Public libraries as reserves of cultural and digital capital: Addressing inequality through digitalization

Public libraries are among key sites for the acquisition of cultural capital, and possibly one of the most potent means through which the state can address inequality. While digitalization of public libraries already attracted significant scholarly attention, the evidence of its contribution to the acquisition of cultural skills and knowledge and social mobility remains limited, as does the conceptual understanding of links between digitalization, cultural capital, and social stratification. This article draws on two disconnected bodies of research, the sociological analysis of cultural capital and stratification and research on digital divides. To bridge these two bodies of research, the interplay of cultural and digital capital in public libraries was investigated. The extensive dataset from the UK Taking Part Survey (2016–17) was analyzed using two-step cluster analysis and multinomial regression models to explore the contrasting profiles of contemporary library users. Results identify four distinct user groups: Traditional, Active, Family, and Tech Access, which possess different degrees of cultural and digital capital, have different demographic profiles, and benefit from digitalized libraries in different ways. If libraries are to fulfil their role in reducing social inequalities, it is important that they tailor their digital services to the specific characteristics of each user group. This approach also provides a useful template for exploring the interplay of digitalization and (in)equality in other cultural institutions.     

English in classrooms: only write down what you need to know: annotation for what?

The annotation of texts in the school English classroom is central to the curriculum, examination and the history of English as a school subject. In this paper we explore ‘the way it is done’ across two different classrooms. We focus on the relationship between official definitions of annotation offered by national policies and examination syllabuses and its actualization in particular classrooms. The article takes a multimodal approach: attending to all modes of representation and communication in the teaching of English including image, gesture, gaze and the spatial organization of the classroom.     

Selling abroad: Are we doing enough?

Despite the dominance of the English language, publishers in the United States had export sales in 1987 of less than 6 percent of their total sales. Adrian Higham analyzes the major overseas markets for U.S. books and suggests ways for publishers to improve their export sales to each. The key to higher sales, he argues, is acquiring “insider status” in each market. Although he is convinced that publishers can do better, he reminds us that there is no simple solution. Adrian Higham brings to his consultancy an extensive background in international publishing. Following his wide career with Longman he served as managing director of John Wiley & Sons’ Company in the United Kingdom and subsequently as senior vice president and general manager of the International Group of John Wiley & Sons in New York.     

DNA capture-probe based separation of double-stranded polymerase chain reaction amplification products in poly(dimethylsiloxane) microfluidic channels

Herein, we describe the development of a novel primer system that allows for the capture of double-stranded polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification products onto a microfluidic channel without any preliminary purification stages. We show that specially designed PCR primers consisting of the main primer sequence and an additional “tag sequence” linked through a poly(ethylene glycol) molecule can be used to generate ds-PCR amplification products tailed with ss-oligonucleotides of two forensically relevant genes (amelogenin and human c-fms (macrophage colony-stimulating factor) proto-oncogene for the CSF-1 receptor (CSF1PO). Furthermore, with a view to enriching and eluting the ds-PCR products of amplification on a capillary electrophoretic-based microfluidic device we describe the capture of the target ds-PCR products onto poly(dimethylsiloxane) microchannels modified with ss-oligonucleotide capture probes.     

Five literatures of organisation: putting the context back into educational leadership

In this article we develop the arguments of Glatter on the importance of adopting a more ‘organisation-oriented’ approach to educational leadership development. Through a critical review of current publications and national courses in the field, we argue that educational leadership is still very skills focussed at the expense of more sophisticated understandings of organisational context. This skills focus, or ‘agency without structure’, as Glatter puts it, encourages a ‘can do’ culture of simplistic solution-seeking rather than appreciation of complexity and paradox in the leadership experience which can produce better judgements. To identify such ‘understandings’, we then examine five traditions of thinking about ‘organisation’ through their related literatures. The first four, thinking psychologically, thinking structurally, thinking culturally and thinking politically, build on organisational ‘frames’. The fifth literature explores how these frames are constantly and variously brought into play through ‘complex responsive processes’ of organising in our daily work lives. Implications of this more organisation-focussed approach for educational leadership development are discussed through examples from the authors’ own research and teaching.