School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemDispossession, social reproduction and the feminization of refugee survival: Ethiopian refugees in Nairobi, Kenya(Informa UK Limited, 2023-01-01)
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ItemThe IAEA's Role in Nuclear Security Since 2016(Nuclear Threat Initiative, 2019-02)The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the key multilateral global nuclear governance body, describes itself as the “global platform” for nuclear security efforts, with a “central role” in facilitating international cooperation in the field. Long concerned with the physical protection of nuclear materials and facilities, the Agency began to ramp up its involvement in the broader issue of nuclear security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The series of Nuclear Security Summits, which ran from 2010 to 2016, drew high-level political attention to the threat of nuclear terrorism for the first time and boosted support for the IAEA’s nuclear security mission. The final summit, held in Washington, DC, in March 2016, lauded the Agency as “crucial for the continuing delivery of outcomes and actions from the nuclear security summits.” Participating governments agreed to a seven-page “Action Plan in Support of the International Atomic Energy Agency.”1 Three years after the final summit seems an opportune time to assess how the Agency’s nuclear security work has fared since then. Given the complexity of the Agency’s nuclear security activities, this paper cannot provide a comprehensive assessment, but will highlight the most important nuclear security activities and the constraints and challenges the IAEA faces in fulfilling its nuclear security role.
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ItemSueños náuticos en Australia (Australia's nuclear nautical dreams)(La Vanguardia, 2022-08-25)In a surprising statement with implications for nuclear weapons proliferation, Australia announced in October last year that it would pursue nuclear-powered and conventionally armed submarines. An eighteen-month study has to determine if and how the project is carried out. If it materializes, it would be done in collaboration with the United Kingdom and the United States, two traditional allies of Australia. The three countries have established the AUKUS partnership to strengthen defense and security cooperation in various areas, including, in addition to the submarine project, cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. In November 2021, the three countries signed an agreement that allows the exchange of information and visits to facilitate the study of submarines. The obstacles to Australia's submarine ambitions are legion. Among them, their astronomical costs (some estimates reach 14 billion Australian dollars per unit), Australia's limited technical capacity to build, operate, maintain and deploy such ships and the secrecy surrounding the nuclear propulsion technology that neither the UK nor the US will be willing to share with Australia. Although details are currently scarce, the most likely scenario is that Australia will try to build the submarines itself (probably eight) in the south of the country and import the nuclear reactors and highly enriched uranium fuel from the US ( UAE). The fuel would be sealed in the reactors before passing into Australian hands and returned to the US at the end of life for removal and disposal. One of the advantages of submarine reactors fueled by UAE is that they have cores that last the entire life of the submarine and do not require periodic recharging. Although there are undoubted military advantages to acquiring submarines that are quieter, can remain submerged longer, and have greater range than conventional submarines, there are also significant disadvantages.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableResponse to a scandal: sex work, race, and the development sector in Haiti(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2023-01-01)
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ItemThe ontology and epistemology shaping our understanding of inclusion: A critical review of the research literature on disability and inclusion(Wiley, 2023-06-29)People with disability continue to face barriers to substantive and meaningfulinclusion in accommodation and community settings. The aim of this system-atic review was to examine the characteristics of the literature on‘inclusion’,‘integration’,‘exclusion’, and‘segregation’for people with disability inaccommodation and community settings. This literature is important becauseit provides the evidence base that informs policy and practice. We identified457 articles that primarily related to the experiences of people with intellectualdisability and psycho-social disability.We found: (1) the volume of publicationsrelating to the‘inclusion’,‘integration’,‘exclusion’and‘segregation’of peoplewith disability in accommodation and community living settings has increasedeach year since 2006; (2) high-income western countries were overrepresented inresearch outputs; (3) most research has been undertaken in the health sciences;(4) only 30% of literature directly engaged with people with disability; (5) lessthan 50% of the publications we reviewed (223 out of 457 manuscripts) identifiedinclusion, integration, exclusion andsegregation as their primary focus; (6)‘inclu-sion’,‘integration’,‘exclusion’and‘segregation’were predominantly used in thecontext of specific populations—psycho-social disability and intellectual disabil-ity; (7) there is great variation in the attention paid to the experiences of differentcommunities of people with disability; and (8) the notable absence of currentscholarly literature on the experiences and outcomes of people with disability liv-ing at home with parents and/or siblings. Each of these findings have importantimplications for the research agenda, policy, and practice
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ItemThe IAEA’s Critical Role in Nuclear Security(Oxford University Press, 2023-05-11)The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the key multilateral global nuclear governance body, describes itself as the ‘global platform’ for nuclear security efforts, with a ‘central role’ in facilitating international cooperation in the field. After initial contestation among member states about whether the IAEA’s mandate encompassed it, nuclear security has now been universally accepted as a valuable mainstream IAEA activity. Although states still insist that nuclear security is primarily their responsibility, the Agency’s programme continues to evolve and grow and can barely meet demand for its services. It has been particularly effective in promulgating recommendations for enhancing nuclear security at the national level and in advising and assisting states in striving for higher standards. Since the end of the Nuclear Security Summit process in 2016, the IAEA has taken on the role of principal conference convenor, involving a ministerial meeting and increasingly creative technical presentations and side events. The Agency faces the usual dilemmas of international organisations in being constrained by what its member states will allow and by financial and technical limitations. This can result in modest advances after painstaking negotiations and lowest-common-denominator approaches. With a more expansive mandate, sharper prioritisation and evaluation of its activities, and guaranteed funding through the regular budget, the IAEA could make a significantly greater contribution to preventing nuclear terrorism.
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ItemMapping the parent experience of echolalia in autism spectrum disorder onto a conceptual taxonomy(TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2023-09-20)PURPOSE: Echolalia, the repetition of previously heard speech, is prevalent in a variety of neurologic and psychiatric disorders. Within the context of echolalia in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research and intervention historically assume a clinical standpoint with two opposing paradigms: behaviourism and developmentalism. The literature is largely silent on how those other than researchers and clinicians understand echolalia. This study examined how parents experience echolalia through their children with ASD. The aim of the study was to ascertain if the parental perception of echolalia in ASD aligns with, or offers alternative perspectives to, current clinically-orientated views. METHOD: We employed online semi-structured interviews to document the experiences of 126 parents, reflecting on their children with ASD aged 3 to 34 years of age, to determine if the parent experience could be mapped onto existing clinical frameworks, or if they might offer new perspectives. We used hermeneutic phenomenological data analysis in an abductive framework. RESULT: Echolalia has predominantly been represented in literature through the perspectives of behaviourism or developmentalism. We found however, that echolalia is a phenomenon that is experienced by parents in a variety of different ways to that of the current clinically-orientated understandings. Such new ways of understanding echolalia that emerged from our analysis include one understanding which is dependent upon how echolalia is heard, and one in which parents are "waiting for echolalia to evolve." CONCLUSION: The traditional dichotomous clinical positions do not resonate with all parents, and reliance on these traditional perspectives alone may impact effective engagement with parents and the success of interventions and support strategies. Our findings have implications for future research, the education of clinicians and educators, and the design of support and intervention for those who have echolalia.
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ItemEcholalia as defined by parent communication partners(SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2023)BACKGROUNDS AND AIMS: Echolalia, the repetition of previous speech, is highly prevalent in Autism. Research into echolalia has historically assumed a clinical standpoint, with two opposing paradigms, behaviourism and developmentalism, offering differing support and intervention programs. These paradigms offer a multitude of clinical operationalised definitions; despite attempts, there continue to be challenges regarding how echolalia is to be defined. Stepping out of the dichotomous clinically orientated literature, we examined how parents summarise and formalise their understanding of echolalia as a communication partner. The objectives of this study were three-fold: (1) to investigate how echolalia is described and defined by parents; (2) to examine if existing clinical definitions align with those of parents; and (3) to begin to consider the implications of such findings for a collaborative approach between clinical perspectives and the parent experience. We bring to the fore the voices of parents, who have historically remained absent from echolalia literature. That is to say, we step outside of the clinical realm and listen to parents: something which has been previously unconsidered but represents a new vital addition to the echolalia literature. METHODS: We employed a Grounded Theory approach to document the definitions of 133 parents. RESULTS: We found that parents reported a multiplicity of important elements that are key to their understanding of echolalia. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Additionally, we found that clinical definitions do not resonate within the parent experience; parents experience echolalia in a different way to that of clinicians and parents can offer insight into our understanding of the phenomena. Our findings show that while some parents might align themselves with either a behavioural or developmental positionality, sometimes there is an overlap depending upon the context in which their child repeats and some parents advance interpretations that are not readily aligned with either of the traditional clinical schools of thought. We present implications for both clinicians and parents in ways that point towards a collaborative approach to support the person with echolalia.
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ItemLas paradojas del progresismo ecuatoriano: Una mirada crítica a su legado en lo social, económico y ecológico(Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales, CLACSO, 2020)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableTransdisciplinarity and epistemic communities: Knowledge decolonisation through university extension programmes(Wiley, 2022-02)In Latin America, a legacy of colonisation is the pervasiveness of a Eurocentric approach to knowledge. This geopolitics of knowledge entails the prioritisation of “rational” scientific knowledge over the mosaic epistemology that characterises a population born from high mestizaje (cultural and ethnic heterogeneity). Alternatively, universities could advance global cognitive justice by means of knowledge decolonisation. This article explores one way to advance that project. Based on contributions from Luso‐Hispanic scholars, I propose university extension programmes be reformulated to include epistemic communities as ecologies of knowledges. Theoretical insights are contrasted with an Ecuadorian experience, where a centre originally created to disseminate georeferenced socioeconomic and ecological indicators has evolved into a knowledge community with potential to promote plural dialogue of knowledges and influence decision making.