Sending your research material into the future

A leaflet offering practical guidance for researchers on how to preserve their digital research material/data. This is one of the outputs of the JISC SHARD project, investigating research data preservation for history researchers, and related projects in the 2011-2012 JISC Digital Preservation programme

Piecing Together a Genealogical Puzzle

The emergence of intersectionality and the reemergence of American pragmatism within the academy in the late-twentieth century raises some provocative issues. On the surface, intersectionality and American pragmatism appear to be very different entities, yet emphasizing their differences may overlook deeper connections that might benefit both discourses. Using a genealogical method, this essay explores one core question: how might intersectionality and American pragmatism as knowledge projects inform each other? The body of the essay presents an abbreviated analysis of the structural and symbolic contours of each knowledge project so that the theme of their potential dialogical relationship can be investigated. The essay concludes by examining three areas of convergence that emerge from this preliminary dialogue, namely, themes of experience, complex social inequalities and conceptions of social action

The Inter-War Depression in British India: Aspects of its Economic and Social Impact, 1929-36

During the last decade there have been several new works on the impact of the 1929 depression on the Indian economy, but most have concentrated on single provinces or single sectors of the economy. This study aims to synthesise the trends discussed elsewhere at provincial level in an analysis of the slump at an All-India level, though the great diversity of agrarian conditions has necessitated a focus on one, hitherto neglected, province. It studies the tensions created by the sudden impact of a short-term downturn and the longterm structural change in the Indian economy between the wars. Several major conclusions emerge from this study. Firstly, that India withdrew from the international economy, partly through higher tariffs protecting the domestic market and partly the increasing uncompetitiveness of Indian exports, particularly after the devaluation of the yen in December 1931. This trend was to continue through the 1930s. For the first time, this study has disaggregated Burma from the Indian trade statistics, which has shown that British trade to India, prior to the slump was of greater magnitude than suggested by traditional studies. This explains the aggressive reaction of British exporters in the early 1930s to the threat posed by the loss of trade to India. Removal of Burma from the trade statistics also demonstrates more clearly the tendency of India towards disengagement from world trade, especially its traditional intra-Asian trade. This had major implications not only for the Indian economy but for India's partners within the Asian bloc, mostly Java. Secondly, a study of the process of commercialisation within the backward province of Bihar and Orissa has provided an addition to earlier work on those provinces more highly integrated into the global economy such as Bengal and the Punjab. This has revealed the importance of the extension of the road network in the establishment of a provincial market and the continuation of the process of commercialisation despite falling rural incomes arid a reduction of cash credit. The study of rural Bihar has shown also that by reducing land values, the depression pushed investment from rural to urban-industrial areas. Prior to the slump land values were increasing because of pressure on land created by a rapidly growing population. The collapse of prices of agricultural produce from 1929 abruptly halted the rise in land values due to an increase in rent defaults. Thus, the traditional investment in land became unprofitable and new investment opportunities had to be found. This new capital provided a basis for the rise during the slump of import-substitution industries managed both by traditional European and new Indian agencies. Much has been written about the rise of indigenous business groups, but the early 1930s also witnessed the advent of multinational companies such as Imperial Chemicals and Dunlop anxious to establish plant within the shelter of the high Indian tariff. The growing strength of the Indian entrepreneurial classes was marked by increasing competition between Indian firms, particularly notable in an east-west split of financial interest groups. The role of the Government of India has been assessed, especially its relationship with the British authorities. The action of the British Government during the Indian financial crisis of 1931 could be regarded as an attempt to re-impose imperial control over India. However, it was for purely financial rather than political reasons. This is seen in the economic results of the British action, gold outflows from India which rendered the United Kingdom debtor and the curtailment of British trade to India, which weakened the economic rationale of a British presence in India and so paved the way for decolonisation. The attempts by the Government of India to deal with the crisis were ad hoc and unsatisfactory. There was no major re-orientation of government policy. A comparision with the Government of Argentina, rather than the usual one with Japan, however, suggests that even if an independent Nationalist Government had been in power during the depression the general underdevelopment of the Indian economy would have constrained the abilities of the authorities to promote a more rapid recovery

The development of children\u27s attention to television at home : the role of commercial content boundaries.

Numerous studies have examined the development of children\u27s understanding of and attitudes towards commercials. Few, however, have investigated attentional responses while viewing advertising. One prior study specifically focused on this question. It found that attention to advertising declined with age, and that the difference between attention to ads and surrounding programs increased with age. A handful of laboratory studies, however, have observed higher attention to commercials by older children, and one study found that three-year-olds\u27 (but not older children\u27s) attention to commercials was elevated relative to programming. Thus, it is unclear how children\u27s attention to commercials varies with age. The current study videotaped 32 two- to twelve-year-old children viewing television at home. Equal numbers of children (half male, half female) aged 2, 5, 7-8, and 11-12 years from different families were observed for 8 to 10 days. The onset and offset of every look at the TV, the beginning and end of every program and advertising block, and the exact timing of every exit from the viewing room were coded. In addition, each broadcast segment was coded as intended for children or adults. Advertising comprised an average 15.8% of time with television and did not vary significantly as a function of age. Percent attention and the number of exits per hour of programming and commercials were compared. Visual attention to both advertising and programming content increased with age. In both cases the most dramatic increase was between 2 and 5 years of age. Contrary to anecdotal reports, toddlers were no ore interested in commercials than in program content. The percent attention and exiting results both indicated that interest in advertising relative to programming declines with age. The results also indicate that children begin to time their exits to occur during advertising before they begin depressing their attention to it. Finally, attention is first depressed within the context of child-oriented content

Opportunities and Barriers to Promoting Public Transit Use in a Midsize Canadian City

This paper reports results from a survey of commute patterns of Queen’s University employees, the second largest employer based in the midsize city of Kingston, Ontario. Very few systematic analyses of travel behaviour have been reported for midsize cities (i.e., population 100,000 to 500,000). Our survey results indicate that the vast majority of the survey respondents remain firmly entrenched in using a private automobile as their primary commute mode. More than 50% of the employees commute by car, and only 5% commute by transit year round. An interesting finding is that there is some mode switching between private automobile and public transit by season, i.e. drive to work during spring and summer seasons and take public transit during fall and/or winter. These seasonal transit users could potentially be encouraged to use transit more regularly with appropriate interventions. The findings also reveal that unavailability of daily or weekly parking permits on campus forcesthe employees to purchase monthly car-parking permits. This is problematic since possession of a monthly parking permit becomes a strong motivation to drive to work regularly, and a strong barrier to even occasional use of public transit. The respondents suggested employer-subsidized transit passes, a more reliable transit schedule, and higher parking costs would encourage them to use public transit more

Health Inequities Researchers Need to Engage Municipal Governments

The body of research on health inequities doesn’t offer enough guidance to municipal governments. Too much emphasis is placed on individual behaviour and biomedical solutions (like access to health care services and drugs). Researchers need to offer governments more policy advice on health inequities.York's Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services and funding for faculty, graduate students, and community organizations seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. It is supported by SSHRC and CIHR grants, and by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. [email protected] www.researchimpact.c

Supporting Liverpool’s Roma community: an illumination via Bourdieu’s theory of capital

We discuss our Fair Work research with the Roma of Liverpool, and showcase how Roma communities have developed coping strategies in increasingly precarious labour conditions. We utilise Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of capitals, in particular social capital, to show how Roma cope with the uncertainties of precarious employment. We share our work of the Liverpool Roma Employability Network (LREN) and, in so doing, we posit that social networks, borne of social capital, not merely contribute to enhancing opportunity for Roma employability but more so, align deeply with Roma’s habitus