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AbstractAlthough the link between agriculture and diffuse water pollution has been understood for decades, there is still a need to implement effective measures to address this issue. In countries with light-touch regulation, such as New Zealand and Australia, most efforts to promote environmental management practices have relied on voluntary initiatives such as participatory research and extension programmes; the success of which is largely dependent on farmers' willingness and ability to adopt these practices. Increased understanding of the factors influencing farmer decision-making in this area would aid the promotion of effective advisory services. This study provides insights from 52 qualitative interviews with farmers and from observations of nine farmer meetings and field days. We qualitatively identify factors that influence farmer decision-making regarding the voluntary uptake of water quality practices and develop a typology for categorising farmers according to the factors that influence their decision-making. We find that in light-touch regulated countries certainty around policy and also around the effectiveness of practices is essential, particularly for farmers who delay action until compelled to act due to succession or regulation. The contribution of this paper is threefold: (i) it identifies factors influencing decision-making around the uptake of water quality practices in a light-touch regulated country; (ii) it develops a typology of different farmer types; and (iii) it provides recommendations on policy approaches for countries with light-touch regulation, which has potential relevance for any countries facing changes regarding their agricultural policy, such as post-Brexit policy in the UK.

The question of physical interaction is especially relevant in school physical education, where a lot of the teaching and activities are based on body movements. However, the issue of 'touching' has been questioned in recent years. This paper takes its starting point in the discourse of child protection and the growing anxiety around intergenerational touch in educational settings. The purpose is to examine PE teachers' self-regulation in relation to the child protection discourse and no touch policies. What sort of strategies have the teachers developed for dealing with physical contact in their teaching? It is a matter of problematising teachers' pedagogical interactions in PE practice. The study takes its starting point in a discourse-analytical tradition using a methodology based on Foucault's ideas about governmentality. Twenty-three teachers (10 women and 13 men) aged 30–63 and at different stages in their careers were interviewed. The results show two different self-regulating processes: (1) adaptation using avoidance-oriented strategies and (2) resistance using downplaying-oriented strategies. The paper discusses potential consequences for PE teachers' pedagogical work if they feel that they have to protect themselves instead of operating in a way that is in the best interest for students' learning and development. The study aims to contribute to the literature on child protection and 'no touch' policies and to a more multifaceted understanding of physical interaction in PE.

The problem: In most of the country, housing supply and demand are imbalanced. Wage and worker growth (demand) has outpaced new additions to the housing stock (supply). The result is worsening affordability. For example, compare home price appreciation from 2012 to 2019 (pre-pandemic) in Atlanta, GA and Raleigh, NC. Both metros added workers at about […]
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Textures of Light draws on the work of Luce Irigaray, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Emmanuel Levinas to present an outstanding and ground breaking study of the vital importance of light in Western thought. Since Plato's allegory of the cave, light and the role of sight have been accorded a unique position in Western thought. They have stood as a metaphor for truth and objectivity and the very axis of modern rationalism. More recently however, this status has come under significant criticism from continental and feminist thought which has stressed the privileging of subjectivity and masculinity in

Objective We investigated how light interpersonal touch (IPT) provided by a robotic system supports human individuals performing a challenging balance task compared to IPT provided by a human partner. Background IPT augments the control of body balance in contact receivers without a provision of mechanical body weight support. The nature of the processes governing the social haptic interaction, whether they are predominantly reactive or predictive, is uncertain. Method Ten healthy adult individuals performed maximum forward reaching (MFR) without visual feedback while standing upright. We evaluated their control of reaching behavior and of body balance during IPT provided by either another human individual or by a robotic system in two alternative control modes (reactive vs. predictive). Results Reaching amplitude was not altered by any condition but all IPT conditions showed reduced body sway in the MFR end-state. Changes in reaching behavior under robotic IPT conditions, such as lower speed and straighter direction, were linked to reduced body sway. An Index of Performance expressed a potential trade-off between speed and accuracy with lower bitrate in the IPT conditions. Conclusion The robotic IPT system was as supportive as human IPT. Robotic IPT seemed to afford more specific adjustments in the human contact receiver, such as trading reduced speed for increased accuracy, to meet the intrinsic demands and constraints of the robotic system or the demands of the social context when in contact with a human contact provider.