Negotiating networks of self-employed work: strategies of minority ethnic contractors

Within the increased flexible, contracted work in cities, employment is negotiated through network arrangements characterised by multiplicity, mobility and fluidity. For black and minority ethnic group members, this network labour becomes fraught as they negotiate both their own communities, which can be complex systems of conflicting networks, as well as non-BME networks which can be exclusionary. This discussion explores the networking experiences of BME individuals who are self-employed in portfolio work arrangements in Canada. The analysis draws from a theoretical frame of ‘racialisation’ (Mirchandani and Chan, 2007) to examine the social processes of continually constructing and positioning the Other as well as the self through representations in these networks. These positions and concomitant identities enroll BME workers in particular modes of social production, which order their roles and movement in the changing dynamics of material production in networked employment

Evidence of negative energy balance using doubly labelled water in elite Kenyan endurance runners prior to competition

Previous studies have found Kenyan endurance runners to be in negative energy balance during training and prior to competition. The aim of the present study was to assess energy balance in nine elite Kenyan endurance runners during heavy training. Energy intake and expenditure were determined over 7d using weighed dietary intake and doubly labelled water, respectively. Athletes were on average in negative energy balance (mean energy intake 13 241 (SD 1330) kJ/d v. mean energy expenditure 14 611 (SD 1043) kJ/d; P=0·046), although there was no loss in body mass (mean 56·0 (SD 3·4) kg v. 55·7 (SD 3·6) kg; P=0·285). The calculation of underreporting was 13; (range −24 to +9%) and almost entirely accounted for by undereating (9% (range −55 to +39%)) as opposed to a lack of significant underrecording (i.e. total water intake was no different from water loss (mean 4·2 (SD 0·6) l/d v. 4·5 (SD 0·8) l/d; P=0·496)). Fluid intake was modest and consisted mainly of water (0·9 (SD 0·5) l/d) and milky tea (0·9 (SD 0·3) l/d). The diet was high in carbohydrate (67·3 (SD 7·8) %) and sufficient in protein (15·3 (SD 4·0) %) and fat (17·4 (SD 3·9) %). These results confirm previous observations that Kenyan runners are in negative energy balance during periods of intense training. A negative energy balance would result in a reduction in body mass, which, when combined with a high carbohydrate diet, would have the potential in the short term to enhance endurance running performance by reducing the energy cost of runnin

'Some people are not allowed to love': intimate citizenship in the lives of people labelled with intellectual disabilities

Disability helps us think differently about the ‘ideal’ neoliberal-able citizen who may not equate to ideas of productive, sexual, ‘normal’. Intimate citizenship – our rights and access to intimacy – is often ignored by those working with people labelled with intellectual disabilities and in research. In this article, we discuss the outcome of a dialogue between self-advocates labelled with intellectual disabilities, academics, service providers, Aboriginal leaders, students and artists about intimate citizenship through love, intimate work and consumption

The Use of Soil Tests.

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The Future of the Standard Employment Relationship: Labour Law, New Institutional Economics and Old Power Resource Theory

This article addresses two questions about the standard employment relationship that have become prominent in labour law literature: Does it exacerbate inequality? Is its decline inevitable? The focus is on the second question and emphasizes the extent to which the standard employment relationship was both embedded in, and the outcome of, an institutional ensemble that was fashioned out of the post-war capital–labour compromise in industrialized democracies. The analysis proceeds in three steps. The first is conceptual and stresses the distinctive nature of labour as a fictive commodity, and the recurring regulatory dilemmas that arise in any attempt to institutionalize a labour market. The second step historicizes and contextualizes the employment relationship, emphasizing politics and conflict (power resource theory) over rational choice and coordination (new institutional economics) as the basis for its institutionalization. The emphasis on politics, power and labour leads to the third step, which focuses on how the broad process of financialization influences three key institutions – the large manufacturing firm, the democratic welfare state and autonomous trade unions – that have been crucial for the development of the standard employment relationship

Gas isotope thermometry in the South Pole and Dome Fuji ice cores provides evidence for seasonal rectification of ice core gas records

Gas isotope thermometry using the isotopes of molecular nitrogen and argon has been used extensively to reconstruct past surface temperature change from Greenland ice cores. The gas isotope ratios δ15N and δ40Ar in the ice core are each set by the amount of gravitational and thermal fractionation in the firn. The gravitational component of fractionation is proportional to the firn thickness, and the thermal component is proportional to the temperature difference between the top and bottom of the firn column, which can be related to surface temperature change. Compared to Greenland, Antarctic climate change is typically more gradual and smaller in magnitude, which results in smaller thermal fractionation signals that are harder to detect. This has hampered application of gas isotope thermometry to Antarctic ice cores. Here, we present an analytical method for measuring δ15N and δ40Ar with a precision of 0.002 ‰ per atomic mass unit, a two-fold improvement on previous work. This allows us to reconstruct changes in firn thickness and temperature difference at the South Pole between 30 and 5 kyr BP. We find that variability in firn thickness is controlled in part by changes in snow accumulation rate, which is, in turn, influenced strongly by the along-flowline topography upstream of the ice core site. Variability in our firn temperature difference record cannot be explained by annual-mean processes. We therefore propose that the ice core gas isotopes contain a seasonal bias due to rectification of seasonal signals in the upper firn. The strength of the rectification also appears to be linked to fluctuations in the upstream topography. As further evidence for the existence of rectification, we present new data from the Dome Fuji ice core that are also consistent with a seasonal bias throughout the Holocene. Our findings have important implications for the interpretation of ice core gas records. For example, we show that the effects of upstream topography on ice core records can be significant at flank sites like the South Pole – they are responsible for some of the largest signals in our record. Presumably upstream signals impact other flank-flow ice cores such as EDML, Vostok, and EGRIP similarly. Additionally, future work is required to confirm the existence of seasonal rectification in polar firn, to determine how spatially and temporally widespread rectifier effects are, and to incorporate the relevant physics into firn air models.</p

Microbial electrolysis cells for decentralisedwastewater treatment: The next steps

Traditional wastewater treatment methods have become aged and inefficient, meaning alternative methods are essential to protect the environment and ensure water and energy security worldwide. The use of microbial electrolysis cells (MEC) for wastewater treatment provides an innovative alternative, working towards circular wastewater treatment for energy production. This study evaluates the factors hindering industrial adoption of this technology and proposes the next steps for further research and development. Existing pilot-scale investigations are studied to critically assess the main limitations, focusing on the electrode material, feedstock, system design and inoculation and what steps need to be taken for industrial adoption of the technology. It was found that high strength influents lead to an increase in energy production, improving economic viability; however, large variations in waste streams indicated that a homogenous solution to wastewater treatment is unlikely with changes to the MEC system specific to different waste streams. The current capital cost of implementing MECs is high and reducing the cost of the electrodes should be a priority. Previous pilot-scale studies have predominantly used carbon-based materials. Significant reductions in relative performance are observed when electrodes increase in size. Inoculation time was found to be a significant barrier to quick operational performance. Economic analysis of the technology indicated that MECs offer an attractive option for wastewater treatment, namely greater energy production and improved treatment efficiency. However, a significant reduction in capital cost is necessary to make this economically viable. MEC based systems should offer improvements in system reliability, reduced downtime, improved treatment rates and improved energy return. Discussion of the merits of H2 or CH4 production indicates that an initial focus on methane production could provide a stepping-stone in the adoption of this technology while the hydrogen market matures.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; London South Bank University and the European Regional Development Fun

Modern Slavery, Unfree Labour and the Labour Market: The Social Dynamics of Legal Characterization

Treating the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Act as its focus, this article examines what the legal characterization of labour unfreedom reveals about the underlying conception of the labour market that informs contemporary approaches to labour law in the United Kingdom. It discusses how unfree labour is conceptualized within two key literatures – Marxist-inspired political economy and liberal approaches to modern slavery – and their underlying assumptions of the labour market and how it operates. As an alternative to these depictions of the labour market, it proposes a legal institutionalist or constitutive account. It develops an approach to legal characterization and jurisdiction that is attentive to modes of governing and the role of political and legal differentiation both in producing labour exploitation and unfree labour and in developing strategies for its elimination. It argues that the problem with the modern slavery approach to unfree labour is that it tends to displace labour law as the principal remedy to the problem of labour abuse and exploitation, while simultaneously reinforcing the idea that flexible labour markets of the type that prevails in the United Kingdom are realms of labour freedom