Methodological Triangulation at the Bank of England:An Investigation

This paper investigates the extent to which triangulation takes place within the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) process at the Bank of England. Triangulation is at its most basic, the mixing of two or more methods, investigators, theories, methodologies or data in a single investigation. More specifically, we argue for triangulation as a commitment in research design to the mixing of methods in the act of inference. The paper argues that there are many motivations for triangulation as well as types of triangulation. It is argued that there is evidence of extensive triangulation of different types within the MPC process. However, there is very little theoretical triangulation present; raising concerns about pluralism. Also, it is argued that the triangulation which occurs is mainly undertaken for pragmatic reasons and does not reflect other, coherent ontological and epistemological positions.

Participation, Spectatorship and Media Coverage in Sport

This article considers the relationship between active participation in sport, sports spectatorship and television viewing habits using data from the 2005 DCMS Taking Part Survey. We find robust evidence that participation and sports spectatorship are symbiotically linked. In contrast, increase TV viewing per se leads to a reduction in participation.spectator demand; sporting participation; count models

Heterogeneous Sports Participation and Labour Market Outcomes in England

Based on a unique composite dataset measuring heterogeneous sports participation, labour market outcomes and local facilities provision, this paper examines for the first time the association between different types of sports participation on employment and earnings in England. Clear associations between labour market outcomes and sports participation are established through matching estimation whilst controlling for some important confounding factors. The results suggest a link between different types of sports participation to initial access to employment and then higher income opportunities with ageing. However, these vary between the genders and across sports. Specifically, the results suggest that team sports contribute most to employability, but that this varies by age across genders and that outdoor activities contribute most towards higher incomes

Heterogeneous Sports Participation and Labour Market Outcomes in England

Based on a unique composite dataset measuring heterogeneous sports participation, labour market outcomes and local facilities provision, this paper examines for the first time the association between different types of sports participation on employment and earnings in England. Clear associations between labour market outcomes and sports participation are established through matching estimation whilst controlling for some important confounding factors. The results suggest a link between different types of sports participation to initial access to employment and then higher income opportunities with ageing. However, these vary between the genders and across sports. Specifically, the results suggest that team sports contribute most to employability, but that this varies by age across genders and that outdoor activities contribute most towards higher incomes

Trust, Trustworthiness, Relational Goods and Social Capital: A Cross-Country Economic Analysis

For a sample of 34 countries, this paper examines the impact that relational goods have on trust and, more specifically, trustworthiness; that is the degree of trust placed in others. Relational goods emanate from social interactions, which can be viewed as underpinning the development of social capital in the sense of helping to form trust in society. The relational goods examined comprise both informal activities such as meeting with family and friends, as well as more formal but voluntary association connected with participation in cultural, political, civic, sport and religious organisations. As the measure of trust comprises an ordered variable, a variety of ordered estimators are applied to the data, including attempts to account for the country-specific grouping of observation and, as a consequence, unobserved heterogeneity. The results suggest that whilst informal relational activities tend to generate trustworthiness, consistent with the concept of ‘thick’ trust, along with cultural and civic association and frequent political association, there is less evidence that sports does. In addition, the results suggest that religious association can actually reduce trustworthiness along with less frequent political association. Therefore, the results suggest, that it is the type and frequency of associational activity that contributes to the development of trustworthiness, rather than its existence per se.Trust, relational goods, social capital

Modular digital holographic fringe data processing system

A software architecture suitable for reducing holographic fringe data into useful engineering data is developed and tested. The results, along with a detailed description of the proposed architecture for a Modular Digital Fringe Analysis System, are presented

Relationship between macroscopic physical properties and local distortions of low doping La{1-x}Ca{x}MnO3: an EXAFS study

A temperature-dependent EXAFS investigation of La{1-x}Ca{x}MnO3 is presented for the concentration range that spans the ferromagnetic-insulator (FMI) to ferromagnetic-metal (FMM) transition region, x = 0.16-0.22. The samples are insulating for x = 0.16-0.2 and show a metal/insulator transition for x = 0.22. All samples are ferromagnetic although the saturation magnetization for the 16% Ca sample is only ~ 70% of the expected value at 0.4T. We find that the FMI samples have similar correlations between changes in the local Mn-O distortions and the magnetization as observed previously for the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) samples (0.2 < x < 0.5) - except that the FMI samples never become fully magnetized. The data show that there are at least two distinct types of distortions. The initial distortions removed as the insulating sample becomes magnetized are small and provides direct evidence that roughly 50% of the Mn sites have a small distortion/site and are magnetized first. The large remaining Mn-O distortions at low T are attributed to a small fraction of Jahn-Teller-distorted Mn sites that are either antiferromagnetically ordered or unmagnetized. Thus the insulating samples are very similar to the behavior of the CMR samples up to the point at which the M/I transition occurs for the CMR materials. The lack of metallic conductivity for x <= 0.2, when 50% or more of the sample is magnetic, implies that there must be preferred magnetized Mn sites and that such sites do not percolate at these concentrations.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.

Interrogating sustainable productivism: lessons from the ‘Almerían miracle’

Many have suggested that a new form of sustainable agricultural productivism is needed in response to the challenges to food security posed by climate change and population growth. This paper employs elements of ecological modernisation theory and focusses on sustainability challenges and solutions, as well as the knowledge networks and production rationale to assess whether the intensive horticultural industry located in the Spanish province of Almería represents sustainable productivism. The Almerían horticultural industry, lauded as an example of neo-endogenous growth, manifests a range of sustainable technologies addressing environmental impacts. Yet, we argue that Almerían horticulture represents ‘weak ecological modernisation’ and its main sustainability challenges are posed by water scarcity, a demand led production rationale and the precarious situation of family farms that at present provide a degree of economic embeddedness in this highly industrialised production model. A competitive imperative yields marketing organisations huge sway in production decision-making, and while a cost-price squeeze has driven efficiency in the use of farm inputs and product innovation, it has paradoxically made further advances in sustainable water management very difficult to achieve. Transforming the Almerían horticultural industry into a truly sustainable model of productivism would require the concerted efforts of individual farmers and marketing organisations as well as regional and local water governance institutions and land use planning. A significant obstacle to this remains the dominant normative perception that justifies groundwater abstraction on the grounds of its high economic returns and the perceived inability of small farmers to invest in desalinated water or further technological solutions

The geomorphological setting of some of Scotland's east coast freshwater mills: a comment on Downward and Skinner (2005) ‘Working rivers: the geomorphological legacy...’

Many of the water mills on Scotland's east coast streams, unlike those discussed recently by Downward and Skinner (2005 Area 37 138–47), are found in predominantly bedrock reaches immediately downstream of knickpoints (i.e. bedrock steps). Bedrock knickpoints in the lower reaches of Scottish rivers are a widespread fluvial response to the glacio-isostatic rebound of northern Britain. These steps in the river profile propagate headward over time, but for intervals of a few centuries or so they are sufficiently stable to be exploited for the elevational fall necessary to power the mill wheel. Many of these mills were apparently powered by ‘run-of-the-river’, as are some today that formerly had mill dams. The typical lack of sediment storage along the erosional lower reaches of many Scottish rivers means that failure of mill structures in Scotland will probably have less dramatic geomorphological and management implications than those suggested by Downward and Skinner for southern English rivers