The Claims Culture: A Taxonomy of Industry Attitudes

This paper presents an analysis of a familiar aspect of construction industry culture that we have dubbed 'the claims culture'. This is a culture of contract administration that lays a strong emphasis on the planning and management of claims. The principal elements of the analysis are two sets of distinctions. The first comprises economic and occupational orders, referring to two kinds of control that are exercised over the construction process; predicated respectively on economic ownership and occupational competence. The second refers to contrasting attitudes towards relationships and problem solving within these orders: respectively 'distributive' and 'integrative'. The concepts of economic and occupational order entail further sub-categories. The various attitudes associated with these categories and sub-categories are described. They are assessed as to their consequences for change initiatives in the industry

The Right to Resistance and the Western Sahara: A Twail Analysis of the International Legal Order and Its Constraints on Decolonization

The Western Sahara is often called the Last Colony in the World, in reference to its anachronistic status as a territory deemed to have self-determination by the United Nations and ICJ, but still under the rule of another country. Scholarship on the Western Sahara tends to concentrate on the protracted stalemate in their war of independence against Morocco, highlighting the roles of several individual actors, such as France, the United States, the United Nations, and the Polisario, and how these actors create a particular structure to the conflict. This Note focuses on the role of the International Legal Order, as created and upheld by actors such as the United Nations and the United States, in developing and maintaining the stalemate. First, this Note examines the way the rules on the prohibition on the use of force have asymmetrically limited the ability of the Sahrawi people and the Polisario to respond to colonial violence and to pursue their right to self-determination. Second, this Note examines how the principles of self-determination as defined by the International Legal Order further the power imbalances which allow the oppression of the Western Sahara to continue. Following in the tradition of Third World Approaches to International Law, this Note highlights the displacement of the local legal order in the Western Sahara, and aims to demonstrate that by stifling the right to resistance in the Western Sahara, the International Legal Order merely perpetuates the power imbalances of colonialism

Potent single-domain antibodies that arrest respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein in its prefusion state

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the main cause of lower respiratory tract infections in young children. The RSV fusion protein (F) is highly conserved and is the only viral membrane protein that is essential for infection. The prefusion conformation of RSV F is considered the most relevant target for antiviral strategies because it is the fusion-competent form of the protein and the primary target of neutralizing activity present in human serum. Here, we describe two llama-derived single-domain antibodies (VHHs) that have potent RSV-neutralizing activity and bind selectively to prefusion RSV F with picomolar affinity. Crystal structures of these VHHs in complex with prefusion F show that they recognize a conserved cavity formed by two F protomers. In addition, the VHHs prevent RSV replication and lung infiltration of inflammatory monocytes and T cells in RSV-challenged mice. These prefusion F-specific VHHs represent promising antiviral agents against RSV

Storytelling for Impact Day 1 - Virtual Train-the-TrainersWorkshop with SparkPoint OC 

Report summary of 3-day Train-the-Trainers Workshop in July 2020

Talking about Money, Together: An Abrazar-UCI Collaboration (Photovoide Worldwide Blog)

Photovoice is a community-based participatory research approach in which participants tell stories about their lived experience through photography. UCI’s Community Credit research project is using photovoice as one method to explore people’s financial lives and identify ways for financial institutions to better understand their community’s actual needs. The UCI photovoice research team included Dr. Bill Maurer, Community Credit’s Principal Investigator, Professor of Anthropology, and Director of the Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion (IMTFI); Dr. Melissa Wrapp, anthropologist and Community Credit’s postdoctoral project manager; and Jenny Fan, IMTFI manager.In Spring 2022, Community Credit piloted the use of photovoice as a method for understanding people’s financial stories. This pilot included public listening sessions and discussions of the methodology, which were attended by local nonprofits, credit unions, and community members. Among the attendees was Abrazar (“to embrace” in Spanish), a non-profit serving residents in Orange County. Abrazar offers a range of services, including a 12–18-month financial empowerment program for low-income residents known as SparkPoint OC. After participating in Community Credit’s public listening sessions, Abrazar was interested in exploring the use of photovoice within this program, both as a beneficial experience for clients and as a program evaluation tool. So, following on their first pilot, in Fall 2022 the UCI team partnered with Abrazar to run an online photovoice training for SparkPoint clients and coaches: “Embrace, Educate, Empower: An Abrazar-UCI Photovoice Project on Financial Security with PhotovoiceWorldwide.”This second photovoice project included seventeen participants made up of Abrazar clients, financial coaches, and nonprofit leadership. Participants met for four two-hour sessions, simultaneously interpreted in Spanish and English, in which they learned about the ethics and practical elements of using photography as a research tool. Over the period of several weeks, participants took photos to explore the concept of financial security: what it looks like, how it’s created, and how does one feel when thinking about money. The questions used to guide participant-researchers also focused on understanding their hopes for the financial future and lessons they have learned from participating in the SparkPoint OC program

Understanding fintech from the U.S. to China (Filene Blog Post)

On September 28-29, the 2018 California-Shanghai Innovation Dialogues hosted by UC Irvine brought together scholars, policymakers, and industry professionals from across the globe to discuss the ethics and broader social impact of emergent technologies, from insurtech to blockchain to roboadvising. Filene’s newest Fellow, Bill Maurer, gave a talk analyzing the burgeoning cryptocurrency ‘ICO’ phenomenon focusing on the power of big data and digital platforms to create seemingly totalizing systems. Here, Maurer teases out some of the major financial innovations headed our way and the socioeconomic implications that credit unions should be attuned to

The CARES Act and Credit Reporting: What Credit Unions Need to Know (Filene Blog Post)

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was enacted on March 27, 2020, to provide emergency relief to consumers and businesses suffering from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act contains a section (Sec. 4021) specifically addressing the credit reporting consequences of the pandemic. Even with direct stimulus payments, increased unemployment benefits, and the Paycheck Protection Program, consumers are facing dire financial circumstances. The expiration of relief payments and enhanced unemployment protection on July 31 has only made their situation more precarious

Tech and Trust: Building Credibility in Your Community, Report #599

Trust has always mattered to the financial services industry; however emerging technology has created a challenging landscape as credit unions face tremendous pressure to differentiate themselves from disruptors and other traditional financial institutions. At the same time, the dynamics of trust and mistrust of the financial services industry from community members of low-income and historically marginalized backgrounds may leave many of these community members locked out of a system not designed to accommodate their financial lives. Oftentimes, these members’ financial needs have been met elsewhere