scholarly journals London Street Noises: A Ground-Breaking Field Recording Campaign from 1928

Acoustics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-136
Author(s):  
John L. Drever ◽  
Aysegul Yildirim ◽  
Mattia Cobianchi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sound ◽  
Daily Mail ◽  
Recording Technology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Field Recordings ◽  
Field Recording ◽  
Subsequent Discussion ◽  
History Of ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
The Uk

In a leading article by Sir Percival Philips in the UK popular newspaper, the Daily Mail, July 16, 1928, came the following headlines: “Millions Lost by Noise – Cities’ Worst Plague – Menace to Nerves and Health – What is Being Done to Stop it”. The article was supported by research from Prof Henry J. Spooner, who had been researching and campaigning on the ill-effects of noise and its economic impact. The article sparked subsequent discussion and follow-up articles in the Daily Mail and its international partners. In an era of rapid technological change, that was on the cusp of implementing sound pressure measurements, the Daily Mail, in collaboration with the Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd, experimented with sound recording technology and commentary in the field to help communicate perceived loudness and identify the sources of “unnecessary noise”. This resulted in the making of series of environmental sound recordings from five locations across central London during September 1928, the findings of which were documented and discussed in the Daily Mail at the time, and two recordings commercially released by Columbia on shellac gramophone disc. This was probably the first concerted anti-noise campaign of this type and scale, requiring huge technological efforts. The regulatory bodies and politicians of the time reviewed and improved the policies around urban noise shortly after the presentation of the recordings, which were also broadcast from the BBC both nationally and internationally, and many members of the public congratulated and thanked the Daily Mail for such an initiative. Despite its unpreceded scale and impact, and the recent scholarly attention on the history of anti-noise campaigning, this paper charts and contextualises the Daily Mail’s London Street Noise campaign for the first time. As well as historical research, this data has also been used to start a longitudinal comparative study still underway, returning to make field recordings on the site on the 80th and 90th anniversaries and during the COVID-19 lockdown, and shared on the website londonstreetnoises.co.uk.

scholarly journals ‘The Age of the Golden Ear’:The Columbia World Libraryand Sounding out Post-war Field Recording

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOM WESTERN
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Recording Technology ◽  
International Networks ◽  
Field Recordings ◽  
Field Recording ◽  
Listening Environments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

AbstractThis article responds to Alan Lomax's pronouncement that the mid-twentieth century constituted ‘the age of the golden ear’, when ‘a passionate aural curiosity overshadowed the ability to create music’. It examines a project born out of Lomax's own aural curiosity and his foregrounding of recording technology – theColumbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music(1955) – using it to sound out the history of mid-century ethnographic field recording. By retracing the production of theWorld Library, this article explores the various agencies compressed into the audible exteriors of field recordings, as they were produced by and for specific technologies and formats, circulated through international networks, and as they became part of the aural public sphere of post-war Europe. It concludes by considering some of the implications of this sonic labour as field recordings find their way into new, digital, listening environments.

Paying for Old Age: Past, Present, Future

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Thomas ◽  
Paul Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Old Age Support ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Old Age ◽  
The Uk

This chapter focuses on one fundamental aspects of an ageing population — how to pay for old age, individually and collectively. It also presents a study of the history of old age support in the UK and US and concludes that despite the quite different beginnings of the public pension and social security systems, government policy in both countries has become similarly locked in to a set of institutional arrangements which were devised to respond to immediate social and economic problems, but which have acquired a rationale and a dynamic of their own.

A history of bovine tuberculosis eradication policy in Northern Ireland

2015 ◽  
Vol 143 (15) ◽  
pp. 3182-3195 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. ROBINSON
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Bovine Tuberculosis ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Eradication Programme ◽  
Agricultural Industry ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Public Archives

SUMMARYDespite many years of state-sponsored efforts to eradicate the disease from cattle through testing and slaughter, bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is still regarded as the most important and complex of animal health challenges facing the British livestock agricultural industry. This paper provides a historical analysis of the ongoing bTB statutory eradication programme in one part of the UK – Northern Ireland (NI) – which began in 1949 as a voluntary scheme, but between 1959 and 1960 became compulsory for all cattle herd-owners. Tracing bTB back through time sets the eradication efforts of the present day within a deeper context, and provides signposts for what developed in subsequent decades. The findings are based primarily on empirical research using historical published reports of the Ministry of Agriculture and state documents held in the public archives in NI, and they emphasize the need to consider the economic, social and political contexts of disease eradication efforts and their influences on both the past and the present.

Television and Public Service: A Brief History1

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Broadcasting Policy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
British Culture

This chapter traces the history of public service television. The history of British public service broadcasting policy in the 20th century is characterized by a series of very deliberate public interventions into what might otherwise have developed as a straightforward commercial marketplace. The creation of the BBC, the launch of an ITV network required to produce public service programming, and the addition of the highly idiosyncratic Channel 4 gave the UK a television ecology animated by quality, breadth of programming and an orientation towards serving the public interest. At each of these three moments, the possibilities of public service television were expanded and British culture enriched as a result. The 1990 Broadcasting Act and the fair wind given to multichannel services may have ended the supremacy of the public service television ideal. However, public service television has survived, through the design of the institutions responsible for it, because of legislative protection, and as a result of its continuing popularity amongst the public.

scholarly journals Fox-Trotting the Riot: Slow Rioting in Britain's Inner City

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 68-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Mckenzie
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Manufacturing Industries ◽  
Civil Unrest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Uk

In recent years there have been significant discussions and arguments raised relating to the position and behaviour of those who live in Britain's poorest neighbourhoods, however there has been little in the way of solutions put forward by any of the political Party's. August 2011 was a flashpoint in the history of these debates, the civil unrest which took place during that month has led to further and continuous on-going social and political debates relating to welfare, unemployment and a sense of disenfranchisement within specific neighbourhoods in the UK. This paper focuses upon a community in Nottingham, St Ann's, a council estate housing 15,000 people, who rely upon social housing and public services to as they say to ‘keep their heads above water’. The families who rely upon public services, welfare benefits and social housing are the poorest and most disadvantaged people in Britain, and since 2010 are being subject to harsh cuts in their welfare benefits. They are also the most vulnerable to unemployment caused by shrinking the size of the public sector, as they were to the loss of the manufacturing industries in the early 1980s under the Thatcher Government. This paper examines the lives of those who live on this council estate; rely upon social housing, local services, and when the employment market shrinks welfare benefits. The paper addresses the key argument that there has been a significant change in representation of how council estates and working class people who live in them have been negatively re-branded and stigmatised over the last 30 years. Although the focus of the riots has centred around five days in August 2011, this paper introduces families, and individuals who have been part of this ethnographic research over an eight-year period. Thus arguing that the disturbances in 2011 were an unintended consequence of a significant neighbourhood and community decline over a generation, but which has been exacerbated since 2010 with the Coalition Government's austerity measures.

The ‘Blue Gym’: What can blue space do for you and what can you do for blue space?

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.P. White ◽  
S. Pahl ◽  
B.W. Wheeler ◽  
L.E.F. Fleming ◽  
M.H. Depledge
Keyword(s):  
Public Awareness ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Space Environments ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Bodies Of Water ◽  
Health And Well Being

The Blue Gym Initiative was created in the UK in 2009 to explore: (1) whether blue space environments might be positively related to human health and well-being; and (2) whether the public could be encouraged to preserve and protect these environments. Whilst the wider initiative considers all blue spaces including inland bodies of water (e.g. lakes, rivers and canals as well as the coasts and oceans), to date the focus has been primarily on marine and coastal environments. In this paper, we provide a brief history of the Blue Gym Initiative, and outline some of the research that has emerged to date. An important early finding was the observation that individuals living near the coast are generally healthier and happier than those living inland; much subsequent work has tried to understand why this might be. More recently we have begun to focus on how to promote pro-marine behaviours (e.g. sustainable fish choice, reduction of plastic use, avoidance of littering). This strand is still very much work in progress but highlights the importance of understanding public awareness, values and attitudes and the power of visualization in communicating the marine sustainability issues. We conclude with a brief discussion of some of the implications of the findings and future research needs.

American National Biography

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-10
Author(s):  
John Kendall
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Version ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
Electronic Format ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Similar Work ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Uk ◽  
National Biography

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the American National Biography including a brief history of the book and details on its electronic format. Design/methodology/approach - An historical account of the forerunner publications is provided, followed by consideration of the printed and the electronic versions. Illustrative examples are used throughout. It is briefly compared with a similar work from the UK. The advantages of the electronic format are assessed. Findings - The American National Biography provides a comprehensive coverage of notable Americans and offers detailed portraits focusing mainly on the public and professional lives of its subjects. It is easy to navigate and use in its electronic version. This is a useful biographical resource for libraries, especially in the USA. Originality/value - There have been many reviews of the American National Biography, but this one provides an overview of the electronic version and a comparative assessment of it against similar books in the field. For information professionals it offers a useful summary of the main features of this resource and a reminder of its value as a biographical information tool.

scholarly journals The Growing Regulation of Conversion Therapy

2016 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Drescher ◽  
Alan Schwartz ◽  
Flávio Casoy ◽  
Christopher A. McIntosh ◽  
Brian Hurley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Conversion Therapy ◽  
Canadian Province ◽  
Health Organizations ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Aversive Stimuli ◽  
History Of ◽  
Regulatory Bodies

Conversion therapies are any treatments, including individual talk therapy, behavioral (e.g. aversive stimuli), group therapy or milieu (e.g. “retreats or inpatient treatments” relying on all of the above methods) treatments, which attempt to change an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. However, these practices have been repudiated by major mental health organizations because of increasing evidence that they are ineffective and may cause harm to patients and their families who fail to change. At present, California, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and the Canadian Province of Ontario have passed legislation banning conversion therapy for minors and an increasing number of U.S. States are considering similar bans. In April 2015, the Obama administration also called for a ban on conversion therapies for minors. The growing trend toward banning conversion therapies creates challenges for licensing boards and ethics committees, most of which are unfamiliar with the issues raised by complaints against conversion therapists. This paper reviews the history of conversion therapy practices as well as clinical, ethical and research issues they raise. With this information, state licensing boards, ethics committees and other regulatory bodies will be better able to adjudicate complaints from members of the public who have been exposed to conversion therapies.

Protecting the Public? An Analysis of Professional Regulation—Comparing Outcomes in Fitness to Practice Proceedings for Social Workers, Nurses and Doctors

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 1871-1889
Author(s):  
Aidan Worsley ◽  
Sarah Shorrock ◽  
Kenneth McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Standards ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Regulatory Body ◽  
Professional Regulation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
The Uk

Abstract The regulation of professional activity in the Health and Social Care sector in the UK is carried out by a number of statutory bodies that hold legal mandates to manage the risks of professional malpractice. The prime method used to perform this duty, and thereby protect the public, is the construction of a register of the suitability qualified—and creation of appropriate professional standards to establish a benchmark for practice. When registrant’s performance or conduct is felt not to meet these standards, they are placed within a fitness to practice process administered by the regulatory body. This article examines the publicly available data on fitness to practice cases from UK regulatory bodies relating to the professions of social workers, nurses, midwives and doctors. Examining nearly 1,000 cases, the authors run a statistical analysis of the data to establish whether any differences are found amongst and between these professional groupings. We find there are several areas where significant differences arise, namely gender, attendance and representation. Most of these regulatory bodies are, in turn, regulated in the UK by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), and the article concludes by suggesting ways forward for the PSA in addressing or further examining apparent inequalities. The analysis is placed within a wide range of literature, with an emphasis on the international transferability of the approach to professional regulation.

Imperfect Sound Forever

Resonance ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-167
Author(s):  
Christopher DeLaurenti
Keyword(s):  
Remote Control ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Digital Audio ◽  
Audio Tape ◽  
Recording Equipment ◽  
Field Recordings ◽  
Field Recording ◽  
History Of

What is phonography? In this essay, Christopher DeLaurenti, a phonographer with three decades of experience, maps an axiomatic 13-lesson pedagogy through an abbreviated history of field recording, from Jesse Walter Fewkes in 1890 to Tony Schwartz in the early 1960s. This paper surveys various meanings and uses of the term phonography from a text published in 1701 to the formation in 2000 of the phonography listserv, an online community of makers of field recordings. The author, himself an early member of the phonography listserv, discusses three traits to define phonography as a community in the early 2000s: inexpensive recording equipment; a community of knowledge; and the “easy fidelity” made possible by portable and lightweight Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and MiniDisc (MD) recorders. The author contrasts the traits of phonography with elements of soundscape composition as articulated by Barry Truax, Hildegard Westerkamp, and Andra McCartney. The paper concludes by proposing possible elements of post-phonography, including remote control recording, the possibility of voice print identification, and the generation of unimagined data.

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