundraising ideas presented to them to life, and to support the ideas by bringing them under the University brand. The platform can’t be used for commercial enterprises, to fund living costs or to raise money for other charities - many of the projects will benefit communities, but they can also support the University’s mission of providing outstanding teaching and learning experiences to students, or support world-leading research.

Crowd-funding is appealing to young and engaged donors, as it allows them to stay in touch with the people running a project, share items on social media and see the results of donations through regular email newsletters. Users of the Manchester platform will offer rewards for donations – such as a handwritten thank you letter - along with updates as their project progresses.

The team will assist the creators of the projects throughout the process, providing them with advice and guidance for reaching their target audiences, and building a good pitch. This support will enhance their future employability, as it will build their project management and communication skills using methods familiar to a generation adept at using social media. Creators will set funding targets, and payments will be taken from donors if these are reached.

As well as engaging with new donors through fundraising activities at Manchester, the team behind the platform hopes that it will provide a way to stay in touch with recent graduates by obtaining their support with projects being led by current students.

The platform is currently promoting student-led Manchester organisation CATS (Cancer Awareness in Teenagers and young adults Society), in the hope that similar models can be rolled out in other UK universities. Another project is supporting students travelling to a remote area of Madagascar to deliver Schistosomiasis medication to children, and to measure the impact of the disease.

The University is promoting the portal heavily across its site, linking up with student societies and schools, and is publicising the service online. Visit for more information, and watch this space for future updates about crowdfunded projects!

糖心Vlog官方 is to work with charities to research ways to tackle food insecurity and reduce food waste in the UK. 

A joint project with FareShare Greater Manchester, Lifeshare, Cracking Good Food, the Rainbow Christian Centre and the Compassion Foodbank will look at how society can reduce waste and get more food to those who cannot afford it. 

The project will look to develop partnerships for fresh food recycling and purchasing in order to increase capacity and reduce costs. It will also explore ways to get food parcels to those that need them and look into providing hands-on cooking training for people who want to learn how to make good, affordable food from scratch, pick up budgeting tips and understand more about healthy eating. There will also be work to train people to become volunteers themselves, helping them to develop their skills by working with the organisations that have helped them.

, a lecturer and expert on food insecurity and foodbanks, will lead the project for the University. His recent research concluded that food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK is a much wider problem than has been recognised and the rapid growth in the number of foodbanks and food donation points in supermarkets suggests a ‘normalisation’ of food aid in the UK.

He said: “This project, working with front line service providers, represents a real opportunity for coordinated action that could make a real difference to the lives of people living in food poverty. 糖心Vlog官方 is committed to making a positive difference in the drive to tackle poverty and inequalities”.

Seb Serayet, Development Manager for FareShare in Manchester, said: “We supply hundreds of tonnes of surplus food to over 130 charitable organisations who feed vulnerable people in Greater Manchester. However, giving food does not solve the problem. We need to do more to understand and address the underlying causes of food insecurity and poverty and working with the University and front line partners will help us to achieve this.”

Notes for editors

Dr Kingsley Purdam is available for interview on 07790 343185 or email kingsley.purdam@manchester.ac.uk

FareShare is a food supplier with access to increasing quantities of food industry surplus; Cracking Good Food is an educational partner with enthusiasm for cooking; Lifeshare, Compassion Food Bank and Rainbow Christian Centre all provide emergency food distribution and holistic support services to a wide range of people in need.

Media Enquiries to:

Deborah Linton
Media Relations Officer
Faculty of Humanities
糖心Vlog官方
Tel: 07789 948 783
Email: deborah.linton@manchester.ac.uk

This is one of a series of findings from an analysis of the 2011 Scottish Census data by (co-hosted by the Universities of Manchester and Glasgow). The briefing examines national identity in Scotland, explores how national identity relates to other characteristics such as place of birth and religion and draws comparisons with the data from other parts of the UK.

Other key findings:

• 83% of Scotland’s residents feel Scottish.
• Those who identified themselves, in terms of ethnicity, as being ‘White: Other British’ are least likely to feel a Scottish national identity (11% feel Scottish). Over three-quarters of this group were born in England.
• Asian, Arab and White Irish ethnic groups are more likely to identify as Scottish only in Scotland than as English only in England. In contrast, African, Caribbean and Other White ethnic groups show similar patterns of identification across Scotland and England.
• Being born in Scotland makes people feel Scottish: 94% of the Scotland-born choose Scottish as their national identity alone or with other identities, but less than half of those born outside Scotland do so.
• However, for those born outside of Scotland it makes little difference where they were born: about 25% of Scotland’s residents born outside Scotland feel Scottish, and this is no less for those from South and East Asia, Africa and the Middle East, than it is for those born in England or other parts of Europe. 
• There is no significant difference in the likelihood of claiming Scottish national identity for those who are Roman Catholic, Church of Scotland or of ‘no religion’ (two-thirds of each of these group identify as Scottish only). Almost three-quarters of Muslims in Scotland identify as either Scottish, British or some other form of UK national identity.

Dr. Andrew Smith, Reader in Sociology at the University of Glasgow said: “What these results reveal is the complexity of national identity. There are clearly a range of different factors – personal background, histories of migration, the perceived relationship between different identities – which shape the way in which people describe themselves. In some respects, these results appear to suggest that minority communities in Scotland see Scottishness as a relatively ‘open’ identity, but not in all cases and many minority communities are at least as likely to consider themselves British as they are Scottish. Where you are born is clearly a crucial factor in all of this:  94% of people born in Scotland, regardless of ethnicity, consider themselves to be Scottish, either solely, or in conjunction with another national identity”.

This briefing is part of a series prepared by the University of Manchester with support from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and as part of the work of the ESRC funded research Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity.

Notes for editors

The analysis is set out in a briefing document produced by and Dr Andrew Smith, as part of a series prepared at the University of Manchester with support from , and the research Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity, co-hosted by the Universities of Manchester and Glasgow.

The briefing is available on request, and from the 4th August at: http://www.ethnicity.ac.uk/  This site also has a range of other briefings, including comparable ones for England and Wales.

The Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity is funded by .

For further information or to request an interview, please contact Kath Paddison, Media Relations Officer, 糖心Vlog官方, 0161 275 8155 or kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk 

During 2007-2013, 7,143 birth mothers appeared in 15,645 recurrent care applications concerning 22,790 infants and children. 

Notes for editors

The Research Team is made up of Dr Karen Broadhurst (Principal Investigator, University of Manchester); Professor Judith Harwin (Co-investigator, Brunel University); Dr Mike Shaw (Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Co-investigator, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust); Dr Bachar Alrouh (Lead Researcher, Brunel University) and Dr Mark Pilling (Statistical Adviser, University of Manchester).The research was published in today.

A University of Manchester researcher has found evidence which shows the media bears some of the blame for stirring up prejudice against migrant communities.

The findings come 10 years exactly since Poland joined the EU and Britain opened its door to Polish migrants.

has spent over a year  researching communal contacts between Polish migrants and the local population in the UK and Spain, revealing the impact of the media portrayal of Polish migrants on everyday social relations.

Whereas the British might blame the Poles for “driving down wages”, “stealing their jobs” and “squeezing public services”, there was little evidence of similar attitudes towards the Polish communities of Spain.

However, the Spanish public and media were much more likely to blame non-Europeans, North and Sub-Saharan Africans, and to some extent Romanian migrants for social and economic problems, she found.

British attitudes to Polish migrants, she adds, started to change around the time of the financial crisis and subsequent recession of 2008.

She bases her analysis on the theories of Professor Teun van Dijk, who says that readers’ system of social beliefs are influenced by the media.

The mass media, he argues, are the main instrument which provides information about immigration to the majority of society and thus contribute decisively to the attitudes of most people towards immigration.

Ms Rzepnikowska said: “It is very difficult to categorically attribute the direct impact of media reports on our attitudes to migrant communities, but this comparative study is a way to do that.

“And it shows quite powerfully that media scapegoating, homogenising and racialising of migrant groups is passed on to the people who read and see it.

“How otherwise can you have a negative impression of someone you have never met?”

According to the , the British media often does not recognise the diverse economic and social background of Polish migrants, and rarely gives them a voice.

The focus groups and narrative interviews she conducted revealed that a substantial amount felt intimidated by locals, who sometimes accused them of ‘stealing British  jobs’ and using scarce public resources, mirroring what they had read in the newspapers.

One respondent, who worked as an interpreter for the NHS, reported similar attitudes from relatively well educated doctors.

Ms Rzepnikowska said: “In Britain, it’s nowadays less acceptable socially to scapegoat Black and Asian people-  so it could very well be that these negative attitudes to Poles act as a proxy for the others.

“In Spain, however, Poland is generally seen as culturally and religiously close to Spain and consequently, there is very little negative coverage of Polish migrant communities.

“Instead, it’s the Black and Arab communities who bear the brunt of it.”

Ms Rzepnikowska used participant observation - a method to achieve close and intimate familiarity with her subject  matter-  to study groups – of which many Poles were members  in Manchester and Barcelona.

She added: “This is not about numbers: there are nearly 400,000 Britons living in Spain – which is comparable in size to the numbers of Polish people in the UK.

“But the Brits in Spain  do not receive as much negative coverage in Spain as Polish people in the UK.

“The media need to show responsibility and consistency when reporting on migration.

“Migrants and settled ethnic minorities are an integral part of society and proper reporting will surely help meaningful coexistence and more positive contact between different groups and individuals.”

Notes for editors

"Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism in European Media and Film: Rights, Responsibilities, Representations" takes place at, Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre, off Moseley Road, 糖心Vlog官方, 23-25 May 2013

Alina Rzepnikowska is available for comment

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
糖心Vlog官方
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

People who regularly visit a place of worship are less likely to be involved in low level crime and delinquency, according to new research by a University of Manchester researcher.

The project, led by PhD student Mark Littler, involved the analysis of new survey data and in-depth qualitative interviews with young members of the UK’s major faiths.

He said: “This research implies that the act of visiting a place of worship may trigger a significant reduction in the likelihood of involvement in certain types of criminal and delinquent behaviour.

“In line with existing American research, my results suggest that it is the act of mixing with fellow believers that is important, regardless of whether this is via formal worship, involvement in faith-based social activities or simply through spending time with family and friends who share your faith.

“The important thing is exposure to people who encourage pro-social behaviours, and can provide sanctions for their breach”

The study, which is the first time this type of analysis has been carried out in the UK, is to be published later this year. It was funded by the Bill Hill Charitable Trust.

The survey data comprised responses from 1,214 18 to 34-year-olds and was collected last July.

It gathered information on eight measures of delinquency: littering, skipping school/work, using illegal drugs, fare dodging, shoplifting, music piracy, property damage and violence against the person.

Though most measures showed some relationship, shoplifting, the use of illegal drugs and music piracy evidenced the most significant correlations.

More serious crimes were too rare for the data to be able to show a significant pattern.

He added: “These results suggest a more positive picture of Britain’s religious life than the doom and gloom you might read about it in the newspapers.

“But they are not necessarily a blow to the proponents of atheism: religious practice is just one way of gaining exposure to the pro-social behavioural norms that are at the heart of this relationship; other, more secular, activities may equally serve a similar role.”

Notes for editors

Mark Littler is available for comment

For media enquiries contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
糖心Vlog官方
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Hundreds of former prisoners in Northern Ireland claiming they have been wrongfully convicted are unlikely to get the chance to clear their names if the current system is not reformed.

, a criminal law researcher from 糖心Vlog官方, says despite the current focus on prosecution amnesties by the Attorney General of Northern Ireland, many people have been denied justice.

The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal (NICA) and the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC), she finds, are ill-equipped to deal with these cases and could be overwhelmed by the number of potential appeals – recently estimated at over 300.

“The ‘Irish’ cases such as the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four defined miscarriages of justice in England and Wales – but miscarriages of justice that took place in Belfast have not been examined,” she said.

Northern Ireland is the only post-conflict society to have a body established to investigate miscarriages of justice, called the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

However, the CCRC and Northern Ireland Court of Appeal were not designed to deal with these cases she argues.

In addition, the inability of NICA to address the suspension of legal protections during the Troubles, according to Dr Quirk, explains why justice is yet to be done.

The counter-terrorism and Emergency Provisions legislation established the Diplock courts, in which defendants were tried by a judge without a jury, allowed for more intensive interrogation techniques and the routine denial of legal advice until the prisoner, many of whom were teenagers, signed a confession.

Dr Quirk, who publishes a paper in this month’s , said: “While NICA has been commendable in many ways in recent years, its legalistic treatment of these cases cannot examine some of the broader truths, including the role of NICA itself during the conflict.

“Parliament changed the law to make it easier to gain convictions during the conflict; those same rules now make it harder for individuals to clear their names “Because suspects in Northern Ireland had reduced legal protections, and were convicted solely on the basis of their confessions, they need help to find new evidence to put before the NICA – they need someone to help them “join up the dots” with other cases.”

In one notorious case seen by Dr Quirk, a17-year-old boy with learning difficulties confessed to a crime he did not commit.

The conviction was overturned, but as with other cases, there was no criticism of the legal process or individuals who allowed the conviction to happen.

She added: “In the absence of a truth commission, some are using the CCRC and appeals process in an attempt to expose police wrongdoing. The current system is frustrating for all sides and an inefficient use of resources.

“So my view is a bespoke mechanism – such as a Legacy Commission – would indeed be a better means of investigating these cases and recording what happened.

“Many former prisoners released in 2001 under the Good Friday Agreement cannot find work, travel to the USA, foster children or get house insurance as a result of their conviction.

“Though some are indeed guilty of crimes, others continue to suffer for being convicted of crimes they did not commit.

“Justice remains elusive for these people.”

Notes for editors

by Dr Hannah Quirk is published in The Modern Law Review this month

The paper is available

Dr Quirk is available for interview

For media enquires contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
糖心Vlog官方
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.u

The relationship between church, state and the international crisis facing welfare finance is the root cause of why some countries are friendlier to same-sex couples than others, says a University of Manchester researcher.

Professor Angie Wilson’s findings, based on an analysis of ten countries, are published in her new book this month, ahead of the US Supreme Court’s judgement on gay marriage this week.

According to Professor Wilson, the court's nine justices are unlikely to proclaim a national right to same-sex marriage, differing widely from the attitudes of policy makers in Western Europe.

In her book, ‘Why Europe is Lesbian and Gay friendly and why America never will be’, published by Suny Press, she argues there is a gap in how we understand the advancement of gay rights across different countries.

Well organised gay and lesbian movements, political action, changes in social attitudes and human rights legislation, have all contributed to policy changes in gay friendly Europe, she says.

But more fundamental is the ‘Political economy of care’: the intersection of state, market, religious and family relations.

She will be giving a prestigious TED talk on the topic, online next month.

She said: “My research asks how is it that so many European countries have policies that protect citizens from discrimination based on sexual orientation and recognize same-sex couples, when many American states do not?

“The historical involvement of Christian churches, particularly in post-World War II welfare settlements, and the resulting political economy of care in each country, is unique. However, one common factor is the interpretation of ‘the family’.

“In many US States – especially in the South- religiosity is high, and Christian churches, rather than the state, are primary providers of social welfare, health and other services.

“This represents a huge financial investment in the traditional family and the church as the two key providers of services.

“If socially conservative religions lose their investment in service provision, they lose the political power to define morality and much of their political influence.”

She added: “As European countries are facing austerity, redefining the traditional family to encompass and gay and lesbian people makes financial sense for states: families are far cheaper than the state at providing welfare.

“For those countries where religiosity is lower, this is going to be easier. In America, where religiosity is high and there is little federal support for welfare, it is going to be harder.”

Professor Wilson’s work can help explain policy development in countries such as:

• Russia. Recently passed law banning gay 'propaganda' is indicative of unfriendly policies to gay and lesbian people. This must be seen in the context of growing religiosity, investment in welfare from the Christian right and lack of dependable state welfare.
• France. Recently allowed its first gay marriage. Despite the love of the traditional family, France’s increasing secularism and established welfare system has created this policy opportunity.
• Britain.  Same-sex marriage law and an impressive contemporary history of policy expansion. Brown and Blair both redefined the family, as Cameron is continuing this trend. At least part of the reasoning behind this was the need for a larger population to be defined as ‘family’ and therefore responsible financially for care – thus saving the state money.
• Spain .Legalises same sex marriages even though it is Catholic country. Explained by more women in work, migration into the cities which weakened Spain’s dependence on the extended family to meet welfare needs. This created a momentous policy opportunity for well organized activists.
• Italy. Less friendly to gay and lesbian people, explained by historic investment of the Catholic Church in direct care provision.
• America. High religiosity and little national welfare reinforces the power of the Christian Right in many ‘red states’. Churches are key providers of welfare for individual states and thus have great power to define the family according to their morality. Those individual states with significant investment in welfare are the exact ones with laws more inclusive of gay and lesbian couples.

Notes for editors

Professor Wilson is available for comment

Futher information is available

For media enquires contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
糖心Vlog官方
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

Professor Yaojun Li, of the Institute for Social Change, University of Manchester, analysed survey data on over 100,000 adults in England and Wales, over ten years to 2011.

He will tell the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in London that the average people gave to charity in the four weeks before being questioned during the year 2010/11 was £16, compared with £15 given by those questioned during 2007/08.

The £16 figure has been adjusted downwards to remove the effect of inflation, to allow precise comparison.

Professor Li said that in 2010/11 the poorest 20% gave 3.2% of their gross monthly income to charity during the four weeks before they were interviewed, and the richest 20% gave 0.9%. The remaining 60% gave under 2%. In absolute amounts, the figures were £31.44 for the richest 20%, and £6.35 for the poorest 20%.

“An inverse relationship is found between giving and income,” said Professor Li.  “While people in higher income positions are found to give more in absolute terms in terms of pounds given, they are found to give less as a proportion of their or their family incomes.

“Given the voluntary and altruistic nature of charitable giving, how to get the economically well-off to ‘give their fair share’ – that is, to contribute relatively more –is a challenge, if our Society is to be made Big.”

However Professor Li also found that the professional and managerial classes tended to volunteer more in civic organisations, and also give more money in absolute terms. For instance, during the year 2010/11, 71% of those in the highest social class volunteered, and 84% donated to charity. These figures fell to 36% and 61% respectively for those in routine manual work.

Other findings are:

• Giving to charity as a proportion of income was highest among people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi ethnicity, who gave 5.3% of their monthly income in the four weeks before being questioned during 2010/11 (or £27.33). This compared with 1.7% among white British. However, in absolute terms, people of white British ethnicity gave more (at £16.30) than the average (at £16.10).

• In the four weeks before interview in 2010/11, 75% of Christians donated, compared with 63% of Muslims, 66% of atheists, and 56% of Hindus, the lowest of six categories. In terms of actual amounts, the figures for the religious groups were £17.53 for Christians, £10.06 for Hindus, £22.33 for Muslims, £8.94 for Sikhs, £15.69 for Jews, Buddhists and people of other religious affiliations, and £11.28 for atheists. Again this is in 2003 price.

“Muslims in general, and people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origins in particular, are shown as giving the highest proportions of their incomes to charitable causes,” said Professor Li. “People of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origins are usually found to be amongst the poorest communities in the country.”

Professor Li found that overall the proportion of those donating had dropped since the beginning of the recession. Of those questioned during 2005, 79% said they had given to charity during the four weeks prior to interview, falling to 76% of those questioned during 2007/08 and 72% in 2010/11. But the total amount given remained approximately the same.

“Britons are overall quite generous, but the current crisis is taking a toll,” he said. “Yet it’s not all bad news – although fewer are giving, the total amount they are giving is roughly the same.

“The claims of a broken society are not well grounded but the evidence also shows that the government needs to do more to sustain and increase the level of participation in civic engagement, voluntary help and charitable giving.”

Notes for editors

For media enquiries, contact:
Tony Trueman
British Sociological Association
Tel: 07964 023392
tony.trueman@britsoc.org.uk

Or

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
糖心Vlog官方
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Principle investigator , from 糖心Vlog官方,  says the research bolsters calls for Governments to incorporate ‘relationship education’ into the school curriculum.

The ‘REaDAPt’ project, which studied 2,395 young people at programmes in England, France and Spain, has also produced a 180 page toolkit for teachers on tackling the subject.

The toolkit will strengthen efforts to deal with domestic violence among school-age children.

Teenage girls in European countries as diverse as the UK, Spain, Sweden, Malta and Germany  - are two or more times as likely to be victims as older women.

According to the researchers, many young people, especially boys, believe it is acceptable to hit their partner.

However, the European Union funded project found that educational interventions can change attitudes in the space of a few weeks.

Questionnaires to the children in each of the countries revealed the programmes improved their attitudes towards domestic violence – especially in England and Spain.

Professor Gadd said: “We now know that domestic abuse prevention programmes can have a positive impact on the attitudes of young people.

“So the challenge is to encourage governments to incorporate this across the mainstream curriculum and build a workable infrastructure at every secondary school-age year.

“Rather than confining relationship education to special sessions that are tangential to the assessed curriculum, geography or maths, for example, could tackle domestic abuse prevalence in different parts of the world, and the experience of victims could be appropriate for literature or even music classes.

“So this is really a question of finding a way to build capacity, so that we can tackle one of the most serious problems facing young people today.”

A moving film called Through a Child’s Eyes, where a young boy talks about his experience of witnessing his father being violent towards his mother through pictures he has drawn, has been refashioned by the project so that young people can share it via YouTube with their teachers and schools.

Professor Gadd added: “Appraising young people about the risks of domestic abuse in intimate relationships and the nature of domestic abuse is crucial to any strategy to seriously reduce the prevalence of gender -based violence in European countries.

“It is critical that evidence-based materials are provided to schools and teachers and educators. It is also important that teachers and educators are fully supported in providing relationship education and domestic abuse prevention tuition.

“However, a top-down, standardised approach from Government won’t work: teachers need to know what their class is thinking before they teach them.

“And they must be supported in developing the skills and confidence needed to innovate and evaluate what they do.

“This has to involve seeking out young people’s perspectives on the content and delivery of relationship education and domestic abuse prevention tuition, and asking how they would improve it.”

Other key findings of the project include:

• Preventative programmes are most effective at changing attitudes if delivered over a number of weeks.
• Relationship education programmes do not always succeed in encouraging young people to seek help from adults and must therefore identify a range of means by which young people can seek support and advice. 
• Educators must address tensions between promoting gender equality and depicting violence as a gendered phenomenon.
• Educators must also address tensions between encouraging young people to express their own perceptions and the need to challenge sexist stereotypes and victim blaming.

Notes for editors

A graph showing the successful impact of the preventative programmes is available

The REaADPt project conducted an evaluation of three grassroots domestic abuse prevention education programmes in Stoke on Trent, Toulouse and Murcia. Over 2000 young people participated in this evaluation by completing the Attitudes towards Domestic Violence questionnaire (ADV) which was created by Dr Claire Fox and Professor David Gadd – both from the University of Manchester. They were

A new programme using the REaDAPt  Educational Toolkit is a resource that teachers can use to develop their own curricula for relationship education and is free to download from the REaDAPt Project. The toolkit is currently being piloted in a new wave of interventions being delivered in Malta

Professor Gadd is available for interview.

For media enquiries contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
糖心Vlog官方
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

A new service, developed by experts at 糖心Vlog官方 and , will provide vital information to help urban neighbourhoods avoid the potentially dangerous effects of climate change.

The unique aid, launched this month online, will allow planners, policy makers, local people and developers to assess if new buildings and roads will make neighbourhoods intolerably hot or more likely to suffer from flooding.

It will also give cities the ability to assess how green infrastructure – such as trees, vegetation, waterways and lakes - can help neighbourhoods adapt to climate change by cooling surface temperatures and reducing runoff.

Heatwaves, river and surface water and flooding are already a major threat to many cities which have not adapted to extreme weather events, argues Dr Gina Cavan, from the University’s Centre for Urban Regional Ecology (CURE).

In one example, many of the 52,000 lives lost during the European summer heatwave of 2003 were in urban areas, which are warmer than the surrounding countryside, partly as a result of there being less cooling vegetation.

The tool - called STAR –produces temperature and runoff scenarios based on parameters entered by the user within a defined study area.

This includes percentages of land covered with buildings, roads, impervious surfaces, and trees, vegetation, waterways and lakes.

It is the latest product of a collaboration between eight European Union member states aimed at helping cities adapt to the effects of climate change called GRABS.

Led by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), GRABS works with local authorities to raise awareness and devise responses to the impact of climate change.

“City authorities cannot afford to ignore the environmental impact of land use if they are to adapt to the potentially dangerous effects of climate change,” said Dr Cavan.

"Greening the city is not just about coping with climate change, but also has health, social and economic benefits too.

“Even if the rise in CO2 emissions were stopped tomorrow, extreme surface temperatures and endemic flooding will be an increasing problem in cities by the middle of this century unless something is done.

“But cities can lessen these threats by increasing the amount of their green infrastructure and the data produced by the STAR tool will help them do that.”

The tool will also help local communities develop their own neighbourhood plans under the Government’s localism agenda and help them ensure the right development happens in the right places.

Developers could also use the tool to test their own development proposals’ green credentials.

Dr Susannah Gill is from The Mersey Forest and is also a honorary research fellow at 糖心Vlog官方.

She added: “This tool is best used at a neighbourhood scale.

“It tests the impact of different land cover scenarios of greening and development on surface temperatures and runoff under different temperature and precipitation conditions.

“The tool can be used for any area within the UK, though users in North West England are given up to date data on current land use and future climate change projections.”

Notes for editors

Dr Gina Cavan and Dr Susannah Gill are available for interview.

Visit the Green and Blue Space Adaptation for Urban Areas and Eco Towns (GRaBS) website at

To use the tool, visit 

For media enquires contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
糖心Vlog官方
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Since 2000 the Centre for Urban & Regional Ecology has been working on ‘sustainable city-regions’ – the challenge of steering our behaviour, settlements and landscapes towards more sustainable futures. Based in the School of Environment and Development at 糖心Vlog官方, CURE carries out multidisciplinary research, both for scientific understanding and for practical application. CURE draws its expertise mainly from the disciplines of spatial planning, geography, environmental science, policy studies and systems studies. In total there are over 50 researchers directly involved, including academic members, researchers, honorary staff and PhD students. Visit

The Mersey Forest is a growing network of woodlands and green spaces spread across Cheshire and Merseyside, which has been creating 'woodlands on your doorstep' for 20 years. The Forest is one of the leading environmental regeneration initiatives in the North West. Through community and partnership working, we have planted more than 8 million trees - equivalent to five new trees for every person living within the Forest area. The Forest helps our towns and cities adapt to climate change and has won the Brian Redhead Award for Environmental Sustainability, creates woodlands that 20% of local people visit at least once a week, and by improving the image of our towns and cities sets the scene for growth within the region's £98 billion economy.  They achieve all this through a partnership of local authorities, landowners, the Forestry Commission, Natural England and businesses including United Utilities. Visit

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Researchers at 糖心Vlog官方 are to record the history of the region’s only established Yemeni community – in a project which starts this summer.

The University’s will work with (YCA) in Greater Manchester - based in Eccles - and The University of Salford to set down the memories of some of its members across the generations.
 
The project, funded by a £49,000 grant, will collect their life-stories relating to the migration and settlement of Yemeni pioneers and their accounts of building a community in Britain.
 
It will explore historic firsts such as the first Yemeni café, the first Eccles Mosque, the first Halal butcher in Eccles- and look for historical documents about the community.
 
YCA Chairman and HMP Muslim Chaplain, Gadri Audhali said the project will be an important way to make other communities aware of their contribution to the nation.
 
He said: “Since Yemenis fist arrived in the UK - which was in the second half of the nineteenth century  - we have made huge sacrifices for the country – especially in the Navy during the first and second world wars.
 
“We usually did the heaviest and most difficult work on those ships. Many died but outside and even within  our community, so few know about it.
 
“Hopefully, this project will change that.”

 “Sometimes we feel as though we are invisible.”
 
Since the Yemenis arrived in Eccles in the 1940s, they have made an important contribution to the region’s economy, working in steel, cotton manufacturing, engineering and other industries.
 
Linked to the first UK Yemeni communities in Cardiff and South Shields, there are currently up to 800 families in Greater Manchester, with the Eccles community at its heart.
 
Project leader is Jackie Ould of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust, which is based in the Race Relations Resource Centre, one of the University’s ‘Cultural Assets’.
 
She said: “These records will be archived at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre, so that the history of the Yemeni community in Eccles is preserved for future generations.
 
“We are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund award will allow us to work with the community to capture their history.”
 
A strand of reminiscence through art will also run through the project, allowing for less traditional ways of expressing and recording the community’s history.
 
Other project outputs will include a website, a poster-display and teaching materials to promote better knowledge and understanding of the history of Yemeni people in Salford.

Notes for editors

Yemeni Roots, Salford Lives, will record the history of the Yemeni community in Eccles from 1950 to the present day. It has been created by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust, in partnership with the Yemeni Community Association (YCA) in Eccles and the University of Salford.
 
Gadri Audhali and Jackie Ould are available for comment

Images available:
•    Mohamed Kasseum, known in Eccles as Abba. Taken in the fifties at the Regent cinema, opposite where Morrisons now stands. Mohamed is writing the names of Yemenis entering the cinema to watch an Arabic movie. The lady is his wife, Atteager Kasseum, the daughter of one the original wave of 1875 migrants. They were Gadri’s grandparents.
•    Abdo Hizam  - the first Yemeni to arrive in Eccles - and his son Ahmed, who died two years ago in his 80s.
•    Three Yemeni men, taken in Blackpool, on holiday in 1965.
•    Yemeni restaurant in the 1970s.

For media enquiries contact

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
糖心Vlog官方
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

Political films made in Hollywood are almost always reluctant to criticise the establishment, whereas the opposite is usually true of their British counterparts, according to a new book.

from 糖心Vlog官方 says political and commercial pressures ensure Hollywood films are at heart patriotic and reinforce establishment principles and values.

But because the budgets for British films are dwarfed by their Hollywood counterparts, they are rarely subject to the same commercial pressures, resulting in a gritty realism likely to question the role of authority.
 
Successful British dramas such as State of Play and Edge of Darkness lost some of their edge when transferred to the big screen courtesy of Hollywood, he said.

Ken Loach and Mike Leigh on the other hand, British filmmakers long used to taking on social and political topics, are prime examples of directors who feel it is their duty almost to challenge the system. Hollywood directors can't and often don't have the same freedom, suggests Scott.

Both Edge of Darkness, starring Mel Gibson brought out in 2010 and State of Play, starring Russell Crowe in 2009, were honest enough interpretations of the BBC originals, but more hopeful and optimistic than those historic series, he argues.

, is published by Edinburgh University Press this month.

Dr Scott said: “Political movies are extremely influential in culture, generally tackling controversial subjects like the Kennedy shooting in JFK or the Munich Olympics disaster in Spielberg’s Munich, or the aftermath of 9/11 in Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11.

“But not in the way you might think: rather than being an expose of a corrupt system, they actually almost always underscore that system.

“You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to realise that the Hollywood film companies are multinationals who depend on the good will of powerful people across the world.”

He added: “You can’t lump all political movies together either as they obviously consist of different sub-genres whether that’s political thrillers, Presidential elections, or political biographies, doing different things.
 
“But though achieved by alternate methods, the net result is usually the same: an endorsement of the values, beliefs and identity that has been so important to the United States throughout its history.
 
“That message can and often does succeed with audiences because cinema-goers regard political movies as serious, well made films that are capable of articulating ideas. Audiences have far more will and belief in these types of pictures than they are often given credit for.

“Indeed the makers of films like The Manchurian Candidate, All the Presidents Men and Fahrenheit 9/11 will wear establishment criticism as a badge of honour even when in reality, these remarkable and hard-hitting pictures actually reinforce the establishment.”
 

Notes for editors

Extra details on political and commercial pressures  in Hollywood are available

Dr Scott is available for comment

American Politics in Hollywood Film is published by Edinburgh University Press.

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
糖心Vlog官方
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Historian Dr Yaakov Wise says the increase in religious British Jewry - recognisable by their traditional dress - is now outstripping the decline in the overall Jewish population which has been shrinking by one to two per cent each year since the 1950s.

European ultra-orthodox Jewry is expanding more rapidly than at any time since before World War Two.

Almost three out of every four British Jewish births, he says are ultra- orthodox who now account for 45,500 out of a total UK Jewish population of around 275,000 or 17 per cent.

According to Dr Wise and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Professor Sergio Della Pergola, Israel is experiencing similar changes.

Dr Wise said: "If current trends continue there is going to be a profound cultural and political change among British and American Jews - and it's already well on the way.

"This is in spite of demographic studies which show that the non-Ultra Orthodox Jewish population is flat or falling.

"And you can see evidence for this in communities across the UK: in Greater Manchester for example the Ultra- orthodox number 8,500 which is almost a third of the 28,000 Jews in the region.

"This is up from around one quarter only ten years ago.

"Approximately half of all the Jewish under fives in Greater Manchester are Ultra-orthodox.

"And in Greater London the Ultra-orthodox now account for 18 per cent of the Jewish population, up from less than 10 per cent in the early 1990s."

He added: "My work and that of Professor Sergio Della Pergola reveal a similar picture in Israel.

"By the year 2020, the Ultra-orthodox population of Israel will double to one million and make up 17 per cent of the total population.

"A recent Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics report also found that a third of all Jewish pupils will be studying at haredi schools by 2012, prompting emergency meetings at the Education Ministry.

"In America too, where the Jewish population is stable or declining, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish numbers are growing rapidly.

"Professor Joshua Comenetz from The University of Florida says the Ultra-orthodox population doubles every 20 years, which he says may make the Jewish community not only more religiously observant but more politically conservative.

"Comenetz estimated the Ultra-orthodox population in 2000 was about 360,000, 7.2 per cent of the approximately 5 million Jews in the U.S.

"But in 2006, demographers now estimate the number had grown to 468,000 or 9.4 per cent."

NOTES FOR EDITORS
The UK figures were based on census data plus the regular monitoring of Jewish births by academics in Manchester and Leeds.

The Hebrew word Charedi is directly translated as strictly orthodox.

Dr Wise is available for comment

An image of Dr Wise available

For more details contact:
Mike Addelman
Media Relations Officer
Faculty of Humanities
University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881 567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk