Individualisation and Growing Diversity of Employment Relationships

At a time when the economic recession is more severe, and trade unions are weaker, than at any time since the War, it would be unproductive to speculate about the extent to which these changes have been imposed, acquiesced, or agreed by the workers concerned. Instead we focus on recent changes in employment relationships in Britain, and their consequences, and then on the winners and losers, which provides a cue for considering the longer term desirability of some of these developments for social justice and cohesion.Labour-management relations, individual and collective voice

Individualisation and growing diversity of employment relationships

At a time when the economic recession is more severe, and trade unions are weaker, than at any time since the War, it would be unproductive to speculate about the extent to which these changes have been imposed, acquiesced, or agreed by the workers concerned. Instead we focus on recent changes in employment relationships in Britain, and their consequences, and then on the winners and losers, which provides a cue for considering the longer term desirability of some of these developments for social justice and cohesion

Responding to Disinformation: Ten Recommendations for Regulatory Action and Forbearance

This chapter elaborates on challenges and emerging best practices for state regulation of electoral disinformation throughout the electoral cycle. It is based on research for three studies during 2018–2020: into election cybersecurity for the Commonwealth; on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to regulate disinformation for the European Parliament; and for UNESCO, the United Nations body responsible for education. The research covers more than half the world’s nations, and substantially more than half that population, and in 2019 the two largest democratic elections in history: India’s general election and the European Parliamentary elections. Regulating digital dominance in electoral disinformation presents specific challenges in three very distinctive fields: election law, media law, and mass communications regulation, and targeted online advertising, including data protection law. Implementing best practices against electoral disinformation will require action by EMBs, data protection agencies, communications and media regulators, parliamentary authorities, and ministries of justice and equivalent Neither effective implementation, nor a disinterested assessment of best practice, can be guaranteed. Electoral laws are—like much history—written by the winners, often immediately after their victory. Legal frameworks need to be updated as a response to disinformation challenges discovered during electoral processes, as well as encompassing international best practice. Our ten recommendations for policymakers take account of these imperatives and uncertainties

Magnetic fields and differential rotation on the pre-main sequence I: The early-G star HD 141943 - brightness and magnetic topologies

Spectroscopic and spectropolarimetric observations of the pre-main sequence early-G star HD 141943 were obtained at four observing epochs (in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010). The observations were undertaken at the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope using the UCLES echelle spectrograph and the SEMPOL spectropolarimeter visitor instrument. Brightness and surface magnetic field topologies were reconstructed for the star using the technique of least-squares deconvolution to increase the signal-to-noise of the data. The reconstructed brightness maps show that HD 141943 had a weak polar spot and a significant amount of low latitude features, with little change in the latitude distribution of the spots over the 4 years of observations. The surface magnetic field was reconstructed at three of the epochs from a high order (l <= 30) spherical harmonic expansion of the spectropolarimetric observations. The reconstructed magnetic topologies show that in 2007 and 2010 the surface magnetic field was reasonably balanced between poloidal and toroidal components. However we find tentative evidence of a change in the poloidal/toroidal ratio in 2009 with the poloidal component becoming more dominant. At all epochs the radial magnetic field is predominantly non-axisymmetric while the azimuthal field is predominantly axisymmetric with a ring of positive azimuthal field around the pole similar to that seen on other active stars.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, accepted by MNRA

Regeneration characteristics of a swamp forest in northwestern Tasmania

The botanical composition and regeneration characteristics are described for a Melaleuca ricifoliaLeptospermum lanigerum forest from northwestern Tasmania. The size classes of the two dominant species are highly correlated with tree age. Size class analysis shows that the dominants are regenerating continuously. The relationship of this forest type to rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest are discussed

Changing mobility practices – can we learn from crises?

Die moderne Gesellschaft und ihre Mobilitätssysteme sind auf komplexe Art und Weise miteinander verwoben. Materielle Infrastrukturen, Ressourcenflüsse und Artefakte interagieren mit den sozial ausdifferenzierten Systemen des Alltagslebens. Diese können als Bündel von Alltagspraktiken verstanden werden, wobei Alltagspraktiken selbst sozialen Mustern, Normen und Erwartungen unterliegen. Praxistheorien eröffnen eine konzeptionelle Perspektive auf die Muster geteilter und sozial geformter Verpflichtungen, Routinen und Lebensweisen. Aufgrund der komplexen Verwobenheit von Materialitäten, Zeitlichkeiten und Sozialverhältnissen zählen viele qualitativ unterschiedliche Ereignisse und Situationen als Krisen, Störungen oder Notfälle, die Mobilitätspraktiken beeinflussen sowie die mit ihnen in Raum und Zeit verbundenen Praktiken. Die Klimakrise, die Covid Pandemie und Krise der Lebenshaltungskosten sind gegenwärtige Beispiele, die vor diesem Hintergrund reflektiert werden können. Anhand des Beispiels der Veränderung von Mobilitätspraktiken und anderen Praktiken aufgrund der Covid-19 Pandemie stellen wir konzeptionelle Überlegungen zu einem praxistheoretischen Verständnis von des Wandels von (Mobilitäts-)praktiken an und werfen dabei drei kritische Punkte auf. Diese betreffen das Definieren und Sprechen von Krisen, den Wandel von Mobilitätspraktiken und die politische „Steuerung“ des Wandels von Praktiken.&nbsp; Modern society and its mobility systems interweave in complex ways. Material infrastructures, resource flows and devices interact with socially differentiated systems of everyday life. These are bundles of common everyday practices, themselves subject to social patterning, norms and expectations. Practice theories provide a way of thinking about this level of patterning, of shared and socially shaped obligations, routines, and ways of living. Because of this complexity of interweaving of materiality, temporality, spatiality and sociality, many qualitatively different events and situations can count as crises, as disruptions or emergencies, which affect mobility practices and the practices they connect in time and space. The climate crisis, the Covid pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis are contemporary examples on which we can reflect. We reflect on how mobility and other practices have changed in response to Covid as the basis of a conceptual reflection on practice theory’s understanding of mobility practices and practice change, and conclude with three critical perspectives. These are on defining and talking in terms of crises; on change in mobility practices; and on policy ‘steering’ of practice change. (peer reviewed

WATER alert!: using mobile phones to improve community perspective on drinking water quality in South Africa

Drinking water quality, in many parts of South Africa, is far below acceptable standards. With a high number of illnesses and deaths in the country due to diarrheal diseases, the impact is critical. This research addresses the challenge of reporting complex and critical water quality information in a way that is accessible to all South Africans. High illiteracy rates, the presence of 11 official languages and limited-to-no access to technology in many areas, present some of the major challenges to the design of an alert notification and reporting system. We describe the design of WATER Alert!, a symbol-based prototype mobile phone application to alert and report water quality information to consumers and allow for citizen involvement in water management. Our findings from a preliminary evaluation revealed that WATER Alert! is simple to use and has a perceived usefulness amongst participants. The findings also suggest that such an application would help to improve consumers' understanding of water quality information leading to an improved Community Perspective on drinking water quality