Conservative Hegemony?

This chapter concerns the British general elections of 1983, 1987, and 1992. All three were won by the Conservatives. In 1983, the party was returned with a majority of 144 seats, despite having been deeply unpopular for much of its term of office thanks to economic recession and an unprecedented post-war level of unemployment. The scale of the victory was partly due to the 1982 Falklands conflict, in which the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, had seemingly fulfilled her promise to restore British pride and prestige. However, the Conservatives also benefited from a divided opposition, with Labour and the newly formed Liberal/SDP Alliance winning a plurality of votes between them. In 1987 the situation was similar, although by this time the economic outlook had improved and the Conservatives benefited from a ‘feel-good factor’. By 1990 Mrs Thatcher had once again become deeply unpopular, and was replaced by the less controversial (but uncharismatic) John Major. Under his leadership the Conservatives secured a record tally of votes in the 1992 election, but their overall parliamentary majority was greatly reduced thanks to the operation of the electoral system. In each case, relevant developments in the preceding inter-election period are described (including trends in party popularity) and an account of the campaign provided. In addition, the election results themselves—patterns of party support and of turnout—are extensively analysed. The chapter also discusses the academic controversy over the extent of class voting in Britain, which emerged at the time, as well as the growing North–South regional divide in party support. Finally, the suggestion that this period was one of ‘Conservative hegemony’ is considered.

THE CONCEPT OF PERSONAL DATA: FROM ACADEMIC PERSPECTIVE TO PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

This article is dedicated to the concept of personal data. Although notion of the personal data was introduced to data protection legislation quite a while ago, a number of issues has still remained unresolved. One of such issues is the identifiability, a condition for qualification of certain data as the personal data. This condition ignited an academic controversy resulted in a juxtaposition of the absolute and relative approaches to the concept of personal data and, subsequently, pseudonymised data. Yet, both these approaches are observable in the GDPR. Consequently, application of a moderate approach (in-between the absolute and relative approaches) may be suggested. Application of the moderate approach is a means to balance the protection of personal data against other EU rights and freedoms, such as the conduct of business. Finally, by the way of the moderate approach a legal status of the initial data controller may be distinguished from a subsequent recipient of pseudonymised data.

Lessons learned from the prenatal microbiome controversy

For more than a century, the prenatal environment was considered sterile. Over the last few years, findings obtained with next-generation sequencing approaches from samples of the placenta, the amniotic fluid, meconium, and even fetal tissues have challenged the dogma of a sterile womb, and additional reports have emerged that used culture, microscopy, and quantitative PCR to support the presence of a low-biomass microbial community at prenatal sites. Given the substantial implications of prenatal exposure to microbes for the development and health of the host, the findings have gathered substantial interest from academics, high impact journals, the public press, and funding agencies. However, an increasing number of studies have challenged the prenatal microbiome identifying contamination as a major issue, and scientists that remained skeptical have pointed to inconsistencies with in utero colonization, the impact of c-sections on early microbiome assembly, and the ability to generate germ-free mammals. A lively academic controversy has emerged on the existence of the wider importance of prenatal microbial communities. Microbiome has asked experts to discuss these issues and provide their thoughts on the implications. To allow for a broader perspective of this discussion, we have specifically selected scientists, who have a long-standing expertise in microbiome sciences but who have not directly been involved in the debate so far.

Opinions of Pre-Service Classroom Teachers about Academic Controversy Method

The aim of this study is to determine the opinions of pre-service classroom teachers about academic controversy, from the cooperative learning methods, implemented in social studies teaching course. Using the action research pattern from the qualitative research approaches, the study group for the research comprised 42 preservice teachers in third year attending the primary education department in a state university. Research data were collected from preservice teachers with an interview form asking open-ended questions Responses of preservice teachers to the questions included opinions about the positive and negative aspects of the academic controversy method; whether they would apply this method in future classes and why; and about the contribution of the method to social and individual development of students. Opinions of preservice teachers after implementing the method in the class environment were that the academic controversy method was fun and beneficial for peer teaching; increased in-class interaction, retention of knowledge and self-confidence; ensured effective participation in class, active learning and conflict management; provided democracy education, directed research, taught respect for differences, provided a multidimensional perspective, and reduced the need for authority; and that it developed self-control, self-expression, decision-making and problem-solving skills. Additionally, criticisms mentioned by preservice teachers included causing noise in the classroom, not being appropriate for all class levels, lessons or topics, being difficult to implement in crowded classrooms and that the duration was not sufficient for the implementation.

Islamophobia and French academia

The aim of this article is to study the French academic controversy related to Islamophobia. It raises the general question of the autonomy of social sciences in relation to the political-media field and the capacity of researchers to be reflexive and to distance themselves from the mainstream Islamophobic discourse. Drawing on the publications produced by French academics about Islamophobia, the article first analyses the space of controversy, showing that it does not take place in the central social science journals but on their periphery, or even outside the academic field. It then focuses attention on the logic of avoiding the (rare) French accounts on Islamophobia, which not only results in a timid academic disputatio but also in a disqualification of the concept of Islamophobia that mobilizes arguments similar to political-media discourses. The tension between factual judgement and value judgement is also analysed, highlighting how researchers working on Islamophobia are charged with a lack of scientific rigour and the unacknowledged political bias of the deniers. Finally, the article highlights the instrumentalization of the reference to Pierre Bourdieu by the deniers of Islamophobia. Thus, the forms of the French academic controversy on Islamophobia are indicative of the denial of Islamophobia and the influence of the media on the academic field.

The Gospel of John

This chapter reviews the significant role played by the Gospel according to John in the early Church, and recent scholarship surrounding this issue. John’s importance in the Christological and Trinitarian debates of the fourth and fifth centuries is widely recognized, but controversy has surrounded the question of John’s use in the Church prior to Irenaeus. This chapter reviews that academic controversy, particularly the longstanding argument that John won its place in the ‘great Church’ only after a long battle with heresy (docetism; Gnosticism; Valentinianism) about its true nature and meaning. It then surveys some of the ways in which John’s influence was felt in the early period, in the areas of biblical interpretation, in mission, in Christology, and in artistic expression, all of which offer promise for future research.

Penerapan Academic Controversy Dalam Meningkatkan Aktivitas Belajar

The purpose of this study is to find out student learning activities before applying the Academic Controversy method, then the learning process using the Academic Controversy method, and student learning activities after applying the Academic Controversy method on social studies subjects in each cycle. The method used in this study is Classroom Action Research (CAR) which consists of four stages repeatedly, namely planning, action, observation and reflection. The technique of collecting data was carried out through the evaluation instruments of the pro and contra debates then with observation sheets for student and teacher activities. Based on the results of the study, the percentage of student learning activities before being applied to the academic controversy (academic controversy) method was only 31.2% with the less active category, after the application of the academic controversy (academic controversy) method in the first cycle student learning activities increased to 62 % included in the category is quite active. And student learning activities continue to increase in the second cycle which is at a very active stage which is 86%. From these data it can be concluded that the application of the method of academic controversy (academic controversy) can increase learning activities.