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This chapter bridges two theoretical concerns: making sense of emancipatory processes within institutional work on the one hand and providing a more nuanced understanding of actorhood on the other hand. The authors develop the notion of ‘institutional co-appropriation work’ to characterise an emancipatory process whereby an institutionalised actor in a subaltern position manages to emancipate by appropriating some founding features of the elites position. The authors build on a case study focussing on the ‘Everest brawl’, an altercation high up on the mountain that revealed a critical evolution of sherpa actorhood. The authors analyse the struggles in the Nepalese mountaineering industry and show how sherpa actorhood is currently being reconfigured by the action of a few individuals willing to be recognised for their climbing abilities, and not their role as porters. This case epitomises the emergence of two distinct phenomena, explaining the magnitude of the event: the emergence of an empowered ‘new sherpa’ revealing heterogeneity of sherpa actorhood, in contrast to the accepted representations and the institutional work blurring the underlying rules and institutionalised roles of the mountaineering industry in Nepal. The implications for institutional work literature are twofold. First, the study of emancipatory processes benefits from more nuanced cases, where the actor in the subaltern position does not simply try to remove the dominant actor. Second, the notion of ‘actor’ within this stream of literature should not be taken-for-granted as is often the case.

The purpose of this paper is to show the complexity in dealing with climate change adaptation at the local level, and to show how social and institutional factors in addition to the ecological challenges contribute to that complexity.

This paper examines four institutional climate change activities and reveals how institutions currently address climate change, and how the Sherpas are involved in the process. It draws on three sorts of material: the interviews and observations conducted during my field research in 2010 and 2011; my personal experiences as a Sherpa woman; my recent participation in Sherpa face-to-face and online communities.

Organizing institutional climate change activities to draw international attention alone are not sufficient to address climate change adaptation issues. Communities at the local level cannot be assumed to be homogeneous entities. Institutional climate change adaptation efforts cannot assume that by reaching out to a few individuals in the region they will benefit the whole. Institutional activities have increased receptivity to scientific climate change knowledge, but it has also increased fear of an impending doom, and anger over the continuous discussion of climate change without concrete actions.

Future research in the Everest region should include residents from all ethnic groups considering their historical contacts and interactions.

It is crucial that not only the Sherpa agency (or lack of agency) or understandings are examined but the institutional engagements and delivery are also assessed to practically, effectively, and sustainably address the challenges of climate change adaptation.

The purpose of the paper is to introduce SHERPA‐LEAP, a model for the consortial development, population and support of e‐prints repositories.

The organisational and technical structures of the consortium are described, including a brief summary of central and local resource responsibilities. Some positive and negative aspects of a consortial approach to institutional repository development, and of the SHERPA‐LEAP model in particular, are identified. Outstanding issues and future plans for the consortium are outlined.

SHERPA‐LEAP is shown to be succeeding in its aims of developing and supporting e‐prints repositories within the federal University of London. Some lessons learned from the SHERPA‐LEAP approach are identified, but the SHERPA‐LEAP consortial model is found to have been mostly beneficial to the participating institutions. In particular, the networking and experience‐sharing opportunities which any consortial solution will facilitate are highly‐valued by the SHERPA‐LEAP partners.

The paper is intended to help to inform the decision making of institutions and consortia, which are considering consortial solutions to the establishment, and maintenance of institutional repositories.

THE first public flight of the Short Sherpa was made at Aldergrovc R.A.F. station near Belfast early in December. The Sherpa has been designed and built as part of the research programme of Short Brothers and Harland Ltd., without, at this stage, Ministry of Supply contract. The design philosophy leading to the Sherpa was outlined by the company's chief designer, Mr David Keith‐Lucas, on the occasion of the demonstration.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the aircraft pushback operations to predict and manage human errors, particularly those associated with the complex team work of carrying out the pushback operation. This should improve air ramp operations reliability.

The study applied the human reliability assessment “Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach” that involved a total of 60 semi-structured interviews with practicing experts. Past ramp accident reports were also reviewed to provide more in-depth insights to the problem.

Some of the key performance reliability-degrading errors identified relate to some frequent critical technical inabilities within the team of headset operator and tug driver, as well as the vulnerable intra-team communications. Several best practices were similarly identified.

Based on its findings, this study proposes a new technological concept that can help enhancing safety of aircraft pushback operations. This should enhance reliability of aircraft ground handling and improve aircraft availability. It also provided a generic methodological approach to improve safety-critical operations within high-risk industries.

This study responses to the increasing trend in ramp accidents worldwide.

The research conducted to date in this area is still quite limited compared to that of flight and aircraft maintenance safety. The relevant existing studies focus more on ramp safety holistically, and do not go into the details of how safety and reliability of a ramp operation can be improved. The current paper aims at filling this gap.

According to regulations, aircraft must be in an airworthy condition before they can be operated. To ensure airworthiness, they must be maintained by an approved component maintenance organisation. This study is aimed to identify potential errors that may arise during the final inspection and certification process of aircraft components, categorise them, determine their consequences and quantify the associated risks. Any removed aircraft components must be sent to an approved aircraft component maintenance organisation for further maintenance and issuance of European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Form 1. Thereafter, a final inspection and certification process must be conducted by certifying staff to receive an EASA Form 1. This process is crucial because any errors during this stage can result in the installation of unsafe components in an aircraft.

The Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach (SHERPA) method was used to identify potential errors. This method involved a review of the procedures of three maintenance organisations, individual interviews with ten subject matter experts and a consensus group of 14 certifying staff from different maintenance organisations to achieve the desired results.

In this study, 39 potential errors were identified during the final inspection and certification process. Furthermore, analysis revealed that 48.7% of these issues were attributed to checking errors, making it the most common type of error observed.

This study pinpoints the potential errors in the final inspection and certification of aircraft components. It offers maintenance organisations a roadmap to assess procedures, implement preventive measures and reduce the likelihood of these errors.

The French Atomic Energy Commission, or CEA, has developed a range of remote controlled manipulators and mobile robots that is designed for inspection and intervention tasks in hostile environments, particularly those associated with nuclear power plants. This paper outlines the activities related to mobile robots, and highlights the need for varied mechanical concepts. Different locomotion principles are required, for example, for the inspection of the interior of a 100mm diameter pipe and for the movement of a 100kg payload up and down a stairwell.

Introduction Effectively managing your technical information does not just mean knowing where the documents are stored — it means effectively managing your products. It is fast becoming the key to managing time‐to‐market, quality, and costs as well. Managing the technical information about products has become known as Product Information Management (PIM). This article discusses the organisational, financial and technical implications involved in the successful management of product information, and the enabling of organisational and technical interoperability.

The Group of 20 (G20) is tasked with responding to economic shocks in the global financial system, with COVID-19 having proved to be the most significant shock since the G20's inception. COVID-19 also represents the first economic crisis accompanied by a concerted attempt to “build back better”, principally through a climate-compatible recovery. In 2021, there is little clarity as to the G20's response to this challenge, primarily due to considerable divergence in the green stimulus practices of its member states. The paper aims to investigate whether the G20, climate change and COVID-19 are critical juncture or critical wound.

Historical institutionalism (HI) suggests that one can explain an institution's future response by reference to its developmental pathway to date. This contribution adopts its concept of “critical junctures” to shed light on the G20's possible institutional response to COVID-19. The contribution undertakes a comparative analysis of the global financial crisis (GFC) and COVID-19 as possible critical junctures for the G20.

In doing so, the work demonstrates that the G20 “building back better” from COVID-19 requires a shift away from its institutional orthodoxy to a much larger degree than its response to the GFC. Accordingly, whilst both the GFC and COVID-19 may be considered critical junctures for the G20, only COVID-19 has the potential to be a “critical wound” that leads to institutional redundancy.

Through interrogating this further, this exposition prospectively outlines two possible futures the G20 faces as a consequence of COVID-19: reform or redundancy. In this way, it offers an ex ante perspective on policy-reform options for the G20's ongoing response to COVID-19.

Whichever choice the G20 makes in its response to COVID-19 has profound consequences for global governance in an increasingly unpredictable world.

Herein lies the importance of an exploratory assessment of COVID-19 as a critical juncture or a critical wound for the G20.

Adaptation appears to be regarded as a panacea in policy circles to reduce the risk of impending crises resulting from contemporary changes, including but not restricted to climate change. Such conceptions can be problematic, generally assuming adaptation as an entirely positive and non-conflictual process. The purpose of this paper is to challenge such uncritical views, drawing attention to the conflictual nature of adaptation, and propose a theoretical framework facilitating the identification and analysis of conflicts in adaptation.

The study is based on case study research using first-hand narratives of adaptation in Nepal and the Maldives collected using qualitative interviews, participant observation and document analysis.

The findings identify conflicts between actors in, and around, communities that are adapting to changes. These conflicts can be categorized along three dimensions: qualitative differences in the type of conflict, the relative position of conflicting actors and the degree of manifestation of the conflict.

The three-dimensional Adaptation Conflict Framework facilitate analysis of conflicts in adaptation, allowing for a critical examination of subjectivities inherent in the adaptation discourses embedded in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation research and policy. Such an inquiry is crucial for interventions supporting community adaptation to reduce disaster risk.