Copyright and cultural work: an exploration

This article first discusses the contemporary debate on cultural “creativity” and the economy. Second, it considers the current state of UK copyright law and how it relates to cultural work. Third, based on empirical research on British dancers and musicians, an analysis of precarious cultural work is presented. A major focus is how those who follow their art by way of “portfolio” work handle their rights in ways that diverge significantly from the current simplistic assumptions of law and cultural policy. Our conclusions underline the distance between present top-down conceptions of what drives production in the cultural field and the actual practice of dancers and musicians

Differences in trauma history and psychopathology between PTSD patients with and without co-occurring dissociative disorders

Wabnitz P, Gast U, Catani C. Differences in trauma history and psychopathology between PTSD patients with and without co-occurring dissociative disorders. European Journal of Psychotraumatology. 2013;2013(4): 21452.Background: The interplay between different types of potentially traumatizing events, posttraumatic symptoms, and the pathogenesis of PTSD or major dissociative disorders (DD) has been extensively studied during the last decade. However, the phenomenology and nosological classification of posttraumatic disorders is currently under debate. The current study was conducted to investigate differences between PTSD patients with and without co-occurring major DD with regard to general psychopathology, trauma history, and trauma-specific symptoms. Methods: Twenty-four inpatients were administered the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-IV (CAPS) and the Mini-Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders (MINI-SKID-D) to assess DD and PTSD. Additionally, participants completed questionnaires to assess general psychopathology and health status. Results: Symptom profiles and axis I comorbidity were similar in all patients. Traumatic experiences did not differ between the two groups, with both reporting high levels of childhood trauma. Only trauma-specific avoidance behavior and dissociative symptoms differed between groups. Conclusion: Results support the view that PTSD and DD are affiliated disorders that could be classified within the same diagnostic category. Our results accord with a typological model of dissociation in which profound forms of dissociation are specific to DD and are accompanied with higher levels of trauma-specific avoidance in DD patients

Epidemiologic heterogeneity of common mood and anxiety disorders over the lifecourse in the general population: a systematic review

Background Clinical evidence has long suggested there may be heterogeneity in the patterns and predictors of common mood and anxiety disorders; however, epidemiologic studies have generally treated these outcomes as homogenous entities. The objective of this study was to systematically review the epidemiologic evidence for potential patterns of heterogeneity of common mood and anxiety disorders over the lifecourse in the general population. Methods We reviewed epidemiologic studies examining heterogeneity in either the nature of symptoms experienced ( symptom syndromes ) or in patterns of symptoms over time ( symptom trajectories ). To be included, studies of syndromes were required to identify distinct symptom subtypes, and studies of trajectories were required to identify distinct longitudinal patterns of symptoms in at least three waves of follow-up. Studies based on clinical or patient populations were excluded. Results While research in this field is in its infancy, we found growing evidence that, not only can mood and anxiety disorders be differentiated by symptom syndromes and trajectories, but that the factors associated with these disorders may vary between these subtypes. Whether this reflects a causal pathway, where genetic or environmental factors influence the nature of the symptom or trajectory subtype experienced by an individual, or whether individuals with different subtypes differed in their susceptibility to different environmental factors, could not be determined. Few studies addressed issues of comorbidity or transitions in symptoms between common disorders. Conclusion Understanding the diversity of these conditions may help us identify preventable factors that are only associated with some subtypes of these common disorders

Performers on the edge [video]

This documentary is one of the outcomes of a two-year research project into the precarious work situation of dancers and musicians in the UK. A major focus for us has been the extent to which the present copyright regime adequately addresses the production of experiential works in which performance plays a major role – music and dance being the cases in point. We have drawn on performances observed and recorded during our study as well as on interviews with artists and academics that participated in our investigation. Because this project was part of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council’s ‘Beyond Text’ Programme, we always wanted to produce an audiovisual record of our research as well as producing the conventional forms of academic textual output but we had never specified the form. It only dawned on us gradually that a short documentary would be the ideal way to do this

Designing a licensing strategy for sharing and re-use of geospatial data in the academic sector.

The GRADE Project (http://edina.ed.ac.uk/projects/grade) is one of a cluster of projects in the Digital Repositories Programme funded by the Joint Information Services Committee (www.jisc.ac.uk) of HEFCE investigating the interactions between data and institutional (publications) repositories, support for scientific lifecycle, storage and access requirements. The JISC is bringing together a programme of work relating to digital repositories. Its aim is to bring together people and practices from across various domains (research, learning, information services, institutional policy, management and administration, records management, and so on) to ensure the maximum degree of coordination in the development of digital repositories, in terms of their technical and social (including business) aspects. Within this context, GRADE is investigating the technical and cultural issues around the reuse of geospatial data within the JISC IE in the context of media –centric, informal and institutional repositories. GRADE Work Package 3 aims to develop a clear understanding of digital rights issues for created geospatial data respecting, where applicable, the licensing conditions of any source geospatial data and to develop a conceptual framework for resolving those described rights management issues raised in relation to repositories. Geospatial material created in the education sector can be highly complex, incorporating data created elsewhere either as found, or customised to fit the particular need of the academic or lecturer. The downstream rights can become very complex, as it is necessary to ensure that permissions have been gained to reuse or repurpose the data, and it is usually essential that correct attribution is made. There are currently concerns and confusion over the assertion of IPR and copyright of created geospatial data particularly where third party data are included. This report considers a licensing strategy for the sharing and re-use of geospatial data within the UK research and education sector