Seismic Tests and Numerical Modeling of a Rolling-ball Isolation System

For the seismic isolation of light structures, the use of laminated rubber bearings is neither economical nor, for most cases, technically suited. For the isolation of this type of structure a new system, consisting of steel balls rolling on rubber tracks, has been developed at TARRC (Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre).

This article presents the results of experimental tests carried out for the characterization of the behavior of this new device. A numerical model is also proposed that can be used to assess the seismic response of structures with this isolation system.

Comparison of the predictions of the numerical model with the experimental data shows that the model is adequate to perform the correct assessment of the seismic response of isolated structures. The results of the experimental campaign of shaking-table tests, as well as the numerical simulations, show that there is an effective reduction of the acceleration levels induced in the isolated structures.     

Why does child trafficking policy need to be reformed? The moral economy of children's movement in Benin and Ethiopia

This paper challenges policy discourses that frame children's independent movement as intrinsically exploitative and threatening to their development. Drawing on research with children and adults in Benin and Ethiopia, two countries caught up in current efforts to eradicate child migration and the trafficking with which it has become associated, the paper critiques assumptions about children's vulnerability and physical dependence and contests the idea that appropriate childhood is necessarily fixed spatially within stable family structures. It, thus, situates children's migration within socio-cultural and economic contexts and suggests that it should be understood as part of a moral economy that confounds simplistic paradigms that conflate migration with trafficking. Policy suggestions are offered for how best to secure children's well-being through acknowledgement of the important relationship between mobility and child maturation.     

A study of social‐market interventions in the shaping of the field of cultural production

A social analysis based on extensive evaluation of the Dance and Drama Awards programme reveals the social‐market political paradigm underpinning the formation of cultural policy in the UK underthe New Labour government. This specific intervention in the field of cultural production is placed in the context of broader government interventions in the cultural domain that seek to give respect to undervalued social and cultural groups. There is a political analysis of the characteristics of the social‐market political formation that underpin New Labour’s “affirmative” actions, and the political strategies informing the government’s “access” and “inclusion” agendas and their impact on the cultural and creative industries. The authors argue that the construction of a “social‐market” position in New Labour’s cultural policy represents an attempt to bridge or “hyphenate” the contradictory claims of social democracy, on the one hand, and economic fatalism, on the other. Despite the rhetoric of social and cultural “transformation”, the authors argue that a “faith” in the market prevents New Labour from transforming the political‐economic and cultural structures that generate economic and cultural injustices.     

Archaeology as diachronic anthropology

Fred T. Plog. The Study of Prehistoric Culture Change. New York: Academic Press, 1974. xii + 199 pp. Figures, tables, appendices, references, and index. $11.50.     

Everyday life after downshifting: Consumption,thrift, and inequality

Much of the early literature on downshifting proposed that reduced hours at work would lead to reduced levels of consumption, increased hours of leisure, and a more sustainable and fulfilling life, and yet recent survey research has challenged these assumptions. Our study contributes knowledge on the differentially lived experience of contemporary downshifting and its relationship to sustainable and/or thrifty consumption. We undertook qualitative interviews with Australians of working age who had voluntarily reduced their hours of work in order to explore the everyday experience of downshifting and its links with consumption practices in the domains of food, leisure, and transport. These downshifters focused on thrift rather than sustainability and consequently did not reduce their consumption in a straightforward way. We found the everyday experience of downshifting was significantly shaped by caring responsibilities and financial and housing security. Moreover, differential levels of financial security affected consumption levels. Although those with lower levels of wealth closely managed discretionary expenditure, financially secure downshifters did not reduce their consumption overall. We argue that reduced working hours are unlikely to lead to reduced consumption in the absence of an ideological commitment to sustainability and without mainstream support for changing consumption mindsets and practices.     

Characterization of timber masonry walls with dynamic tests

Timber-framed wall buildings are seen all over Europe, especially in seismic regions, given its adequacy to resist earthquakes. The “Pombalino” buildings, developed after the great 1755 earthquake that destroyed Lisbon, constitute one of the best examples of historic seismic-resistant structures based on timber-framed masonry walls. The research presented in this article aimed at experimentally evaluating the seismic behavior of the “Pombalino” buildings. The experimental program was based on extensive dynamic testing on sub-structures of typical “Frontal” walls (the timber masonry walls), carried out at the LNEC (the Portuguese National Laboratory of Civil Engineering) shaking table. The tests comprised (a) seismic tests, in which the seismic action was applied with increasing amplitude in one direction; and (b) dynamic identification tests, aiming at evaluating the dynamic properties of the sub-structures and their evolution with damage accumulation.