Scaling and Complexity: Spatial Decomposition MD

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Time, tea breaks and the frontier of control in UK workplaces

One of the by-products of the intensification and re-organization of work over the last four decades has been a squeeze and sometimes elimination of paid rest breaks for lunch, tea (or coffee), and individual ‘comfort’ breaks. This paper explores the history of such breaks, covering whims, fads and changes in management ideologies and practices as they apply to time discipline, as well as patterns of resistance seen through the lens of the ‘frontier of control’. More recent developments have seen a partial return to the ‘paid break’, running against the dominant trend of cutbacks in such breaks or conversion from paid to unpaid breaks

Robots and AI at work: the prospects for singularity

This paper seeks to address emerging debates and controversies on the impact of robots and artificial intelligence on the world of work. Longer term discussions of technological ‘singularity’ are considered alongside the socio-technical and economic constraints on the application of robotics and AI. Evidence of robot ‘take-up’ is gathered from reports of the International Federation of Robotics and from case vignettes reported elsewhere. In assessing the contemporary relationship between singularity, robotics and AI the article reflects briefly on the two ‘tests’ of artificial ‘intelligence’ proposed by the pioneer computer scientist Alan Turing, and comments on the efficacy of his ‘tests’ in contemporary applications. The paper continues by examining aspects of public policy and concludes that technological singularity is far from imminent

The importance of wellness among users of complementary and alternative medicine: findings from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey.

BackgroundThis study developed and tested a sociobehavioral wellness model of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to differentiate predisposing factors, enabling resources, need, and personal health practices according to use for wellness, for combined wellness and treatment, or for treatment alone.MethodsData were from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a cross-sectional, nationally representative sample of 23,393 adult Americans. This analysis included people who used at least one CAM modality in the past 12 months (n = 7003 adult users). Prevalence estimates and multinomial logistic regression results were weighted and adjusted for complex sample design.ResultsOverall, 86 % of CAM users reported reason for use as wellness (51 %) or wellness combined with treatment (35 %). White women had the lowest (48 %) and Asian men (66 %) had the highest wellness use. Compared to treatment only users, wellness users were significantly more likely to be older, more educated, in better health, and engaged in multiple healthy behaviors. There was support that those with health conditions were using methods for both treatment and to maintain health.ConclusionsThe findings underscore the central role of CAM in health self-management and wellness lifestyle. At a time of national health care reform highlighting the importance of health and wellness and employers turning to wellness programs to improve worker performance and well-being, these findings suggest a central role of CAM in those public health endeavors

Impact of Dietary Folate Deficiency on Behavioral and Genetic Outcomes

Undergraduate Basi

Creating a sustainable work environment in British Airways: implications of the 2010 cabin crew dispute.

The author was asked by the union Unite to prepare a short report recording the employee relations strategy of BA and to assess the implications of this strategy for the current dispute with cabin crew. In order to undertake this task it was felt by the author that some initial discussion on work sustainability within large successful corporations was necessary to set the context for BA�s strategic choice with regard to industrial relations within the company. This is followed by a short review of extant academic literature on BA�s and other airlines industrial relations approaches, particularly with respect to the full service carrier (FCC), low cost carrier (LCC) debate. The current approach of BA management towards the cabin crew dispute was then recorded, and an analysis proffered of the likely outcomes of this approach in terms of its effects on employee commitment, customer service, safety and profitability

The Labour Party and post-neoliberalism

In recent months the UK Labour Party has been reviewing its policy approach and putting some flesh on the bones of what a Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn and current shadow chancellor John McDonnell might hope to achieve. Central to their approach has been a renewed interest on the perils of market failure and what can be done about it. An alternative vision has emerged that focuses on prospects for a more cooperative and democratic economy constructed around a limited programme of (re)nationalisation and a National Investment Bank. In the process, two major reports have been produced as discussion documents. The first, Alternative Models of Ownership (herein referred to as AMO) discusses market failures and proposes a new type of economy based on co-ops, and a high-tech networked society encapsulating what McDonnell has referred to as “socialism with an iPad”.1 The second report, Financing Investment (FI), examines the nature of the UK economy, with an array of policy proposals designed to boost the economy through investment in order to encourage productivity growth.2 Both reports are contextualised by academic contributions to the debate and discourse in which concepts such as “post-neoliberalism” or “alternative economic models” have emerged as political projects coveted by sections of the left. These theoretical contributions construct an alternative vision of society based on cooperative sharing, benevolent capital and state-facilitated investment as a successor to the neoliberal phase of capitalism. The purpose of this article is to explore this brand of socialist ideal and to offer a critique in the classical Marxist, revolutionary tradition

The internet, social media and the workplace

This article examines the use of social media and the internet by employers and workers' collective organisations in the workplace