tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/interdisciplinarity-37894/articlesInterdisciplinarity – The Conversation2023-06-08T11:44:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2061332023-06-08T11:44:41Z2023-06-08T11:44:41ZThe Windrush dance revolution that transformed Britain – from Birmingham’s basements to Notting Hill carnival<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530405/original/file-20230606-7937-utigwl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C17%2C1982%2C1467&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reggae, dancehall, and identity: how Jamaican music transformed British society.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Squire/Canva</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Growing up in Birmingham in the early 1960s, I am part of the African Caribbean generation that <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/windrush-52562">migrated to Britain</a> between the 1940s and 1980s. Commonly known as the “<a href="https://digpodcast.org/2022/03/06/windrush-generation/">Windrush generation</a>”, our arrival in the UK marked a significant turning point in the country’s social, artistic and economic landscape.</p>
<p>Back in those days, nights out in Birmingham revolved around paid entry into <a href="https://writersmosaic.org.uk/content/dancing-identity-in-a-strange-land-h-patten/">“blues” or “shubeens”</a> (house parties). They were often held in unconventional venues, from basements and abandoned buildings to church and school halls. These events took place up and down the country – black bodies dancing and expressing themselves through music and “riddim” (rhythm).</p>
<p>These venues became the birthplace of black clubs, stage shows and major international events such as the Notting Hill carnival and the Mobo Awards ceremony. In these spaces, we challenged the <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-history-is-still-largely-ignored-70-years-after-empire-windrush-reached-britain-98431">exclusion that African and Caribbean people</a> faced relating to established white-owned social venues.</p>
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<p><em>This article is part of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/windrush-75-139220?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Windrush75&utm_content=InArticleTop">Windrush 75 series</a>, which marks the 75th anniversary of the HMT Empire Windrush arriving in Britain. The stories in this series explore the history and impact of the hundreds of passengers who disembarked to help rebuild after the second world war.</em></p>
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<p>Reflecting back on my childhood, I vividly remember attending Jamaican dance sessions where black bodies performed seemingly unconscious and spiritually symbolic dance rituals. This represented a form of resistance. But it was also about identity affirmation and survival. </p>
<p>Dance sessions involved setting up massive speakers, amplifiers, turntables and other sonic components that produced the pulsating music of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aASQlbktGkc">sound systems</a>. Operated by talented <a href="https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/22858/1/502410.pdf">deejays (DJs), selectors and MCs</a>, these musical artists transformed ordinary British locations into dynamic dance spaces.</p>
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<p>Through dance, we resisted <a href="https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/8910q/the-spirituality-of-reggae-dancehall-dance-vocabulary-a-spiritual-corporeal-practice-in-jamaican-dance">cultural marginalisation and asserted our presence</a> in the face of oppression. I recall witnessing people performing the ska dance, characterised by energetic arm movements and knee-raising, to the popular song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7lCJg3WoSc">My Boy Lollipop</a> by Millie Small, which topped the UK charts in 1964. </p>
<p>In darkened rooms, bodies would sensuously move together, intertwining their pelvises in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyJwZwkqg8U">figure-eight, half or full circles</a>. Side-stepping, bending and straightening their knees, they performed the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_EybfMcRt4">reggae bounce</a>. </p>
<p>These dance movements were performed to songs like Janet Kay’s 1979 anthem <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCVR5XR04Mo">Silly Games</a>, which propelled the <a href="https://theconversation.com/small-axe-what-steve-mcqueen-got-right-and-wrong-about-lovers-rock-151068">lover’s rock</a> reggae genre beyond its African Caribbean audience base to global markets including China and Japan. </p>
<p>Dance and music were integral to our cultural celebrations marking the major lifecycle milestones, from christenings and weddings to birthdays and funerals.</p>
<h2>Contributing far and wide</h2>
<p>The influence of African Caribbean popular culture extended beyond our communities and made significant contributions to British society as a whole. For instance, Lord Kitchener’s calypso <a href="https://www.facebook.com/museumoflondon/videos/2446657958966637/">London is the Place for Me</a>, played on the decks of the SS Empire Windrush upon its arrival in 1948, expressed the dreams and aspirations of many who migrated to Britain. </p>
<p>Invited by the British government, African Caribbean people settled in the “Mother country”. We became an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-windrush-generation-how-a-resilient-caribbean-community-made-a-lasting-contribution-to-british-society-204571">indispensable part of the workforce</a>, contributing to various sectors such as the NHS, transportation, business and infrastructural developments.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/notting-hill-carnival-why-partying-is-the-perfect-antidote-to-austerity-43509">The Notting Hill carnival</a>, born out of our resistance to oppression and violence following the murder of <a href="https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/oms/murder-in-notting-hill">Kelso Cochrane</a> in 1959, became one of the greatest African Caribbean cultural contributions to British society.</p>
<p>Cochrane, an innocent black man walking home, was killed at the hands of white youths in Notting Hill. This ignited the UK’s first race riots, which directly influenced Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/history/public-engagement/blackhistory/snapshots/claudiajones/">Claudia Jones</a> to set up the London Caribbean Carnival – a precursor to the Notting Hill carnival that was established in 1966.</p>
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<p>Today, “Carnival” is not only a vibrant celebration of our heritage but a significant contributor to the <a href="https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/9023471-notting-hill-carnival">British economy and tourism industry</a>. Reggae’s sound-system culture was incorporated into this annual event, amplifying its reach beyond calypso, soca (an offshoot of calypso) and steel pan culture to encompass many forms of artistry.</p>
<p>Dance movements within reggae and dancehall music have become powerful expressions of cultural identity and personhood. The signature “whining” or “wining” movement, characterised by circling or rotating the pelvis while rocking it back and forth in a tumbling action, exemplifies Jamaican pride and self-worth.</p>
<p>Similarly, the iconic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIXdI9mfDas">Bogle dance</a>, created by master dancer Gerald “Bogle” Levy in Jamaica and adopted within British dance spaces in the 1990s, features undulating arms and bodies across the dancehall space to the hit song Bogle, by Buju Banton. </p>
<p>Through reggae and dancehall, black bodies in Britain confidently occupied central positions within popular culture. We challenged gender stereotypes, body stigmatisation and the limitations imposed on African Caribbean bodies due to race.</p>
<h2>Freedom and empowerment</h2>
<p>The freedom and empowerment found in reggae and dancehall culture has also influenced the <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-artists-dont-just-make-hip-hop-why-recognition-of-metal-punk-rock-and-emo-by-mobo-is-long-overdue-195583">growth of other marginalised communities</a> in Britain. It played a crucial role in the development of genres such as hip-hop, punk rock, jungle, garage, drum ‘n’ bass, Afrobeat, reggaeton (South America), kwaito or di gong (South Africa), and hip-life (West Africa). </p>
<p>The wider influence of reggae, dancehall and African Caribbean culture can be seen throughout British culture: in television programmes, radio shows and advertisements that incorporate Jamaican slang, iconic songs and dance moves.</p>
<p>Examples include the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4kOj5MZlg8">Vitalite advert</a>, featuring Desmond Dekker’s The Israelites, Fairy Liquid’s use of Bob Marley’s <a href="https://vimeo.com/489047177">Don’t Worry</a> in their ads, and the BBC’s original Test match cricket theme, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67xXbTaQlKI">Soul Limbo</a>. Alongside the everyday use of Jamaican and African Caribbean slang terms and phrases such as “big up”, “shout out to” (acknowledging individuals), “bouyaka!” (signifying gunshots), “blood” or “fam” (meaning family), are actions including fist pumps, wining and twerking.</p>
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<p>Of course, life in the UK has not been without its challenges. The Windrush scandal of 2017 exposed that many from the Windrush generation had been excluded from British society, due to the UK government’s “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/hostile-environment-44885">hostile environment</a>” legislation. This intended to cut off undocumented migrants from access to any public services, including healthcare. </p>
<p>But despite such oppression, our cultural and economic contributions remain intertwined with British history. And we continue to shape the UK’s cultural landscape, today and into the future.</p>
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<p>You can <em><a href="https://bit.ly/3DdOERY">download the e-book here</a></em>. Thank you for your interest.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>'H' Patten receives funding from the ISRF. </span></em></p>Nights out dancing! How African and Caribbean music and dance have shaped British culture.'H' Patten, Associate Lecturer in African Caribbean Dance, Goldsmiths, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1951682023-01-17T06:07:51Z2023-01-17T06:07:51ZHow British theatre censorship laws have inadvertently created a rich archive of Black history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504279/original/file-20230112-4958-yt3ml2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=34%2C17%2C1887%2C1080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Readers reports, scripts and selected photographs. From top left Garland Anderson, Una Marson and Isabel Cooley who appeared in the ethnic Players Theatre Guild productions of Anna Lucasta.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/mar-03-1953-most-beautiful-coloured-girl-inthe-world-isabel-cooley-image69281621.html?imageid=B89ADC0C-A289-41BF-BF55-E2C989696B45&p=90011&pn=1&searchId=9da17d758e564386a7f90b532e54a30f&searchtype=0">Alamy/Fair Use/Creative Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an age of so-called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jun/08/sajid-javid-voices-cancel-culture-concerns-as-blasphemous-film-pulled-from-uk-cinemas">cancel culture</a>” it’s important to remember that for much of British history it was the state, not the masses, who censored the work of artists. </p>
<p>Between 1737 and 1968 British theatre censorship laws required theatre managers to submit new plays intended for the professional stage to the <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/lord-chamberlains-plays">Lord Chamberlain’s Office</a> for examination and licensing. This was necessary under the Stage Licensing Act of 1737 and the Theatres Act of 1843.</p>
<p>In essence, this meant that the government collected, monitored and frequently censored new dramas. In this way, the licensing of plays has inadvertently produced an extensive historical archive of surveillance and censorship. This includes records of early Black theatre-making, at a time when the British state did not routinely collect and preserve the work of Black playwrights. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/lord-chamberlains-plays">The Lord Chamberlain Play’s Collection</a>, held at the British Library, contains theatre manuscripts as well as play readers reports and correspondence between theatre managers and the Lord Chamberlain’s officers which document the decision-making of the censor. While some plays were approved without a license, dramas containing blasphemous or obscene language and scenes of a sexual nature had the offending passages removed. Others were denied a license altogether. </p>
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<p>The collection includes a number of plays by Black theatre makers that were well known in their time but have since fallen into obscurity. These include <a href="https://blogs.bl.uk/americas/writing/">At What a Price</a>, written in 1932 by <a href="https://www.bl.uk/people/una-marson">Una Marson</a>, the BBC broadcaster, poet, playwright and anti-racist activist who moved from Jamaica to London in the 1930s. The play explores women’s desires for love and for a career, as well as interracial relations, sexual harassment in the workplace and women’s friendships. </p>
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<p><em><a href="https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=lcp_corr_1947!8317_f001r">Lord Chamberlain’s correspondence file for the play Anna Lucasta</a></em></p>
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<p>The archive also holds a copy of <a href="https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_66703_M&index=2">Appearances</a>, a courtroom drama written in 1925 by African American entrepreneur Garland Anderson who set up a milkbar in London’s theatre district. The Broadway (1944) and West End (1947) hit, <a href="https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/anna-lucasta-1322#ProductionStaff">Anna Lucasta</a>, was in the archive, too. The censors objected to the use of US swear words which had to be removed before Anna Lucasta could be licensed. </p>
<p>The play explores the possibilities of redemption for the “fallen woman”, Anna, a sex worker whose family renounce her only to lure her home in the hope of marrying her off to an honest young man with a bit of money. </p>
<p>It was originally written by a white American author and was rewritten by the <a href="https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/75th-anniversary-american-negro-theatre">American Negro Theatre</a> with an all-Black cast. It ran for a year in the West End between 1947 and 1948. </p>
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<h2>The archive comes to life</h2>
<p>As part of a project looking at <a href="https://www.isrf.org/fellows-projects/kate-dossett/">archives of surveillance</a>, I worked with a group of theatre makers, researchers and archivists to examine the plays. We wanted to find out what issues were important to Black theatre-makers and how they navigated white gatekeepers, including the censors and theatre managers who controlled the British theatre industry in the early 20th-century.</p>
<p>Researchers and curators were able to identify and contextualise the plays, while theatre-makers considered what it would be like to stage these plays today. Would we reinstate lines censored by the Lord Chamberlain? Were there parts of the play directors might want to cut? And what to do with the censor’s reports – particularly those which contained racially offensive language? </p>
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<p>Inspired by what we discovered, we created a <a href="https://leedsplayhouse.org.uk/events/black-theatre-making-and-censorship-in-the-archive/">performance of staged readings</a> directed by <a href="https://dermotdaly.co.uk/">Dermot Daly</a> and <a href="https://www.eleanormanners.co.uk/">Eleanor Manners</a>. We used the manuscripts and censors’ reports on two plays by Black theatre-makers first staged in the West End nearly a century ago to bring them to life for a modern audience. We chose Una Marson’s At What a Price (1933) and In Dahomey (1903), one of the first musical comedies written almost entirely by Black theatre-makers and presented by Black performers in the US and Britain.</p>
<p>Separated by 30 years, and hailing from different parts of the African diaspora, these plays capture the diversity and excitement of Black performance culture in Britain in the early decades of the 20th-century. But while our project opened up access to these theatre manuscripts, it clearly does not make up for the years of invisibility.</p>
<h2>The power of encounter</h2>
<p>In her <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300264784/radical-vision/">recent biography</a> of the Black playwright Lorraine Hansberry, Soyica Colbert, a professor of African American studies and performing arts, explains the importance of “encounter” for Hansberry both as a playwright and as a political activist. </p>
<p>Hansberry understood encounter as not simply an interaction between two individuals but a process in need of an audience: “A knowing or understanding look from a spectator,” she says, “disrupts the totalising effect of another’s gaze,” and resists “racism’s power to isolate individuals”. </p>
<p>It is well understood that witnesses – or an audience – are central to theatrical work. But to witness and affirm is important to encounters with the archive too.
Indeed, watching, hearing, reading and performing these manuscripts together opened up new ways of using censorship archives. </p>
<p>These plays by Black theatre-makers as well as the censor’s reports are now free to view on the British Library’s <a href="https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Default.aspx">Digital Manuscripts</a> platform. It cannot right the state’s wrongdoing but reclaiming these neglected texts and creating opportunities for new encounters with them constitutes a form of redress.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195168/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Dossett receives funding from the Independent Research Social Foundation and the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library</span></em></p>Theatre censorship laws stifled Black playwrights for more than 200 years – here’s what we found in the archive.Kate Dossett, Professor of American History, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1943112022-11-15T17:22:39Z2022-11-15T17:22:39ZWhat my undercover investigations at arms fairs reveal about how the west supports military dictatorships<p>COP27 has some of the most <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2022/11/egypt-cop27-authoritarian-greenwashing-surveillance">authoritarian security</a> of any of the COP summits. Set in the walled resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, it is surrounded by 36km of concrete and razor wire, overseen by new surveillance technologies and a “security observatory”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/31/egypt-cop27-showcase-charms-sharm-el-sheikh-protest-mall">Protesters are also restricted</a> to a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/11/egypt-arrests-over-calls-for-protests-during-cop27-expose-reality-of-human-rights-crisis/">distant site in the desert</a>. Protest has been effectively prohibited in Egypt since the 2013 coup when the retired military general, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abdel-Fattah-al-Sisi">Abdel Fattah al-Sisi</a>, overthrew his country’s democratically elected Islamist President, Mohammed Morsi, amid mass protests against his rule. Donald Trump once referred to the Egyptian president as his “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-awaiting-egyptian-counterpart-at-summit-called-out-for-my-favorite-dictator-11568403645">favourite dictator</a>”.</p>
<p>Like <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/egypt/report-egypt/">Egypt</a>, Qatar, the host country for this year’s World Cup, also has a long history of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/oct/20/fifa-world-cup-human-rights-abuses-qatar-amnesty-international">human rights abuses</a>. Indeed, the decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar has been criticised by many, especially <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/26/uk-minister-criticised-over-call-for-gay-world-cup-fans-to-show-respect-in-qatar">LGBT+ groups</a> as homosexuality can be punishable by death.</p>
<p>Both <a href="https://caat.org.uk/news/uk-military-agreement-with-qatar-shows-flagrant-disregard-for-human-rights/">Qatar</a> and <a href="https://caat.org.uk/data/countries/egypt/">Egypt</a> are <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/qatar/freedom-world/2022">countries</a> that are <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/egypt/freedom-net/2022">classified</a> as “not free” by <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fotn&year=2022">Freedom House</a>, a US government-funded human rights group. And yet, despite civil liberties, including press freedom and freedom of assembly, being tightly restricted, over the past decade, both countries have received weapons licensed by the UK government.</p>
<p>Indeed, 2021 analysis from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/27/17bn-of-uk-arms-sold-to-rights-abusers">the Guardian</a> and <a href="https://caat.org.uk/">Campaign Against Arms Trade</a> (CAAT), a UK-based organisation working to end the international arms trade, found that 21 out of 30 countries on the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/human-rights-priority-countries-autumn-2020-ministerial-statement/human-rights-priority-countries-ministerial-statement-january-to-june-2020">UK government’s list of repressive regimes</a> had received UK military equipment. And that between 2011-20, the UK licensed £16.8 billion of arms to countries that have been criticised by Freedom House. The government did not respond to the Guardian’s investigation.</p>
<h2>Bombs, fighter jets and tanks</h2>
<p>Arms production is a vast global business. And many governments are implicated, hosting arms fairs, brokering international deals and issuing export licenses.
France, for example, is one of <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-france-arms-top-importer">Egypt’s largest suppliers</a> of weapons, exporting warships, fighter jets, armoured vehicles and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/28/how-french-weapons-enable-egypts-abuses">surveillance systems</a> suitable for intercepting communications and controlling social movements. </p>
<p>Britain has also sold Egypt and Qatar <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-uk-approves-42m-spyware-sales-middle-east-regimes">surveillance equipment</a>, machine guns and <a href="https://caat.org.uk/data/countries/egypt/">combat vehicles</a>. </p>
<p>I have visited arms fairs for over ten years. I get through security by describing myself as a defence consultant, then draw and collect marketing material. The most recent one I went to, <a href="https://www.eurosatory.com/?lang=en">Eurosatory</a>, was held in June 2022 in Paris. It is one of the world’s largest arms fairs and an international gathering of politicians, dictators, civil servants and corporations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A teargas rep straightens his tie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Arms fairs may receive less press attention than COP meetings or the World Cup but they perhaps give a clearer indication of governments’ global priorities. </p>
<p>At Eurosatory, arms companies from around the world display missiles, bombs, fighter jets and tanks to an international clientele. Since the Arab spring, there has also been a section for crowd control euphemistically called “less lethal” weaponry. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A hostess with teargas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mannequins tower over the visitors, wearing armour, digital helmets and gasmasks, aiming guns, batons, shields and grenades. Cabinets display teargas, rubber bullets and stun grenades in neat clinical rows. One cabinet has the curiously named “moral effect grenades”. There are also drones, armoured police cars, surveillance systems and listening technologies. Sales staff demonstrate products and offer wine.</p>
<h2>Batons, shields and grenades</h2>
<p>Like any trade show, arms fairs have complimentary gifts - pens, sweets and stress-balls, except here they are based on weapons. </p>
<p>This year, there were stress-balls in the shape of grenades, camouflage ducks, catalogues showing crowds running away from police spraying teargas, and alongside this, key fobs with metallic representations of people running. Trapped on the ring, metal glinting under spotlights, the running figures show how arms companies treat repression as a sales opportunity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mannequin in a mask.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The UK Defence and Security Exports Department has identified both Egypt and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/27/britain-targets-qatar-priority-market-arms-sales">Qatar</a> as “key markets” and the UK government regularly invites <a href="https://caat.org.uk/news/arms-fair-opens-today-in-london-docklands-with-official-delegations-from-repressive-warring-states/">both countries</a> to the London arms fair, <a href="https://www.dsei.co.uk/">DSEI</a> (Defence and Security Equipment International). </p>
<p>Instead of tightening arms export controls for countries with dire records on human rights and civil liberties the UK government plans to relax them. I visited DSEI in September 2021 and listened as the defence secretary Ben Wallace promised closer ties between the government, arms companies and their clients. </p>
<p>“We’re making it easier for you to get an export licence by unblocking the approval bottlenecks,” <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/defence-secretary-dsei-keynote-speech-2021">Wallace said</a>. He also promised, that “they will be underpinned by robust accountability and always put the needs of the customer front and centre”. </p>
<p>Both promises seem rash when customers include leaders like Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Indeed, there can be no global security while governments are in the thrall of an industry that uses repression as a source of profit. Or while they continue to sell arms to countries that imprison activists rather than listen to them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jill Gibbon receives funding from the ISRF.</span></em></p>Razor wire, surveillance technologies and gated compounds – welcome to COP27.Jill Gibbon, Senior Lecturer in Graphic Arts, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1939062022-11-10T17:17:24Z2022-11-10T17:17:24ZCOP27: how young climate activists are changing international human rights law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494634/original/file-20221110-17-i3h2op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C47%2C4466%2C2943&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's still time to avert the worst of climate change.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-february-15-2019-protestors-1314679391">Ink Drop/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>World leaders and climate scientists aren’t the only ones who have gathered in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for the latest UN climate summit, COP27. Children and young people are also a big part of the conference.</p>
<p>For the first time, COP will have a <a href="https://www.ipinst.org/2022/10/youth-leaders-on-peace-and-climate-action-priorities-for-cop-27#4">Youth Envoy</a>, Omnia El Omrani, a final-year medical student at Ain Shams University in Egypt, who will help to ensure that youth climate advocates can meaningfully participate at COP27. And in another first, children and young people also have their own <a href="https://www.childrenandyouthpavilion.info">pavilion</a>, a space where a particular group can run their own events at COP.</p>
<p>Greater recognition in general has been given to the importance of young people’s concerns on climate crisis over the past few years. And young activists have long been working to secure environmental change. </p>
<p>Young people from indigenous communities, for example, such as US environmental activist <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/xiuhtezcatl-speaks-to-un_n_7715192">Xiuhtezcatl Martinez</a>, have worked hard to draw attention to the climate crisis. They were doing this even before the phenomenal success of Greta Thunberg’s solo vigil before the Swedish parliament, and the movements sparked by her.</p>
<p>As COP27 kicked off this week, executive secretary of the UN’s climate change body, Simon Stiell, <a href="https://twitter.com/simonstiell/status/1588780578714767361?ref_src=twsrc%255Etfw%257Ctwcamp%255Etweetembed%257Ctwterm%255E1588780578714767361%257Ctwgr%255E8d61da26a3c905a993af1df193aa1bc3ef9aa2ff%257Ctwcon%255Es1_&ref_url=https://unfccc.int/cop27">thanked youth advocates</a> for moving climate change to the front of the global agenda, clearly recognising all that has been done by young people. </p>
<p>But research shows that <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/article/doi/10.1525/elementa.433/114473/Applying-a-leverage-points-framework-to-the-United">stronger links are still needed</a> between youth climate action and young people’s roles in decision making processes. And while a <a href="https://www.ejiltalk.org/looking-behind-the-un-youth-office-considering-structural-limitations-of-youth-participation-after-the-party/">UN Youth Office</a> is being established to do just that, it’s clear that there’s still more that needs to be done.</p>
<h2>Changing the law</h2>
<p>This is especially the case when you consider how influential young climate advocates have been in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/hrlr/article/22/2/ngac011/6565727?searchresult=1">influencing international human rights law</a>. Dozens of cases around the world have been taken on by child and youth advocates in the past few years. </p>
<p>Some have been <a href="https://www.elgaronline.com/view/journals/jhre/13/1/article-p64.xml">successful in achieving legal change</a>. For example, in 2021 the Neubauer case saw the German constitutional supreme court <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/29/historic-german-ruling-says-climate-goals-not-tough-enough">compel the German government</a> to take “more urgent and shorter term measures” to curb carbon emissions.</p>
<p>Other climate applications, even where not successful legally, have had other effects. A groundbreaking climate <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-15-other-children-greta-thunberg-has-filed-a-un-complaint-against-5-countries-heres-what-itll-achieve-124090">complaint</a> by 15 children (Thunberg included) was made to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child against five of the biggest emitters. </p>
<p>The committee <a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1351&Lang=en">determined</a> that the application could not be heard in full (the applicants had to first go through domestic courts). Yet while doing so, <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-crisis-how-states-may-be-held-responsible-for-impact-on-children-170130">the committee found that</a> a government can, in theory, be held to account for the impact of its country’s carbon emissions on children, both within and outside of its borders – and a first for a UN body.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young climate protesters carry large banner." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494635/original/file-20221110-25-nbypli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494635/original/file-20221110-25-nbypli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494635/original/file-20221110-25-nbypli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494635/original/file-20221110-25-nbypli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494635/original/file-20221110-25-nbypli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494635/original/file-20221110-25-nbypli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494635/original/file-20221110-25-nbypli.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">Young protesters take matters into their own hands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/washington-april-29-protesters-climate-march-630541457">Rena Schild/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As well as setting new international law standards, these youth advocates have framed environmental harm as harm to an individual. This has contributed to greater recognition for an explicit right to a healthy environment. </p>
<p>Such a right has been talked about for some time and recognised in many countries at national level, but was recently explicitly recognised by the UN general assembly. It is <a href="https://www.universal-rights.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021_URG_R2HE_TIME_REPORT_MM.pdf">understood to have benefits</a> at national level, including the ability to rely on the principle in court – and academics have <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/reel.12430">argued that it gives better avenues</a> to legally tackle the climate crisis.</p>
<p>That children and young people are taking action in large numbers, including legal applications, should not be underestimated. Young people <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/11631">have always been active</a> in advocating for social justice and human rights. But youth climate action has made this clear on a global scale, and also shown that adults don’t just give children their rights – children can take matters into their own hands to influence law and policy.</p>
<p>The dire threat the climate crisis poses to humanity is disruptive in many ways. One change it has brought about is that children and young people feel compelled to <a href="https://www.childism.org/post/children-youth-climate-advocates-doing-rights-themselves-post-paternalism">work together, unprompted by adults</a>, to secure the right to a healthy environment. Many children and young people have been particularly good at <a href="https://academic.oup.com/hrlr/article/22/2/ngac011/6565727?searchresult=1">mobilising online</a>, and at commanding media attention for climate issues.</p>
<h2>What you can do</h2>
<p>Adults need to respond to this new dawn in child and youth advocacy on the climate and on environmental human rights. The steps taken by the UN such as a Youth Envoy for COP27 are certainly in the right direction. But children’s <a href="https://ceri-coalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/COP27-Position-Paper-Incorporating-Child-Rights-into-Climate-Action.pdf">interests and voices should be embedded</a> in all efforts to fight the climate crisis – these are key rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.</p>
<p>It must be ensured that children and young people are more able to influence how the right to a healthy environment is implemented. This means that governments must conduct <a href="http://enoc.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ENOC-Common-Framework-of-Reference-FV.pdf">impact assessments</a> which examine how laws, policies and practices affect children’s environmental rights. </p>
<p>It requires <a href="https://enoc.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022-Synthesis-Report-Climate-Justice.pdf">better local and national ways</a> to hold governments and polluting companies to account. It must also include embedding children’s and young people’s voices into consultative processes on the environment, as recently occurred in <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/2022/10/23/we-shouldnt-be-hurting-our-planet-youth-assembly-calls-for-greater-input-into-biodiversity/">Ireland’s biodiversity assembly</a>. </p>
<p>Children and young people must also be recognised <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/nord/91/3/article-p419_004.xml">as being equal to adults</a> when it comes to being able to contribute to decisions on law and policy. And rather than simply assuming that adults will protect children’s rights, we must share knowledge and experiences <a href="https://gchumanrights.org/preparedness/article-on/the-right-of-children-to-a-healthy-environment-intergenerational-rights-are-childrens-rights.html">across generations</a>.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, some young climate activists have already reported that they are <a href="https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20221107-why-are-we-here-climate-activists-shunted-to-cop27-sidelines">feeling restricted</a> from demonstrating at COP27. This is disappointing but children and young people will continue to hold governments and others to account through protest, litigation, and other ways. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ropBOwPvmLM">As Thunberg has said</a>, young people are “showing our leaders that they messed with the wrong generation”. Indeed, given how much young people have achieved in the fight against climate crisis it’s crucial their voices are really heard at COP27.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aoife Daly receives funding from the Ragnar Soderberg Foundation for her research.
Aoife would like to thank Alicia O'Sullivan for advice on this article. Alicia is a youth climate advocate, a law student, and a research assistant at the Centre for Law and the Environment, University College Cork <a href="https://www.ucc.ie/en/lawenvironment/people/">https://www.ucc.ie/en/lawenvironment/people/</a></span></em></p>Given how much young people have achieved in the fight against climate crisis it’s crucial their voices are really heard at COP27.Aoife Daly, Lecturer in Law, University College CorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1941892022-11-08T18:08:22Z2022-11-08T18:08:22ZUS midterms: why gambling markets often predict elections more accurately than polls<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494121/original/file-20221108-18-97frpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Polls Vs betting on who will win control of Congress.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/set-realistic-circle-pins-badge-us-2192804145">Andychi/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year’s US midterms are on a razor’s edge. </p>
<p>In the summer it appeared the US <a href="https://theconversation.com/roe-overturned-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-supreme-court-abortion-decision-184692">supreme court’s ruling on abortion</a> and some legislative successes – most notably <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/">Build Back Better</a>, a post-COVID infrastructure and social policy package – benefited the Democrats. It was believed they would overturn the <a href="https://www.newsy.com/stories/why-does-the-president-s-party-typically-lose-midterms/">long-held pattern</a> of the president’s party losing seats two years after election. But as autumn set in, the tide turned, with <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63434894">economic pains</a> and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/10/31/violent-crime-is-a-key-midterm-voting-issue-but-what-does-the-data-say/">crime rates</a> thought to be fuelling a <a href="https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2022/10/20/us-midterm-elections-poll-predictions-suggest-republican-resurgence.html">Republican resurgence</a>.</p>
<p>With control of the House of Representatives now highly likely to pass to the Republicans, all eyes are on control of the US Senate. The chamber is currently controlled – just – by the Democrats and 35 of the 100 seats are in play.</p>
<p>The key races are in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona, each with their own specific issues, including <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3pdwb/self-managed-abortion-pills-arizona">secret abortions</a>, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/midterm-elections-2022/john-fetterman-stroke-health-age-b2219767.html">stroke recoveries</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/19/1129754080/herschel-walker-bought-1000-fake-badges-controversy">fake police badges</a>.</p>
<p>So, who will win? I don’t know. But there are two places to get relatively unspun data on what might happen: <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/">polls</a> and <a href="https://smarkets.com/politics">gambling markets</a> or so-called “prediction markets”. As an anthropologist, I have been looking at the rise in political gambling throughout 2022 to find out how speculating on political events shapes <a href="https://www.isrf.org/fellows-projects/anthony-pickles/">how politics is understood</a>.</p>
<h2>Election Polling</h2>
<p>Using the latest polling in the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/georgia-senate-polls-herschel-walker-vs-raphael-warnock-b2220321.html">US Senate race in Georgia</a> as an example, a big advantage of election polling is that it’s easy for the public to understand. Once the numbers are crunched they can be <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2022/senate/ga/georgia-senate-walker-vs-warnock-7329.html">expressed as</a>: “Herschel Walker is on 48.8% while Raphael Warnock is on 47.4%”, which looks just the same as the vote count will look. In other words, Herschel Walker is in the lead and will probably win.</p>
<p>But polling itself is inexact and difficult to get right. Assuming polling organisations are not <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/05/upshot/polling-averages-midterm-election.html?unlocked_article_code=xRVMS4FOqm7QWmRolgLT7R5BUyhJneU2_KnKqQmOh4vFJYu40Qa9_jRSJw_2t48m7fi7V0eSdCjIC5_pDF7LNqU5UqlvE474onw6vy3L_NosEo0vMBRu7LoqHqaUg6xg9YR_7yfiZz57ol3eTVUou">manipulating their methods</a> to get a result that favours their preferred candidate, they will nevertheless be <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2378023118791080">playing</a> <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-pollsters-to-trust-in-2018/">“whack-a-mole” with different biases</a>. </p>
<p>These can include <a href="https://methods.sagepub.com/reference/encyclopedia-of-survey-research-methods/n486.xml">how participants are selected</a> or how the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/poq/article-abstract/12/1/99/1810859">questions are asked </a>. And compensating for one <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-019-09532-1">bias</a> can potentially cause another. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-biased-polls-skew-elections-experimental-evidence-says-yes-121651">Do biased polls skew elections? Experimental evidence says yes</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>The other issue is that polls can only ever measure a snapshot in time, and that snapshot is always in the past. In response to both these issues, informed audiences pay increasing attention to what’s known as “weighted polling averages”. These try to combine polls in a way that accounts for biases – such as compensating for how much <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls">Fox News polls</a> typically overestimate Republican candidates or giving less weight to polls with a bad track record. The more bullish forecasters run projection models many times and report who wins most often. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="One-armed bandit slot machine." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494149/original/file-20221108-19-bvvy7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494149/original/file-20221108-19-bvvy7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494149/original/file-20221108-19-bvvy7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494149/original/file-20221108-19-bvvy7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494149/original/file-20221108-19-bvvy7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494149/original/file-20221108-19-bvvy7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494149/original/file-20221108-19-bvvy7i.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">Do betting markets know best?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/onearmed-bandit-slot-machine-pop-art-1328094668">studiostoks/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>At the time of writing, <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/">FiveThirtyEight</a>, the highest profile of these organisations, has several different versions of its polling model. One based solely on weighted polling has the Democrats winning the Senate 55 times out of 100. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/methodology/how-fivethirtyeights-house-and-senate-models-work/">“deluxe” model</a>, which incorporates indicators such as fundraising and experts’ ratings, has Republicans winning a majority in 54 out of 100 runs of their model. But less than two weeks ago, the deluxe prediction was the opposite: Democrats won 54 times out of 100. </p>
<h2>Political betting</h2>
<p>Political gambling, on the other hand, tells us something quite different. The odds simply tell you how much money you can expect to get – the rate of return – on different bets. In the UK, this rate has traditionally been set by gambling company employees called handicappers who have the job of making sure that bets are placed for both sides and that a profit for the companies is built in. </p>
<p>But the use of what’s known as betting exchanges has changed this somewhat. Betting exchanges are different to traditional betting sites in that they allow gamblers to bet against each other rather than a bookmaker. </p>
<p>Exchanges also allow players to bet against the odds of something happening. This is known as a lay bet or laying a bet, which simply means betting against an outcome. Most serious political gamblers bet with each other through the exchanges, where, for a fee, they can take either side of any bet, switching between being the bookie and the punter as and when it suits them. </p>
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<p>One thing about the political gambling markets is that they are highly reactive to news. For instance, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/06/us/politics/dr-oz-muslim-religion.html">Mehmet Oz</a>, saw his odds shorten from 1.93 (52% likely to win) to 1.53 (65% likely) during his televised debate with Democrat <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/06/us/politics/fetterman-stroke-election.html">John Fetterman</a>. The latter visibly struggled to speak, clearly still affected by his recent stroke. </p>
<p>In this sense, markets react faster than the snappiest snap poll. The political gambling community itself would turn a pollster’s stomach. I have found it to be overwhelmingly made up of white, educated, males who are mathematically inclined and politically sophisticated (including a good number of politicians themselves). Yet there are quite a few <a href="http://ubplj.org/index.php/jpm/article/view/981">statistical analyses</a> that credit the markets collectively as more predicatively powerful than polls. </p>
<p>That said, betting market information expressed in probabilities – for example, Herschel Walker is given a 61% chance of winning and Raphael Warnock is given a 41% chance of winning – is much less intuitive to the public. This is because, unlike a poll, in betting markets a lead of 61% to 41% actually indicates a tight contest where either candidate could well win.</p>
<p>It’s also worth adding that the legal status of prediction markets and gambling on politics in the US is complicated <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/betting-on-elections-can-tell-us-a-lot-why-is-it-mostly-illegal">at the moment</a>. Many bets are placed but there’s a question mark over <a href="https://www.yogonet.com/international//news/2022/08/08/63741-us-political-betting-platform-predictit-sees-regulatory-authorization-revoked">the legality of political betting</a> as historically it was illegal in the US. </p>
<h2>Predictions and forecasting</h2>
<p>So, with all this in mind what can the polls and betting markets tell us about the results of the US mid-terms? On the British outlet <a href="https://smarkets.com/">Smarkets</a>, the Republicans gained the upper hand decisively on the 20th of October – 11 days before they did on <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/">FiveThirtyEight</a>. </p>
<p>On US and cryptocurrency sites, such as <a href="https://www.predictit.org/#_=_">PredictIt</a> and <a href="https://polymarket.com/markets">Polymarket</a> which style themselves as <a href="https://www.predictit.org/insight">“prediction markets”</a>, the shift came earlier still. </p>
<p>Prices on Smarkets rate the Republicans as 65% likely to control the Senate. Punters are significantly more bullish on this than the predictions of FiveThirtyEight (45% on polls alone, 54% with other metrics) and most other polling aggregators.</p>
<p>Who is correct? We will soon see. I do have one prediction though, the more tumultuous and data-heavy our democratic politics becomes, the more influential the highly reactive odds from political gambling will be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Pickles receives funding from the Independent Social Research Foundation. He has bet on the outcome of the US midterms as a part of his anthropological fieldwork using the betting exchanges on Smarkets and Betfair, </span></em></p>Who will win the US midterms, the polls, or the gambling markets?Anthony Pickles, Lecturer in Social Anthropology and International Development, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1861932022-10-03T12:07:51Z2022-10-03T12:07:51ZNobel prizes most often go to researchers who defy specialization – winners are creative thinkers who synthesize innovations from varied fields and even hobbies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485700/original/file-20220920-11051-rp5ijw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5700%2C3797&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Innovative ideas spring from many sources, research finds.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/network-data-transfer-speed-royalty-free-image/1379013647">Yuichiro Chino/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Experts often recommend that people <a href="https://hbr.org/2011/07/the-big-idea-the-age-of-hyperspecialization">specialize in one field of work</a> or research to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/03/09/why-leaders-must-be-experts-keys-to-success-from-ge/?sh=26db7fd12cf3">maximize their chances of success</a>. Yet our recently published research indicates that successful innovators take a broader path.</p>
<p>We looked at the careers of <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes/">Nobel Prize winners</a>, who are arguably among the most innovative people in the world. We found that they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2020.1751545">unusually likely</a> to be what we call “creative polymaths.” That is, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2022.2051294">purposely integrate formal and informal expertise</a> from widely varied disciplines to yield new and useful ideas and practices. </p>
<p>In fact, the testimony of science laureates who were students of previous laureates suggests that creative polymathy is a skill that can be learned. We have written about some of these in our books “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/25233880">Discovering</a>” and “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/47906414">Sparks of Genius</a>.” </p>
<p>Many of these laureates discover problems by looking at topics in new ways, or they solve them by transferring skills, techniques and materials from one field to another. They often use <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/47906414">conceptual tools</a> such as making analogies, pattern recognition, body thinking, playacting and modeling. In one notable example, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1912/carrel/facts/">Alexis Carrel</a> won his Nobel Prize in medicine in 1912 by adapting lace-making and embroidery <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/organ-transplantation-owes-a-great-debt-to-this-19th-century-french-embroiderer">techniques to transplant surgery</a>.</p>
<h2>A psychologist, inventor and economist</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485692/original/file-20220920-9768-362gpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a suit sits behind a desk covered in books and papers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485692/original/file-20220920-9768-362gpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485692/original/file-20220920-9768-362gpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485692/original/file-20220920-9768-362gpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485692/original/file-20220920-9768-362gpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485692/original/file-20220920-9768-362gpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485692/original/file-20220920-9768-362gpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485692/original/file-20220920-9768-362gpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Herbert Simon, the 1978 Nobel Prize winner in economics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HERBERTSIMONECONOMIST/21e580304ee1da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo">AP Photo</a></span>
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<p>Herbert Simon won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1978 for “his pioneering research into <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1978/summary/">the decision-making process within economic organizations</a>.” </p>
<p>He was a professor in <a href="http://diva.library.cmu.edu/Simon/">several departments at Carnegie Mellon University</a>. His colleagues often called him a “<a href="https://publisher.abc-clio.com/9780313017049/">Renaissance man</a>” because of his vast range of interests and wide-ranging curiosity. Over the course of his career, he made major contributions to the study of computer science, artificial intelligence, psychology and philosophy, as well as economics. </p>
<p>Beyond Simon’s scholarly work, his additional interests included <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262691857/models-of-my-life/">piano playing, musical composition</a>, drawing, painting and chess.</p>
<p>He often referred to the intellectual excitement, emotional pleasure and novel insights he derived from integrating his many hobbies with his work. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262691857/models-of-my-life/">I can rationalize any activity I engage in</a> as simply another form of research on cognition,” he declared in his 1996 autobiography. He went on to add, “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262691857/models-of-my-life/">I can always view my hobbies</a> as part of my research.”</p>
<h2>A geneticist, illustrator and cookbook author</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485693/original/file-20220920-15-cz6ne9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman sits at a computer amid an office filled with images and books." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485693/original/file-20220920-15-cz6ne9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485693/original/file-20220920-15-cz6ne9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485693/original/file-20220920-15-cz6ne9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485693/original/file-20220920-15-cz6ne9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485693/original/file-20220920-15-cz6ne9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485693/original/file-20220920-15-cz6ne9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485693/original/file-20220920-15-cz6ne9.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>
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<span class="caption">Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, the 1995 Nobel Prize winner in physics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/july-2020-baden-wuerttemberg-t%C3%BCbingen-christiane-n%C3%BCsslein-news-photo/1227734046">Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard combined an equally diverse range of skills to win the 1995 Nobel Prize in physiology – or medicine – which was awarded for her “<a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1995/nusslein-volhard/facts/">discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development</a>.” </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1995/nusslein-volhard/interview">I’m very curious and I like to understand things</a>,” she said in a 2003 interview, “and not only science … I also did music and I did languages and literature and so on.” </p>
<p>That included forays as an <a href="https://thenode.biologists.com/interview-christiane-nusslein-volhard/interview/">illustrator, puzzle designer and author</a> of a best-selling cookbook.</p>
<p>As a science student, Nüsslein-Volhard proved equally broad-minded, trying physics, physical chemistry and biochemistry before settling on embryology. Her many professional and personal interests proved useful in coming up with new questions and techniques, and in order to produce novel results. She <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1995/nusslein-volhard/interview/">advises scholars to become similarly broad and idiosyncratic</a>.</p>
<p>In a 2017 interview, she said, “<a href="https://thenode.biologists.com/interview-christiane-nusslein-volhard/interview/">You should, as far as possible, avoid mainstream areas</a> and change fields after your Ph.D. in order to be able to develop an independent profile and work on an original, self-selected topic.”</p>
<h2>The importance of creative polymathy</h2>
<p>We have found that Carrel, Nüsslein-Volhard and Simon are typical of Nobel Prize winners – but not at all typical of most professionals. As part of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_a_E9pgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">our creativity research</a> over the past 20 years, we have gathered information about the work, hobbies and interests of 773 laureates in economics, literature, peace, physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine between 1901 and 2008. </p>
<p>We found that the vast majority of laureates have or had formal – and often also informal – education in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2020.1751545">more than one discipline</a>, developed intensive and extensive hobbies and changed fields. Most importantly, we found, they have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2022.2051294">intentionally sought out useful connections</a> among their diverse activities as a formal strategy for stimulating creativity.</p>
<p>Our analysis finds that scientists who win a Nobel Prize are about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2020.1751545">nine times more likely</a> to have training in crafts such as wood- and metalworking or fine arts than the typical scientist.</p>
<p>And unlike most social scientists or other students of the humanities, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2020.1751545">Nobel laureates in economics</a> are almost universally trained in mathematics, physics or astronomy. Nobel Prize winners in literature are about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2020.1751545">three times as likely</a> to be fine artists and 20 times as likely to be actors than members of the general public.</p>
<p>In sharp contrast to <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.12759v2">typical professionals</a> who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj0802_2">view their hobbies as irrelevant</a> or even detrimental to their work, Nobel laureates perceive their varied interests and hobbies as important stimulants.</p>
<p>As playwright and actor Dario Fo, winner of the 1997 Nobel for literature, and also a painter, put it in an interview: “<a href="https://donaldfriedman.com/books/the-writers-brush/">Sometimes I draw my plays</a> before I write them, and other times, when I’m having difficulty with a play, I stop writing so that I can draw out the action in pictures to solve the problem.”</p>
<p>We have found that most Nobel laureates have made equivalent statements.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485699/original/file-20220920-18-xy06q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A metal circle with a man's profile cast on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485699/original/file-20220920-18-xy06q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485699/original/file-20220920-18-xy06q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485699/original/file-20220920-18-xy06q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485699/original/file-20220920-18-xy06q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485699/original/file-20220920-18-xy06q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485699/original/file-20220920-18-xy06q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485699/original/file-20220920-18-xy06q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leonardo da Vinci, depicted on this medallion, was a famous polymath during the European Renaissance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/medalion-depicting-leonardo-da-vinci-leonardo-di-ser-piero-news-photo/1414123095">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Fostering creative polymathy</h2>
<p>We believe it is possible to foster the fruitful interaction of wide-ranging interests. One study found that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279985369_Double_Majors_Influences_Identities_and_Impacts">people who double major in college</a> are more likely to exhibit creative behaviors or become entrepreneurs than people who majored in one subject. </p>
<p>Another research study found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1202_1">having a persistent, intellectually challenging hobby</a> – such as musical performance, acting, visual art exhibition, competitive chess or computer programming – is a better predictor of career success in any field than are grades, standardized test scores or IQ. Similarly, our own research has found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807189116">science professionals with persistent crafts hobbies</a> are significantly <a href="https://doi.org/10.21300/20.3.2019.197">more likely to file patents</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891242413486186">set up new companies</a> than those without.</p>
<p>In our view, an increasingly complex and diverse world needs not only specialized experts but also creative generalists – the polymathic types who specialize in the breadth and integration that drive knowledge beyond what people already believe is possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some of the most innovative people in the world earn Nobel Prizes. Scholars of creativity identify what they have in common and what regular people can learn and emulate from their examples.Robert Root-Bernstein, Professor of Physiology, Michigan State UniversityMichele Root-Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Theater, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1755112022-02-17T03:51:08Z2022-02-17T03:51:08ZWhy the ‘interdisciplinary’ push in universities is actually a dangerous antidisciplinary trend<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444201/original/file-20220203-19-ldnmmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4870%2C3224&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>Interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary are all nice buzzwords. But talk of “breaking down the barriers” is all too often a cover for breaking down academic disciplines to create administrative flexibility. This is a disaster in the making for both research and education. </p>
<p>This is why the proposal to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/line-in-the-sand-sydney-university-academics-fury-over-dumped-departments-20211126-p59cii.html">abolish departments in the arts and social sciences</a> at the University of Sydney met such a heated response. That response led to a <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/reform-goes-ahead-in-uni-of-sydneys-arts-and-social-sciences-faculty/news-story/f93b5d066536a1b8dc102e8bf76bb0c0">substantial revision of the proposal</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1488290801054793728"}"></div></p>
<p>Universities need to learn to recognise antidisciplinarity and avoid it. Running through the initial restructuring proposal was the idea that academic disciplines are “silos” that stand in the way of interdisciplinary research and teaching. This is a complete misunderstanding: strong disciplines are the essential foundation of interdisciplinarity. </p>
<h2>What is interdisciplinarity?</h2>
<p>Interdisciplinary research uses knowledge and skills from different disciplines to target a specific problem. Interdisciplinary teaching examines the same question from different disciplinary perspectives. If universities are to meet today’s challenges, whether that is climate change and extinction or reconciliation and closing the gap, they need to support interdisciplinary research and education. </p>
<p>I have the privilege of working in the University of Sydney’s <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/charles-perkins-centre/about.html">Charles Perkins Centre</a>. This interdisciplinary research centre was created because solving the problem of lifestyle diseases requires input not only from medicine and the biosciences, but also economics, political science, law, engineering and the humanities and creative arts. </p>
<p>Interdisciplinary teams, when assembled with insight and managed with skill, can achieve extraordinary results. But the foundations of those results are strong disciplines.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/science-in-silos-isnt-such-a-bad-thing-43325">Science in silos isn't such a bad thing</a>
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<p>An interdisciplinary team is not a group of people trained in “interdisciplinarity”. It’s a group of people who have deep knowledge and sound judgment in their disciplines. </p>
<p>I once worked with an international collaboration that was standardising how some biomolecules are named. I was not invited as an interdisciplinary scholar who knows a bit about molecular biology, but as an expert in the history and philosophy of biological classification. A key skill in an interdisciplinary team is knowing when to defer to other people’s disciplinary expertise. That is what they are there for.</p>
<h2>What are the warning signs of antidisciplinarity?</h2>
<p>Truly interdisciplinary work is likely to reach right across the university and beyond. </p>
<p>If an “interdisciplinary” initiative encourages people from the same administrative unit or “cost centre” to work together and even discourages involving people from another cost centre, that should set off alarm bells. It’s likely not an interdisciplinary initiative at all, but an effort to force intellectual activity into an ill-fitting administrative box. That is antidisciplinarity in action.</p>
<p>A discipline is much more than a particular stream of courses in the undergraduate syllabus, despite efforts to redefine it as such. A discipline is an international community of expertise. </p>
<p>A discipline is the group within which one expert can legitimately judge another expert’s work. A historian, an epidemiologist or a quantum theorist is best placed to judge whether work in history, epidemiology or quantum theory is good work. They can tell if a course covers the right material. They can also tell who is the most promising candidate for employment or for promotion. </p>
<p>If these day-to-day management decisions are not made by disciplinary experts, bullshit can flourish. That is why universities were traditionally organised into departments based on a discipline or tightly related disciplines like the different branches of physics.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-open-minds-explores-how-academic-freedom-and-the-public-university-are-at-risk-156213">Book review: Open Minds explores how academic freedom and the public university are at risk</a>
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<h2>And what about educating students?</h2>
<p>Interdisciplinary education is better described as multidisciplinary, since what it really does is expose students to multiple disciplinary perspectives. </p>
<p>In a truly interdisciplinary project each participant has a different perspective on the problem. They negotiate through these differences to a shared – and often highly innovative – approach. That is one reason interdisciplinary teams are so powerful. </p>
<p>But only the most advanced undergraduate students have started to develop a disciplinary mindset. They can learn to work in a group – an important skill – but they are not collaborating as discipline experts. We should not be training students to think that having “done your research”, as we now say, is a substitute for disciplinary expertise. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-university-course-on-pandemics-what-we-learned-when-80-experts-300-alumni-and-600-students-showed-up-156277">A university course on pandemics: What we learned when 80 experts, 300 alumni and 600 students showed up</a>
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<h2>This does not mean disciplines are set in stone</h2>
<p>Disciplines are continually evolving. The changing structure of knowledge itself drives this evolution. The administrative structures of universities must accommodate these changes or become obstacles to progress. </p>
<p>For example, retired biologists will remember departments of botany, zoology and microbiology, with a department of biochemistry somewhere else in the university. The molecular revolution in biology dissolved those divisions as the ideas and techniques of the life sciences became more broadly integrated.</p>
<p>But a university cannot create meaningful disciplines or interdisciplinary fields by creating administrative units. Back in 1900 it was common for philosophy and psychology to sit together in departments of “moral sciences” or “mental and moral philosophy”. If we did that today it would not create an exciting new synergy. It would just make life difficult for everyone involved – staff and students. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1487085240237670405"}"></div></p>
<p>Like running a research team, running a university means knowing when to defer to discplinary expertise. Those actively involved in creating knowledge understand best what will create synergy and what will merely create confusion.</p>
<h2>Disciplines are not the real problem</h2>
<p>Administrative structures do frequently do stand in the way of interdisciplinary research and teaching. But the problem is not that people are fenced off in different disciplines. It is that they are fenced off in different cost centres, unable to collaborate because income would be “lost” to another part of the university.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/2-out-of-3-members-of-university-governing-bodies-have-no-professional-expertise-in-the-sector-theres-the-making-of-a-crisis-171952">2 out of 3 members of university governing bodies have no professional expertise in the sector. There's the making of a crisis</a>
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<p>It would be convenient if every administrative unit was an interdisciplinary synergy, where everyone wants to collaborate and no-one wants to collaborate with a different cost centre. But wishing will not make it so. </p>
<p>It would be convenient if academics cared more about whether their research and teaching are profitable and a bit less about whether they are credible in their discipline. But unless research and teaching have credibility with disciplinary experts a university loses its social licence to operate. </p>
<p>Antidisciplinarity arises from an understandable frustration with these facts among those who must manage university budgets. But it’s a recipe for poor research and poor education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175511/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul E. Griffiths receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the John Templeton Foundation</span></em></p>Talk of “breaking down the barriers” is all too often a cover for breaking down academic disciplines to create administrative flexibility.Paul E. Griffiths, Professor of Philosophy, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1740732022-02-04T13:28:21Z2022-02-04T13:28:21ZEconomic migration: the root problem is not smugglers but global inequality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444122/original/file-20220202-27-1adpxe1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=152%2C39%2C4262%2C2461&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of migrants crossing the Channel in a small boat headed in the direction of Dover, Kent.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/a-group-of-people-thought-to-be-migrants-crossing-the-channel-in-a-small-boat-headed-in-the-direction-of-dover-kent-image368232181.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=9CDCC76F-1374-4DA7-BBB3-62ED16187E58&p=309277&n=151&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3Dbar%26st%3D0%26sortby%3D2%26qt%3Dmigrants%2520crossing%2520uk%26qt_raw%3Dmigrants%2520crossing%2520uk%26qn%3D%26lic%3D3%26edrf%3D0%26mr%3D0%26pr%3D0%26aoa%3D1%26creative%3D%26videos%3D%26nu%3D%26ccc%3D%26bespoke%3D%26apalib%3D%26ag%3D0%26hc%3D0%26et%3D0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3D0%26loc%3D0%26ot%3D0%26imgt%3D0%26dtfr%3D20200126%26dtto%3D20240126%26size%3D0xFF%26blackwhite%3D%26cutout%3D%26archive%3D1%26name%3D%26groupid%3D%26pseudoid%3D70857%26userid%3D%26id%3D%26a%3D%26xstx%3D0%26cbstore%3D0%26resultview%3DsortbyPopular%26lightbox%3D%26gname%3D%26gtype%3D%26apalic%3D%26tbar%3D1%26pc%3D%26simid%3D%26cap%3D1%26customgeoip%3DGB%26vd%3D0%26cid%3D%26pe%3D%26so%3D%26lb%3D%26pl%3D0%26plno%3D%26fi%3D0%26langcode%3Den%26upl%3D0%26cufr%3D%26cuto%3D%26howler%3D%26cvrem%3D0%26cvtype%3D0%26cvloc%3D0%26cl%3D0%26upfr%3D%26upto%3D%26primcat%3D%26seccat%3D%26cvcategory%3D*%26restriction%3D%26random%3D%26ispremium%3D1%26flip%3D0%26contributorqt%3D%26plgalleryno%3D%26plpublic%3D0%26viewaspublic%3D0%26isplcurate%3D0%26imageurl%3D%26saveQry%3D%26editorial%3D%26t%3D0%26filters%3D1">Alamy Stock Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Migration has always been a regular feature of human existence, but these days it is more visible – and politicised – than ever. <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2016/05/refugees-welcome-index-shows-government-refugee-policies-out-of-touch/">A 2016 survey</a> found the vast majority of people (80%) would welcome refugees, in agreement with the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/uk/1951-refugee-convention.html">1951 UN refugee convention</a> that those fleeing wars or at serious risk of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality or political opinion have the right to cross borders and seek asylum.</p>
<p>However, there is much less consensus about those fleeing poverty to seek a better future. We are all familiar with the <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/shifting-uk-press-portrayals-of-eu-migrants/">negative narratives</a> about so-called “economic migrants”, “coming to steal our jobs”, “scrounge off the state”, “overburden the system”, or “undermine our culture and values”.</p>
<p>Even those who oppose such misplaced stereotypes may still be uncomfortable with easing border and visa restrictions because of economic concerns. Migrants who attempt to reach other countries by “illegal” means are also often <a href="https://www.bustle.com/p/how-to-argue-asylum-seekers-arent-irresponsible-for-bringing-kids-to-the-us-15913325">branded “irresponsible”</a> for embarking on dangerous journeys with vulnerable children. </p>
<p>Hunting the Essex Lorry Killers, a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010ldl">recent BBC documentary</a>, looked at the 2019 case of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were found dead in the back of a refrigerated lorry trailer in Essex. The documentary repeated the popular notion <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-55403058">often promoted by politicians</a> that smuggling gangs are responsible for these tragic deaths. And certainly, migration brokers can <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/dec/25/revealed-the-secret-forced-labour-migration-route-from-vietnam-to-the-uk">make a lot of money</a> by supplying illicit transport services in this highly problematic market.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SnTBAHUi4Lg?wmode=transparent&start=1370" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>But in <a href="https://youtu.be/SnTBAHUi4Lg?t=1370">another documentary</a> interviewing the families of those victims back in Vietnam, one bereaved father gave a very different perspective. He stated that the reason his son was dead was “because of the currency difference. He went there just for that difference.”</p>
<p>In other words, while smugglers do contribute to undocumented migration, the root cause is actually <a href="https://mixedmigration.org/articles/the-free-market-paradox-is-migration-capitalisms-unfinished-business/">global inequality</a>. This inequality is reproduced and perpetuated by many multinational companies within a wider economic system that serves to directly benefit the most wealthy and, indirectly, industrialised countries, at the expense of others.</p>
<h2>Limited options</h2>
<p>As part of my <a href="https://www.isrf.org/fellows-projects/seb-rumsby/">ongoing research</a>, I have interviewed many undocumented Vietnamese migrants who come to the UK to find work and send money back home. Most of them are from rural provinces that have been “left behind” by the rapid development of Vietnam’s major metropolitan hubs. </p>
<p>A common option in Vietnam involves moving to a big city or industrial zone, to work very long, exhausting shifts at a mega-factory assembling electronics for a salary of around <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-samsung-elec-smartphones-vietnam-idUSKBN12E113">£7-£10 per day</a>. This is relatively well paid compared to the <a href="http://www.salaryexplorer.com/salary-survey.php?loc=236&loctype=1">average salary</a> for unskilled workers in Vietnam, which is around £110 a month. </p>
<p>But without a decent education or the right personal connections, it’s impossible to move up the social ladder. Interviewees described this situation as a “dead-end” with no hope for a better future for their children in Vietnam. </p>
<p><a href="https://ipen.org/news/samsung-workers-line%c2%a0unique-report-reveals-lives-vietnamese-women-workers-making-samsung-smart">A report from 2017</a> found workers at a Samsung factory in Vietnam reported extreme fatigue, fainting, dizziness and even miscarriages due to poor working conditions. Samsung has <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/samsung-responds-to-report-on-working-conditions-at-manufacturing-facilities-in-vietnam/">denied these claims</a>, stating that it “takes great care to provide a workplace environment that assures the highest standards of health, safety and welfare”. Following these allegations and an internal audit, Samsung also adopted a “corrective action plan”.</p>
<h2>The bigger picture</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="http://hanoitimes.vn/samsung-vietnam-generates-us43-billion-in-profits-in-2019-311239.html">Samsung has made huge profits</a> in Vietnam. This happens all across the world: multinational corporations take advantage of cheap labour in poorer countries through <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1024529418809067">global supply chains</a>. A 2011 <a href="https://webzoom.freewebs.com/phsworldhistory/AP%20WH%20Unit%20V/Value_iPad_iPhone.pdf">study of an iPhone factory in China</a>, for example, found that Apple only paid 1.8% of the finished product value to the factory workers, while the company reaped an enormous 58.5% in profits. </p>
<p>In response to <a href="http://sacom.hk/2012/05/30/investigative-report-sweatshops-are-good-for-apple-and-foxconn-but-not-for-workers/">separate allegations</a> raised about working conditions in iPhone factories, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49634866">Apple said</a>: “We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain … [and] insist that our suppliers treat workers with dignity and respect.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434127/original/file-20211126-23-3mca5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Distribution of value for iPhone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434127/original/file-20211126-23-3mca5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434127/original/file-20211126-23-3mca5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434127/original/file-20211126-23-3mca5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434127/original/file-20211126-23-3mca5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434127/original/file-20211126-23-3mca5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434127/original/file-20211126-23-3mca5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434127/original/file-20211126-23-3mca5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Distribution of value for iPhone, 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Distribution-of-value-for-iPhone-2010_fig1_265187229">Kenneth L. Kraemer, Greg Linden, Jason Dedrick</a></span>
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<p>Since the late 1970s, the richest 1% have <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality">increased their share of global wealth</a> from 23% to <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/distribution-of-global-wealth-chart/">a staggering 43%</a> – with the <a href="https://inequality.org/facts/global-inequality/">wealthiest four people in the world</a> worth more than the entire country of Vietnam. Multinational corporations represent a continuation of historical exploitation and wealth flow from developing countries to <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Companies/HNZA71LNVNNVXQ1eaIKu6M/British-Raj-siphoned-out-45-trillion-from-India-Utsa-Patna.html">Europe under colonialism</a>, which funded the west’s dramatic rise to prosperity in the first place. </p>
<p>In an unequal world, it makes sense for those in poorer countries with limited options to follow the money to a more developed country, find a low-skilled job, work hard and then send some money back home. This may lead Vietnamese migrants to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany – or <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9290379/Dinghy-lands-Kent-coast-men-sling-life-jackets-dash-pebbles.html">all the way to the UK</a>. Such movement, however, is often forbidden, forcing people to risk potentially <a href="https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnamese-man-among-27-migrants-drowned-in-channel-4404632.html">deadly border crossings</a> under the radar. </p>
<h2>Economic migration as justice?</h2>
<p>In our interviews, Vietnamese migrants told me they can earn up to 10 times more by working in a UK nail shop than they could hope to earn back in Vietnam. So it’s not surprising that people would want to try their luck abroad. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Women sit at a nail salon." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436958/original/file-20211210-92077-100i51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436958/original/file-20211210-92077-100i51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436958/original/file-20211210-92077-100i51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436958/original/file-20211210-92077-100i51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436958/original/file-20211210-92077-100i51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436958/original/file-20211210-92077-100i51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436958/original/file-20211210-92077-100i51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vietnamese nail salons have grown rapidly in recent years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/professional-nail-technicians-performing-manicure-procedure-779132584">BearFotos/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, considering the mass exploitation of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329278381_Migrant_Workers_for_the_Development_of_Industrial_Zones_in_Bac_Ninh_Province_Vietnam">Vietnamese labour</a> by foreign corporations (which has exacerbated global inequality), it could be argued that economic migration is a matter of justice and that it’s only fair and reasonable that migrants should seek a portion of the extracted labour value that should have stayed in Vietnam.</p>
<p>So if we really want to reduce migration, we must treat it as an inevitable by-product of inequality and address the root causes – instead of simply blaming smugglers or washing our hands of the migrants’ plight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174073/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seb Rumsby receives funding from the Independent Social Research Foundation.</span></em></p>Perhaps the best way to understand the reasons why people embark on these journeys is to put yourself in their shoes.Seb Rumsby, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Politics and International Studies, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1757142022-01-27T11:48:04Z2022-01-27T11:48:04ZTaylor Swift v Damon Albarn: why the idea of the lone songwriter is outdated<p>Damon Albarn, the lead singer of Blur and Gorillaz, has recently been criticised for his “outdated” views of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60121132">modern songwriting</a>. In an interview with the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-01-23/damon-albarn-blur-gorillaz">LA Times</a>, Albarn explained that US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift’s “co-writing” approach was at odds with his “traditionalist” view of writing songs. He went on to say that co-writing “doesn’t count” as songwriting.</p>
<p>Calling out fellow songwriters for not writing their own material is bad form for musicians, particularly so given that the definition of songwriting has become ever more fluid over time, and depends greatly on the genre of music. Pop music is often written collaboratively, and these teams are becoming larger. Indeed, 2017 analysis by <a href="https://www.musicweek.com/publishing/read/songwriting-why-it-takes-more-than-two-to-make-a-hit-nowadays/068478">Music Week magazine</a> shows it now takes an average of four and a half writers to create a hit single. </p>
<p>The process of creating songs has both integrated itself within and kicked against the industrialisation of the music industry. And it has developed hand in hand with <a href="https://www.toptal.com/finance/market-research-analysts/state-of-music-industry">technological changes</a> both in “manufacture” and distribution.</p>
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<p>Authorship is at the heart of debates about songwriting, partly because of the notion of the creative auteur, where the songwriter is seen as the major creative force of the band, or artist. Much of the artists’ income generated from music comes from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/mar/31/top-songwriters-call-for-end-to-bully-tactics-by-artists-over-royalties">songwriting royalties</a>, and sharing authorship is one way of rewarding musicians who contribute to the success of a hit song.</p>
<h2>The singer-songwriter</h2>
<p>The concept of the singer-songwriter, in the more traditionalist way we know today – think <a href="https://jonimitchell.com/">Joni Mitchell</a>, <a href="https://neilyoungarchives.com/">Neil Young</a>, <a href="https://www.paulsimon.com/">Paul Simon</a>, <a href="https://dollyparton.com/">Dolly Parton</a> – came into being during the 1960s and early 1970s. This is when folk music crossed over into the development of rock music. And with it came the idea of being authentic. </p>
<p>This was a challenge to “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Tin-Pan-Alley-musical-history">Tin Pan Alley</a>” writing, which involved music publishers effectively employing songwriters to create hits for artists to record and perform. An alternative <a href="https://www.jimcarrollsblog.com/blog/2020/4/22/motown-ten-commercial-lessons-from-the-hit-factory">conveyor belt method</a>, where tracks were built up by sending them from studio to studio, depending on where the best and most appropriate session players worked, was also seen as something to move away from. </p>
<p>This method was used by labels like <a href="https://www.motownrecords.com/">Motown</a> in the US, who <a href="https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/motown-sound-producers-and-songwriters/">transferred recorded tracks</a> between Detroit and the West Coast, building on them between the two locations. This could feel <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/stevie-wonder-beat-motown-records/">disempowering to musicians</a>, who often had no overview of the track they were contributing to, and only heard the final version of the song when it was released.</p>
<p>This idea of authenticity became important to both black and white musicians. <a href="http://www.chuckberry.com/">Chuck Berry</a> was regarded as “real”, for instance, and so was <a href="https://www.bobdylan.com/">Bob Dylan</a>, whereas a lot of music that was considered to be pop was not. The key authentic band in the UK at this time was <a href="https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/shes-at-the-controls/">The Beatles</a>. Although they began by doing covers, they soon developed a style that sounded unique while still paying homage to their influences. Songs were often about their personal feelings or everyday situations. This style of songwriting still thrives in indie and DIY communities today.</p>
<h2>Complex collaborations</h2>
<p>Modern songwriting has moved on further still, with artists engaging with studio technology very early in the process. Here, a song may be built up from a beat, and the beatmaker is considered to be part of the songwriting team, which may also include producers, arrangers, programmers and chorus specialists. Kanye West, for example, credits <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/2094846/kanye-west-all-day-writing-production-credits/">21 musicians</a> on his 2015 track, All Day. This can seem remarkably different from the perception of the “traditional way” of writing music.</p>
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<p>As I discuss in my <a href="https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/shes-at-the-controls/">recent book</a> on sound engineering and production, each component writer in these complex studio tracks is a specialist in their field. They possess not only the technical skills but are also in the know about the latest underground sounds – so in this way, they actually have a lot in common with the Tin Pan Alley teams or the Motown writers. </p>
<p>Indeed, if we were to define songwriting as the construction of songs where before there were only ideas, then anyone involved in creating a song is a songwriter. Whether they are created by a team on a production line or in a bedroom by a solo artist, they are still skilful combinations of music, rhythms and lyrics.</p>
<p>Taylor Swift began her professional life as a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkD20ajVxnY">country singer</a>, and to gain any credibility within that very rigorous music scene, she really had to know how to write a song, as well as carry one as a performer. Almost certainly, Damon Albarn knows this. His own skills as a writer have really diversified to incorporate different technologies and musical influences. Both are excellent songwriters, regardless of their preferred ways of working.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Reddington 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>Anyone involved in the creation of a song is a songwriter.Helen Reddington, Senior Lecturer Department of Music, Writing & Performance , School of Arts and Creative Industries, University of East LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1703282022-01-26T12:12:53Z2022-01-26T12:12:53ZHow anarchist architecture could help us build back better after COVID<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442310/original/file-20220124-27-rtbpr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C0%2C3805%2C2155&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spaces built collaboratively, close to nature. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/tall-pine-trees-near-town-1019050774">Shutterstock/kasyanovart</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Architecture and anarchy may not seem like the most obvious pairing. But since anarchism emerged as a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/anarchism/Anarchism-as-a-movement-1870-1940">distinct kind of politics</a> in the second half of the 19th-century, it has inspired countless alternative communities. </p>
<p><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/christiania-copenhagen-denmark/index.html">Christiania in Copenhagen</a>, <a href="https://allthatsinteresting.com/slab-city">Slab City in the California desert</a>, <a href="https://zadforever.blog/about/">La ZAD in the French countryside</a>, and <a href="https://en.squat.net/tag/grow-heathrow/">Grow Heathrow in London</a> all feature self-organised forms of building. On the one hand, this includes remodelling existing structures, usually abandoned buildings. On the other, it can mean building entirely new spaces to accommodate individual liberty and radical change in social organisation. </p>
<p>At its heart, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anarchism/">anarchism</a> is a politics of thought and action. And it reflects the original meaning of the ancient Greek word <em>anarkhi</em> meaning “the absence of government”. All forms of anarchism are founded on self-organisation or government from below. Often stemming from a place of radical scepticism of unaccountable authorities, anarchism favours bottom-up self-organisation over hierarchy. It is not about disorder, but rather a different order – based on the principles of autonomy, voluntary association, self-organisation, mutual aid and direct democracy.</p>
<p>For example, in Christiania, an intentional community and commune of about 850 to 1,000 residents, which was established in 1971, residents first squatted abandoned military buildings and converted them into communal homes. In time, others built their own houses in an extraordinary diversity of styles and materials that survive to this day. Even temporary anarchist projects, such as the 1980s protest camps at <a href="http://www.greenhamwpc.org.uk">Greenham Common in Berkshire</a>, and the more recent <a href="https://www.ragpickinghistory.co.uk/post/extinction-rebellion">Extinction Rebellion occupations in London</a>, require the construction of makeshift shelters and basic infrastructure.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="New age art." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.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">Salvation Mountain at Slab City, California.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/salvation-mountain-colorful-artificial-north-calipatria-82139752">Shutterstock/Kevin Key</a></span>
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<h2>Seeds that can grow</h2>
<p>In my <a href="https://www.paulholberton.com/product-page/architecture-and-anarchism-building-without-authority">new book</a>, <a href="https://www.antepavilion.org/publication/p/architecture-anarchism">Architecture and Anarchism: Building Without Authority</a>, I look at how anarchist building projects are often targeted by the authorities because they’re deemed illegal. And how as a result of this, there is a knock-on effect that casts people who self-build as somehow “exceptional” – driven by desires that are simply alien to the rest of us. </p>
<p>But that, I think, misses the point of anarchist politics that underlie such projects. And it also fails to recognise that these principles are grounded in values that are shared much more widely. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People standing in self-built space" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Community Space at Grow Heathrow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/transitionheathrow/photos/1317851378401566/">Facebook/transitionsheathrow</a></span>
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<p>For example, the late British anarchist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/22/colin-ward-obituary">Colin Ward</a> always argued the values behind anarchism in action were rooted in things we all do. He was particularly interested in how people seem to have an innate desire to share time and space without expecting any financial remuneration. As part of his work, he often embraced everyday subjects such as community allotments, children’s playgrounds, holiday camps, and housing cooperatives. </p>
<p>He had a strong and optimistic belief in anarchism as an always-present but often latent force in social life that simply needed nurturing to grow. Ward argued for a way of building that was <a href="https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/10618/1/Fulltext.pdf">focused on</a> changing the role of citizens from recipients to participants “so that they too have an active part to play” in the building of towns and cities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="House and water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Self-built house in Christiania, Copenhagen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/freetown-christiania-selfproclaimed-autonomous-neighbourhood-intentional-1310712218">Mykola Komarovskyy/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Some recent architectural practices - for example, <a href="https://assemblestudio.co.uk/about">Assemble in the UK</a>, <a href="https://www.spatialagency.net/database/santiago.cirugeda">Recetas Urbanas in Spain</a>, and <a href="https://raumlabor.net">Raumlaborberlin in Germany</a> - have actually developed ways of working that are almost entirely focused on such a model of participation. Indeed, in September 2019, Raumlaborberlin built a “<a href="https://afculmk.org/Utopia-Station">Utopia Station</a>” in Milton Keynes, in the UK. This was a structure that combined steel scaffolding, metal staircases, striped awnings and salvaged windows to create a three-storey space. </p>
<p>Inside, visitors were asked to provide their own suggestions for future urban development, which were then made into models and exhibited. Such a playful - and joyful - approach to citizen participation stands in stark contrast to the often dour and depressing ways we’re generally asked to comment on buildings being planned.</p>
<h2>Community spaces</h2>
<p>Last year, the UK government published its <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-asked-7-000-people-how-the-uk-should-build-back-better-heres-what-they-told-us-164664">post-COVID-19 recovery</a> plan to “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/build-back-better-our-plan-for-growth">build back better</a>”. With its emphasis on <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-after-covid-most-people-dont-want-a-return-to-normal-they-want-a-fairer-more-sustainable-future-173290">securing economic growth</a>, the report completely fails to address the catastrophic environmental consequences of such an approach. </p>
<p>A different approach would involve radical reshaping of the values that hold up our politics. Here, anarchism has much to contribute. Its core values of mutual aid, self-organisation and voluntary association offer a much more holistic notion of what constitutes progress. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Community garden." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Community gathering and growing spaces.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/colorful-bench-community-garden-536665321">Shutterstock/Karin Bredenberg</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On a personal level, I have found urban allotments to be places where the contours of such an everyday revolution can be felt. These are areas of land set aside by local authorities for residents to grow food in exchange for a nominal annual rent. </p>
<p>Although I’ve never met anyone on my own allotment who identifies as an anarchist, the “seeds” are nevertheless there to see. Allotments are, in essence, common spaces within cities. Sites deliberately kept off the market and filled with more-or-less provisional structures, such as readymade or self-built sheds or greenhouses. </p>
<p>Although you’re not allowed to build a dwelling on an allotment (at least in the UK), it’s not difficult to transfer the underlying principles to other sites in cities. As I look out of my bedroom window to the allotments just beyond my home, I often wonder why it’s not possible to set aside land for other kinds of communal activities? Even for housing? </p>
<p>It’s in places like allotments that the otherwise radical nature of alternative possibilities is seen. Therein lies the hope of building an <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-after-covid-most-people-dont-want-a-return-to-normal-they-want-a-fairer-more-sustainable-future-173290">emancipatory, inclusive, ecological and egalitarian future</a>. This is building back better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Dobraszczyk received funding from the arts charity Antepavilion.</span></em></p>What we can learn from squatters, climate protestors and desert hippies.Paul Dobraszczyk, Lecturer in Architecture, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1742082022-01-20T13:31:19Z2022-01-20T13:31:19ZWhy you might want to consider a pilgrimage for your next holiday or day trip<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441324/original/file-20220118-25-18zpurk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=146%2C48%2C5295%2C3557&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/hiker-backpacks-relaxing-on-top-mountain-1457014196">Vixit/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We have been living in a COVID-19 pandemic world for two years – and almost everything about our lives has been affected. Travel and holidays in particular have been constrained through border closures and lockdowns. It’s too early to say what effect this may have on overseas travel long term. But <a href="https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-tips/travel-trends/pilgrimage-travel">one form of travel</a> that is forecast to grow in popularity is <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/could-pilgrimages-be-the-next-post-covid-travel-trend">pilgrimage</a>. </p>
<p>Often described as “a journey with a purpose or <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/books/a-pilgrimage-is-a-journey-with-a-purpose-ken-haigh-walked-the-canterbury-trail-in-honour-of-his-late-father-1.6209494">a journey with an intention”</a>, a pilgrimage is different from a plain old walk or hike as it tends to be about following a particular path with religious, spiritual or historical significance.</p>
<p>Pilgrimages are a way of finding spiritual solace and a chance to connect with the great outdoors. Indeed, since the pandemic began, many of us have spent more time close to <a href="https://www.travelyesplease.com/travel-blog-nachisan-japan/">mountains</a>, rivers, waterfalls and <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/howhaslockdownchangedourrelationshipwithnature/2021-04-26">parks</a>, for <a href="https://www.nature.scot/more-people-spending-time-outdoors-new-survey-reveals-importance-nature-scotlands-recovery-covid-19">psychological recovery</a>, <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/more-time-out-in-nature-is-an-unexpected-benefit-of-the-covid-19-sheltering-rules/">spiritual recharge</a>, and as a form of <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/4/177">meaningful travel</a>. </p>
<p>New and repurposed pilgrimages have also emerged in many destinations including <a href="https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/follow-the-ancient-pilgrims-through-caithness-with-new-guide-257372/">Scotland</a>, India, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211207-the-michinoku-coastal-trail-japans-new-1000km-path">Japan</a>, <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/9-july/news/uk/three-new-pilgrim-routes-link-ancient-sites-and-churches-in-devon">England</a> and Italy. While some routes have historical origins, others are modern, newly developed or resignified – such as the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59837381">Ancient Connections</a> project linking St David’s, Pembrokeshire, in Wales to Ferns, County Wexford, in Ireland. The project aims to revive and celebrate the <a href="https://fernsvillage.ie/ancient-connections/">medieval connections</a> between the two Celtic lands.</p>
<p>Pilgrims walk these trails for different reasons. For some, the experience has religious significance, but for others, it’s about <a href="https://www.pembroke-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=132439&searchyear=2021">finding some quality time to think</a>, breathe, heal and discover oneself, during a <a href="https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/travel/pilgrimages-camino-santiago-holy-year-uk-routes-817051">a simple walk</a>. </p>
<h2>Walking the path</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/bethlehem-closed-to-foreign-christians-christmas.html">The restrictions</a> imposed on religious sites during the earlier phase of the pandemic did little to curb pilgrims’ enthusiasm. Indeed, increasing numbers of <a href="https://www.walkingtopresence.com/articles/korean-edition-of-pilgrim-stories">South Koreans</a> have walked the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. Meanwhile, <a href="https://aleteia.org/2021/02/14/live-lent-with-a-devotion-of-the-early-christians-join-us-to-see-romes-station-churches/">alternative ways</a> of meeting pilgrims’ needs have also emerged, including the <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/246413/catholic-groups-announce-virtual-pilgrimage-to-holy-land">virtual pilgrimage</a>. </p>
<p>Fitness <a href="https://www.theconqueror.events/camino/">apps</a> and <a href="https://www.pilgrimageonline.live/">virtual guided tours</a> of the Camino have been popular. <a href="https://llandaff.churchinwales.org.uk/en/news-and-blog/pilgrims-progress-thanks-google-earth/#:%7E:text=Church%20in%20Wales%20is%20launching%20its%20first%20ever,including%20three%20churches%20from%20the%20Diocese%20of%20Llandaff.">The Church in Wales</a> also created an online pilgrimage route where e-pilgrims could explore some of Wales’ historic churches, while Japan’s <a href="https://japantoday.com/category/features/travel/online-pilgrimages-along-japan%E2%80%99s-famous-shikoku-henro-route-begin">Shikoku pilgrimage</a> started offering real-time online pilgrimages for those unable to participate in a physical pilgrimage. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mount Fuji and walkers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441325/original/file-20220118-21-gbh9jw.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">Torii on top of Fuji mountain. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776m, and a symbol of Japan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mount-fuji-yamanashi-japan-july-25-689407390">MADSOLAR/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the pilgrimage routes also provide distinctive cultural experiences such as Japanese traditional cooking and art and craft classes, or Welsh tea and cakes. The new <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211207-the-michinoku-coastal-trail-japans-new-1000km-path">Michinoku (the ancient name of Tohoku) coastal trail</a> in Japan, for example, has already spurred interest from national and international travellers, and it is expected to become an iconic hiking route, while it is hoped that the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59837381">new Wales-Ireland pilgrimage</a> walking route will help to boost local economies – and is forecast to attract around 5,000 people a year. </p>
<p>Of course, maintaining pilgrimage sites and routes is crucial for cultural heritage and protection. This also has the potential to create new livelihoods and bring much-needed <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-ways-to-ensure-wellness-tourism-provides-a-post-pandemic-opportunity-for-the-travel-industry-148744">tourism</a> to rural or remote areas. In <a href="https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/plans-underway-to-complete-buddhist-pilgrimage-site-in-nagarjuna-sagar-central-india/">central India</a>, for example, a Buddhist pilgrimage site in Nagarjuna is being developed as part of an effort to revitalise Buddhist heritage in the region. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/sacred-hiking-trail-bhutan-reopening-220648822.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr">In Bhutan</a>, a sacred hiking trail, that fell into disrepair because of highway construction, is reopening after 60 years with trail tourism programmes packaged to support local homestays, guesthouses and hotels. In the 16th century, the trail – which follows the route along the ancient Silk Road – was the only way of getting between the east and west of the country. And it served as the pilgrimage route for Buddhists in the east to travel to sacred sites in western Bhutan and Tibet. </p>
<h2>Where to start</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/08/covid-crisis-dramatically-worsened-global-mental-health-study-finds">mental health issues</a> have come to the fore during the pandemic, walking – with its <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16078055.2018.1445025">proven psychological and therapeutic benefits</a> – has been a popular activity for many as a way of coping with stress and anxiety. And <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/could-pilgrimages-be-the-next-post-covid-travel-trend">during pilgrimage walks</a>, people often observe and appreciate simple things more keenly, feel the spiritual connection with their surroundings and gain new, enriching life perspectives. </p>
<p>So if you’re keen to get your walking boots on, for those based in the UK, there is an array of new pilgrimage routes to explore. Many of these were established during the pandemic such as the <a href="https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/travel/the-northern-saints-trails-offer-a-chance-for-a-reflective-hiking-challenge-after-lockdown-905304">Northern Saints Trails</a> in the north-east of England, the <a href="https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/news/pilgrimage-route-launched-through-dazzling-norfolk-countryside-7994454">Walsingham Way</a> in East Anglia, <a href="https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/belfast-comedian-tim-mcgarry-set-to-take-on-new-st-patricks-way-coastal-walk-40465916.html">St Patrick’s Way</a> in Northern Ireland, the <a href="https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/news/2021/articles/new-pilgrimage-walk-launched-in-honour-of-glasgows-patron-saint">Kentigern Way</a> in Scotland, and the <a href="https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/teesside/18258259.new-long-distance-walk-launched-celebrate-saxon-saint-hild/">Way of St Hild</a> in Teesside. While the <a href="https://www.devonpilgrim.org.uk/">Devon Pilgrim</a>, part of the <a href="https://www.growingtheruralchurch.org/">Growing the Rural Church project</a>, which aims to connect rural churches with local communities and landscapes, launched no fewer than three new pilgrimage walks in the summer of 2021. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hikers on a hill." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441326/original/file-20220118-25-14okjpo.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">Enjoy the great outdoors with purpose.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-hikers-mountains-196099577">Olga Danylenko/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Church of England promotes many Christian-themed pilgrimages, and information about some of these can be found on the <a href="https://christian-pilgrimage.org.uk/routes-to-try/">Centre for Christian Pilgrimage website</a>. Organisations such as the <a href="https://britishpilgrimage.org/">British Pilgrimage Trust</a> and the <a href="https://www.sprf.org.uk/project3.html">Scottish Pilgrims Ways Forum</a> also offer guided pilgrimages and advice on self-guided walks. </p>
<p>Pilgrimages, however, need <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/24-january/features/features/travel-and-retreats-pilgrimage-squeezed-into-a-busy-schedule">not necessarily entail long hikes</a>. <a href="https://wayfaringbritain.com/events">Micro pilgrimages</a> and <a href="https://www.smallpilgrimplaces.org/">visits to pilgrimage places</a> are also a great way to find some time for quiet contemplation. And for those looking for a relatively stress-free experience, there is, of course, always the option of virtual pilgrimage allowing you to travel the world from the comfort of home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaeyeon Choe O Regan is a researcher at Swansea University, UK and a visiting professor at Hue University, Vietnam </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Bailey 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>During pilgrimage walks, people often observe and appreciate simple things more keenly, feel the spiritual connection with their surroundings and gain new, enriching life perspectives.Jaeyeon Choe, Researcher in Sustainable Tourism Development, Swansea UniversityAnne Bailey, Associate Member of the History Faculty, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1703302022-01-14T13:11:46Z2022-01-14T13:11:46ZA Turkish harem on the Acropolis? It’s most likely a Greek myth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440729/original/file-20220113-17-2zo568.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C33%2C3695%2C2472&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/athens-greece-october-24-2016-erechtheion-2094639184">Fotokon/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Acropolis of Athens counts among the world’s <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/404/">greatest architectural and artistic monuments</a>. Visitors come to admire the marble buildings that testify to the glory of Ancient Greece more than two millennia ago. Typically, only little attention is paid to the site’s rich medieval and Ottoman history. But one of the few stories commonly told about this period concerns the temple with six iconic sculptures of maidens, the so-called Caryatids.</p>
<p>Ancient Athenians built the temple with the Caryatids as the holiest <a href="https://books.google.nl/books?id=wgCfHZG3uNcC&lpg=PA9&hl=nl&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q&f=false">shrine for Athena</a>, the goddess of wisdom. In the medieval period, it was used as a church. But its fate supposedly changed dramatically following the Ottoman Turkish conquest of Athens in the 15th century. The <a href="https://www.acropolis-tickets.com/acropolis-of-athens/">story goes</a> that the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1_rAohrmHwsC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=harem+acropolis&source=bl&ots=WHvAkTuFi_&sig=ACfU3U3liYBSHKZVoYXpf5vr6_lCD39VAQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwvOrWkrH1AhWHbsAKHTwtCwIQ6AF6BAg-EAM#v=onepage&q=harem%20acropolis&f=false">Muslim Turks</a> had no interest in preserving the temple’s sacrality, and instead converted it into something radically different: <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/issues/193-1511/features/3769-athens-acropolis-erechteion-restoration">a harem</a>. This was said to be the residence of the <a href="http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/2/eh251.jsp?obj_id=973">Turkish castle warden’s wives</a> and sometimes thought of as a place of seduction.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Caryatid Porch on the Acropolis, Athens, Greece." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.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 Caryatid Porch on the Acropolis, Athens, Greece.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/detail-caryatid-porch-on-acropolis-athens-2070597809">Nikolay Antonov/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But my <a href="https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-14-16">new research</a> shows this information might need to be revised. As part of this study, I analysed all relevant historical sources about the Acropolis from the Ottoman period. It turns out the idea of a Turkish harem here originated in the 17th century with two visitors from France and England. They published <a href="https://books.google.nl/books?id=xt1OAAAAcAAJ&dq=wheler%20journey%20into%20greece%20temple&hl=nl&pg=PA364#v=onepage&q&f=false">popular books</a> in which they asserted that the building was a harem. These visitors, however, did not even enter the building and gave contradictory, possibly speculative information about it.</p>
<p>Fantasy or not, the notion of the harem has long fascinated western audiences, who’ve enjoyed these exotic tales of the Orient. Later authors simply repeated the information. This was even the case after the building had fallen to ruin in the <a href="https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/publications/book/?i=9780876614013">Venetian bombardment of 1687</a>.</p>
<p>My research also included several understudied Turkish sources. None of these mentions anything like a harem in the temple of the Caryatids either. But they do seem to say that it was in use as some kind of palace. All in all, there is little to suggest that the temple was ever converted into a place of erotic encounters.</p>
<h2>Harems and temples</h2>
<p>Stories about harems in the temple of the Caryatids already existed in the time of the ancient Greeks – many centuries before the Turks arrived. The striking Caryatids themselves appear like petrified women in front of the building. They likely played a role in the creation of such tales. Time and again, visitors to the Acropolis have given meaning to the mysterious building based on these sculptures.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110345568">Anthropological research</a> shows that impressive statues like the Caryatids can stir the imagination, prompting wild stories that are sometimes mistaken for “factual” history. To the casual onlooker, the Caryatids could serve as evidence for the harem.</p>
<p>But the idea of the harem is also deeply problematic as it continues a long-lived <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/mua.2007.30.1.3">western stereotype</a> of the Turks as violent, sacrilegious barbarians. This stereotype originates in the many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27521-2_6">centuries of warfare</a> between Christian European countries and the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Then too developed the popular fantasy that Turkish harems were mysterious, erotic places of seclusion.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Théodore Chassériau, Harem (oil on panel, 1851–1852). Paintings like these capture the western fantasy of the harem as an erotic place.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">From Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The idea that the temple of the Caryatids became a decadent harem fitted right into this negative western sentiment about the Turks. That sentiment had dire consequences: shortly after the young Greek state’s conquest of Athens in the 19th century, it led to the complete <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/mgs.2002.0018">annihilation of the Turkish town</a> that stood on the Acropolis. The same attitude led <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/parthenon_debate_01.shtml">Lord Elgin</a>, a British nobleman, to remove many Acropolis sculptures in the early 19th century – including one of the Caryatids.</p>
<h2>Imprisoned sister</h2>
<p>Still today, these sculptures reside in the British Museum in London, <a href="https://www.newgreektv.com/news-in-english-for-greeks/greece/item/7715-caryatids-searching-for-lost-sister-in-british-museum">to the dismay of many</a> (in Greece and elsewhere), who wish to see them returned to Athens. Though the Caryatids still continue to fire the imagination: local legend claims the <a href="https://greekreporter.com/2021/10/20/five-caryatids-athens-still-waiting-sister/">marble girls who remain in Athens</a> can be heard crying out at night in lament for their imprisoned sister in London. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.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">Caryatid in the British Museum, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yair Haklai/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion of a Turkish harem ties in with the current meaning of the Acropolis as an important archaeological site and a symbol of Greece and western civilisation. But this symbolism has a dark side: anti-eastern stories <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x15000242">continue to be told</a> at the expense of the Turks.</p>
<p>The Turks are typically portrayed as the villains of the Acropolis, but my research shows this is a crude interpretation of more than three centuries of Turkish presence. And it doesn’t do justice to their actual attitudes: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1179/2042458215y.0000000017">historical sources</a> show that the Turks were not always the violent barbarians they are often made out to be. Rather, they were just as fascinated about the antiquities as modern tourists are today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janric van Rookhuijzen is a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University.</span></em></p>The story can be traced back many centuries to a time of warfare between Christian European countries and the Muslim Ottoman Empire.Janric van Rookhuijzen, Classical Archaeologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Utrecht UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695902021-11-17T13:02:10Z2021-11-17T13:02:10ZAn artist and a writer visited the English seaside during the pandemic – this is what they found<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432213/original/file-20211116-22-jsgx6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C2%2C1484%2C1055&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An older couple sit outside beach-huts in Bournemouth. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Louis Netter</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unfurling along the sandy border between town and beach, the English seaside is a place of contradictions – rich and poor, old and new, fun and desperate. Although many of us have a sugary vision of coastal England as tacky entertainment and a bygone refuge from working life, the reality is that many seaside towns are on the front line of contemporary social, economic and political challenges. </p>
<p>Indeed, despite the recent boost to <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-staycation-england-beaches-holiday-coronavirus-crisis-boris-johnson/">British seaside resorts</a> provided by pandemic-related travel restrictions, since the 1970s there has been a steady <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4004884/Haunting-pictures-decline-Britain-s-seaside-towns.html#:%7E:text=%20All%20washed%20up%3A%20Haunting%20pictures%20show%20how,their%20towns%20struggle%20to%20replace%20them%20More%20">decline</a> in the number of people heading to England’s beaches for their holidays – instead favouring <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150609-britains-seaside-ruins">cheap deals overseas</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wta.org.uk/uploads/8/3/7/1/83716138/2014-shu-report-seaside-towns-in-the-age-of-austerity.pdf">Austerity policies</a> have also hit a lot of coastal towns hard. And many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/21/english-coastal-towns-have-some-of-countrys-worst-health-report-says">seaside resorts</a> often have a low life expectancy and high concentrations of chronic disease.</p>
<p>In many places, disgruntlement about such problems may have helped to fuel Brexit. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17457289.2017.1287081?journalCode=fbep20">Analysis</a> of the EU referendum by <a href="https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/christopher-hanretty(69469d99-0aa0-4f63-87a9-b96dbd86373d).html">Chris Hanretty</a>, professor of politics, at Royal Holloway, University of London, shows that around 100 of the 120 or so constituencies with a coastline voted to leave. While a <a href="https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/9282/">poll</a> carried out just ahead of the vote by researchers at the University of Aberdeen suggested that 92% of the fishing industry would be voting to leave the EU. </p>
<p>And for all the increases in visitors once restrictions lifted, many seaside towns have really suffered during the pandemic – with many coastal resorts experiencing surging <a href="https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/press-releases/seaside-towns-and-tourist-hotspots-at-sharp-end-of-job-losses/">unemployment rates</a>. </p>
<p>The coast must also contend with the grim consequences of the climate breakdown. With rising sea levels comes the increased risk of flooding and in some instances cliff erosion has led to <a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/case-studies/holbeck-hall-scarborough-landslide-case-study/">entire buildings falling</a> into the sea. </p>
<p>As a travel writer and illustrator, our recent <a href="https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/blogs/sustainability-and-the-environment/coast-of-waste">project</a> has involved us documenting and sketching our experiences of visiting seaside towns across England. On our visits, we’ve encountered people living without mains gas or electricity in southern Essex, post-lockdown beach parties turned violent in Bournemouth and COVID-19 conspiracy theories in Torbay and Tynemouth. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431967/original/file-20211115-19-10omvku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431967/original/file-20211115-19-10omvku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431967/original/file-20211115-19-10omvku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431967/original/file-20211115-19-10omvku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431967/original/file-20211115-19-10omvku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431967/original/file-20211115-19-10omvku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431967/original/file-20211115-19-10omvku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431967/original/file-20211115-19-10omvku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amusements in Clacton, Essex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Louis Netter</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We’ve also witnessed the slow death of the high street from the north east down to Weston-super-Mare – along with the growing environmental threat of plastic pollution to the entire English coast. On a brighter note, we’ve appreciated the quirky appeal of these places with their arcade games, fish and chips, full English breakfasts, sticks of rock and endless cups of tea.</p>
<p>Our project has revealed that the bricks and mortar of England’s seaside towns – the retro, elaborate piers and arcades – are just one part of the picture. Party animals on the promenades, families taking selfies in the calm water and many other human stories are what the drawings aim to capture.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431979/original/file-20211115-15-2ewcer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431979/original/file-20211115-15-2ewcer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431979/original/file-20211115-15-2ewcer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431979/original/file-20211115-15-2ewcer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431979/original/file-20211115-15-2ewcer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431979/original/file-20211115-15-2ewcer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431979/original/file-20211115-15-2ewcer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431979/original/file-20211115-15-2ewcer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Torquay promenade, Torquay, Devon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Louis Netter</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s a long history of <a href="http://www.romanticlondon.org/microcosm-intro/">writers and artists collaborating</a> on travel narratives. It was common in the heyday of <a href="https://www.commarts.com/columns/visual-journalism">post-war print</a> with illustrators such as Ben Shahn, Ronald Searle, Paul Hogarth, Linda Kitson and Robert Weaver weaving visual essays into text. </p>
<p>The most famous duo was US journalist Hunter S. Thompson and the British illustrator, Ralph Steadman, who matched one another’s mania in <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2014/01/how-hunter-s-thompson-and-psilocybin-influenced-the-art-of-ralph-steadman.html">words and images</a>. They produced searing portraits of people and places, magnifying their observations of the real world into caricatures with heightened emotion. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431968/original/file-20211115-27-kpmmth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431968/original/file-20211115-27-kpmmth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431968/original/file-20211115-27-kpmmth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431968/original/file-20211115-27-kpmmth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431968/original/file-20211115-27-kpmmth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431968/original/file-20211115-27-kpmmth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431968/original/file-20211115-27-kpmmth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431968/original/file-20211115-27-kpmmth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Swan inflatable, Bournemouth, Dorset.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Louis Netter</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the places we visited are poverty-stricken and marginalised. Clacton-on-Sea in Essex and Torbay in Devon, for example, were recently named in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/21/english-coastal-towns-have-some-of-countrys-worst-health-report-says">government report</a> as having some of the “poorest health outcomes” in England. So we wanted to ensure we were reporting on these places fairly, accurately and empathetically and not just fetishising communities as subjects of “<a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10021999/poverty-porn-jaywick-reality-shows/">poverty porn</a>” – as so often can be the dominant media take.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431969/original/file-20211115-15-spq4to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431969/original/file-20211115-15-spq4to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431969/original/file-20211115-15-spq4to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431969/original/file-20211115-15-spq4to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431969/original/file-20211115-15-spq4to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431969/original/file-20211115-15-spq4to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431969/original/file-20211115-15-spq4to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jaywick, Essex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Louis Netter</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is a common risk in travel writing, as highlighted by the US academic <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Imperial_Eyes.html?id=s6JZGC677voC&redir_esc=y">Mary-Louise Pratt</a>. Indeed, there is a long and shameful tradition of relatively privileged writers and artists patronising, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zBUAEAAAQBAJ">belittling</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/imagining-manila-9781788318310/">misunderstanding</a> those less fortunate than themselves.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431976/original/file-20211115-13-1x9b02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431976/original/file-20211115-13-1x9b02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431976/original/file-20211115-13-1x9b02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431976/original/file-20211115-13-1x9b02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431976/original/file-20211115-13-1x9b02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431976/original/file-20211115-13-1x9b02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431976/original/file-20211115-13-1x9b02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drunks on the grass, Clacton, Essex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Louis Netter</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is why it felt important for us to understand the proper social and political contexts of the areas we were visiting. In the case of Jaywick, for example, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-46178830">we learned</a> that the town’s woes were related to years of public underfunding and flaws in the universal credit system. While the closure of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/feb/10/essex-jaywick-youth-unemployment-hotspot">Butlin’s holiday camp</a> nearby in 1983 condemned subsequent generations to irrevocable joblessness.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431970/original/file-20211115-21-1kcoa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431970/original/file-20211115-21-1kcoa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431970/original/file-20211115-21-1kcoa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431970/original/file-20211115-21-1kcoa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431970/original/file-20211115-21-1kcoa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431970/original/file-20211115-21-1kcoa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431970/original/file-20211115-21-1kcoa1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jaywick’s ‘Happy Club’ – a youth club for adults – now permanently closed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Louis Netter</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The use of illustrations also played into this ethical question about representation. Arguably, drawing occupies less fraught terrain than photography – which, as the US writer, filmmaker, philosopher and teacher, Susan Sontag, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SZx8ZBrkHygC">notes</a> is “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article/70/1/9/5980240">context determined</a>”. In other words, photography as a medium can confirm and sustain power dynamics as the subject will often lack access to and control over their own representation. </p>
<p>Unlike a photograph though, a drawing, although capable of capturing a likeness, is inherently subjective and is a creative, impressionistic view of reality. Photography captures people in places, while drawings are about people in places. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431975/original/file-20211115-22-1svux34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431975/original/file-20211115-22-1svux34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431975/original/file-20211115-22-1svux34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431975/original/file-20211115-22-1svux34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431975/original/file-20211115-22-1svux34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431975/original/file-20211115-22-1svux34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431975/original/file-20211115-22-1svux34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A one man Petition in Bournemouth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Louis Netter</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the Australian anthropologist <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/I_Swear_I_Saw_This/-ZM9r839lP8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=michael+taussig+i+saw+this&printsec=frontcover">Michael Taussig</a> describes in his book, I Swear I Saw This, a drawing is an articulation of the experience of seeing and witnessing. The drawings reflect the people they depict in more than likeness. They are built line by line, mark by mark and they reflect the struggle and make-up of their subjects bit by bit. </p>
<p>Together we have seen how the English seaside town is many different things: a nostalgia-induced dance with the past, a leisure zone where people forget their daily drudgery, and a fortress in the firing line of ecological and social danger.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431978/original/file-20211115-25-1q3mn34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C7%2C1190%2C841&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431978/original/file-20211115-25-1q3mn34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431978/original/file-20211115-25-1q3mn34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431978/original/file-20211115-25-1q3mn34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431978/original/file-20211115-25-1q3mn34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431978/original/file-20211115-25-1q3mn34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431978/original/file-20211115-25-1q3mn34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&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">Ice cream queue, Bournemouth, Dorset.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Louis Netter</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Equally varied were the people we met. These include the Essex artists, historians and community members making art to draw attention to flooding, and their counterparts on an anti-plastic pollution project in Southsea. </p>
<p>And then of course there were the publicans, shopkeepers and cafe and snack bar owners who told us about their struggles in the current economic climate. Here’s hoping then that their lockdown woes will be remedied by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-pandemic-has-changed-holidaymaking-in-britain-168409">new boom</a> in British people spending more time at their own seaside rather than the beaches abroad.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169590/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>These ten drawing show the realities of life at the English seaside in 2021.Tom Sykes, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of PortsmouthLouis Netter, Senior Lecturer in Illustration, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695912021-11-16T18:56:09Z2021-11-16T18:56:09ZTrauma and transformation – a psychologist on why difficult experiences can radically change us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429942/original/file-20211103-13-7x1hk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C38%2C5121%2C3406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-spreading-hands-against-sun-847484/">Pexels/victor freitas</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s human instinct to avoid suffering and try to make life as comfortable and easy as possible. But paradoxically, <a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-25/edition-11/what-doesnt-kill-us">a great deal of research</a> has shown that suffering and trauma can have positive long-term effects. </p>
<p>Many people who go through intense trauma, for example, become deeper and stronger than they were before. They may even undergo a sudden and radical transformation that makes life more meaningful and fulfilling. </p>
<p>Indeed, research shows that <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/growth-trauma">between half and one-third of all people</a> experience significant personal development after traumatic events, such as bereavement, serious illness, accidents or divorce. Over time, they may feel a new sense of inner strength and confidence and gratitude for life and other people. </p>
<p>They may develop more intimate and authentic relationships and have a wider perspective, with a clear sense of what is important in life and what isn’t. In psychology, this is referred to as “<a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/growth-trauma">post-traumatic growth</a>”. </p>
<p>Over the past <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241653920_Transformation_Through_Suffering_A_Study_of_Individuals_Who_Have_Experienced_Positive_Psychological_Transformation_Following_Periods_of_Intense_Turmoil">15 years as a psychologist</a>, I’ve been researching an especially dramatic form of post-traumatic growth that I call “transformation through turmoil”. It sometimes happens to soldiers on a battlefield, to the inmates of prison camps who are on the verge of starvation, or to people who have been through periods of severe addiction, depression, bereavement or illness. </p>
<p>People report feeling as if they have taken on a new identity. They shift into a much more intense and expansive awareness, with a powerful sense of wellbeing. The world around them seems more real and beautiful. They feel more connected to other people, and to nature. </p>
<h2>‘Waking up’</h2>
<p>In my new book <a href="https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/extraordinary-awakenings/">Extraordinary Awakenings</a>, I share some of these cases and explore what we can learn from these transformations and how we can apply this to our own personal development. </p>
<p>Take, for example, the story of Adrian, who underwent transformation while in prison in Africa. He was locked up in a tiny cell 23 hours a day, with no idea of when he might be released. During the endless hours of incarceration, he began to reflect on his life and to let go of the past and any sense of failure or disappointment. </p>
<p>In the cell, he had a small statuette of the Buddha, which he had picked up on his travels around Asia. In a kind of spontaneous meditation practice, he began to focus his attention on the statuette for long periods. Over the next few weeks, Adrian began to feel more at peace, until he experienced a sudden shift: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was like the flick of a switch … It was a complete feeling of release and acceptance, of everything and anything that was going to happen. It was a release of blame, of anxiety, of anger and ego. For three days I was in a state of what can best be described as grace. After that, the feeling eased, but it remained inside me.</p>
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<p>A woman called Eve had a similar experience. After 29 years of addiction, she felt physically and emotionally broken and attempted suicide. She survived, but this encounter with death brought about a shift and her urge to drink was gone. Eve felt so different that, as she told me: “I looked at myself in the mirror, and I had no idea who I was”. </p>
<p>Despite initially being a little confused by her transformation, Eve felt liberated and had a heightened awareness and an increased sense of gratitude and connection. She has never felt the urge to drink again and has now been sober for ten years. </p>
<h2>The breakdown of identity</h2>
<p>It’s important to note that there is nothing religious about transformation through turmoil. Essentially, it’s a psychological experience, related to a breakdown of identity. </p>
<p>In my view, it’s caused by the dissolution of psychological attachments, such as <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/MILTIO-32">hopes, dreams and ambitions</a>, status, social roles, beliefs and possessions. These attachments sustain our normal sense of identity. So when they dissolve away, our identity collapses. This is usually a painful experience, but in some people, it seems to allow a new identity to emerge.</p>
<p>And my research indicates that such deep-rooted and consequential changes, usually remain indefinitely. This is one reason why I don’t believe that the phenomenon can be explained away as self-delusion or <a href="https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/dissociation-and-dissociative-disorders/about-dissociation/">dissociation</a> – a mental process of disconnecting from one’s thoughts, feelings, memories or sense of identity. </p>
<p>Transformation through turmoil also reveals the massive potential and deep resilience within human beings – that we are usually unaware of until we face challenges and crises. So in essence, in the process of breaking us down, turmoil and trauma may also wake us up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Taylor 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>In my research, I’ve seen how people can feel a new sense of gratitude, meaning and purpose. They often take up new hobbies and careers. They become less materialistic and more altruistic.Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1689122021-11-15T10:44:58Z2021-11-15T10:44:58ZFive books that will change how you think about the environment and climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429761/original/file-20211102-52962-13uglgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C0%2C5708%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-man-sitting-on-camping-chair-during-dawn-1428626/">Pexels</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We are constantly being bombarded with <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-emissions-almost-back-to-pre-pandemic-levels-after-unprecedented-drop-in-2020-new-analysis-shows-170866">dire warnings</a> about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop26-what-would-the-world-be-like-at-3-c-of-warming-and-how-would-it-be-different-from-1-5-c-171030">environmental and climate emergency</a>. Act now, we are told, or face an unprecedented global catastrophe. But while the solutions proposed – <a href="https://theconversation.com/solar-panels-on-half-the-worlds-roofs-could-meet-its-entire-electricity-demand-new-research-169302">solar panels</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-you-get-a-heat-pump-heres-how-they-compare-to-a-gas-boiler-151493">heat pumps</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-the-meat-on-your-plate-is-killing-the-planet-76128">eating less meat</a> – are no doubt necessary, they are for the most part unimaginative and uninspiring – and isolated from a wider system of beliefs whereby they might acquire genuine meaning.</p>
<p>The following five books offer an alternative perspective. In contrast to the simplistic idea that all we need to do is implement a set of technological and lifestyle changes, they offer a new way of understanding and relating to nature. </p>
<h2>Gaia by James Lovelock (1979)</h2>
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<p>In his 1979 book, James Lovelock offers an entirely new understanding of the earth as not just a planet on which life has evolved, but a self-regulating system capable of correcting any significant fluctuations that tend towards making it uninhabitable, such as increases or decreases in global temperatures or ocean salinity.</p>
<p>Lovelock shows, for example, how the environment has contributed to driving down <a href="http://www.jameslovelock.org/gaia-as-seen-through-the-atmosphere/">atmospheric carbon dioxide levels</a> to compensate for a steadily warming sun. This has kept global temperatures in a habitable range.</p>
<p>Ultimately though, the importance of Gaia lies not just in its bold scientific claims, but in the way it opens up the possibility of bringing together science and spirituality, the true and the meaningful. What does being a part of Gaia mean for us?</p>
<h2>Should Trees Have Standing? by Christopher D. Stone (1972)</h2>
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<p>No law, Christopher Stone claims, can be created until we begin to challenge its non-existence. And just as it was once “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/us/christopher-stone-dead.html">unthinkable</a>” for corporations to be given the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/07/28/335288388/when-did-companies-become-people-excavating-the-legal-evolution">same rights as people</a>, the same is true today of living beings and ecosystems. Nature itself has no rights, only the people that own it or use it. Against this, Stone argues that certain natural entities – trees, forests, rivers – should be treated as people and granted “rights”.</p>
<p>This radical idea is increasingly being implemented. In 2008 and 2009, Ecuador and Bolivia became the <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/vertigo/16188">first countries in the world</a> to recognise nature as a legal person in their constitutions. And in 2017, New Zealand recognised the legal personhood of the <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/nz/whanganui-manawatu/123786493/take-me-to-the-whanganui-river-how-this-river-became-a-living-being">Whanganui River</a>. </p>
<p>Developing these insights in the 2010 edition of the book, Stone asks if the climate should also be granted legal standing. He sees this as problematic but not impossible, though it would require a legal system that goes beyond the current nation-state structure.</p>
<h2>Biomimicry by Janine Benyus (1997)</h2>
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<p>Few would deny that technology will play a major role in achieving sustainability. But for the most part, we concentrate on individual technologies – such as electric vehicles or biodegradable packaging – without pausing to rethink technology as a whole. A significant exception to this is Janine Benyus, who argues that sustainability calls for an entirely different approach: innovation inspired by nature, or “biomimicry”.</p>
<p>The book explores the practice of imitating nature to solve human design challenges and offers many case studies showing how biomimicry can apply to almost every field of innovation – from solar energy generation based on natural photosynthesis to cereal farming modelled on the native Kansas prairie.</p>
<p>But perhaps the deepest significance of the book is the way it calls on us to view nature not just as something we learn about, but also as something we learn from. And in that case, we must cease to think of ourselves as the sole possessors of intelligence and knowledge and instead also come to recognise the <a href="https://asknature.org/">genius of nature</a>.</p>
<h2>Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013)</h2>
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<p>Like Benyus, Robin Wall Kimmerer thinks nature has a lot to teach us. But whereas Benyus focuses on technological innovation, Kimmerer is interested in broader lessons.</p>
<p>The overarching theme of the book is how to “braid” together indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge, a project that the author, as a citizen of the <a href="https://www.potawatomi.org/">Potawatomi nation</a> and a professional biologist, has devoted much of her life to. </p>
<p>Kimmerer’s most brilliant example is sweetgrass itself – an aromatic plant used in indigenous medicine and basketry. Whereas Kimmerer’s biologist colleagues presumed that harvesting sweetgrass always harms it, a biology student of hers designed a <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/f596764fa9096b1d705d4e3c8503f2a6/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y">careful experiment</a> proving something the Potawatomi had long since known: harvesting sweetgrass actually stimulates vigorous growth.</p>
<p>What these plants teach us, then, is that humans are not outside nature, but a part of nature – and with the right approaches we can enable other species to flourish alongside our own.</p>
<h2>The Climate of History in a Planetary Age by Dipesh Chakrabarty (2021)</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425337/original/file-20211007-8006-1qnlvwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425337/original/file-20211007-8006-1qnlvwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425337/original/file-20211007-8006-1qnlvwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425337/original/file-20211007-8006-1qnlvwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425337/original/file-20211007-8006-1qnlvwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425337/original/file-20211007-8006-1qnlvwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425337/original/file-20211007-8006-1qnlvwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425337/original/file-20211007-8006-1qnlvwt.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>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Addressing the meaning of climate change through the lens of history, Dipesh Chakrabarty proposes a fundamental shift from thinking about “global” to “planetary” climate change. </p>
<p>Chakrabarty argues that while the world is busy solving a “global” problem, we forget to ask what the “global” means for us today. The “global”, he explains, is essentially a human-centric idea, intrinsically linked to postwar globalisation and modernisation. The “planet”, by contrast, decentres this human-centric idea, allowing nonhuman perspectives and interests to be taken into account. Most importantly, it raises the possibility of discovering new universal values. </p>
<p>Chakrabarty also emphasises that the acceleration of global warming is tightly linked to the anti-colonialist modernising movements of the mid-20th century, such as Chairman Mao’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Leap-Forward">Great Leap Forward</a>. This was an economic and social programme aimed to bring China up to speed with the Western world through intensive industrialisation and technological advancement. Chakrabarty argues that it is only by overcoming our obsession with constant growth and development that we can rise to the challenge of ensuring planetary sustainability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168912/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Welcome to an entirely new understanding of the world.Ti-han Chang, Lecturer in Asia-Pacific Studies, University of Central LancashireHenry Dicks, Doctor of Philosophy, iaelyon School of Management – Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1694332021-11-02T10:54:34Z2021-11-02T10:54:34ZWould a longer school day help children catch up after the pandemic? Here’s what the evidence says<p>COVID-induced <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-school-closures-whats-the-evidence-154210">school closures</a> in 2020 resulted in the majority of pupils in England – at primary and secondary level – missing around 40 days of school on site. Schools around the globe were similarly affected, though to different extents. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/the-state-of-school-education_201dde84-en">recent figures</a> from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development show, in the first 12 months of the pandemic, 1.5 billion students in 188 countries and economies weren’t able to go to school, for varying lengths of time. Figures from the Netherlands and Ireland are similar to those in England. In Denmark, students missed closer to 20 days, whereas the numbers are much higher in Costa Rica (close to 180 days) and Colombia (around 150 days). </p>
<p>While most English schools during this time provided some form of remote education, these closures nonetheless resulted in <a href="https://covidandsociety.com/https-covidandsociety-com-ippo-rapid-evidence-review-uk-school-closures-children-covid-19-pandemic/">learning losses</a>. As a result, amid the UK government’s plans for <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-school-recovery-is-englands-1-4-billion-catch-up-plan-a-good-idea-162020">post-COVID school recovery</a>, the Department for Education has reportedly discussed <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56311723">extending the school day</a>, by possibly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/01/dfe-considering-return-of-sats-at-14-and-axing-teaching-hours-limits">lifting the existing cap</a> on the number of hours state school teachers can be asked to work. </p>
<p>International evidence seems to suggest that, in some instances, a longer school day may be beneficial. <a href="https://inee.org/resources/catch-programmes-10-principles-helping-learners-catch-and-return-learning">A report</a> by the United Nations-led Accelerated Education Working Group has proposed multiple ways to deal with pandemic-induced learning losses. These range from extending teaching time to implementing formal catch-up programmes with remedial education for struggling pupils. Extending teaching time was proposed as an appropriate strategy when pupils have missed out on up to one year of education.</p>
<p>Moreover, studies such as those conducted in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0034654310377086?journalCode=rera">the US and Canada</a> and in <a href="https://irle.berkeley.edu/long-term-gains-from-longer-school-days/">Chile</a> support the idea that extending instructional time could help pupils, both in the short and long term. They would benefit both academically (in terms of achieving higher test scores and higher educational attainment) and socio-economically (their future earnings would be higher). </p>
<p>However, a review of studies in Latin America and the Caribbean noted that, despite these benefits, there may be <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/22183">more cost-effective ways</a> to attain similar results. An additional and important consideration would be the psychological cost to teachers.</p>
<h2>Overburdened workforce</h2>
<p>Of course, a longer school day means more teaching hours. And that raises the question of whether asking teachers to extend their working day is a reasonable request. </p>
<p>According to government <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1022624/School_teachers__pay_and_conditions_document_2021_and_guidance_on_school_teachers__pay_and_conditions.pdf">guidelines</a>, teachers at state schools in England can be asked to teach up to a maximum of 1,265 hours over 195 days of the year. This number does not include additional hours required for tasks, such as lesson planning, assessing, monitoring, recording, and reporting. </p>
<p>Data from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2020.1736616">four surveys</a> shows that, pre-pandemic, an average full-time teacher in England worked 50 hours a week in term time and around four hours a week during the holidays. There are certainly outliers, including 10% of full-time teachers who reported working at least 30 hours per week over the summer and half-term holidays and 15 hours over the Christmas holidays. The researchers also found that the number of reported working hours had not decreased over 25 years. In fact, teachers in England have been found to work longer hours than <a href="https://dera.ioe.ac.uk//33612/1/TALIS_2018_research.pdf">most other countries</a>, with lower secondary school teachers working around eight hours more per week</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://lisaekim.com/projects">ongoing research</a> into what being a teacher during the pandemic has been like shows teachers feel frustrated. The participants we have interviewed have relayed <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/65k8q/">their distress</a> at how the media and some sections of the public have portrayed their profession as lazy. </p>
<p>And the numbers bear out their frustration at that misguided impression. A survey conducted in June/July 2020 by the UK charity Education Support found that 31% of teachers and 70% of senior school leaders reported working more than 51 hours per week <a href="https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/resources/for-organisations/research/teacher-wellbeing-index/">on average</a>. </p>
<p>Since March 2020, many teachers across the globe have had to oscillate between partial school closures, partial reopenings and full reopenings. To adapt, they have had to rapidly learn new skills in order to be able to teach pupils from home. </p>
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<img alt="A girl wearing turquoise headphones studies online" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428256/original/file-20211025-17-np284d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428256/original/file-20211025-17-np284d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428256/original/file-20211025-17-np284d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428256/original/file-20211025-17-np284d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428256/original/file-20211025-17-np284d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428256/original/file-20211025-17-np284d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428256/original/file-20211025-17-np284d.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">
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<span class="caption">As well as supporting their students’ learning during lockdown, teachers saw to their wellbeing and welfare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/fr/image-photo/cute-smiling-african-school-kid-girl-1850820085">insta_photos</a></span>
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<p>They have also done a lot more than just teach. They have regularly called, and in some cases visited, pupils and their families to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12381">assess and meet</a> their academic and welfare needs. Given the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2021.1918014">ongoing uncertainty</a> of the situation, it is not surprising that we found that our teacher participants’ mental health and wellbeing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12450">had declined</a> over the course of the pandemic. </p>
<p>While there may be benefits to pupils in extending the school day, one must be wary of the costs this would incur to teachers’ mental health and wellbeing. Students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2020.101714">would not benefit</a> from being taught by teachers who are stressed and burned out. For any educational recovery plan <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/there-will-be-no-recovery-without-empowered-motivated-and-effective-teachers">to be effective</a>, it is important to consider teachers’ needs and perspectives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Kim received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the "Being a teacher in England during the COVID-19" project and "Teachers reflect: What has it been like being a teacher during COVID-19?" project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Asbury received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the "Being a teacher in England during the COVID-19" project.</span></em></p>More hours of teaching might benefit children’s recovery in the short term but put teachers under dangerous pressure.Lisa E. Kim, Lecturer in Psychology in Education, University of YorkKathryn Asbury, Professor of Psychology in Education, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1703242021-11-01T16:03:46Z2021-11-01T16:03:46ZThe Polish people support the EU – it’s their government that continues to antagonise Brussels<p>An ongoing dispute between the European Union and Poland over its government’s apparent lack of respect for democratic values has raised the question of whether Poland could follow the UK in leaving the EU. </p>
<p>The reality, however, is that this is incredibly unlikely. As <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230279865">my research</a> shows, Polish citizens strongly support the EU. They generally take a very rational approach to this issue and recognise that Poland and Polish people on an individual level have largely benefited from joining the EU. The EU can suspend rights, but cannot expel a member state.</p>
<p>Other EU member states are divided over what to do about Poland several years after the Law and Justice Party (PiS) began making changes to the Polish legal system. The EU has repeatedly warned that many of these changes infringe on the independence of judges and are incompatible with EU values. The European Court of Justice has <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_4587">ruled</a> that a disciplinary chamber for judges set up by the Polish government has violated EU law and while the Polish government has promised to dissolve it, that has not yet happened. Now the European Commission is fining Poland <a href="https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-10/cp210192en.pdf">€1 million per day</a> for failing to comply with the ruling – and Poland is refusing to pay.</p>
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<p>Poland is pushing back against the EU on the grounds that a <a href="https://verfassungsblog.de/gazing-into-the-abyss/">Polish tribunal</a> recently made the unprecedented ruling that it is European law that is incompatible with the Polish constitution. But the tribunal is widely seen as having been politically compromised and its decision is questionable, to say the least. It is arguably, in itself, <a href="https://ruleoflaw.pl/statement-of-deans-of-law-faculties-k3-21/">a breach of the Polish constitution</a>. Either way, it has certainly upped the ante in Warsaw’s standoff with the Commission.</p>
<h2>This isn’t Brexit</h2>
<p>In Poland there is a mismatch between what the general public thinks about the EU and the path political elites have pursued. Leaders have been antagonistic in recent years in their dealings with Brussels. Most recently Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ac57409d-20c9-4d65-9a5d-6661277cd9af">warned</a> that if the EU “starts the third world war” by issuing financial sanctions over the rule of law dispute, he would “defend our rights with any weapons which are at our disposal”.</p>
<p>The PiS was unenthusiastic about Europe, if not entirely eurosceptic when it came to power. But many years since have been spent battling Brussels, within an overwhelming EU supportive public.</p>
<p>So fears of a “Polexit” are not actually borne of public opinion. The Polish electorate is not set to follow the British example and vote to leave. Instead, the debate is happening at the top level of politics – between the governments of Poland and Hungary on one side and the European Union on the other.</p>
<p>Poland and Hungary joined the EU in 2004 but have both since suffered from democratic decline. In Poland, the leader of eurosceptic party PiS, Jarosław Kaczyński has been inspired by Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán’s brand of what Orbán calls “illiberal democracy”.</p>
<p>All the while, support for the EU among the general public in Poland has actually <a href="https://www.cbos.pl/PL/trendy/trendy.php?trend_parametr=stosunek_do_integracji_UE">remained stable</a> – and stood at around 88% in December 2020. It has never dipped below 72% since Poland joined the EU.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.monikanalepa.com/uploads/6/6/3/1/66318923/chioprisnalepavanberg.pdf">recent analysis</a> of the Polish case suggests this slide away from democracy is not something voters support either – rather it is an abuse of power that leaders have pursued of their own accord once they’d secured their positions. We know that the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40803-018-0082-5">vote for the PiS</a> is rather a conservative vote, based on the defence of traditional, family values.</p>
<h2>Inside the dispute</h2>
<p>The EU has long lacked the tools needed to stop member states sliding into autocracy <a href="https://academic.oup.com/yel/article/doi/10.1093/yel/yeaa012/6064852">if their governments will it.</a>. Yet, the EU still has the power to withhold certain funding, including for agricultural subsidies and infrastructure, if a member state is not upholding European values. In this case, it has warned Poland that COVID recovery funds will be withheld if the recent decision from the Polish Constitutional Tribunal is upheld.</p>
<p>The EU’s cautious attitude so far has left the PiS government feeling emboldened to carry on abusing the rule of law. A recent meeting of European leaders has not provided an answer to the problem either. The Commission can, however, act unilaterally to suspend payments to Poland and it should do so now.</p>
<p>On top of the rule of law problems, Polish lawmakers are also currently debating a bill banning LGBTQ pride parades, with a speech in the parliament comparing LGBT rights movement to Nazism.</p>
<p>The European Commission cannot remain inactive. Otherwise it will set a precedent that EU members can pick and choose which binding EU laws they adhere to and which they ignore.</p>
<p>The current plan is to unlock the <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/brussels-ursula-von-der-leyen-offers-poland-compromise-over-eu-ecovery-fund/">first tranche of COVID recovery funding</a>, worth €36 billion, only when changes have been made to the Polish judicial system. Will it work? Poland seems to have already responded to the European Commission by suspending a judge (the eighth to fall foul of the tribunal). She was suspended for asking preliminary questions to the European Court of Justice and for applying EU law. In this act, Poland is making it clear that it intends to continue on its chosen path. The time for dialogue is definitely over.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simona Guerra 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>Explaining the rule of law crisis shaking the relationship between Poland and the EU.Simona Guerra, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1697012021-11-01T03:24:00Z2021-11-01T03:24:00ZCOP26: here’s how much progress the UK has made on three key net zero pledges<p><em>The UK is hosting the 26th annual UN climate summit in Glasgow. Boris Johnson’s government boasts of having the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-enshrines-new-target-in-law-to-slash-emissions-by-78-by-2035">most ambitious</a> climate change targets in the world.</em> </p>
<p><em>But how is the country’s progress to net zero emissions by 2050 going? We asked three experts to look at three key pledges.</em></p>
<h2>Transport</h2>
<p><strong>Pledge:</strong> To <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54981425">phase out sales</a> of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030.</p>
<p><strong>Progress:</strong> Electric vehicles, or EVs, accounted for 15.2% of all new UK vehicle registrations <a href="https://www.smmt.co.uk/2021/10/battery-electric-vehicles-power-on-despite-supply-issues-bedevilling-new-car-market/">in September 2021</a>, up from <a href="https://www.smmt.co.uk/2021/01/december-ev-registrations-4/">an average</a> of 6.6% in 2020 and 1.6% in 2019. There are now almost <a href="https://ev-database.uk/">100 different EV models</a> to choose from and a growing network of nearly 5,000 rapid chargers, <a href="https://www.zap-map.com/statistics/#points">up from 2,000 in 2018</a>.</p>
<p>In Norway, a country which is aiming for a more ambitious 2025 ban on petrol and diesel vehicles, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-pushes-norways-ev-sales-new-record-2021-10-01/">nearly 80%</a> of all vehicle sales in September were electric, up from 54.3% <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/05/electric-cars-record-market-share-norway">in 2020</a>.</p>
<p>Norway has demonstrated that a transition to electric vehicles is possible with current technologies if attractive policies, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/electric-cars-rise-record-54-market-share-norway-2020-2021-01-05/">such as EV tax exemptions</a>, are in place.</p>
<p>There are lots of hurdles which the UK must overcome to achieve its own 100% EV sales target by 2030, such as households which lack driveways to charge their EVs at home and the commercial van sector, which will also fall under the ban. The government can help by installing more on-street charging points, simplifying the use of rapid charging points so they can all take contactless payment and working with manufacturers to offer <a href="https://evexperiencecentre.co.uk/">test drives</a>. Electric vans currently qualify for government grants worth up to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/plug-in-car-van-grants/overview">£6,000</a>, but businesses may need more generous incentives.</p>
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<img alt="A street with three electric vehicle charging points." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429351/original/file-20211029-21-w08fg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429351/original/file-20211029-21-w08fg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429351/original/file-20211029-21-w08fg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429351/original/file-20211029-21-w08fg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429351/original/file-20211029-21-w08fg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429351/original/file-20211029-21-w08fg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429351/original/file-20211029-21-w08fg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&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">Not everyone can charge an EV at home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/electric-car-charging-station-around-crouch-1545245249">I Wei Huang/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>As the rest of the world rushes to meet their own EV targets, there could be a shortage of materials, parts and skills to make enough to keep up with demand. This could cause the price of EVs to rise or overwhelm waiting lists. One solution is to invest in the UK’s automotive sector and develop a flexible domestic supply chain with a network of <a href="https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/motoring/motoring-news/what-gigafactories-need-them-19844655">gigafactories</a> to produce the millions of batteries needed.</p>
<p>Overall, the signs are looking good for high levels of EV purchasing in the near future, but it’s not time to take the foot off the zero emission gas just yet.</p>
<h2>Electricity</h2>
<p><strong>Pledge:</strong> To <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/end-to-coal-power-brought-forward-to-october-2024">stop burning coal</a> to generate electricity by October 1 2024.</p>
<p><strong>Progress:</strong> The UK’s rapid elimination of coal-fired power since 2015 has been possible due to three factors: a fall in electricity demand, an increase in renewable generation (wind and to a lesser degree solar) and a shift from <a href="https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/portal/files/54358204/Manuscript.pdf">coal to gas generation</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429047/original/file-20211028-21-1pbiozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bar chart showing the proportion of electricity which was coal-free, 2016-2021." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429047/original/file-20211028-21-1pbiozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429047/original/file-20211028-21-1pbiozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429047/original/file-20211028-21-1pbiozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429047/original/file-20211028-21-1pbiozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429047/original/file-20211028-21-1pbiozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429047/original/file-20211028-21-1pbiozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429047/original/file-20211028-21-1pbiozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coal is on the way out of the UK’s energy mix.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grant Wilson/University of Birmingham</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, there is still a residual amount of coal generation that has supplied between 1% and 2% of electricity demand at an annual level <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3884858">from 2019 to 2021</a>. Coal is on track to generate around six terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2021. The drop in wind generation from 2020 to 2021 alone (largely due to an unusually calm summer) has been around 6-8 TWh.</p>
<p>Coal remains a flexible source of generation that can be called upon to fill gaps when other sources are struggling or to help with unforeseen outages. This happened in September when the interconnector cable that imports electricity from France was taken <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/15/fire-shuts-one-of-uk-most-important-power-cables-in-midst-of-supply-crunch">offline due to a fire</a> .</p>
<p>A new <a href="https://www.northsealink.com/">electrical interconnector to Norway</a> could further reduce the country’s dependence on generation from coal. Energy companies are also introducing <a href="https://theconversation.com/electricity-prices-have-reached-record-highs-and-the-time-poor-could-suffer-most-163610">time of use tariffs</a> which nudge customers to shift electrical demand away from expensive peak periods such as weekday evenings – when coal is traditionally used to fill short-term gaps in supply – by passing on the higher cost of electricity at these times.</p>
<p>The shift from coal is merely a step towards fully decarbonising the electrical system. The next is to remove natural gas. It’s entirely plausible that Britain will remove coal-generated electricity by October 2024, but keeping it out will depend on finding low-carbon means of <a href="https://zenodo.org/record/5172034#.YXu8o9bMI6A">balancing electricity supply and demand</a>. </p>
<p>That will mean making the electrical system more resilient to shocks, such as the sudden loss of power or high demand. EVs can help, by supplying electricity back to the grid when needed – effectively acting as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uk-plans-to-build-huge-batteries-to-store-renewable-energy-but-theres-a-much-cheaper-solution-143053">small, distributed batteries</a>. But by the time meaningful levels of controllable demand (and potentially supply) from EV charging are available to the system, coal generation will be long gone.</p>
<p>The other major challenge is balancing the system between seasons and years. Britain uses much more energy <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3930970">in winter than summer</a>. As more energy generation (as well as demand) becomes dependent on the weather, Britain will have to prepare for years with significantly lower output from wind in particular. Coal excels here, with cost-effective stockpiles which can be turned into months of electricity supply. Batteries, pumped water and other forms of short-term electrical storage will never reach these sorts of scales. Without coal, energy system operators must find low-carbon solutions to this challenge of seasonal balancing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428869/original/file-20211027-25479-ykbx9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A line graph showing rising wind generation in Britain" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428869/original/file-20211027-25479-ykbx9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428869/original/file-20211027-25479-ykbx9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428869/original/file-20211027-25479-ykbx9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428869/original/file-20211027-25479-ykbx9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428869/original/file-20211027-25479-ykbx9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428869/original/file-20211027-25479-ykbx9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428869/original/file-20211027-25479-ykbx9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">2020 was a bumper year for wind power in Britain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grant Wilson/University of Birmingham</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It will be surprising if coal generation lasts quite as long as October 2024 in Britain, and the milestone is one that should be rightly celebrated when it happens. However, the longer term storage that coal provided (and gas and nuclear still do) is something that Britain’s needs to address for a low-carbon electrical sector that is resilient to sustained low wind weather events.</p>
<h2>Heating</h2>
<p><strong>Pledge:</strong> To ensure all new heating systems installed in UK homes are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plan-to-drive-down-the-cost-of-clean-heat">low-carbon from 2035</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Progress:</strong> A range of measures and technologies can contribute to this target. One of the government’s preferred options, according to <a href="https://theconversation.com/heat-and-buildings-strategy-the-good-bad-and-ugly-of-the-uks-plan-to-replace-gas-boilers-170227">a recent report</a>, is replacing boilers which burn natural gas (a fossil fuel) with heat pumps, which run on electricity.</p>
<p>Heat pumps transfer warm air from a lower outside or ground temperature to a higher inside temperature, using one-third the energy of a gas boiler for the same level of heating. If the energy source powering it is renewable, operating a heat pump is emission-free.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A fan in a large, white box attached to the exterior of a house." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429353/original/file-20211029-25-13ryg09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429353/original/file-20211029-25-13ryg09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429353/original/file-20211029-25-13ryg09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429353/original/file-20211029-25-13ryg09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429353/original/file-20211029-25-13ryg09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429353/original/file-20211029-25-13ryg09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429353/original/file-20211029-25-13ryg09.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">Heat pumps are unlikely to struggle in British winters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pori-finland-february-5-2021-street-1911509359">Harry Hykko/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Homes with a heat pump may have cooler radiators compared with a gas boiler. Bath or shower water will also not be as warm. This means that as well as installing the pump, home central heating systems need bigger radiators and larger hot water storage tanks with additional heaters. </p>
<p>The cost could be up to <a href="https://www.evergreenenergy.co.uk/heat-pumps/much-heat-pump-cost/">£18,000 per house</a>. The government has offered <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plan-to-drive-down-the-cost-of-clean-heat">a £5,000 grant</a> towards this, meaning households will need to part with a lot of their own cash and go through with a major renovation.</p>
<p>The new £450-million <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plan-to-drive-down-the-cost-of-clean-heat">boiler upgrade scheme</a> could install 90,000 heat pumps (at £5,000 per heat pump upgrade) if it reaches the building owners willing to part with more than twice that in their own cash. This represents <a href="https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Housing_stock_/_building_stock">less than 0.4%</a> of the UK’s 23.9 million homes. How are the remaining 99.6% going to become low-carbon? </p>
<p>Replacing natural gas boilers with ones powered by clean-burning hydrogen would be a more straightforward solution. Both are similar in size and deliver similar water temperatures. Hydrogen heating trials are <a href="https://www.sgn.co.uk/H100Fife">underway</a> in some parts of the UK. But pure hydrogen cannot pass through existing gas pipes, so new distribution infrastructure is needed.</p>
<p>The UK’s government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-ten-point-plan-for-a-green-industrial-revolution/title#introduction">ten point plan</a> for a green industrial revolution aims to develop five gigawatts of low-carbon hydrogen production by 2030. This is thought to be sufficient to <a href="https://www.h2-view.com/story/the-5gw-uk-hydrogen-target-a-hugely-important-step-h2-view-talks-to-itm-power/">power 1.5 million homes</a>. That would still leave at least 22.3 million homes without a clean heating solution, assuming that all of the 90,000 homes take the offer of replacing their gas boiler with heat pumps.</p>
<p>The boiler upgrade scheme is a part of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plan-to-drive-down-the-cost-of-clean-heat">£3.9 billion new funding</a> announced in October 2021 that will include hydrogen heating. However, <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/energy-resources/deloitte-uk-energy-resources-investing-in-hydrogen.pdf">a recent report</a> suggested that developing hydrogen production technology – alone – by 2035 would cost between £3.5 billion and £11.4 billion. Further investments in converting, storing and distributing hydrogen fuel are also needed.</p>
<p>All these measures would mean throwing good money after bad if nothing is done to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes. It’s thought that 80% of the homes which will exist in 2050 – 19.1 million – have already been built. That means 19.1 million of today’s homes still being lived in by the middle of the century. Since there are 10,288 days before January 1 2050, approximately 1,860 homes will need to be renovated every day in order to be done by 2050. With the green homes grant which offers £5,000 towards home insulation <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-the-green-homes-grant-scheme">ending by October 31 2021</a>, it remains to be seen how such a large undertaking will be carried out, and how it would be paid for.</p>
<p>Will all new heating systems in UK homes be low-carbon from 2035? Current government commitments only scratch the surface. Although efforts are going in the right direction, the government will need to significantly increase investment to meet its target.</p>
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<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="COP26: the world's biggest climate talks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.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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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><strong>This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.</strong>
<br><em>Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. <a href="https://page.theconversation.com/cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/"><strong>More.</strong></a></em> </p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashley Fly receives funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre for research into battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant Wilson receives funding from Innovate UK through the Regional Energy Systems Operator project, and from EPSRC through the Active Building Centre project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ljubomir Jankovic received funding from EPSRC, EU, EUREKA, ARTEMIS, KTP, Innovate UK, Research England, and AHRC. </span></em></p>Electric vehicle sales are booming and coal power is dwindling, but structural obstacles to net zero remain.Ashley Fly, Lecturer in Vehicle Electrification, Loughborough UniversityGrant Wilson, Lecturer, Energy Informatics Group, Chemical Engineering, University of BirminghamLjubomir Jankovic, Professor of Advanced Building Design, University of HertfordshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1703412021-10-27T19:04:31Z2021-10-27T19:04:31ZFacial recognition in schools: here are the risks to children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428514/original/file-20211026-25-138af68.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C5760%2C3837&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/cute-girl-holding-tray-delicious-food-606184049">Africa Studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In conversation with my teenage daughter last week, I pointed out <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/oct/18/privacy-fears-as-schools-use-facial-recognition-to-speed-up-lunch-queue-ayrshire-technology-payments-uk">a news report</a> which flagged concerns over the use of facial recognition technologies in several school canteens in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Nine schools in the area recently launched this practice as a means to take payment for lunches more quickly and minimise COVID risk, though they’ve <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59037346">since paused</a> rolling out the technology.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1450114081998860288"}"></div></p>
<p>When I asked my daughter if she would have any concerns about the use of facial recognition technology in her school canteen, she casually replied: “Not really. It would make things a lot faster at checkout though.”</p>
<p>Her words validate the concern that children are <a href="https://www.dataprotection.ie/sites/default/files/uploads/2019-02/TransparencyChallenge.pdf">much less aware</a> of their data rights compared to adults. And although there are special provisions and safeguards for children under a range of <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/ico-codes-of-practice/age-appropriate-design-code/">data protection legislations</a>, the use of facial recognition technology on children could pose unique privacy risks.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facial-recognition-is-spreading-faster-than-you-realise-132047">Facial recognition is spreading faster than you realise</a>
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</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/government/biometrics/facial-recognition">Facial recognition technologies</a> identify and authenticate people’s identities by detecting, capturing and matching faces to images from a database. The technologies are powered by artificial intelligence (AI), specifically the technology known as machine learning.</p>
<p>Machine learning predicts outcomes based on historical data, or algorithms, that have been fed into the system. So for facial recognition, machine learning predicts the identity associated with a digital representation of a person’s face, or “face print”, based on a database of facial images. The software adapts through this experience, in time learning to generate predictions more easily.</p>
<p>Facial recognition technology is now used in a variety of ways, such as to verify the identity of employees, to unlock personal smartphones, to tag people on social media platforms like Facebook, and even for <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/china-surveillance/552203/">surveillance purposes</a> in some countries.</p>
<p>Facial recognition technology on its own is not the problem. Rather, the issue is how it’s used and, in this instance, the fact the technology has now infiltrated school corridors and targeted a vulnerable demographic: children.</p>
<h2>So what are the privacy issues for children?</h2>
<p>Your face print is your data, so for any facial recognition system it’s important to understand how the image databases are collated and stored. Although I may grudgingly agree to the use of facial recognition technology to enter a concert venue, I wouldn’t be thrilled if my face print was retained for “other commercial purposes of the company” (a phrase that appears quite commonly in the fine print of ticket sales regarding the use of personal data).</p>
<p>If facial recognition technology is used in school settings, we’ll need clear information as to if and how students’ images will be used beyond the purpose of the lunch queue. For example, are they going to be shared with any third parties, and for what purpose? Issues could arise, say, if face prints are linked to other data on the child, like their lunch preferences. Third parties could theoretically use this data for marketing purposes.</p>
<p>We would also need information as to how the images would be protected. If the students’ face prints aren’t properly secured, or the system isn’t robust enough to fend off hackers, this creates cyber-security risks. It may be possible for hackers to link children’s face prints to other data about them, and track them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of school students eating lunch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428515/original/file-20211026-21-yba4wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428515/original/file-20211026-21-yba4wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428515/original/file-20211026-21-yba4wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428515/original/file-20211026-21-yba4wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428515/original/file-20211026-21-yba4wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428515/original/file-20211026-21-yba4wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428515/original/file-20211026-21-yba4wo.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">Privacy concerns are key when it comes to facial recognition technologies in schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/students-sitting-cafeteria-table-eating-lunch-76861735">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The heightened privacy risk surrounding the use of facial recognition technologies in schools also relates to informed consent. Although UK <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/12/enacted">data protection law</a> specifies that children aged 13 and over can consent to the processing of their personal data, this doesn’t mean they fully understand the implications. For example, <a href="https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Growing-Up-Digital-Taskforce-Report-January-2017_0.pdf">one survey</a> found children between ages eight and 15 had difficulty understanding the terms and conditions of Instagram.</p>
<p>Children, parents and guardians should be provided with nothing less than full information, couched in language children can easily understand. Any data subject, including a child, has the right to know exactly how their personal data will be processed, shared, and stored, and can specify the conditions under which their consent will apply. Anything less than prudence and transparency will risk jeopardising children’s privacy.</p>
<h2>Normalising the surveillance of children?</h2>
<p>These are just some of the questions the use of facial recognition technologies in schools raises. Facial recognition technology also carries other risks, such as errors, which could, for example, lead to students being charged incorrectly. And as with any AI system, we should be concerned about whether the algorithms and data sets are <a href="https://theconversation.com/facial-analysis-ai-is-being-used-in-job-interviews-it-will-probably-reinforce-inequality-124790">free from bias</a>, and have clean, complete and representative training data.</p>
<p>Importantly, employing facial recognition technologies in schools also goes some way to normalising the surveillance of children. It’s possible the knowledge they are being tracked in this way could impact some children’s wellbeing. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/police-use-of-facial-recognition-technology-must-be-governed-by-stronger-legislation-111325">Police use of facial recognition technology must be governed by stronger legislation</a>
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<p>It’s not surprising that the UK’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/oct/18/privacy-fears-as-schools-use-facial-recognition-to-speed-up-lunch-queue-ayrshire-technology-payments-uk">stepped in</a> to investigate the use of facial recognition technologies in school lunch queues. And in light of the inquiry, it’s pleasing to see North Ayrshire Council has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59037346">paused rolling out</a> the practice. </p>
<p>But as we move further into the digital age, it’s possible the use of facial recognition technologies among schoolchildren will resume, and even be taken up more widely. If this is to happen, the use of facial recognition must yield substantially more benefits than risks, taking into account the special circumstances of using the technology on children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pin Lean Lau is affiliated with the Interest Group on Supranational Bio-Law of the European Association of Health Law (EAHL). </span></em></p>Several schools in Scotland have paused the rollout of facial recognition technology in school canteens following inquiries from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.Pin Lean Lau, Lecturer in Bio-Law, Brunel Law School | Centre for Artificial Intelligence: Social & Digital Innovations, Brunel University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1675862021-10-26T12:19:39Z2021-10-26T12:19:39ZHow China combined authoritarianism with capitalism to create a new communism<p>After the 1989 fall of communism in the Soviet bloc, five self-declared communist states remain today: China, Cuba, Laos, <a href="https://leonidpetrov.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/dprk-has-quietly-amended-its-constitution/">North Korea</a> and Vietnam. <a href="https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/belarus-overthrow-campaign-aims-to-destroy-last-traces-of-soviet-socialism/">Belarus</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-12/bankrupt-by-socialism-venezuela-hands-over-control-of-companies">Venezuela</a> can also be added to the mix as they fulfil the criteria of a communist state – even though they do not officially invoke the ideology. So, at present, the number stands at seven. The question is, now that capitalism is the engine of China’s economy, what is communism today? And if the number of communist states is poised to <a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20-02832-Elements-of-China-Challenge-508.pdf">grow in the near future</a>, as some predict, what does this prospect mean for democracy?</p>
<p>My interest in communism goes beyond my work as a historian – it’s personal. I was born and raised in communist Poland in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a grey country where people seemed to have lost all hope. All essentials, including shoes and coffee, were rationed. But <a href="https://gdansk.ipn.gov.pl/pl2/aktualnosci/138991">rationing cards</a> did not mean you would get what you wanted, or even needed. Queuing for hours (sometimes even days) to buy anything that had just been delivered to a shop was <a href="https://twojahistoria.pl/2018/10/11/po-papier-toaletowy-mozna-bylo-stac-nawet-kilka-dni-kolejki-sklepowe-za-prl-u/%22%22">a regular occurrence</a>.</p>
<p>I have no doubt that my upbringing shaped my life and inspired my career. My research has examined modern central and eastern Europe, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Eurasian-Empires-as-Blueprints-for-Ethiopia-From-Ethnolinguistic-Nation-State/Kefale-Kamusella-Beken/p/book/9781003158097">nationalism</a> and the politics of language – particularly <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Politics-and-the-Slavic-Languages/Kamusella/p/book/9780367569846">in the region’s</a> totalitarian and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Ethnic-Cleansing-During-the-Cold-War-The-Forgotten-1989-Expulsion-of-Turks/Kamusella/p/book/9780367588564">authoritarian regimes</a> during the past two centuries.</p>
<p>During my youth in the 1980s, bartering became more common, while scarce goods could only be bought with US dollars. You could exchange a summer dress two sizes too large for a T-bone steak (<em>kotlet</em>), or a record player that you did not need for a large can of baby formula. Only vinegar seemed to be in constant supply on the near-empty shop shelves – perhaps accounting for the sour faces and almost permanent lack of smiles. Western scholars came up with an apt term to describe this existence. They called it the “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26265933">economy of scarcity</a>” – the impact of central planning on production and the population.</p>
<p>And it wasn’t just a lack of food. Freedom was scarce, too. Poland, like all Soviet bloc countries, was kept under a “double lock” – meaning it was even difficult to travel to another <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2831436">socialist country</a>, be it neighbouring Czechoslovakia or East Germany. You needed to apply for a particular kind of passport to travel to the “people’s democracies” (that is, Soviet bloc countries) in Europe. And after coming back home from your travels, this precious document had to be returned to a local militia headquarters (the police was then known by this militarised sobriquet). </p>
<p>If you wanted to visit a European capitalist country, like West Germany, you needed a another <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/nov/08/the-passport-herta-muller-review">kind of passport</a>. But only a single member of any family would be allowed to go to the “rotten capitalist west” (as it was often referred to). So the rest of your family remained as the state’s hostages to ensure you wouldn’t dare to defect. I never once saw the passport that permitted travel to <a href="https://jerzykusmider.com/1972/02/01/1972-77-paszporty-i-podroze-z-prl/">all the countries of the world</a>, which allowed the lucky few to travel to the US or Australia.</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 story 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> and is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges.</em> </p>
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<p>To me, and many others, my home country felt like one big prison. <a href="https://culture.pl/en/article/playing-with-censorship-how-polish-artists-dealt-with-the-communist-regime">Stringent censorship</a> of publications, films and television aimed to convince us that life in Poland and the Soviet bloc was much better than in New York or Paris. But <a href="https://www.rp.pl/kraj/art12865001-propaganda-sukcesu-i-nienawisci">few believed the propaganda</a>. People clandestinely listened to Radio Free Europe and Voice of America (despite the state attempting to jam them). And during the 1980s, it became easier to buy banned books in the form of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1520346">samizdat</a> (uncensored, underground publications).</p>
<p>Among the youth, the dream was to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Miles_to_Heaven">escape this prison</a> and enjoy a “normal life” in a “normal country”. In a place with no rationing cards and well-stocked supermarkets, where working a single job you would be able to afford a decent standard of living, an apartment and summer holidays in the Canaries. The slang Polish name for this Spanish archipelago, “Kanary”, became <a href="https://expressbydgoski.pl/mialam-marzenia-tony-je-realizowal/ar/13863640">colloquial shorthand for the unattainable</a>.</p>
<p>Pie in the sky, our parents warned us. Their advice was to be quiet, to do what we were told by teachers or overseers – and to never say what we thought. After all, refusing to toe the Communist Party’s line, not praising Poland’s socialism – let alone opposing the system – might cost you <a href="https://twojahistoria.pl/2018/04/21/punkty-za-pochodzenie-za-komuny-to-wladze-decydowaly-o-tym-komu-wolno-bylo-isc-na-studia/">a coveted place at a university</a>, the loss of an apartment, or land you in prison. In the 1950s, at the height of Stalinism, people were even executed for such <a href="https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=747569">ideological misdemeanours</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">For people who did succeed to escape the regime, the journey was fraught with complications.</span></figcaption>
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<p>But, unexpectedly, the cold war between the western democracies and the communist Soviet bloc came to an <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8429237.stm">end in 1989</a>, followed, two years later, by the collapse of the <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/the-last-empire.html">Soviet Union</a> itself. This communist superpower simply and peacefully (at least in Europe) vanished into thin air, causing communism as a political and economic system to disappear from much of the world. </p>
<p>We were free. The last General Secretary of the Soviet Union <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/10/17/would-the-soviet-union-have-collapsed-without-mikhail-gorbachev/">Mikhail Gorbachev</a> was the good fairy, who made our heartfelt dream come true. The Soviet leader decided that starving his own people in order to keep up with the west in the arms race was no way forward. The subsequent systemic transition, in the span of a decade and a half, enabled former Soviet bloc states, from Poland and Hungary to Romania and Bulgaria, to accede to NATO and the European Union. </p>
<p>With my newfound freedom, I continued my education in South Africa and the Czech Republic. I researched in Italy, the US and Japan, before finding university positions in Ireland and Scotland.</p>
<p>But in the case of the 15 countries that emerged from the defunct Soviet Union, only the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania became truly western and democratic. Most, Russia included, became autocracies – even if they stuck to the <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/josep-borrell-eu-belarus-alexander-lukashenko/">pretence of parliamentary elections</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/85300">Georgia</a>, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/moldova-pro-eu-election-center-right-pas-parliament/">Moldova</a> and especially <a href="https://neweasterneurope.eu/2021/09/23/what-is-the-final-destination-for-ukraines-nato-eu-path/">Ukraine</a> are tantalisingly close to becoming genuine democracies with the prospect of EU and NATO membership. Yet, Turkmenistan is almost <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/turkmenistan-what-life-is-like-inside-secretive-dictatorship-2019-10?r=US&IR=T">as oppressive as North Korea</a>, while <a href="https://www.hrw.org/europe/central-asia/azerbaijan">Azerbaijan</a> and <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/notorious-uzbek-dictator-is-dead-but-his-regime-will-live-on-1.2779275">Uzbekistan</a> are seen as textbook examples of repressive and <a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/20160404-azerbaijan-hidden-wealth/">kleptokratic</a> dictatorships.</p>
<p>But at present, not a single post-communist or post-Soviet state declares itself to be communist.</p>
<h2>China leads the autocracies</h2>
<p>With the economic and political demise of Soviet-style communism, most of the communist regimes supported by the Soviet Union across the world, like <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Eurasian-Empires-as-Blueprints-for-Ethiopia-From-Ethnolinguistic-Nation-State/Kefale-Kamusella-Beken/p/book/9781003158097">Ethiopia</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09668139808412601?journalCode=ceas20">Afghanistan</a> and <a href="https://wachtyrz.eu/tomasz-kamusella-moscows-first-hybrid-war/">South Yemen</a> also collapsed. Communist Cuba is a lone exception to this trend. The Caribbean island has been a permanent thorn in the side of the US since 1961.</p>
<p>Present-day communism, then, is led by China – the world’s second largest economy. Beijing has been proudly communist since 1949 and is now <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/China-US-Competition-Report-2021.pdf">taking on the US</a>, which still <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/18/america-never-be-back-democratic-leadership-biden-afghanistan">leads</a> – though falteringly – the globe’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-46971250">shrinking camp of democracies</a>. Since 2010, an increasing number of states have <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/democracy-crisis">parted with democracy</a>.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, democracy has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/13/do-not-disturb-review-the-disturbing-death-of-a-rwandan-dissident">quickly reversed</a> in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3518608">post-genocide Rwanda</a>. The same also happened in <a href="https://www.democratic-erosion.com/2020/12/10/a-new-brand-of-autocratic-consolidation-a-case-study-in-ethiopia/">Ethiopia</a> after the <a href="https://neweasterneurope.eu/2021/03/31/tigray-a-very-central-european-war/">civil war in Tigray</a> (2020-present day), while the Arab Spring’s democratic gains <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190944650.001.0001/oso-9780190944650-chapter-012">have been squashed</a> across the Middle East. As in <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/russia-under-putin-can-electoral-autocracy-survive/">Putin’s Russia</a>, electoral autocracies were installed in <a href="https://verfassungsblog.de/bulgaria-covid-19-as-an-excuse-to-solidify-autocracy/">Bulgaria</a> (2009), <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/world/europe/hungary-orban-democracy-far-right.html">Hungary</a> (2010), <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2019/637944/EPRS_BRI(2019)637944_EN.pdf">Serbia</a> (2014), <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13608746.2018.1479945">Turkey</a> (2015), <a href="https://ruleoflaw.pl/letter-to-ursula-von-der-leyen-rule-of-law-poland/">Poland</a> (2016) and <a href="https://europeum.org/data/articles/eumonzigaapril-2020.pdf">Slovenia</a> (2020).</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424756/original/file-20211005-24-1xlchja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424756/original/file-20211005-24-1xlchja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424756/original/file-20211005-24-1xlchja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424756/original/file-20211005-24-1xlchja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424756/original/file-20211005-24-1xlchja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424756/original/file-20211005-24-1xlchja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424756/original/file-20211005-24-1xlchja.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">
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<span class="caption">On July 1, 2019, China’s Communist Party celebrated its 100th birthday.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/young-communist-party-members-take-part-in-party-building-activities-in-jianshui-county-yunnan-china-image328963340.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=18256E0F-CBE1-4D1C-AE0D-217D24E098D5&p=15094&n=0&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3dbar%26st%3d0%26pn%3d1%26ps%3d100%26sortby%3d2%26resultview%3dsortbyPopular%26npgs%3d0%26qt%3dcommunist%2520china%26qt_raw%3dcommunist%2520china%26lic%3d3%26mr%3d0%26pr%3d0%26ot%3d0%26creative%3d%26ag%3d0%26hc%3d0%26pc%3d%26blackwhite%3d%26cutout%3d%26tbar%3d1%26et%3d0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3d0%26loc%3d0%26imgt%3d0%26dtfr%3d%26dtto%3d%26size%3d0xFF%26archive%3d1%26groupid%3d%26pseudoid%3d75935%26a%3d%26cdid%3d%26cdsrt%3d%26name%3d%26qn%3d%26apalib%3d%26apalic%3d%26lightbox%3d%26gname%3d%26gtype%3d%26xstx%3d0%26simid%3d%26saveQry%3d%26editorial%3d%26nu%3d%26t%3d%26edoptin%3d%26customgeoip%3dGB%26cap%3d1%26cbstore%3d1%26vd%3d0%26lb%3d%26fi%3d2%26edrf%3d0%26ispremium%3d1%26flip%3d0%26pl%3d">From www.alamy.com</a></span>
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<p>China’s population of 1.4 billion means that a fifth of all humankind lives under its communist regime. The other three self-declared communist states – Laos, North Korea and Vietnam – all border China. A new communist – and Sinic (Chinese influenced) – bloc, indeed.</p>
<p>So, after the two decades of decline in the wake of the 1989 collapse of the Soviet bloc, is the turbocharged Chinese-style communism 2.0 – which embraces capitalism – going to take over?</p>
<h2>The rise and fall of democracy</h2>
<p>The looser post-cold war definition of communism marries capitalism with socialism, as understood in the former Soviet Union. The overarching principle of socialism (seen as communism in the west) <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Soviet_Life/aTxZVaRV740C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=From%20each%20according%20to%20his%20ability%2C%20to%20each%20according%20to%20his%20contribution&pg=RA2-PA12&printsec=frontcover&bsq=From%20each%20according%20to%20his%20ability%2C%20to%20each%20according%20to%20his%20contribution">says</a>: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his contribution.” In practice, this unorthodox mix of Soviet-style socialism and capitalism means an authoritarian, or even totalitarian, regime under a single party’s full and (these days) AI-enhanced control. This control extends over the now capitalist-style economy, too. Through this mono-party, the invariably male leader single-handedly rules.</p>
<p>Often a cult of personality is developed for him and the deal is sweetened with a modicum of a welfare state. In most cases these states advertise themselves as being communist. Others, like <a href="https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/belarus-overthrow-campaign-aims-to-destroy-last-traces-of-soviet-socialism/">Belarus</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-12/bankrupt-by-socialism-venezuela-hands-over-control-of-companies">Venezuela</a> may not actually call it “communism” and a different name may be given to this ideology.</p>
<p>For example Bolivarianism in Venezuela, national unity in <a href="https://president.gov.by/be/belarus/god-narodnogo-edinstva">Belarus</a> or Juche in North Korea. The mono-party political system makes the Communist Party into the state and its leader into the de-facto dictator. Unchecked collectivism, or the ruling dictator’s self-serving and populist rhetoric of prioritising masses (referred to as “nation or people”) over individuals, “justifies” his rule and the system. In places like Belarus and China, this has led to dissenters being <a href="https://apnews.com/article/belarus-europe-dcae4d9b7e050323800d098c62bd91c9">repressed</a> and <a href="https://euobserver.com/enlargement/124847">concentration camps</a> being built to remove them from “healthy society”. </p>
<p>Like the pre-1989 communist states, all these countries’ ruling regimes are <a href="https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/891142">anti-western</a> in their official rhetoric, and often in their actions too. This anti-western aggression was another important defining feature of the communist states of the 20th century.</p>
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<p>But will this number rise or fall in the 21st century? During the two decades following the fall of communism in Europe, democracy as the doctrine of human and political rights steadily <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/14/more-than-half-of-countries-are-democratic/">spread across the world</a>. Dictators felt pressured to keep up at least the appearance of working electoral democracy in their countries. Amnesty International and Freedom House <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/amnesty-international-welcomes-release-political-prisoners?">successfully shamed</a> autocrats into mending their notorious ways and freeing political prisoners.</p>
<p>But after 2010, this trend was <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/democracy-retreat">incrementally reversed</a>. Symbolically, in this year the Chinese writer and pro-democracy dissident <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Xiaobo">Liu Xiaobo</a> was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Beijing felt offended by the west and took steps to suppress Liu, his family and friends. The authorities denied Liu cancer treatment and he died prematurely seven years later.</p>
<p>Liu’s ashes were scattered in the sea to prevent the establishment of a grave for a person many saw as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Xiaobo#Death_and_funeral">democratic hero and martyr</a>. That would have been a focal point for China’s democrats, who might have gone on pilgrimages to pay respect to Liu’s unwavering loyalty to liberty and democracy. </p>
<p>Then, in 2020, the pandemic created an ideal opportunity for Beijing to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-parliament-hongkong-democracy-a-idUSKBN2AX1IF">dismantle democracy in Hong Kong</a>, and a place that was once a beacon of political and economic freedom fell. Autocrats of all stripes <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/democracy-crisis">took note</a>. </p>
<h2>‘To get rich is glorious’</h2>
<p>But isn’t the whole idea of capitalism and profit anathema to the central tenets of communism? And if so, how did these two opposites attract? In the wake of then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s 1978 reforms, a great discovery of applied politics was made in China: that you can have capitalism without democracy. Spotting a gap in the market of ideas, Deng decreed that “<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-get-rich-is-glorious-how-deng-xiaoping-set-china-on-a-path-to-rule-the-world-156836">to get rich is glorious</a>”, meaning that capitalism was <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/mobilized_contention/files/merkel_-_is_capitalism_compatible_with_democracy.pdf">ideologically neutral</a> and could serve the needs of a communist regime. </p>
<p>The current marriage of capitalism and communism is a lesson for democrats not to trust in their wishful thinking. Instead, the often touted hypothesis about <a href="https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1966&context=masters_theses">capitalism’s democratising effects</a> must be put to the test. It is clear that capitalism does not make authoritarian or totalitarian Belarus, China, Laos or Vietnam any less authoritarian or more pro-democratic or pro-western. Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela ditched capitalism once before, when they became communist, in 1948 and 1959 and 1999 respectively, and they are reluctant to re-embrace it. But China’s enthusiasm for undemocratic capitalism since 2004 – known as the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130824150344/http:/fpc.org.uk/fsblob/244.pdf">Beijing consensus</a> in the west – may compel them to follow suit soon.</p>
<p>China’s economic success, if it lasts for several generations, may lead to the fortification of nascent communism 2.0, with capitalism as an integral part of this ideology. <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/editors-blog/2011/1104/The-China-paradox-communist-capitalism">Communist-capitalism</a> is not an oxymoron any more, as long as the ruling communist party <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/nov/04/jack-ma-ant-group-is-tamed-social-media-reacts-after-china-blocks-ipo">keeps entrepreneurs subservient</a> to its ideology and governance.</p>
<p>So what are the specific characteristics of the new communist 2.0 state? Perhaps, the self-declaration of being a communist state is the most obvious and that this features in the constitution. Even if some states give it a different name.</p>
<p>Civic and human rights are seriously limited and often denounced as a “<a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1157205.shtml">western ploy</a>”. For instance, no individual right to vote <a href="http://www.china.org.cn/english/27743.htm">exists in China</a>, while the state actually <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/crimes-against-humanity-is-china-killing-political-prisoners-for-their-organs-20191105-p537md.html">owns citizens’ bodies</a> to do with them <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-may-2-2019-1.5118724/china-s-one-child-policy-was-enforced-through-abortion-and-sterilization-says-documentary-director-1.5118738">as it pleases</a>. </p>
<p>A similar level of abuse is observed in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/07/beatings-killings-gulags-north-korea-rights-abuses-likely-to-be-ignored-at-summit">North Korea</a> and <a href="https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/torture-of-political-prisoners-continues">Vietnam</a>. And growing repression has also been observed in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/15/belarus-systematic-beatings-torture-protesters">Belarus</a> and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/08/cuba-amnesty-international-names-prisoners-of-conscience/">Cuba</a>.</p>
<p>Recently, the west woke up to the dangers that its liberal and democratic values may face and the fact that capitalism alone cannot guarantee freedom and <a href="https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2019-05/kapitalismus-demokratie-ungleichheit-globalisierung-english">human rights</a>. The fear that the age of communist China’s <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/11/is-china-a-new-colonial-power/">imperialism</a> has already arrived motivated Australia, the UK and the US, for example, to form a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/15/australia-nuclear-powered-submarines-us-uk-security-partnership-aukus">new military pact</a>. Imperfectly – and probably to Beijing’s delight – AUKUS agreement excludes the EU.</p>
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<h2>Technological totalitarianism</h2>
<p>In China, the traditional features of totalitarianism have become irretrievably combined with the system’s appetite for hi-tech conditioning and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/01/29/china-uyghur-muslim-surveillance-police/">surveillance</a>. For example, the total control of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/04/understanding-chinas-preventive-repression-in-xinjiang/">Xinjiang’s Muslims</a> is made possible through the region’s mass database of the population’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/13/chinese-authorities-collecting-dna-residents-xinjiang">DNA and irises</a>. </p>
<p>Technology and AI are communism 2.0’s largely bloodless methods for extending total control over the population, making sure that every individual <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained">toes the party’s line</a>. This compliance is also enabled by the emerging military surveillance <a href="https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/president-expands-ban-on-chinese-3921080/">industrial complex</a>, which is going to be at the core of successful <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/editors-blog/2011/1104/The-China-paradox-communist-capitalism">communist-capitalism</a>.</p>
<p>More control means more job openings in this complex, directly translating into economic growth, that in turn will go back into financing that control – totalitarianism’s perfect feedback loop, with no way out. And so repression becomes recognised as the engine of the economy; a guarantee of prosperity for most (though not all).</p>
<p>The seismic shift from Soviet-style communism 1.0, based on heavy industry, to China’s AI-supported communism 2.0 can be observed to different degrees across those seven communist states. North Korea remains an outlier and a squarely communism 1.0 state. To this day, Pyongyang refuses to follow the communism 2.0 path, despite Beijing’s quiet nudges in that direction (although there are <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/26/the-incredible-rise-of-north-koreas-hacking-army">signs</a> that could be changing). Cuba and Venezuela, meanwhile, are also closer to communism 1.0, still making non-pragmatic choices informed by idealism and ideology. At the other end of the spectrum, Belarus, Laos and Vietnam are using whatever works economically (as long as the ruling party controls production and profits). They are China’s conscientious pupils, bent on implementing communism 2.0.</p>
<h2>Democratic alternatives</h2>
<p>Unless the world’s democracies come up with attractive and effective solutions to socioeconomic ills such as unemployment, falling living standards and income, and inaccessible medical care, then I am afraid that communism 2.0 is going to win hands down. In this scenario, the number of communist states is bound to grow and individual and political freedoms will diminish. </p>
<p>China’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_and_Road_Initiative">Belt and Road Initiative</a> (BRI) is exactly the type of ambitious project that the world’s democracies acutely lack at this moment in time. The plan is to link and build a coordinated network of railway, road and maritime corridors to span all of Africa, Asia and Europe for the seamless export of products from China and the easy import of raw materials to this communist powerhouse.</p>
<p>Not only does the BRI already facilitate China’s <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/belt-and-road-colonialism-chinese-characteristics">exploitation of Eurasia and Africa</a>, but it also functions as the main conveyor belt for <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/protect-the-party-chinas-growing-influence-in-the-developing-world/">spreading communism 2.0 globally</a>.</p>
<p>Adoptions of the Chinese model’s signature mix of welfare state policies with growing authoritarian tendencies and a single party’s aspiration to seize all power have been observed in present-day Europe since 2015, be it in <a href="https://neweasterneurope.eu/2018/09/27/bulgarias-autocratic-model/">Bulgaria</a>, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/05/hungary-and-poland-arent-democratic-theyre-authoritarian/">Hungary, Poland</a> or <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI(2019)637944">Serbia</a>. Unsurprisingly, these countries’ pro-authoritarian leaders are enamoured with Chinese <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/10/08/serbia-has-rolled-out-the-red-carpet-to-china-but-at-what-cost">economic and political success</a>. They hope to establish privileged links and collaboration with the communist superpower and they may not be the last western states to fall under its spell.</p>
<p>To curry favour with Beijing, Europe’s aspiring autocracies are busy dismantling democracy and putting curbs on political rights and freedoms at home. Since 2015, Poland has repeatedly been risking tens of billions of Euros in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/08/brussels-vows-swift-response-poland-ruling-against-eu-law">developmental aid from the EU</a> by rejecting the basic principle of EU legal primacy. Facing growing censure, in 2017, incredulously, the Polish prime minister said that it did not matter, because in such a case China would offer Poland <a href="https://wyborcza.biz/biznes/7,177151,22265746,unia-chinska-zamiast-unii-europejskiej-pekin-wpompuje-w-polske.html">more money than Brussels</a>.</p>
<p>I fear that, after my childhood in communist Poland, I may have to live out my old age under a communist 2.0 regime of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/15/the-road-to-unfreedom-russia-europe-america-timothy-snyder-review-tim-adams">renewed oppression</a>. However colourful and hi-tech its <a href="https://fortune.com/2018/11/29/communist-china-billionaires-jack-ma/">façade</a> may be, the enforcement of the ruling party’s line in this possible future will be swifter and more totalitarian than in the Soviet bloc’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-is-a-totalitarians-dream-heres-how-to-take-power-back-143722">pre-cyberspace past</a>. </p>
<p>Vast databases of citizens’ DNA and irises will make personal identifications impossible to fake, while ubiquitous online, mobile and CCTV monitoring will <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201014-totalitarian-world-in-chains-artificial-intelligence">liquidate privacy</a> and any possibility of organised dissent.</p>
<p>In the state’s gaze, each person will stand naked with no choice but to do the autocrat’s bidding or <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/09/22/why-are-people-disappearing-china">be vanished</a> and die, forgotten by all, out of sight in a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2009/11/11/china-secret-black-jails-hide-severe-rights-abuses">“black jail”</a> or in an officially non-existent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/China_hidden_camps">concentration camp</a>.</p>
<p>Even the memory of such an ideological miscreant will be <a href="https://www.hongkongwatch.org/all-posts/2021/6/3/beijings-move-to-wipe-out-the-memory-of-tiananmen-square-damages-right-to-peaceful-assembly">erased from people’s minds</a>, thanks to the rise of the state-controlled “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/18/russia-growing-internet-isolation-control-censorship">sovereign internet</a>”. As George Orwell predicted in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four">1984</a>: “<a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/1984/kotPYEqx7kMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=wiki%20orwell%201984&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover&bsq=Who%20controls%20the%20past%20controls%20the%20future">Who controls the past, controls the future</a>.”</p>
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<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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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/cant-face-running-have-a-hot-bath-or-a-sauna-research-shows-they-offer-some-similar-benefits-158552?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Can’t face running? Have a hot bath or a sauna – research shows they offer some similar benefits</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/drafts/166233/edit">James McCune Smith: new discovery reveals how first African American doctor fought for women’s rights in Glasgow</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-double-lives-of-gay-men-in-chinas-hainan-province-153945?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">The double lives of gay men in China’s Hainan province</a></em></p></li>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tomasz Kamusella 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>What does communism 2.0 mean for democracy?Tomasz Kamusella, Reader in Modern History, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1703112021-10-22T12:35:25Z2021-10-22T12:35:25ZWhy Squid Game is actually a critique of meritocracy<p>Squid Game, Netflix’s latest runaway success has set new records for views and generated a flurry of comment pieces, memes and <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/primary-school-putney-parents-children-squid-game-b960557.html">moral panic</a> about screen violence.</p>
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<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>The programme follows 456 competitors through a series of lethal contests. At stake is a cash prize of billions of won, suspended over the contestants’ dormitory in a giant perspex piggy bank. The people playing the games are destitute and laden with debt. Some are suffering from gambling addictions, others are caught up in gang violence and some face the threat of deportation. This desperation drives them to risk their lives to win the fortune dangling over their heads. </p>
<p>Squid Game no doubt functions as a satire of <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-inequality-and-hyper-violence-why-the-bleak-world-of-netflixs-squid-game-is-a-streaming-phenomenon-168934">material inequality in South Korea</a>. The problem has reached a point where relatively radical policies are being considered by candidates for the country’s <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2250f5ac-442a-4035-a9fb-661695fba7cc">2022 presidential election</a>, including universal basic income and a comprehensive overhaul of the legal system. </p>
<p>But though Squid Game’s social critique most obviously aims at extreme inequality, its satire is most effective when it targets a principle that has served to support, justify, and perpetuate such inequality. Squid Game is perhaps at its best when viewed as a critique of meritocracy.</p>
<h2>Meritocracy’s promise</h2>
<p>Meritocracy is having something of a moment as a subject of debate. A significant number of recent critical studies by <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Against-Meritocracy-Culture-power-and-myths-of-mobility/Littler/p/book/9781138889552">sociologists</a>, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167404/success-and-luck">economists</a>, and <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/313/313112/the-tyranny-of-merit/9780141991177.html">philosophers</a> have focused on the role meritocracy plays in legitimising the levels of inequality we face today.</p>
<p>We have been sold the idea that a meritocratic society would be a place where our material wellbeing is determined not by class, race or gender, but by a combination of our ability and effort. Meritocrats believe in fair social competition, a level playing field, and rewards for those talented and industrious enough to rise up the social ladder. </p>
<p>But in a competitive society, not everyone can win. The dark side of meritocracy is that it justifies inequality on the grounds that the better-off have earned their position, with the implication that the worse off also <a href="http://philosophyfaculty.ucsd.edu/faculty/rarneson/documents/writings/egalitarianism-and-undeserving-poor.pdf">deserve their lot</a>. And when people are convinced that their society is indeed meritocratic, political resistance to inequality is much more difficult to establish.</p>
<p>Political promises of meritocracy peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, and have diminished since the 2008 financial crisis, along with the economic optimism that helped to make meritocracy plausible. Meritocracy nonetheless continues to haunt contemporary politics. Just last year, for example, Kamala Harris’s <a href="https://twitter.com/kamalaharris/status/1322963321994289154?lang=en">vice-presidential campaign</a> included the assurance that everyone can “be on equal footing and compete on equal footing”. And <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ser/article/19/1/7/5299221">some data</a> indicates that a growing proportion of the public continues to believe that they live in a meritocracy.</p>
<p>The problem with past promises of meritocracy is that they have turned out to be either false, because we never really get meritocracy, or empty, because meritocracy doesn’t really give us what we hope for. Squid Game exposes both sides of this unhappy either/or.</p>
<h2>The unfairness of false meritocracy</h2>
<p>At the heart of Squid Game’s competition is a moral code that, according to the shadowy figure running the game, offers the contestants an opportunity unavailable outside of the game. In his (<a href="https://theconversation.com/squid-game-why-you-shouldnt-be-too-hard-on-translators-169968">translated</a>) words: “These people suffered from inequality and discrimination out in the world, and we offer them one last chance to fight on equal footing and win”.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the reality of Squid Game’s competition falls short of its meritocratic ideal. The hope of a level playing field is undermined by the same social factors that corrupt competitive society outside of the game. Factions form; women are shunned; elderly players are abandoned.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A scene from Squid Game in which one character holds up another to prevent him from falling, losing the game and thereby being shot." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427996/original/file-20211022-15-m8hoz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427996/original/file-20211022-15-m8hoz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427996/original/file-20211022-15-m8hoz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427996/original/file-20211022-15-m8hoz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427996/original/file-20211022-15-m8hoz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427996/original/file-20211022-15-m8hoz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427996/original/file-20211022-15-m8hoz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&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">Ali Abdul holds up Seong Gi-hun during the game of red light, green light.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span>
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<p>The game’s only player from outside of Korea, Ali Abdul, is patronised, betrayed, and exploited. In the first game, he literally holds up Seong Gi-hun, the programme’s protagonist, in a stunning visual metaphor for the dependence of prosperity in developed countries on <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/73fb9887-055f-4a5b-89b1-5df0c37ecc2b">cheap foreign labour</a>.</p>
<p>Not everyone has a fair chance of winning.</p>
<h2>The violence of true meritocracy</h2>
<p>But is the injustice in Squid Game really that the competition is unfair? Would the horror disappear if the competitors really were “on equal footing”?</p>
<p>Squid Game could be perfectly meritocratic and at the same time perfectly perverse. This is a winner-takes-all competition, where only a tiny fraction of players will rise to fortune, and where negligible differences in performance can make the difference between success and failure, and with it the difference between life and death. </p>
<p>Compare this with the <a href="https://economics.mit.edu/files/584">polarised labour markets</a> of countries like the US, where middle-income jobs have been replaced by a small number of high-earning roles for winners, and increasingly poorly-paid jobs for those left behind. In reality, even societies that have <a href="https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how-meritocracy-worsens-inequality-and-makes-even-the-rich-miserable">embraced genuine meritocracy</a> such as the US have nonetheless generated few opportunities to win, while losing leaves <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html">tens of millions in poverty</a>.</p>
<p>Squid Game is also a competition in which society’s poorest are forced into playing. Though the rules of the game allow players to opt-out at any time – they even allow for a democratic vote about whether to continue – the misery that awaits them outside of the game makes this no real choice at all. </p>
<p>Winner takes all, losers die, and participants have no choice but to play. Squid Game’s radical meritocracy is a caricatured version of the inequalities that have emerged in competitive society. But it also reflects, in only an exaggerated form, the dangers of both the false and the true meritocracies that currently trap millions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Matt Bennett receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>Just like in real life, the idea that everyone in the game has a fair shot is quickly exposed as a fallacy.Matt Bennett, Senior Research Officer in Philosophy, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1700452021-10-21T14:01:15Z2021-10-21T14:01:15ZThe secret to South Korea’s COVID success? Combining high technology with the human touch<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427754/original/file-20211021-17-17rielv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C652%2C3756%2C2512&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/pedestrians-wearing-masks-walk-on-road-1798574524">Evelyn Jung/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>According to the recent <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/7496/documents/78687/default">House of Commons report</a> on the UK’s pandemic response, one of the government’s key failings was to assume that the success of countries like South Korea in controlling the virus couldn’t be replicated in Britain. This decision to ignore approaches that were proving successful elsewhere was one of the UK’s biggest oversights early in the pandemic. </p>
<p>However, the report itself falls into a similar trap. It regards South Korea’s pandemic response as exceptional due to its advanced use of digital technology, ignoring the fact that the country also relied a lot on old-fashioned social interventions – contact tracing, quarantine and isolating cases – aided by boots on the ground.</p>
<p>To combat COVID and future pandemics, governments need to heed the lessons of these social interventions and not just the technological ones. South Korea teaches us that high-tech solutions can help protect against disease, but these work together with social interventions – interventions that the UK has not used as effectively.</p>
<h2>What a world-beating system looks like</h2>
<p>The UK government had the ambition of creating a “<a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/what-happened-world-beating-test-trace-system-covid-pandemic-england-822767">world-beating</a>” test-trace-isolate system. Yet the House of Commons report concludes that England’s system has produced little effect, despite great expense. Other countries too have not been able to contain COVID sufficiently without resorting to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7320718/">draconian lockdowns</a>. However, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-21/a-fresh-virus-wave-is-testing-south-korea-s-no-lockdown-strategy">South Korea</a> has been <a href="https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-020-01791-8">regularly cited</a> as an exception.</p>
<p>While South Korea has had to introduce <a href="https://www.garda.com/crisis24/news-alerts/534786/south-korea-officials-extend-restrictions-nationwide-through-oct-31-amid-ongoing-covid-19-activity-update-73">some control measures</a> to limit the spread of the virus – there have been curfews for businesses and limits on the size of gatherings in 2021 – it has avoided full lockdowns and border closures while keeping cumulative confirmed COVID cases <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases">relatively low</a>. It’s worth remembering that South Korea is one of the world’s <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/most-densely-populated-countries">most densely populated</a> large countries.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graph showing that Germany has had nearly eight times as many COVID cases as South Korea, and the UK and US around 20 times as many" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427555/original/file-20211020-27-12wish9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427555/original/file-20211020-27-12wish9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427555/original/file-20211020-27-12wish9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427555/original/file-20211020-27-12wish9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427555/original/file-20211020-27-12wish9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427555/original/file-20211020-27-12wish9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427555/original/file-20211020-27-12wish9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Key to this has been quarantine measures for travellers arriving in the country, which were introduced very swiftly, and the country’s highly effective test-trace-isolate system. This <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33040761/">carefully designed process</a> provides local support for those in isolation, while monitoring them and sanctioning non-compliance.</p>
<p>Yes, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/how-surveillance-technology-powered-south-koreas-covid-19-response/">mobile phone data</a> and other forms of surveillance have been used to trace people who might have the virus. But once a positive case is confirmed, it is human intervention that ensures those people don’t spread the virus further.</p>
<p>A case officer from the local council is assigned to work with affected households. They communicate with infected people throughout the self-isolation period. After initially making contact over the phone to inform people of the need to self-isolate and the guidelines to follow, case officers then deliver a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33692026/">stay-at-home kit</a> as discreetly as possible to protect the person’s privacy. </p>
<p>This local council-funded kit contains essentials that prevent the person from needing to go out. They receive food, drink, bin liners, a thermometer for monitoring their condition, and face masks and hand sanitiser to help prevent further infection. Kits can also be <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33692026/">tailored</a>, for instance, to include certain foods or medications – and even pet food.</p>
<p>The case officer is the infected person’s primary point of contact, providing advice and support over the 14 days of self-isolation. Again, technology plays a role here. A <a href="https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/gr-en/brd/m_6940/view.do?seq=761548">smartphone app</a> can be used by the case officer to monitor the person’s self-reported symptoms and to make sure (via GPS) they aren’t breaking quarantine. But its influence shouldn’t be overstated. The app is mandatory, but those who don’t own a smartphone are still able to get support via phone calls and text messages.</p>
<p>People self-isolating can contact their case worker when extra support is needed, for instance, with urgent daily business such as banking or pet care. Because the relationship works both ways, this <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.565845/full">encourages compliance</a> through the creation of a social bond. The comprehensive and individualised support given to those isolating primarily ensures compliance by removing barriers rather than punishing infractions.</p>
<p>The need to address the loss of income that self-isolating people face was also <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33040761/">identified early on</a>, with modest payments of up to $US374 (£270) made easily available.</p>
<p>The effectiveness of these interventions is clear: published data suggests non-compliance with self-isolation rules <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33040761/">has been extremely low</a> in South Korea throughout the pandemic. Those who do break the rules risk losing the financial support that the government provides. </p>
<p>Not breaking the rules has also been encouraged as a social norm through daily reporting in the media on the <a href="https://www.korea.kr/news/policyBriefingList.do">number of people</a> not adhering to isolation. Generally, this is no more than four people a day – in a country of 55 million.</p>
<h2>Lessons as yet unlearned</h2>
<p>The South Korean experience reveals just how effective locally delivered and individually tailored self-isolation systems can be. But rather than seeking to replicate South Korean success, politicians, experts and the media in the west have repeatedly suggested that this performance is based on <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/03/06/905459/coronavirus-south-korea-smartphone-app-quarantine">intrusive data-surveillance techniques</a> enabled by a <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-south-koreas-success-in-controlling-disease-is-due-to-its-acceptance-of-surveillance-134068">compliant national culture</a> that <a href="https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/news-and-media/south-korea-covid-19-data-privacy">cannot be replicated</a> in their countries. </p>
<p>The House of Commons report suggests that if the UK were to try to emulate South Korea, the lessons to be learned concern the use of high-tech surveillance systems and comprehensive digital contact tracing. This misses out many of the core elements of South Korea’s pandemic response that help make sure people isolate and quarantine as needed. </p>
<p>Focusing on technologies to adopt in the future ignores the more immediately transferable lessons on how to break chains of infection in a fast-moving pandemic. It is about time we acknowledged that comprehensive, “shoe-leather” public health systems should be the bedrock of containing current and future disease outbreaks. Much of what has worked in South Korea is exceptional only in that other countries – such as the UK – have made no effort to replicate it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Choon Key Chekar, Joshua R Moon and Michael Hopkins receive funding from UK Research and Innovation (Economic and Social Research Council) for the project "Optimising COVID-19 Testing Systems" (ES/V004441/1).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span> </span></em></p>Every infected person is assigned a local case officer who can personalise the support they receive.Choon Key Chekar, Senior Research Associate, Division of Health Research, Lancaster UniversityJoshua R Moon, Research Fellow, SPRU, University of Sussex Business School, University of SussexMichael Hopkins, Professor of Innovation Management, SPRU, University of Sussex Business School, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1698812021-10-21T12:10:20Z2021-10-21T12:10:20ZLife extension: the five most promising methods – so far<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427578/original/file-20211020-19-1loljgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=121%2C55%2C7227%2C4847&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Exercise is still one of the best ways to boost longevity.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/senior-group-friends-exercise-relax-concept-494089063">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people want to live a long and happy life – or at least avoid a short and miserable one. If you’re in that majority, then you’re in luck. Over the last decade, <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-150-years-really-the-limit-of-human-life-span-162209">a quiet research revolution</a> has occurred in our understanding of the biology of ageing. </p>
<p>The challenge is to turn this knowledge into advice and treatments we can benefit from. Here we bust the myth that lengthening healthy life expectancy is science fiction, and show that it is instead scientific fact.</p>
<h2>1. Nutrition and lifestyle</h2>
<p>There’s plenty of evidence for the benefits of doing the boring stuff, such as eating right. A <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050012">study of large groups of ordinary people</a> show that keeping the weight off, not smoking, restricting alcohol to moderate amounts and eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetable a day can increase your life expectancy by seven to 14 years compared with someone who smokes, drinks too much and is overweight.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of fruit and vegetables." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427579/original/file-20211020-18022-1wnwsz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427579/original/file-20211020-18022-1wnwsz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427579/original/file-20211020-18022-1wnwsz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427579/original/file-20211020-18022-1wnwsz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427579/original/file-20211020-18022-1wnwsz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427579/original/file-20211020-18022-1wnwsz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427579/original/file-20211020-18022-1wnwsz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=335&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">Your five a day is essential.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/healthy-food-clean-eating-selection-fruit-722718097">Natalia Lisovskaya/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Cutting down calories even more - by about a third, so-called dietary restriction - improves health and extends life in mice and monkeys, as long as they eat the right stuff, though that’s a tough ask for people constantly exposed to food temptation. The less extreme versions of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-020-00013-3.pdf?proof=t">time-restricted or intermittent fasting</a> – only eating during an eight-hour window each day, or fasting for two days every week – is thought to reduce the risk of middle-aged people getting age-related diseases. </p>
<h2>2. Physical activity</h2>
<p>You can’t outrun a bad diet, but that doesn’t mean that exercise does not do good things. Globally, inactivity directly causes roughly 10% of all premature <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673612610319?via%3Dihub">deaths from chronic diseases</a>, such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and various cancers. If everyone on Earth got enough exercise tomorrow, the effect would probably be to increase healthy human life expectancy by almost a year. </p>
<p>But how much exercise is optimal? Very high levels are actually bad for you, not simply in terms of torn muscles or sprained ligaments. It can suppress the immune system and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2266764/">increase the risk</a> of upper respiratory illness. Just over <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.l6669.long">30 minutes</a> a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity is enough for most people. Not only does that make you stronger and fitter, it has been shown to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.12750">reduce harmful inflammation</a> and even improve mood.</p>
<h2>3. Boosting the immune system</h2>
<p>However fit you are and well you eat, your immune system will, unfortunately, get less effective as you get older. Poor responses to vaccination and an inability to fight infection are consequences of this “immunosenescence”. It all starts to go downhill in early adulthood when the thymus – a bowtie-shaped organ in your throat – starts to wither. </p>
<p>That sounds bad, but it’s even more alarming when you realise that the thymus is where immune agents called T cells learn to fight infections. Closing such a major education centre for T cells means that they <a href="https://immunityageing.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12979-020-0173-8;%20https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7203483/">can’t learn to recognise</a> new infections or fight off cancer effectively in older people. </p>
<p>You can help – a bit – by making sure you have enough key vitamins, especially A and D. A promising area of research is looking at signals that the body sends to help make more immune cells, particularly a molecule called <a href="https://www.genecards.org/cgi-bin/carddisp.pl?gene=IL7">IL-7</a>. We may soon be able to produce <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nri2970">drugs that contain this molecule</a>, potentially boosting the immune system in older people. Another approach is to use the food supplement spermidine to trigger immune cells to clear out their internal garbage, such as damaged proteins, which improves the elderly immune system so much <a href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/57950">that it’s now being tested</a> as a way of getting better responses to COVID vaccines in older people. </p>
<h2>4. Rejuvenating cells</h2>
<p>Senescence is a toxic state that cells enter into as we get older, wreaking havoc across the body and generating chronic low-grade inflammation and disease – essentially causing biological ageing. In 2009, scientists showed that middle-aged mice <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08221">lived longer and stayed healthier</a> if they were given small amounts of a drug called rapamycin, which inhibits a key protein called mTOR that helps regulate cells’ response to nutrients, stress, hormones and damage. </p>
<p>In the lab, drugs like rapamycin (called mTOR inhibitors) make senescent (aged) human cells <a href="https://www.aging-us.com/article/100872/text">look and behave like their younger selves</a>. Though it’s too early to prescribe these drugs for general use, a new clinical trial has just been set up to test whether low-dose rapamycin <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04488601">can really slow down ageing in people</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of the structural chemical formula of sirolimus (rapamycin) molecule with white tablets and pills." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427576/original/file-20211020-19039-r1jref.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427576/original/file-20211020-19039-r1jref.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427576/original/file-20211020-19039-r1jref.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427576/original/file-20211020-19039-r1jref.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427576/original/file-20211020-19039-r1jref.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427576/original/file-20211020-19039-r1jref.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427576/original/file-20211020-19039-r1jref.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&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 sirolimus (rapamycin) molecules may help us live longer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/structural-chemical-formula-sirolimus-molecule-white-1645943026">Danijela Maksimovic/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Discovered in the soil of Easter Island, Chile, rapamycin carries with it significant mystique and [has been hailed] in the popular press as a possible “elixir of youth”. It can even <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0009979">improve the memory of mice</a> with dementia-like disease. </p>
<p>But all drugs come with pros and cons – and as too much rapamycin suppresses the immune system, many doctors are averse to even consider it to stave off age-related diseases. However, the dose is critical and newer drugs such as <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04668352">RTB101</a> that work in a similar way to rapamycin support the immune system in older people, and can even <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PIIS2666-7568(21)00062-3/fulltext">reduce COVID infection rates</a> and severity. </p>
<h2>5. Clearing out old cells</h2>
<p>Completely getting rid of senescent cells is another promising way forward. A growing number of lab studies in mice using drugs to kill senescent cells - so-called “senolytics” - show overall improvements in health, and as the mice aren’t dying of disease, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaw1299">they end up living longer too</a>. </p>
<p>Removing senescent cells also helps people. In a small clinical trial, people with severe lung fibrosis reported better overall function, including how far and fast they could walk, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/sdfe/reader/pii/S2352396418306297/pdf">after they had been treated</a> with senolytic drugs. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Diabetes and obesity, as well as infection with some bacteria and viruses, can lead to more senescent cells forming. Senescent cells also make the lungs more susceptible to COVID infection, and COVID <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe4832">makes more cells become senescent</a>. Importantly, getting rid of senescent cells in old mice <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi4474">helps them to survive COVID infection</a>.</p>
<p>Ageing and infection are a two-way street. Older people get more infectious diseases as their immune systems start to run out of steam, while infection drives faster ageing through senescence. Since ageing and senescence are inextricably linked with both chronic and infectious diseases in older people, treating senescence is likely to improve health across the board. </p>
<p>It is exciting that some of these new treatments are already looking good in clinical trials and may be available to us all soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169881/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Faragher has received funding from the BBSRC. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Longevity Vision Fund and is a Director of the American Federation for Aging Research </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynne Cox runs a lab studying ageing at the University of Oxford. She receives research funding from Diabetes UK, BIRAX, Research England (UK SPINE), Public Health England, Elysium Health and the Mellon Longevity Science Programme at Oriel College, Oxford. She is affiliated with The British Society for Research on Ageing, The European Geriatric Medicine Society and serves on the Strategic Advisory Board of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Longevity. The views expressed are her own.</span></em></p>Life-extension therapies may be coming sooner than you think.Richard Faragher, Professor of Biogerontology, University of BrightonLynne Cox, Associate Professor of Biochemistry, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1700032021-10-20T11:35:36Z2021-10-20T11:35:36ZEnding coal use blighted Scottish communities – a just transition to a green economy must support workers<p>While walking on Glasgow Green in 1765, James Watt had a <a href="https://jameswatt.scot/2018/08/08/audio-watts-eureka-moment-on-glasgow-green/">eureka moment</a> that led to the development of a more efficient steam engine, making coal-powered industry and transport possible. In November, a city with a claim to the dubious mantle of having invented the modern carbon economy will host the most pressing UN climate change conference yet – COP26.</p>
<p>Neither Scotland nor the UK have the strongest record when it comes to transitioning fairly away from fossil fuels. The country’s decarbonisation has so far largely been a product of decommissioning coal-fired power stations after the acceleration of pit closures under Conservative governments during the 1980s and 1990s. This left <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history/article/abs/broken-men-and-thatchers-children-memory-and-legacy-in-scotlands-coalfields/B5DC1A8CFFC64F3217C9F46571010412">deep social and economic scars</a>, and the legacy of deindustrialisation continues to blight the former Scottish coalfields with acute education and health <a href="https://www.coalfields-regen.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-State-of-the-Coalfields-2019.pdf">inequalities</a>.</p>
<p>Now the country needs to shed its economic reliance on oil and gas, which provides essential employment for a large number of people. So how could Scotland set a new example for the world to follow, with a just transition to low-carbon energy production that supports those who will lose their jobs as a result.</p>
<p>Glasgow was the centre of a Scottish industrial economy at its peak a century ago. Comfortably over 100,000 Scots worked in coal mining and hundreds of thousands of others were employed in steelmaking, railway engineering and shipbuilding. That old industrial economy has all but disappeared. </p>
<p>In its place, the growth of oil and gas extraction in the North Sea during the 1970s and 1980s has offered compensatory employment. The Scottish government recently estimated that oil and gas sustained around <a href="https://www.gov.scot/policies/oil-and-gas/">100,000 jobs</a>, about 4% of the Scottish workforce. This carbon-intensive industry provides, as one <a href="https://sourcenews.scot/gmb-attack-trade-union-backed-climate-change-just-transition-committee/">trade union official</a> put it, “one of the increasingly few examples today of working-class prosperity”.</p>
<p>Conditioned by four decades of deindustrialisation and the decline of stable middle-income employment, oil and gas workers are right to be wary of government promises around decarbonisation today. The idea of a just transition is supposed to neutralise these worries, by giving workers in carbon-intensive sectors a chance to retrain and lead the development of the green industries of the future, like offshore wind and solar energy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A yellow offshore oil and gas platform." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What does the future look like for Scotland’s oil and gas workers?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/offshore-construction-platform-production-oil-gas-705069415">Mr.PK/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>American union leader <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2190/NS.21.1.a">Tony Mazzocchi</a>, who represented oil, nuclear and chemical workers during the late 20th century, first laid the groundwork for this concept with his vision of the right for workers to “work in healthy and safe jobs and to live in communities that are part of life-sustaining ecosystems.”</p>
<p>The Scottish government’s just transition commission, which was set up to establish principles for policy and create a partnership with workers and industry, was inspired by Mazzocchi’s ideas. Its members included business and union representatives from the energy sector, as well as academic economists. The commission <a href="https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/advice-and-guidance/2021/03/transition-commission-national-mission-fairer-greener-scotland/documents/transition-commission-national-mission-fairer-greener-scotland/transition-commission-national-mission-fairer-greener-scotland/govscot:document/transition-commission-national-mission-fairer-greener-scotland.pdf?forceDownload=true">reported</a> earlier in 2021 that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The story of how Scotland lost much of its heavy industry through the 70s and 80s is … an example of how not to manage structural change.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The energy transition</h2>
<p>So what does Scotland’s green and just future look like? In 2020, <a href="https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2018/10/quarterly-energy-statistics-bulletins/documents/energy-statistics-summary---march-2021/energy-statistics-summary---march-2021/govscot:document/Scotland+Energy+Statistics+Q4+2020.pdf">Scotland</a> almost generated its entire electricity demand from renewables, most of it 23 terawatt-hour’s worth of wind power. This record output also helped the country export nearly 20 terawatt-hours of electricity.</p>
<p>The Scottish government will cite these world-leading achievements while hosting COP26. But Scotland’s record on jobs and industry is less impressive. Employment in low-carbon sectors such as wind power has actually <a href="https://stuc.org.uk/media-centre/news/1587/major-new-green-jobs-report-estimates-up-to-367-000-jobs-in-scotland">fallen</a> in the country since 2016. For workers in carbon-intensive sectors who are eager to transfer to green jobs, these trends aren’t promising.</p>
<p>I was part of a team from the universities of Glasgow and Newcastle which <a href="https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2020/october/new-research-finds-vast-majority-of-rolls-royce-inchinnan-workers-have-not-found-re-employment-as-unite-demands-government-support/">surveyed</a> workers laid off at Rolls Royce’s Inchinnan aeroengine plant in 2020. There were 700 redundancies, and most workers were struggling to find reemployment. While engineers demonstrated a strong interest in renewable energy, few had found appropriate jobs, even after some funded their own retraining. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://platformlondon.org/p-publications/offshore-oil-and-gas-workers-views/">survey</a> of around 1,400 North Sea oil workers conducted during the 2020 price nadir found that over 40% had been furloughed and that over 80% were willing to start work in other sectors such as renewables.</p>
<p>But the recent <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/19565895.campbeltown-wind-tower-manufacturer-collapses-administration/">closure</a> of a yard at Machrihanish near Campbeltown where workers have built wind turbines since 2001 suggests the Scottish government isn’t seizing the opportunity to unite precarious workers in the fossil fuel sector around its decarbonisation plans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A spinning wind turbine at night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.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">Scotland’s wind turbines generated 23 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/berryburn-wind-turbine-scottish-night-sky-573552109">Euan Brownlie/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A better approach</h2>
<p>Most Scottish politicians agree that offshore oil and gas workers must not suffer the same fate as the coalfields. Guaranteeing that appears to be more difficult. The Scottish government’s decision to <a href="https://www.insider.co.uk/news/scottish-government-drops-national-energy-24937971">abandon</a> plans for a publicly-owned energy company shows a willingness to leave leadership of the sector to volatile market forces. As do primarily UK government <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.12962">subsidies</a> which don’t do enough to incentivise using local suppliers to build wind turbines.</p>
<p>A just transition is only possible if the government tackles inequality with the same vigour as climate change. It would mean building new industries which use Scotland’s natural advantages and emerging technology, such as tidal power. This would potentially have higher initial costs for the national economy than relying on imports of renewable energy equipment, but subsidising and protecting domestic firms could ensure they enjoy the eventual benefits from developing these sectors. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.eesc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/files/fothergill.pdf">Carbon taxes</a> drove the UK’s dramatic withdrawal from coal-fired electricity in the 2010s. This shows what climate policy can achieve when it intervenes in the free market. Scottish oil and gas workers are eager to play their part. Now Scottish politicians must play theirs. </p>
<p>Tax changes alone won’t be enough to achieve the necessary shifts in renewables manufacturing. The control and ownership of both natural resources and the operation of supply chains will need to be confronted to ensure a just transition.</p>
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<img alt="COP26: the world's biggest climate talks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.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>This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.</strong>
<br><em>Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. <a href="https://page.theconversation.com/cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/"><strong>More.</strong></a></em> </p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ewan Gibbs receives funding from the Carnegie Trust and the British Academy.</span></em></p>How governments can ensure phasing out oil and gas won’t do more damage.Ewan Gibbs, Lecturer in Global Inequalities, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1700432021-10-20T10:14:26Z2021-10-20T10:14:26ZThe fossil fuel era must end – so what happens to the communities it built? Climate Fight podcast part 3<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427050/original/file-20211018-23-1uzfbsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3500%2C2331&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/coal-mining-processing-equipment-washing-sorting-771411346">Sunshine Seeds/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the shift away from fossil fuels, how do countries make sure not to widen inequalities in the process? This is part three of <em>Climate fight: the world’s biggest negotiations</em>, a series on the UN climate summit in Glasgow by <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-anthill-podcast-27460">The Anthill podcast</a>. For this episode, we travelled to Whitehaven – a town on England’s north-west coast that could soon host the UK’s first deep coal mine in more than three decades.</p>
<iframe src="https://embed.acast.com/5e3bf1111a6e452f6380a7bc/616ea09f49c44300130e21ad" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="190px"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-564" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/564/df7570dc1ec7680034215f0ca19d2e0378e13f3b/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Whitehaven was once the centre of an industrial heartland, boasting chemical plants, steelworks and shipyards. Those days are gone, and the jobs with them. West Cumbria Mining, the company behind the proposed Woodhouse Colliery near Whitehaven, promises to restore some of that lost prosperity, and Kallum White, a 20-year-old who lives locally, hopes it succeeds. Describing job losses and a suicide epidemic as part of a “nasty cycle”, White said: “The mine might give us an opportunity to start fixing that.”</p>
<p>Environmental campaigner Gaile Stevens isn’t so sure. “We need jobs that are going to be secure long term,” she said. Her ideas for the region include creating more green jobs in sectors like public transport, waste management and tourism.</p>
<p>These competing visions for west Cumbria grapple with the same problem: how regions that have suffered the most from decades of deindustrialisation can thrive in the shift to a low-carbon economy. A just transition is supposed to help communities like the one in Whitehaven and people still employed in high-carbon work like coal mining by offering them the chance to retrain in green industries and to shape these emerging sectors with their expertise and insight.</p>
<p>Rebecca Ford, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Strathclyde, explains that the goal is to ensure the shift to new forms of work “don’t just widen inequalities”. Rebecca Willis, a professor in practice at Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, argues that a just transition could unite broad swathes of society around a positive vision of decarbonisation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’ve got to get to net zero – that’s non-negotiable. But there are lots of ways that we can do that make west Cumbria a better place.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Research like Kieran Harrahill’s – a PhD candidate in bioeconomy at University College Dublin – could help us understand how to do that. By comparing the closure of a coal mine in Australia with one in Germany, Harrahill showed that governments can wind down polluting sectors of the economy without leaving people jobless, so long as they provide “a seat at the table for workers and… a clear plan for… what the new jobs will be”.</p>
<hr>
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<img alt="COP26: the world's biggest climate talks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.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>This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.</strong>
<br><em>Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. <a href="https://page.theconversation.com/cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/"><strong>More.</strong></a></em> </p>
<hr>
<p>The Climate Fight podcast series is produced by Tiffany Cassidy. Sound design by Eloise Stevens and the theme tune is by Neeta Sarl. The series editor is Gemma Ware. </p>
<p>A transcript of this episode <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-left-behind-climate-fight-podcast-part-3-transcript-170225">is available here</a>. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/?hl=en">theconversationdotcom</a> or via email on <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">podcast@theconversation.com</a>. You can also sign up to <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter?utm_campaign=PodcastTCWeekly&utm_content=newsletter&utm_source=podcast">The Conversation’s free daily email here</a>. You can listen to The Anthill podcast via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5e3bf1111a6e452f6380a7bc">our RSS feed</a>, or find out how else to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">listen here</a>.</p>
<hr>
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<img alt="UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&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>Climate Fight: the world’s biggest negotiation is a podcast series supported by <a href="https://www.ukri.org/">UK Research and Innovation</a>, the UK’s largest public funder of research and innovation.</em> </p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170043/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Conversation has received support from UK Research and Innovation to make the Climate Fight podcast series. Kieran Harrahill has received funding from Teagasc, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority. Rebecca Willis has received funding from UKRI (Research Council grant ref MR/TO22884/1) and is an associate of Green Alliance and a trustee of the New Economics Foundation. Rebecca Ford receives funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Innovate UK, UKRI and Economic and Social Research Council COP26 Fellowship and Scottish Funding Council's Energy Technology Partnership Knowledge Exchange programme.
</span></em></p>Listen to the third episode of a new series from The Anthill Podcast ahead of the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow.Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor and Host of the Climate Fight podcast series, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.