We all use words in a general way to indicate the areas we are thinking about; but sometimes it's interesting to search behind the vocabulary to see what we're really looking at. Some commonly used terms are examined in The Lexicon to see what they tell us, for instance, about areas of regeneration, culture and social change.
The BBC Proms offer many different routes to enlightenment, but this is a new one to me. A listing of events for August tells us that some singers are 'singers' or 'vocalists', and others are sopranos, mezzos, tenors, basses or, indeed, 'voices'. A look at the particular concert programmes suggests why this may be... ...
Today (8 March) is International Women's Day, when women are celebrated in many parts of the world. But after more than a century of campaigning, women and men remain unequal in wealth and power. It's time for an overtly feminist, gendered approach to economics, examining the differential impacts and advantages of economic activity on women and men. ...
Person specifications for 'Lay' Public Appointments often require Board candidates to demonstrate 'confidence'. Increasingly I wonder whether this quality by itself enhances board members' contribution to the common good. Any confident Lay person might have a clear line and stick to it; but does this benefit the public? Or is it an obstacle to diversity in selection, continuing business as usual? ...
Lots of us have names which seem to get mis-spelt. But does it really matter? In my books, for most of the time the meaning behind the name is more telling than how people may spell it. My parents chose names to give me a very well-blessed start in life, and to that has been added another positive label. Who could ask names with a nicer meanings than healing, happy and free? Spell these as you will, I'm a really lucky person. ...
The English language is rich in many respects; but it's inadequate, perhaps for very important reasons, when it comes to naming and addressing mature female people. For the foreseeable future polite society will probably continue to constrain women by the words we may properly use here. Men can also be 'Chaps' and 'Guys', whilst for women until now there's been no equivalent set of terms.... which may explain why younger people of both sexes, often themselves more consciously gender-equal, have begun to claim these names, Guys and Chaps, as inclusive terms for everyone. ...
The Annual EDGE Question is something which deserves sharing with as many as possible of those who'd enjoy challenging scientific-style 'mind gym'. ...
Protagonists for City-Regions are often much less sympathetic to the rationale for the English Regions as such. But perhaps it's all a matter of differential scales. City Regions could well choose, to their mutual benefit and that of their hinter-lands, to collaborate on some of the much bigger strategic things without fear of damage to historic and local identities. ...
Leaders offer direction; Facilitors generally should not. But how fluid is this distinction, and to what effect? ...
When regeneration professionals and politicians talk about 'The Community' they usually mean people who live in that locality; when they talk about 'Stakeholders' they are often referring to a different, geographically disperse group of people who have significant financial or other interests in the area. But do the Community and the Stakeholders talk to each other? ...
Are there differences in the sorts of people who 'give' Grants, from those who 'make' Investments? Are these fundings for genuinely different types of activity? Or do we sometimes forget that all funding from the public purse has at base the same objectives of improving quality of life? ...
Which needs to come first? Good Leadership or good Management? Can we have one without the other? And can they be done by the same people? ...
What do the terms 'Conservation' and 'Sustainability' say about our attitudes to change? And can we apply them to the same sorts of things? ...
We all use words in a general way to indicate the areas we are thinking about; but sometimes it's interesting to search behind the vocabulary to see what we're really looking at. Some commonly used terms are examined in The Lexicon to see what they tell us, for instance, about areas of regeneration, culture and social change. ...
What are the relationships between science, technology and 'modern society'? How are these interactions determined? And what is 'progress'?...
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