Whilst there has been a recent rise in research within the social sciences which has sought to explore the topic of ‘precarity’, to date there has been very little discussion around the precarity ...inherent in the research process or in following an academic pathway, and its subsequent impact on the wellbeing and mental health of the researcher. Within this intervention piece, we expose some of the uncertainties and precarities experienced as part of the postgraduate research journey, in doing so, drawing upon our own personal experiences as doctoral researchers. These have included, for example, the potential of research to fail and perpetual anxieties around future academic careers, preservation and progression in the context of an unstable academy. Academia appears to have traditionally required a commitment to the silencing of emotions and feelings of uncertainty, with very few academics talking openly about the emotions involved in their everyday work. This piece calls for an environment which is more open, supportive and accommodating of both the emotions and mental health of postgraduate researchers.
•Precarity is an inherent part of the postgraduate research journey.•Growing demands are being placed upon students for academic progression.•Instability induced through such conditions can cause anxiety and poor mental health.•Academia has traditionally required a commitment to the silencing of emotions and feeling.•Calls for a space which is more open and supportive of emotions and mental health.
This article analyzes the Indian Supreme Court's docket in detail from 1993 to 2011. It also draws on available data to describe more broadly the workings of the Court before 1993. The article ...explains how deficiencies in the way data are currently collected and categorized by the Court presents challenges in developing a full picture of its workload. Using the admittedly imperfect data set, it then analyzes the Supreme Court's caseload by geographic region of appeal, subject matter category, petition type, and other classifications. Among other findings, this analysis shows that the Court is disproportionately accessed by those close to Delhi and with more resources and that the Supreme Court's multiplicity of benches and cases may be undercutting precedent following in the Indian judicial system.
This article contributes to a small, but growing, scholarship on military videogames. Focusing specifically on diverse manifestations of temporality within these games, it demonstrates that this ...genre both is more diverse and has greater critical potential than is often recognized. The article begins with a brief overview of contemporary scholarship on temporality, war, and global politics. A second section then identifies three different ways in which temporality features in military videogames: (1) as a horizon, or historical background, against which they are produced and consumed; (2) as a dramatic setting around which games and their narratives are structured; and (3) as duration - which may be accelerated or decelerated - experienced by those playing these games. These three instantiations of time are then investigated via a new typology of military videogames, ordered around mainstream military shooters, critical military shooters, critical procedural military games, and civilian-centred military games. This typology enables us, first, to show the centrality of temporal assumptions, arguments, and experiences to the ways in which war is made meaningful across these games. And, second, to demonstrate the significance of distinct productions and experiences of temporality for the critical potentiality thereof.
This article explores the importance of videogames and their associated promotional media for both militarism and the resulting opposition. It focuses on the games Medal of Honor and Medal of Honor ...Warfighter - two mainstream, commercially successful military combat games which purport to offer an 'authentic' experience of post 9/11 military action to the player - to develop a framework to explore the role of videogames in this area. First, in terms of the military industrial and military entertainment complex, it shows the close association between the game developers and the military, with the military providing consultancy services, access to military hardware and openly celebrating their mutual associations. Second, these associations take on an important spatial dimension with the developers and weapons makers producing promotional materials which literally show both parties 'enjoying one another's company' in the same physical space; games also 'transport the player' into the virtual battlefield and allow them to embody the soldier. Finally, gendered militarism is shown in the gameplay and narratives within these games, alongside their associated promotional materials, all of which place significant emphasis on the links between militaristic values and masculinity. In both games, the celebration of militarism was highly controversial, prompting heated debate and active opposition - albeit varying in the two cases - from the military, politicians and players on the appropriateness of using videogames for militaristic entertainment. This suggests that there are limits to society's acquiescence in militarism and a continuing capacity to critique militaristic popular culture.
The European Investment Bank is the largest multilateral lender in the world, facilitating total spending which is equivalent to the total of the EU budget. Its activity thus has a potentially huge ...effect on EU policy‐making, yet research to date has failed to recognize this. This article addresses this, offering detailed empirical analysis and re‐evaluating debates on multi‐level governance.
Political scientists are increasingly engaged with the importance of the “visual turn,” asking questions about how we understand what we see and the social and political consequences of that seeing. ...One of the greatest challenges facing researchers is developing methods that can help us understand visual politics. Much of the literature has fallen into the familiar qualitative versus quantitative methodological binary, with a strong bias in favor of the former, and has consequently been unable to realize the advantages of mixed-methods research. We advance the study of visual politics as well as the literature on bridging the quantitative versus qualitative divide by showing that it is possible to generate quantitative data that is rooted in, and amenable to, qualitative research on visual phenomena. Our approach to conducting mixed-methods research is an alternative to the more common strategy of seeing various research methods as an assortment of tools, as it is directed at developing an organic relationship between qualitative and quantitative methods. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy for research on visual politics by discussing our own efforts to create a dataset for quantifying visual signifiers of militarism.
Poor implementation of social welfare programs is a chronic challenge in developing countries such as India. Yet, despite the large number of people affected and the serious consequences of ...implementation failure, there have been few studies, and even less theorization, of grievance redress in these contexts. Based on fieldwork conducted by the author, this Article examines grievance redress mechanisms for social welfare programs in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Borrowing from the idea of 'accountability regimes' developed in the administrative law literature, the Article proposes a comparable set of 'grievance redress regimes.' It creates a matrix to weigh the relative merits of different grievance redress regimes and judge how new grievance redress mechanisms impact them. It argues that this approach can help policymakers and others more accurately pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of specific grievance redress mechanisms, imagine a broader range of policy prescriptions, and ensure that different grievance redress mechanisms support, not undermine, each other.
Marine macroalgae (seaweeds) consist of a diverse range of species with diverse morphology and bioactive properties. The potential for genetic improvement to increase the value of the production of ...such molecules and other economically important traits is likely to be high as procedures for cultivation of many species are well established, genetic diversity is often high, sexual propagation is often possible and seaweeds generally have a short generation time that allows rapid transition from one selected generation to the next. The need for genetic improvement has been voiced by industry for many years. Despite this, there is little published research describing seaweed genetic improvement methodology, results or impact. This review draws on knowledge from other groups of species and describes options, benefits and knowledge needed for the genetic improvement of macroalgae. In conclusion, the review highlights how a well-designed genetic improvement program, which targets one or a few select economically valuable traits whilst limiting inbreeding, could provide potentially large benefits for industries reliant on the culture of seaweeds. Progress will, to a large extent, rely on the magnitude of genetic variation for the trait in question.
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