Americans don’t trust government because they feel economically insecure

In new research, Andrew Wroe finds that those who feel less economically secure are also likely to trust the government less. He writes that while Americans are relatively rich compared to the rest of the world, many are also insecure – a situation they blame on the government, leading them to trust it less

Augmented & Virtual Reality: How it can Elevate Education & Humanity

Alice Wroe researches and commissions innovative ways the global community of leaders can be together when physically apart, exploring what it means to be human whilst digital. Previously she was Creative Director of Magic Leap’s digital human Mica, where she oversaw the creative and ethical direction of the pioneering digital human who, under her direction, used art and culture to engender positive ways for society to relate to embodied AI. Through this work she explored whether it is possible for embodied AI to champion gender equality. As Founder of Herstory, Alice has creatively activated women’s history for some of the world’s leading brands and institutions. Driven by developing virtual experiences that do not compromise the humanity of the user, she says she is looking with hope to a future where technology enables everybody to reach their full potential and creates a fairer and more inclusive society.https://fuse.franklin.edu/leadership-events/1000/thumbnail.jp

Chieftaincy and the distributive politics of an agricultural input subsidy programme in a rural Malawian village

The decline of industry in Southern Africa has prompted James Ferguson to question the bases on which the region’s poor may justify claims on resources, if not through their labour. This article builds from Fergsuon’s work by looking at the continuing importance of chieftaincy to distributive politics in Malawi. I use a case study of a government agricultural extension programme in a village in rural Malawi to show the way in which the opportunities its chiefs and its people have had to make ‘declarations of dependence’ have waxed and waned over time. In the context of the longue durée, the programme appears as the latest in a series of interventions that have created opportunities for chiefs and people to make new relationships, and to remake old ones. I use the case to suggest how migrant labour, old agricultural extension programmes, and changes to the status of chiefs within the Malawian state have structured the way in which chiefs have been able to operate in Malawi. Based on the case study, and other research on chiefs in Malawi, I argue that at the contemporary moment chieftaincy may stave off what Ferguson labels ‘asocial inequality’, but achieves little more. Keywords: Poverty, chiefs, rural development, Malawi, inequality, distributive politic

Economic Insecurity and Political Trust in the United States

Extant research demonstrates that citizens’ evaluations of national economic performance play an important role in determining trust in politicians and political institutions, whereas evaluations of their own economic situation play a lesser or even negligible role. Utilizing American National Election Studies data and more apposite measures of personal economic privation during an age of globalization and de-industrialization, this article finds that the extent to which citizens perceive themselves and their families to be economically insecure has a statistically significant and substantial negative effect on political trust. Indeed, the effect at least matches those of macroeconomic evaluations and party identification. This article therefore adds a new dimension to our understanding of the economy–trust nexus and contributes to the small but growing body of scholarship on insecurity’s effects on political behavior

Contractors and computers, why systems succeed or fail: a grounded theory study of the development of microcomputer-based information systems in ten small companies in the construction industry

A longitudinal study in ten small companies operating in the U.K. construction industry was undertaken using a grounded theory approach over the period 1980-85. The research project involved detailed discussions with management and staff throughout the period of selection, implementation and live operation of a microcomputer-based information system (MIS). The objective was to identify the nature of problems experienced by small companies when introducing microcomputer-based MIS and thereby determine the variables relating to the degree of success achieved. Whilst four companies successfully reached the stage of live operation and use of the information system, five were judged unsuccessful having abandoned the project during the research period. The remaining company continued to experience organisational difficulties relating to the system development. The characteristics of the successful and unsuccessful companies are used to build a grounded model of MIS development in small companies. Research findings raised many contextual, processual and methodological issues concerning the selection, implementation and live operation of microcomputer-based management information systems in this type of environment. A strategy for the successful implementation of microcomputer-based MIS, embracing the factors determining success/failure in the small organisation environment, is presented. The thesis concludes by offering some advice to the systems developers and the information systems design community concerning MIS development in small organisations

Helping patients to reach decisions regarding their treatment:Do ‘non‐directive’ approaches cause systematic bias?

Objectives: Many patients want help in considering medical information relevant to treatment decisions they have to make or agree to. The present research investigated whether focussing on particular issues relevant to a medical treatment decision (using an apparently non-directive procedure) could systematically bias a treatment decision. Design and methods: In a randomized design, participants (community volunteers, n = 146) were given standard information about treatment of cardiac risk factors by medication (statins). There were four experimental interventions in which the participants focussed on the likely personal relevance of subsets of the information previously given (positive, negative, or mixed aspects) or on irrelevant information. Participants were asked to rate their anticipated likelihood of accepting treatment before and after the experimental intervention. Results: The rating of acceptance of treatment was significantly increased by positive focussing; negative focussing did not significantly alter the decision rating. Conclusions: The results partially replicate similar studies in health screening decisions. Reasons for the differences in results from those obtained in screening studies are considered. It is suggested that negative focussing may have less effect in decisions in which there are few risks.</p

What can I do?’ Living with doubt and uncertainty in the Central Region of Malawi.

This thesis is about the decisions a man named David Kaso made during the time I lived with him and his family. It describes how David tried to make sense of what he should do in different situations, and the doubts and uncertainties that he experienced as he did so. Through looking at David’s life in detail the thesis suggests some of the limits of ethnographic methodologies to explain people’s actions. My interest in uncertainty developed during the course of a fifteenmonth stay with David’s family in Chimtengo village, in the rural Central Region of Malawi. There was an overarching imperative on people in Chimtengo to give each other help, yet how exactly he should mediate this support was not something that always appeared easy for David to work out. There were structures that gave some order to his relationships and to what he did. Through getting to know David over a long period I became aware of the significance to him of being a ‘strong’ Christian, a good husband, and a big man. Following the course of his life in detail though, the limits of these different ideas as heuristic devices, or social rules of thumb, became apparent. These limits left David doubtful of his decisions, and me to live with uncertainties about my analysis of his actions. Focusing on David’s life suggested the heuristic nature of ethnographic knowledge, some of the ways that it is constrained by the time and the relationships out of which it is produced