University of Leeds

Chapter written for inclusion in University of Leeds Centenary publication 'Challenge and Renewal'. Includes many former staff and students in interview. Sadly the book was never published due to issues beyond the control of the editorial staff. The chapter describes the enthusiasm for amateur theatre within the university in the 1950s and 1960s, leading to the development of accredited BA and Masters' studies in Theatre at Leeds. It describes the development of the Workshop Theatre under Trevor Faulkener and Martin Banham, and also the Leeds Playhouse (subsequently the West Yorkshire Playhouse), under the initiative of Doreen Newlyn. A copy of the chapter is held at the University of Leeds Archives (Centenary Project, Baines Wing and University of Leeds Special Collections). The unpublished chapter was referenced in Sam Shepard and Mick Wallis' Drama, Theatre, Performance published 2004.

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The Alhambra, a medieval Islamic palatine city located in Granada, Spain, is examined in this thesis as the product of material transformations and changing visual perceptions over time. Selected areas of the Nasrid palatial complex (1238-1492) are explored within the context of their production, their later alterations under Christian rule, and in relation to the interpretations of British travellers, historians, designers and enthusiasts throughout the long nineteenth century. Through the formation of individual and collective identities, responses to cultural difference, and an active engagement with the past, the Alhambra grew to become a commemorative monument of multiple and interrelated histories. In addressing the overlapping structural and ornamental layers which make up its form, this study challenges the historiographic limitations of categories such as 'medieval' and 'modern', as well as formal categories such as 'ornament' and 'architecture&#...

This paper discusses how urban spaces can be used in subjective and creative ways that run counter to their intended uses. Using a local space as her case study, the cemetery at the University of Leeds, Tina introduces novel and inventive ways that individuals have used the cemetery to both express themselves and respond to the space. These phenomena create momentary connections in the form of communications that take unconventional routes through space. This means they are able to challenge established power structures: cultural, linguistic, administrative, ideological and so on. Tina introduces some of these works while situating them within the fields of psychogeography and cultural theory.

This study investigates the sources of difficulties that Damascus University learners face in their composition writing courses at the Department of English Language and Literature. The research is carried out through a longitudinal study of both the context and the product of writing across a four year EFL writing course. Findings suggest that the writing problems that students face are inherent in the writing pedagogy in current practice at the University. To my mother and father ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study was made possible by a grant provided by the Syrian Ministry of Higher Education. I wish to record my gratitude to this body. My gratitude is greatly expressed to my supervisor Ms. Jennifer Jarvis from the School of Education for her time, invaluable guidance and support throughout this research. My thanks are due to all Damascus University composition writing lecturers and instructors and to all student informants without whose help and data much of the research carried out in this thesis could not have been made possible. The help given by Miss Amina Jaber from the examinations section at Damascus University in collecting much of the data used in this work is greatly acknowledged. My sincere thanks are due to Mme Akamatsu from the Linguistics and Phonetics department for her help and support and to my ex-supervisor Dr. Patrick Leach whose serious illness led to his early retirement from the department. My thanks are also due to Jacques Le Bot from the Department of Pure and Applied Biology and to Mrs. Jean Orton from the School of Education for their invaluable guidance in the statistical work carried out in this research. I also wish to thank all the friends in Leeds for their encouragement and support. Finally, I owe a particular debt to my husband Mouwaffak and my son Ahmed whose constant support, sacrifice, patience and understanding made the completion of this work possible amid all the difficulties that I faced in the process of completing it. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of the problem 1 2. Theoretical Background 3. Objectives and Research Questions 4. Overview of the Whole Work

This thesis examines the relevance of the National Policy on Women (NPW) to the aspirations of Nigerian women through their eyes. It also investigates the extent to which state institutional capability exists to implement the policy (and to mainstream gender perspectives as the policy stipulates). The study is based on six months of field work carried out between 2002 and 2004. It combined qualitative and quantitative methods using mainly participatory research techniques. Nigeria has acceded to several regional and international covenants promoting the rights and well-being of women. Finally, in 2000 it made an official statement of intent to promote gender equality by approving the NPW. Yet, successful implementation of policy objectives remains elusive in the absence of comprehensive measures to reverse significant g ender disparities in access to socioeconomic resources, opportunities and benefits. The thesis explores the experiences, perspectives and collective agendas of women...

This thesis examines the opinions of, and advice tendered by, members of the Northern Department of the British Foreign Office during the years 1939-1942. Previous works on this era have focussed predominantly on the role of Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. However, an in depth and exhaustive analysis of the views of the various members of the Northern Department provides a new and original perspective on the relations between London and Moscow in the critical period from the outbreak of war in September 1939 to the signature of the Anglo-Soviet Treaty in May 1942. 'An act of treachery unparalleled in the history of the modern world'. p. 53. Chapter Two 'The question for a British Ambassador here is not how much he can do, but merely how much he can stand'. p. 138. Chapter Three 'It is essential to treat the Russians as though we thought that they were reasonable human beings'. p. 222. Conclusion p. 312. Bibliography p. 319.

The data set is derived from a cross-sectional survey among 150 multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in-patients in the National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The aims of the study were to statistically validate the PHQ-9 depression screening tool among MDR-TB in-patients within this context, measure the prevalence of depression among MDR-TB in-patients within this context, and explore the associations between socio-demographic and health related variables and depression status among MDR-TB in-patients within this context. The data were collected in 2018 from all consenting in-patients between January and July 2018. The data includes socio-demographic variables, self-report details of co-morbidities and responses to the PHQ9 question-set for depression. The PHQ-9 assessments were repeated after two weeks to assess the tool’s consistency over time. Also as part of the validation of PHQ-9, within a two-week period a psychiatrist as...

The microbial transformation of Fe (III) to Fe (II) can be coupled to the oxidation and reduction of organic contaminants in sub-oxic to anoxic environments. A multidisciplinary approach was adopted in this study to investigate the biogeochemical influences on the degradation of toluene (a representative of the class of aromatic hydrocarbons collectively known as BTEX) using experimental analogues of subsurface soil environments under predominantly iron-reducing conditions. The removal of toluene over the period of incubation indicated the soil-water mixture supported the degradation of toluene under predominantly iron-reducing conditions. Chemical sequential extractions showed the removal of toluene in the active mesocosms induced an increase in carbonate-bound iron fractions from 196.1 ± 11.4 mg/kg to 5,252.1 ± 291.8 mg/kg and a decrease in the reducible iron fraction from 2,504.4 ± 1,445.9 mg/kg to 375.6 ± 20.8 mg/kg. Analysis of the soil-water mixture showed slight shifts in the...

Through creative practice and critical engagement this thesis argues that film and television adaptations of the work of Thomas Hardy have failed to capture elements of his writing both in terms of content and form. Hardy’s writing is infused with references to the folkloric practices and beliefs that he grew up with in nineteenth-century Dorset; much of this folklore concerned itself with the irrational and the practice of witchcraft in particular. Hardy was also keen from the outset to explore adventurous narrative patterns, anticipating literary styles that were to come and this is mirrored in the form that the series takes and the attention given to it in the critical elements of the thesis. Yet these aspects of his work have been largely ignored by production companies in their quest to present Hardy’s work to the financially lucrative heritage market both here in the UK and in North America. This is a market in which the inclusion of any supernatural elements presented in a sl...

The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own, except where work which has formed part of jointly authored publications has been included. The contribution of the candidate and the other authors to this work has been explicitly indicated below. The candidate confirms that appropriate credit has been given in the thesis where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from this thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement.

This study investigated the experience of school science and its relationship to take-up of science amongst post-16 students in England. The empirical work was based on a two-phased mixed methods approach. The first phase consisted of survey questionnaires involving the ‘storyline’ method in which students in Year 12 (ages 16-17) indicated the high and low points of their experience of school science covering Years 6 - 11. They were also asked to complete survey items to explain the factors that influenced their decisions to take science or not post-16. The second phase consisted of interviews of a sample of surveyed students in which they detailed aspects of their school science experiences and decisions to take science or not after GCSE. The results showed that the average pattern of graph trajectory became increasingly positive for scientists while the pattern for non-scientists remained the same as slightly positive throughout their years in secondary school. Students in this st...

This thesis aims to answer the question: is there an ideology conditioning European A festivals’ awarding and representation of Italian cinema in the years 2000-2017 and, if so, how does it function? The project presents a systematic analysis of the ideological underpinnings of such awarding and representation, examining a corpus of Italian films that have won Best Picture at a European A festival in the years 2000-2017. Its methodology is grounded in Slavoj Žižek’s theory of ideology, which it maps on to three aspects of European A festivals: the A circuit apparatus – its histories, organisational structures and practices; festival paratexts – film synopses in festivals’ official programmes; and film texts – aspects of films that confound their institutional representation. Comparing each level, the thesis identifies and critiques the explicit ways in which European A festivals represent Italian cinema, and the implicit laws that govern such representation. The Introduction discuss...

CFP: (Re-)Forming Sculpture, Doctoral & Early Career Research Conference
University of Leeds & The Hepworth Wakefield
26 - 27 June 2018

@forarthistory #summersymposium

Keynote Speakers:
Martina Droth, Deputy Director of Research, Exhibitions, and Publications | Curator of Sculpture, Yale Center for British Art

Dr Rebecca Wade, Assistant Curator (Sculpture), Leeds Museums and Galleries, based at the Henry Moore Institute

Paper proposal deadline: 16 March 2018

This paper provides a methodology for critiquing dominant discourses as they pertain to spatial representation. Institutions and organisations offer up an idealogical narrative about themselves that represents how they wish to be portrayed. This discourse often masks other, more subordinate, stories that manifest in a heterogeneity that might be counter to the dominant voice. While there may be a number of techniques available to discover the "not-said" (Foucault), often a practical-performative approach to the concrete space in which an organisation operates is not taken up in critical theory.

I have developed schizocartography as a way to provide an archival, theoretical and psychogeographical examination of the manifest terrain as it appears in its representation of specific organisations operating under neoliberalism. Developed from Félix Guattari's term “schizoanalytic cartography”, it enables alternative existential modes for individuals in order to challenge dominant representations and power structures. Providing an opportunity for multiple ways of operating in space and reading the environment, it critiques the conventional ways of viewing, interpreting and mapping space, while at the same time responding to the aesthetic of these spaces.

The work Guattari has carried out in this area relates, in particular, to the psychiatric institution and to his project in Brazil (Molecular Revolution). I have taken these principles and incorporated them into the psychogeographical strategies of the Situationist International in their critique of the aesthetic of the spectacle. It appears to be the case that not until one explores the topography of a given space that it is apparent that their is an excess that is, perhaps intentionally, not taken up into the dominant discourse. This paper discusses schizocartography in the context of the institution of Higher Education and provides a case study of a specific campus in order to demonstrate a method of critiquing the corporatised university.

High-quality, centre-based Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) benefits toddlers' development. New research investigated the effects of the COVID-19 disruptions on attendance and learning. It showed that ECEC boosted language and thinking skills throughout the pandemic, particularly in children from less advantaged backgrounds. This shows the importance of fully-funded ECEC for developing key skills and for levelling inequalities.

The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement.

In film, the communicative meanings associated with linguistic varieties in dialogue fulfil different diegetic functions, such as character portrayal. Consequently, the subtitling of linguistic varieties has received considerable critical attention with regard to audiovisual translation in different language pairs. However, existing studies on this topic have focused solely on the verbal mode, at the expense of non-verbal modes. Few discussions consider the impact of these strategies on diegetic functions constructed by the linguistic varieties within the context of intermodal relations established between different modes in the film. In addition, few studies have focused on the subtitling of linguistic varieties in Egyptian films into English. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the linguistic varieties used in Egyptian comedies and their English subtitles by compiling a corpus. It will also develop a new multimodal analytical framework to account for all the modes that contr...

This thesis investigates the employment of personal assistants (PAs) by disabled individuals in the UK. Personal assistance is considered to be one of the most essential services necessary for disabled people to achieve ‘independent living’, and as such the right to directly employ PAs and to receive the funding needed to do so has been a central campaign objective of the Disabled People’s Movement (DPM) in the UK and elsewhere. However, both the employment of PAs and the concept of ‘independent living’ contain contradictions. Waged employment has been identified as a source of disabled people’s oppression, but in the personal assistance relationship it is treated as a means to their emancipation. The concept of ‘independence’ within the DPM framing of ‘independent living’ can be equated to autonomy, but the autonomy of disabled people is arguably achieved at the expense of that of PAs as workers. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with both PAs and disabled employers of PAs wer...

This study is concerned with the comparison of religious education in Turkey and England with special reference to the teaching of Islam in secondary state schools. It aims to realise the following two main objectives in terms of secondary school textbooks: 1. To indicate to what extent the adoption of a confessional or non-confessional approach in religious education makes an impact on the teaching of religion. 2. To describe and compare the similarities and differences in the teaching of Islam in state schools and their connection with broader educational policy in Turkey and England. . It begins with an investigation of historical developments in religious education in Turkey and England, then turns to examine different aspects of the presentation of Islam in terms of selected textbooks from the two countries. The thesis concludes with a presentation of the findings and contribution of this research. It is observed that having a confessional or non-confessional approach in religi...

Immersive Healthcare Collaboration 1. The design and development of immersive tools that are driven by learning requirements, and informed by the science of human behaviour and cognition. 2. Rigorous evaluation prior to, and during implementation of immersive technologies into the healthcare system through open science and transparent research practices. 3. Principles 1 and 2 are best achieved by fostering a culture of collaboration, inclusivity and solidarity between developers, educators, scientists, industry, policy makers and healthcare professionals to maximise uptake, accelerate learning and improve patient outcomes.

Development of energy policy is often informed by economic considerations via aggregate production functions (APFs). We identify a theory-to-policy process involving APFs comprised of six steps: (1) selecting a theoretical energy-economy framework; (2) formulating modeling approaches; (3) econometrically fitting an APF to historical economic and energy data; (4) comparing and evaluating modeling approaches; (5) interpreting the economy; and (6) formulating energy and economic policy. We find that choices made in Steps 1-4 can lead to very different interpretations of the economy (Step 5) and policies (Step 6). To investigate these effects, we use empirical data (Portugal and UK) and the Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) APF to evaluate four modeling choices: (a) rejecting (or not) the cost-share principle; (b) including (or not) energy; (c) quality-adjusting (or not) factors of production; and (d) CES nesting structure. Thereafter, we discuss two revealing examples for which different upstream modeling choices lead to very different policies. In the first example, the (kl)e nesting structure implies significant investment in energy, while other nesting structures suggest otherwise. In the second example, unadjusted factors of production suggest balanced investment in labor and energy, while quality-adjusting suggests significant investment in labor over energy. Divergent outcomes provide cautionary tales for policymakers: greater understanding of upstream modeling choices and their downstream implications is needed.

This thesis is a descriptive, evaluative and comparative study in the field of translation studies. One of the objectives for this thesis is to explore a valid criterion by which a literary translation can be evaluated efficiently and to assess the translation of the selected novel for this research. The aim of this study is to measure the shifts which occurred between TTl and TT2 when compared to the ST. The thesis also aims at highlighting the significance of culture and the way cultures are introduced to the Tar et readership through translation. It is thought that the strategy of Foreignization enriches target texts and introduces cultural elements to the target reader. The corpus of the study is Ziqiiq Al Midaq the well-known novel by Naguib Mahfouz, the Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature in 1988. This novel has been first translated by Trevor Le Gassick in 1966 and a revision of this translation was published in 1975. The main objective of this study is to explore the translat...

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Urbanisation in Malaysia's Klang Valley has been increasing rapidly. In order to accommodate the growing population, massive land use development is taking place. Much of this is occurring on the flood plain of the Klang River, seriously exacerbating the problem of flooding and inflicting suffering on local residents and damage to their property. These problems have occurred within a context of blurred and divided administrative responsibilities. The Klang River and its tributaries flow through both the State of Selangor and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. The governments of these two entities have divergent development visions that place differing weights on the importance of environmentally sustainable planning. The consequence of these disagreements has been continued construction on the flood plain and ever more serious flooding. This research illustrates these themes -- and the problems that result from lack of coordination in planning and development -- through an e...

We would like to thank all of the people who agreed to be interviewed for this study. Thanks to A&E staff at Leeds General Infirmary and St. James' University Hospital for their help and cooperation with the study. Thanks to the self-harm teams and the liaison psychiatry service at both ...

(research article) This article focuses on the history of Italian Studies in British universities and the use of the subject in Fascist propaganda and foreign policies through case studies of Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool universities during the 1930s. It outlines the cooperation between Italian Studies academic staff at these universities and Mussolini's propagandists in Britain, for example Camillo Pellizzi at University College London, and/or the Italian government. By analysing previously unexplored primary sources held in Rome, including Pellizzi's private correspondence and official papers produced by the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, this research highlights Fascist Italy's use of 'cultural diplomacy' in inter-war Britain. It also investigates unknown university professors and lecturers among Italian Studies' academic staff, such as Piero Rèbora and Adriano Ungaro, and their political thought and/or courses of action, thus identifiying and analysing the intellectual personalities who facilitated the diffusion of Italian culture and ideologies in northern England and contributing to the exploration of Fascist policies in Britain. This investigation offers an original contribution to our understanding of Fascist propaganda abroad and unearths the largely unknown history of Italian Studies in northern England universities and the discipline's involvement in culture and politics between the wars. Fascismo e Italian Studies nelle università di Manchester, Leeds e Liverpool negli anni Trenta: cultura, propaganda, politica Questo articolo si concentra sugli Italian Studies nelle università britanniche e sull'utilizzo di tale disciplina nella propaganda fascista e nelle politiche estere attraverso i casi-studio delle università di Manchester, Leeds e Liverpool negli anni Trenta. In esso si delinea la cooperazione tra lo staff accademico degli Italian Studies in queste università e gli esponenti della propaganda mussoliniana in Inghilterra, come ad esempio Camillo Pellizzi allo University College of London, e/o il governo italiano. Attraverso l'uso di fonti conservate a Roma che finora non erano mai state prese in esame, tra le quali la corrispondenza privata di Pellizzi e i documenti ufficiali prodotti dal Ministero degli Esteri italiano, questa ricerca mette in risalto l'impiego della 'diplomazia culturale' dell'Italia fascista nell'Inghilterra tra le due guerre. Inoltre indaga su professori e ricercatori universitari poco noti all'interno dello staff accademico degli Italian Studies, come Piero Rèbora e Adriano Ungaro, il loro pensiero politico e/o le loro modalità di azione, identificando così e analizzando le personalità intellettuali che facilitarono la diffusione della cultura e dell'ideologia italiane nell'Inghilterra del nord e contribuendo all'esplorazione delle politiche fasciste nel Regno Unito. Tale indagine offre un contributo originale alla nostra conoscenza della propaganda fascista all'estero e svela la storia, ancora largamente sconosciuta, degli Italian Studies nelle università dell'Inghilterra settentrionale e il ruolo di tale disciplina nella cultura e nella politica tra le due guerre.

Positive aboveground biomass trends have been reported from old-growth forests across the Amazon basin and hypothesized to reflect a large-scale response to exterior forcing. The result could, however, be an artefact due to a sampling bias induced by the nature of forest growth dynamics. Here, we characterize statistically the disturbance process in Amazon old-growth forests as recorded in 135 forest plots of the RAINFOR network up to 2006, and other independent research programmes, and explore the consequences of sampling artefaets using a data-based stochastic simulator. Over the observed range of annual aboveground biomass losses, standard statistical tests show that the distribution of biomass losses through mortality follow an exponential or near-identical Weibull probability distribution and not a power law as assumed by others. The simulator was parameterized using both an exponential disturbance probability distribution as well as a mixed exponential-power law distribution to account for potential large-scale blow-down events. In both cases, sampling biases turn out to be too small to explain the gains detected by the extended RAINFOR plot network. This result lends further support to the notion that currently observed biomass gains for intact forests across the Amazon are actually occurring over large scales at the current time, presumably as a response to climate change.

British anarchism has a rich intellectual history. Although marginal as a political force, anarchist ideas developed in Britain into a distinctive political tradition. Kropotkin, Read, and the Intellectual History of British Anarchism explores this lost history, offering a new appraisal of the work of Kropotkin and Read, and examining the ways in which they endeavoured to articulate a politics fit for the particular challenges of Britain's modern history.

This book traces how their politics emerged in response to the controversies animating Britain's intellectual history, including the social implications of Darwinism, the role of the state, and the status of modern art and culture. Challenging existing interpretations of their work, it re-conceptualises the history of British anarchism, uncovering the attempt to broaden anarchism, the politics of protest, into a comprehensive philosophical system.

“The strength of Adams’ interesting and intelligent book is that it gives us a view of anarchism as a dynamic tradition of thought that is integral to any wider intellectual history. And in one memorable phrase, Adams explains why we should not ignore it. Kropotkin and Read, by ‘Their pursuit of reason uncovered a universe of wonder’ … . This book helps us join them.” (Peter Ryley, European Review of History, Revue européenne d'histoire, Vol. 23 (1-2), 2016)

“In directing his readers’ attention to the connections between Kropotkin and Read, Adams has indeed pointed to one of the most important streams that fed into British anarchist thought more generally. … Adams’s book is a welcome addition to a growing number of studies aimed at recapturing the largely lost tradition of British anarchism and plugging a significant hole in our understanding of anarchist history and ideas.” (Benjamin J. Pauli, New Political Science, Vol. 38 (2), 2016)

“This volume serves as an excellent account of British anarchism as an intel­lectual history, which explores the translation and impact of ideas and practices within a transregional context.” (Global Histories, Vol. 1, December, 2015)

'In a well-argued, contextualised account, Adams succeeds in restoring Kropotkin to the centre of socialist and anarchist debates in Britain in the late Victorian period. He also provides an admirably lively account of the intellectual inheritance of these engagements in subsequent decades through the lens of Herbert Read's life and ideas, restoring a sense of the vibrancy and sophistication of left-wing political theory through this period.'
- Gregory Claeys, Professor of the History of Political Thought, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

Reviews:

European Review of History

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13507486.2015.1122950

New Political Science

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07393148.2016.1153200?journalCode=cnps20

This thesis aims to deepen our understanding of contemporary cultural production. It examines the experiences of ‘under-the-radar’ or grassroots musicians in electronic dance music (EDM), who use digital technologies to make and circulate music as part of their musical practices. Placing grassroots musical activities in the context of contemporary cultural production, this thesis asks two key questions: 1) to what extent have changes associated with digital communication technologies facilitated the musical practices of grassroots musicians? and, 2) how do these changes affect grassroots musicians’ experiences? The analysis focuses on three elements of cultural production: a) motivations and working conditions; b) learning strategies and practices to make and perform music live; and c) the ways musical content is circulated and promoted online. Qualitative research methods are used to investigate participants’ experiences and practices as cultural producers. Data from ethnographic a...

This thesis constitutes an inquiry into the relationship between nationalism and democracy in a particular setting-the postcommunist newly independent democracies. The purpose is to seek an answer to two related questions about what is the role of nationalism in the democratisation process and under which conditions is nationalism more or less compatible with democracy. Nationalism's capacity to threaten minorities, fragment states and complicate interstate relations has been amply demonstrated and documented. This study takes a different approach to nationalism. Its starting point is the democratisation process as a factor contributing to the importance of nationalism in the political life. It revolves around a theoretical and empirical exploration o f the relationship between nationalism and democracy. The empirical side is underpinned by the investigation into politics of Slovakia and Slovenia as two newly independent postcommunist states that emerged as a result o f democratisation. The comparative aspect of the thesis leads to the conclusion that the role o f nationalism in the democratisation process cannot be generalised and constitutes a complex process in itself, conditioned by the political context of the society undergoing the transition. The following factors are explored: the stage of national development, the conditions and circumstances surrounding the achievement of independent statehood, the previous regime and the period prior to that, the formation of transitional elites and the stage in the transition, the ethnic composition and the historically predetermined ethnic harmony within the state. This thesis presents a number o f new arguments. Firstly, it proposes that nationalism in new postcommunist democracies contains civic and ethnic demands at the same time which consequently gives postcommunist nationalism a different character from classical nationalism. Secondly, the thesis seeks the correlation between the progress of the transition and nationalism in the priority given to either nation-building or state-building. Thirdly, it proposes that whilst nationalism might have a positive role at the beginning o f the democratisation process, its capacity to sustain that process is limited. which 'national' economy could be built. Interestingly, Gellner himself, certainly in Nations and Nationalism' never mentions democracy (as pointed out in a different context by J.J.Linz & A.Stepan Problems o f Dem ocratic Transition and Consolidation note 21 p.24). This suggests that his preoccupation was not with nationalism as a movement for liberation, but as a corollary of industrialisation, which o f course does not exclude the fact that democracy was born during the same historical process, but so were liberalism and socialism. For more in-depth exploration o f Gellner's theory o f nationalism and its connection to democracy see J.Hall The State o f the Nation Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1998 (henceforth The State o f the Nation), particularly B.O'Leary's chapter 'Ernest Gellner's diagnosis o f nationalism s critical overview, or, what is living and what is dead in Ernest Gellner's philosophy o f nationalism?'. 6 M. Mandelbaum ed. Postcommunism Council on Foreign Relations Books 1996 p. 13 7 G.Nodia p.4 8 For example the SNS (Slovenskd Ndrodna Strana-Slovak National Party), the first party to advocate full Slovak independence was formed in 1990. V.Meciar who negotiated Slovak independence and became its first Prime Minister was never a member o f any separatist movement. 9 Point also stressed by J.J.Linz & A.Stepan Problems o f Democratic Transition and Consolidation p.237 note 7. For speculation what might have happened in Czechoslovakia, see H.Gordon Skilling Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution Princeton, Princeton University Press 1976 and for more 'nationalist' explanation o f the 'Prague Spring', as set in motion by the Slovak efforts to decentralise the Communist Party (an account explored below) see G.

Sorption-Enhanced Steam Reforming process (SESR) is an auspicious technology for hydrogen (H2) production with simultaneous capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) derived from design modifications performed on the conventional Steam Reforming Process (SRP). Enhancing the reforming reaction in terms of kinetics, yield and purity through capturing in situ CO2 using high temperature solid sorbents brings advantages including reduction in energy requirements and lower investment capital. Even though SESR is a cost-effective route for energy generation based on organic volatile and gaseous feedstock including natural gas, its implementation implies overcoming challenges. Diminishing the sintering in CaO-based CO2 sorbents has become one of these challenges since the reactivity of these captors decreases significantly as the number of carbonation/calcination cycles proceeds. This research work centres its efforts in the development of novel sintering resistant CaO-based CO2 sorbents enhanced by ...

Spain was the last country in the Atlantic World to tolerate the traffic in slaves across the Ocean. For four centuries, millions of men, women and children were banished from their homelands and forced into a life of slavery in the Americas. Spanish abolitionist activists challenged this reality and contested the public legitimacy of the odious commerce. This thesis analyses how abolitionist ideas were shaped, transformed and developed in Spain’s empire and the crucial role that British activists and diplomats played in advancing the abolitionist cause. It explores the complexity of abolitionist and anti- abolitionist ideas in Spain’s public life from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the Atlantic slave trade.