provides links to information management, information sources and other "useful stuff" with a strong bias towards the management of information in a careers guidance context.
As of 17 July 2017 I include mental health information and comment.
I tweet as @careersinfo and am on LinkedIn and Facebook as Hazel Edmunds
an article by Christopher Paley published in the Guardian
The idea that smiling changes the way we perceive things seemed like another casualty of social psychology’s replication crisis – but something more interesting was going on
A smiling man riding a mountain bike. Photograph: Jupiterimages/Getty Images
In 1988, Fritz Strack and colleagues published one of the most wonderful studies in psychology. They asked volunteers how funny they thought some cartoons were. While looking at the cartoons, some of the participants held a pen between their teeth without it touching their lips, while some others held a pen in their lips without allowing it to touch their teeth. (The participants believed they were testing out methods disabled people could use to write.)
If you try this in front of a mirror, you’ll see that when you hold a pen in your lips you look vaguely as though you’re frowning; when you hold it with your teeth you’re grinning.
an article by Xinru Page (Bentley University, Massachusetts, USA), Pamela Wisniewski (University of Central Florida, USA) and Bart P. Knijnenburg, and Moses Namara (Clemson University, South Carolina, USA) published in Internet Research Volume 28 Issue 5 (2018)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivations, concerns, benefits and consequences associated with non-use of social media. In doing so, it extends Wyatt’s commonly used taxonomy of non-use by identifying new dimensions in which to understand non-use of social media. This framework encompasses a previously unidentified category of non-use that is critical to understand in today’s social media environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an exploratory interview study with 17 self-identified social media non-users distributed across age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. A thematic analysis is conducted based on a novel extension of Wyatt’s framework and the risk-benefits framework. This is supplemented by open coding to allow for emerging themes.
Findings
This paper provides empirical insights into a formerly uninvestigated population of non-users who are prevented from using social media because of social engagement (rather than functional) barriers. It identifies how these individuals face social consequences both on and off social media, resulting in social disenfranchisement.
Research limitations/implications
This is an initial exploration of the phenomenon using an interview study. For generalizability, future research should investigate non-use with a broader and random sample.
Practical implications
This paper includes design recommendations and implications for social media platform designers to mitigate the consequences experienced by socially disenfranchised non-users.
Social implications
Addressing concerns of this newly identified class of non-users is of utmost importance. As others are increasingly connected, these non-users are left behind and even ostracized – showing the dark sides of social media use and non-use.
Originality/value
This work identifies types of non-use of social media previously unrecognized in the literature.
an article by Marek Smid and Ana Cristina Costa (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) published in International Journal of Urban Sciences Volume 22 Issue 3 (2018)
Abstract
Urban systems are not only major drivers of climate change but also the impact hotspots. In the context of the planet currently undergoing a process of greenhouse warming, and simultaneously predominantly urban based ever continuing population growth, our agglomerations became vulnerable to chain reactions triggered by climate related hazards.
Hence, the reliable and cost-effective assessment of future impact is of high importance. While the climate community has invested significant effort to provide downscaling techniques yielding localized information on future climate extreme behaviours, these methods do not remain widely exploited in the process of urban planning.
In this work, we discuss the underlying reasons and main challenges of the applicability of downscaling procedures in the real process of urban planning.
This paper attempts to help bridge the gap between the communities of urban planners and climatology.
In the beginning, we summarize the rationale for such cooperation, supporting the argument that the scale represents an important linkage between urbanistic and climate science in the process of designing an urban space.
Secondly, we introduce the main families of downscaling techniques and their application on climate projections, also providing the references to profound studies in the field.
Thirdly, special attention is given to previous works focused on the utilization of downscaled ensembles of climate simulations in urban agglomerations.
Finally, we identify three major challenges of the wider utilization of climate projections and downscaling techniques, namely: (i) the scale mismatch between data needs and data availability, (ii) the terminology, and (iii) the IT bottleneck. The practical implications of these issues are discussed in the context of urban studies.
an article by Hildegunn Støle (University of Stavanger. Norway) published in First Monday Volume 23 Number 10 (October 2018)
Abstract
This article is concerned with children’s reading development in the important years from when they begin learning to read to the age when the child reaches adequate reading comprehension to read to learn from a variety of texts on diverse subjects. Like any skill, reading skill requires relevant and extensive training.
We have tended to think that children growing up in the digital era get plenty reading training from digital devices and that this is as efficient as reading books was for earlier generations.
Due to this optimism, we have paid too little attention to whether extensive use of digital devices actually provide children with relevant reading training during the important years that efficient reading is developed. The author holds that book reading still has its place in education.
a column by Claudio Borio, Piti Disyatat, Mikael Juselius and Phurichai Rungcharoenkitkul for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Has the decline in real (inflation-adjusted) interest rates over the last 30 years been driven by variations in desired saving and investment, as commonly presumed?
And is this a useful way of thinking about the determination of real interest rates more generally, at least over long horizons?
This column finds that this is not the case by systematically examining the relationship between several saving-investment drivers and market real interest rates (as well as estimates of natural rates) since the 1870s and for 19 countries. By contrast, a clear and robust role for monetary policy regimes emerges. The analysis has significant implications for the notion of monetary neutrality and policymaking.
a post by Lucy Coats for An Awfully Big Blog Adventure
I've written several times on these pages about mental health and well-being. I think that it is important to talk openly and honestly about the struggle that many writers, including me, have with depression, anxiety, panic attacks and associated conditions, although I am aware that not everyone is able or wants to do this. Despite the enormous strides which have been made in widening public conversations and awareness about mental health in general, it is still a sad fact that, as an 'invisible illness', there are those who still dismiss it as a self-indulgence, or think we should just 'pull ourselves together'. I wish it was that easy.
For personal reasons, which I will not go into, this summer has been full of the (rotten) lemons which title this piece, hurled at me one after another. I do not wish to make lemonade (the normal advice for when life hands you them). For one thing it would taste bitter and vile for lack of sugar and sweetness, and for another, nobody would wish to drink it. These particular rotten lemons have been toxic to both mind, body and creativity. Not only do I feel physically poisoned, (not least because my physical body has reacted very badly to the combined stress of anxiety, depression and panic attacks, enhanced by what my doctor tells me is an excess production of cortisol), but my creativity levels have gone through the floor.
a column by Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas and Stefanie Stantcheva for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Understanding how taxation influences innovation is of central importance to create investment incentives for R&D, yet our knowledge remains limited due to a lack of data, especially covering a long period of time.
This column uses newly constructed datasets from the 20th century to examine the effects of both personal and corporate income taxation on inventors, as well as on firms that do R&D. It finds consistently negative effects of high taxes on innovation over time as well as on individual inventors and firms.
When ghosts made tables dance
via An Awfully Big Blog Adventure by Dawn Finch One of the Reading Rooms at Gladstone's Library
One of the joys of my work is that I get to visit libraries all over the country. I have spoken at, and written in, some of the most amazing libraries and I always take the opportunity to have a good mooch around their shelves. In November 2017 I was invited to speak at Gladstone’s Library in Flintshire in North Wales. This library houses the collection of Victorian statesman and Prime Minister, William Gladstone. The collection is housed in a stunning listed building, and still works as a library, providing access to researchers and writers, and you can even get a bed for the night, which is exactly what I did. Continue reading
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An adorable look at the mechanics behind crawling
via Boing Boing by Carla Sinclair
Learning how to crawl is a lot more complicated that most of us realize. But this baby walks, er, crawls you through it step by step. Kinesiology at its cutest.
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The Book of Forgotten Authors: Forgotten Writers Who Are Worth Reading
via Interesting Literature
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle reads Christopher Fowler’s enthralling account of the writers who time forgot
I’ve always been fond of the curious coincidence that in the 1960s there was a writer of novels about boxing who wrote under the name Frank Bruno. Or that Robert Shaw, who turned in a booming performance as Henry VIII in Fred Zinnemann’s superlative film of Robert Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons, was a successful novelist as well as a fine actor. The literary associations of such names have now largely been lost, but it’s great fun to recover them and re-examine the work of the authors in question.
So I was thrilled to receive a copy of Christopher Fowler’s new book, The Book of Forgotten Authors, which bears a glorious pink cover dotted with silhouettes of now-unfamiliar literary figures, and salvages 99 names from the mists of writerly obscurity and puts them back under the spotlight. And some of the revelations on offer here are truly fascinating. Continue reading
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Smuggled fossil 'very weird' new species of amphibious dinosaur, say experts
via the Guardian by Nicola Davis Reconstruction of Halszkaraptor escuilliei. This small dinosaur was a close relative of velociraptor, but in body shape and inferred lifestyle it resembles modern birds such as swans. Photograph: Lukas Panzarin/Andrea Cau
An unusual set of fossilised remains illegally poached from Mongolia belonged to a new species of dinosaur with the rare trait of living on both land and water, researchers have claimed.
Thought to have lived around 71–75m years ago, the creature boasts a swan-like neck, razor-sharp “killer claws” on its feet, a duck-billed snout and forelimbs with proportions that might have helped it swim. Continue reading
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Ten facts about Panpipes
via the OUP blog by Vivian Yan “Image from page 648 of “Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution” (1895)” by Photo Internet Archive Book Images. Public Domain via Flickr
The panpipes or “pan flute” derives its name from the Greek god Pan, who is often depicted holding the instrument. Panpipes, however, can be found in many parts of the world, including South America, Oceania, Central Europe, and Asia. Continue reading
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How the Index Card Cataloged the World
via Arts & Letters Daily: Daniela Blei in The Atlantic DANIEL SAMBRAUS / GETTY
Like every graduate student, I once holed up in the library cramming for my doctoral oral exams. This ritual hazing starts with a long reading list. Come exam day, the scholar must prove mastery of a field, whether it’s Islamic art or German history. The student sits before a panel of professors, answering questions drawn from the book list.
To prepare for this initiation, I bought a lifetime supply of index cards. On each four-by-six rectangle, I distilled the major points of a book. My index cards—portable, visual, tactile, easily rearranged and reshuffled—got me through the exam. Continue reading
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AI Analyzes Dolphin Chatter And Discovers Something We Didn't Know
via the Big Think blog by Robby Berman (WATA1219)
In each culture, we’re trained to hear in a certain way. Speakers of tonal languages such as Chinese recognize subtleties of pitch that are difficult for English-speaking people to grasp. A similar thing happens with Indian music, which uses pitches between notes with which Western listeners are familiar. Similar biases make it difficult for human researchers to discern the subtleties of animal sounds that may sound alike to us, but maybe not to them. AI, though, is very good at identifying patterns, and researchers have set it the task of analyzing sounds from the ocean floor. It’s just found six distinct dolphin clicks we never new existed, according to a study just published in PLOS Computation Biology. Continue reading
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Enjoy the heavenly sounds of the glass armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin
via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder
After seeing people make musical tones by rubbing their wet fingers around the rim of a wine glass, Benjamin Franklin invented the glass armonica in 1761. Today, there are very few glass armonica players. Chris Funk of the Decemberists went to visit one of them.
Dean Shostak is one of last true masters capable of playing the glass armonica – an enchanting instrument lost to time. First devised in 1761 by Benjamin Franklin, the art of “playing glass” began to fade in popularity as musical fashions changed. Today, there are only eight glass armonica players left in the world. Along with the revival of the armonica, Shostak is also reintroducing an entire family of glass instruments, including the glass violin, the crystal hand bells and the French Cristal baschet.
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10 of the Best Poems about Unrequited Love
via Interesting Literature
‘Love’ and ‘poetry’ go together to form a natural pair, but as Shakespeare pointed out, the course of true love never did run smooth. Sometimes the greatest lovers are those who pine away, hopelessly devoted to someone who will never return their affections. From the medieval courtly love tradition onwards, poets have been treating the subject of unrequited love. Continue reading
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Fake news: Queen Victoria's Cranach turns out to be the real thing
via the Guardian by Mark Brown Arts correspondent Portrait of a Lady and Her Son by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop, in the King’s Dressing Room, Windsor Castle. Photograph: Todd-White Art Photography/Ben F/Royal Collection Trust
For more than a century art historical experts have labelled a painting Queen Victoria bought as a Christmas present for Prince Albert a 19th-century fake.
But a new generation of art historians has discovered they were wrong. Victoria and her advisers were correct when they bought the painting in 1840. It is a genuine work by the German master Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop.
On Tuesday [14 November 20127], the gloriously restored work went on public display at Windsor Castle, taking pride of place in the King’s Dressing Room alongside other works by Cranach.
Nicola Christie, the head of paintings conservation at the Royal Collection Trust, welcomed the discovery. “It is an absolute thrill. It doesn’t happen very often and it is such a pleasure to know that it has been reattributed.” Continue reading
Study finds different types of alcohol may affect our emotions differently
via Boing Boing by Carla Sinclair
Is there a difference in how you feel after drinking red wine versus hard liquor? I've always thought so (sleepy with wine, invigorated with dirty martinis and tequila shots), and now a study published in British Medical Journal’s BMJ Open suggests that perhaps different types of alcohol really do affect different emotions after drinking them. Continue reading
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The Best Anne Bradstreet Poems Everyone Should Read
via Interesting Literature
The best poems by America’s first poet
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1678) was the first person in America, male or female, to have a volume of poems published. She herself wasn’t American and had been born in England, but she was among a group of early English settlers in Massachusetts in the 1630s. In 1650, a collection of her poems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America, was published in England, bringing her fame and recognition. This volume was the first book of poems by an author living in America to be published. She continued to write poetry in the ensuing decades. Continue reading
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Will Self: memories of the artist as a young addict
via the Guardian by Will Self
How was your day? he’d say, at Broadway Lodge, in the somnolent suburbs of Weston-super-Mare, in the mid-1980s. How was your day? He wore khaki cargo pants (although they weren’t called that yet) and had a nice line in the homiletic: try to get up from that chair, he’d say, and when I expressed perplexity, continued: trying is lying – either you get up or you don’t, and it’s the same with your addiction … Continue reading
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Latest MI5 files released
via the National Archives Blog Gisela Winegard, alias Klein, a model who had links with John Profumo (catalogue reference: KV 6/146)
Today we have made available to the public 64 previously top secret files from the UK Security Service, or MI5.
The records cover a range of subjects and span the Second World War and post-war era up to the mid-1960s. Personal files include Second World War German intelligence agents and suspected agents, double agent operations, Soviet intelligence agents and suspected agents, Right-wing extremists, Communists, and suspected communist and Russian sympathisers. Continue reading
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Out of the Shire: Life Beyond Tolkien
via Arts & Letters Daily: Bradley J Birzer in The American Conservative John William Waterhouse, “La Belle Dame sans Merci” (1893) (Public Domain)
If you look at what’s playing on your television, at what’s showing at the local cinema, at what video games your children are playing, or at what is selling in the young adult section of your neighborhood Barnes & Noble, you’ll see something that is at once deeply cultural and deeply countercultural at the exact same moment: Romanticism. Continue reading
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The hardest and easiest languages to learn for native English speakers
via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder
The Foreign Service Institute has ranked the difficulty of learning a language for English speakers. Continue reading
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Five favorite "Rainbows"
via OUP blog by Walter Frisch
“Streamers” by Nicholas A. Tonelli. CC by 2.0 viaFlickr
“Over the Rainbow,” voted the greatest song of the twentieth century in a survey from the year 2000, has been recorded thousands of times since Judy Garland introduced it in The Wizard of Oz in 1939. Even the most diehard fans, including myself, are unlikely to have listened to every version. But five stand out, each distinctive and compelling in its own way. Continue reading
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Gut Microbiome Health Linked to Social Circles
via the Big Think blog by Derek Beres
We influence one another more than we’ll ever know. Ideas, mores, customs, and religions spread through communities like contagions. So does bacteria, as we know from a history of infections as well as new research on the social circles of lemurs. This study might offer another insight into the complex and fascinating nature of what health entails. Continue reading And yes, I did choose this article because of its illustration which I cannot copy and paste to here! Please follow the link for a delightful picture of a group of lemurs.
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Astronomers discover a giant world – but is it a planet?
via the Guardian by Stuart Clark A newly discovered world dwarfs our own largest planet, Jupiter pictured above, and could be a kind of ‘failed’ star known as a brown dwarf. Adding to the mystery, it has been found in a forbidden region around its star called the brown dwarf desert. Photograph: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles
‘When is a planet not a planet?’ is a lot more than the beginning of a poor joke at a drunken astronomers’ Christmas party (but we laughed nonetheless). It is actually a serious question that cuts to the heart of our ignorance about how celestial objects form.
The discovery of a giant planet 22,000 light years away may now help shine some light on this particularly knotty problem. The planet is called OGLE-2016-BLG-1190. It was found on June 2016 by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (Ogle), a Polish astronomical project run by the University of Warsaw. Continue reading
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A Short Analysis of Thomas Gray’s ‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes’
via Interesting Literature
A reading of a classic satirical poem
‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes’ is, along with his ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ and his ‘Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College’, the most famous poem by Thomas Gray (1716-71). The poem was occasioned by a real-life event involving the cat belonging to Gray’s friend, Horace Walpole (author of the first Gothic novel among other things). Gray’s poem pokes fun at human sentimentality by describing the death of the cat in deliberately exaggerated terms, likening the cat’s plight to the tragic fall of an epic hero. Continue reading
an article by Lingling Yu, Zhiying Liu and Junkai Wang (University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China) and Xiongfei Cao (Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China) Information Technology & People Volume 31 Issue 6 (2018)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of excessive social media use on individual job performance and its exact mechanism. An extended stressor–strain–outcome research model is proposed to explain how excessive social media use at work influences individual job performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The research model was empirically tested with an online survey study of 230 working professionals who use social media in organizations.
Findings
The results revealed that excessive social media use was a determinant of three types of social media overload (i.e. information, communication and social overload). Information and communication overload were significant stressors that influence social media exhaustion, while social overload was not a significant predictor of exhaustion. Furthermore, social media exhaustion significantly reduces individual job performance.
Originality/value
Theory-driven investigation of the effects of excessive social media use on individual job performance is still relatively scarce, underscoring the need for theoretically-based research of excessive social media use at work. This paper enriches social media research by presenting an extended stressor–strain–outcome model to explore the exact mechanism of excessive use of social media at work, and identifying three components of social media-related overload, including information, communication and social overload. It is an initial attempt to systematically validate the casual relationships among excessive usage experience, overload, exhaustion and individual job performance based on the transactional theory of stress and coping.
a post by Mike Bundrant for the World of Psychology blog
If there’s one thing that human beings share in common, it’s that we all just want to be happy. Seems simple enough, doesn’t it?
But what if happiness isn’t what we think it is? What if we’re all chasing, seeking the wrong thing in the wrong places, and making ourselves stressed, sick and very very unhappy in the process?
According to Melli O’Brien, a mindfulness & meditation teacher from Australia, it’s a core mistaken belief about just what happiness is and where it comes from that keeps so many of us locked in an endless cycle of doing, working, seeking and over-consuming. Research study after research study tells us what we are already know at a gut level; we are not getting happier.
Instead, we are becoming sadder, sicker and ever more self-destructive. The loneliness epidemic, rising levels of depression, anxiety and addictions, and a planet on the brink of a severe environmental crisis as a result of our consumerist ways – if we in the developed world have so much access to happiness, why aren’t we doing better?
Perhaps we need to first clarify what happiness is before we can fully understand the most effective ways to manifest it in our lives.
O’Brien believes we are confusing two very different kinds of happiness when we use the word, and that by understanding the difference between the two, we can discern which actions and activities will bring about lasting, meaningful happiness.
an article by Andrew Duffy, Edson C. Tandoc and Richard Ling (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) published in Information, Communication & Society Volume 21 Issue 10 (2018)
Abstract
Confronted with circumstances altered by the Internet, professional working practices have the option to change or to stay the same.
This paper looks at how newsworkers in the new form of digital newsrooms have adapted the old location- or topic-based ‘beat’ system; now that they are called upon to curate or aggregate news stories which arrive fully formed from legacy news websites or emerge from social media. Stories like these are often valued for their virality – that is, how far and fast they have already spread – and their power to attract clicks from readers.
Today, a growing number of news websites aggregate or curate such stories as part of their own news offerings. Yet curating these stories bring challenges to journalists’ identities and work practices, which demands a response.
Based on an ethnographic study of eight digital newsrooms, we report how newsworkers use journalistic rituals to legitimise these second-hand stories flowing into the newsroom. We observed the use of rituals of objectivity, multiple sourcing and comparison with other news outlets as mechanisms that newsworkers used to validate and justify their use of second-hand content.
a column by Stephan Heblich, Stephen Redding and Daniel Sturm for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Over the last two centuries, transportation innovations have drastically changed urban landscapes.
This column explores how the mid-19th century transport revolution shaped the urban agglomeration of London. The results show Greater London’s population would have been 30% lower in 1921 without the railway network. The findings and the quantitative urban models employed highlight the role of modern transport technologies in sustaining dense concentrations of economic activity.
a post by Peg Streep via the World of Psychology blog
For a time, I belonged to a large closed Facebook group dedicated to supporting people who thought they were in various kinds of abusive relationships; I told the administrators who I was and that I was there largely to see, as a writer, what people were most concerned about. I did not post comments.
But one of the astonishing revelations was how much of the dialogue was really about validating what constituted abuse in a relationship.
That’s the problem with buzzwords, like “emotionally abusive,” “verbally abusive,” “narcissist,” and others; they sometimes lose their meaning when they get tossed about, especially in groups when people are trying to be understanding. This doesn’t mean, course, that emotional or verbal abuse don’t exist; they are very real.
But how do you distinguish between a pattern of abuse and just lousy or reactive behavior? Is there a difference?
Continue readingto discover that yes, there is a difference and how you can distinguish between them.
an article by Sophie McBain published in the New Statesman
Over ten months, three writers submitted 20 deliberately ridiculous papers to peer-reviewed academic journals specialising in critical theory.
The first people to raise suspicions were journalists, who in July stumbled upon a bizarre study in the academic journal Gender, Place and Culture titled “Human reactions to rape culture and queer performativity at urban dog parks in Portland, Oregon”. Surely this paper, which studied “rampant canine rape culture” for insights into how to train men out of sexual violence, couldn’t be genuine? When a writer at the Wall Street Journal tried to email the author, Helen Wilson, she instead received a response from James Lindsay, a mathematician, who confessed that the study was fake and had been submitted to the journal as a hoax.
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” ~Jin Ryun
Can I be brutally honest with you for a moment?
I was the “fat kid” growing up, and I’ve struggled to find the motivation to lose weight and lead a healthy lifestyle my whole life.
I first realized I was fat when the teacher asked for a volunteer to play Santa in the third grade Christmas play, and Aaron Valadez loudly blurted out, “Tim would be perfect for the role since he’s already got the belly!”
I literally died right there. Mortified.
This was the first time in memory when I turned to food to numb my pain and embarrassment. Congratulations to me, I had discovered the emotional rollercoaster known as binging! A rollercoaster which I would struggle to get off for my entire life…
an article by Cindy Lamothe published in the New York Times [via ResearchBuzz: Firehose with grateful thanks]
When Kristi Pahr learned that a friend she had known only online had died, she felt that others didn't take the loss as seriously as if it had been a friend she knew in person.CreditCreditGillian Photography
Last November, Kristi Pahr felt both shock and denial after learning that her online friend of over four years, Amy, had died suddenly. She says she still cries remembering those initial days of grief. Amy, she said, “was a better, more ‘real’ friend to me than most people I know in person.”
Ms. Pahr, 41, a freelance writer from South Carolina, first met Amy through mutual friends in an online Star Wars game back in 2013. She fondly recalls a similar “geekiness” and love of fantasy novels quickly bonded the two. “We chatted every day, shared pictures of our kids,” complained about their spouses. And though she and Amy knew each other only virtually, their daily texts evolved into years of mutual support and understanding. “She encouraged me to start submitting my writing for publication,” Ms. Pahr said, “and was one of the only people I ever let read the things I wrote before I was published.”
Chris Kossen and Peter McIlveen (University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia) published in Journal of Career Development Volume 45 Issue 5 (October 2018)
Abstract
Unemployment is a ubiquitous problem that is a complex of cultural, economic interpersonal, physical, and psychological dimensions.
Whereas the pernicious negative outcomes of unemployment are empirically established in the literature, there is a need to better understand the psychological experiences of unemployment so as to inform interventions that ameliorate its impact.
The present research is based on archival interview data and uses the psychology of working theory to understand 32 individuals’ experiences of unemployment. The findings include themes that are consistent with the hypothesized predictors posited in the theory, including marginalization, economic constraints, volition, career adaptability, proactive personality, critical consciousness, social support, and economic conditions.
The research findings affirm the conceptual precepts of the theory with regard to its predictors; thus, this contribution to the literature on the psychology of working and unemployment opens new perspectives on a perennial problem.
“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” ~Amit Ray
I’ve battled chronic anxiety and PTSD my entire life and am no stranger to that tight pressure grip that dread and panic can have on the body and mind.
On my worst days, I’d feel my chest and throat tighten as I struggled to breathe.
Chronic panic attacks would leave me curled up in the fetal position, unable to move or stop panting.
On my best days, I’d manage to get by, thanks to my numbing out with food and alcohol, self-medication, or mindless TV watching.
Religion does not help us to explain nature. It did what it could in pre-scientific times, but that job was properly unseated by science. Most religious laypeople and even clergy agree: Pope John Paul II declared in 1996 that evolution is a fact and Catholics should get over it. No doubt some extreme anti-scientific thinking lives on in such places as Ken Ham's Creation Museum in Kentucky, but it has become a fringe position. Most mainstream religious people accept a version of Galileo's division of labour: 'The intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes.'
a column by Dirk Bergemann and Alessandro Bonatti for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
The growth of social media over the past decade has brought a parallel explosion in the size and value of information markets.
This column presents the findings from a comprehensive model of data trading and brokerage. The model identifies three aspects of information markets – the value of information, the nature of competition in these markets, and consumers’ incentives – which are in particular need of further research and understanding.
a post by Suzanne Kane for the World of Psychology blog
“Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.” Peter T McIntyre
I suffered from a lack of self-esteem and little confidence when I was an adolescent. The feeling of loss and not being good enough, or smart enough to get things done and fearful of trying anything new lasted through my teens and throughout the early part of my adult life. It wasn’t that I was brought up deprived of love or lacking a comfortable environment, for my parents loved me dearly and I never knew hunger or felt diminished by our standard of living. I did, however, take notice of the confidence my peers at school and wanted desperately to be so confident myself. Thus, my journey of building my self-confidence began.
Maybe you can relate. Maybe you can benefit from some of the tips that helped me become more confident.
an article by Pablo J Boczkowski (Northwestern University, USA), Eugenia Mitchelstein (Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina) and Mora Matassi (Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA) published in New Media & Society Volume 20 Issue 10 (October 2018)
Abstract
Incidental consumption of news on social media has risen in recent years, particularly among young people.
Previous studies have characterized what the main dimensions and effects of this phenomenon are. In this article, we complement that literature by looking at how this phenomenon unfolds. Inspired by practice theory, we aim to answer two questions:
what are the practices that subtend incidental news consumption on social media among young people? and
What are the social consequences of these practices?
We draw upon 50 in-depth interviews with respondents aged 18–29 years from Argentina.
Our findings show the existence of
strong connections between technology and content, “anywhere and anytime” coordinates, derivative information routines, and increasingly mediated sociability and
fragmentary reading patterns, loss of hierarchy of the news, and coexistence of editorial, algorithmic, and social filtering.
We conclude by elaborating on the empirical and theoretical implications of these findings.
an article by Laura Frances Bright (Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, USA) and Kelty Logan (University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado, USA) published in Internet Research Volume 28 Issue 5 (2018)
Abstract
Purpose
Social media usage has become ubiquitous in our society – consumers are spending upwards of 20 percent of their media time on social sites interacting with friends, family and brands (Adler, 2016) and all of this usage is driving fatigue. The purpose of this paper is to examine how advertising factors such as attitude and intrusiveness impact social media fatigue as well as two consumer behavior factors, fear of missing out (FOMO) and privacy.
Design/methodology/approach
A 190-item questionnaire was developed and administered to an opt-in subject pool recruited for web-based research (i.e. online panel). A representative sample of 750 US social media users was recruited for the survey of which 518 respondents were valid and usable.
Findings
Results indicate that FOMO has the greatest impact on social media fatigue, not advertising factors as predicted. In addition, privacy concerns continue to plague consumers and should be monitored by advertisers.
Research limitations/implications
With regard to limitation, the survey contained a variety of self-reported measures that can tend to be under-reported, especially when it comes to social media usage as evidenced in a recent study (Adler, 2016).
Originality/value
This research undertook an investigation of consumer perceptions of social media advertising and how those relate to social media fatigue and psychological factors such as privacy and FOMO. In looking at these constructs, a clearer picture of how consumer perceptions of advertising impact levels of social media fatigue has emerged. In addition, the results provide a better understanding of FOMO, a psychological factor that significantly contributes to social media fatigue.
“Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.” ~Swami Vivekananda
Highly sensitive people naturally bring some really beautiful, love-promoting qualities to their romantic partnerships. But these same qualities can sometimes end up undermining the strength of the relationship. This was true for me in my first marriage and led, in part, to it ending in divorce.
We HSPs are known for our caring, conscientious, and considerate natures. It matters deeply to us that we do our best to be loyal and caring in our relationships.
And because we tend to have high standards for ourselves, and work hard at being kind supportive friends and lovers, we often successfully create strong intimate bonds with others.
We also have a knack for being aware of the needs of others. Our ability to pick up on subtle cues makes them feel deeply understood and cared for. On top of all of this, we tend to think deeply about our love relationships, giving them much of our mental and emotional energy.
This is all really wonderful for the lucky partner of a highly sensitive person. It’s part of why they felt drawn to you and nurtured, safe, and loved with you. But, things can go downhill fast when our significant other doesn’t behave the same way.
a column by Nauro Campos, Paul De Grauwe and Yuemei Ji for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
The tragedy of structural reforms is that they have been captured by policymakers.
This column argues that the incessant repetition of the ‘must-reform’ mantra as a solution to the crisis has discouraged academic economists from embracing it as the important research topic it clearly is, and attempts to address the lack of adequate knowledge which makes the implementation of reforms more difficult and limits their effectiveness.
an article by Anne Mangen (University of Stavanger Norway) published in First Monday Volume 23 Number 10 (October 2018)
Abstract
With digitization, our modes of writing change and we go from writing by putting pen to paper, to typing on a variety of screens.
In educational as well as in leisurely settings, writing by hand is increasingly marginalized, and may in a foreseeable future be abandoned altogether.
Summarizing some of the research comparing handwriting and typewriting, this article aims to shed light on some salient features handwriting and keyboard writing, and to discuss what may be the implications of the ongoing marginalizing or even abandonment of handwriting — in a short- and long-term perspective.
an article by Vicky Heap and Jill Dickinson (Sheffield Hallam University, UK) published in Safer Communities Volume 17 Issue 3 (2018)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically appraise the Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) policy that was introduced by the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act (2014). Within a designated area assigned by the local council, PSPOs can prohibit or require specific behaviours to improve the quality of life for people inhabiting that space. Those who do not comply face a fixed penalty notice of £100 or a fine of £1,000 on summary conviction. However, the practical and theoretical impact associated with the development of these powers has yet to be fully explored.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Bannister and O’Sullivan’s (2013) discussion of civility and anti-social behaviour policy as a starting point, the authors show how PSPOs could create new frontiers in exclusion, intolerance and criminalisation, as PSPOs enable the prohibition of any type of behaviour perceived to negatively affect the quality of life.
Findings
Local councils in England and Wales now have unlimited and unregulated powers to control public spaces. The authors suggest that this has the potential to produce localised tolerance thresholds and civility agendas that currently target and further marginalise vulnerable people, and the authors highlight street sleeping homeless people as one such group.
Originality/value
There has been little academic debate on this topic. This paper raises a number of original, conceptual questions that provide an analytical framework for future empirical research. The authors also use original data from Freedom of Information requests to contextualise the discussions.
a post by Andrea Schneider (The Savvy Shrink) via the World of Psychology blog
“The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect.” – Peter A. Levine
The field of psychology has grown by leaps and bounds in terms of its understanding of the nuances of brain psycho-biology. Fortunately we are living in a time where cutting edge brain research is happening as we speak, and we learn something new about our grey matter on a daily basis.
a column by Raphael Auer and Stijn Claessens for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Cryptocurrencies are often thought to operate out of the reach of national regulation.
This column argues that in fact their valuations, transaction volumes, and user bases react substantially to news about regulatory actions. Because they rely on regulated financial institutions to operate and markets are (still) segmented across jurisdictions, cryptocurrencies are within the reach of national regulation.
an article by Simone M. Schneider (Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Germany) and Camilla Devitt (Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland) published in Journal of European Social Policy Volume 28 Issue 4 (2018)
Abstract
This article examines the accessibility of healthcare in Ireland between 2003 and 2011 in the context of strong economic growth (2003–2007) and the subsequent financial crisis, which began in 2008. It investigates, in particular, changes in self-reported difficulties in accessing healthcare with regard to distance to health services, waiting times for appointments and the costs of seeing a doctor, and identifies particular risk factors that increase the likelihood of facing barriers in accessing health services.
We conduct logistic regression analyses of cross-sectional data from the three rounds (2003, 2007, 2011) of the European Quality of Life Survey of 2682 individuals living in private households in Ireland.
The study finds that the number of individuals reporting difficulties in accessing healthcare increased over time.
Of particular concern are difficulties with the financial costs of covering doctor’s appointments, which started to increase dramatically prior to the economic crisis and continued to rise during the crisis, in particular for higher income groups. Difficulties with distance and waiting time declined gradually over time and appear unaffected by the financial crisis, at least until 2011.
Subgroups that face significantly more difficulties are women, younger individuals, the full-/part-time employed and individuals with poor health status.
Our findings contribute to the recent discussion on the effects of institutional barriers on accessing health services in the context of significant economic change.
“Out of perfection nothing can be made. Every process involves breaking something up. The earth must be broken to bring forth life. If the seed does not die there is no plant. Bread results from the death of wheat. Life lives on lives. Our own life lives on the act of other people. If you are lifeworthy, you can take it.” ~Joseph Campbell
Head on my pillow, tears in my eyes, a list of to-dos in my brain, I felt unable to move my body. I’d worked so hard to leave behind this person who stayed in bed avoiding life. But someone’s angry words had pierced my soul, and I once again was a prisoner to my bed, my thoughts, and my anxiety.
It wasn’t so much the disagreement that stung, but the chuckles and snide “You can’t really believe that?” More than “mansplaining,” he was patronizing and questioning my intelligence.
I tried to stop the personal attacks by “setting up boundaries,” as they say. No doubt I did not express myself in a calm, clear manner, as my blood was boiling. However, I tried to protect my integrity during the argument for the first time in this particular relationship.
What now, though? Concern for the future of this relationship was what was now spiraling out of control in my head and overwhelming my thoughts.
Carys Roberts, Grace Blakeley and Luke Murphy in an IPPR newsletter
The UK is a wealthy nation but that wealth is very unevenly distributed. This has negative implications for both economic prosperity and justice. These issues are set to become more important as technological change, stagnating wages and rising house prices increase the income and gains that can be made from wealth.
The UK's system of wealth taxation currently fails to tackle these issues. In fact, it frequently exacerbates them by creating opportunities for avoidance, distorting investment decisions, poorly capturing wealth transfers and under-taxing income from assets, particularly housing. This is unjust.
The paper makes five recommendations which together would amount to a transformation of the tax treatment of wealth in the UK:
All income from wealth should be taxed under the income tax schedule.
Inheritance tax should be abolished and replaced with a lifetime donee-based gift tax.
Non-domiciled status should be removed and trusts reformed to be more transparent.
Property taxes should be reformed through the replacement of council tax with an annual property tax.
Business rates should be replaced with a land value tax.
Together, these measures would make the UK's tax system both more just and more economically efficient – reducing wealth inequality and helping to build a tax system fit for the 21st century.
Novel recipes: currant jelly from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
via the Guardian by Kate Young ‘You won’t have anything else here.’ ... currant jelly. Photograph: Kate Young
Fired with a housewifely wish to see her storeroom stocked with homemade preserves, she undertook to put up her own currant jelly. John was requested to order home a dozen or so little pots and an extra quantity of sugar, for their own currants were ripe and were to be attended to at once. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Continue reading
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A Short Analysis of William Blake’s ‘The Clod and the Pebble’
via Interesting Literature
A close reading of Blake’s classic poem
‘The Clod and the Pebble’ is a William Blake poem that first appeared in his 1794 volume Songs of Experience, the companion-piece to his 1789 collection Songs of Innocence. The poem stages a conversation between a clod of clay and a pebble to make a point about the nature of love. Continue reading
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How quantum computing will change the world
via the New Statesman by Philip Ball
We are on the cusp of a new era of computing, with Google, IBM and other tech companies using a theory launched by Einstein to build machines capable of solving seemingly impossible tasks.
In 1972, at the age of ten, I spent a week somewhere near Windsor – it’s hazy now – learning how to program a computer. This involved writing out instructions by hand and sending the pages to unseen technicians who converted them into stacks of cards punched with holes. The cards were fed overnight into a device that we were only once taken to see. It filled a room; magnetic tape spooled behind glass panels in big, grey, wardrobe-sized boxes. The next morning, we’d receive a printout of the results and the day would be spent finding the programming faults that had derailed our calculations of pi to the nth decimal place. Continue reading
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Women routinely caught fire in the mid-19th century
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
The mid-19th century vogue for flowing, diaphanous women's garments made from open-weave fabrics like "bobbinet, cotton muslin, gauze, and tarlatan," combined with gas lighting, candles, and open fires meant that it was extremely common for women to literally burst into flames: on stage, at parties, at home. Continue reading
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The first contracting white dwarf
via the OUP blog by Sandro Mereghetti and Sergei Popov
White dwarf in AE Aquarii by Casey Reed / NASA. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
White dwarfs are the remnants of solar-like stars that have exhausted the reservoir of fuel for the nuclear fusion reactions that powers them. It is widely believed, based on theoretical considerations, that young white dwarfs should experience a phase of contraction during the first million years after their formation. This is related to the gradual cooling of their interior which is not yet fully degenerate. In several million years the central temperature of a white dwarf decreases from several hundred million degrees to few tens of millions and also the surface temperature cools down. During this period the size of the white dwarf can become few hundred (or few tens, depending on mass and exact time interval) kilometers smaller. However, there were no observational indications for this important effect up to now. First, because most of the known white dwarves are much older, second because we do not have a direct and precise way to measure the radii and their variations in these stars. Continue reading
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A Map of Saintly Place-names in Europe
via Big Think by Frank Jacobs
Virtually every profession has a patron saint (1), but not so cartography (2). That's a shame, because that was going to be my intro into this map, showing the distribution of towns and cities in Europe whose name starts with Saint (or the equivalent in the local languages).
The topography of saintliness varies greatly throughout Europe. The data, collected from the databases of the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency by Polish infographic producers Biqdata, shows 20,808 such places across the continent. Continue reading
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The problem of colour
via the OUP blog by Keith Allen Altarpiece, No. 1, Group X, Altarpieces by Hilma af Klint. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Colours are a familiar and important feature of our experience of the world. Colours help us to distinguish and identify things in our environment: for instance, the red of a berry not only helps us to see the berry against the green foliage, but it also allows us to identify it as a berry. Colours perform a wide variety of symbolic functions: red means stop, green means go, white means surrender. They have distinctive personal and cultural associations, and provoke a range of emotional and aesthetic responses that are reflected in the clothes we wear, the way we decorate our houses, and the choices made by designers and artists. Continue reading
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A Short Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94: ‘They that have power to hurt’
via Interesting Literature
A commentary on Shakespeare’s 94th sonnet
Considered one of the most challenging and ambiguous of all the Sonnets, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94, beginning ‘They that have power to hurt, and will do none’, is, for our money, also one of the top five best sonnets in the whole sequence. One scholar and poet, J. H. Prynne, has even written a whole book about this one sonnet. Before we proceed to an analysis of this enigmatic poem, here’s a reminder of Sonnet 94. Continue reading
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This "book-lined" Beijing subway car is an audiobook library
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
Beijing's subway system now includes some experimental cars decorated to look like fanciful, book-lined rooms; scan the QR codes and you get free audiobook downloads for popular Chinese novels. Continue reading
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Victorious Century by David Cannadine review – a sparkling history of 19th-century Britain
via the Guardian by Maya Jasanoff
An era in which the UK enjoyed unparalleled influence in the world seems long distant but its contradictions remain embedded in our own The worst of times … George Cruikshank’s cartoon of the Peterloo massacre in 1819. Photograph: Alamy
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Charles Dickens wrote in 1859, imagining France on the eve of revolution. He may as well have been describing Britain during his own century. It was an era when industry energised and enriched, but polluted and proletarianised; when men enjoyed expanding political rights but women’s freedoms were curtailed; when some rejoiced as the British empire flung pink arms across the world, but others resisted. It was a “Victorious Century”, as David Cannadine entitles this sparklingly intelligent survey, for a United Kingdom whose hegemony rivalled that of the US and China today – but a century of contradictions for the people who lived in it. Continue reading
an article by Janice Astbury and Sandra Bell (Durham University, UK) published in People, Place and Policy Volume 12 Issue 1 (2018)
Abstract
The paper adopts a whole systems framework to identify and track efforts by local government and community organisations to address issues of energy vulnerability among residents in an urban borough.
When viewed through the lens of energy justice these activities appear to disappoint or not to reach all types of people they are intended to benefit.
Problems arise in part because the system is fractured, lacking coordination and complementarity, and also because of a failure to account for the multiple and dynamic features of energy vulnerable clients. A whole systems approach combined with a social justice perspective offers a diagnostic tool for identifying ineffective practices and points towards the creation of better integrated and thorough methods for delivering sustainable interventions.
an article by Huanan Xu (Indiana University, South Bend, USA) published in IZA Journal of Development and Migration Volume 8 Article 19 (2018)
Abstract
Using individual-level Current Population Survey (CPS) data matched across adjacent months from 1996 to 2013, this paper examines immigrant-native differentials in labor market transitions to changes in the business cycle.
The paper captures economic fluctuations by measuring deviations in local demand from national economic circumstances and examines monthly transitions among employment, unemployment, and nonparticipation.
Immigrants are found to be first fired and first hired over the business cycle, and the aggregate unemployment gap is caused by immigrants’ higher rates in the unemployment entry flow. Although to some extent the gap can be explained by variation in the immigrant-native’s exposure to cycles across industry and occupation, the first fired and first hired pattern still holds.
Tests for heterogeneity show that low-skilled immigrants are more vulnerable to the business cycle. Tests of the structural changes from the 2007–2009 Great Recession show that since its start, there was a secular shift in the transition probabilities that would affect all workers negatively, but cyclical volatility was mitigated for immigrants in the post-Great Recession period.
an article by Jonathan Symons (Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia) and Rasmus Karlsson (Umea University, Sweden) published in Citizenship Studies Volume 22 Issue 7 (2018)
Abstract
Green accounts of environmental citizenship typically seek to promote environmental sustainability and justice. However, some green theorists have argued that liberal freedoms are incompatible with preserving a planetary environment capable of meeting basic human needs and must be wound back.
More recently, ‘ecomodernists’ have proposed that liberalism might be reconciled with environmental challenges through state-directed innovation focused on the provision of global public goods. Yet, they have not articulated an account of ecomodernist citizenship.
This article seeks to advance the normative theory of ecomodernism by specifying an account of ecomodernist citizenship and subjecting the theory’s core claims to sympathetic critique.
We argue that state-directed innovation has the potential to reconcile ambitious mitigation with liberal freedoms. However, full implementation of ecomodernist ideals would require widespread embrace of ecophilic values, high-trust societies and acceptance of thick political obligations within both national and global communities.
Ecomodernism’s wider commitments to cosmopolitan egalitarianism and separation from nature thus amount to a non-liberal comprehensive public conception of the good. Furthermore, ecomodernism currently lacks an adequate account of how a society that successfully ‘separates’ from nature can nurture green values, or how vulnerable people’s substantive freedoms will be protected during an era of worsening climate harms.
a post by Renee Liddell for the World of Psychology blog
I believe there is not enough dialogue out there about soul-sickness, especially among wealthy communities. We are taught to believe from a young age that once we have the perfect partner, house, car, children, and careers, we will be happy. And often times this is not the case; the happiness does not come. There is an insatiable need for more. Because there is no dialogue about this, most people think, I am the only one, something is wrong with me, or no one understands me. This leads to deep despair and usually a diagnosis of depression and medication.
I ruined my life searching for peace. I pushed away everyone and everything I loved. I allowed myself to be emotionally, psychologically, and sexually abused. I allowed myself to be brainwashed in seemingly unhealable ways. And what I finally discovered, after all of my searching, is that the peace and happiness for which I had been searching was inside of me all along. But, and this is a big but, I had to be shattered by life to find it.
a post by Anais Rodriguez for the Tiny Buddha blog
“Holding a grudge doesn't make you strong; it makes you bitter. Forgiving doesn't make you weak; it sets you free.” ~Unknown
My situation is probably not unlike that a lot of people reading this.
I grew up in a single-parent home. Don’t get me wrong, I had a pretty happy childhood, and my mom did an unbelievable job raising me. She worked four jobs to make sure I always had the best of everything. But I could never shake the feeling that I always wanted a father figure in my life.
My parents had separated when I was very young. My dad was a marine, my mom was a doctor, and she had realized that she didn’t want to be moving around her whole life. This meant that I only got to see him once or twice a year. And slowly, we became increasingly estranged.
When I was sixteen, I found out that he was deciding where to buy a new house for a more permanent and stable job post. I started thinking that he would find something nearer to me. He now had more flexibility, and finally, I could see him more often. We could begin to build a real relationship and make up for the years of missed birthdays, graduations, and other memories.
But then, right when I got my hopes up, he didn’t. He stayed where he was—with his new wife and her kids. Even though it seemed like they didn’t appreciate him, and even though I felt that I needed him more than they did.
a column by Joan Costa-i-Fon for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Many European countries are revisiting how best to finance long-term care, balancing financial sustainability and the economic welfare of households.
Using examples of Spain and Scotland, this paper demonstrates that an expansion of public funding for long-term care has an effect on caregiving choices, household finances, and hospital care. Unconditional or cash subsidies may entail a ‘caregiving moral hazard’, but both cash and care subsidies can bring savings to the health system by reducing the frequency and intensity of hospitalisation.
a post by Mark Frauenfelder for the Boing Boing blog
Gabrielle Blair posted a long Twitter thread about abortion. Here are all her tweets presented as a single essay. She makes a good case that men are 100% to blame for all unwanted pregnancies, and that abortions could be eliminated without making them illegal if they would simply wear condoms (or at least pull out before ejaculating). The entire essay is worth reading.
an article by Robin Palmer (Rhodes University, Simon's Town, Western Cape, South Africa) published in International Journal of Business and Globalisation Volume 21 Number 3 (2018)
Abstract
We live in a time of increased international migration and asylum seeking. Those involved have become scapegoats for nativists who support parties with promises to restore what they have lost through neoliberalism and globalisation.
Neoliberalism may be of recent derivation, but it is derived from the liberalism and laissez-faire capitalism of the 'long 19th century' (1750-1914). Then, as now, the masses were 'pushed' to migrate by accelerated population growth and its political and socio-economic correlates.
Focusing on London, the paper examines the experience of Italian migrants and asylum seekers in the UK of that period, who drew on the historic Italophilia of the British to advance their careers or causes. Collective reputation, so long as it is positive, can be an important resource for 'culture entrepreneurs' in migrant or refugee settings; it can take a long time to build but once established tends to be resilient and capable of innovative reinterpretation.
“Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.” ~Joyce Meyer
I used to say, “Patience is a virtue I don’t have.” So, of course, that is how I lived my life. Hurried, exasperated, impatient, and stressed out.
Not only was I a creating a world where I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off—because everything had to be done now, and anything that got in the way of that had to be removed immediately—but I was creating this world for those around me.
My children often bore the brunt of my impatience. If they didn’t get dressed fast enough, or show up at the dinner table as soon as I called them, or get into the car when it was time to go, they met my wrath. And, I had a wicked tongue.
I was constantly haranguing them to stop “being lazy,” “quit dawdling,” etc. Somehow, their lack of speed equated into being lazy or “less than.” Where did I pick up such a mentality?
a column by Costas Arkolakis, Natalia Ramondo, Andres Rodríguez-Clare and Stephen Yeaple for VIX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
One consequence of the last decades of globalisation is that, thanks to multinational firms, goods are increasingly being produced far from where ideas are created.
Using general equilibrium modelling, this column analyses the welfare and distributional effects of the recent wave of protectionism. Central to the results is the flexibility that multinational firms have in locating their innovation and production activities around the globe.
an article by Lee Peart for Care Home Professional [via Angela Gifford with thanks]
Main points
A quarter of the social care workforce (335,000 jobs) were on zero hours contracts in 2017/18.
Turnover stood at 30.7%, equivalent to around 390,000 leavers, although many of these people moved on to roles within the sector.
The majority (83%) of the workforce was British, with EU nationals accounting for 8% of the workforce (104,000 jobs) and non-EU nationals 10% (1,300,000 jobs)
New research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used survey data from 2 million Americans to examine the links between climate change and mental health issues.
The study examined survey data reported by 2 million Americans between 2002 and 2012.
The results showed that hotter and wetter months were associated with increases in mental health issues like stress and depression.
Women and low-income Americans seem to have been most affected by the weather changes.
an article by Miriam Dishon-Berkovits (Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel) published in Journal of Career Development Volume 45 Issue 5 (October 2018)
Abstract
This study explores how job-burnout dimensions—emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and personal accomplishment—relate to distributive justice and stress.
Questionnaire data were collected in a cross-sectional design from 90 information technology professionals. Structural equation modeling analysis indicated that low levels of perceived justice are associated with higher exhaustion.
Next, a parallel mechanism unfolds: High levels of exhaustion are directly related to low levels of personal accomplishment. At the same time, high levels of exhaustion are associated with high levels of cynicism, which are associated with higher levels of self-accomplishment.
These findings are consistent with theories, suggesting that employees may utilize cynicism as a defense mechanism in an attempt to protect the self. Cynicism also mediated the relationship between stress and personal accomplishment. Cynicism may help employees cope with exhaustion and stress and thus may protect their sense of self-worth.
Theoretical and applied implications for organizations, career development, and counseling are discussed.
a post by Jeanine Cerundolo for the Tiny Buddha blog
“Ego says, ‘Once everything falls into place, I’ll feel peace.
Spirit says, ‘Find your peace, and then everything will fall into place.”
Marianne Williamson
Muse: I’d love to get another job one day. One where I can feel inspired and give my best gifts to the world! One where they have a casual dress code and summer Fridays. Ah, I can just feel it now!
Critic: What are you, crazy? You’re always talking about quitting and starting over. Do you remember how hard we worked to get the job we have? (That you’ve only been at for one year, may I remind you.) What do you think, you can just throw that all away?
Muse: I don’t care. I don’t want to live my life for my resume. One year is a good amount of time. I’m ready to try something new. I want to start feeling satisfied at work, and you know we are not happy in our current situation.
Critic: It’s not all about “happiness,” okay? Who do you even know that is happy? (And don’t show me their Instagram feed as evidence.) There’s more to life than just what you want, you have to be responsible.
Muse: Responsible means “able to respond,” and with that ability I’m responding to feeling dead at work with the idea to do something new. Why are you always such a downer?
My career in information management started back in 1987 working on the Training Access Points project. Nearly thirty years later I am still concerned to ensure that end users, and their mediators, have access to appropriate, relevant information in a form that they can understand, at a time and in a place that is right for them. The Internet seems to be for everyone and everywhere but the digital divide gets bigger. By pointing advisers in the direction of resources I hope to increase what can be done to help clients/customers.
I ran my own company for 16 years but am now a semi-retired freelancer.
