Learning outcomes After studying this course, you should be able to: grasp the concepts of nation, nationalism and self-determination have a better understanding of the role they play in current political disputes think about the problem of how to take democratic decisions about secession relate political theory to political practice more rigorously take a more informed and active part in debates about national and international politics
Keep on learning   There are more than 800 courses on OpenLearn for you to 8 Governance beyond the UK: The EU One of the elements invoked in favour of regional devolution involves the significance of regions within the European Union. While some refer to the principle of subsidiarity (governing, when possible, at the local level), as promoted by the EU, as an argument in favour of devolution, others emphasize that regional government improves the prospect of receiving EU regional subsidies. At the moment, there are striking differences between regions within Europe. While some regions have an economi 6.1 London London's population and economic size are those of a region. As such it contains various peripheries within itself. Further to this, there are some issues, mainly economic planning and transport, which are closely connected with the rest of south-east England. The Labour government introduced a Greater London Authority (Referendum) Bill in October 1997 and organised a referendum on 7 May 1998 in which 72 per cent voted (on a low turn-out of 33.5 per cent) in favour of establishing a Mayor and 5.6 Summary of Section 5 In 1997, the newly elected Labour government set in motion the asymmetric decentralisation of the UK by granting differing degrees of political autonomy to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In 1997 referendums on devolution where held in Scotland and Wales. Their affirmative outcome in favour of devolution cannot of itself deliver constitutional entrenchment, but might reinforce its moral and political legitimacy. The Conclusion This free course provided an introduction to studying sociology. It took you through a series of exercises designed to develop your approach to study and learning at a distance and helped to improve your confidence as an independent learner. 5.2 Devolution in Scotland Scotland endured a long and complicated process towards self-determination. In a 1979 referendum, the Scots voted in favour of the Labour government proposals to establish a Scottish Parliament, but, thanks to a special majority provision requiring at least 40 per cent of the registered electorate to vote in favour, devolution was rejected when only 32.9 per cent of the electorate voted in favour in the referendum. 2.5 Summary of Section 1 England, Scotland and Wales are nations. Wales was conquered by the English in 1282 and its parliamentary union with England took place in 1536. The United Kingdom of Great Britain was formed by the Act of Union of 1707, although the term Great Britain had been in use since 1603, when James VI of Scotland became James I of England (including Wales). Later unions created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and, 2.3 Wales In 1282, Edward I conquered Wales and the Statute of Rhuddlan (or Statute of Wales, 1284) established English rule. Rather than involve the assimilation of the Welsh by the English the conquest saw ‘a colonial system … established in those parts of Llywelyn's Principality which were by 1284 in the hands of the king’ (Davies, 1991, p. 166). In 1400, Owain Glyndwr led the most outstanding and successful rising in Wales against the new order and the tyranny of the English border barons, wh 5.3.2 Productivity difference The preceding discussion has only considered what would happen if all women undertake less investment in human capital than men. If men and women invest to the same extent, human capital theory suggests that no wage differences would be observed. What happens, however, if there are differences in skill levels both between genders and within gender groups? To consider this we will also make the additional assumption that firms do not know when recruiting workers who are the most productive. Ho 3.3 Other disadvantaged groups Information on other disadvantaged groups, such as older workers or people with disabilities, is even harder to come by. The problems faced by older workers in the labour market have become an increasing cause for concern in recent years. The nature of the disadvantage faced by older workers is, however, much harder to uncover and the evidence is often anecdotal. One trend that has become evident during the past three decades is the difficulty older workers have in obtaining any work and, in The Final Cut 5.1 Ideology: a contested concept Propagators of ideologies use images and symbols to get people to believe and act in certain ways. Nationalism as a political ideology uses the idea of ‘nation’ to achieve political goals, and may be the most potent ideology in existence. It is worth reflecting for a moment on what kind of ideology it is. And it is worth reminding ourselves that ideology is a contested concept; a term that can mean different things. Marx and Engels subscribed to the notion of ideology as a set of ideas th Online Rights and the Law Introduction Relational database systems underpin the majority of the managed data storage in computer systems. This course presents an overview of the development life cycle for a database system and highlights how the database development differs from traditional software development.
This OpenLearn course provides a sample of Level 3 study in Author(s): Introduction This course provides an introduction to data and processes in software, and provides a basis that enables these fundamental ideas to be developed in a clear and precise way. It has two main aims. The first is to illustrate how we can describe ways in which data may be structured and processed. The second is to introduce you to some vocabulary and concepts that help us to do this. The material is accessible to anyone with a little experience of the use of symbols in presenting ideas. Sec Natural intelligence Introduction Requires that Windows desktop be used in parallel with reading the book. Tables and charts are a great way to present numerical information in a clear and concise form. This course explains how to use the Windows calculator to carry out basic operations and calculate percentages. You will then learn how to use charts and tables to represent and interpret information. This OpenLearn course provides a sample of level 1 study in Author(s): An introduction to web applications architecture Introduction There is more to computers and processors than simply PCs. In fact computers are ubiquitous in everyday life. This unit challenges how we view computers through the examples of processors in kitchen scales and digital cameras, as well as a work of art that, at heart, is a computer. This OpenLearn course provides a sample of level 2 study in Author(s):
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One goal of artificial intelligence is to build machines that can operate in the real world, with all its noise and uncertainty. Much of what we want machines to do (see, recognise, navigate, move, coordinate) is already done very well by simple creatures. In this free course, Natural intelligence, we look at how such creatures achieve these goals and start to understand how we can build machines with the same capabilities.
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