tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/london-5675/articles
London – The Conversation
2024-03-10T16:43:35Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225205
2024-03-10T16:43:35Z
2024-03-10T16:43:35Z
Seeing green: some older-car owners show that there’s more than one way of being eco-friendly
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580114/original/file-20230927-29-x8d4j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C2048%2C1143&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Une Renault 16 garée à Nevers, 2017. La voiture écolo par définition ?
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/152930510@N02/38493865784/">crash71100/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ongoing climate emergency requires us to fundamentally rethink how we get around. Transportation accounts for approximately <a href="https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/in-depth/transport-and-mobility?activeTab=fa515f0c-9ab0-493c-b4cd-58a32dfaae0a">25% of European greenhouse-gas emissions</a>. Of this, road transportation represents <a href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/transport">by far the largest percentage</a>. While the Covid-19 epidemic briefly interrupted the rise in emissions, they’ve since resumed their upward climb. </p>
<p>Public authorities have been working to persuade residents to abandon combustion-powered cars in favour of electric vehicles. As of 2023, <a href="https://www.acea.auto/fact/electric-cars-tax-benefits-purchase-incentives-2023/">20 EU member states offered incentives</a>, and most of the other members have put tax incentives or exemptions in place. </p>
<p>A number of cities have established <a href="https://urbanaccessregulations.eu/low-emission-zones-main">low-emission zones</a>, which restrict access to vehicles that exceed a certain pollution threshold – leading examples include London, Paris and Brussels. Inspired by these and others, New York City is scheduled to start a <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/12/04/new-york-city-congestion-pricing-plan-how-much-traffic-15-dollars/">“congestion pricing” plan in 2024</a>. Projections indicate that it could generate US$1 billion in annual revenues that will be used to improve the city’s subway and bus systems. </p>
<p>In France, the 2021 <a href="https://www.vie-publique.fr/loi/278460-loi-22-ao%C3%BBt-2021-climat-et-resilience-convention-citoyenne-climat">“Climate and Resilience” law</a> will require 33 urban areas with more than 150,000 inhabitants to start implementing low-emissions measures. Only cars that meet the latest ecological standards (mainly electric or hybrid) will be allowed in urban centres, and the restrictions are intended to be progressively tightened as technology improves. </p>
<p>While the production of electric vehicles produces greenhouse gasses, a <a href="https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Global-LCA-passenger-cars-FS-EN-jul2021.pdf">2021 study</a> from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) found that the life-cycle emissions of battery-electric vehicles registered today will be significantly lower – nearly 70% in Europe and the US – than those of similar gasoline-powered cars. So the logic seems inescapable: out with the old, in with the new. </p>
<h2>Making use of what already exists</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.theses.fr/2022UBFCH020">doctoral thesis in sociology</a>, carried out between 2017 and 2022, explored the ownership and use of cars more than 20 years old. It revealed that, far from being hostile to the imperatives of sustainability, some owners of older vehicles were strongly committed to a certain idea of ecology. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550641/original/file-20230927-27-94ktec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550641/original/file-20230927-27-94ktec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550641/original/file-20230927-27-94ktec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550641/original/file-20230927-27-94ktec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550641/original/file-20230927-27-94ktec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550641/original/file-20230927-27-94ktec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550641/original/file-20230927-27-94ktec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Chantal’s Renault Clio, 52 years old.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">G. Mangin</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
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<p>In our research, we interviewed 40 or so vehicle owners and the vast majority expressed the importance of re-use as opposed to mass production and consumption. For them, it’s about promoting an ecology that prioritises the use of functional (or repairable) tools over buying new ones. This was perceived as being more financially accessible and also responsible.</p>
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<p>“It’s not easy to explain to our dear ecologists that keeping and running an ‘old’ car instead of building a new one saves hectolitres of water, kilos of steel, rubber and plastic. That’s the whole problem with looking only at the pollution from exhaust gases, rather than analysing the whole life cycle, from manufacture to use to recycling.” (Richard, writing in “Youngtimers” magazine).</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Redefining what is sustainable through an ethics of “care”</h2>
<p>Like any technical object, to function correctly and last, a car needs to be carefully maintained. Older cars often require constant attention, particularly safety-related components such as brakes.</p>
<p>Today, however, dealerships often no longer have the mechanics trained to work on older vehicles. Maintenance thus has largely become the responsibility of owners, who develop detailed knowledge that allows them to believe that their car will be with them for a long time to come. In so doing, they build an <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/lectures/58828">attachment to the car they look after</a>. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I look after my car to keep it looking good and to keep driving it… I’d like to drive a Golf like this for 300,000 kilometres. My car can go on for another 30 years.” (Larry, 64, retired decorator, drives a 1993 Volkswagen Golf 3)</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Suspicion that the ecological transition is “greenwashing”</h2>
<p>Resisting the switch to a less-polluting vehicle is also a sign of scepticism about manufacturers’ ecological intentions. For better or worse, electric vehicles are suspected of being <a href="https://theconversation.com/fin-de-la-voiture-thermique-pourquoi-le-tout-electrique-na-rien-dune-solution-miracle-192264">far more polluting than they appear</a>, in particular because their production requires the <a href="http://www.editionslesliensquiliberent.fr/livre-La_guerre_des_m%C3%A9taux_rares-531-1-1-0-1.html">extraction of precious metals such as lithium or cobalt</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550642/original/file-20230927-19-sv3xj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550642/original/file-20230927-19-sv3xj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550642/original/file-20230927-19-sv3xj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550642/original/file-20230927-19-sv3xj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550642/original/file-20230927-19-sv3xj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550642/original/file-20230927-19-sv3xj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550642/original/file-20230927-19-sv3xj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Peugeot 205 of Mickaël, a 22-year-old mechanic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">G. Mangin</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
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<p>Electronic and digital equipment is also the <a href="http://www.editionslesliensquiliberent.fr/livre-Bon_pour_la_casse-359-1-1-0-1.html">subject of mistrust</a>. The logic of early replacement is criticised and with it a perceived strategy of rendering past models obsolete.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They’re not designed to last, no… the aim is to consume! The Saab 900 is a robust car. Why? Because we weren’t into that kind of consumption.” (Yannis, 40, company director, drives a 1985 Saab 900)</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Driving “less but better”</h2>
<p>Compared with more recent cars, those that are more than 15 years old are less comfortable, have fewer safety features and required greater attention from the driver. They necessarily have to be more observant and anticipate problems that can crop up.</p>
<p>Because such cars are at odds with the modern imperatives of efficiency, for their owners they become the ideal tool for keeping at bay the <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/lectures/990">feeling of acceleration that characterises our era</a> – they become a means to immerse oneself in “gentle” mobility that conjures up an imaginary world of contemplative travel.</p>
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<p>“My parents have the [electronic pass] to go through the tollbooth and then everything is deducted from their account… Me, I find it frightening.” (Lucas, 22, philosophy student turned carpenter, drives a 1982 Renault 4)</p>
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<p>Even more than goods and an economic system, those devoted to older cars use them to keep an entire system of mobility at arm’s length. At the same time, many support an ambitious overhaul that would prioritise alternative forms of mobility, in particular the bicycle. They all say they would do without a car on a daily basis if they could.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I’m not nostalgic. I think that the society of the past, the society of conquest, was wrong. It forgot the finiteness of things. Cycling is one example – with a bicycle, you can go to places where cars don’t go any more, you can get away from traffic jams, that’s all there is to it. You can plan ahead again.” (Fabrice, 47, teacher-researcher, owns Citroëns from the 1970s to 2000).</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The component of a restrained lifestyle</h2>
<p>For some, driving an old car is a way of being mobile in a more restrained way, favouring quality (of the journey, of the object…) over a form of abundance.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I think we’ve gone too far on certain things, that we’re going too far with regard to the planet too, pollution and all that. I don’t want to get into that, or at least I don’t want to any more. One of my dreams is to be energy independent. So there’s something ecological about my approach.” (Bruno, 56, special-needs educator, drives a 1986 Renault 4).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This ethic of sobriety is often at the root of a more frugal lifestyle, and presupposes a reflective attitude to our actions and their consequences. While having everyone use “older cars” would be directly in contradiction with the ecological transition we face, the relationship of their <em>owners</em> to their mobility nevertheless invites us to take the road more seriously, especially in a context where almost half of the vehicles put into circulation are no longer owned but rented through short-term contracts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225205/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gaëtan Mangin ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
While electric cars have significantly lower emissions over their entire lifecycle, research shows that owners of older cars can experience mobility in a more restrained way.
Gaëtan Mangin, ATER en sociologie, Université d'Artois, docteur en sociologie, Université de Bourgogne – UBFC
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221217
2024-02-19T19:05:01Z
2024-02-19T19:05:01Z
After years of avoiding extradition, Julian Assange’s appeal is likely his last chance. Here’s how it might unfold (and how we got here)
<p>On February 20 and 21, Julian Assange will ask the High Court of England and Wales to reverse a decision from June last year allowing the United Kingdom to extradite him to the United States. </p>
<p>There he faces multiple counts of computer misuse and espionage stemming from his work with WikiLeaks, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/20/julian-assange">publishing sensitive</a> US government documents provided by Chelsea Manning. The US government has repeatedly claimed that Assange’s actions <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/29/julian-assange-us-rejects-australias-calls-to-free-wikileaks-founder-during-ausmin-talks">risked its national security</a>.</p>
<p>This is the final avenue of appeal in the UK, although Stella Assange, Julian’s wife, has indicated he would <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/julian-assanges-appeal-against-us-extradition-is-life-or-death-wife-says-2024-02-15/">seek an order</a> from the European Court of Human Rights if he loses the application for appeal. The European Court, an international court that hears cases under the European Convention on Human Rights, can issue orders that are binding on convention member states. In 2022, an order from the court <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/14/european-court-humam-right-makes-11th-hour-intervention-in-rwanda-asylum-seeker-plan">stopped the UK</a> sending asylum seekers to Rwanda pending a full review of the relevant legislation.</p>
<p>The extradition process has been running for nearly five years. Over such a long time, it’s easy to lose track of the sequence of events that led to this. Here’s how we got here, and what might happen next.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-australias-bid-for-julian-assanges-freedom-presents-formidable-problems-for-joe-biden-213152">View from The Hill: Australia's bid for Julian Assange's freedom presents formidable problems for Joe Biden</a>
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<h2>Years-long extradition attempt</h2>
<p>From 2012 until May 2019, Assange resided in the Ecuadorian embassy in London after breaching bail on unrelated allegations. While he remained in the embassy, the police could not arrest him without the permission of the Ecuadorian government. </p>
<p>In 2019, Ecuador allowed Assange’s arrest. He was then convicted of breaching bail conditions, and imprisoned in Belmarsh Prison, where he’s remained during the extradition proceedings. Shortly after his arrest, the United States <a href="https://theconversation.com/assanges-new-indictment-espionage-and-the-first-amendment-117785">laid charges against Assange</a> and requested his extradition from the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>Assange immediately challenged the extradition request. After delays due to COVID, in January 2021, the District Court decided the extradition <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-assanges-extradition-victory-offers-cold-comfort-for-press-freedom-152676">could not proceed</a> because it would be “oppressive” to Assange. </p>
<p>The ruling was based on the likely conditions that Assange would face in an American prison and the high risk that he would attempt suicide. The court rejected all other arguments against extradition.</p>
<p>The American government appealed the District Court decision. It provided assurances on prison conditions for Assange to overcome the finding that the extradition would be oppressive. Those assurances led to the High Court <a href="https://www.iclr.co.uk/document/2021005727/casereport_3d8af061-9914-4a2d-bd2d-fa5260deeb2c/html">overturning the order</a> stopping extradition. Then the Supreme Court (the UK’s top court) refused Assange’s request to appeal that ruling. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-rocky-diplomatic-road-julian-assanges-hopes-of-avoiding-extradition-take-a-blow-as-us-pushes-back-210806">A rocky diplomatic road: Julian Assange's hopes of avoiding extradition take a blow as US pushes back</a>
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<p>The extradition request then passed to the home secretary, who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jun/17/julian-assange-extradition-to-us-approved-by-priti-patel">approved it</a>. Assange appealed the home secretary’s decision, which a single judge of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jun/09/julian-assange-dangerously-close-to-us-extradition-after-losing-latest-legal-appeal">High Court rejected</a> in June 2023. </p>
<p>This appeal is against that most recent ruling and will be heard by a two-judge bench. These judges will only decide whether Assange has grounds for appeal. If they decide in his favour, the court will schedule a full hearing of the merits of the appeal. That hearing would come at the cost of further delay in the resolution of his case.</p>
<h2>Growing political support</h2>
<p>Parallel to the legal challenges, Assange’s supporters have led a political campaign to stop the prosecution and the extradition. One goal of the campaign has been to persuade the Australian government to argue Assange’s case with the American government. </p>
<p>Cross-party support from individual parliamentarians has steadily grown, led by independent MP Andrew Wilkie. Over the past two years, the government, including the foreign minister and the prime minister, have made stronger and clearer statements that the <a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/julian-assange-the-state-of-play-at-the-end-of-2023/">prosecution should end</a>. </p>
<p>On February 14, Wilkie proposed a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansardr/27604/&sid=0001">motion</a> in support of Assange, seconded by Labor MP Josh Wilson. The house was asked to “underline the importance of the UK and USA bringing the matter to a close so that Mr Assange can return home to his family in Australia.” It was passed.</p>
<p>In addition, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/14/australian-mps-pass-motion-urging-us-and-uk-to-allow-julian-assange-to-return-to-australia">confirmed</a> he had recently raised the Assange prosecution with his American counterpart, who has the authority to end it.</p>
<h2>What will Assange’s team argue?</h2>
<p>For the High Court appeal, it is expected Assange’s legal team will once again argue the extradition would be oppressive and that the American assurances are inadequate. A recent <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/un-special-rapporteur-torture-urges-uk-government-halt-imminent-extradition">statement</a> by Alice Edwards, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, supports their argument that extradition could lead to treatment “amounting to torture or other forms of ill-treatment or punishment”. She rejected the adequacy of American assurances, saying:</p>
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<p>They are not legally binding, are limited in their scope, and the person the assurances aim to protect may have no recourse if they are violated.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The argument that extradition would be oppressive remains the strongest ground for appeal. However, it is likely Assange’s lawyers will also repeat some of the arguments which were unsuccessful in the District Court proceedings. </p>
<p>One argument is that the charges against Assange, particularly the espionage charges, are political offences. The United States–United Kingdom extradition treaty does not allow either state to extradite for political offences. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-charges-does-julian-assange-face-and-whats-likely-to-happen-next-115362">Explainer: what charges does Julian Assange face, and what's likely to happen next?</a>
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<p>Assange is also likely to re-run the argument that his leaks of classified documents were exercises of his right to freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights. To date, the European Court of Human Rights has never found that an extradition request violates freedom of expression. For the High Court to do so would be an innovative ruling. </p>
<p>The High Court will hear two days of legal argument and might not give its judgement immediately, but it will probably be delivered soon after the hearing. Whatever the decision, Assange’s supporters will continue their political campaign, supported by the Australian government, to stop the prosecution. </p>
<p><em>Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Julian Assange lived in the Ecuadorian embassy after breaching bail on unrelated charges. He had not been charged with any offences and was instead wanted for questioning in Sweden over sexual assault allegations. The Swedish investigation has since been dropped with no charges laid.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Cullen has been a volunteer for the Australian Labor Party, including for Josh Wilson, MP.</span></em></p>
Efforts to extradite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from the UK to the US have gone on for years. Here’s what’s been going on and what might happen in court this time.
Holly Cullen, Adjunct professor, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212762
2023-09-05T12:14:19Z
2023-09-05T12:14:19Z
London is a major reason for the UK’s inequality problem. Unfortunately, City leaders don’t want to talk about it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546046/original/file-20230903-23-jnvlva.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C108%2C4323%2C2852&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">City leaders often appear reluctant to discuss London't role in growing levels of regional inequality.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-april-22-2015-businessman-273414197">I.R.Stone/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent years, there has been growing evidence that the UK economy is in poor shape. While the latest economic figures suggest it <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66680188">performed better</a> as the COVID pandemic receded than was <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/bulletins/gdpfirstquarterlyestimateuk/apriltojune2020">previously reported</a>, the performance of sectors such as manufacturing, construction and agriculture has been <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/19746fd9-d5d0-4e02-920c-745611705ecf">revised downwards</a>, leading some experts to warn of a greater risk of a recession to come.</p>
<p>Alongside these economic challenges, the UK faces many societal issues – including rising levels of inequality, with the country’s <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/methodologies/theginicoefficient#:%7E:text=The%20Gini%20coefficient%20is%20a,share%20of%20total%20household%20income.">Gini coefficient</a> projected to reach a <a href="https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/the-living-standards-outlook-2023/#:%7E:text=Although%20income%20inequality%20across%20the,per%20cent%20in%202027%2D28.">record high of 40.8%</a> in 2027-28. In 2022, the richest fifth of the UK population had an income <a href="https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk">more than 12 times</a> that of the poorest fifth.</p>
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<p><em><strong>This article is run in partnership with <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london?utm_source=MP+L23+Conversation&utm_medium=Article+feature&utm_campaign=HTLGI+London+2023&utm_id=The+Conversation">HowTheLightGetsIn</a></strong>, the world’s largest philosophy and music festival, which returns to Kenwood House in London on September 23-24. On Saturday 23, Louise Ashley will join Julia Davies, Gerry Mitchell and The Conversation’s Mike Herd to discuss how to restructure society for <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/events/the-common-good-16017">the common good</a>. See the festival’s <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london/the-big-ideas/speakers">full line-up of speakers</a> and <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london/festival-passes?utm_source=MP+L23+Conversation&utm_medium=Article+feature&utm_campaign=HTLGI+London+2023&utm_id=The+Conversation">get 20% off tickets here</a> with code CONVO23.</em></p>
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<p>Another factor that marks the UK out is the extent to which its economy is geographically unbalanced. The Financial Times’s chief data reporter, John Burn-Murdoch, recently highlighted how the UK compares on per-capita economic performance <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e5c741a7-befa-4d49-a819-f1b0510a9802">once London is removed</a>. The answer? Worse than Mississippi, the US’s worst-performing state, because “removing London’s output and headcount would shave 14% off British living standards”.</p>
<p>Some commentators suggest these figures underline the importance of London – and in particular, its financial district – as the UK’s most significant economic asset. According to the City of London Corporation, the financial and professional services sector as a whole <a href="https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/supporting-businesses/economic-research/research-publications/city-statistics-briefing#:%7E:text=Financial%20and%20professional%20services%20produced,FDI%20for%20the%20UK%20economy.&text=The%20City%20drives%20the%20economy,85bn%20in%20economic%20output%20annually.">contributed</a> nearly £100bn in taxes in 2020, and £278bn in economic output in 2022. Many of these firms are located in the City, which the Corporation states “drives the UK economy, generating over £85bn in economic output annually”.</p>
<p>An alternative perspective is that these contributions should be balanced against what the City takes out of the wider UK economy. One argument is that the City has been at the forefront of the <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2022/01/10/inside-britains-financial-revolution/">financialisation</a> of the UK economy, whereby most investment is channelled into assets such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/30/wealth-tax-labour-economics-rachel-reeves">property, infrastructure and financial assets</a>, rather than supporting more <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/paper/2016/understanding-and-measuring-finance-for-productive-investment.pdf">productive investment</a> in new businesses and small firms.</p>
<p>Certainly, the City of London is heavily implicated in the UK’s widening inequalities of income and wealth, both through its daily business activities and its remuneration practices. In 2022, the Institute for Fiscal Studies <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/04/city-london-bonus-boom-risk-driving-up-inequality-institute-fiscal-studies">warned</a> that the biggest boom in City bonuses since the 2008 financial crisis would further increase this inequality gap.</p>
<h2>The City’s diversity smokescreen</h2>
<p>This is a complex picture, but few disagree that developing a more equitable UK economy and society requires significant structural change. Politically, this has been recognised from most sides amid often <a href="https://www.politics.co.uk/parliament/tensions-boil-over-during-levelling-up-debate/">heated</a> debates about the new <a href="https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/levelling-up-bill-house-of-lords-kings-speech-michael-gove">levelling-up bill</a>.</p>
<p>However, to the extent that the City of London has responded to its role in the UK inequalities, the dominant focus has been on who its elite firms recruit and promote, rather than its wider impact.</p>
<p>My book, <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/highly-discriminating">Highly Discriminating</a>, and the related <a href="https://theconversation.com/class-and-the-city-of-london-my-decade-of-research-shows-why-elitism-is-endemic-and-top-firms-dont-really-care-199474">Conversation long read</a> offered evidence that while the City’s recent focus on diversity and inclusion can be life-changing for a few individuals, to date it has still largely maintained the traditional white, male and privately educated status quo at the top.</p>
<p>Most worryingly, I concluded that such programmes can be used as a smokescreen, giving elite firms a certain legitimacy that distracts from demands for a more open debate about the City’s wider responsibility in driving up geographical and related inequalities.</p>
<p>On numerous occasions (both privately and in public), I have been criticised by City leaders for raising this, on the grounds that it is not only impolite but demoralising for people engaged in diversity and inclusion work, and risks setting that agenda back. I believe such defensiveness highlights how financial and professional leaders protect their privileged position – by policing the boundaries of what is “acceptable” to say about the inequalities to which their firms contribute.</p>
<p>Many City bosses operate <a href="https://theconversation.com/class-and-the-city-of-london-my-decade-of-research-shows-why-elitism-is-endemic-and-top-firms-dont-really-care-199474">within an echo chamber</a> that suggests to them there is more consensus around the City’s positive contribution to UK society than is actually the case. Their power and influence insulates them from criticism and challenge. When it does come, their defensive reaction is stifling a much-needed, nuanced public debate around how to tackle the inequalities that blight so many people’s lives.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/class-and-the-city-of-london-my-decade-of-research-shows-why-elitism-is-endemic-and-top-firms-dont-really-care-199474">Class and the City of London: my decade of research shows why elitism is endemic and top firms don't really care</a>
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<h2>Changing the national conversation</h2>
<p>Over the past decade, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293014505_Understanding_social_exclusion_in_elite_professional_service_firms_field_level_dynamics_and_the_%27professional_project">I have conducted</a> hundreds of interviews with City of London workers at all levels, many of whom are strongly committed to a more equitable economic and social system. I believe they are well placed to help change the national conversation, by asking more of their leaders on this front.</p>
<p>Within many corporate organisations, the issue of inequality is positioned as part of corporate sustainability agendas, or the currently more fashionable “environmental, social and governance”. Yet like diversity and inclusion, as this agenda is implemented within a model that prioritises profit maximisation over economic justice, it may have a similarly cosmetic effect. More meaningful improvements would require business leaders to engage more closely with how we can build a <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/re-imagining-politics-to-build-a-fairer-society-qa-with-daniel-chandler/">more egalitarian economic system</a> that allows for shared prosperity.</p>
<p>The momentum to help drive these and many other changes requires a majority of the population on board. But this is more likely if business leaders are brave enough to acknowledge the UK’s key structural problems while opening up their related operations to wider scrutiny and debate.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/poverty-in-britain-is-firmly-linked-to-the-countrys-mountain-of-private-wealth-labour-must-address-this-growing-inequality-212741">Poverty in Britain is firmly linked to the country’s mountain of private wealth – Labour must address this growing inequality</a>
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<p>In June, Julia Davies, a founding member of <a href="https://patrioticmillionaires.uk/about-us">Patriotic Millionaires UK</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/jun/30/uk-super-rich-beware-pitchforks-torches-unless-they-do-more">warned delegates</a> at an international investment conference in London of a “real risk of actual insurrection” and “civil disruption” if the inequality gap between rich and poor is allowed to widen. There has long been <a href="https://equalitytrust.org.uk/about-inequality/spirit-level">clear evidence</a> that inequalities are ultimately bad for everyone in a society.</p>
<p>Yet consciously or otherwise, many City leaders still impose tight limits on what is considered reasonable to say about the inequalities their organisations help to create. Perhaps we should take note of the University of Bristol’s Kirsty Sedgeman, who has suggested that in pursuit of social justice, more of us need to become “<a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571366835-on-being-unreasonable/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1693733842307721&usg=AOvVaw1H8Y5NoPVDRtAbaPgheLxP">reasonably unreasonable</a>”, to encourage our business and political leaders to think and act differently, and widen the conversation about the UK’s growing inequality gap.</p>
<p>London and its financial and professional services powerhouse are at the heart of the UK’s failing attempts to level up. We need its leaders to play a central role in our national debate about how to address this problem. This is no time for denial and distraction.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london?utm_source=MP+L23+Conversation&utm_medium=Article+feature&utm_campaign=HTLGI+London+2023&utm_id=The+Conversation">HowTheLightGetsIn</a>’s theme for London 2023 is <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london/the-big-ideas">Dangers, Desire and Destiny</a>. The two-day festival on September 23-24 covers everything from politics, science, philosophy and the arts and attracts a host of speakers including Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer prize-winners, political activists and world leading thinkers.</em></p>
<p><em>Alongside the Conversation’s curated event <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/events/the-common-good-16017">The Common Good</a>, expect to see Alastair Campbell, Rory Stewart, Ruby Wax, Michio Kaku, David Baddiel, Carol Gilligan, Martin Wolf and more lock horns over a packed weekend of debates, talks and performances. <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london/programme?utm_source=MP+L23+Conversation&utm_medium=Article+feature&utm_campaign=HTLGI+London+2023&utm_id=The+Conversation">Explore the full programme here</a> and don’t miss out on <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london/festival-passes?utm_source=MP+L23+Conversation&utm_medium=Article+feature&utm_campaign=HTLGI+London+2023&utm_id=The+Conversation">20% off tickets using code CONVO23</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212762/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Ashley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Business bosses appear reluctant to take part in open debate about their firms’ contribution to growing regional inequalities.
Louise Ashley, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Work, Queen Mary University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207879
2023-07-05T21:06:31Z
2023-07-05T21:06:31Z
Fresh air has long been seen as important for our health, even if we haven’t always understood why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535667/original/file-20230704-24289-i8a98e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C419%2C5152%2C3026&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Getting some fresh air has long been viewed as an important part of staying in good health. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The New Brunswick legislature recently passed a motion to improve indoor air quality in the province’s public buildings “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/new-brunswick-clean-air-quality-public-buildings-covid-19-liberal-motion-passed-1.6870983">to reduce the spread of airborne illnesses, such as COVID-19</a>.”</p>
<p>There are many ways to improve the air we breathe indoors, including <a href="https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu/news/corsi-rosenthal-box-diy-box-fan-air-filter-covid-19-and-wildfire-smoke">filtration</a> and ventilation: bring fresh air in, send <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/healthy-living/carbon-dioxide-home.html">exhaled air and contaminants</a> out. And we have <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-need-to-improve-indoor-air-quality-here-rsquo-s-how-and-why/">good reasons</a> for looking at indoor air quality. </p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-quality-health-index/wildfire-smoke.html">wildfire smoke</a>, to industrial <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-india-smog-new-delhi-gun-politics-2798027680d388b3aa49acb2193f6750">pollution</a>, many of us have felt the impacts of poor air quality and turned to air filters and respirators to cope. </p>
<p>The White House held a summit last year on <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/12/readout-of-the-white-house-summit-on-improving-indoor-air-quality/">improving indoor air quality</a> to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. This September, there will be a <a href="https://site.genevahealthforum.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30">similar meeting in Europe</a> organized by the World Health Organization. </p>
<p>How new is all this? Well, it is and it isn’t. Eighteenth-century physicians were big advocates for ventilation as a way of reducing the transmission of contagious diseases, though not entirely for sound reasons.</p>
<h2>Ventilation and eighteenth-century medicine</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535625/original/file-20230704-21-9g7ccz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An engraving showing old ventilators." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535625/original/file-20230704-21-9g7ccz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535625/original/file-20230704-21-9g7ccz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535625/original/file-20230704-21-9g7ccz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535625/original/file-20230704-21-9g7ccz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535625/original/file-20230704-21-9g7ccz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535625/original/file-20230704-21-9g7ccz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535625/original/file-20230704-21-9g7ccz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An 1817 engraving showing ventilators by W. Lowry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Wellcome Collection)</span></span>
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<p>I teach about eighteenth-century <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108632218.005">literature and medical writing in the British Isles</a>. In the 1700s, British physicians took advantage of new scientific approaches but had little technology to see what was going on. </p>
<p>They believed that most contagious illnesses spread through smelly decaying matter, or miasma, from rotting food, sick bodies and so on. This is called “<a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/miasma-theory">miasma theory</a>,” and it was eventually replaced by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/germ-theory">germ theory</a>. </p>
<p>Miasma theory meant that physicians associated bad smells with disease. But they also had the evidence of their eyes. Eighteenth-century physicians saw diseases spreading easily in crowded, poorly ventilated structures, from ships and jails to the homes of the poor. Ventilation made sense as a way to make people safer: blow out the bad air. It also seemed to make a difference when they used it.</p>
<p>So <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03605310490500509">they acted</a>. In 1756, the British Navy ordered the installation of <a href="https://www.joehistorian.com/blog/2021/8/19/dr-hales-ventilator-and-the-seven-years-war">recently invented ventilators on ships</a>. A naval hospital required “<a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yhkner4g/items?canvas=43">doors and windows to be opened for the purposes of ventilation</a>.” In 1802, the British parliament passed legislation requiring factories to have enough “<a href="https://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/30/2/118.full.pdf">Windows and Openings…to insure a proper Supply of Fresh Air</a>.”</p>
<h2>Outbreaks in the Navy</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535624/original/file-20230704-9037-kx5ryw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old engraving on a man in an 18th century outfit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535624/original/file-20230704-9037-kx5ryw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535624/original/file-20230704-9037-kx5ryw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535624/original/file-20230704-9037-kx5ryw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535624/original/file-20230704-9037-kx5ryw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535624/original/file-20230704-9037-kx5ryw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535624/original/file-20230704-9037-kx5ryw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535624/original/file-20230704-9037-kx5ryw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1796 engraving of Thomas Trotter by English artist Daniel Orme.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Wikimedia)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his 1797 book on naval medicine, physician and poet Thomas Trotter drew on his extensive experience at sea. He questioned both <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yhkner4g/items?canvas=199">miasma</a> and <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yhkner4g/items?canvas=194">germ theory</a>.</p>
<p>However, Trotter partly agreed with miasma theory. He was convinced that many contagious diseases, including smallpox, were spread by “<a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yhkner4g/items?canvas=189">the exhalations of the sick</a>.” </p>
<p>We now know that smallpox was <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/laboratory-biosafety-biosecurity/pathogen-safety-data-sheets-risk-assessment/variola-virus.html">spread via respiratory droplets or fine-particle aerosol</a>. Trotter was basically right about the pathway for smallpox transmission — and a few other diseases — even though he was very wrong about how.</p>
<p>Eighteenth-century physicians had successes with the partial information they had. Trotter explains how they ended an outbreak of a “malignant fever” on a navy ship in 1791. They quarantined the sick, fumigated the vessel and “<a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yhkner4g/items?canvas=449">the ventilators worked unremittingly day and night</a>.” </p>
<h2>Ventilation spreads</h2>
<p>These ideas spread widely beyond medical circles through literature and kept spreading after germ theory. Writers paid a lot of attention to “exhalations.” In his 1744 poem on health, John Armstrong wrote, “<a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N04464.0001.001/1:2?rgn=div1;view=fulltext">It is not air / That from a thousand lungs reeks back to thine</a>.” Dozens of poets repeated phrases such as “infectious breath,” from <a href="https://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1872.xml;chunk.id=d35;toc.depth=1;toc.id=d3;brand=default">Thomas Carew</a> to <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29222/29222-h/29222-h.htm">Thomas Godfrey</a> and <a href="https://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_3.0930.xml;chunk.id=d456;toc.depth=1;toc.id=d383;brand=default;query=neglected%20child#1">more</a>. </p>
<p>Like eighteenth-century doctors, nineteenth-century writers promoted ventilation and fresh air. In fiction, Jane Austen had her characters “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/121/121-h/121-h.htm">breathing fresh air</a>,” while Lady Morgan complained about “<a href="https://broadviewpress.com/product/the-obriens-and-the-oflahertys/#tab-description">thickly populated and ill ventilated</a>” streets helping to spread disease.</p>
<p>Some famous poets wrote about air so much that American literary critic M.H. Abrams remarked, “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4333734">That the poetry of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, [and] Byron should be so thoroughly ventilated is itself noteworthy</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535627/original/file-20230704-24289-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C298%2C9475%2C6018&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A ventilation duct on a ceiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535627/original/file-20230704-24289-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C298%2C9475%2C6018&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535627/original/file-20230704-24289-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535627/original/file-20230704-24289-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535627/original/file-20230704-24289-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535627/original/file-20230704-24289-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535627/original/file-20230704-24289-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535627/original/file-20230704-24289-cwk6cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From wildfire smoke to pollution, many of us have felt the impacts of poor air quality and turned to air filters and ventilation to cope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ventilation comes back</h2>
<p>By the 1840s, the public health debate was turning to <a href="https://victorianweb.org/periodicals/punch/publichealth/7.html">cleaner water</a>, as germ theory began to take hold. But advances in germ theory couldn’t erase the benefits of breathing fresh air from the public consciousness. Around 1850, journalist Henry Mayhew interviewed one Londoner who <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/55998/pg55998-images.html">said the following</a> about the city’s cheap housing: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Nothing can be worse to the health than these places, without ventilation, cleanliness, or decency, and with forty people’s breaths perhaps mingling together in one foul choking steam of stench.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 1859, Florence Nightingale helped revive ventilation in healthcare. In her book <em>Notes on Nursing</em>, she emphasized, “<a href="https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/nightingale/nursing/nursing.html">The air within as pure as the air without</a>.” </p>
<p>Fresh air was seen as critical during the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic as well. People were encouraged to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/the-curious-history-of-steam-heat-and-pandemics">keep windows open</a> and move events outdoors, <a href="https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-sanfrancisco.html">including court proceedings</a>.</p>
<p>Now, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/health-professionals/main-modes-transmission.html">another pandemic</a> has got us talking about the importance of fresh air. The difference is this time we have better tools to measure and improve indoor air quality, and a much better understanding of why fresh air is good for us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207879/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia M. Wright receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>
Eighteenth-century writers worried about “infectious air,” so they opened windows and built ventilation systems to bring fresh air indoors.
Julia M. Wright, George Munro Chair in Literature and Rhetoric, Dalhousie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206432
2023-06-23T14:49:09Z
2023-06-23T14:49:09Z
Are low-traffic neighbourhoods greenwashing? Here’s what the evidence says
<p>Since the pandemic, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/12/low-traffic-neighbourhoods-ltn-may-lead-people-drive-less-london">series of low-traffic neighbourhoods</a> (LTNs) have been installed across the UK. LTNs are designed to curtail car use in residential streets and promote active modes of travel such as walking, cycling and travelling by wheelchair. They aim to create a more pleasant environment for pedestrians and cyclists by using cameras, planting boxes or bollards to restrict motor vehicle traffic.</p>
<p>The initiative aims to address <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/egnmj/">three public health issues</a> directly associated with rampant car use in urban areas: air pollution, road deaths and physical inactivity. Human-made air pollution – which is worse in congested cities – is linked to between <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-pollution-applying-all-our-health/air-pollution-applying-all-our-health#:%7E:text=The%20annual%20mortality%20of%20human,and%2036%2C000%20deaths%20every%20year.">28,000 and 36,000 deaths</a> in the UK each year. </p>
<p>The concept of LTNs in the UK can be traced back to the 1970s when a <a href="http://hackneycyclist.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-history-behind-filtered.html">similar scheme</a> (although not referred to as an LTN at the time) was introduced in the London borough of Hackney. Many of the UK’s more recent LTNs are concentrated in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692321002477?via%3Dihub">deprived areas of London</a>, with low rates of car ownership. </p>
<p>By contrast, similar schemes have been more widely adopted <a href="https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/ejtir/article/view/3000/3187">in the Netherlands</a>, where active travel has been separated from car traffic consistently since the 1970s.</p>
<p>But LTNs have become controversial in the UK. Critics have even gone as far as <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/low-traffic-zones-just-greenwashing-says-lobby-group-jvck33c69">accusing the government</a> of greenwashing. They <a href="https://freedomfordrivers.blog/2023/02/23/new-petition-remove-ltns-and-greenwash-traffic-schemes/">argue that</a> LTNs cause more congestion and air pollution on boundary roads (usually larger roads around the perimeter of an LTN), longer emergency response times and increased travel times for disabled people or carers. </p>
<p>Since most LTNs are relatively recent and have been predominantly installed in London, there is limited information on their long-term effects and impacts beyond the capital. </p>
<p>Yet the existing evidence still offers a clearer understanding of how LTNs can positively impact various aspects of urban life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A queue of traffic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533704/original/file-20230623-25-llyph0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533704/original/file-20230623-25-llyph0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533704/original/file-20230623-25-llyph0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533704/original/file-20230623-25-llyph0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533704/original/file-20230623-25-llyph0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533704/original/file-20230623-25-llyph0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533704/original/file-20230623-25-llyph0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Critics argue that LTNs cause congestion on surrounding roads.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blackfriars-london-uk-11th-june-2014-597895856">Lenscap Photography/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fewer cars, more active travel</h2>
<p>Some studies suggest that LTNs are effective in reducing car usage. <a href="https://findingspress.org/article/75470-the-impact-of-2020-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-on-levels-of-car-van-driving-among-residents-findings-from-lambeth-london-uk">Recent research</a> on four LTNs in the south London borough of Lambeth that was co-authored by one of us (Jamie Furlong), found that the annual distance residents within these LTNs drove decreased by 6% compared to control areas.</p>
<p>This finding supports <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Nsm_GFdH6CpIpPpOZ7hbhLZScgqCAP7ZGI0xi4qDqA/edit">previous research</a> commissioned by climate action charity, Possible, that examined traffic data from 46 LTNs across 11 London boroughs. The analysis revealed a substantial reduction in motor traffic within LTNs compared to the expected background changes. Importantly, there was no evidence of traffic being systematically displaced onto boundary roads. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4133090">separate study</a> by researchers from Imperial College London on three LTNs in the London borough of Islington showed notable improvements in air quality after their installation. On average, levels of nitrogen dioxide (a harmful car exhaust pollutant) decreased by 5.7% within the LTNs and 8.9% on boundary roads. </p>
<p>LTNs have demonstrated several other benefits beyond reduced car usage. In London, they have even been associated with decreased car ownership and <a href="https://findingspress.org/article/25633-impacts-of-2020-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-in-london-on-road-traffic-injuries">improved road safety</a>. Between 2015 and 2019, rates of car ownership in outer London LTNs <a href="https://findingspress.org/article/18200-the-impact-of-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-and-other-active-travel-interventions-on-vehicle-ownership-findings-from-the-outer-london-mini-holland-progr">reduced by 6%</a> relative to control areas.</p>
<p>Evidence on the shift to active travel prompted by LTNs is more limited. However, a <a href="https://findingspress.org/article/21390-the-impact-of-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-on-active-travel-car-use-and-perceptions-of-local-environment-during-the-covid-19-pandemic">study funded by Transport for London</a> on LTNs that pre-dated COVID in London’s Waltham Forest, found a 1-2 hour increase per person in weekly active travel compared to the control area. </p>
<h2>What about the concerns?</h2>
<p>One criticism of LTNs relates to the <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/traffic-calming-zones-london-delay-fire-crews-xmplwxp38">potential delays</a> they can cause for emergency services. Videos have surfaced online showing fire engines and ambulances unable to get past bollards or planting boxes. </p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://findingspress.org/article/18198-the-impact-of-introducing-a-low-traffic-neighbourhood-on-fire-service-emergency-response-times-in-waltham-forest-london">only published academic study</a> on the topic, which examined the impact of LTNs on fire service emergency response times in Waltham Forest, found no negative effects. In fact, response times even improved slightly on some boundary roads. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A fire engine driving down a road." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533694/original/file-20230623-29-lpm05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533694/original/file-20230623-29-lpm05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533694/original/file-20230623-29-lpm05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533694/original/file-20230623-29-lpm05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533694/original/file-20230623-29-lpm05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533694/original/file-20230623-29-lpm05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533694/original/file-20230623-29-lpm05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Concerns have been raised about the delays LTNs cause to emergency services.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-september-30-2019-emergency-1519146149">olesea vetrila/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Learning from Barcelona</h2>
<p>How residents feel about LTNs and their streets is crucial to the success of these schemes. In both <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/london-council-scraps-seven-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-after-public-backlash/">Ealing</a> (a district of west London) and <a href="https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/23600038.low-traffic-neighbourhood-westy-will-removed/">Warrington</a> (a town in northern England), councils removed LTNs after the objection of residents.</p>
<p>The fact that relatively few of the UK’s more recent LTNs have <a href="https://twitter.com/hackneycouncil/status/1554765517843570689">altered street layouts</a> to encourage new uses by, for example, widening pavements and turning car parking spaces into public seating may be part of the issue. If LTNs were implemented with a stronger focus on urban design and physical changes to the streetscape, they could have a potentially transformative effect on how people feel about and use residential streets.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/en/">“superblocks”</a> initiative (city blocks where pedestrians and cyclists are prioritised over motorised vehicles) in Barcelona is a good example of such an approach. Following the implementation of the city’s Sant Antoni superblock, <a href="https://bcnroc.ajuntament.barcelona.cat/jspui/handle/11703/129164">research</a> found a 33% reduction in nitrogen dioxide emissions, an 82% reduction in traffic within the superblock and a 28% increase in public space to walk and play in. </p>
<p>During trial phases, various features were incorporated into Barcelona’s neighbourhoods, including coloured pavements, mobile tree planters and pop-up playgrounds. In the <a href="https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/ca/content/poblenou">Poblenou superblock</a>, the final design of street changes resulted from two weeks of <a href="https://bcnroc.ajuntament.barcelona.cat/jspui/handle/11703/129164">laboratories and debates</a> involving residents, council officers, political representatives and more than 200 students and teachers from different schools of architecture.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A low-traffic neighbourhood with curbside seating and colourful decoration." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533121/original/file-20230621-16-9mq8gq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533121/original/file-20230621-16-9mq8gq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533121/original/file-20230621-16-9mq8gq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533121/original/file-20230621-16-9mq8gq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533121/original/file-20230621-16-9mq8gq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533121/original/file-20230621-16-9mq8gq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533121/original/file-20230621-16-9mq8gq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sant Antoni superblock, Barcelona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jamie Furlong</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the UK, the future of LTNs hangs in the balance due to a <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/05/19/low-traffic-neighbourhoods-no-government-money/">shaky funding base</a>. But this development is accompanied by a climate emergency that demands swift and decisive action. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Jamie Furlong receives funding from TfL for a related project analysing behaviour change and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. He also receives funding, as part of a team at Westminster University, from the National Institute for Health and Care Research for a project examining the effects of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in London.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ersilia Verlinghieri, as part of a team at Westminster University, receives funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research for a project examining the effects of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in London.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harrie Larrington-Spencer, as part of a team at Westminster University, receives funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research for a project examining the effects of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in London.</span></em></p>
LTNs were introduced to UK cities to create a more pleasant environment for pedestrians and cyclists - but they’ve become controversial.
Jamie Furlong, Research Fellow in Active Travel Interventions, University of Westminster
Ersilia Verlinghieri, Senior Research Fellow at the Active Travel Academy, University of Westminster
Harrie Larrington-Spencer, Research Fellow in the Active Travel Academy, University of Westminster
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207263
2023-06-23T11:02:06Z
2023-06-23T11:02:06Z
Reclaiming Windrush Square: why urban development projects need to heed local voices
<p>Windrush Square is a vibrant public plaza at the heart of Brixton, in the London borough of Lambeth. It was <a href="https://www.edenharper.com/articles/a-history-of-windrush-square">first named in 1998</a> in commemoration of the arrival of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/unravelling-the-windrush-myth-the-confidential-government-communications-that-reveal-authorities-did-not-want-caribbean-migrants-to-come-to-britain-206225">Empire Windrush</a>, which docked in Essex in 1948, carrying 1,027 passengers, at least 500 of whom were from the Caribbean. </p>
<p>In 2010, Boris Johnson, as Mayor of London, oversaw an extension of the square to include the adjacent Tate Gardens, so named for erstwhile Lambeth resident and sugar merchant Henry Tate. Responding to a Lambeth council opinion poll, local residents decided that this larger, more open space – newly furnished with lighting, benches and sculptures – would continue to be known as Windrush Square.</p>
<p>Lifelong Brixton resident, Windrush descendant and community organiser Ros Griffiths chairs the Friends of Windrush Square group. This independent collection of residents, activists and business representatives (which includes the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uk-needs-more-regional-black-archives-so-it-can-celebrate-black-british-history-in-its-entirety-168410">Black Cultural Archives</a>, <a href="https://brixtonblog.com/contact-us/">Brixton Blog</a>, <a href="https://www.blackculturemarket.co.uk/">Black Culture Market</a> and <a href="https://www.repowering.org.uk/">Repowering London</a>) exists, as its mission statement puts it, to protect and promote “the heritage, function, and architecture” of the square. It does so by advocating for initiatives that generate social value – in other words, that benefit the local community.</p>
<p>My research looks at how public space can facilitate a sense of belonging and make <a href="https://dradproject.com/9-spatial-aspects-of-de-radicalisation-processes/">diverse societies more cohesive</a>. Windrush Square offers an instructive example of how crucial it is that any urban development project be, as Griffiths argues, “people-led.”</p>
<h2>Contested heritage</h2>
<p>When Commonwealth citizens – now known collectively as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-windrush-generation-how-a-resilient-caribbean-community-made-a-lasting-contribution-to-british-society-204571">Windrush generation</a> – were invited by <a href="https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/windrush-a-landmark-in-the-history-of-modern-britain/">the UK government</a> to support post-war reconstruction, they arrived in Britain and settled in neighbourhoods all over the country, but especially in south London. <a href="https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-07/state-of-the-borough-2022-report.pdf">Today</a>, 43% of Lambeth’s population is Black, Asian or multi-ethnic, with Black/Black British African making up 12%, and Black/Black British Caribbean accounting for 10% of the borough’s residents.</p>
<p>Amid growing <a href="https://www.bi.team/blogs/britain-connects-reducing-political-polarisation-and-fostering-dialogue-during-national-lockdown/">political polarisation</a> and a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/22/understanding-englishness-and-the-national-identity-crisis">national identity crisis</a>, quite how that history is reflected in our built environment is an ongoing and sometimes contentious <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9405/CBP-9405.pdf">debate</a>.</p>
<p>Windrush Square speaks eloquently to this history. It boasts a number of memorials, including the UK’s first <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/first-ever-memorial-to-african-and-caribbean-service-personnel-unveiled-in-brixton">memorial to African and Caribbean service personnel</a> and the <a href="https://www.adjaye.com/work/cherry-groce-memorial-pavilion">Cherry Groce memorial pavillion</a>, installed in honour of Cherry Groce, a Jamaican woman who was shot by the police in her Brixton home in 1985.</p>
<p>The square also features a bust <a href="https://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2020/02/brixton-history-the-bronze-bust-to-sir-henry-tate-in-windrush-square-brixton/">of Henry Tate</a>, first unveiled in 1905, in front of Brixton Library. As Griffiths outlines, local sentiments about Tate’s ongoing prominence on Windrush Square are mixed: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We still need to have a conversation about that history.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/headlines/2022/feb/did-henry-tate-have-links-slavery#:%7E:text=Researchers%20at%20the%20Centre%20for,less%20direct%20but%20fundamental%20ways.%E2%80%9D">Research shows</a> that Tate was not personally implicated in colonial slavery. However, links between the transatlantic slave trade and the broader sugar industry <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/oct/13/lifeandhealth.britishidentity">are incontrovertible</a>. </p>
<p>In 2022, Friends of Windrush Square launched the <a href="https://brixtonblog.com/Windrush_May22_html5/0001.html">Reimagining Windrush Square campaign</a> to both reexamine this history and rethink how the square is used today.</p>
<p>The group questions the <a href="https://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2021/05/campaigners-fight-lambeths-plans-for-commercial-events-on-clapham-common/">increasing number</a> of commercial events across public spaces in Lambeth. They also question how the square has been reworked to date. </p>
<p>The 2010 redesign, by <a href="https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/449862/regeneration-news-architects-chosen-brixton-square">landscape architects Gross Max</a>, was part of the Mayor of London’s 100 Public Spaces Initiative. While some urban planners viewed the resulting openness, improved lighting and design features as bringing <a href="https://www.udg.org.uk/publications/articles/windrush-square-brixton-london">coherence to the public realm</a>, other observers criticised the changes for the impact on how it was used. </p>
<p>Chairs and greenery had been <a href="https://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2020/07/from-the-leafy-tate-gardens-to-the-concrete-blocks-of-windrush-square-in-brixton/">removed</a>. The public toilets <a href="http://www.urban75.org/brixton/features/windrush-square-brixton-2010.html">remained closed</a>. Griffiths put it plainly:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The 2010 redevelopment of Windrush Square was design-led. It should have been people-led.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The subsequent <a href="https://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2022/02/cost-of-bollards-in-windrush-square-rockets-to-2m-as-lambeth-council-spends-13k-per-bollard-whilst-admitting-no-terrorism-threat/">installation</a> of 155 security bollards in 2020 also drew local ire. The bollards reportedly cost £13,000 each and the terrorism threat, with which their presence had initially been justified, turned out to be non-existent.</p>
<p>The Friends of Windrush Square, instead, want to see Windrush Square used in a way that benefits the local community. They would love, for example, to see the disused public toilets <a href="https://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2016/08/in-photos-a-look-around-brixtons-abandoned-underground-toilets-in-windrush-square/">converted</a> into a community hub. As Griffiths says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Friends of Windrush Square is my legacy. The history matters, but we’re imagining what Windrush Square could be in 2048.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My colleagues and I have worked with the group on a series of community research labs. Our aim is to support that reimagining initiative through shared reflection on challenges, priorities and solutions, and to co-develop a <a href="https://dtascommunityownership.org.uk/community/community-place-plans/what-are-place-plans/local-place-plans">local place plan</a> which outlines the group’s long-term vision.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1663596688450125844"}"></div></p>
<p>London has over <a href="https://parksforlondon.org.uk/resource/community-groups/">900 Friends of Parks groups</a>, like Friends of Windrush Square, which collectively count around 100,000 members. These groups care for a variety of public spaces. </p>
<p>Some, like Windrush Square, are on publicly owned land. Others are part of a growing number of <a href="https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/the-first-map-of-londons-pseudo-public-space-epidemic/">privately owned public spaces</a>. These are managed inconsistently – quite who is permitted to use them depends largely on the <a href="https://www.centreforlondon.org/publication/public-london/">private landowners’ attitudes</a>, with local authorities, or people, given little say.</p>
<p>The city government appears to want to keep public space public. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s spatial development strategy for Greater London, dubbed <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/planning/london-plan/new-london-plan/london-plan-2021">London Plan 2021</a>, highlights how important it is for local communities to support urban development projects. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/publications/public-london-charter">Public London Charter</a>, meanwhile, which details guidance for the capital’s new public spaces, emphasises unrestricted access, regardless of who the land in question belongs to. This does not however apply to existing spaces, which may have been redeveloped following other priorities.</p>
<p>Voluntary groups have a shared connection to, and concern for, the spaces they inhabit. They challenge the <a href="https://www.cprelondon.org.uk/news/forever-green-50-threats-to-londons-parks-and-green-spaces/">troubling trend</a> toward privatisation of civic spaces. They show that people want to talk about and be involved in transforming the spaces they inhabit, in a way that benefits the collective. Harnessing their voices is essential to creating a public realm that works for everyone.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-big-caribbean-lunch-tickets-657438394937">Big Caribbean Lunch</a> takes place on June 25 2023 in Windrush Square. To take part in reimagining the square’s future, <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSctS8wL9_VykSWlaxeHDFF0SdyAduczRUN8n-2-rAv5wwL4fg/viewform">sign up</a> to the Friends of Windrush Square engagement hub. Find out about other Windrush 75 anniversary events in <a href="https://lambethwindrush.com/whats-on/">Lambeth</a> and <a href="https://www.windrush75.org/events">across the UK</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207263/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Staples is a researcher on the project 'D.Rad: Deradicalisation in Europe and Beyond: Detect, Resolve, Integrate', funded by the European Commission.</span></em></p>
When a community is involved in how their spaces are developed, these can foster a sense of belonging and make diverse societies more cohesive.
Henry Staples, Research Associate in Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204011
2023-04-24T13:32:39Z
2023-04-24T13:32:39Z
‘Noisome stinking scum’: how Londoners protested river pollution in the 1600s
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521856/original/file-20230419-26-po7kx1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5240%2C672%2C3957%2C1497&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">London imagined from above by artist Claes Jansz. Visscher, in 1616.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_panorama,_1616.jpg">wiki</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK government and water companies have recently been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/31/raw-sewage-spilled-english-rivers-824-times-day-last-year">heavily criticised</a> for allowing raw sewage and <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/phosphorus-pollution-river-target-clean-it-up-cc9789fkt">other pollutants</a> to spill into the nation’s waterways. </p>
<p>While a recent flurry of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/06/england-river-bathing-area-applications-foi-requests">stories</a> and <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/uk-rivers-20-high-risk-pollution-chemicals-sewage-plastic-wildlife-trusts-2174378">reports</a> could make this crisis feel very new to us, river pollution and concerns over it have a long history. This is something I have uncovered while doing a PhD focused on <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/eportfolios/danielgettings">attitudes to water in England between 1550 and 1750</a>, a period historians refer to as “early modern”. My research shows that, even in the era of Shakespeare’s “<a href="https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/shakespeares-london">filth-clogged</a>” Thames, river pollution was far from acceptable.</p>
<p>Precisely when the first river protection laws emerged in Britain is not clear, though we know that Roman law contained regulations <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-studies/article/fresh-water-in-roman-law-rights-and-policy/548B1C559B3D6ACEDF50C4576DD14603">with fines for polluting</a> water, so early ideas may have been brought over through their occupation.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="old map of London river" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1723&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1723&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1723&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=2165&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=2165&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521857/original/file-20230419-18-qkeeqg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=2165&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail from the ‘Copperplate’ map of London in the 1550s, showing the River Fleet flowing through London to the Thames.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Copperplate_map_Fleet.jpg">wiki / Saunders and Schofield (eds), Tudor London: a map and a view (2001)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From as early as 1489, protections for rivers were starting to take on language that made clear that preservation was a chief concern. An act <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915526&view=1up&seq=563">from the first years of Henry VII’s reign</a> made the Thames and its protection the domain of the mayor of London as its “conservator”. </p>
<p>This usage in the context of the Thames represents, according to academics <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Man_and_the_Natural_World/qACGVWiq8SIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">Keith Thomas</a> and <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Environmental_Degradation_in_Jacobean_Dr/o3W47yAw2fQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">Bruce Boehrer</a>, the first use of the idea of “conservation” in the English language in relation to protecting the natural world.</p>
<p>But this was far from a new idea. When challenged on his right to the river by later kings in the 1500s, the then mayor pointed out that “<a href="https://archive.org/details/b30454554_0001/page/32">conservation and correction</a>” of the Thames had fallen to city leaders since at least 1407. </p>
<p>Pollution of the river was a key concern, and this “conservation” was specifically defined in terms of preventing people from “annoying” the river by <a href="https://archive.org/details/b30454554_0001/page/34">casting “any Soil, Dust, Rubbish, or other Filth into it.”</a></p>
<p>Despite these restrictions, Tudor London clearly did cast “other Filth” into its rivers. The Fleet river (left) was a <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Environmental_Degradation_in_Jacobean_Dr/o3W47yAw2fQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">“notorious”</a> sewer by the 17th century, and as the map shows, it flowed directly into the Thames. </p>
<p>The author Ben Jonson, whose house was near the Fleet, took the state of the river as inspiration for his poem <a href="https://hollowaypages.com/jonson1692epigrams.htm">“On the Famous Voyage”</a> which paints a nauseatingly vivid picture of the waterway’s condition through a mock voyage down it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Your dainty Nostrils (in so hot a Season,
When every Clerk eats Artichokes and Peason,
Laxative Lettuce, and such windy Meat)
Tempt such a passage? when each Privies Seat
Is fill’d with Buttock? And the Walls do sweat
Urine, and Plasters? When the Noise doth beat
Upon your Ears, of Discords so unsweet?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Increasingly however, the state of rivers like the Thames came under criticism. Thomas Powell lamented the river’s treatment in a <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A55567.0001.001/1:4?ALLSELECTED=1;c=eebo;c=eebo2;g=eebogroup;hi=0;rgn=div1;singlegenre=All;size=25;sort=occur;start=1;subview=detail;type=simple;view=fulltext;xc=1;q1=A+sanctuary+for+the+tempted">1679 religious work</a>, suggesting people treated God in a similar way to the river: poorly. “The Thames brings us in our Riches, our Gold, Silks, Spices: and we throw all our filth into the Thames”.</p>
<p>There were also specific health concerns. John Evelyn’s 1661 work <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A38788.0001.001?c=eebo;c=eebo2;g=eebogroup;rgn=full+text;view=toc;xc=1;q1=Fumifugium">Fumifugium</a> criticised the polluted air in the capital. Part of the complaint was the damage that Evelyn claimed polluted air was doing to the water both in the city, and to those who lived downstream who he said emerged after bathing covered in a “web” of dust and grime.</p>
<p>Evelyn’s issues with the air highlight the importance of smell <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Aroma.html?id=reej6W7PgXEC&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y">in early modern understandings of disease</a>. If “corrupt” or “putrid” air was key to the spread of illness, the stench of the River Fleet was not only unpleasant – it was life threatening. </p>
<p>The threat of pollution therefore took two forms. There was the waste that ended up in the river, and the smell that resulted from it.</p>
<p>Both dangers appeared in those scenarios where authorities did step in and take action against polluters. In 1627, a case was brought by London residents <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A13053.0001.001/1:2?ALLSELECTED=1;c=eebo;c=eebo2;g=eebogroup;rgn=div1;singlegenre=All;sort=occur;subview=detail;type=simple;view=fulltext;xc=1;q1=The+survey+of+London+containing+the+original,+increase">against a house that made “allom”</a>. Alum, as it is known today, was produced through the “boiling of urine” and the complaints were aimed at the “noisome stinking scum of a frothy substance” that it was dumping into the water. </p>
<p>Both the smell and contamination were claimed to have “cast many of [the nearby residents] into extremity of great sicknesses” and the building was shut down. Perhaps a more effective <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/environment-agency-united-utilities-river-pollution-damage-2215714">response than the UK manages today</a>.</p>
<p>You might think that this was as bad as it could get, but <a href="https://ota.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repository/xmlui/handle/20.500.12024/A36048">a 1696 pamphlet</a> suggested that the Thames was actually better off than most English rivers, which enjoyed fewer protections and in contrast were “choaked up with Filth”.</p>
<p>In a world without permanent sewage or waste disposal systems, it is perhaps unsurprising that some early modern rivers ended up in the state they did despite legal protections. But the reaction to their pollution shows us that, even in a time with limited alternatives, this scenario was not simply accepted without complaint.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204011/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Gettings does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Even in a time with limited alternatives, polluted waterways were not simply accepted without complaint.
Daniel Gettings, PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Warwick
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/203650
2023-04-17T10:57:52Z
2023-04-17T10:57:52Z
Can Jeremy Corbyn go it alone in Islington North? What the evidence tells us
<p>Labour leader <a href="https://www.annblack.co.uk/nec-meeting-28-march-2023/">Keir Starmer’s decision</a> to block his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a candidate for his party in the next election creates a dilemma. Corbyn, who has been the member of parliament for London’s Islington North <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islington_North_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Members_of_Parliament">since 1983</a> needs to decide whether to stand aside or run as an independent.</p>
<p>We are currently in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/28/starmer-accused-of-behaving-like-putin-as-corbyn-blocked-from-standing-for-labour">period of hints and speculation</a>. In some respects, Corbyn doesn’t need to make a firm decision yet, but waiting too long risks leaving him short of campaign funds and infrastructure. </p>
<p>He is used to working a safe constituency seat and has spent the past couple of elections travelling elsewhere, as a party leader must. Corbyn will therefore need to think seriously about the nuts and bolts of campaigning alone. But there are <a href="https://novaramedia.com/2023/02/17/corbyn-blocked-what-do-his-constituents-think/">voices urging him on</a> and a belief by some that <a href="https://novaramedia.com/2022/11/22/does-jeremy-corbyn-need-the-labour-party/">he could succeed</a>.</p>
<p>To some, independent candidates are innovative and unconventional. They have also been seen as “dreamers, half-baked and hopeless” according to Dawn Brancati, whose <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.1017/S0022381608080675.pdf">2008 research</a> looked at the fate of independent candidates around the world. </p>
<p>She found a huge variation between those countries in which independent candidates were plentiful and doing well, such as Pakistan, and those in which there were few or no candidates and where they generally did badly, such as the UK and the US. Key to success or failure was the electoral system, both in terms of getting on the ballot in the first place and in winning the race.</p>
<h2>The case against standing</h2>
<p>The relative lack of UK MPs elected as independents could tell Corbyn that an Islington North bid would be a poor move. There has been <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/election-97-sleaze-showdown-at-knutsford-corral-1265997.html">Martin Bell</a>, who took the seat of Tatton in 1997, and <a href="https://members.parliament.uk/member/1472/career">Richard Taylor</a> who won by a landslide in Wyre Forest in 2001. </p>
<p>But when three former Conservatives stood as independents in their own seats in 2019 after losing the party whip for rebelling over Brexit, none prospered. And Labour’s Frank Field came a <a href="https://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?ID=75">poor second in Birkenhead</a> when he left the party and stood as an independent. </p>
<p>The contrast at play in these cases is stark. The newcomers Bell and Taylor succeeded while the experienced politicians failed. The existing MPs knew their constituencies and had name recognition. Surely they would have received an incumbency bounce for just that reason? </p>
<p>Sadly for them, however, the incumbency benefit or personal vote is often greatly overstated. <a href="http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/56179/">Research has shown</a> that it accounts for up to 8% of the vote but can be considerably lower. This is not enough in a seat used to voting heavily for one party.</p>
<p>Why did Bell and Taylor succeed? They were high-profile “cause candidates”. Taylor, a doctor, was highlighting the health service. Bell was the anti-corruption candidate after the cash-for-questions scandal. Some other parties helped the independents on their way, with the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/vote2001/results_constituencies/constituencies/654.stm">Liberal Democrats standing aside</a> in Wyre Forest and Labour also leaving the field <a href="http://electionhub.co.uk/uk/1997/const/tatton">in Tatton</a>.</p>
<p>So even if Corbyn doesn’t have enough incumbency bonus, could he be a cause candidate? The potential may be there but not if the decision is framed as Corbyn hitting back over internal Labour decisions. That central cause with mass appeal still needs to be found.</p>
<h2>The case for standing</h2>
<p>There is evidence of independents doing well in parts of the UK political system beyond general elections. <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/6987#tocto1n3">Ken Livingstone’s</a> high profile and successful run for mayor of London, after being blocked by Labour, is a clear example of breaking the mould. </p>
<p>Early contests for elected mayors elsewhere saw independents, such as Bristol’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ferguson_(politician)#Mayor_of_Bristol">George Ferguson</a>, do well. And in the first police and crime commissioner elections in 2012, there were 12 independents elected – more than <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-923X.12181">a quarter of those elected</a>.</p>
<p>There seem to be two factors at play here. First, mayoral elections, in particular, lend themselves to candidate-centred contests. Voters are, after all, meant to be electing a strong, accountable individual. </p>
<p>Second, the election system for these contests has, up to now, been the <a href="https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/supplementary-vote/">supplementary vote</a>. Voters have had a first and a second choice. That makes a difference. </p>
<p>It is easy to see how an independent might attract the second choice of a party supporter and end up breaking through as a result when everything is counted up. As Brancati says, the electoral system is a key factor.</p>
<p>The supplementary vote is no longer used in mayoral races, however. And even before that change, independents were finding it increasingly difficult to win. Ferguson was roundly beaten by Labour in 2016, for example.</p>
<h2>The verdict</h2>
<p>All this shows that the prospects for Corbyn are not great. In an election campaign, he would struggle for media time. He would need to build a campaign machine. He would need to find a core, compelling message to persuade voters to depart from their usual Labour support. </p>
<p>Labour of course will not stand aside and watch. We already know the party has decided that <a href="https://www.annblack.co.uk/nec-meeting-28-march-2023/">there will be no pacts or standing asides</a>. And even were these hurdles to be overcome, he’d still be running in a first-past-the-post system. </p>
<p>Corbyn’s supporters will feel Labour in general, and Starmer in particular, have treated the former leader very unfairly. And many may agree. This is not, however, enough to deliver ballot box success.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203650/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paula Keaveney is a member of the Liberal Democrats</span></em></p>
Newcomers have in fact proven much more successful at running as independents than big name politicians.
Paula Keaveney, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Edge Hill University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/203252
2023-04-13T11:39:36Z
2023-04-13T11:39:36Z
Microplastics: 77% more found in River Thames during lockdown may be due to discarded face masks and PPE – research shows
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519852/original/file-20230406-217-pe1o27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C310%2C5168%2C3135&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oxana A / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At a first glance the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to have a positive impact on the environment, with significant decreases in greenhouse gas emissions, and transport-related noise, <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-lockdowns-effect-on-air-pollution-provides-rare-glimpse-of-low-carbon-future-134685">air and light pollution</a>. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X23001947?via=ihub">our research</a> found discarded face coverings and other personal protective equipment (PPE) are likely to be the cause of a rise in microplastics entering the environment. </p>
<p>Microplastics are particles <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html">less than 5 millimetres long</a> that break off from larger plastics, often consumer products or industrial waste. A few years back, my colleagues and I began investigating how many of these particles were making their way into London’s River Thames. We continued sampling the river every month between May 2019 and May 2021, right through the various lockdowns. We obviously didn’t start the project with COVID in mind, but our work became a useful way to track one environmental impact of the pandemic.</p>
<p>One key finding from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X23001947?via=ihub">our research</a> is that, although there was a 34% decrease in microplastics from pre-COVID levels in the river during lockdown one, levels rose by 77% during the second national lockdown in late 2020 compared to lockdown one.</p>
<p>We suspect this pattern will have been repeated elsewhere, since many of the world’s major rivers pass through rural areas to enter major cities before flowing into the sea. The River Thames can, therefore, be a case study for similar rivers especially within the rest of Europe.</p>
<h2>Measuring microplastics</h2>
<p>We took three one-litre samples each month at high tide at five points along the Thames in and around London. Our sample sites were Teddington Lock, in an upstream suburb, St Katharine Docks and Limehouse, both in built-up urban areas, and Tilbury and Southend-on-Sea, both downstream of the city.</p>
<p>We then filtered the water and scanned it with a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/light-microscope">microscope</a> to measure the levels of tiny plastic particles. In all, across the two years, five sites and 354 litres, we found a total of 4,480 microplastics. </p>
<p>That works out to an average of 17.6 pieces per litre. The highest levels were during lockdown two when there were 27.1 pieces per litre.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519856/original/file-20230406-18-brq8q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopic images of plastic" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519856/original/file-20230406-18-brq8q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519856/original/file-20230406-18-brq8q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519856/original/file-20230406-18-brq8q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519856/original/file-20230406-18-brq8q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519856/original/file-20230406-18-brq8q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519856/original/file-20230406-18-brq8q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519856/original/file-20230406-18-brq8q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Examples of microplastics the author found in the Thames. A) Blue and black fibres found at Teddington Lock June 2019. B) Red fragment found at Southend-on-Sea March 2021, C) Blue fragment found at Tilbury Fort February 2021. D) Fibres found at Tower Bridge January 2021, E) Red fragment and black fibres found at Limehouse, November 2020. F) Red fragment found at Southend-on-Sea January 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X23001947?via=ihub#f0010">Ria Devereux et al</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Microfibres made up 82% of the microplastics overall, and almost all of those we found during lockdown two. These are the most common form of microplastics and usually come from clothing like socks, T-shirts and jumpers made of polyethylene. </p>
<h2>Rise caused by face masks</h2>
<p>We believe the spike was therefore caused by PPE, especially disposable face masks which are made of a mixture of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7381927/">polyethylene and polypropylene</a> and other types of plastics.</p>
<p>One study found these masks release at least <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969721032010">24,300 microplastic fibres per wash</a>, and if everyone in the UK used one face mask daily for a year, it would produce <a href="https://ucl.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000022">66,000 tonnes</a> of unrecyclable and contaminated plastic waste.</p>
<p>This wouldn’t have been such a problem – at least in terms of microplastic pollution – if the masks had been disposed of properly in bins. But unfortunately face masks littered on pavements or left abandoned on public transport became a common sight, while people often accidentally washed their single-use masks. Even reusable masks, which may also be made from plastics, were supposed to be worn and then washed daily according to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering">government guidelines</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519859/original/file-20230406-217-ceanl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Face masks and gloves in water" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519859/original/file-20230406-217-ceanl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519859/original/file-20230406-217-ceanl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519859/original/file-20230406-217-ceanl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519859/original/file-20230406-217-ceanl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519859/original/file-20230406-217-ceanl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519859/original/file-20230406-217-ceanl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519859/original/file-20230406-217-ceanl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Too many masks were left to shed microplastics into the water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mikhaylovskiy/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tyre particles decreased consistently over the first two lockdowns as only key workers were permitted to work and travel, and therefore car journeys came down. However, by lockdown three they had risen once again coinciding with hotels, pubs and restaurants reopening.</p>
<p>During the first lockdown, we recorded higher levels of microplastics in Limehouse even as they decreased elsewhere, perhaps as the area is close to a marina with residential and leisure moorings. Teddington recorded high levels of microplastics in between lockdowns, as people were swimming and using boats in the river, which led to authorities <a href="https://richmond.nub.news/news/local-news/beach-on-the-thames-closed-this-weekend">barricading the area and its beach</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519855/original/file-20230406-14-dvlhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Twigs and litter, bridge in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519855/original/file-20230406-14-dvlhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519855/original/file-20230406-14-dvlhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519855/original/file-20230406-14-dvlhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519855/original/file-20230406-14-dvlhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519855/original/file-20230406-14-dvlhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519855/original/file-20230406-14-dvlhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519855/original/file-20230406-14-dvlhzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plastic pollution at low tide near Hammersmith Bridge in west London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carina S / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the third lockdown overall microplastic levels had reduced to 5.5 pieces found per litre. However, specific microplastics such as polypropylene, the material recommended in <a href="https://theconversation.com/polypropylene-the-material-now-recommended-for-covid-19-mask-filters-what-it-is-where-to-get-it-149613">face coverings and PPE</a>, were higher during lockdown three and the post-COVID sample and may be attributed to existing microplastic pollution continuing to breakdown in the water.</p>
<h2>Blue fibres increased the most</h2>
<p>The most common colours we found throughout this study were blue, black, red and transparent, which is consistent with the microplastics I found when assessing pollution caused by <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X22002168">New Year fireworks in London</a> or the particles found in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749116314816">stomachs of fish in the Thames</a>. However, the sorts of blue fibres released by face masks generally increased throughout the two years of our study. For example, blue fibres increased from 2% of those found in Southend pre-COVID to 30% in lockdown two.</p>
<p>We may not see the full impact of the pandemic on plastic pollution for some years as masks and gloves are continuing to degrade and release particles into the environment. But the good news is that our work has shown that changing public behaviour really can help the environment. It’s an extreme example, but just look at how microplastics decreased in lockdown one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ria Devereux does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Researchers took samples of the River Thames for two years to track levels of microplastics.
Ria Devereux, PhD Student, Microplastic Pollution, University of East London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201396
2023-03-10T16:01:05Z
2023-03-10T16:01:05Z
How COVID lockdowns triggered changes in peregrine falcon diets – and what this means for urban pest control
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514683/original/file-20230310-104-4p8lml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4910%2C3288&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pigeons are a key source of food for the peregrine falcon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/peregrine-falcon-spreading-wings-1658591701">Sriram Bird Photographer/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-reshaped-the-way-we-buy-prepare-and-consume-food-193069">saw their eating habits change</a> during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Some ate more frequently or experimented with healthier recipes. Others ordered more deliveries. </p>
<p>But human diets weren’t the only ones to change. In a <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pan3.10445">recent study</a>, we found that lockdown triggered changes in the diets of London’s peregrine falcons. London is home to as many as <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/peregrine-falcons-and-their-city-success.html">30 breeding pairs of peregrines</a> (one of the world’s largest urban populations).</p>
<p>The emergence of high-definition web cameras now means that scientists can record every bit of food that peregrines feed to their young. Our team of 50 citizen scientists analysed live stream footage from peregrine nests across 27 English cities to determine what the birds were eating. We observed the nests throughout the 2020-2022 breeding seasons, allowing us to track the changes to their diets that occurred during and outside of lockdown periods.</p>
<p>In London, peregrines ate a lower proportion of feral pigeons (-15%) during the lockdowns. Instead, they caught more <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/starling-family/#:%7E:text=A%20family%20of%20small%20birds,wings%20and%20sharply%2Dpointed%20bills.">starlings</a> (+7%) and <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/ring-necked-parakeet/">ring-necked parakeets</a> (+3%).</p>
<p>Peregrine falcons depend on prey animals like pigeons for food. But, as pigeon populations themselves are contingent on humans, peregrines are vulnerable to changes in human activities. Our results demonstrate that humans are a key, but underappreciated, part of the ecology of urban environments.</p>
<h2>Bird watching, for science</h2>
<p>Pigeons – which descended from the cliff-dwelling <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/rock-dove/">rock dove</a> – have adopted our cities as their homes. In highly urbanised cities, humans support feral pigeons both intentionally and otherwise through the production of litter and food waste. These pigeons are now present in such vast numbers across London that <a href="https://londonist.com/2016/07/where-did-trafalgar-square-s-pigeons-come-from">feeding them is banned</a> in particular locations, including Trafalgar Square. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.meridianracingpigeons.com/raptorreport.pdf">Around 13 million</a> racing pigeons are also released into the wild in the UK each year – and some of them will turn up in our cities. Birds of prey subsequently catch <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/policy-insight/species/birds-of-prey-in-the-uk/racing-pigeons-and-birds-of-prey/">8% of these pigeons</a>. Yet, the importance of racing pigeons to the diet of urban peregrines remains uncertain. </p>
<p>When pandemic restrictions were imposed, the pigeon racing season was suspended and these birds were confined to their lofts. Feeding opportunities for feral pigeons also dwindled in urban areas as people were advised to stay at home. This forced hungry pigeons to spread out in search of alternative food sources, meaning fewer pigeons were present for peregrines to feed on. </p>
<p>The wide geographic coverage of our study also revealed that the effects of social restrictions on peregrine diets were uneven across the UK. London was the only city studied where the proportion of pigeons eaten dropped significantly. Across the other cities studied, pigeons took 0.3% more pigeons on average during lockdown periods than outside of them – an insignificant change.</p>
<p>This is likely due to London’s particularly large non-residential central area. The city’s core emptied as people stopped commuting and the <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28876/w28876.pdf">food and retail sector ground to a halt</a>. So London’s pigeons had to cover more ground than their counterparts in smaller cities to reach residential areas where people could still feed them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Empty Westminster Bridge with the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514661/original/file-20230310-462-fo17aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514661/original/file-20230310-462-fo17aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514661/original/file-20230310-462-fo17aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514661/original/file-20230310-462-fo17aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514661/original/file-20230310-462-fo17aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514661/original/file-20230310-462-fo17aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514661/original/file-20230310-462-fo17aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Central London shut down during the COVID-19 lockdowns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/empty-westminster-bridge-houses-parliament-big-242576479">pcruciatti/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rethinking pest control</h2>
<p>Large pigeon flocks that are drawn to humans in parks or squabble over food waste at litter bins are familiar sights for city dwellers. We take these daily interactions for granted or see them as pests. But pigeons contribute to the success of apex predators like the peregrine falcon.</p>
<p>Pigeons are subject to pest control programmes globally. Countries like Singapore and Switzerland have opted to manage pigeon populations by targeting their human food sources. For example, the Swiss city of Basel <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/09/science/science-watch-basel-solves-problem-of-too-many-pigeons.html">halved its street pigeon population</a> between 1988 and 1991 by prohibiting their feeding.</p>
<p>These measures are often imposed to improve public hygiene. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3782800">Research</a> has found that pigeons can pass infectious diseases like <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/psittacosis">ornithosis</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK567794/#:%7E:text=The%20Paramyxoviridae%20is%20a%20family,respiratory%20syncytial%20virus%20(RSV).">paramyxovirus</a> onto humans through their droppings. </p>
<p>Their excrement is also corrosive and can cause substantial damage to buildings. In 2003, the then Mayor of London Ken Livingston said pigeon droppings had caused <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3275233.stm">up to £140,000 worth of damage</a> to Nelson’s Column and other monuments in Trafalgar square. </p>
<p>But pigeon management overlooks the needs of the wildlife that share our cities. Our study offers a glimpse into how these efforts may have consequences for apex predators particularly in large cities, where the raptors may be more vulnerable to swings in the population of their pigeon prey. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/nature-and-culture/12/2/nc120202.xml">Previous research</a> found that measures to control rat populations in the eastern US city of Philadelphia in 2013 forced red-tailed hawks to switch to eating pigeons, which they are poorly suited to catching. While London’s peregrines had starlings and parakeets as backup prey during lockdown, raptors in cities worldwide face the growing pressure of their prey being eradicated to protect humans from disease.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A red tailed hawk in flight." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514662/original/file-20230310-20-93l8iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514662/original/file-20230310-20-93l8iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514662/original/file-20230310-20-93l8iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514662/original/file-20230310-20-93l8iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514662/original/file-20230310-20-93l8iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514662/original/file-20230310-20-93l8iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514662/original/file-20230310-20-93l8iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The red tailed hawk – a bird of prey that is found through North America.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/red-tailed-hawk-flying-close-718914187">Justin Buchli/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given the importance of pest species to urban falcons, we must consider what could happen to urban raptor populations if these “undesirable” pest species are eradicated. The ecological impacts of the COVID-19 lockdowns remind us that we are part of urban ecosystems. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider how we co-exist with urban animals, working with rather than against them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201396/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brandon Mak received research funding from the British Trust for Ornithology and King's College London for this study. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ed Drewitt received a small grant from the British Trust for Ornithology to support the purchase of some equipment that supported this study.</span></em></p>
Lockdown wasn’t good news for London’s peregrine falcons.
Brandon Mak, PhD student in the Department of Geography, King's College London
Ed Drewitt, PhD student studying the diet of urban peregrines, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199650
2023-02-28T16:18:19Z
2023-02-28T16:18:19Z
Cocktails, curry and afternoon tea: inside the 1930s London conference that brought Gandhi to Buckingham Palace
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512454/original/file-20230227-22-e4fksx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C23%2C1985%2C1470&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Conference attendees, from top left: Sir Syed Sultan Ahmed, Mahatma Gandhi, Sir Ganga Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner, Sarojini Naidu, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Radhabai Subbarayan, Bhupinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala, Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Dr BS Moonje, Jahan Ara Shahnawaz, J Ramsay MacDonald, Sir Jai Singh Prabhakar, Maharaja of Alwar.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/MC205_c00681">Indian Round Table Conference,1930-31; Derso and Kelen Collection, MC205, Public Policy Papers, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was the talk of the town. From afternoon teas at Buckingham Palace to lunches, dinners and drinks provided by London’s political hostesses. Between 1930 and 1932, India’s social and political leaders headed to London to negotiate the constitutional future of India in the British empire.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/conferencing-the-international/index.aspx">Round Table Conference</a> is mostly remembered for <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/conferencing-the-international/delegates/people.aspx?id=ab8d0915-8704-469b-a675-875ea21287dd">Gandhi’s</a> unsuccessful participation in the second session – where he failed to reconcile competing Hindu and Muslim demands. But this was only one small part of a conference of over 100 delegates.</p>
<p>Its three long sessions (two months, then three, then one) were captured by the <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/conferencing-the-international/representations/index.aspx">world’s news media</a>. UK prime minister Ramsay MacDonald’s concluding address from <a href="https://spacesofinternationalism.omeka.net/exhibits/show/1/item/17">St James’s Palace</a>
was filmed and broadcast in cinemas worldwide, as was the positive reaction of Indian delegates. </p>
<p>This was part of the retaliation against <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/mahatma-gandhi-changed-political-protest">Gandhi’s civil disobedience</a> movement of nonviolence and noncooperation against the British government.</p>
<p>Indian nationalists had been growing increasingly impatient for greater self-government in the 1920s. Divisions were rising between religious groups and politicians across the Indian empire. </p>
<p>To break the deadlock the British Labour government agreed to host an experiment in the new art of modern, international conferencing – turned to <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/interwarconf/documents/humanity-imperial-internationalism.pdf">imperial ends</a>. </p>
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<p>The conference was targeted at changing public opinion as much as producing specific political outcomes. Urban landscapes provided the stages upon which international relations were performed, for global audiences.</p>
<p>In my new <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/south-asian-history/round-table-conference-geographies-constituting-colonial-india-interwar-london?format=HB">book</a> I explore the historical geographies of the Round Table Conference. I look at how the city shaped the conference and how the conference helped shape a multicultural – and at times openly racist – imperial capital. </p>
<h2>Imperial London</h2>
<p>Official business took place almost exclusively in ancient <a href="https://spacesofinternationalism.omeka.net/exhibits/show/1/scales/royal-spaces">palaces</a>. <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/architecture/palace-s-interiors/royal-gallery/#:%7E:text=The%2520Royal%2520Gallery%2520is%2520used,was%2520designed%2520to%2520be%2520imposing.">The Royal Gallery</a> at the Palace of Westminster was where the conference opened and it concluded in the <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/architecture/palace-s-interiors/robing-room/">King’s Robing Room</a> in the House of Lords. </p>
<p>London proved itself well equipped for the challenge of becoming an <a href="https://spacesofinternationalism.omeka.net/exhibits/show/3/an-international-london">international city</a>. Afternoon teas at Buckingham Palace were held for each session. At the second, Gandhi’s homespun dhoti (referred to in the press as a “loincloth”) and exposed knees caused a sensation. It was, however, the Mahatma’s calmness while under hostile interrogation by King-Emperor George V that averted a political controversy.</p>
<p>London’s religious spaces also played their part. The <a href="https://spacesofinternationalism.omeka.net/exhibits/show/1/item/29">London Mosque</a> at Wandsworth was a welcome home for Muslim delegates and its imam, Maulvi Farzand Ali, hosted an “at-home” reception for delegates at the Strand Hotel on January 14 1931. Ten days earlier the imam had conducted evening prayers over the body of <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/conferencing-the-international/delegates/people.aspx?id=508cb708-af1e-41b6-bfcf-f617019986f3">Maulana Mohammad Ali</a>, a delegate who died during the conference. </p>
<p>Gandhi’s first meeting was held at the Quaker Friends House in Euston. He stayed with the pacifist social reformer Muriel Lester at the mission house of <a href="https://spacesofinternationalism.omeka.net/exhibits/show/3/an-international-london/kingsley-hall">Kinsley Hall</a> in the east end, itself part modelled on Gandhi’s ashram at Sabarmati in India.</p>
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<p>London’s secular institutes also entertained delegates during official events and out-of-hours socialising. The government hosted a reception at the <a href="https://spacesofinternationalism.omeka.net/exhibits/show/3/an-international-london/imperial-institute">Imperial Institute</a>, the grand display space of the products and artefacts of empire in South Kensington (later demolished to make way for Imperial College). </p>
<p>The Royal Institute of International Affairs at <a href="https://spacesofinternationalism.omeka.net/exhibits/show/1/item/42">Chatham House</a> also opened its library to conference delegates and hosted debates, as did many of London’s learned societies.</p>
<h2>Sleeping, eating and socialising</h2>
<p>All delegates were given an accommodation budget, which many of the richer visitors (mostly the Indian princes and maharajas) topped up to stay at London’s most exclusive hotels. </p>
<p>Others had to stay <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/conferencing-the-international/mappings/london-addresses.aspx">further out</a> in cheaper accommodation that agreed to take Indian guests (many did not). Some elite delegates were members of London’s gentleman’s clubs, clustered around St James’s.</p>
<p>Most were not and the hosting of Indian guests in the majority of clubs was discouraged. As such, an Indian Social Centre was established for the first session at Chesterfield Gardens in Mayfair, where delegates could find cheap accommodation and host guests without fear of racial discrimination.</p>
<p>The food at the Social Centre was provided by chefs from <a href="https://spacesofinternationalism.omeka.net/exhibits/show/1/item/41">Veeraswamy’s</a> restaurant, London’s exclusive and oldest Indian restaurant, situated on Regent Street. Cheaper food and less Raj-nostalgic dining could be found in the growing Indian dining scene in Soho, with Shafis affordable restaurant marketing itself as the prime conference delegate gawping spot.</p>
<p>While the conference featured only three Indian women delegates, London’s hostesses influenced proceedings with their lunches, dinners, drinks and “<a href="https://spacesofinternationalism.omeka.net/exhibits/show/3/item/77">at-homes</a>”. Less often recorded, these domestic spaces hosted evening conversations as the intractable problems of Indian constitutional reform rumbled on through the nights. </p>
<p>From palaces to parlours, the imperial capital furnished this international Indian event with the infrastructures that enabled both British and Indian delegates to put their case to the world for the subcontinent’s future, whether within or without the British empire.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199650/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Legg received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/M008142/1).</span></em></p>
Britain wanted to showcase its imperial power to the world, through official business in ancient palaces and socialising in the dazzling West End.
Stephen Legg, Professor of Historical Geography, University of Nottingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199474
2023-02-23T06:15:25Z
2023-02-23T06:15:25Z
Class and the City of London: my decade of research shows why elitism is endemic and top firms don’t really care
<p>During the COVID pandemic, as most wages <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/what-happened-to-wages-in-the-coronavirus-pandemic/#:%7E:text=Since%20November%202020%2C%20wages%20have,November%202020%20and%20December%202021.">stagnated</a>, workers in the City of London were enjoying <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/11/what-cost-of-living-crisis-bumper-executive-bonuses-make-a-comeback">bumper pay packets</a>. Average partner salaries in one corporate law firm <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lawyers-lead-the-way-as-million-pound-salaries-rain-down-on-the-city-rdmxjfs67">exceeded £2 million</a> for the first time. Investment bankers received their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/16/weve-had-a-run-on-champagne-biggest-uk-banker-bonuses-since-financial-crash">highest bonus payouts</a> since 2008.</p>
<p>City bosses have long justified these exceptional rewards by claiming that they are available to anyone with sufficient intellect and willingness to work hard – regardless of their gender, ethnicity or social class. In the <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/our_firm/investor_relations/financial_reports/annual_reports/2003/pdf/GS03AR_businessprncples.pdf">words of Goldman Sachs</a>, one of the City’s most iconic players:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Advancement depends on merit … For us to be successful, our people must reflect the diversity of the communities and cultures in which we operate. That means we must attract, retain and motivate people from many backgrounds and perspectives. Being diverse is not optional; it is what we must be.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But studies tell a different story about the City of London’s culture and demographics. In October 1986, the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_(financial_markets)">Big Bang</a>” – the name given to the sudden deregulation of financial markets to enhance London’s status as a global financial centre – was also supposed to signal the creation of a new, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37751599">more egalitarian</a> City. Yet four decades on, <a href="https://www.thebridgegroup.org.uk/news/partner-law">research</a> <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c18e090b40b9d6b43b093d8/t/5f6c69ea4d0d1b29037581f3/1600940523386/BG_SEB_Partner_Law_Sep2020_SUMMARY_FINAL.pdf">shows</a> that more than half of all partners at the leading law firms are white, male and privately educated, while more than 90% of bosses at eight top financial service firms are from society’s most privileged backgrounds – a demographic that comprises just over 30% of the entire UK population.</p>
<p>I began <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293014505_Understanding_social_exclusion_in_elite_professional_service_firms_field_level_dynamics_and_the_%27professional_project">researching</a> this <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/highly-discriminating">issue</a> more than ten years ago, after briefly working in business development for a City law firm. Despite being appointed in almost equal numbers to men, women were significantly under-represented at the firm’s senior levels, comprising fewer than 20% of its partners. There was also a striking lack of ethnic diversity among all staff, and it was especially rare to see any black lawyers.</p>
<p>Soon after I joined, I was offered a session with a style consultant who, my manager explained, would help me appear “more professional”. The consultant’s primary advice was to wear more make up and put on skirt-suits.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In any industry where people are regularly spotlighted as a firm’s most important resource, hiring staff for any other reason than their ability might appear to make little sense. In the City, however, white middle-class men have always been particularly valued for other qualities.</p>
<p>Consider this exchange I had with asset manager Toby* in 2019. I started by asking on what basis his clients selected their financial advisers, to which he replied: “They have expectations of meeting people with expertise, really.”</p>
<p>But when I asked how they assess this expertise, Toby said it was “a difficult question”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think they’re choosing us basically on whether they like the sound of us or the look of us. Most of our sales force is [made up of] white, middle-class males … Let’s try a thought experiment. If we turned up with, I don’t know, a black woman and a white bloke, but a bit spivvy with an Essex accent … Yeah, I don’t know. I really don’t know. God, that sounds really bad.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many City executives have told me that a certain type of “social ease”, often cultivated at private schools, allows colleagues to get away with bullshit and bluff. Or as one senior executive at a FTSE 100 firm put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We all know that people with the right accent and mannerisms … sound much more believable. Equally, I want to say that we can see through that – but the truth is, we can’t.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘We give the jobs to other posh people’</h2>
<p>Many of my interviews were conducted in the late 2010s, a time when “diversity and inclusion” was a buzz phrase among elite City firms. I was keen to find out how serious these firms – spanning finance, legal services, management consulting, accounting and auditing – were about changing the social makeup of their staff, particularly those earning the biggest bucks.</p>
<p>Prestigious City firms, some with billion-pound revenue streams, have long tried to position themselves as “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/376f3374-cf1e-4923-8c24-e4dbafe70b6d">money meritocracies</a>”, where success and promotion is based purely on an employee’s performance and the profits they generate.</p>
<p>Privately, however, City insiders I spoke to repeatedly blamed deviations from this rule on outright favouritism. One hedge fund manager, Michael, confided: “It’s easy to explain. Basically, we give the top jobs to other posh people who are our mates.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509253/original/file-20230209-16-4q8zqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four white men in suits walking away from the camera" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509253/original/file-20230209-16-4q8zqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509253/original/file-20230209-16-4q8zqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509253/original/file-20230209-16-4q8zqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509253/original/file-20230209-16-4q8zqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509253/original/file-20230209-16-4q8zqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509253/original/file-20230209-16-4q8zqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509253/original/file-20230209-16-4q8zqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Businessmen in the City of London financial district.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-20-april-2019-business-1822728791">I.R. Stone/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Investment manager James said that frequently, recruitment and promotion “becomes a subjective call”, at which point decision-makers typically revert to type. I asked him what “type” that might be:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Myself … I’m already doing that role and I know what I’m doing. Therefore, I’m more likely to go towards the sort of people who are like I am, which is why you end up with the stereotypical male – mid-40s, white. It’s why the profession’s full of them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To date, efforts to diversify according to gender and ethnicity appear to have had very limited results. In 2014, <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/our-research/pathways-banking-education-background-finance/">The Sutton Trust</a> found that within <a href="https://www.theglobalcity.uk/financial-professional-services">financial services</a>, more than 60% of bosses educated in the UK had attended private schools, as opposed to just 7% of the population at large. And despite many interventions designed to improve representation of women at senior levels, a <a href="https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/under-10-of-top-city-dealmakers-are-women-its-still-very-testosterone-fuelled-20200810">2020 study</a> of the City’s top “deal-makers” in investment banks found that less than one in ten were women.</p>
<p>I believe that City firms’ efforts to become more diverse and inclusive, and to deliver more equal representation at the top, have not worked <em>because they were never meant to</em>. Instead, they are a form of “reputation laundering”, offering only the illusion of change in order to protect their privileges and rewards. This conclusion is based on my interviews with more than 400 City leaders and workers – among them diversity experts and human resource managers charged with trying to change the culture of this rarefied world.</p>
<h2>The phoney ‘war for talent’</h2>
<p>Class-based recruitment strategies are perceived to offer City firms certain benefits – in particular, sustaining the impression of status and prestige to competitors, clients, potential colleagues and even policymakers. This in turn helps justify the high fees they charge, and the exceptional profits they generate.</p>
<p>Defining employee “talent” in narrow terms creates an artificial impression of scarcity in available skills. At entry level, City firms battle to attract graduates from the UK’s most elite universities. This “war for talent” is largely phoney – in reality, the skills the firms need are available from a much wider cohort of graduates – but it has helped convince both City firms and clients of these employees’ exceptional worth.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509254/original/file-20230209-26-2cg6g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three Black men in suits chatting outside an office building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509254/original/file-20230209-26-2cg6g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509254/original/file-20230209-26-2cg6g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509254/original/file-20230209-26-2cg6g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509254/original/file-20230209-26-2cg6g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509254/original/file-20230209-26-2cg6g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509254/original/file-20230209-26-2cg6g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509254/original/file-20230209-26-2cg6g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Non-white employees are typically much less likely to reach client-facing executive roles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-20-april-2019-business-1819187273">I.R. Stone/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>This narrative was invoked in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis when, despite being closely implicated in this catastrophic collapse, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d4f02d66-1d84-11e0-a163-00144feab49a">top bankers argued</a> against punitive regulation on the basis that it would drive “scarce” UK financial talent <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2011/06/banks-threats-tax-government">to other countries</a>. More recently, it was used to justify the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/14/bankers-bonuses-double-since-2008-crash-tuc-study-finds">very large bonuses</a> paid out to UK bankers in 2022 amid the growing cost of living crisis.</p>
<p>One law firm partner explained why his firm preferred to appoint “polished” candidates from elite universities, in preference to the very best who might be educated elsewhere:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>From a business perspective, you can’t afford to have people in meetings who will not look good to the clients, [even if] some might be very, very bright.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In part, this can be explained by City managers adopting a risk-averse strategy to recruitment. In the context of a considerable oversupply of job applications, a “good” degree from an “elite” university acts as an easy signal of probable competency. As asset manager Reena explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we hire somebody from a completely different background and they don’t work out, the person who hires them is going to look like a fool. [Whereas] if we continue to hire the exact same type of person – the Oxbridge-educated white male, for argument’s sake – and that person doesn’t work out, which often happens, nobody will blame the hiring manager for making that decision.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Leigh, a former <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/trader.asp#:%7E:text=A%20trader%20is%20an%20individual,the%20person%20holds%20the%20asset.">City trader</a>, describes himself as a working-class “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrow_boy">barrow boy</a>”. He said that following the Big Bang in 1986, the City’s banks all started saying they had to recruit “only the best” university students:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They came from Oxford or Durham or wherever – anywhere that looked good and if they could bullshit their way in … Some of them were good, but not all. They’d come in as graduates and have to learn on the job, but they had no common sense.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is not to say that the City has no diversity at all. But demographics differ between job roles, and class differences are most tolerated in more technical or “quantitative” roles such as trading, where performance can be more objectively measured and perceived success does not depend on personal relationships with clients. However, even these roles remain dominated by men, while diversity is considerably more likely in less prestigious and often lower-paid <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/middleoffice.asp#:%7E:text=What%20Is%20the%20Middle%20Office,technology%20(IT)%20as%20well.">middle</a>- and <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/backoffice.asp#:%7E:text=What%20Is%20Back%20Office%3F,%2C%20accounting%2C%20and%20IT%20services.">back-office</a> jobs.</p>
<h2>The City’s way of ‘doing diversity’</h2>
<p>In the early 2010s, when diversity and inclusion agendas were still quite new, Liam, a black corporate lawyer, sounded somewhat cynical when I spoke to him about the sincerity of these strategies:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Their dream scenario is to try and find a nice, uncontroversial way to try and ‘do diversity’ without having to change much of anything else.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Several years after that, Gus, a partner at one of the “big four” accountancy firms, reflected on why they had adopted these diversity agendas:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Why does anything like this become popular? I guess we were quite influenced by what other firms were doing around the same time – and that’s probably still true today … It was just the buzz in the City at the time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While some firms have made efforts to become more diverse in their higher-profile, client-facing and revenue-generating jobs, when it comes to social class the focus has largely been on access rather than career progression. Thousands of young people, generally aged between 16 and 21 and from working-class backgrounds, have taken part in these <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350590737_Organisational_Social_Mobility_Programmes_as_Mechanisms_of_Power_and_Control">social mobility programmes</a> – often conducted with charities such as the Social Mobility Foundation, UpReach, the Sutton Trust and the City Brokerage.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/londons-skyscrapers-tell-a-rich-story-about-the-citys-worship-of-finance-69743">London's skyscrapers tell a rich story about the City's worship of finance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This seems positive and in one sense it is. I have interviewed several hundred of these students as they aim to secure a career in investment banking or with other financial and professional service firms. Many described these opportunities as “life changing”, telling me uplifting stories of their experiences as they first engaged with the City – sometimes while still at school.</p>
<p>Aspirant banker Max explained how everything about the City seemed to him “oversized” – from the office buildings to the furniture that fills them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I mean, you’re in this massive building with these massive tables and chairs, and really awesome decor and art, and there’s people who are really well spoken and really professional in their suits.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rahul sounded similarly awestruck as he described how growing up, he had seen the City from a distance but never expected to find himself there:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My father was a greengrocer. We used to go to the market and [on the way] we’d be able to see the City … I used to literally stand and stare over and imagine what it would be like to be there. To fast-forward a couple of years and be able to be at the [bank’s] office was quite amazing.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509260/original/file-20230209-16-lwm7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Skyscrapers in the City of London" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509260/original/file-20230209-16-lwm7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509260/original/file-20230209-16-lwm7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509260/original/file-20230209-16-lwm7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509260/original/file-20230209-16-lwm7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509260/original/file-20230209-16-lwm7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509260/original/file-20230209-16-lwm7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509260/original/file-20230209-16-lwm7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The City of London skyline: ‘I used to stand and stare …’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/skyline-london-financial-district-4587051/">Waid1995/Pixabay</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Participants of these schemes were frequently told that, given the City’s “meritocratic culture”, they should have high expectations of getting in. As Emily put it: “They say all the time: it doesn’t matter who you are, you can do anything as long as you work hard enough.”</p>
<p>Sam described having learnt that: “Anybody could become the CEO of a major bank. It’s just all about sacrifice … To do well, to rise up the ranks, it’s definitely the people that are the hardest working.”</p>
<p>Yet the reality for these working-class interns could soon feel very different. On entering mainstream graduate recruitment programmes, some told me they quickly discovered that “merit is a myth”. When we spoke in 2019, bank intern Mishal, a black woman in her early twenties from a working-class background, described her experience in visceral terms:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What those people have been telling you [about diversity] is just the corporate crap that everybody vomits from their mouths … If you’d interviewed me [before] I probably would have said all those things. But now that I’ve actually been in a bank and seen it – I kept saying to my friends over the summer: “I have been sold dreams.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mishal’s disillusionment was striking. “[They’ve] told me one thing and then I’ve come in and it’s a complete opposite other thing,” she complained. “Your motivation has to be so strong, because everything they tell you turns out not to be true.”</p>
<p>Some of the interns I met felt very self-conscious of their “different” appearance and demeanour, compared with the image that is so carefully cultivated by these City firms. Kasia described one of her encounters during an internship at an investment bank:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My team had sent me to a meeting with about 40 white, middle-aged men. There was not a single female in the room … No one was below 35, 40 years old … I was just trembling with fear – like, I’m not valuable in this room.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many interns said they felt strong pressure to assimilate while navigating sometimes hostile and frightening cultures. Kasia described making efforts to change her look and accent, adding:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t want to be viewed as a social experiment who’s come, like, from the street … I want to be judged based on my abilities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Young people like Kasia and Mishal are far from victims and would not wish to be seen as such – although neither went on to be offered a graduate job. However, it is clear that for some young interns, assimilation into the City of London is impossible – especially where class intersects with ethnicity.</p>
<p>Nor are these problems restricted to entry-level recruitment, as evidenced by lower retention rates and slower career progression for those who are employed. A <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c18e090b40b9d6b43b093d8/t/5fbc317e96e56f63b563d0f2/1606168962064/Socio-economic_report-Final.pdf">2020 study</a> of eight major financial services firms found that employees from less privileged backgrounds took 25% longer to progress, despite no evidence of poorer performance. Describing how your educational background can cast a shadow over a whole career, asset manager Euan told me, only half-jokingly: “It’s like if you went to an ex-poly – in the City that comes with a lifetime of shame!”</p>
<p>Tanya, a black woman working for a City finance firm, graduated from a leading <a href="https://russellgroup.ac.uk/about/">Russell Group university</a> but still described the barriers – some blatant, others more subtle – that she felt had delayed her career progression within the firm:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s difficult to exactly know the impact because a lot of it’s quite subtle. But I’m always, always focusing on creating the right impression, the right amount of assertiveness … It’s exhausting and there’s less energy to focus on work. But you never want to come across as the “angry black woman”, so even when there is more blatant discrimination, it’s too dangerous to complain.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The myth of merit</h2>
<p>Many people are taken in by the City’s “myth of merit” – not least some of its top bosses, who prefer to believe their own positions are based on exceptional talent and hard work, rather than any inherited privilege. Attempts I have made to question this narrative, both during informal conversations and formal interviews, have sometimes met with robust responses. As corporate lawyer Kris said when we spoke a few years ago:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I came from a relatively humble background myself and I got into the system … I think they would be quite offended if you said the major City firms were unmeritocratic. I would be offended.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And indeed, some working-class figures have acquired legendary status. In his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/30/city-london-david-kynaston">biography of the City of London</a>, historian David Kynaston profiles several, including John Hutchinson – a “brash whiz-kid” who took on a key role trading gilts at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/28/business/merrill-lynch-s-london-blitz.html">Merrill Lynch</a>. Playing up the successes of such figures has helped to support the City’s meritocratic narratives.</p>
<p>The emphasis on merit also helps cement the impression that these firms are engaged in highly complex work that only the very smartest people can do. In her <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/liquidated">superlative work</a> exploring the City’s US equivalent, Wall Street, anthropologist Karen Ho shows how this exaggerated narrative helped situate investment bankers as the epitome of control and technical competency, offering them a “naturalised” right to their place near the top of the social order – both in terms of earnings and status.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6sbOXBoBZ1c?wmode=transparent&start=38" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Big Bang in 1986 changed the culture of the City – but its elitist image has endured despite calls for change.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, in London since the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37751599">Big Bang</a>, a discourse of “smartness” (of intellect) has become central to the image of investment bankers and other City professionals. This means financial rewards which far outstrip most other sectors’ pay levels can be justified on the basis that they are fairly allocated to “only the brightest and best”.</p>
<p>Many City workers <em>are</em> exceptionally qualified and also very bright. By the 2010s, new entrants to investment banks in the UK were typically among the top 1% of performers in A-levels or equivalent. Corporate lawyer, Rob, explained that while in the old days “it didn’t really matter if you were a bit dim”, the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/the-day-big-bang-blasted-the-old-boys-into-oblivion-422005.html">arrival of the American banks</a> in the wake of the Big Bang led to a more “intensive, more competitive style of work … more of a meritocracy”.</p>
<p>However, the City’s highly remunerated jobs are still overwhelmingly done by white men who have benefited from a private school education – the children of the affluent middle and upper classes. Furthermore, if any unfair recruitment practices or treatment of employees come to light, City firms typically employ the shield of “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/style/diversity-consultants.html">unconscious bias</a>” to explain away any discrepancies in staff makeup or treatment.</p>
<p>This response can suggest a sort of “no-fault discrimination” where since everybody is to blame, nobody is. Some academics <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/iris_bohnet/what-works">argue</a> that putting a heavy focus on unconscious bias reflects a misguided, highly individualised response to what is actually a systemic, structural problem.</p>
<p>But in the City of London, my research shows that discrimination is also, in part, a conscious choice that offers systematic advantages for more privileged groups – while supporting an image of “desirable elitism”. And where this is the case, City firms prefer us to look away.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ioJAymw7cQ0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ian Clarke came through HSBC’s management training scheme in 2008, but resigned from his job in global sales in 2021 after writing a report about the bank’s lack of diversity.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Investment banks are characterised by opacity and secrecy – sometimes justified by their need to to maintain a “competitive advantage”. But the related use of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclosure_agreement">non-disclosure agreements</a> for employment contracts has meant that many discrimination cases involving City firms have never seen the light of day.</p>
<p>Where this was not the case, legal actions and tribunals have periodically shed light on instances of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/17/london-insurance-firm-fined-1-million-over-bullying-sexual-harassment.html">bullying and sexual harassment</a> (leading to a more than £1 million fine) and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/310caee4-d2d9-4f88-9a2b-f6d790b9eb1b">gender discrimination</a> (£2 million payout). There is strong evidence that the City’s historic “laddish” culture <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/has-the-city-booted-out-lad-culture-tfc9mqptl">continues to exist</a> in <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/business/lloyd-s-of-london-culture-drinking-sexism-b988746.html">pockets</a>, and that in some cases this leads to <a href="https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1505838573467144193">hostility</a> towards individuals who exist outside established white, male, middle-class norms.</p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>Over the past 40 years, inequalities of income and wealth have become more pronounced in the UK. The <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/publications/characteristics-and-incomes-top-1">share of national income</a> taken by the top 1% increased from almost 6% in 1977 to around 14% in 2019. The City’s remuneration practices are implicated here, with the Institute of Fiscal Studies <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/04/city-london-bonus-boom-risk-driving-up-inequality-institute-fiscal-studies">reporting</a> in 2022 that the City’s pay and bonus packages exacerbate inequality.</p>
<p>The UK’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/30/england-old-boys-club-zahawi-wealthy-network">cosy relationship between finance and politics</a> enhances the City’s influence. Bosses and politicians alike claim this is justified because of the City’s <a href="https://www.economicsobservatory.com/how-important-is-the-city-to-the-uk-economy#:%7E:text=Economists%20use%20the%20expression%20because,City%20(Hutton%2C%202022).">major contribution</a> to the UK economy in terms of jobs, tax revenues and trade.</p>
<p>Yet an alternative argument is that the UK’s oversized financial sector impoverishes the UK, resulting from what author Nicholas Shaxson calls the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/oct/05/the-finance-curse-how-the-outsized-power-of-the-city-of-london-makes-britain-poorer">finance curse</a>”. He cites <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/finance-curse-uk-economy-sector-city-of-london-loss-financial-services-a8571036.html">research</a> estimating that an oversized City of London inflicted costs of £4.5 trillion on the UK economy between 1995 and 2015. This is explained in part by lost economic output since the 2008 financial crisis, and in part from “<a href="https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/143275/1/Baker%20The-UKs-Finance-Curse-Costs-and-Processes%20final.pdf">misallocation costs</a>” as big finance has generated activities that distort the rest of the UK economy – diverting skills, investments and resources from more productive uses.</p>
<p>Shaxson also points to £700 billion of “excess profits” and “excess remuneration” enjoyed by big finance which might otherwise have contributed to the UK economy. He suggests the salaries, bonuses and profits paid out by the City significantly exceed what is necessary to incentivise the supply of financial products and services in an efficient, competitive market.</p>
<p>At the heart of these eye-watering figures are policies first implemented during the 1980s, which privileged the need to maximise shareholder returns over reinvesting profits. This <a href="https://neweconomics.org/uploads/files/NEF_SHAREHOLDER-CAPITALISM_E_latest.pdf">short-term agenda</a> has been associated with rising salaries at the top, growing inequality in UK society, and even increased levels of environmental destruction.</p>
<p>At the same time, financial institutions have been afforded ever-more influence over UK economic policy. Wealthy City donors have <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-funding-donors-money-general-election-lib-dems-labour-a9362571.html">helped fund political parties</a> to ensure policies are prioritised that protect their interests. City leaders have not only shaped laws and regulations in their favour, but also influenced society and culture. This includes promoting a form of “winner takes all” individualism in which the notion of the common good has slowly dissipated.</p>
<p>In the UK, the <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/why-we-cant-afford-the-rich">poorest 10%</a> pay a higher proportion of their income in tax than the richest 10%, while <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/opinion/pandora-papers-britain-london.html">corporate tax avoidance strategies</a> have additionally limited the redistribution of wealth. In 2015, the Bank of England’s then chief economist, Andy Haldane, <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/625081308063121408">warned</a> that under our system, businesses are now “almost eating themselves”. He called on policymakers to consider new models of corporate governance that “share the spoils more equally between a wider set of stakeholders in a firm”, including employees and customers.</p>
<h2>Will the City ever change?</h2>
<p>In 2021, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London_Corporation">City of London Corporation</a> (the City’s formal governing body) set up an <a href="https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/supporting-businesses/business-support-and-advice/socio-economic-diversity-taskforce">independent taskforce</a> with a vision of encouraging “equity of progression”, where high performance is valued over “fit” and “polish”. I was a member of this two-year initiative, which culminated in the publication of a <a href="https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/assets/Business/breaking-the-class-barrier-december-2022.pdf">five-point pathway</a> to achieve a more socio-economically diverse City of London.</p>
<p>The impact of this taskforce is debatable, but to be fair to its many committed participants, delivering more inclusive and diverse organisations is a “wicked problem” that is difficult, if not impossible, to solve. Not least because not everybody agrees on the nature of the problem – nor even that the problem exists.</p>
<p>Efforts at change have generally been pinned on the “business case” – that once hiring managers are convinced discrimination is irrational, they will feel compelled to act. Yet this is unlikely to work because the incentives are not there. Class-based inequalities embedded within systems and structures offer elite City firms certain benefits, while diversification carries perceived risks.</p>
<p>The business case sometimes suggests diversification will make the City a better or even safer place, by allowing for cognitive difference while preventing “<a href="https://www.cityam.com/businesses-without-diversity-are-plagued-by-groupthink/">groupthink</a>”. But new entrants are generally subjected to strong socialisation processes that train them to present and even think much the same, as management consultant, Diletta, explained to me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As much as [firms] talk about diversity, especially now with all this stuff on social class – it’s almost impossible to exist outside the norms … That’s what training is all about. We’re extremely effective at making sure everybody is packaged up and churned out looking and sounding exactly the same. That’s our product. It’s what we sell.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It seems that in the City, people can be different as long as they are the same. A genuine desire among many City people to deliver fairer outcomes is no match for institutional inertia. When it comes to social class, firms have historically tended to adopt a “deficit” model where young people from working-class backgrounds are assumed to lack the necessary forms of “polish” to get on, and efforts centre on how these deficits can be addressed.</p>
<p>But the challenges they face are not limited to “polish”. Growing up poor in a rich society contributes to long-lasting and sometimes career-limiting feelings of stigma and shame. Abdul explained his feelings as he struggled to access a graduate position in an investment bank:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was surrounded by people who were, I suppose you could say, better than me … I didn’t belong.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An emphasis on social mobility is an attractive agenda for both City leaders and politicians who can present change as a “win-win” – for talented people and the organisations they join. But in practice, this is a zero-sum game: when opportunities are not expanding in absolute terms, for some people to move up others must move down. Current conversations allow City and other elites to avoid such uncomfortable truths.</p>
<p>Instead they focus on more palatable, less threatening questions of culture and behaviour, over the fundamental changes that are needed if the UK’s resources and rewards are to be more fairly distributed. The City of London must recognise its own role in perpetuating – and increasing – economic injustice if ever this status quo is to change.</p>
<p><em>* All interviewees’ names have been changed to protect their anonymity.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
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<p><em>To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199474/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Research mentioned in this article received funding from government and charitable bodies. However, to protect confidentiality I do not mention which organisations. There is no conflict of interest and individuals took part on the basis of informed consent. I was a working group member for the Corporation of London Taskforce on Socioeconomic Diversity, which is mentioned in this article. I am the author of the recently published book Highly Discriminating: Why The City Isn't Fair and Diversity Doesn't Work. </span></em></p>
My research suggests City firms’ efforts to deliver more equal representation at the top have not worked because they were never meant to.
Louise Ashley, Senior Lecturer, Queen Mary University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197125
2023-01-04T19:57:01Z
2023-01-04T19:57:01Z
Stock exchanges: has Paris really stolen the limelight from the City of London?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502901/original/file-20230103-101864-tn6tqf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C1024%2C763&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Daily trading is worth around $3.7 trillion in London compared to $200 billion in Paris. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In late 2022, the <a href="https://www.lesechos.fr/finance-marches/marches-financiers/paris-ravit-a-londres-la-place-de-premiere-bourse-europeenne-1878797">French press exulted at the news that Paris’s market capitalisation had overtaken London’s</a>. While these financial centres have been <a href="https://www.cairn.info/histoire-de-la-bourse--9782707171665-page-47.htm">competing for more than two centuries</a>, Paris faded from view from 1914 to 1985 before enjoying <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/8065/chapter-abstract/153455884?redirectedFrom=fulltext">“a renaissance”</a>. We read that it has now topped London as Europe’s biggest stock exchange. But what does that mean?</p>
<p>To grasp this, we first need to get our heads around the concept of market capitalisation, which can be defined as the total value of shares in a particular company listed on a stock exchange. As shares represent the property rights of the companies that issued them, the capitalisation of a stock exchange therefore measures the value of the corresponding companies.</p>
<p>However, this value is virtual, both because it represents future profits, and because the company could not convert it into money without selling all its shares and thereby tanking them. A rise in capitalisation is therefore only a promise.</p>
<p>It should also be remembered that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Not all companies are listed, because although listing allows access to market financing, it entails costs and risks</p></li>
<li><p>There are other sources of financing than the markets, in particular banks</p></li>
<li><p>It is quite possible for a company in a given country to choose to be listed on a stock exchange in a different country.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Off-index stocks carry Paris</h2>
<p>On 23 June 2016, the day of the United Kingdom’s referendum on leaving the European Union, the London Stock Exchange’s capitalisation amounted to around 2,900 billion euros, compared to 1,750 in Paris. Since then, the pound sterling has fallen against the euro (-6%) and the London stock market index has risen less than the Paris index: 14% for the FTSE compared to 30% for the CAC All-tradable. However, these two effects combined explain only a quarter of Paris’s catch-up.</p>
<p>Understanding the rest will require that we look beyond stock indices to weigh in factors such as market entries and exits, or “small” stocks price variations that are not accounted for by indexes.</p>
<p>Paris shows limited entries/exits (<a href="https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/999581/paris-may-be-bigger-but-london-remains-europe-s-ipo-destination-999581.html">less than 5 billion per year</a>, with a slightly positive balance) by comparison to London. Though London has a much higher volume of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), acquisitions still cause the City to bleed much capital: as early as 18 July 2016, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/18/arm-holdings-to-be-sold-to-japans-softbank-for-234bn-reports-say">Japan’s SoftBank bought microprocessor maker ARM</a> for £24bn, precipitating ARM’s delisting. While others followed suit, the total net flows still represent less than 5% of the variation in the difference between London and Paris. In the end, we will have to look to non-index shares – i.e., the shares of the smallest companies – which have grown much faster in Paris (+150%) than in London, to understand the three quarters of the variation.</p>
<p>If we focus on the companies listed in Paris, we see that they are not all French: take <a href="https://www.boursorama.com/cours/societe/profil/1rPMLBBO/">Be-Bô</a>, a health start-up domiciled in Geneva; or <a href="https://www.boursier.com/actions/cours/kompuestos-ES0105425005,FR.html">Kompuestos</a>, a Spanish plastics specialist. These two cases differ in important regards, however: the former corresponds to an IPO in Paris, whereas the latter refers to the additional listing in Paris of a company previously introduced on the Madrid stock exchange. So, should the capitalisation of Kompuestos be counted for Paris or for Madrid?</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/la-preuve-par-trois-paris-londres-il-ny-a-pas-match-138786">La preuve par trois : Paris–Londres, il n’y a pas match !</a>
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<p>Let’s start out by counting for Paris the shares that are held by people living in France, as is customary. Plus, let’s also include all foreign shares held by residents, even when shares are not actually listed (i.e., traded in real time) on the stock exchange.</p>
<p>In these circumstances, London clearly outperforms Paris. Indeed, the City has a special infrastructure called CREST, which acts as a depository for international securities and issues digital certificates representing foreign shares to UK residents. When all foreign-listed shares are taken into account, the capitalisation held by UK residents is $6.2 trillion, compared to $3.7 trillion for mainland France, as suggested by <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/db5d516a-4b35-4e85-8b02-4ddd73b48e0b?accessToken=zwAAAYSmkdgEkdPbXVFqSzVOhdOLAk3dc7SOCw.MEUCIBROqiacUrVTAAxdwUO6SKav_eIvOveicHxmsjJQ3Y9iAiEArFO07n4_rAb7HnEM7sWtePRX4Hfkj4or5Yekf1BWd_w&sharetype=gift&token=54fe1a0e-83cd-4079-b4c4-9848520ea920">the <em>Financial Times</em></a>. The difference is largely explained by <a href="https://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/private-pensions/Pension-Funds-in-Figures-2021.pdf">pension funds</a> whose asset value is 3,000 billion USD in the UK compared to less than 100 billion in France.</p>
<h2>The City’s ancillary “services”</h2>
<p>Aside from shares, bonds also account for a good chunk of global capitalisation: <a href="https://www.icmagroup.org/market-practice-and-regulatory-policy/secondary-markets/bond-market-size/">$128,000 billion at the end of 2020</a>, with Paris contributing almost 4% to the pie, i.e., a little more than London. On the other hand, the most important market in terms of volume is certainly the foreign exchange market: here, London generates over <a href="https://www.bis.org/statistics/rpfx22.htm">38% of global activity</a> with more than $3.7 trillion in daily transactions, by comparison to $200 billion in the case of Paris. In the area of finance, London also leads through the large number of international contracts drafted under British law by UK law firms.</p>
<p>For example, the first <em>sukuk</em> (sharia-compliant investment certificates) issued by an American company were contracts based on an <em>ad hoc</em> vehicle listed on the London Stock Exchange and <a href="https://www.sukuk.com/sukuk-new-profile/ge-capital-sukuk-ltd-999/">paying a periodic dividend in London</a>. Ships, buildings, containers, works of art: London firms know how to draft the contract necessary to acquire any one of those assets under a favourable tax regime in a chosen jurisdiction (e.g., a Jersey trust or a Bahamian special purpose vehicle) by arranging appropriate financing. In comparison, Paris offers mainly conventional financing means and no special legal regimes.</p>
<p>It is because of these ancillary “services” that London has been the <a href="https://www.longfinance.net/programmes/financial-centre-futures/global-financial-centres-index/gfci-publications/global-financial-centres-index-31/">second-largest global financial centre</a> since the post-war period, well ahead of Paris. London still employs over a million people in the financial sector, <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=SNA_TABLE3">25% more than Paris</a>. However, the gap between the two stock exchanges has narrowed since Brexit prompted finance professionals to relocate to Paris – the so-called <a href="https://www.dartmouthpartners.com/brexodus-to-paris/">“Brexodus”</a>.</p>
<p>One is left to wonder how this trend might impact the rest of the economy, including in terms of growth. It should be remembered that while <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=DE-FR">Germany’s GDP is 40% higher than France’s</a>, its <a href="https://www.fese.eu/statistics/">market capitalisation is 40% lower</a>. A sobering reminder for the French that, whatever the markets’ <a href="https://www.etfstream.com/news/paris-takes-crown-of-biggest-european-stock-market-from-london/">new-found esteem for their country</a>, a company’s value is ultimately based on far more than indexes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197125/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierre-Charles Pradier est président du conseil de surveillance de FIFA Clearing House.</span></em></p>
Although Paris’s capitalisation overtook London’s in late 2022, the City of London is still Europe’s leading financial centre. Understanding why will require that we look beyond stock indices.
Pierre-Charles Pradier, Maître de conférences en Sciences économiques, LabEx RéFi, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196729
2022-12-21T13:41:12Z
2022-12-21T13:41:12Z
FTX’s collapse mirrors an infamous 18th century British financial scandal
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502186/original/file-20221220-20-ou8jt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=69%2C155%2C5113%2C3279&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sam Bankman-Fried, once considered a star in the freewheeling world of cryptocurrency, has been charged with conspiracy, fraud and money laundering.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photo-illustration-shows-the-logo-of-cryptocurrency-news-photo/1244760361?phrase=sam bankman-fried&adppopup=true">Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2021/09/23/enron-scandal-revisited-20th-anniversary-legacy/">Enron</a>. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-bernie-madoffs-ponzi-scheme-worked-2014-7">Bernie Madoff</a>. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/sam-bankman-fried-crypto-ftx-collapse-explained-rcna57582">FTX</a>.</p>
<p>In modern capitalism, it seems as if stories of companies and managers who engage in fraud and swindle their investors occur like the changing of the seasons. </p>
<p>In fact, these scandals can be traced back to the origins of publicly traded companies, when the first stockbrokers bought and sold company shares and government securities in the coffee houses of London’s Exchange Alley during the 1700s. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8b_mnWQAAAAJ&hl=en">As a historian of 18th century finance</a>, I am struck by the similarities between what’s known as the Charitable Corporation Scandal and the recent collapse of FTX. </p>
<h2>A noble cause</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110592139-010/html">Charitable Corporation</a> was established in London in 1707 with the noble mission of providing “relief of the industrious poor by assisting them with small sums at legal interest.”</p>
<p>Essentially, it sought to provide <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24429771#metadata_info_tab_contents">low-interest loans</a> to poor tradesmen, shielding them from predatory pawnbrokers who charged as much as 30% interest. The corporation made loans available at the rate of 5% in return for a pledge of property for security. </p>
<p>The Charitable Corporation was modeled on <a href="https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/25216/1/25216%20GATTO_Historical_Roots_of_Microcredit_and%20Usury_2018.pdf">Monti di Pietà</a>, a charitable institution of credit established in Catholic countries during the Renaissance era to combat <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/usury.asp">usury</a>, or high rates of interest. </p>
<p>Unlike the Monti di Pietà, however, the British version – despite its name – wasn’t a nonprofit. Instead, it was a business venture. The enterprise was funded by offering shares to investors who, in return, would make money while doing good. Under its original mission, it was like an 18th century version of today’s socially responsible investing, or “<a href="https://theconversation.com/sustainable-investment-is-it-worth-the-hype-heres-what-you-need-to-know-182533">sustainable investment funds</a>.” </p>
<h2>Raiding the fund</h2>
<p>In 1725, the Charitable Corporation diverted from its original mission when a new board of directors took over. </p>
<p>These men turned the corporation into their own piggy bank, taking money from it to buy shares and prop up their other companies. At the same time, the company’s employees began to engage in fraud: Safety checks ceased, books were kept irregularly and pledges went unrecorded. </p>
<p>Investigators would ultimately find that <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/642348549">£400,000</a> or more in capital was missing – roughly $108 million in today’s U.S. dollars. </p>
<p>In the autumn of 1731, rumors began to circulate about the solvency of the Charitable Corporation. The warehouse keeper at the time, <a href="https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/7034/page/1">John Thomson</a>, who was in charge of all loans and pledges but also in league with the five fraudulent directors, hid the company’s books and fled the country. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502026/original/file-20221220-26-87nitv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Print of man chopping down tree with people hanging from the branches." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502026/original/file-20221220-26-87nitv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502026/original/file-20221220-26-87nitv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502026/original/file-20221220-26-87nitv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502026/original/file-20221220-26-87nitv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502026/original/file-20221220-26-87nitv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1276&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502026/original/file-20221220-26-87nitv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1276&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502026/original/file-20221220-26-87nitv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1276&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Let 'em be ruined so we are made,’ a man says in a 1734 satirical print criticizing the Charitable Corporation and its ties to government.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-3573">© The Trustees of the British Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the shareholders’ quarterly meeting, they found that money, pledges and accounts had all gone missing. At this point, the proprietors of the Charitable Corporation stock appealed to the British Parliament for redress. One-third of those who petitioned were women, a proportion that equaled <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/5620">the percentage of women who held shares</a> in the Charitable Corporation. </p>
<p>Many women were drawn to the corporation because of its public mission in providing small loans to working people. It’s also possible that they had been intentionally targeted for fraud. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Report_with_the_Appendix_from_the_Co/aodhAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1">parliamentary investigation</a> led to various charges being leveled against both managers and employees of the Charitable Corporation. Many of them were forced to appear before Parliament and were arrested if they did not. The managers and employees deemed most responsible for the 1732 fraud, such as <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_True_and_Exact_Particular_and_Inventor/AvBbAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">William Burroughs</a>, had their assets seized and inventoried in order to help pay back the shareholder losses. </p>
<p>Bankruptcy proceedings were started against the banker and broker, George Robinson, and the warehouse keeper, Thomson. Both Sir Robert Sutton and <a href="https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/grant-archibald-1696-1778">Sir Archibald Grant</a> were expelled as members of the House of Commons, with Grant being prevented from leaving the country and Sutton ultimately prosecuted in several courts.</p>
<p>In the end, the shareholders received a partial government bailout – Parliament authorized a <a href="https://www.british-history.ac.uk/commons-hist-proceedings/vol7/pp375-401">lottery</a> that reimbursed only 40% of what the corporation’s creditors had lost.</p>
<h2>The risks of concentrated power</h2>
<p>There are several key characteristics that stand out in the collapses of both the Charitable Corporation and FTX. Both companies were offering something new or venturing into a new sector. In the former’s case, it was microloans. In FTX’s case, it was cryptocurrency. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the management of both ventures was centralized in the hands of just a few people. The Charitable Corporation got into trouble when it reduced its directors from 12 to five and when it consolidated most of its loan business in the hands of one employee – namely, Thomson. FTX’s example is even more extreme, with founder Sam Bankman-Fried <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/22/ftx-delaware-bankruptcy-court-cryptocurrency-sam-bankman-fried">calling all the shots</a>. </p>
<p>In both cases, the key fraud was using the assets of one company to prop up another company managed by the same people. For example, in 1732, the corporation’s directors bought stock in the <a href="https://archive.org/details/yorkbuildingsco00murrgoog">York Buildings Company</a>, in which many of them were also involved. They hoped to juice stock prices. When that didn’t happen, they realized they couldn’t cover what they had taken out of the Charitable Corporation’s funds. </p>
<p>Fast forward nearly 300 years, and a similar story seems to have played out. Bankman-Fried allegedly <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/18/how-sam-bankman-fried-ran-8-billion-fraud-government-prosecutors.html">took money</a> out his customer accounts in FTX to cover his cryptocurrency trading firm, Alameda Research.</p>
<p>News of both frauds also came as a surprise, with little advance warning. Part of this is due to the ways in which managers were well respected and well connected to both politicians and the financial world. Few public figures mistrusted them, and this proved to be a useful screen for deceit. </p>
<p>I would also argue that in both cases the company’s connection to philanthropy lent it another level of cover. The Charitable Corporation’s very name announced its altruism. And even after the scandal subsided, commentators pointed out that the original business of microlending was useful. FTX’s founder Bankman-Fried is an advocate of <a href="https://theconversation.com/ftx-bankruptcy-is-bad-news-for-the-charities-that-crypto-mogul-sam-bankman-fried-generously-supported-194615">effective altruism</a> and has argued that it was useful for him and his companies to make lots of money so he could give it away to what he deemed effective causes.</p>
<p>After the Charitable Corporation’s collapse in 1732, Parliament didn’t institute any regulation that would prevent such a fraud from happening again. </p>
<p>A tradition of loose oversight and regulations has been the hallmark of Anglo-American capitalism. If the response to the 2008 financial crash is any indication of what will come in the wake of FTX’s collapse, it’s possible that some bad actors, like Bankman-Fried, will be punished. But any <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/09/uk-announces-major-overhaul-of-its-financial-sector-in-attempt-to-spur-growth.html">regulation will be undone at the first opportunity</a> – or never put in place to begin with.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196729/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Froide receives funding from the Henry E. Huntington Library. </span></em></p>
In the Charitable Corporation Scandal, a group of politically connected directors leveraged the company’s altruistic image to attract investors – before raiding the funds to prop up other ventures.
Amy Froide, Professor of History, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/187863
2022-09-26T20:32:50Z
2022-09-26T20:32:50Z
Debate: How to stop our cities from being turned into AI jungles
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486555/original/file-20220926-12-8kztvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C383%2C3464%2C2359&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the city of London, security cameras can even be found in cemeteries. In 2021 the mayor's office launched an effort to establish guidelines for research around emerging technology.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/City_of_London_Cemetery_Columbarium_security_camera_2_lighter.jpg">Acabashi/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As artificial intelligence grows more ubiquitous, its potential and the challenges it presents are coming increasingly into focus. How we balance the risks and opportunities is shaping up as one of the defining questions of our era. In much the same way that cities have emerged as hubs of innovation in culture, politics, and commerce, so they are defining the frontiers of AI governance.</p>
<p>Some examples of how cities have been taking the lead include the <a href="https://citiesfordigitalrights.org/">Cities Coalition for Digital Rights</a>, the <a href="https://recherche.umontreal.ca/english/strategic-initiatives/montreal-declaration-for-a-responsible-ai/">Montreal Declaration for Responsible AI</a>, and the <a href="https://opendialogueonai.com/">Open Dialogue on AI Ethics</a>. Others can be found in San Francisco’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/us/facial-recognition-ban-san-francisco.html">ban of facial-recognition technology</a>, and New York City’s push for <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-city-artificial-intelligence-hiring-restriction/">regulating the sale of automated hiring systems</a> and creation of an <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/ampo/index.page">algorithms management and policy officer</a>. Urban institutes, universities and other educational centres have also been forging ahead with a range of <a href="https://fari.brussels/">AI ethics initiatives</a>.</p>
<p>These efforts point to an emerging paradigm that has been referred to as <a href="https://ailocalism.org/">AI Localism</a>. It’s a part of a larger phenomenon often called <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/the-new-localism/">New Localism</a>, which involves cities taking the lead in regulation and policymaking to develop context-specific approaches to a variety of problems and challenges. We have also seen an increased uptake of city-centric approaches <a href="https://china.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788973274/9781788973274.xml">within international law frameworks</a>. </p>
<p>In so doing, municipal authorities are filling gaps left by insufficient state, national or global governance frameworks related to AI and other complex issues. Recent years, for example, have seen the emergence of <a href="https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/faculty_scholarship/611/">“broadband localism”</a>, in which local governments address the digital divide; and <a href="https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/upload_documents/Rubinstein%20Privacy%20Localism.pdf">“privacy localism”</a>, both in response to challenges posed by the increased use of data for law enforcement or recruitment.</p>
<p>AI localism encompasses a wide variety of issues, stakeholders, and contexts. In addition to bans on AI-powered facial recognition, local governments and institutions are looking at procurement rules pertaining to AI use by public entities, public registries of local governments’ AI systems, and public education programs on AI. But even as initiatives and case studies multiply, we still lack a systematic method to assess their effectiveness – or even the very need for them. This limits policymakers’ ability to develop appropriate regulation and more generally stunts the growth of the field.</p>
<h2>Building an AI Localism framework</h2>
<p>Below are ten principles to help systematise our approach to AI Localism. Considered together, they add up to an incipient framework for implementing and assessing initiatives around the world:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Principles provide a North Star for governance:</strong> Establishing and articulating a clear set of guiding principles is an essential starting point. For example, the <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/publications/emerging-technology-charter-london">Emerging Technology Charter for London</a>, launched by the mayoral office in 2021 to outline “practical and ethical guidelines” for research around emerging technology and smart-city technology pilots, is one example. Similar projects exist in Nantes, France, which rolled out a <a href="https://metropole.nantes.fr/files/pdf/numerique-innovation/Charte-donnee.pdf">data charter</a> to underscore the local government’s commitment to data sovereignty, protection, transparency, and innovation. Such efforts help interested parties chart a course that effectively balances the potential and challenges posed by AI while affirming a commitment to openness and transparency on data use for the public.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Public engagement provides a social license:</strong> Establishing trust is essential to fostering responsible use of technology as well as broader acceptance and uptake by the public. Forms of public engagement – crowdsourcing, awareness campaigns, mini-assemblies, and more – can help to build trust, and should be part of a deliberative process undertaken by policymakers. For example, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing held their <a href="http://celavoice.org/">first virtual public hearing</a> with citizens and worker advocacy groups on the growing use of AI in hiring and human resources, and the potential for technological bias in procurement.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>AI literacy enables meaningful engagement:</strong> The goal of AI literacy is to encourage familiarity with the technology itself as well as with associated ethical, political, economic and cultural issues. For example, the <a href="https://montrealethics.ai/">Montreal AI Ethics Institute</a>, a non-profit focused on advancing AI literacy, provides free, timely, and digestible information about AI and AI-related happenings from across the world.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Security cameras on a pole in New York City." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486554/original/file-20220926-19-b72ydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In New York City, the city has established an Algorithms Management and Policy Officer to govern the use of how data captured by security cameras and other devices is managed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/NYPD_Surveillance_Tech_2.jpg">Cyprian Latewood/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Tap into local expertise:</strong> Policymakers should tap into cities’ AI expertise by establishing or supporting research centres. Two examples are the <a href="https://claire-ai.org/">Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe</a> (CLAIRE), a pan-European project that takes a European focus to AI uses in cities and <a href="https://howbusyistoon.com/">“How Busy Is Toon”</a>, a website developed by Newcastle City Council and Newcastle University to provide real-time transit information about the city centre.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Innovate in how transparency is provided:</strong> To build trust and foster engagement, AI Localism should encompass time-tested transparency principles and practices. For example, Amsterdam and Helsinki <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/28/amsterdam-and-helsinki-launch-algorithm-registries-to-bring-transparency-to-public-deployments-of-ai/">disclose AI use</a> and explain <a href="https://www.antibes-juanlespins.com/administration/acces-aux-documents-administratifs">how algorithms are employed</a> for specific purposes. In addition, AI Localism can innovate in how transparency is provided, instilling awareness and systems to identify and overcome <a href="https://aiblindspot.media.mit.edu/">“AI blind spots”</a> and other forms of unconscious bias.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Establish means for accountability and oversight:</strong> One of the signal features of AI Localism is a recognition of the need for accountability and oversight to ensure that principles of responsive governance are being adhered to. Examples include New York City’s <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/554-19/mayor-de-blasio-signs-executive-order-establish-algorithms-management-policy-officer">Algorithms Management and Policy Officer</a>, Singapore’s <a href="https://oecd.ai/en/dashboards/policy-initiatives/2019-data-policyInitiatives-24364">Advisory Council on the Ethical Use of AI and Data</a>, and Seattle’s <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/tech/initiatives/privacy/surveillance-technologies/surveillance-advisory-working-group">Surveillance Advisory Working Group</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Signal boundaries through binding laws and policies:</strong> Principles are only as good as they are implemented or enforced. Ratifying legislation, such as New York City’s <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/09/new-york-city-biometrics-law/">Biometrics Privacy Law</a>, which requires clear notices that biometric data is being collected by businesses, limits how businesses can use such data. It also prohibits selling and profiting from the data. Such regulation sends a clear message to consumers that their data rights and protections are upheld and holds corporations accountable to respecting privacy privileges.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Use procurement to shape responsible AI markets:</strong> As municipal and other governments have done in other areas of public life, cities should use procurement policies to encourage responsible AI initiatives. For instance, the Berkeley, California Council passed an <a href="https://berkeley.municipal.codes/BMC/2.99.010">ordinance</a> requiring that public departments justify the use of new surveillance technologies and that the benefits of these tools outweigh the harms prior to procurement.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Establish data collaboratives to tackle asymmetries:</strong> Data collaboratives are an emerging form of intersectoral partnership, in which private data is reused and deployed toward the public good. In addition to yielding new insights and innovations, such partnerships can also be powerful tools for breaking down the data asymmetries that both underlie and drive so many wider socio-economic inequalities. Encouraging data collaboratives, by identifying possible partnerships and matching supply and demand, is thus an important component of AI Localism. Initial efforts include the <a href="https://amdex.eu/">Amsterdam Data Exchange</a>, which allows for data to be securely shared to address local issues.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Make good governance strategic:</strong> Too many AI strategies don’t include governance and too many governance approaches are not strategic. It is thus imperative that cities have a clear vision on how they see data and AI being used to improve local wellbeing. Charting an <a href="https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/digital/sites/default/files/mesura_de_govern_intel_ligencia_artificial_eng.pdf">AI strategy</a>, as was undertaken by the Barcelona City Council in 2021, can create avenues to embed smart AI use across agencies and open up AI awareness to residents to make responsible data use and considerations a common thread rather than a siloed exercise within local government.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>AI Localism is an emergent area, and both its practice and research remain in flux. The technology itself continues to change rapidly, offering something of a moving target for governance and regulation. Its state of flux highlights the need for the type of framework outlined above. Rather than playing catch-up, responding reactively to successive waves of technological innovation, policymakers can respond more consistently, and responsibly, from a principled bedrock that takes into account, the often competing needs of various stakeholders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187863/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefaan G. Verhulst ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
As states and nations struggle to regulate growing AI use, municipal authorities are often leading the way. An emerging paradigm known as AI Localism can help us better define the way forward.
Stefaan G. Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (GovLab), New York University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190490
2022-09-19T07:23:04Z
2022-09-19T07:23:04Z
Queen Elizabeth II: capturing the world’s most photographed woman in life and death
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485133/original/file-20220916-8299-rq5wy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">London’s Piccadilly Circus on the first day of national mourning</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The late Queen Elizabeth II was one of the most photographed figures in history. During a long period in which British military and political reach waned, images of Her Majesty underpinned the projection of soft power and played a key role in bolstering public support for the monarchy.</p>
<p>Her 70-year reign witnessed sweeping technological changes and groundbreaking innovation in photography. The revolutionary <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20130726-leica-shoot-to-thrill">Leica M3</a> was released in 1954, used by a generation of frontline photojournalists and even the Queen herself. Soon followed Polaroid, and then single-lens reflex (the legendary <a href="https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/whats-nikons-best-camera-of-all-time-apparently-its-the-nikon-f">Nikon F</a>) and point-and-shoot autofocus cameras. And finally, the move from darkroom to digital. Smartphones and Instagram have transformed how images are experienced and shared, often instantaneously.</p>
<p>The Queen’s likeness appeared on banknotes, coins and stamps and she was represented in many art forms. Renowned photographers including Sir Cecil Beaton, David Bailey and <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/annie-leibovitz-remembers-photographing-queen-elizabeth-ii">Annie Leibovitz</a> were able to transform her image across generations. </p>
<p>Following her death, pictures memorialising Queen Elizabeth’s legacy were quickly disseminated by both the world’s press and the state from a vast online archive. These photographs documented a life spanning ten decades, picturing her everywhere from official residences to far-flung parts of the Commonwealth, opening schools and hospitals to peering through binoculars from racecourse balconies.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cecil Beaton’s iconic colour portrait taken at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 hangs in a window display at Westminster Abbey" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485128/original/file-20220916-9501-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485128/original/file-20220916-9501-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485128/original/file-20220916-9501-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485128/original/file-20220916-9501-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485128/original/file-20220916-9501-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485128/original/file-20220916-9501-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485128/original/file-20220916-9501-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cecil Beaton’s iconic colour portrait taken at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 hangs in a window display at Westminster Abbey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Spanish journalist reports as thousands of mourners queue to pay their final respects to the Queen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485120/original/file-20220916-1634-t09fg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485120/original/file-20220916-1634-t09fg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485120/original/file-20220916-1634-t09fg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485120/original/file-20220916-1634-t09fg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485120/original/file-20220916-1634-t09fg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485120/original/file-20220916-1634-t09fg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485120/original/file-20220916-1634-t09fg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Spanish journalist reports as thousands of mourners queue to pay their final respects to the Queen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Dorothy Wilding's 1952 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485118/original/file-20220916-8280-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485118/original/file-20220916-8280-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485118/original/file-20220916-8280-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485118/original/file-20220916-8280-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485118/original/file-20220916-8280-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485118/original/file-20220916-8280-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485118/original/file-20220916-8280-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dorothy Wilding’s 1952 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<h2>Iconic images</h2>
<p>Many front pages featured Beaton’s <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw19023/Queen-Elizabeth-II">iconic colour portrait</a> taken at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953. This image merged royal fantasy and reality in a single picture, demonstrating the unofficial court photographer’s vision and technical virtuosity.</p>
<p>To capture this image, Beaton transformed the green drawing room at Buckingham Palace into a studio, using a 1000w bulb and painted backdrop of the fan-vaulted ceiling in Henry VII’s Lady Chapel. His combination of textures (the coronation robes, imperial state crown, sceptre and orb, gilt furniture), colours (blue and gold) and lighting (the white aura that surrounds the Queen) lends ethereality to an otherworldly portrait.</p>
<p>Dorothy Wilding’s <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw170656/Queen-Elizabeth-II">1952 photographs of Queen Elizabeth II</a>, taken just weeks after her accession, were also shared widely during the period of mourning. British curator and author Val Williams described Wilding’s ability to make women “look as they had never looked before … uncompromisingly modern”. One of her portraits also illustrated British postage stamps between 1952 and 1967. Soon after the Queen’s death, the immediately recognisable profile of a youthful monarch wearing a tiara replaced rolling advertising on the vast electronic display at London’s Piccadilly Circus.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at London’s Piccadilly Circus on the first day of national mourning" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485132/original/file-20220916-9517-2t01r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485132/original/file-20220916-9517-2t01r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485132/original/file-20220916-9517-2t01r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485132/original/file-20220916-9517-2t01r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485132/original/file-20220916-9517-2t01r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485132/original/file-20220916-9517-2t01r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485132/original/file-20220916-9517-2t01r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at London’s Piccadilly Circus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the Queen’s physical appearance changed over the decades, her global outlook and public impartiality remained constant. Photographs rarely depicted an emotional monarch – the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42101460">Aberfan disaster in 1966</a> and selected memorial services were notable exceptions.</p>
<p>A handful of famous photographers did occasionally reveal another side to the Queen. Beaton portrayed <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O244343/photograph-cecil-beaton">her wearing a boat cloak</a> against a blue backdrop in 1968. Critics described the image – inspired by <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2012/02/01/a-true-icon-pietro-annigonis-1955-portrait-of-queen-elizabeth-ii">Pietro Annigoni’s 1955 painting</a> – as one of an “imperious, forceful and determined monarch” prepared to move with the times.</p>
<p>Bailey’s 2014 <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw252433/Queen-Elizabeth-II">black-and-white portrait</a> of 88-year-old Queen Elizabeth II was another example. It depicted her wearing a sapphire dress and jewels with a radiant smile, and is emblematic of how she embraced shifting photographic styles during her reign.</p>
<h2>Photographing London</h2>
<p>I took my camera onto the streets of the capital following the Queen’s death, capturing not just the spirit of the nation during a rare period of official mourning, but also blanket projection of the Queen’s image. Just moments after her death, regal portraits appeared on buildings, bus stops and advertising hoardings. </p>
<p>Wide-eyed tourists focused their smartphones not on London’s iconic double-decker buses and telephone boxes, but on unfamiliar scenes – black-and-white portraits in gold picture frames placed in shop windows with black backdrops. Pilgrimage-like crowds surged down The Mall. Others in overalls, suits and uniforms hurried around the capital carrying bouquets of floral tributes, stopping occasionally to take photographs.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tourists outside Fortnum & Mason on Piccadilly" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485121/original/file-20220916-7044-kzkdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485121/original/file-20220916-7044-kzkdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485121/original/file-20220916-7044-kzkdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485121/original/file-20220916-7044-kzkdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485121/original/file-20220916-7044-kzkdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485121/original/file-20220916-7044-kzkdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485121/original/file-20220916-7044-kzkdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tourists outside Fortnum & Mason on Piccadilly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crowd of people" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485267/original/file-20220919-14-uvyrju.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485267/original/file-20220919-14-uvyrju.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485267/original/file-20220919-14-uvyrju.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485267/original/file-20220919-14-uvyrju.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485267/original/file-20220919-14-uvyrju.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485267/original/file-20220919-14-uvyrju.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485267/original/file-20220919-14-uvyrju.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crowds gather outside Buckingham Palace following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Floral tributes laid at Buckingham Palace" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485122/original/file-20220916-12-qxj00k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485122/original/file-20220916-12-qxj00k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485122/original/file-20220916-12-qxj00k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485122/original/file-20220916-12-qxj00k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485122/original/file-20220916-12-qxj00k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485122/original/file-20220916-12-qxj00k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485122/original/file-20220916-12-qxj00k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Floral tributes at Buckingham Palace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Reverential portraits published in newspapers immediately following the Queen’s death morphed into more traditional, ceremonial images: King Charles III delivering his first address to the nation; the new monarch greeting mourners at the palace and assuming “the heavy duties of sovereignty”; and the royal family meeting members of the public. Photos documented the journey of Her Majesty’s coffin, draped in the Royal Standard, from Balmoral to St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh and then, finally, lying in state in London.</p>
<p>As the bells rang out at Westminster Abbey, hours-long queues by the Thames and crowds building along the Mall waited to pay their last respects, holding newspapers with bold front pages, clutching photographic prints and wearing flags depicting the Queen’s likeness. Souvenir kiosks did a brisk trade in commemorative postcards, flags, hats and pins, all emblazoned with her image.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Souvenir stands did a brisk trade in products carrying her image." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485127/original/file-20220916-25-qibv64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485127/original/file-20220916-25-qibv64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485127/original/file-20220916-25-qibv64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485127/original/file-20220916-25-qibv64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485127/original/file-20220916-25-qibv64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485127/original/file-20220916-25-qibv64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485127/original/file-20220916-25-qibv64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Souvenir stands did a brisk trade.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A souvenir kiosk by Westminster Bridge" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485123/original/file-20220916-15-pjghqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485123/original/file-20220916-15-pjghqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485123/original/file-20220916-15-pjghqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485123/original/file-20220916-15-pjghqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485123/original/file-20220916-15-pjghqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485123/original/file-20220916-15-pjghqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485123/original/file-20220916-15-pjghqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A souvenir kiosk by Westminster Bridge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A small group of people try to glimpse Queen Elizabeth II's funeral cortege as it makes its way from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485125/original/file-20220916-8280-rq5wy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485125/original/file-20220916-8280-rq5wy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485125/original/file-20220916-8280-rq5wy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485125/original/file-20220916-8280-rq5wy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485125/original/file-20220916-8280-rq5wy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485125/original/file-20220916-8280-rq5wy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485125/original/file-20220916-8280-rq5wy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People find any vantage point they can to witness Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral cortege on its way from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Clifford Kent</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Displaying the Queen’s image so ubiquitously after her death affirmed her iconic status. Her state funeral marks both the end of a period of reflection and the beginning of a new era headed by King Charles III. In the coming years, photographs of the New Elizabethan era are bound to endure alongside continuing debate about the future of the monarchy and the Commonwealth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Clifford Kent does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
An award-winning photographer reflects on iconic images of the late monarch and pictures a nation in mourning
James Clifford Kent, Senior Lecturer in Visual Cultures, Royal Holloway University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189013
2022-08-19T13:23:58Z
2022-08-19T13:23:58Z
Sewage alerts: the long history of using maps to hold water companies to account
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480104/original/file-20220819-16-b02bpa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2396%2C1196&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sas.org.uk/map/">Surfers Against Sewage</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Southern Water was handed <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/record-90m-fine-for-southern-water-following-ea-prosecution">a record fine</a> of £90 million in July 2021 after pleading guilty to illegally discharging sewage along the rivers and coastline of Kent, Hampshire and Sussex. More than a year later, the headlines have not improved for Britain’s embattled water companies who have recently discharged more sewage close to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62574105">dozens of beaches</a>. </p>
<p>The Environment Agency has called on water company executives to face <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62163182">jail</a> due to the ongoing <a href="https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2022/07/18/water-company-environmental-performance-hits-new-low/">failings</a> on environmental performance. And with the onset of drought, complaints about <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/environment-secretary-meets-with-water-company-chief-executives">leaky water pipes</a> have gone from a trickle to a stream. </p>
<p>Maps by conservation organisation <a href="https://theriverstrust.org/key-issues/sewage-in-rivers">The Rivers Trust</a> and campaign group <a href="https://www.sas.org.uk/map/">Surfers Against Sewage</a> lay bare the extent of sewage dumping into rivers and the sea. They have proved to be a highly effective tool, not just to warn of the risks to bathers but also to provide evidence of environmental damage. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480071/original/file-20220819-1510-e90ge9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two annotated maps of SE England" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480071/original/file-20220819-1510-e90ge9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480071/original/file-20220819-1510-e90ge9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480071/original/file-20220819-1510-e90ge9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480071/original/file-20220819-1510-e90ge9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480071/original/file-20220819-1510-e90ge9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480071/original/file-20220819-1510-e90ge9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480071/original/file-20220819-1510-e90ge9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recent sewage dumps in rivers (left) and along the coast (right) in south east England.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theriverstrust.org/key-issues/sewage-in-rivers">The Rivers Trust (left) and Surfers Against Sewage (right)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These maps <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/be1b37aeaacb49aa9be621f5e4064e4b">pull together data</a> from sensors along the sewage network that detect discharges, making it clear where the worst offenders are and encouraging users to contact their local MP requesting more rapid action on sewage discharge. They are easy to share on social media and on <a href="https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/20666637.interactive-map-shows-sewage-released-near-dorset-beaches-last-48-hours/">local news sites</a>, they have inspired <a href="https://twitter.com/Feargal_Sharkey/status/1559806907359035392">viral tweets</a> and they make for awkward viewing for the water companies themselves.</p>
<p>This is not the first time maps have been used to hold private water companies to account. Some of the most famous maps of mid-19th century London, when it was gripped by successive outbreaks of cholera, helped reveal the cause of the deadly illness and identify the water companies responsible.</p>
<h2>Deadly supply</h2>
<p>John Snow was a <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2813%2960830-2/fulltext">renowned physician</a> who walked the streets of London during the 1854 cholera epidemic, recording the deaths in grim detail. He mapped the cases, revealing clusters around a communal water pump in Broad Street, Soho, which confirmed his theory that cholera came from dirty water. He duly <a href="https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/removal.html">removed the pump handle</a>, the outbreak in that area stopped and the rest – as they say – is history. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480087/original/file-20220819-24-rofdj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="annotated map of Soho" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480087/original/file-20220819-24-rofdj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480087/original/file-20220819-24-rofdj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480087/original/file-20220819-24-rofdj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480087/original/file-20220819-24-rofdj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480087/original/file-20220819-24-rofdj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480087/original/file-20220819-24-rofdj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480087/original/file-20220819-24-rofdj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Snow’s map showed cholera cases were clustered around a water pump.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/uxgfjt62/items">John Snow / Wellcome Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At least, that’s the simple version many people are already familiar with. In fact, the story is much more complex because Snow’s theory that the cholera pathogen was waterborne was not accepted by most scientists or policymakers at the time. He needed more proof. Snow therefore devised a “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2413309/#:%7E:text=In%20Snow's%20%E2%80%9Cgrand%20experiment%2C%E2%80%9D,a%20relatively%20unpolluted%20area%20upstream.">grand experiment</a>”, which hinged on the way different areas of London were served by different water companies. This meant he could compare one supplier against another in a kind of natural experiment. Snow knew that cases of cholera were not randomly distributed across the city. As he showed in Soho, they tended to be grouped together. So what if some water companies had more cases than others?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480088/original/file-20220819-1510-176vis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Shaded map of London" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480088/original/file-20220819-1510-176vis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480088/original/file-20220819-1510-176vis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480088/original/file-20220819-1510-176vis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480088/original/file-20220819-1510-176vis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480088/original/file-20220819-1510-176vis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480088/original/file-20220819-1510-176vis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480088/original/file-20220819-1510-176vis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Snow’s map showed some water companies were safer than others.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/uqa27qrt/images?id=eh993559">'On the mode of communication of cholera', John Snow / Wellcome Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Snow mapped out where Londoners were being supplied by the Southwark & Vauxhall Company (blue-green) and by the Lambeth Company (red, while brown areas are a mixture of both) during the same epidemic. Lambeth had recently stopped drawing its water from the Thames, which was hugely polluted at the time as it was the <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/archive/collections/photographs/the-great-stink/">main route for sewage</a> to leave London. Its customers were dying from cholera at a rate of 37 per 10,000. Meanwhile, Southwark & Vauxhall was still extracting the polluted water, and their customers were dying at a rate of 317 per 10,000. </p>
<p>This should have proved once and for all that cholera was spreading thanks to foul water supplied into Londoners’ homes. But it wasn’t emphatic enough to trigger decisive change. Worse, a <a href="https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/pdf/b24399474">government report</a> in 1856 commended the “considerable improvement which had taken place in the … supply of the water to the Metropolis”.</p>
<p>A decade later, and eight years after Snow’s death, London was suffering another cholera outbreak. The man charged with finding its cause during the summer of 1866 was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Farr">William Farr</a>, a statistician who had criticised Snow’s ideas. Even so, Farr was struck by how concentrated the cases appeared to be in East London and his mind must have turned to Snow’s grand experiment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480086/original/file-20220819-24-x8epqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Annotated map of London" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480086/original/file-20220819-24-x8epqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480086/original/file-20220819-24-x8epqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480086/original/file-20220819-24-x8epqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480086/original/file-20220819-24-x8epqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480086/original/file-20220819-24-x8epqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480086/original/file-20220819-24-x8epqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480086/original/file-20220819-24-x8epqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 1866 deaths were mostly in the area served by East London Waterworks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Farr / Wellcome Collection / additional annotations by James Cheshire</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By mapping the cases, Farr showed that they fitted neatly within the area served by the East London Waterworks Company. Inhabitants of the area were complaining about the quality of their water, with some even <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/n43vz8sh/items?canvas=203">finding eels</a> in their pipes. A representative of the company wrote to the Times newspaper reassuring customers that “not a drop of unfiltered water has been supplied”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480080/original/file-20220819-1510-z357im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Old advert with text" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480080/original/file-20220819-1510-z357im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480080/original/file-20220819-1510-z357im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480080/original/file-20220819-1510-z357im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480080/original/file-20220819-1510-z357im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480080/original/file-20220819-1510-z357im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480080/original/file-20220819-1510-z357im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480080/original/file-20220819-1510-z357im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Farr’s work informed public health campaigns in 1866.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/n2ykxrzm/images?id=t6fq6u6a">Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/n43vz8sh/items?canvas=25">his report</a>, Farr found that in July of 1866 water levels were running low so a sluice was opened to allow homes to be supplied by stagnant water from a reservoir that the company had said was no longer in use (because the water within it had not been filtered). Farr was finally convinced that Snow had been right about the origins of cholera, and his map offered irrefutable evidence that East London Waterworks was guilty of supplying water that had caused the deaths of nearly 6,000 Londoners. It was to be London’s last cholera outbreak. </p>
<h2>The power of maps</h2>
<p>The maps of Snow and Farr were essential for guiding reforms that won better sanitary conditions in the growing city. Today, we live in an era where maps are created from data that they could only dream of, allowing us to see the national picture in real time and pinpoint who is pouring the most effluent into our streams. For the Victorians the fight for safe drinking water was a matter of life and death, but we too can use maps to make the case for a cleaner environment.</p>
<p>As I look at today’s maps of sewage discharges I can’t help but think of a letter the influential scientist Michael Faraday <a href="http://faculty.humanities.uci.edu/bjbecker/plaguesandpeople/week8d.html">wrote to the Times</a> in the summer of 1855, where he sets out his concerns about the dire state of the Thames after a boat trip along it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have thought it a duty to record these facts, that they may be brought to the attention of those who exercise power or have responsibility in relation to the condition of our river … If we neglect this subject, we cannot expect to do so with impunity; nor ought we to be surprised if, ‘ere many years are over, a hot season give us sad proof of the folly of our carelessness.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189013/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Cheshire receives funding from UKRI. </span></em></p>
These maps have gone viral – here’s what they owe to 19th century cholera campaigns.
James Cheshire, Professor of Geographic Information and Cartography, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188564
2022-08-15T10:12:44Z
2022-08-15T10:12:44Z
Polio vaccine boosters offered to London children – an expert explains what’s going on
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478904/original/file-20220812-3904-gx33u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C0%2C6507%2C4354&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vaccination-concept-little-kid-medical-face-1914690256">Studio Romantic/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In June, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/poliovirus-detected-in-sewage-from-north-and-east-london">UK Health Security Agency</a> reported that poliovirus had been detected in sewage in north and east London between February and May 2022.</p>
<p>Following this, people were advised to ensure their children were <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/london/2022/07/20/get-your-child-vaccinated-against-poliovirus-urges-londons-nhs/">up to date</a> with their polio vaccinations.</p>
<p>On August 10, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vaccination-strategy-for-ongoing-polio-incident-jcvi-statement/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation-statement-on-vaccination-strategy-for-the-ongoing-polio-incident">UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation</a> (JCVI) recommended that a further booster dose of polio vaccine be offered to all children in London aged between one and nine.</p>
<p>So what’s happened between June and now, and why this change in vaccination policy?</p>
<p>First, a bit of background. Poliomyelitis, or <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/polio/">polio</a>, is a devastating disease that has historically seen paralysis and death around the world, mainly in children. It’s caused by an RNA virus (poliovirus) that spreads easily from person to person, usually through virus shed in faeces. </p>
<p>The vast majority of infections with poliovirus actually go unnoticed, but a small proportion of those infected will develop paralysis (or paralytic poliomyelitis), which can lead to respiratory failure or long-term deformities.</p>
<p>In the 1950s, <a href="https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/polio-20th-century-epidemic">two polio vaccines</a> were developed: a live attenuated vaccine administered orally (the Sabin vaccine), and an inactivated vaccine given by injection (the Salk vaccine). A live attenuated vaccine is based on a virus that’s still able to reproduce, but is weakened so it doesn’t cause disease. An inactivated vaccine, on the other hand, cannot reproduce.</p>
<p>Both vaccines are highly effective at preventing paralytic poliomyelitis. The oral vaccine in particular can induce strong immunity <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d42859-020-00015-6">in the gut</a> and so is better at reducing faecal shedding of the virus, and therefore <a href="https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/10.2217/fmb.15.19">reducing transmission</a>. </p>
<p>However, the oral vaccine can very occasionally <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK236293/">cause paralysis</a> (about two to three cases per million doses). For this reason, most countries, including the UK, now prefer to use the inactivated vaccine. The oral vaccine is still used in a small number of countries though.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/poliovirus-in-london-sewage-what-you-need-to-know-185744">Poliovirus in London sewage – what you need to know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Wastewater monitoring</h2>
<p>Children who receive the live vaccine will shed it for a short time in their faeces, which is why we might detect “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/polio-detection-of-vdpv2-in-london-sewage-samples/immediate-actions-in-response-to-detection-of-vaccine-derived-polio-virus-type-2-vdpv2-in-london-sewage-samples">vaccine-like</a>” polioviruses in wastewater. This normally happens two or three times a year in the UK, where this weakened version of the virus is introduced to the sewage by a child who received the oral vaccine overseas.</p>
<p>This isn’t dangerous in itself, but it’s possible that if these viruses continue to circulate in a population, over time they can mutate, and possibly revert to a version that causes paralysis. These then become classified as <a href="https://polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-prevention/the-virus/vaccine-derived-polio-viruses/">vaccine-derived polioviruses</a>. Circulation of vaccine-like and vaccine-derived polioviruses is more likely when fewer children are up to date with their vaccinations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mother holds her son on her lap while they are seen by a doctor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478924/original/file-20220812-15-w384kk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478924/original/file-20220812-15-w384kk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478924/original/file-20220812-15-w384kk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478924/original/file-20220812-15-w384kk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478924/original/file-20220812-15-w384kk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478924/original/file-20220812-15-w384kk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478924/original/file-20220812-15-w384kk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Polio is included in routine childhood vaccinations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/family-getting-covid-vaccine-home-doctor-1994923175">Jacob Lund/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is the process which appears to be playing out in London now. From the JCVI’s statement, it’s clear that since the virus was first detected in February, it has evolved and acquired mutations that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vaccination-strategy-for-ongoing-polio-incident-jcvi-statement/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation-statement-on-vaccination-strategy-for-the-ongoing-polio-incident">increase the risk</a> of paralytic disease. </p>
<p>These same genetic analyses show a high diversity of viruses being detected, which suggests the virus is circulating in separate networks of people across affected areas of north London.</p>
<p>The JCVI also stated that occasional positive results are being recorded in areas beyond where the virus was originally detected, including Enfield, Barnet and some areas south of the Thames. So it does appear that the virus is continuing to circulate, and may be circulating more widely than before. If this continues, it would only be a matter of time before we’d start to see cases of paralysis among children who are not vaccinated.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/polio-was-recently-detected-in-sewage-in-the-uk-heres-what-else-scientists-look-for-in-our-wastewater-185799">Polio was recently detected in sewage in the UK – here's what else scientists look for in our wastewater</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Vaccination is key</h2>
<p>Monitoring of wastewater for polioviruses is carried out by many countries primarily to identify when such viruses are <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-infection/article/role-of-environmental-poliovirus-surveillance-in-global-polio-eradication-and-beyond/DBB1EC7A25FBB252D7EDF9F2F7939FE3#">circulating in the community</a>, before these viruses start to cause paralysis. The fact the issue was detected in London earlier this year and we are yet to see any cases of paralysis shows that such monitoring is achieving its objectives.</p>
<p>The only effective way to control spread of the virus, and importantly, to prevent the emergence of paralytic disease, is to ensure vaccine coverage is as high as possible. Fortunately we have an ample supply of effective and safe vaccines.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1557363689367502850"}"></div></p>
<p>In England the policy has been to give three doses of polio vaccine within a baby’s first 16 weeks, a further booster shortly after three years, and <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/polio/">again at age 14</a>. The polio vaccinations are usually given in combination with vaccinations against other conditions.</p>
<p>Part of the logic behind the advice for <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vaccination-strategy-for-ongoing-polio-incident-jcvi-statement/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation-statement-on-vaccination-strategy-for-the-ongoing-polio-incident">an additional booster dose</a> is that <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/71/8/1984/5754490?login=false">since 2012</a> the UK has been offering a whooping cough vaccine to pregnant women to protect their babies in the early weeks after birth. This is the same vaccine used in children at age three which also contains a dose of the inactivated polio vaccine. </p>
<p>There is some evidence that high levels of maternal antibodies to polio may <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vaccination-strategy-for-ongoing-polio-incident-jcvi-statement/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation-statement-on-vaccination-strategy-for-the-ongoing-polio-incident">reduce the effectiveness</a> of the first three vaccine doses, meaning children who miss their booster at age three could still be susceptible.</p>
<p>In the affected areas of London, uptake of the polio booster at age three is <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vaccination-strategy-for-ongoing-polio-incident-jcvi-statement/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation-statement-on-vaccination-strategy-for-the-ongoing-polio-incident">particularly low</a>, so there is concern that many children in these areas may have inadequate protection. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/all-children-aged-1-to-9-in-london-to-be-offered-a-dose-of-polio-vaccine">programme</a> will begin in these areas.</p>
<p>While children who have missed their booster will be most vulnerable, according to the JCVI, offering an additional dose to those who are vaccinated will boost antibody levels and may help to reduce asymptomatic shedding of the virus.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Hunter consults for the World Health Organization. He receives funding from National Institute for Health Research, the World Health Organization and the European Regional Development Fund.</span></em></p>
The move follows recent detections of poliovirus in London’s wastewater.
Paul Hunter, Professor of Medicine, University of East Anglia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183853
2022-05-30T15:23:23Z
2022-05-30T15:23:23Z
The police won’t acknowledge institutional racism in their race action plan – here’s why that matters
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465709/original/file-20220527-23-z0qxh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C91%2C8635%2C5683&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rear-view-metropolitan-police-officers-wearing-1207902019">Ian_Stewart / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In light of racially disproportionate <a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-and-search-disproportionately-affects-black-communities-yet-police-powers-are-being-extended-165477">stop and search practices</a>, the case of <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-people-are-often-associated-with-deviance-but-i-never-understood-the-true-impact-until-i-was-racially-profiled-179259">Child Q</a> and other <a href="https://theconversation.com/cressida-dick-has-resigned-but-the-met-polices-problems-are-bigger-than-one-person-177001">accusations of misconduct</a>, police in England and Wales are under pressure to address racism in their ranks. But their plan to do this through changes such as mandatory anti-racism training for all officers refuses to accept that the service itself is institutionally racist. </p>
<p>This is not just semantics. Barrister Abimbola Johnson, chair of an independent board overseeing police plans for race equality, advised that police forces must publicly accept that the label of institutional racism <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/12/uk-police-leaders-debate-public-admission-institutional-racism">still applies</a>. Without this admission, any promised reforms risk being dismissed by Black communities with low levels of trust in the police. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://assets.college.police.uk/s3fs-public/Police-Race-Action-Plan.pdf">race action plan</a>, published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing, acknowledges racial disparities in stop and search and apologises for the “racism, discrimination and bias” that still exists within policing. But it avoids describing the police as institutionally racist, an omission which effectively rejects the findings of the 1999 <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277111/4262.pdf">Macpherson report</a>. </p>
<p>Commissioned after the 1993 murder of Black British teenager Stephen Lawrence, the report is arguably the most influential public inquiry on police behaviour to date. Its findings set the stage for a number of reforms on tackling racist crime, recruiting and retaining Black officers, and independent investigation of complaints against the police. </p>
<p>It defined institutional racism as “the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin”. </p>
<p>The new action plan acknowledges police shortcomings in this regard, but avoids accepting the label of institutional racism. The plan commits the police to becoming an “institutionally anti-racist organisation”. But it is not clear how this is achievable while chief constables dismiss institutional racism as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/24/not-up-to-black-officers-to-solve-police-racism-says-barrister-as-plan-launched">a label that can be quite divisive</a>”.</p>
<p>Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association, concluded: “It is unclear how their plan could deliver actions to something policing did not truly believe is real.”</p>
<h2>Landmark reports</h2>
<p>The question of whether the police are institutionally racist has been debated for years, such as during the 1971 trial of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08vy19b">Mangrove Nine</a>. The trial, which acquitted Black British activists of incitement to riot charges from an anti-police protest the year before, was the first time the British judicial system acknowledged racial prejudice in the police.</p>
<p>Ten years later, a public inquiry concluded that anti-police uprisings in England were linked to widespread racial discrimination and aggressive policing. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/3631579.stm">The Scarman report</a> made a number of recommendations to make the police more accountable, but concluded that “‘Institutional racism’ does not exist in Britain.”</p>
<p>Little actually changed after Scarman’s report. Many of the recommendations were either ignored or <a href="https://www.racearchive.org.uk/rearranging-the-social-kaleidoscope-looking-back-at-the-1981-moss-side-disturbances/">not effectively implemented</a>.</p>
<p>The conversation shifted in 1999, after a public inquiry, chaired by Sir William Macpherson, into Lawrence’s murder in 1993. The inquiry concluded there had been a failure of leadership by senior Met officials and numerous examples of professional incompetence in the police investigation that followed.</p>
<p>Most notably, the Macpherson report concluded that the Met was “institutionally racist”. Macpherson made 70 recommendations, of which 67 were implemented fully or in part <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2019-0052/">over the following years</a>.</p>
<p>Like Scarman, Macpherson refused to recommend ending police use of stop and search, contending it is “required for the prevention and detection of crime”. This is despite <a href="https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/does-stop-and-search-reduce-crime">ample evidence</a> that stop and search is discriminatory and ineffective. There was a brief reduction in stop and searches around the time of the inquiry, but it <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/ehrc_stop_and_search_report.pdf">soon returned to similar levels of racial inequality</a>.</p>
<h2>Understanding institutional racism</h2>
<p>Remedies that Scarman and others had proposed – such as changes in police training or education – focused on individual wrongdoing rather than broader structural issues.</p>
<p>Macpherson, on the other hand, understood institutional racism as a more pervasive issue, where racism is a product of how that institution “normally” functions. This is key to his support of the argument that racism cannot be addressed with responses targeted at extracting or educating “bad apples”.</p>
<p>The new action plan proposes mandatory training to equip police with the knowledge and skills to actively tackle racism within the service and society. But unless police culture and wider societal attitudes change, it is unlikely that anti-racist training as proposed for individual officers will <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/10/workplace-diversity-training-does-it-work-racial-justice">have much impact</a>. </p>
<h2>Where are we after Macpherson?</h2>
<p>One reason Macpherson’s inquiry had deeper understandings of institutional racism was the involvement of Black people describing their experiences of it. As one Black activist summarised: “<a href="https://irr.org.uk/article/macpherson-and-after/">We taught Macpherson and Macpherson taught the world</a>”. But this lesson has not been acted on.</p>
<p>In the 23 years since Macpherson, there has been little evidence of fundamental changes in police organisational culture. Some critics argued that Macpherson’s generalised definition of institutional racism prevented progress. But there has also been a failure to situate the police within the broader structural racism of the state and institutions <a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-is-at-the-heart-of-racism-in-britain-so-why-is-it-portrayed-as-a-black-problem-181742">acting to maintain white supremacy</a>.</p>
<p>Ignoring institutional racism contributes to wider attempts to portray Britain as moving beyond race-based disparities. The government’s controversial 2021 Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities also rejected the idea that institutional racism exists within Britain. Halima Begum, the chief executive of race equality think tank Runnymede Trust, criticised this denial as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56585538">“deeply, deeply worrying”</a>. She argued that it ignored the realities of life in Britain and further added to mistrust of authorities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/race-commission-report-the-rights-and-wrongs-158316">Race commission report: the rights and wrongs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Documents/research-learning/Report_on_Metropolitan_police_Service.pdf">A 2013 report</a> by the independent police complaints watchdog concluded that the Met failed to deal with racist behaviour or to investigate complaints effectively. And, in 2019, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/mcpherson-report-anniversary-how-much-has-the-metropolitan-police-changed-20-years-on_uk_5c6fe92be4b00eed08332c1b">the Met commissioner declared</a> the police were no longer institutionally racist – while also admitting it would take over 100 years for the police to be representative of the communities they serve.</p>
<p>In 2019, Macpherson commented that, while police had taken steps in the right direction, “there’s obviously a great deal more to be done”. Grand proclamations acknowledging institutional racism in itself may not make much difference to how these institutions function, but accepting its existence is a vital starting point.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183853/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Peplow has received funding from the AHRC and Institute of Historical Research.</span></em></p>
A landmark report in 1999 concluded that the police were institutionally racist, but the new action plan fails to acknowledge it.
Simon Peplow, Associate Professor in 20th Century British History, University of Warwick
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/182335
2022-05-23T04:26:20Z
2022-05-23T04:26:20Z
Barbara Trapido’s ‘undeniably sexy’ novel of academic bohemia still dazzles at 40
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463243/original/file-20220516-22-9vwtpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">arno smit iI r gSwWY unsplash</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Barbara Trapido’s debut novel, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/brother-of-the-more-famous-jack-9781526612656/">Brother of the More Famous Jack</a>, is one of those books that seems destined to reach its readers in roundabout ways. </p>
<p>Like American novelist and Trapido fangirl Maria Semple, who has written the introduction to Bloomsbury’s new 40th anniversary edition, you could be lucky and stumble across it in a library sale bin, or a friend will press it into your hands.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido (Bloomsbury)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>And if by chance you’re asked to review it, you could start by scratching your head because you’ve never heard of this book with its distinctive title – even though it’s been around more than half your lifetime. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462961/original/file-20220513-16-8y7kx8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462961/original/file-20220513-16-8y7kx8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462961/original/file-20220513-16-8y7kx8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462961/original/file-20220513-16-8y7kx8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462961/original/file-20220513-16-8y7kx8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462961/original/file-20220513-16-8y7kx8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462961/original/file-20220513-16-8y7kx8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462961/original/file-20220513-16-8y7kx8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Few books survive four decades of near-obscurity and still dazzle, but Trapido’s book does just that. It shimmers among this year’s company of books like some brightly coloured, sharp-witted, mini-skirted dolly bird from the 1960s who has gate-crashed a stuffy dinner party. </p>
<p>Irreverent and sweary, undeniably sexy, this coming-of-age novel plunges ahead unselfconsciously and with unusual candour. Its young protagonist, Katherine Browne, admits to compensating for her natural timidity “with odd flashes of bravado”. </p>
<p>A dozen pages in, and it feels as if an unknown hand has casually flicked on every light in the house, inadvertently blowing all the fuses. Semple describes the book as “<a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/brideshead-revisited-9780241472736">Brideshead Revisited</a> meets <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047437/">Sabrina</a> in bohemian 80s London”, and on the back cover, Meg Rosoff also mentions Brideshead, and places it in the 1970s. Neither have nailed its period, though Rosoff comes closest. </p>
<p>To anyone who lived through the years spanned by this book, the first part screams 1960s, from Katherine Browne’s little crocheted hats and thigh-high dresses, to the narrative’s pervasive, overt, and at times slightly perverse sexuality. </p>
<p>Comparisons with Brideshead Revisited occur because 18-year-old Katherine falls for a family, the Goldmans, but there is no whiff of the doomed melancholy that hangs over the tortured cast of <a href="https://theconversation.com/bloody-fool-evelyn-waughs-life-as-a-1920s-oxford-aesthete-57317">Evelyn Waugh</a>’s book. On the contrary, Trapido’s novel is funny and endearing; it is sometimes sad, but most of all it is unashamedly sexy, even lewd.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463248/original/file-20220516-17-vjfht8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463248/original/file-20220516-17-vjfht8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463248/original/file-20220516-17-vjfht8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463248/original/file-20220516-17-vjfht8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463248/original/file-20220516-17-vjfht8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463248/original/file-20220516-17-vjfht8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463248/original/file-20220516-17-vjfht8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463248/original/file-20220516-17-vjfht8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw in Brideshead Revisited (2008)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If it is to be compared with any other book, it might be Nancy Mitford’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-pursuit-of-love-9780241991848">The Pursuit of Love</a>, with its large, eccentric family, the Radletts of Alconleigh, and its sharp young women. But while Mitford’s delightfully dotty Radletts belong to the British upper classes, Trapido’s Goldman family are firmly middle-class, left-wing intellectuals.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-oxbridge-and-yale-popular-stories-bring-universities-to-life-we-need-more-of-them-in-australia-168943">Beyond Oxbridge and Yale: popular stories bring universities to life — we need more of them in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Risque, razor-sharp and politically incorrect</h2>
<p>One of the many reasons we read fiction is to satisfy what Jeanette Winterson calls, in her essay “Writer, Reader, Words”, our “mirror of life” longings. And yet, novelists have never written so cautiously, never self-censored so assiduously, in an effort not to cause offence. </p>
<p>They routinely employ sensitivity readers to tease out knots of privilege, highlight clumsy cultural gaffes, race, gender, and age-demeaning stereotypes and clichés. The result is more inclusive fictional worlds than the real world most of us are living in – the world as it ought to be, rather than as it actually is. </p>
<p>Weeding out undesirable social “isms” is necessary work, and yet it could be argued that such adjustments create a false “mirror of life” reflection, at the same time giving free speech a very considerable knock. </p>
<p>What blows some of those fuses when reading Trapido’s novel – aside from the razor-sharp dialogue – is its absence of political correctness. </p>
<p>Sensitivity readers were not a thing when Brother of the More Famous Jack was written. Anyone who was an adult (or almost adult) during the 1960s will immediately recognise its risqué air of permissiveness, its tendency to talk back to authority. They will recognise, too, a string of sensitivity misdemeanours that may prove slightly shocking to any 21st-century shaped sensibility. </p>
<p>Most of the shocks, though not all, are administered by Jacob Goldman, the larger-than-life Jewish philosophy professor, hairy, boisterous, and opinionated father to the Goldman’s six-strong tribe of children. Jake unapologetically asserts his masculinity, his role as head of the Goldman family, and his near constant state of lust for his wife, Jane, this latter even in front of small children and weekend guests. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What have you been hatching,” Jacob says, noticing the glow on her cheeks. He puts his hands over her breasts. He has no restraints about laying hands on her in public.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jacob Goldman’s habit of groping his wife appears not to discomfit Jane, and she is, as he asserts, his lawful wife. Most reviewers love Jacob unreservedly, and perhaps if I had read this book 40 years ago I would have too. Back then, his shameless chauvinism would have seemed like muscle-flexing in the face of second-wave feminism. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463247/original/file-20220516-22-amac5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463247/original/file-20220516-22-amac5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463247/original/file-20220516-22-amac5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463247/original/file-20220516-22-amac5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463247/original/file-20220516-22-amac5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463247/original/file-20220516-22-amac5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463247/original/file-20220516-22-amac5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463247/original/file-20220516-22-amac5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barbara Trapido (photographed by Tony Kaplan)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All this time later, the domineering male feels rather less lovable – not that Jane doesn’t stand up to him, or his children, for that matter. But Jake’s groping of his wife, his carping about her playing the piano, are less readily digested in the era of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-metoo-era-a-reckoning-a-revolution-or-something-else-176565">#MeToo</a> movement, so that some of these scenes are a little squirm-making. </p>
<p>In Jacob’s defence, he does not grope other women, and is otherwise kind and protective towards Katherine, who in the early part of the book is one of his first-year <a href="https://theconversation.com/philosophy-obsession-and-puzzling-people-julian-barnes-new-novel-explores-big-questions-179092">philosophy</a> students. And late in the book, when Katherine most needs it, his innate goodness will surface.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-is-neither-good-nor-bad-but-writing-makes-it-so-51722">Sex is neither good nor bad, but writing makes it so</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Open sexuality and plaited onions</h2>
<p>As the only child of a greengrocer and a stay-at-home mother, raised in a quiet suburban brick bungalow notable for its cleanliness, and for its china ducks on the wall, Katherine is enchanted by the Goldmans. Arriving at their rambling and none-too-clean house in Sussex for the first time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The house, as it presents itself from the road, is like a house one might see on a jigsaw puzzle box, seasonally infested with tall hollyhocks. The kind one put together on a tea tray while recovering from the measles.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Katherine has been whisked away for the weekend by stylish architect John Millet. John is an older <a href="https://theconversation.com/noted-works-after-homosexual-29336">gay man</a> who is devoted to Jane Goldman, yet not, it transpires, deterred by either of these facts from having designs on Katherine’s virginity. He is only diverted from sleeping with her in the Goldmans’ guest room at Jacob’s dogged insistence on separate rooms.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I will not have this old faggot come here to my house in order to indulge a sideline in female children. Not with my pupils. Not with Katherine here. Is that clear to everyone present?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Katherine perceives a world of difference between Jacob’s calling Millet “an old faggot” and her mother calling him “queer”. She had cried into her pillow over the latter, whereas Jacob’s pronouncement is made with none of her mother’s prim moral censure.</p>
<p>To Jacob, John says challengingly:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Hey, Jake, your wife is pregnant. What’s the matter with you people?”
“We like fucking,” Jacob says. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The word drops like a rock on Katherine’s uninitiated sensibilities, but does nothing to shake Jane’s composure, or John’s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464692/original/file-20220523-13-yw5ujw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464692/original/file-20220523-13-yw5ujw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464692/original/file-20220523-13-yw5ujw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464692/original/file-20220523-13-yw5ujw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464692/original/file-20220523-13-yw5ujw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464692/original/file-20220523-13-yw5ujw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464692/original/file-20220523-13-yw5ujw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464692/original/file-20220523-13-yw5ujw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Katherine is enchanted by the Goldmans’ bohemian house, and rumpled, wellington-clad domestic goddess Jane Goldman becomes her role model.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like so many useful confrontations, Katherine’s exposure to the openly declared sexuality between Jacob and Jane causes her to reconsider past; in particular, her own parents. </p>
<p>Jacob’s habit of blatantly inviting Jane to accompany him upstairs in the middle of the afternoon helps Katherine to think more charitably of her parents’ demure twin beds “with their matching candlewick spreads”. It helps her to conclude that “passion might go on even under candlewick. Even with the Eno’s Fruit Salts on the table between the beds.”</p>
<p>The Goldman family are ready-made for Katherine – who loves to knit – to fall into, and she quickly knits her way into their hearts. Jane, a “neglected Burne-Jones […] in wellingtons”, invites her into the garden to help plait onions, and soon becomes Katherine’s role model. When she first met Jacob, Jane explains, she was an</p>
<blockquote>
<p>upper-class Christian, buttoned up in cashmere. The product of a Scottish nanny and a girls’ boarding school. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>She had soon discovered that Jacob was much more fun. </p>
<p>Jane encourages her family to “make chamber music of the ‘Yellow Submarine’ on the flute, violin, piano and descant recorder”, and it is by her persistent efforts that the Goldmans’ eldest son Roger becomes a gifted violinist, and the next eldest, Jonty, pushes on with his flute playing. They sing together, too, and so breathtakingly that Katherine exclaims: “The songs cause me ever after to speak the name of John Dowland with reverence.” </p>
<p>Later, when Katherine knows the Goldmans better, she will scrub the kitchen floor for Jane as an act of pure devotion. </p>
<p>Towards the end, in a long moment, Jane makes a feisty feminist statement in front of her assembled family, telling Katherine what she must demand for herself in motherhood and marriage. That Katherine really doesn’t want to hear what Jane has to say is, sadly, all too believable. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-female-eunuch-at-50-germaine-greers-fearless-feminist-masterpiece-147437">Friday essay: The Female Eunuch at 50, Germaine Greer's fearless, feminist masterpiece</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Plunging into 1960s London</h2>
<p>When it was published, Brother of the More Famous Jack was the recipient of a Whitbread Special Prize for Fiction. Its author, born in South Africa, had migrated to England in 1963, when she was in her twenties. There she settled into life as the wife of an Oxford professor and raised children. Somewhere in the 1970s, she began to dream up the characters for this book.</p>
<p>Barbara Trapido’s experience of being plunged into 1960s London perhaps goes some way towards explaining the brilliance of this debut. The writing crackles and fizzes with all the clarity of vision and keen ear for dialogue of the observant outsider, deftly delivering what Maria Semple describes as “a daisy bomb of joy”. </p>
<p>Trapido went on to write six more novels. Some of them share characters, and one – <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/travelling-hornplayer-9780747594727/">The Travelling Hornplayer</a> – revisits, among other characters, Katherine Browne in another, later phase of her life. If you have not yet read Barbara Trapido, Brother of the More Famous Jack is the place to start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Lefevre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This brainy feminist romp of a novel, loved by Rachel Cusk and Maria Semple, is often compared to Brideshead Revisited. But Carol Lefevre says it’s more like a sexy, sweary version of Nancy Mitford in 1960s London.
Carol Lefevre, Visiting Research Fellow, Department of English and Creative Writing, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/182344
2022-05-03T12:24:25Z
2022-05-03T12:24:25Z
Local elections: survey gives Labour huge lead in London ahead of vote
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460975/original/file-20220503-31848-vzmevl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C9%2C5970%2C3998&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Labour is set to decisively win the 2022 local government elections in London, according to the <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/mei/projects-publications/polling-london/">latest survey</a> by the Mile End Institute in partnership with the polling organisation YouGov. </p>
<p>Our poll of 1,232 adults between April 19 and 22 gives Labour a huge 27-point lead, indicating that Thursday could be a very bad night for the Conservatives in the capital. The survey has Labour leading both in inner and outer London, among all social classes, and among white and BAME voters. </p>
<p>Labour is ahead by 57 points among 18-24-year-olds, by 41 points among 25-49-year-olds, and by 21 points among 50-64-year-olds. The only demographic that is less likely to vote Labour than Conservative is the over-65s. The party has been doing less well among pensioners at recent general elections, and that trend continues in this poll of Londoners.</p>
<p>It should be noted that major changes in <a href="https://www.lgbce.org.uk/all-reviews/greater-london/greater-london">ward boundaries</a> ahead of these local elections make it difficult to predict what will happen in specific London boroughs, while turnouts in local elections are <a href="https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/elections-and-referendums/past-elections-and-referendums/england-local-council-elections/results-and-turnout-2018-may-england-local-elections">notoriously low</a>. But our poll certainly suggests that Conservative-controlled councils such as Wandsworth could be vulnerable, even if places such as Westminster still remain out of reach for Labour.</p>
<h2>Cost of living hits home</h2>
<p>There are indications from our survey that voters who backed the Liberal Democrats in the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2019/results">2019 general election</a> may also be switching to Labour in order to punish the Conservatives in local battles for control of town halls. The Greens are also doing well, and could out-perform their <a href="https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/borough-council-election-results-2018">2018 score</a> in the capital.</p>
<p>A poor result for the Conservatives <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10777539/Boris-edge-poll-finds-Tories-face-losing-550-SEATS-local-elections.html">across the country</a>, which is also on the cards, would almost certainly result in an attempt by Tory MPs to oust Boris Johnson as prime minister. It must be said, though, that Labour has long dominated in London so the party of government is unlikely to expect good results. For the last 20 years, Labour has generally been performing well in London elections.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the survey shows that the Conservatives are experiencing unprecedented unpopularity in the capital. This may be the result of short-term factors, such as anger over <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/partygate-115248">partygate</a> – the affair that saw government officials gathering in 10 Downing Street during lockdown.</p>
<p>Fears about the rising cost of living do also appear to be at play. According to our poll, a significant number of voters in London are worried about how to heat their homes next winter. There is anxiety about the rising cost of mortgages, increasing food and petrol prices, and – for working parents – the <a href="https://www.nct.org.uk/life-parent/work-and-childcare/childcare/average-childcare-costs">astronomical cost of childcare</a> in the capital. It appears that voters do not believe the government is doing enough to mitigate these pressures on household living standards, for instance by introducing a windfall tax on the profits of privatised energy companies.</p>
<p>On top of that, these voters are feeling the pain of rising taxes this April (including the <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-insurance-rise-what-do-upcoming-tax-changes-mean-for-me-an-expert-explains-179023">1.25 percentage point rise</a> in national insurance contributions to fund extra capacity for the NHS and social care). They are (not surprisingly) angry that people in public life may be <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-non-dom-an-expert-answers-our-questions-about-the-tax-status-claimed-by-rishi-sunaks-wife-and-other-wealthy-people-180928">legally avoiding taxes</a>. The forthcoming local elections are being fought against the backdrop of the UK having the highest tax burden for more than 50 years.</p>
<h2>Longer-term shift?</h2>
<p>Yet Tory unpopularity may also be a reflection of a long-term breakdown in the relationship between the Conservative party and voters in London that is indicative of wider trends that are reshaping British politics. Demographically, London is now thought to be a Labour city with a significant concentration of younger, more diverse, liberal voters. These people are often hostile to Brexit and classically left-wing in their attitudes to economic policy and redistribution. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the Conservatives in recent elections have been drawing support from older voters in so-called “red wall” seats in England’s north and midlands. That trend reflects a new pattern of polarisation in UK politics.</p>
<p>Of course, it is important to remember that these elections are for councils and regional bodies. What drives voters’ choices may be less to do with national politics and macro-economic trends than concerns about the quality of the public services and the general physical conditions of their immediate neighbourhoods. The overall level of council tax set by each borough across London is a likely factor, too. National politics is exceptionally febrile at the moment but, as the former speaker of the US House of Representatives, Tip O'Neil, once said: “all politics is local.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Diamond is a Labour party member. </span></em></p>
The party has long dominated but the scale of the lead raises questions about why the Conservatives are experiencing such unprecedented unpopularity.
Patrick Diamond, Lecturer in Public Policy, Queen Mary University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/180895
2022-04-21T10:56:20Z
2022-04-21T10:56:20Z
From ‘biologically dead’ to chart-toppingly clean: how the Thames made an extraordinary recovery over 60 years
<p>It might surprise you to know that the River Thames is considered one of the <a href="https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/thames-actually-one-cleanest-rivers-20601885">world’s cleanest</a> rivers running through a city. What’s even more surprising is that it reached that status just 60 years after being declared “<a href="https://thelogicalindian.com/environment/river-thames/">biologically dead</a>” by scientists at London’s Natural History Museum. Yet despite this remarkable recovery, there’s no room for complacency – the Thames still faces new and increasing <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-earths-plastic-pollution-problem-could-look-by-2040-143220">threats</a> from pollution, plastic and a rising population.</p>
<p>The Thames runs 229 miles from Kemble in Gloucestershire to Southend-on-Sea in Essex, where it flows into the North Sea. Where it bisects London, it has experienced pressures from expanding numbers of citydwellers since medieval times. </p>
<p>The river became a repository for <a href="https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lecture/transcript/download/londons-ecology-how-clean-is-the-thames/">waste</a>, with leaking cesspits and dumped rubbish reducing many of its tributaries to running sewers. Many of these small rivers now lie underneath the streets of London, long covered up to hide their foul smells: the <a href="https://theconversation.com/britains-obsession-with-the-second-world-war-and-the-debates-that-fuel-it-139497">Fleet</a>, which runs from Hampstead and enters the Thames at Blackfriars, is probably the best known. </p>
<p>The final straw was the hot <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-45009749">summer of 1858</a> – referred to as the Great Stink – when the high levels of human and industrial waste in the river actually drove people out of London. The civil engineer <a href="https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/how-bazalgette-built-londons-first-super-sewer">Sir Joseph Bazelgette</a> was commissioned to build a sewage network to alleviate the problem, which is still in use today. What followed was over a century of improvements to the network, including upgrading sewage treatment works and installing household toilets linked to the system. </p>
<p>Bombings across the city during <a href="https://theconversation.com/britains-obsession-with-the-second-world-war-and-the-debates-that-fuel-it-139497">the second world war</a> destroyed parts of the network, allowing raw sewage to again enter the river. What’s more, as the Thames widens and slows through central London, fine particles of sediment from its tributaries settle on the riverbed. These were, and remain, heavily contaminated with a range of <a href="http://www.environmentdata.org/archive/ealit:388/OBJ/19000607.pdf">heavy metals</a> from roads and industry, creating a toxic aquatic environment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bombings during the Blitz damaged much of London's sewer system." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459078/original/file-20220421-22-6jdz59.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459078/original/file-20220421-22-6jdz59.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459078/original/file-20220421-22-6jdz59.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459078/original/file-20220421-22-6jdz59.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459078/original/file-20220421-22-6jdz59.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459078/original/file-20220421-22-6jdz59.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459078/original/file-20220421-22-6jdz59.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">WWII London Blitz East London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WWII_London_Blitz_East_London.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For most fish to thrive, the water they live in must contain at least 4-5 milligrams of dissolved oxygen per litre (mg/l). Measurements taken during the 1950s showed that dissolved oxygen (DO) levels in the Thames were at just 5% saturation: the rough equivalent of 0.5 mg/l. That meant the river could only support a few aquatic invertebrate species like midges and fly larvae. </p>
<p>For the 20 miles of the Thames running through central London, DO levels weren’t even measurable. And from Kew to Gravesend, a 69km length of river, no fish were recorded in the 1950s. Surveys in 1957 found the river was unable to sustain life, and the River Thames was eventually declared “biologically dead”. </p>
<h2>Turning tides</h2>
<p>With considerable effort from policymakers, the river’s fate began to change. From 1976, all sewage entering the Thames was treated, and legislation between 1961 and 1995 helped to raise <a href="http://www.environmentdata.org/archive/ealit:1710/OBJ/20000756.pdf">water quality standards</a>. </p>
<p>The privatisation of water companies under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also saw the establishment of the protective <a href="https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/tag/national-rivers-authority/">National Rivers Authority</a> in 1989, as well as the introduction of <a href="http://ea-lit.freshwaterlife.org/archive/ealit:377/OBJ/19001081.pdf">biotic monitoring</a>. This is a clever scoring system that measures pollution by counting the macroinvertebrates – such as mayfly, snails or water beetles – found in a river, then giving each species a score according to its tolerance to low DO levels. Low overall scores mean that the river isn’t as capable of sustaining organisms that need oxygen, so is less healthy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A petri dish containing invertebrates" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459150/original/file-20220421-22-ggyd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459150/original/file-20220421-22-ggyd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459150/original/file-20220421-22-ggyd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459150/original/file-20220421-22-ggyd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459150/original/file-20220421-22-ggyd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459150/original/file-20220421-22-ggyd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459150/original/file-20220421-22-ggyd5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Running through central London, the Thames carries a number of invertebrates - including plenty of leeches.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Veronica Edmonds-Brown</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a result, one of the main turning points in the Thames’ health was the installation of large oxygenators, or “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229916303_Recent_Developments_in_Oxygenation_of_the_Tidal_Thames">bubblers</a>”, to increase DO levels. The Thames Water Authority developed a <a href="https://www.edie.net/oxygenation-of-large-water-bodies/">prototype oxygenator</a> based on a river barge in the early 1980s. This was replaced by a self-powered “Thames Bubbler” in 1988, and a third vessel was launched in 1999. Together, they’re responsible for maintaining oxygen at a level sufficient to support growing fish populations.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.zsl.org/sites/default/files/media/2018-06/The%20Thames%20Times.pdf">flounder</a> was officially the first fish species to return to the Thames in 1967, followed by 19 freshwater fish and 92 marine species such as bass and eel into the estuary and lower Thames. The return of salmon during the 1980s was a thrilling marker for conservationists, and today around <a href="https://www.marineconservationresearch.co.uk/thames-porpoise-survey/tides-times-of-the-thames/">125 species</a> of fish are regularly recorded, with exotic species like seahorses even being occasionally sighted.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A poster describing fish that can be found in the Thames" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458888/original/file-20220420-17-hqx6yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458888/original/file-20220420-17-hqx6yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458888/original/file-20220420-17-hqx6yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458888/original/file-20220420-17-hqx6yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458888/original/file-20220420-17-hqx6yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458888/original/file-20220420-17-hqx6yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458888/original/file-20220420-17-hqx6yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bream, pike, salmon, perch, dace, eel and trout are among the species that can now be found in the Thames.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/anemoneprojectors/8086248848">Flickr/Peter O'Connor</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the surface, this recovery is remarkable. But there remain deeper, unresolved issues relating to contaminated sediments still entering the river. Although the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-19/1990s-lesson-recession-is-the-price-of-curbing-u-k-inflation">recession</a> of the 1990s saw the loss of many industries that had been pumping waste into the Thames, water pollution levels haven’t significantly fallen since. Heavy metals, for instance, can remain <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308575778_Heavy_metals_in_the_riverbed_surface_sediment_of_the_Yellow_River_China">attached</a> for many decades to clay particles in riverbeds, harming or killing organisms that consume them.</p>
<p>The majority of invertebrates cannot survive or reproduce in such a toxic environment, leaving leeches and fly larvae to dominate the river’s fauna. Other dangerous contaminants come from <a href="https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-millions-of-microplastic-particles-could-be-flowing-into-uk-rivers-hidden-in-raw-sewage-177869">microplastics</a> and water-soluble medicines like <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/metformin/">Metformin</a> that sewage treatment works are unable to filter out. The impact of these drugs on aquatic life is unknown.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A seal swimming, with its head partly submerged" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458892/original/file-20220420-13-wz9tf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458892/original/file-20220420-13-wz9tf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458892/original/file-20220420-13-wz9tf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458892/original/file-20220420-13-wz9tf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458892/original/file-20220420-13-wz9tf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458892/original/file-20220420-13-wz9tf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458892/original/file-20220420-13-wz9tf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seals have been spotted swimming along the length of the Thames.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/51883560755">Flickr/Tambako the Jaguar</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both sewage and surface water drains across greater London are overstretched by a system originally designed for fewer than five million people but now used by over ten million. Currently, a new 25km “<a href="https://www.tideway.london/">super sewer</a>” is being constructed under London to handle this increased load. Although it’s expected to be completed by 2025, it won’t be enough on its own. More investment is also needed in new drainage infrastructure across the city to avoid damage from increasingly frequent <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00727-4">storm surges</a> and overflows if we want to avoid harming the hard-earned health of London’s iconic river.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180895/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veronica Edmonds-Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Cleaning and reoxygenating the river Thames has helped its biodiversity surge, but there’s still more to be done to make it healthy.
Veronica Edmonds-Brown, Senior Lecturer in Aquatic Ecology, University of Hertfordshire
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/179505
2022-03-18T10:12:46Z
2022-03-18T10:12:46Z
Lasso-ing Chelsea FC? Why super-rich US sports owners are looking to buy a London soccer team
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452894/original/file-20220317-23-1ulw0kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C208%2C2102%2C1168&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Putting the Blues in the red, white and blue.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chelsea-fan-in-a-stars-and-stripes-hat-cheers-on-his-team-news-photo/681569006?adppopup=true">Bradley C Bower/EMPICS via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ted Lasso, the story of an American football coach bringing his unique management skills to a fictional soccer club in West London, has <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10986410/">entertained TV viewers since 2020</a>. It now appears that some investors stateside are looking to experience this close up by buying a real English Premier League club in West London: Chelsea FC.</p>
<p>For the fictional Lasso, swap in the very real Ricketts family. The Chicago Cubs owners have joined up with hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin to bid for the club and have <a href="https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/12572802/chelsea-sale-ricketts-family-fly-to-london-as-race-to-buy-the-blues-hots-up">flown to London</a> to meet with Chelsea stakeholders.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets and a former Ambassador to the U.K., also <a href="https://www.si.com/soccer/chelsea/news/report-woody-johnson-makes-big-solo-offer-for-chelsea-as-raine-review-takeover-offers">reportedly threw his hat into the ring</a>.</p>
<p>The fire sale of the club is part of the fallout from the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine. The current owner is the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/world/europe/roman-abramovich-russian-oligarch-sanctions.html">Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich</a>. Facing pressure over his links to Vladimir Putin, he promised <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2022/03/02/russian-billionaire-roman-abramovich-to-sell-chelsea-fcdonate-proceeds-to-help-victims-in-ukraine/?sh=7a7129ca44a0">to sell the club and donate the proceeds for Ukraine relief</a>. Then the U.K. government froze his assets and imposed conditions on the sale process to <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10029291-roman-abramovichs-assets-frozen-needs-uk-governments-permission-to-sell-chelsea">make sure there was no impropriety</a>. The expected price tag for the club is <a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/cubs-ricketts-family-ken-griffin-make-joint-bid-chelsea-fc">in excess of US$3 billion</a>.</p>
<p>But why are Americans so interested in the fire sale of this club? </p>
<p>Chelsea is one of the best known soccer clubs in the world and current holder of Europe’s prestigious <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/may/29/manchester-city-chelsea-champions-league-final-match-report-kai-havertz">Champions League trophy</a>, which the team also won in 2012. Chelsea is a five-time champion of the English Premier League (EPL). </p>
<p>But the interest is driven not so much by what Chelsea has been, as what it might become. The EPL is already the <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1948434-why-the-premier-league-is-the-most-powerful-league-in-the-world">dominant soccer league on the planet</a>, and it might plausibly go on to become the dominant league across all sports – a kind of NFL Global if you will. And that makes Chelsea, one of the league’s biggest clubs, a very attractive prospect. Its location in one of London’s most fashionable districts also helps, even if the <a href="https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/chelsea-new-stadium-stamford-bridge-19601375">stadium itself could do with an upgrade</a>.</p>
<h2>An open goal …</h2>
<p>This interest of American investors in English professional soccer is not new. In fact, it can be dated to 1998 when, temporarily, Manchester United became <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sport/football/543805.stm#:%7E:text=Nine%20British%20clubs%20in%20total,did%20not%20win%20any%20trophies.">the world’s most valuable sports team</a>.</p>
<p>The flood of TV money that started to <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/385002/premier-league-tv-rights-revenue/">swell the coffers of England’s top teams from the early 1990s</a> piqued interest in the U.S. and led to a series of acquisitions.</p>
<p>By 2005, the Glazer family, owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had <a href="https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/who-owns-manchester-united-who-are-the-glazer-family/18j8f1yu1tliv1hrp93zeffh7n">acquired Manchester United</a>. A couple of years later, St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke <a href="https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/how-much-money-stan-kroenke-17273593">started buying shares in</a> London club Arsenal, eventually taking overall control. In 2010, Boston Red Sox owner John Henry <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/483802-liverpool-sold-after-years-of-uncertainty-to-boston-red-sox-owner-john-henry">purchased Liverpool</a>. </p>
<p>For those already super-rich individuals, the move into soccer has paid off. Between 2004 and 2021, the value of these three clubs plus Chelsea increased from <a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2004/0412/126tab.html?sh=761f8fa23425">$2.5 billion</a> to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2021/04/12/the-worlds-most-valuable-soccer-teams-barcelona-on-top-at-48-billion/?sh=7618731916ac">$14.3 billion</a>, a healthy 11% compound average growth rate.</p>
<p>While Europe’s Champions League gives these clubs international exposure – the final of that competition in 2020 <a href="https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/super-bowl-vs-world-cup-champions-league-viewing-figures/blte47db8809dbd0a6d">pulled in 328 million viewers worldwide</a> – it’s the global reach of the English Premier League that makes its clubs attractive in the long term. The EPL now generates over 50% of its broadcast revenues from <a href="https://www.premierleague.com/news/970151">overseas contracts</a>. It recently signed a <a href="https://theathletic.com/news/premier-league-agrees-new-six-year-us-tv-deal-worth-more-than-two-billion/GJhr8eHhi3ke/">$2.7 billion contract</a> for the U.S., even though most games air on weekend mornings, meaning people living on the West Coast having to wake up at 4 a.m. to catch some games.</p>
<p>There is almost no country in the world where you cannot get access to EPL games. While Spain’s La Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga are popular, they lag far behind in <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/sports-business-group/articles/annual-review-of-football-finance.html">revenues and reach</a>, and no other league generates even half the revenues of the EPL. </p>
<h2>… or an own goal?</h2>
<p>But acquiring an English soccer club is not without risk. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ups-and-downs-of-european-soccer-are-part-of-its-culture-moving-to-a-us-style-closed-super-league-would-destroy-that-159316">promotion and relegation system</a>, in which the bottom three teams in the EPL annually go down a division to the less glamorous second-tier Championship, means that teams that fail to win on the pitch are threatened with commercial as well as sporting failure, as several American owners learned the hard way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A supporter holds aloft a corner flag while another holds a sign saying 'Glazer out.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452899/original/file-20220317-12943-1bgknar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452899/original/file-20220317-12943-1bgknar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452899/original/file-20220317-12943-1bgknar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452899/original/file-20220317-12943-1bgknar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452899/original/file-20220317-12943-1bgknar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452899/original/file-20220317-12943-1bgknar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452899/original/file-20220317-12943-1bgknar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supporters protest against Manchester United’s owners, the Glazer family.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporters-protest-against-manchester-uniteds-owners-inside-news-photo/1232648557?adppopup=true">Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Before John Henry and the Fenway Sports Group bought Liverpool, the club was <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-george-gillett-tom-hicks-19947788">briefly owned by two other Americans</a>, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who nearly drove the club into ruin before selling it.</p>
<p>Randy Lerner, the billionaire who once owned the Cleveland Browns, bought Aston Villa FC in 2006 with hopes of bringing success back to a storied team situated in the U.K’s second-largest city, Birmingham. But he decided to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2016/05/18/randy-lerner-suffers-400-million-loss-with-sale-of-aston-villa/">sell a decade later</a> after the club was relegated from the EPL, losing a large chunk of TV revenue in the process.</p>
<p>Similarly, American businessman Ellis Short bought Sunderland AFC in 2008 and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/apr/29/chris-coleman-sackedd-manager-sunderland">sold it in 2018</a> following relegation in that year.</p>
<p>Chelsea’s neighbor Fulham FC – the two teams’ stadiums are only a mile apart – was purchased by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan in 2013, but the club <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jacksonville-jaguars-premier-league-europe-soccer-nfl-a00ffa7a55925ff226842a9dfb75f222">was immediately relegated</a>. And in 2017, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40789323">bought Portsmouth FC</a> – a famous team languishing in the third tier of English football, where it remains today.</p>
<h2>Moving the goal posts?</h2>
<p>Because of the financial and sporting risks of relegation from the English Premier League, successful clubs must continually invest in talent, making it hard to generate profit.</p>
<p>In the past five years, based on the club’s <a href="https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04784127/filing-history">audited financial statements</a>, Chelsea has reported a cumulative net loss of £227 million ($299 million) on revenues of £2.166 billion ($2.85 billion). The accounts also show that this can be attributed to player wage costs, which have averaged 65% of revenues over the past five seasons, and reached 77% of revenues in the 2020/21 season, when COVID-19 kept fans out of the stadium.</p>
<p>The obvious solution for big clubs like Chelsea is to limit risk by abolishing the promotion and relegation system and then instituting salary caps and other restrictive measures employed in U.S. leagues. </p>
<p>However, when the big clubs proposed something along these lines in 2021 – the ill-fated European Super League – the <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/blog-espn-fc-united/story/4366927/super-league-collapses-how-fan-reactionrevolt-helped-end-english-clubs-breakaway">opposition from fans was so intense</a> that the clubs were forced to back down.</p>
<p>American owners frequently mention a steep learning curve when describing the acquisition of an English soccer club. The attractions are easy to see, the pitfalls are perhaps a little less obvious to the untrained eye.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 150,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Join the list today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179505/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefan Szymanski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The deadline for formal bids to buy Chelsea FC is March 18. Expect some very rich US businessmen to be in the running.
Stefan Szymanski, Professor of Sport Management, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/174189
2021-12-23T15:43:10Z
2021-12-23T15:43:10Z
To get through the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to learn how to live in an ongoing disaster
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438925/original/file-20211223-19-1w5rn2k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C3600%2C2382&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People wait in line — some for over two hours — at a PCR COVID-19 test site in Toronto.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/to-get-through-the-covid-19-pandemic--we-need-to-learn-how-to-live-in-an-ongoing-disaster" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>As Canada approaches the 700-day mark of the pandemic, the disaster’s state of play is as grim as it is discouraging. On Dec. 22, Canada reported 12,114 new COVID-19 infections — <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canada-sets-new-single-day-record-for-covid-19-infections-1.5717161">a record for daily cases since the start of the pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>With a patchwork of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/provinces-territories-travel-restrictions-covid-1.6284713">provincial pandemic restrictions across Canada changing daily</a>, many holiday season activities have either been scaled back or cancelled for the second year in a row. The context for these disruptions is that as we approach the end of 2021, <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/cp-newsalert-canada-surpasses-grim-milestone-with-30000-covid-19-deaths">the number of Canadians killed by COVID-19 has surpassed 30,000</a>.</p>
<p>At this point in the COVID-19 disaster, it is beyond the capacity of federal or provincial governments to provide a way out of this emergency. COVID-19 has no respect for norms or established practices of how we deal with disaster. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has resorted to suggesting <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8466612/canada-omicron-covid-update/">Canadians hunker down to stop the spread of omicron</a>. </p>
<p>Canadians need to rethink their relationship to the pandemic by learning to live in a state of continual disaster for the foreseeable future.</p>
<h2>Contrasting messages</h2>
<p>In a wide-ranging federal government news conference, the Trudeau administration projected an approach of prudence.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SdCzyf1hAp4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trudeau tells Canadian to ‘hunker down’ to get through the COVID-19 pandemic.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/22/trudeau-canadians-hunker-down-omicron-525998">Canadian approach is a stark contrast to the American approach</a>, which is to not panic about omicron and to try to enjoy the holidays. Pointed questions from reporters <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/trudeau-freeland-push-back-at-biden-on-covid-19-holiday-gatherings-1.5717017">forced the Trudeau government to push back at U.S. President Biden’s message</a> that vaccinated persons could gather safely for the holidays, despite the spread of omicron. </p>
<p>Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland rejected the notion that <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/we-re-a-careful-country-freeland-contrasts-omicron-responses-of-canada-u-s-1.5717005">the federal government was in any way offering a counsel of panic or a counsel of despair</a>.</p>
<p>Leading up to the holiday season, common activities included <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/covid-19-rapid-tests-ottawa-ontario-holiday-blitz-lcbo-1.6289540">waiting in lines — sometimes futilely — at liquor stores to obtain take-home testing supplies</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-rapid-antigen-tests-pcr-tests-covid-19-1.6294606">not being able to obtain testing results in a timely manner</a>, and <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/12/20/as-hunger-games-scramble-for-vaccine-doses-returns-toronto-officials-urge-residents-to-have-patience-persistence.html">a “hunger games scramble” for vaccination and booster appointments</a>. </p>
<p>Experiences such as these do not contribute to reducing panic or despair.</p>
<h2>The disaster cycle</h2>
<p>Emergency management planning often uses a four-phase disaster cycle: <a href="https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/mrgnc-mngmnt/mrgnc-prprdnss/mrgnc-mngmnt-plnnng-en.aspx">mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery</a>. In many instances of natural disasters, the four-phase disaster cycle model works well to dissect disasters and better understand them, providing lessons to manage future disasters.</p>
<p>In figuring out how to cope with disasters, the disaster cycle provides reference points to guide responses to a sudden emergency to eventual recovery. For example, an analysis conducted a decade after the <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/april--2009-the-laquila-earthquake/">2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy</a> used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-01-2018-0022">the four-phase disaster cycle to dissect the response to a natural disaster</a>. </p>
<p>With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we’re still in the emergency part of the disaster. The reference points in the disaster cycle leading from response to recovery are lost, and recovery is not yet discernible. The public is too fatigued to maintain a constant state of preparedness. And the possibility of any mitigation is a distant dream at this point. </p>
<p>Recent research in risk management suggests that disasters are dynamic — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/FS-11-2019-0097">the event evolves according to the actions taken to counteract its impact</a>. Considering the changing nature of emergencies and responses incorporates innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership, situational awareness, resilience and learning. </p>
<p>A dynamic approach can help catalyse new thinking on how to deal with the uniqueness of disasters like COVID-19.</p>
<h2>The Blitz spirit</h2>
<p>Perhaps inspiration can be sought from London during the Second World War. Londoners hunkered down <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/what-life-was-like-during-the-london-blitz/">through an eight-month-long German bombing campaign</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438926/original/file-20211223-27-18cb6qe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bus leans against the debris from bombed houses" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438926/original/file-20211223-27-18cb6qe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438926/original/file-20211223-27-18cb6qe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438926/original/file-20211223-27-18cb6qe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438926/original/file-20211223-27-18cb6qe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438926/original/file-20211223-27-18cb6qe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438926/original/file-20211223-27-18cb6qe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438926/original/file-20211223-27-18cb6qe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Almost 20,000 civilians died in London during the Blitz.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_Blitz_9_September_1940.jpg">(H. F. Davis)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps intangible traits like those of the <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Blitz-Spirit/">Blitz Spirit</a> are now needed — the ongoing disaster of COVID-19 needs to be met with a grim willingness to carry on. We have no other choice. </p>
<p>Somehow citizens subjected to months of air raids learned to deal with continual disaster. The tenacity and resilience shown during the Blitz can <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.7326/M20-4984">offer population level insights regarding the current trauma of COVID-19</a> and <a href="https://www.the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/235449/coronavirus-updates/blitz-and-covid-19">offer suggestions to current day hospital workers</a> regarding fears of their hospitals being overrun. </p>
<p>According to historians, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/health/coronavirus-plague-pandemic-history.html">pandemics typically have two types of endings</a>. The first is the medical ending that is reached when the incidence and death rates plummet. The second is the social ending, where either due to fatigue or other reasons, individuals decide the pandemic is over for them, regardless of the science. Drawing a parallel to the Blitz, imagine the consternation of air raid wardens if individuals tired of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/01/blackout-britain-wartime">blackout regulations</a> and turned on lights at night signalling their location to enemy bombers. </p>
<p>Going into 2022, it is time to accept that we can no longer manage our way out of this disaster. We just have to cope as best we can by hunkering down — there is no other choice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack L. Rozdilsky is a Professor at York University who receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as a co-investigator on a project supported under operating grant Canadian 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Rapid Research Funding.</span></em></p>
Canadians need to rethink their relationship to the pandemic by learning to live in a state of continual disaster for the foreseeable future.
Jack L. Rozdilsky, Associate Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Canada
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173308
2021-12-15T12:04:35Z
2021-12-15T12:04:35Z
How workers become seduced by the cult of ‘optimal busyness’
<p>The consultant was on her way to a demanding client meeting when she realised she had had a miscarriage. But she did not interrupt her day. Instead, she went on to complete the meeting at her client’s offices.</p>
<p>The woman, who works at an elite professional service firm in London, was one of the professionals we interviewed as part of <a href="https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.2021.1486">our recent study</a> of the work life of highly educated professionals.</p>
<p>When we began our study in 2014, we set out to investigate how workers in demanding jobs managed their work-life balance. But soon after we started the interviews, we realised we needed to revise our focus, because it became clear that our interviewees were not seeking to balance their work and private life.</p>
<p>Instead, we found these workers were driven by a compulsion to be busy at all times, which meant they were also willing to sacrifice their family lives in important ways.</p>
<p>As one of our participants told us: “You become a little bit of a junkie for a deadline and work. It’s quite hard to switch off”.</p>
<p>While a common narrative in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/45/6/1142/4999270">research</a> and the <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation">media</a> is that people want to slow down their lifestyles these days, our findings reveal a strikingly different story.</p>
<p>The desire to work fewer hours among our interviewees was uncommon. Instead they were in pursuit of something else: “optimal busyness”.</p>
<h2>The quest for optimal busyness</h2>
<p>We interviewed 81 people who work in some of the biggest consulting and law firms in London. Half of the workers were women, half were men, and nearly all of them had at least one child. All of the professionals we interviewed suffered from time famine – constantly having too little time to do what they had to do.</p>
<p>To deal with this problem, they were drawn toward a compelling state of busyness, one in which they felt in control of their time. We call this “optimal busyness” – an attractive, accelerated temporal experience that is difficult to achieve and maintain.</p>
<p>Overall, we identified three different kinds of experiences of busyness: optimal busyness, excessive busyness, and quiet time. Optimal busyness is an elating and enjoyable temporal flow in which the workers felt at their best and most productive. This buzzing feeling gave them adrenaline and positive energy, which was exciting. When they were in this state, they felt nothing could stop them, and that they could, for example, save a company from going bankrupt.</p>
<p>Such an attraction toward busyness can be understood as a kind of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article/44/1/118/2736404">status symbol</a> or badge of honour, a phenomenon that has been described in previous research.</p>
<p>But we found that this drive went far deeper than mere social signalling. The desired buzzing feeling was itself inherently addictive. One participant told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I love the intensity of it, usually. I get a buzz out of it, that’s why I do the job that I do. I like it.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We observed the pleasurable and positive state of optimal busyness often tipped over and became excessive. In such instances, professionals’ feelings of being in control of their time vanished. This is where busyness became overwhelming and sometimes depressing.</p>
<p>When the energising buzz of optimal busyness continued for too long without break, it became unbearable. Connection with family was often the first casualty. One participant went on a work trip and despite promises to call her family in the evening failed to do so – for the entire week.</p>
<p>We observed a similar pattern in the case of quiet time – that is, when the busy work period was suddenly interrupted by downtime, or typically, a holiday period. Quiet time was experienced as something undesirable and meaningless. It also caused boredom and even depression. The thought of a slower pace at work was a source of concern. One told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“When I don’t have deadlines I get bored. I’m much less productive because I like working on adrenaline.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As well as interviewing busy knowledge workers, we also spoke to some of their partners. One partner said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My wife is terrible. If she wakes up to go to toilet in the middle of the night, she checks her emails – even at 3 AM.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The conditions for optimal busyness</h2>
<p>On one hand, workplaces produce the conditions that drive the quest for optimal busyness. We identified a number of mechanisms that did this, including unrealistic deadlines, performance metrics, time sheets, and the working culture itself – companies and peers expected everyone to be available to work at all times via their smartphones.</p>
<p>The firms we studied are elite institutions that hire the best university students with the highest grades. New recruits wanted to survive the impossible pressure because they knew it was the only way to get a promotion or to become an associate in the company. Busy working culture soon absorbed them and normalised unnatural working hours.</p>
<p>On the other hand, we found individuals themselves were also creating the conditions for optimal busyness. Some boosted their capacity to work with coffee, drugs, or physical exercise. Others went as far as isolating themselves in a hotel room so they could work without interruptions.</p>
<p>A common strategy was for workers to think: “This is only a short period and once I am through I will relax”. For most, the relaxation never happened.</p>
<h2>A culture of overwork</h2>
<p>For decades, scholars have observed the persistence of long working hours, overwork, and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2307/2667031">time famine</a>. These problems are ingrained in many professional work contexts, not only in consulting, audit or law firms.</p>
<p>Academia is another striking example: studies consistently show that researchers’ poor mental well-being is linked to increased performance expectations, competitive ethos, and meticulous metrics that produce <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1350508418805283">non-stop busyness</a>.</p>
<p>Our research offers a new way of understanding this phenomenon. The quest for optimal busyness is a vicious cycle. However, until recently there has been limited research that would uncover our everyday experiences of time and how they can take a hold of us.</p>
<p>The individuals we studied, albeit in an arguably extreme context, were often unaware what was happening to them. Perhaps it is time for us all to reflect on how and why we are so addicted to feeling busy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
Elite employers have created an atmosphere where workers constantly seek to be as busy as possible. Families are often the first casualty of this culture.
Joonas Rokka, Professeur en marketing, EM Lyon Business School
Ioana Lupu, Associate Professor, ESSEC
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.