Yes / Visual sociology often relies for its content on researcher-created or participant-created images. In this article we discuss our use of existing local history archive images in a participatory film-making project with ten people living in residential dementia care in the Northern UK. We draw on the concept of archaeology in two ways: first, as used by Foucault (1972), who contends that archaeology is a metaphor for exploring traces left by the past in order to understand the present. Secondly, in a more obvious sense–many of the most salient cultural references for our participants related to public buildings and local landmarks that had been demolished, repurposed, or dramatically changed in appearance since their youth. / UK National Institute for Health Research – School for Social Care Research

No description available.

Around the late third millennium BC small cup-shaped vessels began to appear in burial contexts across the North of England where they were found to be associated with Early Bronze Age funerary practices. Known by the name of incense cups, accessory vessels or miniature cups, their true purpose has been elusive. This study comprises an investigation of cups from Northern England and finds the tradition to be heavily influenced by Beaker culture practices resulting in the earliest cups emulating some attributes of Beaker ceramics. The Northern English Cup assemblage defies the current perception that all Cups are perforated as 63% are not; fabrics are found to be locally sourced and not imported and a review of the typology finds a strong regional adherence to the Food Vessel and Collared Urn tradition. Association in the grave with larger Urns is not as common as once believed and Cups have been found as the solitary ceramic indicating that they were important in their own right. Firing damage such as spalling has been interpreted as use of the funeral pyre for firing vessels prior to deposition with cremated remains and it is suggested that this is a recognisable signature of the cup tradition and therefore the name ‘funerary Cup’ is more appropriate. An active cross country trade network can be inferred from distributions of metalwork, precious materials and an affinity in some cases to Irish cups. / Prehistoric Society, Yorkshire Ladies Council for Education and the Andy Jagger Fund / The full text will be available at the end of the embargo period: 23rd Oct 2025

yes / This report is a summary of the views of a range of practitioners working in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham on the challenges of building community interaction in these three northern `cities¿ which experienced disturbances in 2001. Practitioners from a variety of professional backgrounds from each of the locations met in Burnley on January 12th 2007 to reflect together on the key challenges that they had faced since 2001 and the progress, or lack thereof, that has been made. Their observations were recorded and form the basis of this report. Despite the significant differences between the `cities¿ in their size, location and demographics, practitioners from the three locations seemed to broadly share the analysis of the progress made and of the threats to progress since the disturbances in 2001. Information-sharing between organizations in the `cities¿ has improved. Some organizations are able to move more quickly to reduce/prevent tensions building. More young women, particularly young Muslim women, are becoming involved at a community level bringing new perspectives and ways of thinking. Yet practitioners also identified a variety of conditions which continued to make the `cities¿ vulnerable to fresh disturbances in the future. Perhaps chief among these was the concern over the high levels of discontent expressed by young people in each of the locations. The relatively low levels of educational attainment and engagement, high levels of crime which young people can get `sucked into¿ and the low level of mixing between young people from different ethnic groupings were all seen as underlying factors which could lead to fresh disturbances. Added to this were serious concerns about the levels of racism in each of the `cities¿, a lack of equal opportunities and the pressures on particular communities from the press and the police. One participant articulated the basic question running throughout the practitioners¿ discussions, ¿We are probably ready to deal with the 2001 disturbances now, but are we ready for 2007?"

This thesis investigates the relationship between social meaning and linguistic change. An important observation regarding spoken languages is that they are constantly changing: the way we speak differs from generation to generation. A second important observation is that spoken utterances convey social as well as denotational meaning: the way we speak communicates something about who we are. How, if at all, are these two characteristics of spoken languages related? Many sociolinguistic studies have argued that the social meaning of linguistic features is central to explaining the spread of linguistic innovations. A novel form might be heard as more prestigious than the older form, or it may become associated with specific social stereotypes relevant to the community in which the change occurs. It is argued that this association between a linguistic variant and social meaning leads speakers to adopt or reject the innovation, inhibiting or facilitating the spread of the change. In contrast, a number of scholars have argued that social meaning is epiphenomenal to many linguistic changes, which are instead driven by an automatic process of convergence in face-to-face interaction. The issue that such arguments raise is that many studies proposing a role of social meaning in the spread of linguistic innovations rely on production data as their primary source of evidence. Observing the variable adoption of innovations across different groups of speakers (e.g. by gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status), a researcher might draw on their knowledge of the social history of the community under study to infer the role of social meaning in that change. In many cases, the observed patterns of could equally be explained by the social structure of the community under study, which constrains who speaks to whom. Are linguistic changes facilitated and inhibited by social meaning? Or is it rather the case that social meaning arises as a consequence of linguistic change, without necessarily influencing the change itself? This thesis explores these questions through a study of vocalic change in York, Northern England, focusing on the fronting and diphthongization of the tense back vowels /u/ and /o/. It presents a systematic comparison of the social meanings listeners assign to innovations (captured using perceptual methods), their social attitudes with regard to those meanings (captured through sociolinguistic interviews), and their use of those forms in production (captured through acoustic analysis). It is argued that evidence of a consistent relationship between these factors would support the proposal that social meaning plays a role in linguistic change. The results of this combined analysis of sociolinguistic perception, social attitudes and speech production provide clear evidence of diachronic /u/ and /o/ fronting in this community, and show that variation in these two vowels is associated with a range of social meanings in perception. These meanings are underpinned by the notion of 'Broad Yorkshire' speech, a socially-recognized speech register linked to notions of authentic local identity and social class. Monophthongal /o/, diphthongal /u/, and back variants of both vowels are shown to be associated with this register, implying that a speaker who adopts an innovative form will likely be heard as less 'Broad'. However, there is no clear evidence that speakers' attitudes toward regional identity or social class have any influence on their adoption of innovations, nor that that their ability to recognise the social meaning of fronting in perception is related to their production behaviour. The fronting of /u/ is spreading in a socially-uniform manner in production, unaffected by any social factor tested except for age. The fronting of /o/ is conditioned by social network structure - speakers with more diverse social networks are more likely to adopt the innovative form, while speakers with closer social ties to York are more likely to retain a back variant. These findings demonstrate that York speakers hear back forms of /u/ and /o/ as more 'local' and 'working class' than fronter realizations, and express strong attitudes toward the values and practices associated with regional identity and social class. However, these factors do not appear to influence their adoption of linguistic innovations in any straightforward manner, contrasting the predictions of an account of linguistic change where social meaning plays a central role in facilitating or inhibiting the propagation of linguistic innovations. Based on these results, the thesis argues that many linguistic changes may spread through the production patterns of a speech community without the direct influence of social meaning, and advocates for the combined analysis of sociolinguistic perception, social attitudes and speech production in future work.

No / The roadside vegetation in some counties of north England (north and west Yorkshire) was studied to determine the community structure according to the British National Vegetation Classification (NVC) and main environmental factors influencing its composition. The data from Phytosociological survey (699 quadrats) and from the physico-chemical analyses of 233 soil samples from 35 sites were obtained. Both the classification (TWINSPAN & MATCH) and ordination programs (Canonical Correspondence Analysis) were used. The roadside vegetation is mainly dominated by few grasses (Arrhenatherum elatius, Festuca rubra, Dactylis glomerata, Lolium perenne, Poa trivialis, Elymus repens, Holcus lanatus) and their associated herbs (Cirsium arvense, Heracleum sphondylium, Urtica dioica). Five NVC Mesotrophic grassland communities (Arrhenatheretum elatioris community MG1, Lolium perenne-Cynosurus cristatus grassland MG6, Lolium perenne leys MG7, Holcus lanatus- Deschampsia cespitosa grassland MG9, Festuca rubra-Agrostis stolonifera-Potentilla anserina grassland MG11) and one Upland Festuca ovina- Agrostis capillaris-Galium saxatile grassland, U4 were identified which in general, exhibited good fit with the typical NVC units. Altitude, pH, potassium, sodium and road age were found to be the main variables affecting the roadside vegetation. By relating the floristic composition with ecological characteristics of the roadside verges, three kinds of pattern of variation are observed. The first pattern is related to regional or geographical characteristics and the second pattern of variation exists across the width of the road verges showing a zonal pattern of plant distribution. The third scale of pattern is active at the local level including micro-environmental conditions, e.g., local edaphic variables.

In and around the 870s, Britain was transformed dramatically by the campaigns and settlements of the Great Army and its allies. Some pre-existing political communities suffered less than others, and in hindsight the process helped Scotland and England achieve their later positions. By the twelfth century, the rulers of these countries had partitioned the former kingdom of Northumbria. This thesis is about what happened in the intervening period, the fate of Northumbria's political structures, and how the settlement that defined Britain for the remainder of the Middle Ages came about. Modern reconstructions of the era have tended to be limited in scope and based on unreliable post-1100 sources. The aim is to use contemporary material to overcome such limitations, and reach positive conclusions that will make more sense of the evidence and make the region easier to understand for a wider audience, particularly in regard to its shadowy polities and ecclesiastical structures. After an overview of the most important evidence, two chapters will review Northumbria's alleged dissolution, testing existing historiographic beliefs (based largely on Anglo-Norman-era evidence) about the fate of the monarchy, political community, and episcopate. The impact and nature of ‘Southenglish' hegemony on the region's political communities will be the focus of the fourth chapter, while the fifth will look at evidence for the expansion of Scottish political power. The sixth chapter will try to draw positive conclusions about the episcopate, leaving the final chapter to look in more detail at the institutions that produced the final settlement.