“Without women,the war could never have happened”: representations of women’s military contributions in non-state armed groups

Feminist international relations theory argues that male consolidation of power in the aftermath of armed conflict often occurs as men gain the status of heroes in the post-war appraisals. Explorations of republican commemoration in the North of Ireland have uncovered the dominance of the male protagonist with a notable relative absence of militant republican women. Militarized masculine narratives and patriarchal understandings of what is deemed a combatant role, and therefore deemed worthy of commemorating, consistently fail to value or recognize women’s multiple and vital wartime contributions. This article argues that conventional definitions of military contributions and combatant roles are imprecise, highly gendered and ultimately function as a mechanism to denigrate and exclude women’s wartime labor. Based on in-depth interviews with former combatants, the article critically explores the ways in which republican women themselves conceptualize their contributions to armed struggle. Emerging from this is a theoretically rich narrative of women’s multiple and diverse military roles which firmly challenge the limited definition of “a person with a weapon.” It is suggested that by paying careful attention to the lives of combatant women, feminist scholars can use their experiences, narratives and meanings to challenge existing frameworks and discourses, and redefine combatant roles and wartime contributions.     

Networked lives

Social network analysis has grown tremendously across a wide range of disciplines and is now regarded as a road‐map in strengthening links with the life‐course perspective. ‘Linked lives’ is often cited as a key principle of life‐course theory, but there is still much to be learned about the significance of these links for the life course. Network theory refines our understanding of the properties of these links, their emergence as structures in daily life, and the mechanisms underlying the inequalities that arise from social relationships. This paper clarifies why networks can be conceptualised as meso‐level structures that bridge the micro‐macro gap. It thus addresses four processes of particular interest for the integration of life‐course and network research: (a) the problem of tie formation; (b) the activation of ties as social capital; (c) their resilience through segments of a life course; and finally, (d) the problem of their loss. In so doing, we highlight innovative approaches for each of these issues in order to propose a research agenda we call ‘Networked Lives’, which emphasises promising avenues for advancing the integration of these two important fields in the social sciences.     

Work Incentives at the Extensive and Intensive Margin in Europe: The Role of Taxes,Benefits and Population Characteristics

Social Indicators Research - Tax and benefit systems play an important role in determining work incentives at both the extensive and the intensive margin of labour supply. The aim of this paper is...     

Leadership competencies for implementing planned organizational change

This paper bridges the leadership and organizational change literatures by exploring the relationship between managers' leadership competencies (namely, their effectiveness at person-oriented and task-oriented behaviors) and the likelihood that they will emphasize the different activities involved in planned organizational change implementation (namely, communicating the need for change, mobilizing others to support the change, and evaluating the change implementation). We examine this relationship using data from 89 clinical managers at the United Kingdom National Health Service who implemented change projects between 2003 and 2004. Our results lend overall support to the proposed theory. This finding suggests that treating planned organizational change as a generic phenomenon might mask important idiosyncrasies associated both with the different activities involved in the change implementation process and with the unique functions that leadership competencies might play in the execution of these activities.     

Vertical segregation by breeding ring-necked parakeets <Emphasis Type="Italic">Psittacula krameri</Emphasis> in northern Italy

Cavities represent a limiting resource for breeding birds, thus triggering potential competition, mostly in urban ecosystems. The ring-necked parakeet Psittacula krameri is one of the main alien invasive bird species of the world. Introduced populations are reported for over 35 countries, Italy included. This parakeet mainly depends on trunk cavities for reproduction but, occasionally, it may nest within building holes. A growing population of this species is present in the urban area of Pavia (northern Italy). Differently, from what has been observed in other colonies of the global introduced range, most of this urban population nests within the putlog holes of the Visconti castle and surrounding towers, together with four native species. In this work, we counted the breeding pairs of ring-necked parakeets nesting within putlog holes of castle and tower walls and estimated the breeding population size. Observations were carried out once a week, 30 min before sunset, for an hour, from the start of April to the end of August 2016 and 2017. We assessed whether a vertical segregation occurred between parakeets and native species (i.e. the rock pigeon, the jackdaw, the Italian sparrow and the common swift) through a dissimilarity index. Inter-specific interactions have never been observed, despite two pigeon ticks being detected on rescued parakeets. A strong vertical segregation was observed between ring-necked parakeets and pigeons, and between ring-necked parakeets and common swifts. Ring-necked parakeets and jackdaws were mostly observed in the highest putlog holes. No breeding parakeet pair was observed within plain trunk cavities in the surroundings of the castle walls, which were instead occupied by jackdaws and tawny owls. Most parakeet nests were located on the eastern wall, where they receive the first light at dawn.     

British migrants and Irish anxieties

There is a long history of migration from Britain to Ireland, but it is rarely theorised as migration. Drawing on historical and contemporary sources as well as ongoing qualitative research, this paper makes visible the extended presence of British nationals, as migrants, in Ireland. In discussing the conflicted geographies of belonging of recent British migrants to Ireland, the paper highlights the ways in which postcolonial and nationalist discourses may suggest boundaries to belonging. However, these boundaries are undermined by the positioning of British migrants as not-quite-migrants in the changing landscape of migration in contemporary Ireland.     

Mapping Socioeconomic Exposure for Flood Risk Assessment in Italy

Detailed spatial representation of socioeconomic exposure and the related vulnerability to natural hazards has the potential to improve the quality and reliability of risk assessment outputs. We apply a spatially weighted dasymetric approach based on multiple ancillary data to downscale important socioeconomic variables and produce a grid data set for Italy that contains multilayered information about physical exposure, population, gross domestic product, and social vulnerability. We test the performances of our dasymetric approach compared to other spatial interpolation methods. Next, we combine the grid data set with flood hazard estimates to exemplify an application for the purpose of risk assessment.