Rammed earth (RE) has enjoyed a revival in recent decades due to the increasing awareness of environmental issues surrounding the building industry. Although RE in its traditional form is deemed a highly environmentally-friendly material, the same cannot be said for its modern stabilised counterpart. Comprehensive experimental procedures exist to estimate mechanical strength properties of stabilised RE (SRE). However, tests for material durability are far less common. Engineers and practitioners therefore assume that strength and durability are interchangeable properties, i.e. the stronger the material, the more durable. Inflated strengths are recommended to ensure adequate durability, leading to high environmental costs through excessive use of stabilisers. This paper rates the relevance of two acknowledged durability tests (accelerated erosion due to sprayed water and mass loss due to wire brushing) and relates outcomes to the strength and the environmental impact of several SRE mixes. The environmental impact of each mix was estimated using attributional and consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) approaches as well as an assessment of cumulative energy demand. Results demonstrated that it is possible to have durable SRE mixes without paying the cost of using environmentally-expensive stabilisers

This study reports on an analysis of the transcripts of four focus groups involving social workers from four English social work teams working with children and families. In the groups, social workers discussed the process of coming to a decision in care proceedings (where decisions are made about the future care of a child where there are concerns about the care provided in the family of origin). It explores how social workers described themselves coming to conclusions about cases, and how they perceive the courts as doing so. Noting the need in such important proceedings both for thoroughness and for speed (for delay is likely to be harmful to children in need of a secure home), the authors consider ways in which decision‐making might be distorted or delayed and discuss the perception of the social workers that some kinds of evidence are under‐ or overvalued by the courts. The authors conclude that, while it may seem that there is a trade‐off between thoroughness and speed, this is not always the case and that factors that cause poor decision‐making can also cause delay.

The rising price of energy and a recognition of the human impact on climate change has resulted in growing interest in environmentally-friendly construction techniques such as rammed earth. Modern rammed earth is generally stabilised with small quantities of Portland cement in order to improve its strength and durability, however an alternative is to use lime to stabilise the raw soil. This is common practice in road construction, for example, but is less common in RE. This paper presents experimental results illustrating the existence of an optimum lime content that maximises the unconfined compressive strength and stiffness of an engineered lime-stabilised rammed earth and the experimental procedures employed to determine it. The effect of curing regime (oven as opposed to natural drying) on the final unconfined compressive strength of the material was also investigated. An optimum lime content for the tested soil has been identified and several methods to determine its rough value presented which have the potential to reduce testing times and so associated costs.

a b s t r a c tOne of the acknowledged qualities of rammed earth (RE) is its moisture buffering capacity. Recently, stabilisation of RE has become a common practice to improve the mechanical resistance but very little is known about the effect that stabilisation has on hygroscopic properties. The present study aims to fill this gap by understanding the role that stabilisation plays in the buffering and sorption capacity of RE. The use of alternative stabilisers such as fly ash and calcium carbide residue and a comparison with traditional unstabilised RE (URE) have also been investigated. Moreover, the effect of weathering, simulated by cyclic wetting-drying, on hygroscopic performance has been analysed. Moisture Buffer Value (MBV) testing, moisture and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms and mercury intrusion porosimetry were performed on stabilised samples to examine microstructural phenomena responsible for behavioural changes. URE was confirmed to be a good-to-excellent passive air conditioner according to the MBV scale but its performance seemed to be highly influenced by the soil particle size distribution and mineralogy. Based on the experimental outcomes of the mixtures investigated, stabilisation had a detrimental effect on the moisture buffer capacity of rammed earth, likely due to the inhibition of the physico-chemical interactivity between moisture and clays. Weathering had a variable effect on the buffering capacity, depending on the availability of unreacted particles in the matrix.

A B S T R AC TEvidence from focus group discussions with social workers in child care and child protection was collected for a research project exploring decision-making in care proceedings and seeking a better understanding of the causes of delay in the process. Here this material is used to examine social workers' feelings about their work and to explore the anxieties they expressed. Isabel Menzies's work on containing anxiety in institutions is used to provide a conceptual framework for thinking about the ways in which individuals' unconscious defences against anxiety may affect the structure, policies and practices of the organization in which they work. It is suggested that this dimension needs to be taken into account in understanding difficulties which arise in putting policy into practice.

Earth building is experiencing a renaissance due to the emerging recognition of the damage the construction industry is doing to the global environment. Research over the past three decades has identified the hygroscopic nature of these materials, and our understanding of the factors governing their hydromechanical properties is now mature. However, little work has been done to unify methods to assess material durability: namely, how exposure to degrading agents, predominantly water, impacts a structure's service life. Although strength is usually of primary concern to engineers, it is undeniable that earthen structures usually fail due to durability, rather than strength, issues. As earthen architecture and demands made of the material become more ambitious, the need for robust guidelines on how to predict the longevity of these structures becomes paramount.This paper presents a framework for assessing the durability of earthen materials based on perceived routes of exposure to water. The framework is built upon the findings of a review of nearly 60 articles discussing original durability testing programmes, comprising 118 investigations and almost 700 soil and stabiliser combinations. From these works, 12 assessment methodologies were

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