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Conversation article: Bali gives a snapshot of what ‘overtourism’ looks like in the developing world

BU research, Featured, Research communication, the conversation

Rama Permana writes for The Conversation about the impact of overtourism in developing countries like Bali…

Bali gives a snapshot of what ‘overtourism’ looks like in the developing world

Canggu, Bali in March 2023.
CatwalkPhotos/Shutterstock

Rama Permana, Bournemouth University

Barcelona residents marched against tourists in July after similar protests in Venice earlier in 2024. Recently, residents of Santorini in Greece were in uproar after a Facebook post reportedly asked them to stay home and make room for the thousands of tourists expected to arrive during the peak holiday season.

These are symptoms of overtourism: a situation where visits exceed a destination’s capacity, making residents angry and tourists miserable. Local governments have proposed tourism levies or entry fees to make visits more expensive and thereby limit how many people show up. Some tourism researchers have encouraged people to holiday in rural areas or poorer countries instead, to give a boost to their economies.

However, overtourism exists in the developing world too. Here’s what it looks like.

Travel on a tourist-swamped island

Bali is a major tourist destination in the Indonesian archipelago that accounts for nearly half of international arrivals in the country. Air travel is the most reliable way to get there, although a big source of carbon emissions, which inflame a climate crisis that is expected to disproportionately harm poorer countries like Indonesia. Roughly 15 million visitors arrived in 2023 – close to their level in 2019, before the pandemic.

Bali’s tourism-dependent economy (providing 61% of regional GDP in 2019) was more or less frozen by COVID-19. Yet, for tourists who spent lockdown in cities, the pandemic also left Bali, and particularly the island’s rural parts, with a renewed lustre. Penglipuran, a traditional Balinese village in the central highlands, was attracting thousands of visitors every day in July.

Encouraging people to visit poorer areas can disadvantage residents, but in a different way to how people in Venice or Barcelona experience it. After all, roads and public transport in richer European cities are better maintained.

A woman on a scooter on a rural road in the tropics at dusk.
For all its problems, vehicle rental offers a roaring trade in Bali.
Swuerfel/Shutterstock

The steady rise in tourists mean the roads in Bali get busier every year. There is a roughly one-to-one ratio of vehicles to people on the island, while public transport use remains low. Congestion prevented travellers entering and leaving Bali’s airport for six hours ahead of New Year’s Eve 2023.

In rural Bali, the hilly terrain, tropical weather and poorer public transport mean residents must rely on cars and motorbikes. The resulting noise and pollution degrades the rural experience. Converting these vehicles to run on electricity would not solve the problem entirely if most power in Bali remains fossil-sourced. Nor would it cut road congestion.

Tourists want to visit lots of places in rural Bali with a reliable source of transport. The limited options have prompted many to rent cars or motorbikes, but weak traffic enforcement has allowed misbehaviour: tourists driving without shirts or helmets – or even licenses. The regional government temporarily banned motorbike rentals for foreigners in March 2023.

Despite chaotic traffic on the island, residents have found work transporting tourists informally for decades. That’s why efforts to ease congestion and travel chaos, by designing public transport for tour groups or free shuttle bus services, have met with local protests and the ire of vehicle rental businesses.

To travel or not to travel

Unbridled development squanders the mutual benefits that tourism can have for residents and visitors. Likewise, neither residents nor tourists should be prohibited from travelling, but should instead travel responsibly.

A busy street in Barcelona.
Barcelona crowds in October 2022.
Mike Workman/Shutterstock

A railway transport plan that promises to connect Bali’s airport with Seminyak and Nusa Dua, the most popular areas in urban Bali, could help ease road traffic around the city centre. Local vehicle rental businesses could continue to operate in rural areas, but restrict their riders to less busy roads.

Poor destinations should be cautious about depending on tourism in the long term. The Balinese government is exploring its options in other sectors at least, such as agriculture and the digital economy.

Poorer destinations such as Bali are less well equipped than richer countries to manage the socioeconomic and environmental costs of overtourism. And ultimately, a swollen tourism sector contains the seeds of its own demise: declining environmental quality, unhappy residents and eventually, fewer tourists.

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Rama Permana, PhD Candidate in Sustainable Travel, Bournemouth University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Conversation article: Multiverse films take characters to increasingly dark places – as Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom casting shows

Featured, Research communication, the conversation

Dr Julia Round co-authors this article for The Conversation about the multiverse as a plot device and its use in popular culture…

Multiverse films take characters to increasingly dark places – as Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom casting shows

Alex Fitch, University of Brighton and Julia Round, Bournemouth University

The multiverse, the idea of different universes that exist at the same time, has been a plot device on screen and in comic books for years. The success of the recently released Deadpool & Wolverine, which has already earned US$1 billion (£778,180,000) at the box office, and the excitement around Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr’s imminent return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) – this time as villainous Doctor Doom – show the phenomenon is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

You could track it back to Sliding Doors (1998), which cut back and forth between two different realities, showing the ways a woman’s life diverged due to happenstance. Or you could go further still, with It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) which showed a different, darker, reality if James Stewart’s character, George, had died in childhood. Or even Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, where the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows Scrooge an alternate, bleaker reality where he doesn’t change his ways.

On TV, an episode of The Twilight Zone first dealt with parallel worlds in 1963 – while, in a 1967 episode of Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy played an evil version of Spock from an alternate reality, signified mainly by his facial hair.

The moment Robert Downey Jr. was revealed as Doctor Doom.

As Marvel fans know, Downey Jr’s familiarity as Tony Stark/Iron Man means it’s overwhelmingly likely that his new role as Doctor Doom will mean the two worlds (or multiverses) colliding in some way. But we don’t know yet how the return of Downey Jr to the MCU will lead to him playing a villain.

Perhaps in this alternate universe, Tony Stark became evil because of different choices taken in his life. Or perhaps he will be playing an entirely different character – Doctor Doom masquerading as Iron Man to shock or beguile the characters that trust him.

Doom is traditionally a Fantastic Four villain, so may first appear in that forthcoming movie. As Mark Hibbert, the author of Data and Doctor Doom (2024) suggests, it wouldn’t be out of character for Doom to “swap bodies with the original Tony Stark” and “travel backwards in time to before he died fighting Thanos”.

Doom often surrounds himself with robot doppelgangers (as seen on stage at San Diego Comic-Com, when Downey’s casting was announced), so it’s not a complete surprise that this character would look like another character.

Multiverse narratives and dark storylines

Multiverses hold the potential for infinite narrative freedom. This means gaining access to all possibilities, and alternatives to the mistakes of history – but multiverse stories seldom seem to work out that way.

The trope is found in various genres and media, from British comics such as Bryan Talbot’s Luther Arkwright saga (1978-2022), to novels including Adrian Tchaikovsky’s The Doors to Eden (2020) and Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series (1962-2012), which coined the term.

Stepping into the multiverse is generally discomfiting and unnerving at best, and downright dangerous and homicidal at worst, as in Sarah Pinsker’s 2017 novella And Then There Were (N-One).

Travelling the multiverse leads to colonisation in Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett’s The Long Earth series (2012). It enables corporate greed and eco-violence on an unprecedented scale in M.R. Carey’s Infinity Gate (2023). As Carey’s protagonist Essien Nkanika discovers, in the multiverse, strangeness and familiarity are twisted together, producing a feeling of sickening pressure and emotional dread.

Those who visit parallel worlds usually come back traumatised and changed – sometimes even becoming the monsters they once hunted, or tried to escape.

Often the alternate world is conveyed as an uncanny experience – Sigmund Freud’s term for the familiar made strange, an effect which “arouses dread and creeping horror”. How could it not? There is the danger of meeting another version of yourself – the ultimate doppelganger.

This notion signals the collapse of the idea of a single self, when the multiverse traveller finds themselves suffering a profound sense of otherness and displacement. These parallel worlds connect to ours in discomfiting ways, showing us our own world replaced and dislocated, where familiar landscapes hide unfamiliar threats. This theme is explored in Brian Crouch’s 2016 novel Dark Matter and the 2022 TV adaptation, where a parallel world doppelganger can steal your life.

It’s unsurprising that superheroes lend themselves so well to this scenario. These characters are already divided selves, with superhero identity frequently opposing the alter ego – think powerful Superman versus weak Clark Kent, brash Spiderman versus timid Peter Parker, obsessive and proactive Batman versus idle Bruce Wayne.

Chris Evans plays two Marvel characters in Deadpool and Wolverine.

Deadpool & Wolverine also comments on the phenomenon of the same actor playing different characters in the same multiverse. In the movie, Chris Evans plays two characters. This is first used for surprise, then humour, and finally to inflammatory effect.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. DC Comics got there first in 1961, when The Flash met a doppelganger from an alternative reality. On TV, Brandon Routh played both The Atom and Superman in a 2019 episode of Batwoman, that also featured multiple Clark Kents.

The cartoon series Rick and Morty (2013-present) often returns to the plot of the characters facing evil versions of themselves from other dimensions, while their domestic life features two versions of Morty’s mother now living in the same house.

The multiverse brings new twists and turns to comic book sagas on screen and in print, and allows reboots to be folded into the same narrative (as seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home, 2021) which helps a film studio, reuse, revive and advertise their back catalogue.

Since cinema-goers are currently voting with their feet for this narrative style, we should expect to see many more multiverses to come. But don’t be surprised when the consequences of visiting these parallel worlds turns increasingly dark.

Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.The Conversation

Alex Fitch, Lecturer and PhD Candidate in Comics and Architecture, University of Brighton and Julia Round, Associate Professor of English and Comics Studies, Bournemouth University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

BU receives share of over £33m in funding from the NIHR to inspire health and care students and professionals into research

BU research, Doctoral College, Featured, Postgraduate Research, Research communication, Research news

BU has received a share of £33.2m in funding to provide research training for health and care students and early career professionals. 

The funding, from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), is part of the new INSIGHT: Inspiring Students into Research scheme, which aims to help students and those at early career stages in health and care to explore a range of research careers.

Nursing students laughing in one of the simulation wardsIn partnership with the University of the West of England (UWE) and regional organisations, we have received £1.4m to deliver the INSIGHT programme for the South West Central region.

This includes providing fully funded Master’s with Research (MRes) programmes and a range of engagement activities – such as workshops, networking opportunities and mentoring programmes to promote research careers within health and care.

Professor Carol Clark, Professor in Physiotherapy at Bournemouth University who is leading the INSIGHT programme at BU, said: “The NIHR INSIGHT programme provides an outstanding opportunity for health and care professionals to build their research skills. Embedding research into careers has the potential to improve outcomes for all the people who access health and care in England.

“We are delighted to be working alongside UWE to deliver MRes programmes for the South West Central region for the next three years, building research capacity and capability.”

Dr Adele Drew-Hill, Dean and Head of School of Health and Social Wellbeing at UWE, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Bournemouth University to deliver this innovative and engaging programme designed to enable students to explore a career in research. Our shared vision is to develop the leading regional hub for healthcare research skills development in the Southwest.”

The INSIGHT Programme funds a wide range of engagement activities and research Master’s places for current students and recent graduates within healthcare, social work and public health professions.

The £33.2m funding from the NIHR is for three years and supports institutions across 12 regions in England to deliver engagement programmes to attract people into research careers, and fully-funded Research Master’s places to train those new to research.

Professor Waljit Dhillo, Dean of NIHR Academy, said: “We know how important early exposure to research is for helping students and early career professionals develop the knowledge and skills needed to join the research workforce and build successful research careers in the future.

“I’m delighted that we can invest in our next generation of researchers in the South West Central region, and show students all of the benefits that research roles and careers have to offer.”

For more information about the opportunities available in the South West Central region, please visit https://insight-southwestcentral.net/ 

For more information about the INSIGHT programme, please visit the NIHR website.

Drowning prevention meeting for NIHR-funded study

BU research, COVID-19, Featured, international, PG research, Research news, Uncategorized

This week our collaborators on the Sonamoni project traveled from Bangladesh and Uganda to Dorset for a set of research planning meetings.  The visitors represented CIPRB (The Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh) and DWB (Design without Borders).  They were hosted by colleagues from Bournemouth University, the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) and from the University of Southampton.  Since Monday we managed to have an intensive week of design workshops, reviewing and incorporating local-community prioritised interventions for child drowning prevention (aged <2years) in Bangladesh.  I say ‘we managed’, but I have been at home all week with COVID-19.  The past few days I was beginning to feel quite well again, so I was unpleasantly surprised that I was still positive when I tested yesterday, and even more so this morning.  Consequently, missing the whole week working with our visiting collaborators.

The Sonamoni project recently presented its own video recording on YouTube,which you can watch here!

Sonamoni is a public health project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through its Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information, visit the NIHR website.

 

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

Conversation article: Why so many people drown at the water’s edge

BU research, Featured, Research communication, the conversation

Dr Jill Nash writes for The Conversation about the dangers of being near water and the role emotions play in making safer decisions…

MarBom/Shutterstock

Jill Nash, Bournemouth University

Just being near blue spaces (the sea, rivers and lakes) can make us feel more relaxed because water triggers our parasympathetic nervous system, helping our body rest and digest. This calming effect, which slows our heart rate and lowers blood pressure, explains why so many people find joy and solace in water-related activities.

But enjoying the water also has serious risks that can’t be ignored. In the UK, drowning is a leading cause of accidental deaths, surpassing even home fires and cycling accidents. Each year, around 400 people drown accidentally in the UK’s coastal and inland waters.

Notably, 40% of these incidents occur when people aren’t even planning to be in the water, such as when they’re caught off guard by a rising tide while walking along the coast or jumping in to rescue a dog. This is a glaring reminder that it isn’t just traditional water users who get into danger.

According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, there are over 100,000 water rescues each year. These rescues are tragedies which leave lasting impact, with survivors (and their families) often suffering from severe injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Incident report data tells us that globally, men are 80% more likely to drown than women, especially middle-aged men and teenage boys. This higher risk is attributed to men spending more time in the water and engaging in riskier behaviours like swimming alone, at night, drinking alcohol, and neglecting life jackets. Social pressures and a tendency to underestimate risks (by assuming the water looks safe when it isn’t) contribute to the higher drowning rates among men too.

My team of neuroscience and communication academics at Bournemouth University are working with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to research how to improve water safety communications using virtual reality simulations to record brain activities when immersed in water.

By using emotional sensors in smart glasses, we’re discovering how emotional loads, like fear, are experienced during virtual reality scenarios, when falling into water unexpectedly from a boat or cliff. We’ll be demonstrating the technology at an exhibition at Bournemouth University during August 2024 to highlight the risks of being near water and to collect more data.

Man with black VR headset on face walks infront of big screen with rocky shore, other people watching in foreground
Virtual reality could be used to help people learn about water safety.
Bournemouth University, CC BY-ND

So far, our research has highlighted the challenges and complexities of human emotions in making safer decisions in the water and the role that instinct plays in decision making in respect to gender. Men seem to exhibit a different perception of risk and a tendency towards impulsive decision-making, whereas women tend to be more precautionary and a greater inclination towards safety and risk avoidance.

Activities also affect the risk in the water. People tend to prepare for activities like paddleboarding and kayaking with the right gear and skills. This means they are usually safer than in-water play on inflatable toys such as lilos which are often used without preparation and are also easily swept out in a strong current.

Unexpected water entry, such as being caught by tides while walking along the shore, or taking a selfie at the edge of a clifftop is even more dangerous due to the element of surprise and lack of preparation when falling into the water. This unpreparedness significantly increases the risk of drowning as well as the fact that some people who unexpectedly fall into water are usually fully clothed and may also have a fear of water too.

Drowning fatalities often occur on inland waterways because these canals, streams, lochs and lakes are much colder than the sea, deceptively calm and hide numerous dangers. For instance, the water could be unexpectedly deep, there could be hidden currents or rubbish such as broken glass or an old bicycle. The water may be polluted and be a serious threat to health or it could just be difficult to get out of because of steep and slippery banks.

poster with white writing, Float to Live, and clothed man on back lying on surface of sea
RNLI is promoting ‘float to live’ as its latest water safety campaign.
RNLI 2024, CC BY-ND

Float to live

Instincts play a crucial role in how we respond to water. We could be relaxed and swimming one minute, then water conditions quickly change and a rip current can catch you off guard. Our instincts are often to swim hard against the rip current, but the best thing to do is swim parallel to the shore to escape the rip. People who aren’t experienced and educated around rip currents probably won’t know how to spot a rip current, let alone know how to get out of one safely.

On sudden entry into cold water, our bodies react automatically to heighten our alertness and adrenaline levels due to cold water shock. That makes us gasp, hold our breath and try to swim hard until the point of exhaustion. Overriding that instinct could save your life.

Swimming, sailing, even just building a sandcastle – the ocean benefits our physical and mental wellbeing. Curious about how a strong coastal connection helps drive marine conservation, scientists are diving in to investigate the power of blue health.

This article is part of a series, Vitamin Sea, exploring how the ocean can be enhanced by our interaction with it.

Whether you’re planning a refreshing dip, a leisurely stroll along the coastline or a run along a canal, it’s crucial to know how to stay safe. This knowledge can be the difference between a safe outing and a tragic accident. Research shows that following these five simple steps are highly effective. They are easy to remember and can be done by anyone, regardless of swimming ability or whether you are in freshwater or saltwater.

First, keep your head back with your ears submerged to keep your airways open. Resist the urge to panic, try to relax and breath normally. Gently move your hands paddling them as this will aid in keeping afloat. Don’t fret if your legs sink, everyone’s buoyancy is different. Finally, spread your arms and legs as this really helps maintain your stability in the water.

And if you spot someone in distress, don’t jump in to rescue them: instead, shout out the “float to live” steps and immediately call 999 to ask for the coastguard.The Conversation

Jill Nash, Senior Lecturer, Bournemouth University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Conversation article: Supershoes have transformed competitive distance running, but they remain controversial

BU research, Featured, Research communication, the conversation

Dr Bryce Dyer writes for The Conversation about the controversy around advanced running footwear known as ‘supershoes’ and how they work.

Supershoes have transformed competitive distance running, but they remain controversial

Bryce Dyer, Bournemouth University

On the face of it, competitive distance running appears not to have changed much since the Olympic Games were revived in 1896. However, even the relative simplicity of racing from gun to tape has radically altered in recent years due to the rise of advanced running footwear known colloquially as “supershoes”.

A few years ago, the Nike Vaporfly shoe kicked off a storm of controversy in athletics. It became a focus for claims about whether it provided some athletes with an unfair advantage over those not equipped with the shoes.

In 2019, Kenyan distance runner Eliud Kipchoge wore prototype Vaporfly shoes when he became the first athlete to run the marathon distance in under two hours as part of the Ineos 1:59 challenge in Vienna. Ultimately, the shoes avoided a ban just in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Several years on, what more do we understand about these shoes and how they work? My recent paper attempts to review and answer ten key questions about supershoes as the Paris Olympics now loom on the horizon.

First, we need to understand what supershoes are and how they differ from
traditional running footwear. Initially, supershoes used a sole that saw a combination of material called a polyamide block elastomer (known by its tradename Pebax) coupled with the use of a carbon fibre plate.

At the height of the controversy, much was made of this plate, leading to claims that they were essentially springs propelling runners along. However, scientists now understand that, generally speaking, it’s the combination of all of the soles’ components working together harmoniously that’s behind the shoes’ success.

This broad effect has helped topple a raft of world records in the marathon and half-marathon distances. The shoes have improved times by roughly 1.4-2.8% or 0.6-2.2% in the men’s and women’s marathon events respectively over the last seven to eight years.

Today, other brands such as Adidas and Saucony have their own designs and
use different components in different ways. But the harmonious principle in the sole design is inherently the same.

Teeter-totter effect

Beyond the observation that all components are working in unison, a more detailed explanation of how the shoes work remains elusive because so many different influences can contribute to athletic performance. Among factors credited with the shoes’ enhanced performance are the thickness of the midsole and what’s been termed the “teeter-totter” effect, an upwards reaction force that passively enhances the propulsive stance of the runner. There’s also evidence against both of these ideas.

However, there is now strong evidence that supershoes reduce a runners’ oxygen consumption when compared to traditional running shoes. However, the scientific community isn’t in agreement as to how that is achieved.

Most studies focus on well-trained runners so it’s plausible that a recreational runner or those of a different age could see wildly different levels of performance enhancement than the elite runners we’ll see in Paris this summer. It’s also conceivable that the placebo effect could mean that simply knowing that you are wearing an advanced shoe makes you perform better in a race, regardless of whether the shoe helps or not.

As to the shoes’ acceptability, that is ultimately decided by the sport’s stakeholders and you, the spectator. Whether they are fair or not, new technology can either prompt people to use it or provide cost barriers that reduce peoples’ participation.

Furthermore, consumers can now purchase supershoe technology themselves. Whether they really want to or are happy to do so for something that may only be effective for a few hundred miles of running before the sole materials could begin to lose their potent mechanical properties remains equally contentious.

The use of supershoes has not been unchecked or challenged. In 2020, World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport, moved to limit this technology by implementing regulations that countered what it felt was contributing to the magnitude and frequency of records being broken.

In this case, the governing body’s rules centred on limiting the sole thickness, the number and complexity of any internal rigid structures (such as the carbon fibre plates) and the prevention of shoes that were one-offs and would therefore not be accessible for the consumer to buy.

Most leading running shoe brands have now released their own supershoes. The technology will undoubtedly evolve, so perpetual vigilance will be required by the World Athletics. Ultimately, supershoes have sometimes courted controversy, but they don’t seem to be going away and will remain an important part of distance running for the foreseeable future.The Conversation

Bryce Dyer, Associate Professor of Sports Technology, Bournemouth University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

BU Research Conference: Powerful Partnerships – Wednesday 26 June

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A lightbulb created by interlocking pieces of stringThere’s still time to book your place for the BU Research Conference, which takes place on Wednesday (26 June) in the Fusion Building.

The theme for this year’s conference is powerful partnerships, exploring how working with others can enhance your research.

Speakers include Isabella Pereira, Head of the Institute for Community Studies, and a panel of BU academics sharing their experiences of working with partners regionally, nationally and internationally.

You’ll also have chance to take part in practical workshops covering topics including building international partnerships, co-creating research, and working with business.

The conference runs from 9.30am – 1pm and will be followed by a networking lunch to spark further conversations and collaborations.

We’re hoping it will be an inspiring and informative day, and we’d love to see you there.

Find out more and book your place via Eventbrite

Conversation article: Documenting the world’s largest prehistoric rock art in South America – new study

BU research, Featured, Research communication, the conversation

Dr Philip Riris co-authors this article for The Conversation about his experiences documenting monumental rock art along the Orinoco River…

Documenting the world’s largest prehistoric rock art in South America – new study

Enhanced image of monumental rock art on Cerro Pintado, Venezuela.
Philip Riris, Author provided

Philip Riris, Bournemouth University; José R. Oliver, UCL, and Natalia Lozada Mendieta, Universidad de los Andes

We weren’t the first to lay eyes on the engraving since it was carved into the hillside any number of centuries or millennia ago, not by a long shot. The Venezuelan archaeologist José Maria Cruxent even recorded it in his diaries in the 1940s – and there were certainly visitors before him.

The site of Cerro Pintado (Painted Hill), in the Venezuelan state of Amazonas, is a local landmark and a well-known fixture on the itinerary of those travelling on the Middle Orinoco River.

Yet viewing the gigantic snake, carved high up on the hillside, immediately ignited both our sense of wonder and our scientific curiosity. Why a snake? Why did its creators climb a towering granite hill to place it there, just so? What about all the other engravings orbiting it – what do they mean?

All these questions and more swirled around our little group as we stood, sticky and mosquito-bitten, in the savanna at the foot of the hill. Its singular status made it all the more intriguing.

While there are other examples of giant prehistoric rock art in other parts of the world, these appear to be the largest. While, as mentioned, some were already known to archaeologists, our team documented others, including over the border in Colombia.

The results reveal a high concentration of these monumental engravings in the region. The subjects of these symbolic works include snakes, humans and centipedes. The animals probably played an important role in the mythologies of the people who made them. The results have been published in the journal Antiquity.

New sites to survey

On our visit to Cerro Pintado in 2015, we supposed that the enormous 42-metre-long snake engraving (probably representing a boa or anaconda, native to the region) stood in splendid isolation. Prior scholars observed that many rock shelters in the surrounding savanna hosted prehistoric paintings, and we had already seen plenty of engravings near our dig sites.

Although often numerous or quite large, none of these sites shared the truly monumental scale of the Cerro Pintado engravings. Its apparent uniqueness led us to dutifully return with a drone to secure better images of the highly inaccessible panel. Already during the first stint in the field, however, we suspected that there was more to be uncovered about the rock art of the region.

Our guide, Juan Carlos García, a local educator and photographer, was well travelled around the area, and had plenty of insights to share. While surveying the islands that separate the calm middle course of the Orinoco River from its turbulent upper reaches, he pointed to the Colombian bank and forthrightly informed us: “Do you see that hill? Over there, behind it, is another snake, as big as Pintado.”

The possibility of another snake was beyond tantalising to us. Did it also have a set of accompanying motifs? Was it truly as big and as visible from far away? For lack of scientific permits in Colombia, or the time to search for a new site even if we had permits, these questions were left unanswered. After four campaigns in Venezuela, our fieldwork funding ended in 2017 and Cerro Pintado remained, as far as archaeology was concerned, a one-and-only location.

Luckily, the project’s principal investigator, José Oliver, at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, secured the means to return to survey the Colombian side in 2018. The results of careful systematic surveys were shared between the team in a flurry of excited text messages and emails, confirming that there was not just one more snake, but several. They were also comparable in size to Pintado and clearly related, yet each with their own twist.

The project’s doctoral candidate, Natalia Lozada Mendieta, from the Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia, now an assistant professor, also returned in 2021 and 2022 to find more snakes. Finally, the entire original team reunited in the field in 2023. Collectively, and with help from local guides, we amassed a database of 13 vast rock art sites with upwards of 150 individual engravings between them.

Striking motifs

To us, the snakes were the most striking motifs, although giant centipedes, humans dancing or playing instruments, and mysterious geometric shapes of unknown intent did not fail to impress. Although not unique, as previously thought, Cerro Pintado is now accompanied by a constellation of related sites – a genuine monumental rock art tradition.

Very large prehistoric petroglyphs, the scientific term for rock engravings, are not unknown. Whales and elk are depicted in the Stone Age art of Norway, and virtually life-size giraffes and camels are known from Niger and Saudi Arabia, respectively.

Highly visible or salient rock art such as this is often presumed to communicate ideas or concepts of importance. While their exact meaning is lost, their impact can be felt through their physicality, meaning their size and placement.

In our cases, we are fortunate to note repeating themes across the indigenous cosmologies of northern South America that allude to gigantic snakes as the creators and protectors of rivers – including the great “river” in the sky, the Milky Way. Yet they are also menacing, predatory and lethal.

This information enriches our understanding of the archaeological record. The snakes were intended to be seen from some distance, reflecting a shared understanding of the world and its inhabitants. What marks the Middle Orinoco out as a unique hotspot, we argue, is the sheer concentration of these enormous works of pre-Columbian art.

They appear to be the largest in the world, and speak to a contested, yet openly communicative cultural landscape during the pre-Columbian period that we are only just beginning to understand.

More importantly, as regional tourism expands year on year, the sites are
increasingly in need of protection, an activity in which indigenous people should have a leading voice. Undoubtedly, there are dozens more sites in this unique monumental tradition to encounter, record and, hopefully, preserve.The Conversation

Philip Riris, Lecturer in Archaeological & Palaeoenvironmental Modelling, Bournemouth University; José R. Oliver, Reader in Latin American Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, and Natalia Lozada Mendieta, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Universidad de los Andes

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Month in Research: May 2024

BU research, Featured, Research communication, Research news

A cartoon image of black and white hands clapping on a yellow background

The Month in Research

The Month in Research is our monthly round-up sharing research and knowledge exchange successes from the previous month, showcasing the great work taking place across BU.

Your achievements

Thank you to everyone who has used the online form to put forward their achievements, or those of colleagues, this month.

Funding

Congratulations to all those who have had funding for research and knowledge exchange projects and activities awarded in May. Highlights include:

  • Professor Mel Hughes (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences) has been awarded c.£2,200 by the Care Quality Commission for their project Involving people in health and social care and understanding people’s experiences of care
  • Dr Terri Cole (Faculty of Science and Technology) has been awarded c.£25,000 by BCP Council for their project Development of a new perpetrator behaviour change programme for domestic abuse
  • Tom Cousins (Faculty of Science and Technology) has been awarded c.£5,000 by the Society of Antiquaries of London for their project Reconstructing the Maritime World of the Mortar Wreck

Publications

Congratulations to all those who have had work published across the last month. Below is a selection of publications from throughout May:

Content for The Month in Research has been collected using the research and knowledge exchange database (RED), the Bournemouth University Research Online (BURO) repository and submissions via The Month in Research online form. It is by no means intended to be an exhaustive list. All information is correct as of 31.5.24.

Please use The Month in Research online form to share your highlights and achievements, or those of colleagues, for the next monthly round-up.

BU Research Conference 2024: Powerful partnerships – book your place

BU research, Featured, Knowledge Exchange, Research communication, research opportunities, Research Training, RKE development framework

Collaboration is at the heart of excellent research – whether it’s building relationships with international partners, co-creating research with communities, or working across disciplines to find fresh perspectives.

The BU Research Conference is back for 2024 and this year’s event will explore the power of partnerships, showcasing how working with others can enhance your research.

It will take place in the Fusion Building (Talbot Campus) on Wednesday 26th June, with a mix of speakers, panel sessions, and practical workshops.

The conference will run from 9.30am to 1.15pm, with refreshments included. It will be followed by a networking lunch to help start conversations and build new connections.

The keynote speaker for the conference will be Isabella Pereira, Head of the Institute for Community Studies – a research institute with people at its heart. Engaging with people across the UK, they work to influence societal change, bridging the gap between communities, evidence, and policymaking.

Following this will be the Building partnerships panel, with academics from across BU talking about their experiences of working with partners regionally, nationally, and internationally – as well as across different sectors and disciplines – and sharing their insights and advice on effective research collaboration.

We’ll also have a range of practical workshops, covering topics including working with business, building international partnerships, and public involvement in research.

The conference is open to all researchers and those involved in research across BU and other universities in Dorset.

Book your place via Eventbrite

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2024 – Closing today

BU research, Doctoral College, Featured, PG research, Postgraduate Research

Still time to have your say

Final call for PGRs to complete this year’s Advance HE Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) which closes today!

Don’t miss the chance to tell us about your experience at Bournemouth University by taking part in the Advance HE Postgraduate Research Experience Survey which closes on Thursday 16 May 2024 at 23:59. We are keen to make sure our PGRs have the best possible experience while studying at Bournemouth University. To do this, we need to know what you think works well and what as a university we could do better.

So far 44% of PGRs at BU have taken part in the survey. A huge THANK YOU to those who have submitted feedback, we are really grateful for your responses!

If you have not completed the survey, please complete this by accessing the unique link that has been emailed to you from the Doctoral College. This has been sent to both your student and staff email.  

Once you have completed the survey:

  • Prize draw – upon completing the survey, you will automatically be entered into a free prize draw. Four winners will be able to claim a £50 shopping voucher. Terms and conditions apply.
  • BU Chartwells voucher – you are entitled to claim a voucher worth £3.20 to use at any BU Chartwells outlet. Please come to the Doctoral College (DLG08, Talbot Campus) to collect your voucher. If you are unable to find your screenshot showing you have completed the survey, do to worry, just come to the office and we will get your voucher to you.

In addition, we will be making a £1 donation for every survey completed to the student mental health wellbeing charity, Student Minds.

The survey is anonymous and will only take around 15 minutes.

Please take part this year and share your experience of being a student with us. If you have any difficulties or questions about the survey, please email PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Best wishes,

The Doctoral College

1 WEEK REMAINING- Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2024

BU research, Doctoral College, Featured, PG research, Postgraduate Research

1 week to go till the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey closes! 

We need to know what you think works well and what as a university we could do better.

So far 32% of PGRs at BU have taken part in the survey. A huge THANK YOU to those who have submitted feedback.

If you have not completed the survey, please complete this by accessing the unique link that has been emailed to you from the Doctoral College. This has been sent to both your student and staff email.  

Once you have completed the survey:

  • Prize draw – upon completing the survey, you will automatically be entered into a free prize draw. Four winners will be able to claim a £50 shopping voucher. Terms and conditions apply.
  • BU Chartwells voucher – you are entitled to claim a voucher worth £3.20 to use at any BU Chartwells outlet. Please come to the Doctoral College (DLG08, Talbot Campus) to collect your voucher. If you are unable to find your screenshot showing you have completed the survey, do to worry, just come to the office and we will get your voucher to you.

In addition, we will be making a £1 donation for every survey completed to the student mental health wellbeing charity, Student Minds.

The survey closes on Thursday 16 May. It is anonymous and will only take around 15 minutes.

While the survey is open, we send out multiple emails containing your unique link to submit your feedback. Since the survey is anonymous, we will not know who has completed it and who has not. For this reason, these emails automatically go out to everyone, regardless of whether you have completed the survey or not. If you have completed the survey, please disregard future emails you receive for this year’s PRES.

Please take part this year and share your experience of being a student with us. If you have any difficulties or questions about the survey, please email PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Best wishes,

The Doctoral College

Conversation article: How 2-Tone brought new ideas about race and culture to young people beyond the inner cities

BU research, Featured, Research communication, the conversation

Dr Ian Gwinn writes for The Conversation about his oral history project exploring the impact of 2-Tone music on people from Dorset…

How 2-Tone brought new ideas about race and culture to young people beyond the inner cities

Ian Gwinn, Bournemouth University

This Town, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight’s latest drama for the BBC, brings to life a defining – if short-lived – era in the history of British youth culture and popular music. Set in the West Midlands against the backdrop of industrial decline and social unrest in the early 1980s, the drama unfolds to the syncopated sounds of 2-Tone.

A furious mix of punk and Jamaican ska, 2-Tone became a genuinely national phenomenon, bursting out of a bedsit in Coventry and into the charts and the popular consciousness.

We know a lot about the urban multiracial landscapes of its Midlands origins, out of which its twin ideals of racial unity and musical hybridity sprang. But we know much less about how it resonated with the experience of young people beyond the big towns and cities.

Such considerations are timely. It is now 45 years since the founding of 2-Tone Records by Jerry Dammers, organist and songwriter for ska’s most famous band The Specials, and mastermind of the whole movement.

Of course, 1979 was also a decisive year for politics in the UK. But bands like The Specials did more than just soundtrack the civil strife of the early Thatcher years; they actually inspired political and cultural change.

To understand how they did so is important not only for historical reasons. A deeper sense of how anti-racist and multicultural ideas have shaped less culturally diverse regions may enrich contemporary debates over racism, particularly rural racism, which have become increasingly polarised.

My own ongoing oral history project with people from the Dorset region registers the powerful effect 2-Tone had in less racially mixed areas. Interviewees speak vividly of the energy, excitement and unruliness of attending gigs, as well as the sense of shared community, belonging and togetherness.

Nobody is special

As The Specials’ first single, Gangster, hit the airwaves in the summer of 1979 and the first 2-Tone tour opened in the autumn (with support from fellow labelmates The Selecter and Madness), a growing legion of youth clad in slim-fit mohair “tonic suits”, pork-pie hats, and black-and-white checkerboard greeted the bands as they made their way across the country. By the time all three bands appeared together on Top of the Pops that November, 2-Tone had swept the nation.

The Specials, in particular, built an ethos on the idea that “nobody is special”, refusing the division between band and audience (symbolically represented in the audience joining the band on the stage for the final numbers).

The inaugural tour covered the length and breadth of the country, reaching musical outposts like Aberdeen, Ayr, Blackburn, Bournemouth, Plymouth and Swindon. A seaside tour followed in 1980, winding its way through several English coastal towns, from Blackpool to Worthing.

One interviewee described how 2-Tone bands made a big deal of moving out into the remote areas and bringing the music to the people. That made them more accessible, setting them apart from other bands of the period.

For one fan from Weymouth, travelling up to that first Bournemouth gig was a powerful unifying experience:

You just didn’t realise that you were part of a bigger thing…When you get in there and everyone’s got the same attitude, the same outlook, the same sense of purpose and sense of place – it was really quite an amazing feeling.

Playing venues in far-flung places was part of the 2-Tone mission. For Dammers and others, the anti-racist message was aimed directly and primarily at white youth. These 2-Tone bands sought to reach audiences with a visual and aural display of unity. The symbolism had a profound impact. As another interviewee recalled:

Groups were either all white or all black…2-Tone was the first thing where you actually saw white and black musicians on stage together…That was a massive difference.

But not everyone suddenly became a staunch anti-racist. Some simply went for the music, the dancing and the good times. But for others the unity of politics, style and music cut across divisions among fractious youth cults and against far-right influences. Embracing the spirit of 2-Tone gave rural and small-town youth a way of expressing anti-racist politics in a more local idiom.

Race and racism today

Despite the contribution of 2-Tone – and before it, Rock against Racism – to anti-racist struggles, issues of racism have never gone away. The fight against far-right nationalism and police brutality continues, but increasingly the spotlight has shifted towards the more subtle and unseen ways in which racism is perpetuated. This ranges from everyday microaggressions to the lingering shadow of Britain’s imperial legacy, attracting a strong backlash in some quarters.

Recent evidence of rural racism, for example, has been met with swift dismissals. The former home secretary Suella Braverman was quick to deny others’ experience of racism, stating that the claim the countryside is racist is one of the most ridiculous examples of left-wing identity politics – just because there are more white people than non-white people somewhere does not make it racist.

Recalling the example of 2-Tone and The Specials may encourage a longing for a simpler time, when racists were easy to spot; things are more complicated today. Still, it can help us to understand how racial solidarities are forged, particularly in and through social and geographical differences. For my interviewees, 2-Tone’s ska revival was not a passing fad; it allowed them to reinterpret their own experience of class, race and locality.

If only for a moment, 2-Tone mania ruled Britain, in the words of the music critic Simon Reynolds. But as This Town shows, its rich and complex legacies can still be brought powerfully to life in the present.The Conversation

Ian Gwinn, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Bournemouth University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Month in Research: April 2024

BU research, Featured, Research communication

A cartoon image of black and white hands clapping on a yellow background

The Month in Research

The Month in Research is our monthly round-up sharing research and knowledge exchange successes from across the previous month, showcasing the amazing work taking place across BU.

Your achievements

Thank you to everyone who has used the online form to put forward their achievements, or those of colleagues, this month.

  • Dr Ellie Jennings (Business School) has had a new publication in the International Journal of Adolescence and Youth: E Gennings, J Batten & H Brown (2024) Development and validation of the Winchester Adolescent Wellbeing Scale: a holistic measure of children’s wellbeing, International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 29:1, DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2024.2331569

Funding

Congratulations to all those who have had funding for research and knowledge exchange projects and activities awarded in April. Highlights include:

  • Professor Jane Murphy (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences) has been awarded c.£140,000 by the National Institute for Health Research for their project Stage 2 – The clinical and cost-effectiveness of oral nutritional supplements compared to routine practice, fortified menus and dietetic supported nutritional care on the quality of life and functional outcomes in older people living in care homes in partnership with Plymouth University (lead institution)
  • Dr Dominique Mylod (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences) has been awarded c.15,000 by the National Institute for Health Research for their project Early Labour App.

Publications

Congratulations to all those who have had work published across the last month. Below is a selection of publications from throughout February:

Content for The Month in Research has been collected using the research and knowledge exchange database (RED), the Bournemouth University Research Online (BURO) repository and submissions via The Month in Research online form. It is by no means intended to be an exhaustive list. All information is correct as of 1.5.24.

Please use The Month in Research online form to share your highlights and achievements, or those of colleagues, for the next monthly round-up.

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2024 – 2 WEEKS LEFT

BU research, Doctoral College, Featured, PG research, Postgraduate Research

The Advance HE Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) has launched

Have your say – 2 weeks till the deadline!

Thank you to everyone who has completed the survey so far. If you have not already completed it, we would really appreciate if you could find a few minutes to respond and tell us about your experience this year.

We are keen to make sure our PGRs have the best possible experience while studying with us. To do this, we need to know what you think works well and what as a university we could do better. This is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at Bournemouth University. We also kindly ask that all supervisors encourage their PGRs to participate in the survey.

Thank you to all PGRs who completed the 2023 PRES survey – we listened to you and your feedback has helped us to enhance your PGR experience in a range of areas.

The survey will close on Thursday 16 May 2024. Upon completing the survey, PGRs will automatically entered into a free prize draw. Four winners will be able to claim a £50 shopping voucher. Terms and conditions apply.

In addition, we will be making a £1 donation for every survey completed to the student mental health wellbeing charity, Student Minds.

Once you have completed the survey, you are entitled to claim a voucher worth £3.20, from the Doctoral College to use at any BU Chartwells outlet. Please come to the Doctoral College (DLG08, Talbot Campus) to collect your voucher. You will need to show a screen shot of the final page of the survey in order to claim your voucher.

How do I take part?

PGRs should have received an email from the Doctoral College on Monday 15 April 2024 containing a unique link which will allow you to access and complete the survey. If you can’t find this email, contact PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk and we’ll help you to get access.

What will I be asked?

The survey will take around 15 minutes to complete. Your response is confidential, and any reporting will be entirely anonymous. The survey is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at BU. It will ask you to share your views on supervision, resources, research community, progress and assessment, skills and professional development and wellbeing.

Why should I take part?

Your feedback is important. The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey is the only national survey of PGRs and so is the only way for us to compare how we are doing with other institutions and to make changes that will improve your experience in the future.

More information

If you would like to know more about the survey, please visit: PRES 2024.

We hope you take the opportunity to get involved this year and help us make improvements to your experience.

Best wishes,

The Doctoral College

For any PRES related queries, please email: PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk

Conversation article: London Marathon – how visually impaired people run

BU research, Featured, Research communication, the conversation

Ahead of the London Marathon this weekend, Dr Ben Powis co-authors this article for The Conversation which explains the variety of techniques used by visually impaired runners, as well as the societal barriers that stop visually impaired people from getting involved in the sport.

London Marathon: how visually impaired people run

GB parasport athlete Charlotte Ellis (left) finishing the 2019 London Marathon with her guide runner.
Dave Smith/Shutterstock

Jessica Louise Macbeth, University of Central Lancashire and Ben Powis, Bournemouth University

In this weekend’s London Marathon, nearly 50,000 runners will hit the capital’s streets in one of the world’s most iconic races. For the visually impaired (VI) runners on the start line, their approach to this famous route will differ from their sighted counterparts. Just as there are misconceptions about blindness itself, many people are confused about how VI people run.

Some assume that all VI runners are blind with no usable vision, have superhuman compensatory skills and are passively guided around running routes by sighted guides. The reality is that, like all runners, VI runners have diverse experiences, preferences and needs.

In our research, we’ve conducted in-depth interviews with eight blind and partially sighted runners about their running practices. Some navigate routes independently, while others run with a guide – using a tether, holding their elbow or running in close proximity.

VI running can be a rich and creative experience, engaging all the senses. But, as one of our participants stated, this process is not innate: “People say, ‘Oh your smell becomes better, your hearing becomes better’. I don’t think it does, I just think you tune into it a little bit more… it just becomes more of a natural thing.”

As research on the runner-guide partnership shows, it can take practice and trying different strategies for runners to make sense of their surroundings and figure out what works for them.

Through touch, hearing, smell and usable vision, VI runners actively develop unique relationships with the routes they run. Our participants described how they identify landmarks, such as the sound of a river or the feel of changing terrain, to construct maps inside their heads. As one runner explains: “I could subconsciously tell you where every crack on the pavement is.”

Barriers to running

With VI people being one of the most inactive minority groups, running can be inclusive, empowering and provide a range of social and physical benefits.

But there are a number of societal barriers to VI people getting and staying involved in running. Ableist assumptions about who can and cannot run, are frequently internalised by VI people themselves.

One of our participants, who is blind from birth, explained: “I’d never even considered running before really… I just thought I couldn’t do it.” Having acquired sight loss in adulthood, another participant said: “I thought I’d never be able to run again, which was a massive blow when I first started losing my sight.”

To combat these assumptions and spread awareness about opportunities, runners like Kelly Barton and her guides share running content online. A recent video of her 250th parkrun, which she completed without being tethered to a guide, attracted national media coverage.

Our participants reported struggling to find guide runners, who can support VI people to run safely by guiding them along a route using verbal instructions, tethers or physical contact.

One VI runner who owns a guide dog contacted a local running event for a guide and was told they “haven’t found a guide yet, but we’ve got a dog sitter”. While there are local groups connecting VI runners and guides in some areas, such as VI Runners Bristol, this is not consistent across the UK.

The challenge of finding guides was also exacerbated during the pandemic. In the US, an innovative project using guide dogs trained for running has led to positive outcomes for both runners and dogs. But such projects are not yet widespread and require additional training for the guide dogs.

For VI runners who prefer running indoors, the treadmills used in many gyms are inaccessible. The charity Thomas Pocklington Trust and UK Coaching are working to address this through the inclusive facilities toolkit.

How you can get involved

For many VI runners, including our participants, parkrun has become a popular place to get started. The event’s inclusive ethos and specific efforts to encourage VI runners have created a welcoming and accessible environment.

The Great Run Series has introduced VI runners challenges at the Bristol 10K and Manchester Half Marathon, the only dedicated events for severely sight-impaired runners and guides in the UK.

If you are in search of a guide, British Blind Sport and England Athletics operate a database to connect VI runners with guides licensed by England Athletics. And if you are a sighted runner thinking about becoming a guide, you can complete a sight loss awareness and guide running workshop to get listed on the database.

Prospective runners and guides can also connect informally through parkruns, running clubs, local VI organisations or running organisations like Achilles International.The Conversation

Jessica Louise Macbeth, Senior Lecturer in Sports Studies, University of Central Lancashire and Ben Powis, Senior Lecturer in Sport, Bournemouth University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.