scholarly journals Teenagers’ acquisition of variation

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Schleef ◽  
Miriam Meyerhoff ◽  
Lynn Clark

In recent years, the UK has experienced unparalleled numbers of migrants from Eastern Europe, particularly Poland. Many migrants came with their families. We examined variation in the English spoken by adolescent Polish migrants in Edinburgh and London. We asked: to what extent are teenage Polish migrants acquiring the patterns of variation typical of their local peer group? We compare the results for the well-known variable (ing) in the speech of both Polish migrants and their same age British peers. Our results indicate that the Polish teenagers seem to be sensitive to the overall rates of the non-standard variant in the city they have moved to. Moreover, Polish teenagers also replicate some of the linguistic and social constraints found in the speech of the locally-born teens. In some cases, they partially replicate the constraint patterns found in the locally-born teenagers, and in other cases they introduce novel constraints unattested in the speech of their locally-born peers. The results of our study raise several questions regarding local shared constraints and universal learning tools, potential supra-local constraints and the status of (ing) as a sociolinguistic variable for learners of English. We discuss these in the final section of this paper.

2022 ◽  
pp. 146470012110467
Author(s):  
Irene Gedalof

This article examines the place of reproduction in the UK migration policy popularly known as ‘the hostile environment’, introduced in 2012 by the Conservative–Lib Dem Coalition government, and the ‘Windrush scandal’ that followed. In order to think through how the reproductive sphere comes in to play in this policy and its consequences, I draw on theoretical insights from the work of Christina Sharpe and Saidiya Hartman, both of whom invite us to reflect on the ways in which the afterlife of enslavement and empire continues to impinge on the status of Black subjects, and the ways in which our notions of the maternal, reproduction, kinship and belonging are entangled in this process. I begin by examining the place of the reproductive sphere in the hostile environment policy itself, before moving on to discuss the Windrush scandal and the ways in which it can be seen as an attack on the reproductive needs of its victims. I then consider these findings further through an engagement with the work of Sharpe and Hartman, arguing that the scandal reveals ways in which we continue to live ‘in the wake’ of racialised understandings of the reproductive that mean that some people are refused the possibilities of attachment and affiliation, so that, in Hartman's words, theirs is ‘the perilous condition of existing in a world in which you have no investment’. In the final section, I respond to Sharpe's call for white people to ‘rend the fabric of the kinship narrative’ that produces these exclusionary terms of belonging and permits the repetition of such brutalities as the hostile environment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tara Elyse Gilkinson

The history of the creation of racial categories is intrinsically linked to the existence of the taboo surrounding multiracial couples. This paper exposes the beginnings of how skin became a tool of oppression, race became a reality, and whiteness became normalized. Furthermore, science and academia are exposed in their biased search for an objective truth, that in Etienne Balibar's words, "(could) integrate the city into the cosmos" (2003), thereby justifying whiteness, segregation, and the status quo. Moreover, this paper then addresses the new formations and manifestations of racism that exist today and exposes their origins. The final section of this paper addresses Canadian multicultural policy and questions its hand in perpetuating and legitimating essentialized cultural and racial categories. The impact of multiculturalism on multiracial couples and multiracality is also addressed, and further anti-racist solutions are suggested to combat the persistence and prevelance of racism.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tara Elyse Gilkinson

The history of the creation of racial categories is intrinsically linked to the existence of the taboo surrounding multiracial couples. This paper exposes the beginnings of how skin became a tool of oppression, race became a reality, and whiteness became normalized. Furthermore, science and academia are exposed in their biased search for an objective truth, that in Etienne Balibar's words, "(could) integrate the city into the cosmos" (2003), thereby justifying whiteness, segregation, and the status quo. Moreover, this paper then addresses the new formations and manifestations of racism that exist today and exposes their origins. The final section of this paper addresses Canadian multicultural policy and questions its hand in perpetuating and legitimating essentialized cultural and racial categories. The impact of multiculturalism on multiracial couples and multiracality is also addressed, and further anti-racist solutions are suggested to combat the persistence and prevelance of racism.


Author(s):  
Е. N. Polyakov ◽  
M. I. Korzh

The article presents a comparative analysis of fortification art monuments in such East countries from Ancient Egypt to medieval China. An attempt is made to identify the main stages of the fortification development from a stand-alone fortress (citadel, fort) to the most complex systems of urban and border fortifications, including moats, walls and gates, battle towers. It is shown that the nature of these architectural structures is determined by the status of the city or settlement, its natural landscape, building structures and materials, the development of military and engineering art. The materials from poliorceticon (Greek: poliorketikon, poliorketika), illustrate the main types of siege machines and mechanisms. The advantages and disadvantages of boundary shafts and long walls (limes). The most striking examples are the defensive systems of Assyria, New Babylon, Judea and Ancient China.


Author(s):  
S. E. Sidorova ◽  

The article concentrates on the colonial and postcolonial history, architecture and topography of the southeastern areas of London, where on both banks of the River Thames in the 18th–20th centuries there were located the docks, which became an architectural and engineering response to the rapidly developing trade of England with territories in the Western and Eastern hemispheres of the world. Constructions for various purposes — pools for loading, unloading and repairing ships, piers, shipyards, office and warehouse premises, sites equipped with forges, carpenter’s workshops, shops, canteens, hotels — have radically changed the bank line of the Thames and appearance of the British capital, which has acquired the status of the center of a huge empire. Docks, which by the beginning of the 20th century, occupied an area of 21 hectares, were the seamy side of an imperial-colonial enterprise, a space of hard and routine work that had a specific architectural representation. It was a necessary part of the city intended for the exchange of goods, where the usual ideas about the beauty gave way to considerations of safety, functionality and economy. Not distinguished by architectural grace, chaotically built up, dirty, smoky and fetid, the area was one of the most significant symbols of England during the industrial revolution and colonial rule. The visual image of this greatness was strikingly different from the architectural samples of previous eras, forcing contemporaries to get used to the new industrial aesthetics. Having disappeared in the second half of the 20th century from the city map, they continue to retain a special place in the mental landscape of the city and the historical memory of the townspeople, which is reflected in the chain of museums located in this area that tell the history of English navigation, England’s participation in geographical discoveries, the stages of conquering the world, creating an empire and ways to acquire the wealth of the nation.


Author(s):  
Paul Brooker ◽  
Margaret Hayward

The Armani high-fashion example illustrates the importance of adaptive rational methods in his founding and developing of an iconic high-fashion firm. Armani adapted stylistically to fashion’s new times in the 1970–80s by creating a new style catering for the career woman. His stylistic adaptation is compared with that of another famous Italian fashion designer, Versace, who instead modernized haute couture fashion and created a succession of glamourous styles. Both leaders exploited the same opportunity but in different ways. The third section compares these leaders’ legacies in the 1990s–2000s and assesses from a long-term perspective how capably they had used adaptive rational methods. The final section shifts the focus from fashion to the cosmetics industry and from Italy to the UK. Anita Roddick used adaptive rational methods to establish The Body Shop corporation in the 1970s–80s. However, she then abandoned rational methods with dire results for her corporation in the 1990s.


The first edition ofThe Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movementsappeared in early 2004. At the time, it was a much-needed overview of a rapidly-expanding area of study; it received recognition in the form of aChoicebook award. The second edition brings this task up to date. In addition to updating most of the original topics, the new edition takes in more topics by expanding the volume from 22 to 32 chapters, and enlarges the scope of the book by doubling the number of contributors from outside of North America. Following an introductory section devoted to social-scientific approaches to New Religious Movements (NRMs), the second section focuses on what has been uppermost in the minds of the general public, namely the controversies that have surrounded these groups. The third section examines certain themes in the study of NRMs, such as the status of children and women in such movements. The fourth section presents religious studies approaches by looking at NRM mythologies, rituals and the like. The final section covers the subfields that have grown out of NRM studies and become specializations in their own right, from the study of modern Paganism to the study of the New Age Movement. Finally, the present volume has a thematic focus; readers interested in specific NRMs are advised to consult the second edition of James R. Lewis and Jesper Aa. Petersen’s edited volume,Controversial New Religions(Oxford University Press 2014).


Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 422
Author(s):  
Marek Wódka ◽  
Stanisław Fel ◽  
Jarosław Kozak

This paper is based on sociological quantitative studies carried out in 2019 on a sample of 620 Polish Catholics living in London, Swindon, or Oxford. Those studies and their findings are limited only to those Catholics who make up the communities around major Polish institutions in the UK, such as Polish parishes, Saturday schools, and community houses. The goal of this paper is to describe selected aspects of Polish migrants’ religiosity in the new social and cultural milieu. What we focus on here is how Poles themselves describe their faith, how they understand and evaluate their membership of parishes or other religious communities, and how they approach religious practices, especially Sunday Mass attendance. We address the following questions: how do the Poles living abroad describe their attitudes towards faith? How many of them are active members of Polish parishes? What do their religious practices and membership of other community organisations look like? How do specific factors affect the results across these areas?


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