Uneasy Alliance Research Articles

Managing change: Seattle’s 21st century urban renaissance

ABSTRACTEvolution of the urban planning and historic preservation disciplines has resulted in an “uneasy alliance” in practice, one further complicated by the back-to-the-city movement and increased development pressure in older urban neighbourhoods. In Seattle, as in other U.S. cities, the pace, intensity and scale of redevelopment has caused dramatic spatial and social transformations. Although research has shown that older built fabric provides economic and social benefit for cities, neither regulations created by planners for guiding redevelopment nor strategies created by preservationists for retaining urban heritage have been successful in reconciling these different, yet interconnected, sets of values. We engage three Seattle neighbourhood case studies to clarify and evaluate policies, programs and strategies used by planners and preservationists for reimagining neighbourhood transformations. This work suggests a need for more creative, integrative collaboration between the two fields to simultaneously engage – and reconcile – social and economic tensions caused by urban redevelopment.

The uneasy alliance of organisational culture and equal opportunities for ethnic minority groups: A British example

AbstractRecent statistics suggest that there is a continuing disparity in labour market outcomes between ethnic minority (EM) groups and their White counterparts. However, although there is now an abundance of statistical and anecdotal evidence that speaks to the disadvantage of EM groups, there is less understanding of the intraorganisational dynamics that give rise to the outcomes that are reported. Drawing on postcolonial, cultural capital, and social capital theories, this article argues that the dominant approach through which organisational culture is conceptualised and the ways in which it is commonly managed may encourage labour market inequality and disadvantage for EM groups (defined as access to employment and having opportunities for promotion while in employment). The article explores three intraorganisational interventions that are common in culture management initiatives (leadership, selective recruitment, and internal promotion) to illustrate the arguments. The article concludes by discussing a series of implications and highlighting the pivotal role of the HR academy and practitioners in generating deeper insights and attention into the potential sources of EM disadvantage that are linked to culture and culture management.

Herbal Products and Conventional Drugs – an Uneasy Alliance

This review examines the interaction between herbal remedies and conventional (orthodox) drugs. There has been a substantial increase in the consumption of herbal remedies in recent times for various reasons. They are often combined with one another, and are often used simultaneously with conventional drugs that are taken for a wide range of disorders, both acute and chronic. The probability of a real and substantial interaction between the therapeutic agents originating from different medical paradigms is likewise expanding. Whilst most of the herbdrug interactions are undoubtedly minor, benign, and harmless, there are reports of more serious interactions. Possible reasons for specific herb-drug interactions are examined, particularly from the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic perspectives
 Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.18(1) 2019 p.24-29

Education research for the Anthropocene: the (micro)politics of researcher becoming (2017 Radford Lecture)

This lecture asks: How can education research address the big questions of our time, and what has politics got to do with it? It will trace moments and movements of researcher-(un)becoming to explore the (micro)politics of a lifetime of educational research. Politics is understood as both intimate and immense, as the intertwined politics of global conditions, and of the nation, with the intimately personal. It is about the researcher lives we all live. The approach was generated in a recent visit to Oulu, north Finland, where doctoral students asked me to present ‘tales’ of a researcher life. The lead student wanted to know how to manage a doctorate while raising three young children. As I have wandered back and forth over a lifetime of presentations, the shapes of key influences emerged. Relations with Aboriginal people and Country have been there since before the beginning, and are incorporated into my ways of being in the world. Feminist theories and their libidinal flows have been fundamental in shaping both my life and research, including their uneasy alliance with Aboriginal onto-epistemologies. Doctoral students have emerged as a strong generative force in my intellectual directions, moving me into all sorts of worlds I would never have entered otherwise. And finally, Place, the places where I have lived and worked have been the crucial grounding of my body and being, primal and prior, but also the basis of thought. In further elaborating these different influences, they culminate in the contemporary force of the Anthropocene, calling us to consider how the world is asking to be named, and how we can learn to be human differently, for the wellbeing of the planet. In developing this address into a paper, I have decided, in consultation with, and supported by the editor Nicole, to preserve its original content as far as possible. The knowledge contained in the address belongs with the oral performance and images as much as with the very few written words that were used in the powerpoint slides. A small selection of images is also included.

Herbal Products and Conventional Drugs – an Uneasy Alliance

This review examines the interaction between herbal remedies and conventional (orthodox) drugs. There has been a substantial increase in the consumption of herbal remedies in recent times for various reasons. They are often combined with one another, and are often used simultaneously with conventional drugs that are taken for a wide range of disorders, both acute and chronic. The probability of a real and substantial interaction between the therapeutic agents originating from different medical paradigms is likewise expanding. Whilst most of the herb-drug interactions are undoubtedly minor, benign, and harmless, there are reports of more serious interactions. Possible reasons for specific herb-drug interactions are examined, particularly from the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics perspectives. International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 02 No. 04 October’18. Page : 193-198

An uneasy alliance: a nesting association between aggressive ants and equally fierce social wasps.

Although the Neotropical territorially dominant arboreal ant Azteca chartifex Forel is very aggressive towards any intruder, its populous colonies tolerate the close presence of the fierce polistine wasp Polybia rejecta (F.). In French Guiana, 83.33% of the 48 P. rejecta nests recorded were found side by side with those of A. chartifex. This nesting association results in mutual protection from predators (i.e., the wasps protected from army ants; the ants protected from birds). We conducted field studies, laboratory-based behavioral experiments and chemical analyses to elucidate the mechanisms allowing the persistence of this association. Due to differences in the cuticular profiles of the two species, we eliminated the possibility of chemical mimicry. Also, analyses of the carton nests did not reveal traces of marking on the envelopes. Because ant forager flows were not perturbed by extracts from the wasps' Dufour's and venom glands, we rejected any hypothetical action of repulsive chemicals. Nevertheless, we noted that the wasps "scraped" the surface of the upper part of their nest envelope using their mandibles, likely removing the ants' scent trails, and an experiment showed that ant foragers were perturbed by the removal of their scent trails. This leads us to use the term "erasure hypothesis." Thus, this nesting association persists thanks to a relative tolerance by the ants towards wasp presence and the behavior of the wasps that allows them to "contain" their associated ants through the elimination of their scent trails, direct attacks, "wing-buzzing" behavior and ejecting the ants.

Comments: No Consensus

Editor's column Although the oil and gas industry can be full of surprises, its executives tend to rally around a consensus point of view on where the market and industry are headed. For the past 2–3 years, the hundreds of executives from around the globe who attend the annual CERAWeek conference in Houston have painted a grim picture of the present and perhaps the future, and were right in early 2015 when they agreed that the current downturn was looking a lot like the severe one that occurred in the 1980s. But at this year’s gathering, held during the first week of March, there was a lack of consensus about the industry’s short- and medium-term future, and some opinions were at odds with the views that are being played out in the media and other public forums. Although executives at Shell and BP pointed to climate change, or reaction to climate change, as being a real threat on the horizon, others disagreed. Although acceptance of electric vehicles is rising and strides have been made in battery technology. Saudi Aramco’s chief executive officer said alternative vehicles offer little threat to the industry. “I am not losing any sleep over the idea of peak oil demand or stranded resources,” Amin Nasser told the gathering. The success of electric vehicles is not guaranteed, he said, adding that “the future role of oil is widely misunderstood.” But elsewhere at the conference, the chairman of General Motors told the gathering that the company’s “commitment to an all-electric, zero-emissions future is unwavering, regardless of any modifications to future fuel economy standards,” and an electric car was on display. BP called on the industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said that the necessity for a lower-carbon future was already here. “There is no other issue with the potential to seriously disrupt our industry on such deep and fundamental levels as climate change,” he said. OPEC and the International Energy Agency (IEA) called on the industry to invest more in oil and gas exploration and production, warning that current investment levels are not high enough to meet future hydrocarbons demand. Others saw oil production from the US, and particularly the Permian Basin, swamping consumption needs for several years. The IEA forecasts that US oil production will represent 60% of new global output to 2023, and that other non-OPEC output will take up the rest. Permian production will soon hit 3 million B/D, and the US may soon overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s second-largest producer behind only Russia. Some independent producers, however, noted that several companies had missed their unconventional production targets in the fourth quarter of 2017 and will likely do so again in the first quarter of this year. Labor shortages, infrastructure bottlenecks, and lingering problems over “frac hits” may be issues, as well as the reality that many unconventional “child” wells are not nearly as productive as the parent wells. If there was consensus, it was that the industry is in a better place than it was a couple of years ago. Sessions were certainly more optimistic, although cautiously, and there was little talk of oil prices getting out of the $50–65/bbl range. And there was a sense that the uneasy alliance between OPEC and shale producers, which one executive described as “walking a tightrope,” would continue.

Confronting Climate Change: The Uneasy Alliance of Scientists and Nonscientists in a Neoliberal World

Confronting Climate Change: The Uneasy Alliance of Scientists and Nonscientists in a Neoliberal World

Political Economy of Conflict and Conflict Resolution Between Islam, the Arab World, and the West

The problem studied in respect to politico-economic turmoil in an uneasy world centers around conflicts in the Arab world and between Islam and the West. In this respect, the Arab political economy is deeply embroiled in a quagmire of complex factors that have deepened and are confounded by Western political, strategic, and economic interests in the region. To study the topic of the politico-economic future of the Arab world is to delve into the study of complex factors. The present scenario of war, dissensions, power conflict, and Western belligerence with elitist self interest in the region is an example of a more permanent representation of the complexity of power, Western belligerence, regional interests, and religious conflicts. With respect to the political economy of conflict and conflict resolution concerning the West there is the uneasy alliance that has been unjustifiably established between the Arab world and the West. The conflict in this case rages around the spectre of political power and governance within which the cultural, religious, and economic forces tie in to generate the global political economic disorder. Conflict resolution in this arena requires an understanding based on acceptance of epistemological perspectives that wrap up the diverse oppositional factors into a discursive and consensual learning global social contract. This article studies this case of Arab political economy as a study of conflict and conflict resolution between contending forces and reconstructive politico-economic possibilities between the Arab world and the West and between Islam, the Arab world, and Occidentalism.

MEANING OF QUALITY OF LIFE IN NURSING HOMES FOR PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA AND PEOPLE WHO ARE DYING

AbstractThe author has been part of a collaborative group working on quality of care for dementia in the United Kingdom and she has also conducted a “realist review” of effective health care for those living and dying in care homes. Her presentation will briefly touch on definitions for QOL in care settings, particularly for people with dementia or people who are actively dying. She will touch on how a caring and caregiving labor force might best be prepared and configured for enhancing the QOL of care center residents. She also considers the “uneasy alliance” of primary health providers and care home staff as they try to generate high quality proactive health care yet respect individuality and QOL.

Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War by Chandra Manning

Reviewed by: Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War by Chandra Manning David Silkenat (bio) Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War. By Chandra Manning. ( New York: Knopf, 2016. Pp. 416. Cloth, $30.00; paper, $17.00.) Given the heartbreaking refugee crises that have been unfolding around the globe over the past decade, it is unsurprising that Civil War historians have focused their attention on the more than 400,000 African Americans who fled slavery during the Civil War and began the transition from slavery to freedom in refugee (contraband) camps. In Troubled Refuge, Chandra Manning develops an insight she first articulated in What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War (2007): that facts and attitudes on the ground mattered just as much as national policy when it came to the experience of African Americans. Building on the work of Thavolia Glymph, Jim Downs, Patricia Click, and Yael Sternhell (among many others), Manning demonstrates that contraband camps could be both sites of tremendous suffering and places where African Americans established churches and schools and rebuilt families fractured by slavery. Some of the story that Manning tells should be familiar to most historians—Benjamin Butler's formulation of the contraband policy at Fort Monroe in 1861, for instance. But Manning argues that the black refugee experience varied tremendously over time and space and that each contraband camp faced its own particular environmental, military, demographic, and political challenges. The landscape of emancipation and the geography of contraband camps followed the Union army. The earliest camps were established in territory always controlled by the Union, while others, especially in the western theater, sprung up as Union armies advanced into Confederate territory. Some of the critical differences between camps derived from the disposition of the white Union soldiers and officers, who could be variously sympathetic or hostile to the plight of black refugees. Although organizations such as the American Missionary Association and the New England Freedmen's Aid Society sought to relieve the humanitarian crisis in contraband camps, chronic overcrowding and epidemic disease imperiled the lives of black refugees. [End Page 499] The central historiographical innovation in Manning's argument is her treatment of black citizenship. In her conception, citizenship is less a legal status than a relationship between African Americans and the Federal government. Black refugees cultivated this relationship not only through military service, but also through the labor of black women in contraband camps on behalf of the Union war effort. In exchange for their loyalty and labor, black refugees expected the Federal government to protect their rights. Under this formulation, black refugees used citizenship as a means to secure their autonomy, their families, and their communities. Embracing this broader conception of citizenship allows Manning to see citizenship as a process, not entirely dissimilar to how many historians have come to view emancipation as a process. This alliance between the Federal government and black refugees remained contested throughout the war. When their interests coincided, African Americans were able to capitalize on the Union army's need for black labor to secure significant protections; at other times, Federal officials demonstrated callous disregard for the needs of black families living in contraband camps. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, black freedom remained contested. As Manning points out, wartime emancipation did not necessarily imply permanent freedom, and both during and after the Civil War, African Americans had a legitimate fear of reenslavement. In this vein, Manning draws a connection between the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments: the Thirteenth granted black freedom, but the Fourteenth helped secure that freedom and make it meaningful. Manning wisely carries the story beyond April 1865; even though the war had ended, the status of black refugees remained deeply contested. Through the Freedmen's Bureau, African Americans and the federal government continued their uneasy alliance in the war's aftermath. Beautifully written and carefully researched, Troubled Refuge tells a complex story that is at times uplifting, chaotic, and poignant. Manning deftly balances her analysis with the need to allow the voices of black refugees to emerge. Given the critical importance of geography to black refugees' experiences and to Manning's argument, the volume's maps...

Edmond Malinvaud and the Problem of Statistical Induction

In this article we follow, over his long career, the evolution of the reflections of Edmond Malinvaud on economic “science” and its relationship with the “problem” of statistical induction. To do so we largely rely on his own words by quoting his many articles addressing these issues. We consider in turn his views on statistical methods and structural econometrics, on apriorism versus empiricism, the Koopmans-Vining controversy on measurement with or without theory, econometric methods and the challenge of modelling, the Popperian temptation of a falsifiable economic science, the uneasy alliance between induction and expertise, understanding and advising. We conclude with Malinvaud's views on eclecticism, which he deems to be the only position able to meet, despite its rapid progress, the “advisory imperative” characterizing economics.

Political culture, political science and identity politics: an uneasy alliance. By Howard J. Wiarda

Political culture, political science and identity politics: an uneasy alliance. By Howard J. Wiarda

Performing “in the red”: transformations and tensions in repertoires of contention during the 2012 Quebec student strike

The longest and largest student strike in Canadian history began in Quebec in the spring of 2012 in resistance to proposed tuition hikes and the increasing privatization of education and public services that this signaled. The symbol of the student movement, the red square (denoting ‘squarely in the red’ or ‘squarely in debt’) quickly went ‘viral’. At its height, an estimated 300,000 students were striking – nearly 75% of Quebec’s post-secondary student population; on May 22nd some 500,000 people marched in support. The strike continued for six months, ending only after the government was overturned and a new government cancelled the tuition increase. The redeployment of local protest repertoires, including traditional tactics such as picket lines combined with inclusive and creative tactics popularized in alter-globalization movements. Formal student associations combined with various ad hoc coalitions and organizations, as well as communitarian groups, in an uneasy alliance to create a mass mobilization that some commentators dubbed Québec’s ‘Maple Spring’. This article documents the transformation of what Tilly has called ‘repertoires of contention’ within the context of the Quebec student movement. In so doing, it highlights some of the principle debates concerning social values and distributions of agency that resurfaced in connection with the diverse tactics that formed the ‘new’ combinational repertoire.

Revealing Synergies, Tensions, and Silences Between Preservation and Planning

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Historic preservation and planning often operate together in the United States within local planning departments, sharing some common roots and a "fragile, uneasy alliance" (Birch & Roby, 1984). Over time, developments in both preservation and planning brought these disciplines and professions closer together, including shared concern for sustainability and common ground in community economic development, revitalization, land use planning, and urban design. Simultaneously, areas of tension and potential conflict emerged. Some preservation-oriented scholars and practitioners call for the expansion of preservation's sphere of influence and concern, while others caution of negative effects. In this literature review, I identify areas of confluence and friction, as well as silences and gaps, focusing especially on planning and preservation literature since the 1980s.Takeaway for practice: Few scholars have identified what planners and preservationists (and those who do both) can learn from one another, with some important exceptions. Planning scholarship can benefit from understanding how preservation has changed in tandem and in relation to planning. Preservationists can gain much from incorporating contemporary planning theory, especially with regard to participation and building an equity agenda for preservation that builds from preservation's strengths and recent advances toward recognizing a wider, more representative set of historic resources. Both planners and preservationists can benefit from stronger alliances in which scholars and practitioners engage in deeper dialogues and exchange. This interdisciplinary collaboration can unite leadership and vision with regard to equity and social justice, with deeper place-based knowledge to improve the social, environmental, and economic health of communities.

We Gather Together: The Religious Right and the Problem of Interfaith Politics by Neil J. Young

Reviewed by: We Gather Together: The Religious Right and the Problem of Interfaith Politics by Neil J. Young Ronit Y. Stahl We Gather Together: The Religious Right and the Problem of Interfaith Politics. By Neil J. Young. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2016. Pp. xvi, 412. $34.95. ISBN 978-0-19-973898-4.) As Donald Trump gained momentum in the 2016 Republican primary race, many wondered how religious conservatives could vote for a man whose personal life and political views seemed so distant from their own. Neil J. Young’s We Gather Together: The Religious Right and the Problem of Interfaith Politics answers this question by making two interrelated arguments. First, he compellingly demonstrates [End Page 863] that the Religious (Christian) Right was a shaky political, rather than sturdy theological, alliance. Second, he highlights that the fractious and precarious confederation of evangelical, Catholic, and Mormon interests meant that its constituents are neither uniform nor consistently in line with their institutional leadership. “Their union,” he reflects, “more closely resembled a loose braid than the indestructible cord: separate threads brought together in tension, they overlapped in some places and rested closely but independently aside each other in others” (p. 8). Conviction and pragmatism strained to find a middle ground on which conservative Christians could mobilize to fight late-twentieth-century culture wars and social change; the political force of this uneasy alliance was weaker than typically assumed. We Gather Together begins in mid-century with conservative religious resistance to interfaith unity. There was some interest in subgroup cooperation, but the underlying threat of loosening doctrinal certainty pushed evangelicals, Catholics, and Mormons toward separation and isolation rather than cooperation and partnership. The problem, Young shows, was theological: competing exclusive truth claims left little room for collaboration. While suspicion of early-twentieth-century liberal Protestant ecumenism and mid-century tri-faith pluralism lingered, the value of political networks grew as American cultural politics shifted in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. In fact, when this religious trio “perceived themselves as outsiders fighting the cultural and political consensus” (p. 3), they could collaborate. The Second Vatican Council played a crucial role in creating the possibility of conservative interfaith activity. The “Decree on Ecumenism” not only relaxed the long-standing Catholic view of other Christians as heretics but also insisted on inviting “separated brethren” to worship and work together to fulfill Christ’s mission. Evangelicals and Mormons each saw a little potential and a lot of problems in this new direction. But constitutional challenges to school prayer, “God is Dead” theology, abortion, and the Equal Rights Amendment fertilized the soil of ecumenical conservatism and pollinated the buds of the Moral Majority. These fights also highlight Young’s point: even as conservative Christians united to pursue political action in line with their values, distinctive theological commitments challenged, cracked, and eroded coalitions. Phyllis Schlafly’s successful campaign to unite against the ERA, which brought together Catholics, Mormons, evangelicals, and fundamentalists, looked more diverse “from a national vantage point [and] obscure[ed] the divisions that remained at the grassroots” (p. 156). And if the Reagan years represented a harsh right turn for liberals, they were a disappointingly slow veer rightward for this league of religious conservatives. The 1990s Christian Coalition picked up the pieces and tried again to puzzle out conservative interfaith unity; the Clinton years brought evangelicals and Catholics closer together, while Mormons remained on the edge. Gay marriage offered a tantalizing opportunity to ally, while Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign again exposed the limits of cooperation. A teetering affinity has proved more constant than a stable alliance. Writing about a triangle of religious groups that engaged in dialogues but rarely interacted simultaneously is a massive task, made even more so by the theological [End Page 864] gulfs that informed and strained the developing relationships. Overall, Young handles this task deftly, although at times the extensive detail overwhelms the narrative. Nevertheless, this is a significant reinterpretation of the rise and frailty of the Religious Right that deserves the attention of religious, political, and cultural historians. It also helps explain the present moment, implicitly reminding us that Trump’s “Make America Great Again” motto streamlines Pat Robertson’s clunky...

The Uneasy Alliance between Consensus and Democracy

AbstractConsensus both serves and threatens democratic inclusion. On the one hand it provides the means for individuals to will in common. On the other hand, it can impose assimilatory pressures that marginalize perspectives at odds with the prevailing point of view. Agonists have responded to this tension with a call to abandon consensus-oriented politics, contending an adversarial democracy more credibly advances inclusionary and egalitarian goals. I argue this wholesale rejection of consensus is unsustainable from the very pluralist perspective agonists wish to promote. In place of the view of consensus as an unattainable and undesirable absolute, I put forward an understanding of it as a matter of degree. I contend this understanding better captures the complexity of human relations and allows us to distinguish the potential accomplishments of consensus from its potential hazards.

Rethinking Research in Teacher Education

ABSTRACTThe expansion of school-based teacher training is impacting on the practice of universities, schools and trainees. University tutors and managers were interviewed on how they experienced working in partnership with schools and how this impacted on the composition of their work. They variously reported on how their sense of professional purpose had been challenged as a result of changing expectations. Their involvement in research is used as a barometer for these changes. The teacher educators are depicted as wavering between governmental regulation (master discourse) and professional imperatives (university discourse), where the latter comprise an uneasy alliance of expertise in school and academic rigour. Through depicting the unsettlement of practice and accounts of it (hysteric discourse), the study points to possible resolutions that might be achieved through more systematic resistance to external demands (analytic discourse). The university teacher educator identity results from attempted resolution of these conflicting demands.

Decolonization and Revolution

This article revisits Chinese intellectual discourse on the Indian nationalist movement during the Republican period and argues that interest in the Indian National Congress cut across ideological divides. By examining a range of published sources from the 1920s to the 1940s, this article shows that leading intellectuals took seriously the political movement Mohandas Gandhi led as a distinct model of revolutionary politics, spiritual resistance against Western industrial modernity, and an uneasy alliance between the national bourgeoisie and emerging subaltern groups. It demonstrates that unfolding events in India facilitated articulation of competing views on what decolonization entailed for China and other colonized societies. The Republican period was a unique moment when, in contrast to both the late imperial and postsocialist periods, the Chinese elite considered India as a potential exemplar of a new form of revolutionary politics that held not only national but also global significance.

The Rise of the Gridiron University: Higher Education’s Uneasy Alliance with Big-Time Football by Brian M. Ingrassia (review)

The Rise of the Gridiron University: Higher Education’s Uneasy Alliance with Big-Time Football by Brian M. Ingrassia (review)