Planning for the reuse of redundant defence estate: disposal processes, policy frameworks and development impacts

This paper reviews recent research and other literature concerning the planning and development of redundant defence estate. It concentrates on UK sources but includes reference to material from Europe and the North America were it is relevant for comparative purposes. It introduces the topic by providing a brief review of the recent restructuring of the UK defence estate and then proceeds to examine the various planning policy issues generated by this process; the policy frameworks used to guide it; comparable approaches to surplus land disposal and the appraisal of impacts; and ending the main body of the review with an analyse of the economic, social and environmental impacts of military base closure and redevelopment. It concludes that there is a significant body of work focusing on the reuse and redevelopment of redundant defence estate in the UK and abroad, but that much of this work is based on limited research or on personal experience. One particular weakness of the current literature is that it does not fully reflect the institutional difficulties posed by the disposal process and the day-to-day pressures which MOD personnel have to deal with. In doing this, it also under-emphasises the embedded cultures of individuals and professional groups who are required to operationalise the policies, procedures and practices for planning and redeveloping redundant defence estate

[Review of] Mario T. Garcfa, Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, 1880- 1920

Mario T. Garcia\u27s Desert Immigrants documents and analyzes the growth of the border city of El Paso, Texas. The transformation of El Paso from a small crossroads community between Mexico and the U.S. to a major commercial and industrial metropolis is presented in terms of the growth of American industrial capitalism and its need for new sources of cheap and manageable labor. Garcia\u27s attention to the economic underpinnings of El Paso\u27s growth is well developed and he integrates many types of historical information. Business and labor statistics, demographic figures and newspaper accounts of day-to-day life in the city show the impact of immigration upon the border town

The Machine Starts: Computers as Collaborators in Writing

The penetration of digital technologies into the process of creating and disseminating narratives is no longer a new phenomenon, but perhaps what does still seem strange and far-fetched is the suggestion that machines are collaborators and authors in their own right. This paper examines an example of a computer-mediated narrative and suggests that not only does the machine exert its own agency in the process of writing, but this process has a long provenance from the ancient world, through the 20th century avant garde, and into contemporary technological futurism

Out West

In this essay, Joe Wilkins writes about growing up hard in eastern Montana. This essay was a finalist for a 2010 National Magazine Award in the Essay category

A law of large numbers for weighted plurality

Consider an election between k candidates in which each voter votes randomly (but not necessarily independently) and suppose that there is a single candidate that every voter prefers (in the sense that each voter is more likely to vote for this special candidate than any other candidate). Suppose we have a voting rule that takes all of the votes and produces a single outcome and suppose that each individual voter has little effect on the outcome of the voting rule. If the voting rule is a weighted plurality, then we show that with high probability, the preferred candidate will win the election. Conversely, we show that this statement fails for all other reasonable voting rules. This result is an extension of H\"aggstr\"om, Kalai and Mossel, who proved the above in the case k=2