Lack Of Modernization Research Articles

Hazardous and toxic waste management in Botswana: practices and challenges.

Hazardous and toxic waste is a complex waste category because of its inherent chemical and physical characteristics. It demands for environmentally sound technologies and know-how as well as clean technologies that simultaneously manage and dispose it in an environmentally friendly way. Nevertheless, Botswana lacks a system covering all the critical steps from importation to final disposal or processing of hazardous and toxic waste owing to limited follow-up of the sources and types of hazardous and toxic waste, lack of modern and specialised treatment/disposal facilities, technical know-how, technically skilled manpower, funds and capabilities of local institutions to take lead in waste management. Therefore, because of a lack of an integrated system, there are challenges such as lack of cooperation among all the stakeholders about the safe management of hazardous and toxic waste. Furthermore, Botswana does not have a systematic regulatory framework regarding monitoring and hazardous and toxic waste management. In addition to the absence of a systematic regulatory framework, inadequate public awareness and dissemination of information about hazardous and toxic waste management, slower progress to phase-out persistent and bio-accumulative waste, and lack of reliable and accurate information on hazardous and toxic waste generation, sources and composition have caused critical challenges to effective hazardous and toxic waste management. It is, therefore, important to examine the status of hazardous and toxic waste as a waste stream in Botswana. By default; this mini-review article presents an overview of the current status of hazardous and toxic waste management and introduces the main challenges in hazardous and toxic waste management. Moreover, the article proposes the best applicable strategies to achieve effective hazardous and toxic waste management in the future.

Direct long‐distance dispersal shapes a New World amphitropical disjunction in the dispersal‐limited dung moss Tetraplodon (Bryopsida: Splachnaceae)

AbstractAimMany intercontinental disjunctions, especially among spore‐producing plants, are shaped by long‐distance dispersal (LDD) via wind currents. Amphitropical disjunctions are most commonly explained through LDD, but other vectors and dispersal scenarios must also be considered. To interpret the New World amphitropical disjunction in the dung‐moss genus Tetraplodon, we compared stepwise migration along the Andes, direct LDD and ancient vicariance.LocationGlobal, specifically high‐latitude and high‐elevation localities, with a focus on the New World.MethodsPhylogenetic relationships were inferred from four loci sampled from 124 populations representing the global range of Tetraplodon, and analysed using maximum‐likelihood and Bayesian optimality criteria, with divergence dates estimated in beast.ResultsThe monophyletic T. mnioides complex diversified between the early Miocene and early‐to‐mid Pliocene into three well‐supported clades, each with a unique geographical distribution: Laurasian, primarily high‐elevation tropical, and amphitropical. Populations from southernmost South American were reconstructed as a monophyletic lineage that diverged from high‐latitude Northern Hemisphere populations around 8.63 Ma [95% highest posterior density (HPD) 3.07–10.11 Ma].Main conclusionsDirect LDD has resulted in the American amphitropical disjunction in Tetraplodon. A lack of modern or historical wind connectivity between polar regions and the poor resistance of Tetraplodon spores to the conditions associated with wind‐dispersal suggest that bird‐mediated LDD provides the best explanation for the establishment of amphitropicality.

Research on High-End Showcase Design Method of China Market - Based on the Reality Project of Kessebohmer High-End Showcase Design

To Chinese market showcase of luxury, analyzes some problems existing in high-end showcase: the excessive pursuit of luxury but lack of connotation. At the same time, it is not very good to show luxury-collection's quality of beauty, the lack of modern, technology sense of luxury. On the basis, the methods of how to combine “the sense of luxury” with “high-end showcase design” were discussed: The implicit culture of Chinese Charm into the design, the image design of classical elements of China. The sense of high-quality material in details reflects the luxury. Overall lighting and color design. The sense of luxury comes from modern technology, etc. Hope to be able to offer some support to the design of Chinese high-end luxury showcase.

La construcción del Raumplan

The Raumplan is one of the terms linked to 20th century architecture with more intellectual consideration in it and exerts a great influence over the conception of habitable spaces. During a period in which the whole of Europe was amazed at the work that emanated from the new ideas about architecture, Loos introduced his opposing theory boasting about his lack of modernity. Against never ending glazed surfaces, he preferred small openings, carefully placed. Against the pleasure of exhibition, Loos went for the gratification of voyeurism . Rather than the non- tectonic surfaces of his contemporaries, he chose fine timbers and stone for his indoor cladding. Finally, while his celebrity coetaneous colleagues dissected the construction by separating the structure from the envelope and opted for a reticulated pillar structure, Loos reinforced his pre-modern condition by using the supporting wall as a primal element for construction and spatial definition. The Raumplan can be understood by living in the space and can be drawn with difficulty but, how is it built? That is the question we will try to answer.

Laboratório virtual como alternativa didática para auxiliar o ensino de química no ensino médio

The experimental activity is an indispensable practice in the process of knowledge development in chemistry and the lack of modern and equipped laboratories is one of the main reasons of the separation between theoretical approach and the practical one. This problem is experienced by most of high schools in Brazil. Due to the growing of globalizing information and the need to improve the quality of education, there is a growing interest in the using of new methods in the educational process, in order to arouse the interest of the learner. This study describes the use of virtual labs, which simulate chemical experiments, as a didactic-pedagogic instrument, to help teachers to conduct experimental activities in high schools. It was found that the use of educational software for teaching chemistry has led to a great approval by the academics consulted. Regarding the enhancement of learning, the use of the computational resources contributed significantly the understanding of the content by the students, allowing the better relationship between theory and practice.

Exploring the challenges to industrialized residential building in China

Industrialised building (IB) is considered by many to have an important role to play in China's residential construction industry due to its potential for improved quality, productivity, efficiency, safety and sustainability. It is surprising, therefore, that although a large number of construction programmes have been completed in the country in recent years, very few have been built in this manner. Quite why this situation exists is unknown. The well-known problems with IB, such as the constraints placed on designer freedom, may be the cause. It is equally possible that, as is typical with developing countries such as China, cost or government issues dominate. On the other hand, in comparison with other countries, the construction industry in China has been widely criticised for its lack of modernity. Either way, there is an urgent need to assess and understand the hindrances to the adoption of IB in residential construction in order to identify what corrective measures, if any, need to be taken.Towards this end, we first identify a set of critical factors (CFs) for assessing the hindrances to IB adoption in China. This involves the analysis of research data collected by a questionnaire survey of experienced housing developers and professionals working in China's construction industry sector. Fuzzy set theory is used in the selection of the CFs. These CFs comprise, in rank order: higher initial cost; lack of skilled labour in IB; manufacturing capability and involvement issues and product quality problems; lack of supply chain; lack of codes and standards; and lack of government incentives, directives and promotion. The establishment of the CFs provides a basis for local construction sectors to better equip themselves for future implementation of IB. The findings also indicate a current need for formulating improved policies and strategies to encourage the further development of IB in China at present.

A Socio-Economic Profile of Muslim Countries

This chapter presents a socio-economic profile of Muslim countries at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century. In broad terms, the 57 majority-Muslim countries have a combined population of 1.4 billion Muslims, which is 23 per cent of the world population. An additional 200-300 million Muslims live as minorities in other nations. The average human development index value computed by the World Bank is 15 percent higher for the world while the index score for the Muslim countries is 59. In fact, the slightly lower human development score is good news on how far the Muslim countries have progressed based on the perception of their situation some 60 years ago as depicted in the then contemporary historical accounts the countries were noted for their lack of modernization and poor governance. During the last 60 years almost all of these nations gained freedom from colonial powers and the extent of the progress made since then is examined in this study.

A REVIEW OF PALEOCLIMATIC CHANGES IN CHINA BASED ON PEAT CELLULOSE ISOTOPIC RECORDS

Peat,as an important geological archive,has some internal advantages over other geological archives in researching paleoclimatic changes(especially the paleoclimatic changes during Holocene),and is particularly suitable for organic geochemistry and isotopic geochemistry studies.There are many peat bogs in China.Various researches have been conducted on these peat archives by both the domestic and international scientists,and important progresses have been reached.In this paper,we made a comprehensive review of the reported stable isotopic results for peat cellulose in China.The available data has been carefully collected and analyzed,upon the comparison with the latest results of paleoclimatic reconstruction obtained from other geological archives,then discussed are the critical problems about the application of peat cellulose isotopes in paleoclimatic research.We believe that these problems come from the insufficient study of modern-process.Therefore,the paleoclimatic significance of the stable isotopes of peat cellulose from a specific locality is not certain,due to lack of modern analogues.Finally,a discussion was devoted to the future development of stable isotopes of peat cellulose in China and some methodological problems.

Æthelstan: The First King of England, by Sarah Foot.

AEthelstan: The First King of England, by Sarah Foot. New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, 2011. vii, 283 pp. $40.00 US (cloth). In her biography of AEthelstan (r. 924-39), Sarah Foot gives us the most extensive study of the king to date, and few could surpass her use of all available sources to create a more complete portrait of this early medieval king. AEthelstan has long been cast aside, when remembered at all, as a short-lived, but highly intelligent, ruler. Despite this lack of modern and popular support, Foot contends that AEthelstan deserves not just commemoration, but celebration. She argues that AEthelstan was the English monarch, for no ruler before him governed all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms as a single realm. She contends that AEthelstan was not just the first king of the English, but also the first king of England. Writing the biography of a medieval subject is rarely easy, even with a surplus of sources. Using the barest of references, Foot brings the image of AEthelstan into sharp relief. With this text, Foot places the king squarely in the centre of English history as important traditionally as his grandfather has been in the historical canon. Where AEthelstan's grandfather and father sought to expand Wessex, AEthelstan fought to control Britain from Scotland to the English Channel. This broad goal, achieved through war and diplomacy, created a kingdom larger than either Alfred or Edward imagined. AEthelstan first took the title rex Anglorum in 924/925. Foot shows how this title differed from Alfred's: AEthelstan was not king of the Angles and Saxons--he was king of the English. Further, she argues that AEthelstan, with his victory at Brunanburh, could claim to rule not just the English, but England as well. Beginning in 927, AEthelstan's court, scribes, coins, and foreign rulers all bore witness to the quasi-imperial nature of his rule. Foot purposely does not follow a timeline of AEthelstan's deeds. Instead, she breaks his life into different spaces, areas where the king and the man performed together. Foot describes every aspect of AEthelstan's life: his family life, court and kingdom, military exploits, and death are given equal weight by the author. This organization allows her look at AEthelstan as more than simply a record of his charters and battles. It does, however, compartmentalize some features of the king's life that may have benefitted from additional connections, such as those of family and court, and court and kingdom. Despite the paucity of contemporary sources for AEthelstan, Foot provides a full and detailed account of the king's life. She relies heavily on William of Malmesbury and his Gesta regum Anglorum. William had a special interest in AEthelstan, as his abbey directly benefitted from the king's munificence; thus his is the fullest near-contemporary account of the king. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, charters, law codes, and smaller chronicles round out the majority of her sources. …

Foundations for Tertiary and Senior Secondary Education (2nd ed.)

Foundations for Tertiary and Senior Secondary Education (2nd ed.) Reviewed by Nicole Taylor University of Wollongong Froude, C., & Polley, S. (2011). Outdoor Education, Foundations for Tertiary and Senior Secondary Education (2nd ed.). Cottesloe, WA: Impact Publishing. ISBN:978-1-921734-42-7, 436 pages.Christine Froude and Scott Polley have done a thorough job of providing readers with the information and tools needed to teach Outdoor Education to tertiary and senior secondary students. With Froude's background in school Outdoor Education programs and Polley's experience within the tertiary Outdoor Education sector, this textbook provides service to a range of students studying at the secondary and tertiary levels. The book highlights outdoor teaching methods and presents educators with the opportunity to apply theory to practice in developing instructional strategies to best suit their audience. The end of each chapter is summarised with a brief test to assess student understanding, and provides example short answer and essay questions.First impressions reveal this text book to be ideal for students and entry level outdoor education practitioners. The information presented is succinct, straightforward and would be the perfect springboard for those wishing to expand their knowledge in the field. Chapters cover key concepts in planning and preparation for an outdoor experience, practical skills necessary to succeed in the outdoors and an integration of leadership skills and theory.Particularly impressive is Froude & Polley's underlying sense of Eco-pedagogy. I use this term to depict the inclusion of chapters addressing ecology, human connections to nature and Indigenous environmental perspectives. The authors have cleverly interwoven a sense of teaching for the natural world as opposed to simply in it. These issues are a relatively unique inclusion in a foundational outdoor education textbook and reflect the current societal concerns around sustaining biodiversity and the potential decline of the human / nature connection. It was refreshing to find the authors surrounding the well documented principles and ethics of Leave no Trace, with such current significance. If anything, it was disappointing to find the chapter on Indigenous environmental perspectives as brief as it was. I found myself wishing the authors had taken this one step further and really addressed the significance of indigenous connections with the land. However, the inclusion of such topics is a promising one, hinting at potential future directions for outdoor education.In contrast with the timely and contemporary eco-pedagogy mentioned above is the lack of modernity in regards to reflection. The book identifies technology's role in modifying risk and in planning an expedition, however, there is no mention or debate about the place of technology in reflection. …

Web-based training in German university eye hospitals - Education 2.0?

Purpose: To analyse web-based training in ophthalmology offered by German university eye hospitals. Methods: In January 2010 the websites of all 36 German university hospitals were searched for information provided for visitors, students and doctors alike. We evaluated the offer in terms of quantity and quality. Results: All websites could be accessed at the time of the study. 28 pages provided information for students and doctors, one page only for students, three exclusively for doctors. Four pages didn’t offer any information for these target groups. The websites offered information on events like congresses or students curricular education, there were also material for download for these events or for other purposes. We found complex e-learning-platforms on 9 pages. These dealt with special ophthalmological topics in a didactic arrangement. In spite of the extensive possibilities offered by the technology of Web 2.0, many conceivable tools were only rarely made available. It was not always possible to determine if the information provided was up-to-date, very often the last actualization of the content was long ago. On one page the date for the last change was stated as 2004. Conclusion: Currently there are 9 functional e-learning-applications offered by German university eye hospitals. Two additional hospitals present links to a project of the German Ophthalmological Society. There was a considerable variation in quantity and quality. No website made use of crediting successful studying, e.g. with CME-points or OSCE-credits. All German university eye hospitals present themselves in the World Wide Web. However, the lack of modern, technical as well as didactical state-of-the-art learning applications is alarming as it leaves an essential medium of today’s communication unused.

When We Talk about Modernity

SOME MODERN PEOPLE HAVE DISCOVERED a new world. Its people are not like Modern people. Their society seems primitive, their intelligence undeveloped, their emotions excessive. Their lack of Modernity clearly justifies their subjugation. Colonization begins, with the seizure of un-Modern property facilitated by the legal and moral arguments of Modern intellectuals. In the process, some un-Modern elites unwittingly facilitate their own eradication; meanwhile, a few Modern people go native, embracing un-Modern lifestyles and values. Gradually, un-Modern artifacts are transferred to Modern metropoles, where they are prized by private collectors and the curators of competing imperial museums. The un-Modern comes into vogue, inspiring Modern fashions, theatrical genres, artistic schools. Un-Modern mythology circulates in translation; un-Modern languages are objects of study. Enthusiasts even attempt to enact aspects of un-Modern life, while popular culture reflects increasing fascination with un-Modern stories and settings. By this time, though, there is no way to write the history of the un-Modern world—at least not from an un-Modern perspective. No un-Modern people survive as witnesses to their own past. Their very landscapes have been transformed. A few sites will be “restored” as romantic refuges, but most will become wastelands where the detritus of Modernity is dumped.

Disaster And Risk Management In An Electronic Environment: A Case Study Of The Planning And Management Information Services Directorate (PMISD). University Of Ghana, Legon

Disaster and Risk Management is an essential framework for making better decisions to safeguard vital documents in an information centre. Developing a disaster and risk management procedures involves working through a series of steps in order to collect, organize and analyze information about Disasters and Risk in an organization. This research is a case study carried out in the Planning and Management Information Services Directorate, which is the data unit of the Uni versity of Ghana and plays a vital role in the processing and storage of Information. The Disaster and Risk Management procedures and activities in the directorate were thoroughly investigated. The study found out that there was lack of modern and adequa te disaster detection and suppression systems and no formal disaster control and recovery plan in the directorate. There was also the absence of systematic orientation and training scheme in disaster and risk management procedures for staff in the PMISD. On the whole, the study revealed that even though the Planning and Management Information Services Directorate has experienced a number of disasters over time, it still needed revitalization in its disaster and risk management procedures. The study recomme nded amongst others regular risk assessment routines in and around the directorate; the formal orientation and training of its staff on Disaster and Risk management procedures and tools. Recommendations were also made for the need to put together a disaster control and recovery plan in the PMISD. This will provide step by step instructions and ensure that the right measures are taken at the right time in the event of an emergency or disaster. Key Words: Disaster, Risk, Management, Electronic, Environment, University of Ghana

“Homeless” at Home: Linguistic, Cultural, and Identity Hybridity and Third Space Positioning of Kenyan Urban Youth

In Kenyan urban locations where speakers of a myriad of different languages and cultures converge, young people have experienced ambivalence, ambiguity, and contradictions regarding language, culture, and identity that they can ascribe to themselves, both as unifying factors at the national level, as well as marking their identity as urban youth. In an attempt to bridge the ethnic divide, and the divide between what they perceive to be traditional values and the urban, modernized values, Kenyan urban youth have developed a “hybrid” language called “Sheng”. This language has opened up avenues for renegotiating their identity and cultures, moving them beyond unitary, fixed identities and binaries of traditional versus urban, and local versus global. Thus, this paper uses the post-colonial notions of hybridity and the third space to interrogate ways in which these youth have challenged the established codes of their identities, and negotiated their ambivalences in a third, hybridized space that is fluid and shifting. Educational opportunities for Kenyan urban youth within the third hybridized space positioning are discussed. Au Kenya, dans les centres urbains, là où convergent une myriade de langues et de cultures, les jeunes ressentent des contradictions et une certaine ambigüité quant à leur langue, leur culture et leur identité, cette identité qui les caractérise au niveau national comme de jeunes urbains. Ces mêmes jeunes ont développé une langue « hybride » appelée “Sheng” dont le but est clairement de combler la division ethnique, ainsi que la division entre ce qu’ils perçoivent comme étant des valeurs traditionnelles et celles comme étant des valeurs urbaines ou même modernes. Cette langue a ouvert la possibilité de renégocier leurs identités et leurs cultures, et d’aller au-delà même de l’unité, c’est-àdire au-delà des identités fixes et des binaires, tels que traditionnel vs. urbain ou local vs. global. Cet article utilise donc les notions postcoloniales d’hybridité et de troisième espace afin d’analyser la façon dont ces jeunes ont défié les codes établis de leurs identités respectives et comment ils ont négocié leurs ambigüités dans un troisième espace hybride, fluide et variable. Cet article examine également les différentes possibilités éducatives pour les jeunes kenyans urbains dans ce troisième espace hybride.

Agriculture of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in Perspective of Joining Common Agricultural Policy - With Some Fiscal Remarks

This paper discusses problems connected with the accession of Central European Countries (CECs) to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). A lot of attention is given to the analysis of the agricultural situation and prospects in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Also the evolution and the future of the CAP itself is broadly presented. Since the agricultural accession of CECs to the CAP will have an impact not only on the situation in the agricultural sectors in these countries but also on their overall economic situation, therefore some fiscal consequences are discussed in the end. The CECs problems with agriculture concern mainly the lack of modernisation (know-how), efficiency, and structural changes. The EU also has problems with agriculture. It is too costly . due to the high level of protection and overproduction (connected with storage of the costly surpluses) . and unequally developed (there are big differences in rural development among the Member Countries). The accession may, to some extent, solve CECs. and EU.s problems with agriculture, but under the condition, that the CECc will get ready to join the CAP structures, as much as it is possible. Therefore, generally, the pre-accession policies in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland should focus on investments in rural development and employment reductions since these policies guarantee improvement of agricultural productivity and improvement of agricultural to non-agricultural income ratio (which are the most desirable goals). It should be remembered, however, that the changes in agricultural sector need usually more time than the changes in other sectors so the agricultural accession of CECs to the CAP should come after the agricultural reorganisation. The pre-accession changes in agriculture will be co-financed by the EU. As far as budgetary effects are concerned, the pre-accession agricultural aid from the EU has little or no direct budgetary effects for the applicant countries. After the accession, the budgetary outflows from national CECs budgets to CAP will exceed budgetary inflows from CAP. This is because transfers from Member Countries to CAP come from national budgets but transfers from the CAP mostly do not come through the central national budgets but they are directed to the national paying agencies.

National Identification in Pre-Industrial Communities: Peasant Participation in the November Uprising in the Kingdom of Poland, 1830‒1831

National identification in pre-industrial communities: peasant participation in the November Uprising in the Kingdom of Poland, 1830-1831 This article aims to discover to what extent the illiterate peasantry could be seen as having national consciousness before the advent of economic and social modernization. Exploring the behaviour and attitudes of the Polish peasants during the November Uprising of the Kingdom of Poland against Russia in 1830-1831, it challenges the prevalent scholarly notion that pre-industrial peasants had little knowledge of and even more limited affection for any community outside their villages, while their participation in wars was generally dependant on coercion by the local elites and impending threats to their immediate neighbourhoods. This article therefore asks how the Polish peasants responded to the war against Russia and what might have motivated their responses. It analyses how far the peasants knew and used the elite vocabulary of fighting for the fatherland and for the nation and to what extent they felt a sense of ownership of such a national cause. In answering these questions, this article draws on a wide variety of sources. Perhaps the most important of them are hitherto neglected archival materials from Warsaw, Cracow and Poznań. They show various forms of peasant self-expression during the conflict of 1831, such as signing the oath of loyalty to the nation, volunteering to fight in the Uprising, donating goods for the war effort and writing petitions to the Polish authorities. Such materials are enriched by investigations into the memoirs of nobles, military reports and newspaper accounts, which contain a wealth of information about peasant responses to the Polish-Russian War. Finally, an invaluable source are the memoirs of former peasants themselves, which present firsthand insights into the perception of the nation by the lowest strata of the population. While this variety of sources poses a range of challenges, such as the exceptional character of the peasant memoirs and the unreliable nature of those written by the elite, they nonetheless present a relatively coherent picture of peasant attitudes. This article argues that many peasants easily identified themselves with the Polish nation, as they willingly contributed to the Uprising by volunteering to the army, conducting reconnaissance duties and providing supplies. They also largely understood that the nation was a community to which they belonged. Many villagers easily adopted the elite rhetoric of a unified national community, which is seen particularly clearly in their enthusiasm for singing the future national anthem “Poland is not dead yet.” Others demonstrated their sense of ownership of the national cause by putting their own interpretations on the Uprising, for example, defining it as an opportunity to demonstrate that it were the peasants, not the lords, who truly loved Poland. While there was obviously a number of cases of resistance of peasants to the burdens imposed by the Uprising, such occurrences usually indicated concerns with everyday livelihood rather than indifference to or lack of knowledge about the nation. This article cannot and does not intend to show that all villagers were committed national patriots. What it discovers, however, is that many illiterate peasants could define themselves as belonging to a community they called the nation and that lack of modernization, with its mass education, industrialization and print capitalism, did not create inherent obstacles for the existence of such national self-identifications among the masses.

Pachnobium dreuxi n. g., n. sp., ses occurrences modernes et fossiles sur l’archipel Crozet (Coléoptère Curculionidae Ectemnorrhininae)

Résumé Pachnobium dreuxi, nouvelle espèce et nouveau genre de Curculionidae Ectemnorrhininae des îles Crozet, dans l’Océan Indien sud, a été découvert sous forme fossile dans une séquence sédimentaire holocène. Deux spécimens modernes ont ensuite été trouvés parmi le matériel conservé au Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle de Paris. Il diffère très nettement de toutes les autres espèces connues de la sous-famille par son rostre profondément émarginé au sommet, sa tête massive, sa sclérotinisation réduite, ses tibias antérieurs droits et aplatis, etc. Sa biologie et son écologie sont presque entièrement inconnues, bien que certains aspects de sa morphologie comme sa faible sclérotinisation et ses yeux relativement petits soient en faveur d’une vie cachée, voire hypogée, par exemple dans la litière végétale ou dans les nids de pétrels. Les reconstructions paléoenvironnementales suggèrent qu’il fréquente des habitats à végétation dense. L’absence de captures modernes à l’île de la Possession pose la question de sa présence actuelle dans cette localité.

Dilemmatic human–animal boundaries in Britain and Romania: Post‐materialist and materialist dehumanization

Theories of dehumanization generally assume a single clear-cut, value-free and non-dilemmatic boundary between the categories 'human' and 'animal'. The present study highlights the relevance of dilemmas involved in drawing that boundary. In six focus groups carried out in Romania and Britain, 42 participants were challenged to think about dilemmas pertaining to animal and human life. Four themes were identified: rational autonomy, sentience, speciesism and maintaining materialist and post-materialist values. Sentience made animals resemble humans, while humans' rational autonomy made them distinctive. Speciesism underlay the human participants' prioritization of their own interests over those of animals, and a conservative consensus that the existing social system could not change supported this speciesism when it was challenged. Romanian participants appealed to Romania's lack of modernity and British participants to Britain's modernity to justify such conservatism. The findings suggest that the human-animal boundary is not essentialized; rather it seems that such boundary is constructed in a dilemmatic and post hoc way. Implications for theories of dehumanization are discussed.

Poetry and the Creation of a Whig Literary Culture 1681-1714 by Abigail Williams

MLR, I02.1, 2007 2I I audience are never given 'thegodlike ability to readminds'. Instead, soliloquies are only part of the data that theymust process in order to fathom a play's characters. These issues have an obvious bearing on Shakespeare's plays and, in particular, on Hamlet, the soliloquy's most famous exponent. As will be clear, I have considerable sympathy forHirsh's argument. However, thebook's impact isundermined by its sheer length-470 pages in total-and by the repetitive nature of its argument. Given that its central thesis is relatively simple, Shakespeare and theHistory of Soliloquies would have been farmore effective if it had been written in a punchier and more elegant fashion. Hirsh's determination to advance his argument makes him over-dogmatic, and his indignation thatcritics have failed to engage with his original article is clear. In addition, I suspect that the sta tus of the soliloquy in the earlymodern theatremay have been more fluid than he cares to admit. Self-addressed speech engages with other speech genres, such as the complaint, the death-speech, or the incantation.Moreover, soliloquies in some plays treadwater between the firstand second ofHirsh's categories; a character inEdward Sharpham's The Fleer (c. i6o6), for instance, pauses mid-soliloquy to ask 'doth any man heere loue a whore? I,who? I, I, I, 'tis I'. Although useful, the 'self-address' model of the soliloquy may finallybe too blunt an instrument to account for the full complexity of earlymodern dramatic speech. KEELE UNIVERSITY Lucy MUNRO Poetry and the Creation ofaWhig Literary Culture I68I-I7I4. By ABIGAILWILLIAMS. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2005. iv+303 pp. /53. ISBN 978-o-i9 925520-7. Abigail Williams has several aims in this book: to recover a body ofWhig poetry written between the period of the Exclusion Crisis and the death ofQueen Anne, popular in its time but now supposedly 'written out' of literaryhistory; to recon struct its literaryand political values; and toexplain how theTory writers of the early eighteenth century succeeded inblinding later readers to itsexistence. There is much that iscontentious about her argument, and she isonly partly successful inachieving her aims. Overall thebook is more valuable for theempirical evidence itpresents than for itsunderlying thesis. She takes as her starting-point Addison's Account of theGreatest English Poets, in which after lauding the canonical names Addison reaches Charles Montagu, a poet of little interestnow. A key text inher story is Montagu's Epistle to theEarl ofDorset, a leadingWilliamite and patron and himself aminor poet. She laments that poets who supported the exclusion of theDuke ofYork from the throne, William III and his wars, Marlborough as thehero ofBlenheim, and theHanoverian succession have now become marginal, evidenced by the lack ofmodern collected editions. Instead, Tory and Jacobite poets constitute the canon. In the introduction and firstchapter she blames this state of affairs on theway thatmodern readers have fallen for the literaryjudgements of Swift, Gay, and Pope, judgements which she sees as politically motivated, class-based, and anachronistic. Indeed, a key part of her argument is that literaryjudgements are essentially historical, and that it is reductive to talkof 'good' and 'bad' writing. The best chapters in thebook are 3, 4, and 6, on 'Legitimacy and the Warrior King I688-1702', 'PoeticWarfare I702-I7I4', and 'Patronage and the Public Writer in Whig Literary Culture'. There ismuch of interesthere, forexample the readings of Behn's Pindaric Poem toBurnet andWilliam Harrison's Woodstock Park, the discus sion ofmilitarism inpanegyrics to William andMarlborough, and the account of the 2I2 Reviews ways inwhich Whig writing was sustained by patronage. Williams could have taken these analyses furtherby establishing with the help of ESTC the actual figures for Whig and Tory publications. However, her position causes problems, as do some of thedetails of her argument. She will persuade few readers thatPordage or Blackmore are asmuch worth reading asDryden or Pope. It isunconvincing to see neglect of cer tainpoets as evidence of anti-Whig bias; no one could argue thatAddison's prose has been neglected, and many of the Whig poems she cites have appeared in the last forty years inPoems onAffairs ofState. It iseasy toproduce examples of neglected Tory or Jacobite poetry: Pope's...

Factors that inhibit economic development in the information and communications technology industry at the regional level

PurposeExploratory research to extend and refine a computer‐based interview tool to help determine the factors that companies in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry consider obstacles in regards to their economic development environment within a localized region.Design/methodology/approachA computer‐based process was employed in telephone interviews to solicit and record responses from executives in ICT‐related companies for the 210 cases that are included in this study.FindingsSeveral obstacles to economic development were identified, and factor analysis was employed to refine the data into a few broad areas of concern.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a snapshot of attitudes within the ICT industry at this point in time. Another study in the future will try to determine if there is a correlation between the presence of obstacles identified in this study and the rate of growth of the ICT industry. Additional research will be required to determine if the factors developed through factor analysis can be related to any underlying causal factors.Practical implicationsData and findings were provided to community leaders involved in economic development. Comparisons within a particular region and between regions can provide guidance for developmental activities.Originality/valueThis research seeks to identify and assist in minimizing obstacles to economic development within the ICT industry for any local region. While this study was conducted in a limited region of the US, it can be applied to any region in the world. Applicability to underdeveloped countries would probably require consideration of other possible obstacles such as lack of capital, infrastructure constraints, speed of services, language, and a general lack of modernization.