tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/social-capital-3064/articlesSocial capital – The Conversation2023-05-24T18:42:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2051692023-05-24T18:42:43Z2023-05-24T18:42:43ZAs governments shirk their responsibilities, non-profits are more important than ever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526608/original/file-20230516-25-53n9ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C65%2C5414%2C3481&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a neoliberal era, where profitability is prioritized over social duty, all orders of government in Canada are increasingly shirking responsibility for providing social services onto non-profits.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You’ve likely walked past that non-profit youth centre or literacy program in your neighborhood countless times. You’ve probably never needed to make use of it and never given it a second thought. </p>
<p>But on your next stroll, take a moment to consider the work that organization does, the challenges it faces and the vast benefits it brings to your community.</p>
<p>In an age of <a href="https://thepointer.com/article/2023-02-26/150-nonprofits-want-government-budgets-that-equitably-and-effectively-prevent-mounting-social-problems/">proliferating social troubles and government retreat</a>, Canadians must be aware of the critical role played by the non-profit sector. </p>
<p>Recent decades have seen <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/neoliberalism.asp">the welfare state withdraw in favour of free-market principles</a>. In a neoliberal era, where <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336700342_Neoliberalism_and_poverty_An_unbreakable_relationship">profitability is prioritized over social duty</a>, all orders of government in Canada have <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/liberating-temporariness--products-9780773543829.php">shirked much of the responsibility</a> for providing social services onto non-profits. </p>
<h2>Importance of social connections</h2>
<p>As non-profits have become saddled with more obligations, they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/eccs.3562">handcuffed by limited funding</a>. Long-term funding arrangements between governments and non-profits have been replaced by provisional and competitive funding. While non-profits are expected to do significantly more, they are relegated to coping with <a href="http://www.justlabour.yorku.ca/volume22/pdfs/06_baines_et_al_press.pdf">far fewer resources</a>. </p>
<p>This has serious implications for the long-term well-being of communities, especially those already marginalized and under-served. </p>
<p>Not only are non-profits now providing critical services and social supports for which the state previously took responsibility, they are also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2020.101817">settings where vital forms of social capital are produced</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Bowling_Alone/rd2ibodep7UC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=bowling+alone&printsec=frontcover">Social capital</a> refers to networks of trust, belonging and support developed among people within a given community (bonding social capital), and between people who identify with different communities or social groups (bridging social capital). Social capital enables people to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226012883/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0226012883&linkCode=as2&tag=thplofyo07-20&linkId=4QCXIF457L26NDJI">work together toward mutual well-being and goal attainment</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526578/original/file-20230516-11525-g5d19v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman with short hair wearing a mask carries a box of fresh fruit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526578/original/file-20230516-11525-g5d19v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526578/original/file-20230516-11525-g5d19v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526578/original/file-20230516-11525-g5d19v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526578/original/file-20230516-11525-g5d19v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526578/original/file-20230516-11525-g5d19v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526578/original/file-20230516-11525-g5d19v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526578/original/file-20230516-11525-g5d19v.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">Charities and non-profits do vital work to support communities, often with limited funding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<h2>Social capital doesn’t just happen</h2>
<p>Communities must find ways to create worthwhile forms of social capital. And that’s where non-profit organizations can fill a gap. However, constantly scrambling for money leaves these organizations little time, resources and capacity to provide programming that fosters social capital. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs42413-022-00186-2">Our research</a> on community literacy organizations illuminated the role of non-profit organizations in helping people cultivate social capital. We conducted interviews and focus groups with program leads, staff and service users at eight non-profit organizations in southern Ontario to learn how they support literacy in their communities.</p>
<p>We found that producing social capital enabled them to serve communities in ways that transcended their primary mandates. </p>
<p>It is unrealistic to expect people to build social capital on their own, devoid of enabling social infrastructure. The challenge of creating meaningful social connections is daunting. Especially as society becomes increasingly individualistic. <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-secular-life/201911/is-canada-losing-its-religion">Religion</a> — once a stalwart source of community — continues to decline and <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-rise-in-self-service-technologies-may-cause-a-decline-in-our-sense-of-community-201339">technology</a> is rapidly displacing face-to-face human interaction. Urban planners and community stakeholders need to provide the settings and opportunities for people to come together, connect and collaborate. </p>
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<p>We found that non-profit community programs serve as settings where people from marginalized backgrounds can build beneficial forms of social capital. Such local initiatives provided individuals with recurrent and predictable channels to interact, share lived experiences and work together. </p>
<p>For example, mothers of children with disabilities participated in self-help groups where they shared their experiences, exchanged information and generally supported one another. Civic projects, such as a community garden started at one organization, brought together residents, young and old. </p>
<p>Non-profit programs provide people with opportunities to interact with different community members and forge meaningful interactions with people outside their social group that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10632921.2012.761167">mitigate prejudice and foster trust and understanding</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526580/original/file-20230516-21-4ordb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman standing in front of people seated in a classroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526580/original/file-20230516-21-4ordb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526580/original/file-20230516-21-4ordb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526580/original/file-20230516-21-4ordb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526580/original/file-20230516-21-4ordb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526580/original/file-20230516-21-4ordb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526580/original/file-20230516-21-4ordb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526580/original/file-20230516-21-4ordb9.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">Social programs, like those improving literacy, provide vital space for people to build meaningful social connections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Over the course of our research, we saw what started as bridging social capital strengthen into bonding ties between program participants, and in many cases between program users, staff and volunteers. The significance of these bonds was powerfully conveyed by one participant who took part in our study: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… what I take away from this group [is] that there are good people still left in a world that’s so scary, and people that are there to support. And whether I’m here or not, they’re always willing to help somebody else that’s in need. And… knowing that the option of … being there and the people that come together for this group–it’s really incredible to know that you have somebody.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The programs we studied connected individuals to new people, organizations, supports and resources and provided ongoing opportunities to build bridging social capital.</p>
<p>While the primary purpose of the non-profit organizations was to improve literacy, these programs accomplished much more. By providing a judgement-free safe space where participants had opportunities to share and collaborate, these organizations fostered social capital within communities. </p>
<p>The community organizations we studied had recently lost their primary funding provided by a regional anti-poverty program. Program leads and staff remained committed to supporting service users but struggled to do so given the need to devote more time and resources to addressing funding insecurities. </p>
<h2>Benefits of social capital</h2>
<p>When social capital is actively fostered, social trust is elevated. Research has demonstrated that <a href="https://static.prisonpolicy.org/scans/Community-and-the-Crime-Decline-The-Causal-Effect-of-Local-Nonprofits-on-Violent-Crime.pdf">the more non-profit organizations there are in a community, the lower the crime rate</a>. Non-profit organizations help to lessen crime by enhancing levels of social capital and trust and expanding opportunities and hope. </p>
<p>Strengthening people’s social and organizational ties broadens their horizons and improves their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230287624_5">well-being</a>. Non-profits play a crucial role in fostering and sustaining such social capital. </p>
<p>If governments expect communities to be viable and fend for themselves amid diminishing public support, local non-profits cannot be relegated to financial precarity. By starving the non-profit sector, governments are ironically undermining the capacity of communities to live up to the neoliberal ideals of self-reliance and local resourcefulness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Gosine served as a third-party evaluator and accessed research funding provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation by way of the Local Poverty Reduction Fund of the Province of Ontario. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darlene Ciuffetelli Parker served as a third-party evaluator and accessed research funding provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation by way of the Local Poverty Reduction Fund of the Province of Ontario. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tiffany L. Gallagher served as a third-party evaluator and accessed research funding provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation by way of the Local Poverty Reduction Fund of the Province of Ontario. </span></em></p>Non-profits provide critical services and social support for communities. They also provide settings where vital forms of social capital are produced.Kevin Gosine, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Brock UniversityDarlene Ciuffetelli Parker, Professor, Department of Educational Studies; Director, Teacher Education, Brock UniversityTiffany L. Gallagher, Professor, Department of Educational Studies and Director, Brock Learning Lab, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2013392023-04-25T20:05:13Z2023-04-25T20:05:13ZA rise in self-service technologies may cause a decline in our sense of community<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519601/original/file-20230405-22-uf4pfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2500%2C1665&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public-facing automation, like self-service kiosks, reduce the chances we have to interact with other people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Automation, once hidden behind closed doors in factories, is increasingly moving into public view. Customers can pay for groceries or clothing at a self-checkout machine, order fast food from a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/23/mcdonalds-automated-workers-fort-worth-texas">touchscreen kiosk</a> or even pickup coffee from a “<a href="https://www.rccoffee.com/">robo-café</a>.”</p>
<p>These technologies, which substitute human contact for robot-based interactions, are examples of self-service technologies — innovative public-facing automation which “<a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2002.8951333">enable customers to perform entire services on their own without direct assistance from employees</a>.” </p>
<p>While self-service technologies have the potential to <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1590982">improve efficiency</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/A-Zaidan/publication/46093547_Towards_Corrosion_Detection_System/links/549239a60cf2484a3f3e0b22/Towards-Corrosion-Detection-System.pdf#page=26">reduce costs</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2002.8951333">improve user experience</a>, these technologies raise complex economic and political questions. </p>
<h2>Politics and exposure</h2>
<p>Much has been written from an economic perspective about whether automation will <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/26/robots-could-take-over-20-million-jobs-by-2030-study-claims.html">eliminate jobs</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmacro.2016.08.003">decrease wages</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20201003">contribute to job growth</a>, or “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2022/01/19/understanding-the-impact-of-automation-on-workers-jobs-and-wages/">create as many jobs as it destroys over time</a>.” However, less attention has been given to thinking about how these technologies will affect our politics. </p>
<p>Whether these new technologies replace jobs, relegate existing positions to non-public facing roles or create new employment opportunities, they will result in us interacting with fewer people than we have historically. </p>
<p>Experiences with strangers can shape how we define our community and politics. If we no longer encounter cashiers or fast food employees, many of whom are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/headlines/who-s-looking-out-for-tim-hortons-temporary-foreign-workers-1.1282019">temporary foreign workers</a>, will our beliefs about immigration policies or minimum wage change? What do bike couriers think about bike lanes? How does a dental office receptionist feel about universal dental care, or a corner store clerk about crime rates? </p>
<p>However fleeting, exposure to people outside of your own socio-demographic groups affect attitudes positively. Existing research demonstrates that “<a href="https://tedcantle.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/107-Pettigrew-and-Tropp-Contact-meta-analysis-2006.pdf">actual face-to-face interaction…typically reduces intergroup prejudice</a>.”</p>
<p>Exposure effects are also related to how we position ourselves within the world when compared to others. For instance, a recent South African study showed that “willingness to sign a petition that calls for higher taxes on the wealthy <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2763-1">increases in the presence of a high-status car</a>.” Just seeing a BMW 3-series car near the petitioner made people more likely to favour wealth redistributive policies.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519975/original/file-20230407-18-97k0d0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a black luxury car in a parking spot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519975/original/file-20230407-18-97k0d0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519975/original/file-20230407-18-97k0d0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519975/original/file-20230407-18-97k0d0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519975/original/file-20230407-18-97k0d0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519975/original/file-20230407-18-97k0d0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519975/original/file-20230407-18-97k0d0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519975/original/file-20230407-18-97k0d0.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>
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<span class="caption">A study found that people were more likely to sign a petition that called for taxing the wealthy when they were in the presence of a luxury car.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Another study shows that being the victim of a crime increases political participation: “Rather than becoming withdrawn or disempowered, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055412000299">crime victims tend to become more engaged in civic and political life</a>.” </p>
<p>We shape our politics based, at least partially, on what and who we have been exposed to. </p>
<h2>Identity and social interaction</h2>
<p>We build our sense of civic identity and opinions about government through social interactions. Political scientist Robert D. Putnam, who has studied civic engagement since the 1960s, <a href="http://bowlingalone.com/">argues Americans are less engaged in politics</a> than they used to be and are more isolated, spending less time with friends, family and neighbours.</p>
<p>Our social capital — which Putnam defines as the <a href="https://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/putnam-on-social-capital-democratic-or-civic-perspective/">overarching belief about society that facilitates co-operation</a> — diminishes when we lose opportunities to engage with people outside of our regular social networks. </p>
<p>This decline in social capital can be traced to changes in work and society more generally. Society, in other words, is becoming increasingly individualistic.</p>
<p>Public-facing automation may further diminish our social capital by decreasing our interactions with other people. As we pay for parking at parking machines, rent bowling shoes and lanes through an app, or order food from touchscreen kiosks, we interact less with the people who work these jobs.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519976/original/file-20230407-28-pxuhcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a robot in a red waiter uniform brings a plate to a customer in a cafe" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519976/original/file-20230407-28-pxuhcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519976/original/file-20230407-28-pxuhcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519976/original/file-20230407-28-pxuhcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519976/original/file-20230407-28-pxuhcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519976/original/file-20230407-28-pxuhcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519976/original/file-20230407-28-pxuhcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519976/original/file-20230407-28-pxuhcm.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">The future of dining out? The Gran Caffé Rappallo in Italy uses robots to serve customers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<h2>Exacerbates inequality</h2>
<p>The impact of public-facing automation on social inequality also requires further study. Self-service technologies, particularly in the food services industry, may exacerbate social inequalities by limiting job opportunities for certain groups, such as those with <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2020/study-inks-automation-inequality-0506">different educational backgrounds</a> or <a href="https://sites.law.berkeley.edu/thenetwork/2022/01/26/how-artificial-intelligence-impacts-marginalized-communities/">already-marginalized communities</a>. </p>
<p>As public-facing automation shifts workers away from public view, wages which reflect <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages">professional skill and customer service expectations</a> may disappear. In the grocery industry, for instance, we may see a widening pay gap between technicians hired to upkeep self-checkout machines and the employees hired to stock shelves.</p>
<p>The effects of increasing public-facing automation may not be well understood for years. In the meantime, as we seek to better understand the intersection between technology and society, we should ask: how will our sense of community and our political preferences change when we interact less with the people who work the jobs that self-service technologies replace?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blake Lee-Whiting receives funding from the Policy, Elections, and Representation Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy located at the University of Toronto. </span></em></p>Self-service technologies — like self-checkouts or government service kiosks — are decreasing interactions with other people. This may affect our politics and sense of community.Blake Lee-Whiting, PhD Candidate, Interim Managing Director at PEARL, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2002472023-02-27T13:22:27Z2023-02-27T13:22:27ZDisaster survivors need help remaining connected with friends and families – and access to mental health care<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512081/original/file-20230223-1774-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C71%2C5748%2C3853&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters can cause a lot of personal upheaval.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/syrian-graffiti-artists-aziz-asmar-salam-hamid-and-muhammad-news-photo/1247386146?phrase=syria%20earthquake&adppopup=true">Omer Alven/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00364-y#ref-CR1">earthquakes that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria</a> in early February 2023 have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/20/thousands-dead-millions-displaced-the-earthquake-fallout-in-turkey-and-syria">killed at least 47,000 people</a> and disrupted everyday life for some 26 million more. </p>
<p>Survivors of big disasters like these earthquakes – among the worst in the region’s history – certainly need food, water, medications, blankets and other goods. But they also need <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/psychological-first-aid">psychological first aid</a> – that is, immediate mental health counseling along with support that strengthens their connections with their friends, relatives and decision-makers. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fiPV5HEAAAAJ&hl=en">As scholars</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=P9X4sakAAAAJ&hl=en">study how disaster survivors benefit</a> from preserving connections to people in their networks, we know that these <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.0907905106">social ties</a> help with the recovery from traumatic events that cause significant upheaval.</p>
<p>But often in the rush to keep <a href="https://www.tpfund.org/2023/02/06/turkiye-earthquake-relief-fund/">survivors fed, warm and housed</a>, we’ve observed that the flow of support that focuses on meeting their psychological needs falls short of what’s needed.</p>
<h2>Emergency response underway</h2>
<p>The Turkish government agency responsible for disaster management – the <a href="https://www.afad.gov.tr/teskilat-semasi#">AFAD</a> – focuses strongly on the delivery of tents, medical care and physical aid. And the few nongovernmental organizations providing mental health care, such as the <a href="https://mayavakfi.org/en/">Maya Foundation</a> and <a href="https://www.psikolog.org.tr/tr/">Turkish Psychological Association</a>, have received less than 10% of the donations channeled through <a href="https://www.tpfund.org/2023/02/06/turkiye-earthquake-relief-fund/">the Turkey Earthquake Relief Fund</a>. </p>
<p>Many international aid groups, private companies and <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/asrin-felaketi/stklerin-deprem-bolgesindeki-calismalari-suruyor/2816384">NGOs</a> have launched campaigns to support search and rescue operations and response and recovery through <a href="https://theconversation.com/turkey-syria-earthquake-how-disaster-diplomacy-can-bring-warring-countries-together-to-save-lives-199329">disaster diplomacy</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/UNOCHA/status/1626239322457522177?s=20">The United Nations</a> invited its member states to raise US$1 billion to support aid operations. The U.S. is providing <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/19/politics/us-relief-turkey-syria-earthquake/index.html">more than $100 million in aid</a>.</p>
<p>All this assistance is funding emergency response efforts and humanitarian aid that largely consists of food, medicine and shelter in the area.</p>
<p>The Turkish government has announced it will <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/turkey/t%C3%BCrkiye-to-build-30-000-homes-in-quake-hit-areas-work-to-begin-in-march-65485">begin building 30,000 homes</a> in quake-hit areas in March and will <a href="https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/erdogan-pledges-rent-free-flights-for-turkiyes-earthquake-victims/news">give cash aid</a> to those affected.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512184/original/file-20230224-772-halwya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people hug and cry amid rubble." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512184/original/file-20230224-772-halwya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512184/original/file-20230224-772-halwya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512184/original/file-20230224-772-halwya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512184/original/file-20230224-772-halwya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512184/original/file-20230224-772-halwya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512184/original/file-20230224-772-halwya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512184/original/file-20230224-772-halwya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hatay, Turkey, was hit hard by the February 2023 earthquakes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/destroyed-buildings-in-hatay-on-february-8-2023-in-hatay-news-photo/1464117751">Ugur Yildirim/dia images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Psychological aspects of disasters</h2>
<p>Research conducted after a wide variety of catastrophes has shown that <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/disaster-victims-need-long-term-mental-health-support-5201644#citation-1">mental health problems become more common</a> after these events. Many survivors experience anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder because of everything they have been through. </p>
<p>One reason for this is that disasters can cut people off from their routines and sever access to the sources of emotional support they previously relied on. Often moved to emergency shelters, and away from their doctors, neighbors and friends, survivors – especially those without strong networks – regularly experience poor <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2016.206">mental health</a>.</p>
<p>Further, when there are many casualties after major disasters of any kind, families may have lost loved ones and still not have a gravesite at which they can mourn. Within seven weeks of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for example, nearly half of the residents of New Orleans surveyed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had <a href="http://cretscmhd.psych.ucla.edu/nola/volunteer/FoundationReports/jama.pdf">PTSD symptoms</a>. </p>
<p>An important lesson we’ve drawn from researching what occurs after disasters is that robust social networks can soften some of the blows from these shocks. Even after someone loses a home and a sense of normalcy, staying in close touch with family and friends can minimize some of the sense of loss. </p>
<p>People who are pushed out of their routines but manage to <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo40026774.html">remain connected</a> to their neighbors – who are often going through the same ordeal – tend to have lower levels of PTSD and anxiety. Their friends and relatives can provide emotional support, help them stay informed, and encourage the use of mental health treatment and outside help when it’s needed.</p>
<p>One of us <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-2971-7">participated in a research team</a> that surveyed nearly 600 residents of a town located near the Fukushima Daiichi power plant after the nuclear meltdowns in March 2011. More than one-fourth of these survivors of the catastrophe had PTSD symptoms. Those with strong social networks, however, generally had fewer mental health problems than other survivors with weaker connections to their friends and loved ones.</p>
<p>Another study of <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/day-2011-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami">Japan’s Great Eastern Earthquake</a> and tsunami in 2011 that one of us took part in showed that survivors of that disaster with stronger social ties <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-14537-8">recovered more rapidly and completely following a disaster</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512182/original/file-20230224-800-fk4obc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People dressed for winter gather in a semi-outdoor space." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512182/original/file-20230224-800-fk4obc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512182/original/file-20230224-800-fk4obc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512182/original/file-20230224-800-fk4obc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512182/original/file-20230224-800-fk4obc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512182/original/file-20230224-800-fk4obc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512182/original/file-20230224-800-fk4obc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512182/original/file-20230224-800-fk4obc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Syrians gather in Aleppo, in a building damaged by the February 2023 earthquake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ali-al-bash-and-his-mother-amina-raslan-drink-coffee-at-news-photo/1247370119?adppopup=true">Louai Beshara/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4 strategies that can help</h2>
<p>In our view, relief organizations that operate in Turkey and Syria and government aid agencies need to focus and spend more on mental health priorities. Here are four good ways to accomplish this:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Include psychologists, therapists, social workers and other mental health professionals in the mix of aid workers who arrive immediately after disasters to begin group and individual therapy. </p></li>
<li><p>Ensure that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-1008-0">local</a> <a href="https://disasterphilanthropy.org/blog/the-role-of-faith-based-organizations-in-disaster-recovery/">faith-based organizations</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017707003">spiritual leaders</a> play key roles in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpubh.2021.682558">recovery process</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>Get as many public spaces, such as cafes, libraries and other gathering spots as possible, up and running again. Even virtual get-togethers using Zoom or similar software can help maintain <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2022.101287">connections with displaced friends and loved ones</a> – as long as survivors have working cellphone service, at a minimum.</p></li>
<li><p>Disaster recovery efforts should make communications technology a high priority. In addition to spending on food, tents, blankets, cots and medical supplies, we recommend that basic disaster aid should include access to free phone calls and Wi-Fi so that people whose lives have been upended can stay in contact with far-flung friends and loved ones. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Given the likelihood of more large-scale disasters in the future, we believe that it’s essential that relief efforts emphasize work that will strengthen the mental health and social networks of survivors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200247/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>Food, shelter and medical supplies are important but not the only things that help people get back on their feet.Daniel P. Aldrich, Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Director, Security and Resilience Program, Northeastern UniversityYunus Emre Tapan, Ph.D. Student in Political Science, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1803612022-04-14T11:11:41Z2022-04-14T11:11:41ZNetworking online: how to make professional connections remotely and why it matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458133/original/file-20220414-26-w13935.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Making connections with people in online events requires planning and a proactive attitude. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/working-home-during-covid19-pandemic-video-1705122784">SwitchedDesign | Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On paper, networking is a relatively simple task. Mingle with like-minded professionals while sipping wine and you greatly increase your chances of landing a coveted role, or building your dream career. </p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/networking-online-how-to-make-professional-connections-remotely-and-why-it-matters-180361&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<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>
<hr>
<p>Pre-COVID, gearing up for a <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-tips-to-help-students-become-more-employable-62367">networking</a> event, you would probably have walked into a venue, thinking, “Smile. Remember your elevator pitch. If all else fails, talk about the weather.” </p>
<p>Now though, many of us are faced with a slightly different predicament: how to network while working remotely. Operating out of makeshift home offices, with children demanding tea or pets stepping on keyboards, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2021/3/11/22325564/bbc-dad-kids-interrupt-zoom-video-call-anniversary-covid-19-pandemic">we have collectively become</a> BBC Dad, AKA <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-52050099">Robert Kelly</a>. The Busan-based political scientist famously went viral in 2017 when his children interrupted a live interview he was doing on television, and his wife had to scramble to get them out of his office. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.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><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>More articles:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-ever-fully-separate-our-work-and-home-lives-philosophy-suggests-we-should-stop-trying-177582">Can we ever fully separate our work and home lives? Philosophy suggests we should stop trying</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/student-loans-would-a-graduate-tax-be-a-better-option-179253">Student loans: would a graduate tax be a better option?</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-it-makes-good-business-sense-for-your-employer-to-look-after-your-mental-health-177503">Why it makes good business sense for your employer to look after your mental health</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>As tricky a proposition as it might be to meet people in such circumstances, research shows that rising to the challenge is worth it. According to one online survey, networking accounts for up to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-survey-reveals-85-all-jobs-filled-via-networking-lou-adler">85% of all filled vacancies</a>. It can also lead to substantial pay rises, as evidenced by <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/salary-story-24k-pay-rise-networking">the recent story</a> of how one employee secured a £24,000 pay rise solely through networking. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of smartly dressed employees eat canapes and chat, standing in an office space." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458127/original/file-20220414-26-7u80c1.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">Networking is about showing an interest in what other people in your field are doing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/delegates-networking-during-conference-lunch-break-479733907">Monkey Business Images | Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>My research shows that in early 2022, 44% of young people used social media to look for career information – up from <a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Students%27+use+of+social+media+for+job+seeking%3A+a+recruitment+guide+...-a0328945398">only 19%</a> a decade ago – and 42%<a href="https://theconversation.com/job-seeking-is-the-religious-pilgrimage-of-the-21st-century-166227">consulted their social networks when looking to make a</a> career decision. Online networking, even before the pandemic, was a <a href="https://www.napier.ac.uk/%7E/media/worktribe/output-2656687/using-social-media-during-job-search-the-case-of-16-24-year-olds-in-scotland-published.pdf">crucial tool</a> for career development.</p>
<h2>How to network online</h2>
<p>Remote working has of course seen videoconferencing become the norm. Online networking events are now routinely held on platforms including EventBrite, Slack, Yammer and Instagram live. </p>
<p>So first, do your research: identify the organisations, associations, and causes of most interest to you. Find the blogs and forums that are relevant to your field of work, and sign up to as many mailing lists as you can efficiently handle. Find your people and follow them on social media.</p>
<p>The goal of this first step is to increase the volume of information that you receive passively. This creates what is known as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691619868207#:%7E:text=Gibson%20(1979)%2C%20who%20introduced,127">environmental affordance</a>: the possibility for action afforded to you by your environment. The more regular updates about relevant events that you receive, the more likely you are to attend them.</p>
<p>Second, be strategic. In a world where conference dinners and impromptu water cooler conversations have been replaced by Zoom catch-ups, things aren’t as spontaneous as they were before. Scheduling is key.</p>
<p>Create a <a href="https://www.rivier.edu/academics/blog-posts/how-to-develop-a-successful-networking-plan/">personal networking plan</a>. Decide how much time you are going to devote to online networking and note down your goals: how many people you want to speak to; which companies you want to find out more about; which specific people you need to seek out to discuss specific topics. Make sure to schedule in time to maintain your online presence. And opt for a variety of engagements such as webinars, online recruitment fairs, one-to-one Zoom meetings, and online conferences.</p>
<p>Third, research shows that the most prolific networkers possess proactive personality traits, and are likely to score high on extroversion – a trait associated with being outgoing and seeking out new experiences – in personality tests. That does not mean, however, that you have to be an extrovert to succeed at networking. You just need to be proactive: proactive behaviour is the <a href="https://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/data/orgwipsy/File/Bendella_2020_aam.pdf">strongest predictor of networking success</a>.</p>
<p>If there is a specific person or a group of professionals that you would like to build a relationship with, get in touch with them directly. Email them, message them on Twitter, set up a Zoom meeting, or research the online networking mixers they might take part in.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in grey jeans and a black t-shirt stands in a large room in front of three tall screens filled with hundreds of zoom windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458138/original/file-20220414-20-v4chvd.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">Schedule in time to go to online events and follow the people aligned with your interests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bangkok-thailand-21-may-2020-young-1739200667">Siam Stock | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why networking is critical to success</h2>
<p>Networking underpins two key aspects of professional advancement: employability and self-directed career development. </p>
<p>The first, employability, pertains to what economists refer to as the <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/34309590/human_capital_handbook_of_cliometrics_0.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">human capital</a> of a potential employee: their external marketability and the relative value of their educational background, technical skills, and soft skills – such as communication, time management and creativity – on the job market. Networking makes your human capital readily apparent to employers and prompts hiring decisions.</p>
<p>Self-directed career development, meanwhile, is an <a href="https://www.napier.ac.uk/%7E/media/worktribe/output-2747064/new-information-literacy-horizons-making-the-case-for-career-information-literacy-1.pdf">ongoing personal development project</a>, whereby you seek career information and take action towards longterm career goals. Here, networking is a crucial means for obtaining <a href="https://www.napier.ac.uk/%7E/media/worktribe/output-2291075/networking-as-an-information-behaviour-during-job-search-an-study-of-active-jobseekers-in.pdf">career information</a>. This both helps you raise your personal aspirations and figure out whether a particular job, company, or sector is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0099133319300424">right for you</a>. The firsthand experiences of other people working in a given profession can be helpful in gauging whether you too would be a good fit.</p>
<p>Networking also helps to build relationships with mentors and role models, and gives access to peer support communities and professional groups. This is about more than just securing a job. It creates a sense of belonging and of professional identity, and in doing so develops what social scientists term “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233546004_What_Is_Social_Capital_A_Comprehensive_Review_of_the_Concept">social capital</a>”: shared <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-internet-helps-us-translate-social-capital-to-economic-benefits-64664">norms, values, and beliefs</a> in professional communities.</p>
<p>Networking involves a number of skills – approaching others, finding common ground, maintaining relationships – that can be practised and learned. Of these, <a href="https://blog.bni-sterling.co.uk/networking-skills-the-art-of-active-listening">listening</a> –- not talking – is perhaps the most important. Express an interest in other people’s work and ask them questions, and you’ll be well on your way to making meaningful connections that benefit not only you as an individual. Because they bolster knowledge exchange and collective problem-solving, they benefit your community too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marina Milosheva receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).</span></em></p>Networking involves a skillset that can be learned and practised. Doing so – online or in person – is crucial to career advancement.Marina Milosheva, PhD candidate in Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1767692022-02-24T13:54:01Z2022-02-24T13:54:01ZHow the presence of pets builds trust among people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447866/original/file-20220222-19-1ab9poz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C8164%2C6086&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pet ownership can often enhance feelings of trust among strangers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/seniors-friendly-talk-in-the-neighborhood-royalty-free-image/1055217100?adppopup=true"> FOTOGRAFIA INC./Collections E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Companion animals are a core part of family life in the United States, with <a href="https://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp">90 million American households</a> having at least one pet. Many of us view pets as beloved family members who provide nonjudgmental <a href="https://doi.org/10.2752/089279309X12538695316149">emotional support and companionship during times of stress</a>. </p>
<p>That’s not all. Research shows our pets can also strengthen our relationships and trust with other people. In addition, pets contribute positively to trust in our broader social communities. </p>
<h2>Companion animals as social facilitators</h2>
<p>As many of us know, animals provide an avenue for approaching another person socially, serving as a conversational starting point for connection. Pet ownership alone could be a source of shared interest and knowledge, even among people who may not have similar interests otherwise. </p>
<p>Simply walking down the street with a dog can lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1348/000712600161673">significantly more social interactions</a> than walking without a dog. Assistance dogs can also facilitate these interactions. One study found that individuals using a wheelchair were more likely to be approached when their <a href="https://doi.org/10.2752/089279388787058696">assistance animal was present</a>. </p>
<p>The presence of an animal can also enhance perceptions of trustworthiness and responsibility, which in turn fosters positive social interactions. Researchers found that people were <a href="https://doi.org/10.2752/175303708X371564">more likely to help a stranger with a dog</a> than one without a dog, suggesting that the presence of an animal conferred perceptions of trust. </p>
<p>For children, interacting with a pet can also provide an additional opportunity to practice positive social interactions and <a href="https://doi.org/10.2752/089279309X12538695316383">develop empathy</a> and <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/5/490/htm">compassion</a>. Recent research indicates that living with dogs is associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2021.1878680">better social and emotional skills for children</a>. In our own research at the <a href="http://sites.tufts.edu/tpawlab/">Tufts Pets and Well-Being Lab</a>, we also found that teenagers with high levels of attachment to their pets were likely to have higher <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2014.864205">levels of social skills and empathy toward others</a> than those without such attachments. </p>
<h2>Pets and social capital</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man walking his dog bends down to pet a woman's dog on a neighborhood street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447868/original/file-20220222-23-1jsr16x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447868/original/file-20220222-23-1jsr16x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447868/original/file-20220222-23-1jsr16x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447868/original/file-20220222-23-1jsr16x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447868/original/file-20220222-23-1jsr16x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447868/original/file-20220222-23-1jsr16x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447868/original/file-20220222-23-1jsr16x.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">Two neighbors stop for a conversation while walking their dogs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/living-with-pets-businessman-and-the-morning-dog-royalty-free-image/841762168?adppopup=true">Spiderplay/Collection E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pets have also been shown to foster social capital in communities. <a href="https://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/literature/definition/">Social capital</a> is a concept that encompasses the broader community and neighborhood networks of social relationships, and the degree to which the community has a culture of helping others. The trust inherent in these connections can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230287624_5">lead to better health and well-being</a>. </p>
<p>Interestingly, pet owners have consistently reported <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2017.05.002">higher levels of social capital in their communities than people without pets</a>, both in the United States and internationally. </p>
<p>In addition to social facilitation, pets can contribute to social capital by strengthening social trust within communities. Neighbors may rely on one another to assist with animal care, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.01.017">which builds reciprocal trust</a>. Pet owners’ use of shared spaces, such as dog parks or green spaces, can lead to better social relationships.</p>
<p>In spite of it, during the COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2022.2027093">dog owners were more likely than those without dogs to go for regular walks outdoors</a>, providing an opportunity for community engagement during a period of extreme social isolation. The presence of an animal has even been found to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2017.1270595">increase positive social interactions in the workplace</a>. </p>
<p>While evidence continues to support the idea that pets foster positive interactions between people, animals are not a universal solution for creating trust. There is still a lot we need to learn about the interrelated relationships between pets and people. </p>
<p>[<em>Get fascinating science, health and technology news.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-fascinating">Sign up for The Conversation’s weekly science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176769/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan K Mueller receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Human Animal Bond Research Institute, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not represent the official views of the funders.</span></em></p>The presence of pets makes people seem more trustworthy, research has found. People are more likely to help a stranger with a dog or another pet than a person without one.Megan K Mueller, Associate Professor of Human-Animal Interaction, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1738022022-02-23T13:36:07Z2022-02-23T13:36:07ZUS counties with more civic engagement tend to have more women on local company boards of directors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445793/original/file-20220210-18404-1jb33e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=242%2C1085%2C5150%2C3531&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women still have a long way to go to reach parity in the boardroom.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/black-chairwoman-concept-vector-illustration-royalty-free-illustration/1299804743">Wanlee Prachyapanaprai/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>U.S. counties where people are more likely to vote and engage in professional and social associations tend to have more women on the boards of local corporations, according to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/corg.12418">our new peer-reviewed study</a>. Moreover, we found that women in these communities are more likely to be appointed as chairs of influential board committees.</p>
<p>To reach these conclusions, we studied nearly 3,000 publicly listed U.S. companies, representing more than 90% of stock market equity. For each company, we collected financial data from 2000 to 2018 on company size, growth, risk and performance, as well as details on the composition of their board of directors, such as their size and the percentage of female members. </p>
<p>Our data showed that while the overall share of women on corporate boards is very low, there is considerable variation across the U.S. In 2018, a quarter of companies in our database didn’t have a single female board member, and just under 100 had at least as many women as men on boards.</p>
<p>Prior studies have suggested that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.01.043">regional policies</a> or <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2192918">barriers</a> might explain the differences. We hypothesized that a concept sociologists call “<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/socialcapital.asp">social capital</a>” might be a factor. Broadly speaking, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/socialcapital.asp">social capital</a> refers to how people in a society work together to achieve common goals, which in turn <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-53187-2.00010-3">can build trust</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0297.00077">improve local governance</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1596/0-8213-3561-8">address social problems</a> like poverty.</p>
<p>So for each company in our database, we also pinpointed the U.S. county in which it has a headquarters. Then, for each county, we collected data on population growth, percentage of women in the workforce, median household income and age, and religiosity and average level of education of local residents.</p>
<p>To measure social capital, we collected <a href="https://aese.psu.edu/nercrd/community/social-capital-resources">county-level data</a> on voter turnout, U.S. census response rates and a gauge of how many residents are likely members of nonprofit and social organizations such as churches, business associations and even bowling teams. Counties with greater turnout and membership levels got higher social capital scores.</p>
<p>Consistent with our predictions, we found that companies located in counties with more social capital also tended to have more women on corporate boards. Moreover, businesses in counties that scored among the top 20% in terms of social capital were 1.5 times more likely to have at least one woman on their boards than those in the bottom fifth. </p>
<p><iframe id="qv4CV" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qv4CV/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>We also found that companies in high-capital counties were more likely to put women in charge of key decision-making committees, such as ones that oversee audits, compensation and executive and board nominations.</p>
<p><iframe id="wv695" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/wv695/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Female participation in labor markets saw tremendous growth in the 20th century. </p>
<p>In the U.S., for example, the percentage of women in the workforce <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/female-labor-supply#female-participation-in-labor-markets-grew-remarkably-in-the-20th-century">went from 20%</a> at the start of the century to over 60% toward the end. It’s a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/women-boards?sref=Hjm5biAW">little lower today</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, women experienced growing representation on corporate boards, from <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/women-boards?sref=Hjm5biAW">virtually none</a> in the early 1900s to about 17% in 2018, according to our data. Still, there’s clearly a long way to go to achieve gender parity in corporate boardrooms – a <a href="https://doi-org.proxy.shh.fi/10.1016/bs.hecg.2017.11.007">key pillar of power and influence</a> in America. </p>
<p>While some countries – and U.S. states – have introduced <a href="https://theconversation.com/targets-and-quotas-a-two-pronged-approach-to-increase-board-diversity-12553">gender diversity targets or quotas</a> to increase the share of women on corporate boards, our findings suggest there may be other ways to achieve the same result. That is, policymakers and others keen to put more women in corporate board seats might consider focusing some of their efforts on encouraging more civic participation at the local level. </p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Social capital helps explain some of the variation in the share of women who sit on corporate boards, but there’s still much researchers do not know about why one company has more women than another – within a county, for example.</p>
<p>In addition, more research could be done on social capital and how it affects other corporate governance mechanisms, such as CEO compensation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173802/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>A study of 3,000 companies found a correlation between local ‘social capital’ – which measures such variables as voter turnout and census response rates – and more women on corporate boards.Siri Terjesen, Associate Dean, Research and External Relations; Executive Director, Madden Center for Value Creation; Phil Smith Professor of Entrepreneurship, Florida Atlantic UniversityHanna Silvola, Associate Professor of Accounting, Hanken School of EconomicsMansoor Afzali, Assistant Professor of Accounting, Hanken School of EconomicsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1641302021-10-14T12:14:34Z2021-10-14T12:14:34ZWorkers feel most valued when their managers trust them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424535/original/file-20211004-23-1ib01ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=490%2C183%2C4215%2C2506&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A matter of trust.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/partnering-up-to-get-the-job-done-faster-royalty-free-image/1215759505">Delmaine Donson/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Professional workers are more likely to value their own work and feel it contributes to their team’s success when their managers show they trust them, according to a study I recently completed as a part of my unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. </p>
<p>I wanted to understand how various types of <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-social-distancing-unraveling-the-bonds-that-keep-society-together-166057">social capital</a>, such as building trust and creating common values, influence employees’ performance and how they feel about their work. So I conducted a survey of 457 people I recruited through <a href="https://www.mturk.com">Amazon Mechanical Turk</a> who have done work on at least one project for their employer. I then asked them a series of questions about the experience and their views on how it went. The survey attempted to measure perceived levels of participants’ engagement when their manager used social capital. </p>
<p>About 74% of the respondents said having a manager who fostered trust – for example, by soliciting opinions during meetings and encouraging them to share their knowledge with the team – made them feel positively about their own work. This was often more important than if their work was completed on time, on budget and satisfactorily.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Companies routinely fail to successfully complete projects. By that I don’t mean they don’t complete them, but they fail to finish the project on time, on budget or by some other measure of success. </p>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/pmwj32-mar2015-Jenner-why-do-projects-fail-Featured-Paper.pdf">it’s estimated that over half of projects</a> – whether a merger, a public works project like a bridge or a sporting event like the Olympics – fail by one measure or another. </p>
<p>This is why figuring out what contributes to their success is so important. </p>
<p>My research suggests the seeming lack of project success is in part because the main measuring sticks guiding how businesses think about it – time, cost and quality – may not be as important as fostering trust among the workers integral to making it work. This isn’t to say the other measures aren’t important, but my work suggests the use of social capital in a way that makes employees feel valued could be an overlooked component. </p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>My study focused on worker perceptions, which I believe are valid and useful measures of a project’s success. Further studies will be needed, however, to validate my findings and show they correlate with actual results. </p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>I’m hoping to investigate novel training methods that might help companies build and sustain trust in the workplace. My goal is to find strategies that businesses can use to foster more trust and thus increase worker productivity. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jesus Arias does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study found that having a trusting manager made employees feel more positively about their work.Jesus Arias, Doctoral Student in Business Administration (D.B.A.), Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1660572021-10-06T12:29:00Z2021-10-06T12:29:00ZIs social distancing unraveling the bonds that keep society together?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424572/original/file-20211004-19-1wj2hd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C15%2C5145%2C3414&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Having trusting relationships with people ahead of crises is key.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/man-talking-to-his-senior-neighbor-holding-bags-of-royalty-free-image/1221543524?adppopup=true">Dobrila Vignjevic/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With birthday celebrations being downsized, religious services moving back online and indoor playdates getting canceled, millions of Americans are having fewer social interactions because of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/05/us/covid-surge-united-states.html">persistently high case numbers and high rates of transmission</a>. </p>
<p>It’s not just interactions with friends and families that are getting cut. Routine yet beneficial interactions with people at fitness and <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195384352.001.0001/acprof-9780195384352">child care centers</a> and volunteer organizations are also being eliminated. </p>
<p>Social distancing is vital to combating COVID-19. But is it unraveling the social bonds that keep society together? </p>
<h2>Social capital adds up</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.ilanahorwitz.com/">sociologist of religion and education</a>, I study how Americans develop social ties, and how these social ties influence people’s lives. Scholars refer to relationships that exist between and among people as “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-capital">social capital</a>.” When people interact, even briefly, they start to trust one another and feel comfortable asking each other for help. But for that trust to develop, people <a href="http://bowlingalone.com/">need to physically interact with one another</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.1">Social capital</a> is highly valuable during times of crisis. During Hurricane Ida, for example, people <a href="https://www.mississippifreepress.org/15721/i-am-down-here-for-life-hurricane-ida-united-neighbors-built-bonds-in-hancock-county/">waded through rising water</a> to save neighbors. A similar thing happened during <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo20809880.html">Chicago’s 1995 heat wave</a> when hundreds of people who lived alone without air conditioning were rescued by neighbors and acquaintances. </p>
<p>Having trusting relationships with people ahead of crises is key – and building those relationships requires people to <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Bowling-Alone-Revised-and-Updated/Robert-D-Putnam/9780743219037">spend time together</a>.</p>
<p>While isolating at home in spring 2020, I started to wonder: Does the need to social distance affect how social capital gets activated during a pandemic? </p>
<p>From August to October 2020, I <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12397-021-09385-z">interviewed</a> 36 middle- and low-income Jewish parents in the greater Philadelphia area who had school-aged children. There was a range among parents in how involved they were in Jewish communities and organizations. Some were regular synagogue-goers. Others rarely went to services but actively volunteered for Jewish organizations. And some rarely participated in any religious or social dimensions of Jewish life. </p>
<p>How does a study of Jews help us understand the flow of social capital during a pandemic? </p>
<p>Both Jews and non-Jews can develop social capital by participating in religious organizations. It’s not religious rituals that cultivate social capital – it’s all those social interactions that occur outside of religious rituals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424795/original/file-20211005-25-67evgc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Joyce and Dave Thomas offer free jambalaya, cooked up by one of their neighbors in New Orleans after Hurricane Ida hit and left much of the city without power." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424795/original/file-20211005-25-67evgc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424795/original/file-20211005-25-67evgc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424795/original/file-20211005-25-67evgc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424795/original/file-20211005-25-67evgc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424795/original/file-20211005-25-67evgc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424795/original/file-20211005-25-67evgc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424795/original/file-20211005-25-67evgc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many restaurants and individuals were trying to help the New Orleans community with free food after Hurricane Ida hit and much of the city was without power.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HurricaneIda-NeighborsHelpingNeighbors/905a322454e5438d90162c98ba85b7f1/photo?Query=neighbor%20helping%20neighbor&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=163&currentItemNo=7">AP Photo/Kevin McGill</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Relationships pay off</h2>
<p>When COVID-19 hit, millions of Americans needed to avoid social contact and couldn’t participate in religious services. </p>
<p>That also meant they couldn’t participate in the social dimensions of religious life – they couldn’t help people mourn their dead, volunteer in soup kitchens or gather with people for meals during holidays and the Sabbath. </p>
<p>For Jews, limiting social interaction was especially difficult because many rituals require a minyan – a quorum – of 10 people. </p>
<p>My interviews revealed two key phenomena. First, social capital gets activated differently during a pandemic than it does during <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242377489_Bonding_Bridging_and_Linking_How_Social_Capital_Operated_in_New_Orleans_Following_Hurricane_Katrina">weather-related</a> disasters. </p>
<p>During hurricanes and heat waves, social capital manifests itself in people physically helping their acquaintances get out of dangerous situations. </p>
<p>But during a pandemic, the physical help itself is what’s dangerous. Working parents couldn’t turn to their neighbors or friends for child care help without putting their acquaintances, as well as their own children, at risk of contracting COVID-19. </p>
<p>Since physical interaction was off limits, the role of social capital transformed. Jewish parents were able to use their social connections in Jewish organizations to get supermarket gift cards, groceries and even lump sums of cash to offset lost income. For these economically fragile families, the immediate resources helped them feel secure and cared for in a time of profound uncertainty. </p>
<p>Parents were more likely to get these resources if they had been actively engaged in the social life of the Jewish community before COVID-19. Parents who weren’t embedded in Jewish communities didn’t even know that they could ask for help.</p>
<p>At the same time, rabbis who had <a href="https://jewishphilly.org/COVID-19-emergency-fund-grants/">received funds</a> through larger Jewish organizations to help their congregants and community members knew whom to distribute funds to only if they had relationships with them ahead of the pandemic – relationships that were developed through social interactions outside of formal religious rituals like prayer. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424584/original/file-20211004-23-1j0llwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An African American woman looking stressed and wearing a face mask by a window." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424584/original/file-20211004-23-1j0llwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424584/original/file-20211004-23-1j0llwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424584/original/file-20211004-23-1j0llwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424584/original/file-20211004-23-1j0llwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424584/original/file-20211004-23-1j0llwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424584/original/file-20211004-23-1j0llwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424584/original/file-20211004-23-1j0llwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What happens to social bonds when social distancing limits our ability to physically help each other?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/portrait-of-a-african-american-woman-with-a-royalty-free-image/1301273097?adppopup=true">blackCAT/iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reciprocity required</h2>
<p>The second major finding is that extended periods of social distancing threaten the flow of social capital. </p>
<p>Parents who received material resources from Jewish organizations or rabbis were often those who contributed in some capacity to the system prior to COVID-19. Some served as greeters or as security guards during synagogue events; others organized meal trains; and some volunteered for their local chevra kadisha, or Jewish burial society. </p>
<p>The key point is that social capital requires reciprocity – people need to give in order to receive. Physical and reciprocal acts of generosity are crucial for maintaining the social bonds of society. </p>
<p>But what happens to our social bonds when social distancing limits our ability to physically help each other? While individuals can still contribute money, there is little opportunity for people to give their time and join in physical communal efforts. </p>
<p>If human interactions are hindered for long periods of time, social capital could break down. This could profoundly unravel the social ties that bind Americans together and motivate them to transcend their self-interests to help others. Americans may survive the pandemic, but will they have anyone left to turn to the next time they need support?</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilana Horwitz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The relationships that people form with others outside of their homes can translate into crucial help in a disaster. But what happens if they can’t build those ties because of social distancing?Ilana Horwitz, Assistant Professor, Fields-Rayant Chair in Contemporary Jewish Life, Tulane UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1601002021-08-02T20:10:41Z2021-08-02T20:10:41ZEquality and fairness: vaccines against this pandemic of mistrust<p>The COVID crisis has laid bare a crisis of trust. </p>
<p>In many Western nations there’s a small but significant minority refusing to follow distancing guidelines, wear masks or get a vaccination. Protests in recent weeks have demonstrated just how much they mistrust politicians, scientists, bureaucrats, the “mainstream media” and many of their fellow citizens.</p>
<p>And that’s a problem — because higher trust levels have been shown to be associated with markedly better outcomes in handling the virus. As the <a href="https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2021/">World Happiness Report 2021</a> published in March concluded, generally the higher the level of social trust, the lower the nation’s COVID-19 death rate.</p>
<p>So what can be done to combat this pandemic of mistrust?</p>
<p>Using data on national trust levels published over the past few years, my analysis suggests more than 80% of differences in trust levels between nations can be explained by just two factors: economic inequality and, to a lesser extent, perceptions of corruption.</p>
<p>This calculation underlines the importance of tackling the conditions in which misinformation thrives. Censorship and other blunt instruments have their place, but only treat the symptoms. To treat the cause requires promoting equality and fairness.</p>
<h2>What ‘lost wallets’ reveal about trust</h2>
<p>The World Happiness Report’s conclusions about the correlation between effective COVID responses and level of social trust drew on past research, including evidence from the 2019 <a href="https://wrp.lrfoundation.org.uk/LRF_WorldRiskReport_Book.pdf">World Risk Poll</a> (sponsored by Lloyd’s Register Foundation).</p>
<p>That poll surveyed more than 150,000 people in 142 nations. One crucial question asked them to imagine losing a small bag of financial value and then say how likely it was that a stranger would return that bag. This question is a staple of social trust research, known as the “lost wallet test”. </p>
<p>For my analysis of the relationship between trust, inequality and corruption, I’ve mainly used another “lost wallet” study published in 2019, by University of Michigan behavioural economist Alain Cohn and colleagues in Switzerland. Their study went one better than asking people about their expectations; it actually tested levels of trustworthiness <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6448/70">by “losing” 17,000 wallets</a> in 355 cities across 40 nations and measuring how many came back to their “owners”. </p>
<p>This study broadly found actual returns to be slightly higher than expectations in the World Risk Poll. But both found consistent differences in social trust (and trustworthiness) between nations, in line with <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/trust">other survey results</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414062/original/file-20210802-17-dki0zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414062/original/file-20210802-17-dki0zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414062/original/file-20210802-17-dki0zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414062/original/file-20210802-17-dki0zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414062/original/file-20210802-17-dki0zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414062/original/file-20210802-17-dki0zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414062/original/file-20210802-17-dki0zk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters wear stickers on their jackets against face masks in London, Saturday, July 24 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alberto Pezza/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The results from the Cohn study are therefore a good measure of both trust and trustworthiness in different countries.</p>
<h2>Measuring the impact of inequality</h2>
<p>According to my calculations, inequality explains two-thirds (68%) of the differences between countries in social trust levels. </p>
<p>This is shown in the graph below. It uses only the 23 countries in the Cohn study that are members of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/about/">OECD</a>, because these have the most robust data measuring inequality. </p>
<p>The left Y axis shows the percentages of wallets returned. The bottom X axis shows the Gini coefficient: the standard measure of economic inequality, with the nations closer to 0 being more equal.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414229/original/file-20210803-20-9gu5ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414229/original/file-20210803-20-9gu5ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414229/original/file-20210803-20-9gu5ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414229/original/file-20210803-20-9gu5ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414229/original/file-20210803-20-9gu5ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414229/original/file-20210803-20-9gu5ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414229/original/file-20210803-20-9gu5ij.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation/Cohn et al</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>There’s a strong correlation between equality and levels of social trust, though clearly other factors are involved as well. </p>
<p>For example, consider the return rate for New Zealand (one of the highest in world), and then Australia, to the lower rates in Spain and Italy (less than 50%), despite all four countries having similar levels of economic inequality.</p>
<p>I calculate close to half of this difference can be attributed to perceptions of corruption. I did this using data from anti-corruption organisation <a href="https://www.transparency.org/en">Transparency International</a>, which publishes annual survey of perceptions of corruption across the world and scores countries on a 100-point scale (the closer to 100 being better). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/equality-our-secret-weapon-to-fight-corruption-102431">Equality: our secret weapon to fight corruption</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 2020, New Zealand equal topped the list with a score of 88, compared with Australia on 77, Spain on 62, and Italy 53. (Australia has seen the biggest recent drop of any of these OECD countries, slipping from a score of 85 in 2012).</p>
<p>All up, equality and corruption perceptions appear to explain 82% of the differences in trust and trustworthiness between nations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414064/original/file-20210802-27425-1vst3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A protest against coronavirus restrictions in Trafalgar Square, London, September 26 2020." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414064/original/file-20210802-27425-1vst3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414064/original/file-20210802-27425-1vst3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414064/original/file-20210802-27425-1vst3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414064/original/file-20210802-27425-1vst3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414064/original/file-20210802-27425-1vst3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414064/original/file-20210802-27425-1vst3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414064/original/file-20210802-27425-1vst3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protest against coronavirus restrictions in Trafalgar Square, London, September 26 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Frank Augstein/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Promoting equality and fairness</h2>
<p>Correlation doesn’t necessarily mean one factor causes the other. But in this case, there is strong supporting evidence to suggest inequality and perceptions of unfairness fuel mistrust. </p>
<p>As this year’s World Happiness Report noted, higher social and institutional trust levels are associated both with greater community resilience to natural disasters and individual resilience to ill health, unemployment and discrimination. More trusting societies and individuals are also happier.</p>
<p>If this wasn’t strong enough incentive for policies that promote fairness and equality, the epidemic of misinformation and mistrust exposed by COVID-19 should be. As psychologist John Ehrenreich has written in <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2021/01/conspiracy-theories-coronavirus-fake-psychology.html">Slate</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Conspiracy theories arise in the context of fear, anxiety, mistrust, uncertainty and feelings of powerlessness.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-less-equal-we-become-the-less-we-trust-science-and-thats-a-problem-151691">The less equal we become, the less we trust science, and that's a problem</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At the American Economics Association’s annual conference in January, a number of speakers focused their attention on the importance of trust. <a href="https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/01/06/could-the-pandemic-cause-economists-to-rethink-welfare">The Economist magazine</a> summarised their conclusions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>higher levels of trust and social responsibility were associated with less scepticism of media reporting on COVID-19 and greater willingness to accept stringent lockdown measures. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mistrust has been a major barrier in combating the coronavirus — and will present more challenges in the aftermath. Policies to enhance equality and fairness, and to reduce corruption, are potent vaccines in these tasks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Ward 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>Equality and corruption perceptions appear to explain more than 80% of the differences in trust levels between nations.Tony Ward, Fellow in Historical Studies, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1508042020-12-04T13:26:20Z2020-12-04T13:26:20ZAs the pandemic rages, the US could use a little bit more ‘samfundssind’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372634/original/file-20201202-15-1trqd5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C7%2C4637%2C3127&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pedestrians walk past a waste bin for disposable face masks in Aarhus Center, Denmark.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pedestrians-walk-past-a-waste-bin-for-disposable-face-masks-news-photo/1229750882?adppopup=true">Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent years, the English-speaking world has found two Danish concepts, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-danish-word-the-world-needs-to-combat-stress-pyt-112216">pyt</a>” and “<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-denmark-dominates-the-world-happiness-report-rankings-year-after-year-93542">hygge</a>,” useful for dealing with anxiety and stress.</p>
<p>Now another Danish word – “<a href="https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=samfundssind">samfundssind</a>” – might help countries grapple with the pandemic.</p>
<p>In March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, Danish Prime Minister <a href="https://www.regeringen.dk/nyheder/2020/statsminister-mette-frederiksens-indledning-paa-pressemoede-i-statsministeriet-om-corona-virus-den-11-marts-2020/">Mette Frederiksen urged</a> all Danes to show “samfundssind,” which means to consider the needs of society above your own. In English, it roughly translates to community spirit, civic engagement or civic-mindedness. </p>
<p>Since then, relative to the U.S. and the rest of Europe, Denmark <a href="https://hope-project.dk/dashboard/">has done quite well</a> responding to the coronavirus, with <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality">low rates of infections and deaths</a> and <a href="https://nyheder.tv2.dk/samfund/2020-10-27-hver-syvende-dansker-vil-ikke-foelge-regeringens-nye-anbefalinger-viser-ny">high rates of compliance with preventative guidelines</a>. And research shows that – regardless of their gender or age – <a href="https://videnskab.dk/forskerzonen/kultur-samfund/de-unge-udviser-faktisk-samfundssind">Danes are more concerned about infecting others than getting infected themselves</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, the fact that Denmark has weathered the COVID-19 crisis well <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7217796/">cannot be explained by any one factor</a>. But as a Dane and a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Uaz22I8AAAAJ&hl=en">psychological scientist</a>, I think it’s interesting that samfundssind seems to be related to societal values like trust and reciprocity, both of which are useful in combating a pandemic. </p>
<h2>In society we trust</h2>
<p>Before the pandemic, samfundssind was a relatively obscure word that was rarely, if ever, used. It first appeared in a Danish dictionary in <a href="https://dsn.dk/nyt/nyt-fra-sprognaevnet/numre/argang-2020-2024/maj-2020">1936</a>, and former Danish Prime Minister <a href="https://www.facebook.com/arbejdermuseet.dk/posts/3269812343049678/">Thorvald Stauning</a> included it in several speeches in the late 1930s imploring Danes to show community spirit as World War II was approaching. However, since Frederiksen used the word in her March speech, its usage in Denmark <a href="https://dsn.dk/nyt/nyt-fra-sprognaevnet/numre/argang-2020-2024/maj-2020">has spiked</a>. </p>
<p>Although the word seems straightforward, it is also what linguists call an <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095750424">empty signifier</a> because <a href="https://videnskab.dk/forskerzonen/kultur-samfund/ordet-samfundssind-betyder-ikke-noget-konkret-derfor-kan-det-alligevel-betyde-saa">it can mean very different things to different people</a>. </p>
<p>To some, samfundssind might mean people should follow most coronavirus guidelines. To others it means you should leave the house only if necessary. And still others believe it entails <a href="https://coronakrisen.github.io/post5.html">volunteering your time and money</a> to help individuals affected by the coronavirus lockdown. But while the word is debated and discussed, these debates center on how to best achieve samfundssind, not whether it’s a good idea to consider societal needs above your own.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mette Frederiksen wearing a black mask and holding a folder." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&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">Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen attends a European summit in Brussels to discuss coronavirus aid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/denmarks-prime-minister-mette-frederiksen-leaves-after-a-news-photo/1227712970?adppopup=true">Johanna Geron/Pool/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The concept of samfundssind seems to be related to what researchers call <a href="https://www.oecd.org/insights/37966934.pdf">social capital</a>. Members of societies that have high levels of social capital tend to be more trusting and reciprocal while feeling more connected to their fellow citizens – all attitudes that lend themselves to considering the needs of a community over your own.</p>
<p>Denmark is an <a href="https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/denmark/">individualistic society</a>, and <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/aa436802-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/aa436802-en#section-d1e22357">Danes rank as the most trusting in the world</a>. They score highly in interpersonal trust as well as trust in institutions, such as the police and government. Denmark also has the world’s <a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/news/cpi-2019-global-highlights">lowest levels of corruption</a>. </p>
<p>High trust and low corruption mean people can reasonably expect they will benefit – and not be taken advantage of – by complying with COVID-19-related public recommendations or requirements, such as mask-wearing or working from home. And large studies from 25 European countries show that people living in regions with high institutional trust <a href="https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=914102031001106098104103113083102099023003054016005000096124115115009030073007005117004064124032038005107011083099091120105126016112001071114099066030067101067018092102081022084021&EXT=pdf">reduced their nonessential mobility</a> – an indicator of social distancing – and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7184967/">had fewer COVID-19 deaths</a>. </p>
<p>This finding is not unique to European countries. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953620307206?dgcid=rss_sd_all">Research examining all counties in the United States</a> found that people in communities with higher levels of social capital were more likely to stay at home as the pandemic unfolded. And this has been shown to have important outcomes. <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/223752/1/dp13310.pdf">A study</a> found that across Europe and within Italy, more social capital was associated with less mobility and fewer deaths.</p>
<h2>Do gender-equal cultures have an advantage?</h2>
<p>Danes might also be particularly amenable to appeals to samfundssind because <a href="https://www.danmarkskanon.dk/">the country values gender equality</a>, which coincides with the fact that the nation scores low on cultural masculinity. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/denmark,the-usa/">global research</a> on culture and masculinity, societies that score high in masculinity – such as the U.S. – value competition, achievement and success. Societies that score low, such as Denmark, tend to be more oriented toward having a high quality of life, having meaningful work and caring for others. Conflicts tend to be settled by negotiation and compromise, and people value equality and solidarity. </p>
<p>Might a culture’s masculinity be a barrier to coronavirus precautions? It could, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/10/us/politics/trump-biden-masks-masculinity.html">if enough people view taking precautions as weak or unmanly</a>. And <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7477467/pdf/S1743923X20000380a.pdf">a large study</a> of American men and women showed that having sexist beliefs strongly predicted lower concern about the pandemic, fewer precautionary behaviors, less support for coronavirus mitigation policies and an increased likelihood of contracting COVID-19.</p>
<p>Of course, all societies have some degree of samfundssind. If it’s measured by volunteering, donating money or helping a stranger, <a href="https://www.cafonline.org/docs/default-source/about-us-publications/caf_wgi_10th_edition_report_2712a_web_101019.pdf">the U.S. does quite well</a>. In fact, from 2009 to 2018, the U.S. ranked first and Denmark 16th on these measures. </p>
<p>Denmark does not possess some sort of secret sauce; many places in the U.S. and around the world have high levels of community engagement and support, which have led to more COVID-19 precautions and fewer deaths. There are U.S. communities that emphasize wearing a mask <a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/philly-covid-19-face-mask-media-campaign-septa-coronavirus-united-states/">to care for neighbors</a> or <a href="https://www.dickinson.edu/news/article/4482/masking_up_for_the_common_good">for the common good</a>. Of course, this sort of messaging has been uneven, varying by town, city and state.</p>
<p>So what can you do to sustain or improve social capital in your <a href="https://www.fsresidential.com/georgia/news-and-events/articles/nine-ways-to-build-community-spirit">local community</a>? </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Community engagement and volunteering can <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0884-z#Sec13">set a good example</a> and strengthen communities by inspiring others to do the same. And if you ask people to “help me understand your perspective,” it’s possible to build trust; <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-63654-001">research shows</a> that feeling understood can make us trust even people with whom we disagree. </p>
<p>With winter approaching and the pandemic showing no signs of slowing down, the impulse may be to retreat from the public health emergency and think only about ourselves and our own needs. </p>
<p>Samfundssind, however, can remind us to look outward, rather than inward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150804/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Helweg-Larsen has received funding from the National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p>The word, which roughly translates to considering the needs of society above your own, has become a buzzword in Denmark.Marie Helweg-Larsen, Professor of Psychology, the Glenn E. & Mary Line Todd Chair in the Social Sciences, Dickinson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1473662020-11-02T02:08:15Z2020-11-02T02:08:15ZHijacking anxiety: how Trump weaponised social alienation into ‘racialised economics’<p>Polls point to a decisive defeat for Donald Trump. But his unexpected win in 2016 still has opponents rattled, fearing the same divisive rhetoric that characterised his 2016 campaign could help him scrape home. </p>
<p>The US has not been so divided by politics, religion and identity in decades. Particularly troubling are the nation’s inflamed ethnic divisions. </p>
<p>Overall, polls show a majority of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of “race relations”. </p>
<p>But now, as in 2016, what matters is the view of voters in the “rust-belt” states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvannia, which all swung to Trump in 2016 on the back of strong support from white working-class voters.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-exactly-is-trumps-base-why-white-working-class-voters-could-be-key-to-the-us-election-147267">Who exactly is Trump's 'base'? Why white, working-class voters could be key to the US election</a>
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<p>Trump’s success depended on personal economic concerns being pipped by “racialised economics”, argue politics professors John Sides, Michael Tesler and Lynn Vavreck in their influential 2018 book <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174198/identity-crisis">Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America</a>:</p>
<p>By racialised economics they mean the important sentiment underlying Trump’s support was not “I might lose my job” but “people in my group are losing jobs to that other group”. Individualised economic anxiety was replaced by group fears and perceived grievances. </p>
<p>Our more recent <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Bowling-with-Trump_Fabian-et-al.pdf">research</a>, using a nationally representative sample of nearly 500,000 Americans, largely supports this contention. It also suggests that behind the appeal of this ethnic identity politics hide deeper issues of social disconnectedness.</p>
<p>With Trump’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic dominating 2020, and an opponent who isn’t Hillary Clinton, the dog whistling to white voters looks unlikely to work as it did four years ago. </p>
<p>But the problems Trump has weaponised won’t be defused merely by his defeat. </p>
<p>For Biden to make good on his promise to heal the nation’s divisions, he will need to address the social disconnection providing fertile conditions for racialised economics. </p>
<h2>The psychology driving racial animus</h2>
<p>To analyse the significance of racialised economics in the US, we combined county-level data on economic indicators with individual-level well-being and socioeconomic data. Our primary data source was nearly 500,000 observations from the US <a href="https://www.gallup.com/174155/gallup-daily-tracking-methodology.aspx">Gallup Daily Poll</a> (which has polled 500 American adults every day since 2008). Our data set covered the period 2014 to 2018. </p>
<p>The key things we wanted to analyse from this information were measures of “relatedness”, “social capital” and “worry”, cross-relating these with “racial animus” and voting preference.</p>
<p>Relatedness reflects personal security and fulfilment from social connection. It is measured through responses to questions such as “I cannot imagine living in a better community”, “The area where I live is perfect for me” and “my friends and family give me energy every day”. </p>
<p>Social capital is also about connectedness, but to do with community cohesion rather than the personal experience of relationships. It is measured through things like the extent to which people know their neighbours and participate in community activities. Such connections have <a href="https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/2017/5/what-we-do-together-the-state-of-associational-life-in-america">declined precipitously</a> over the past 50 years. In particular, the share of adults who say most people can be trusted has fallen from 46% in the 1970s to 31%. </p>
<p>Worry is measured by a simple question of whether people experienced worry yesterday.</p>
<p>Racial animus means racial prejudice. We measure it at a county level using Google searches involving racist key words.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-has-long-shaped-us-presidential-elections-heres-how-it-might-play-out-in-2020-147556">Racism has long shaped US presidential elections. Here's how it might play out in 2020</a>
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<h2>High anxiety, low relatedness</h2>
<p>Just as other researchers have found, our county-level results show a correlation between racial animus and Trump’s support in both the 2016 Republican primary race and the presidential election. </p>
<p>More importantly, they also show Trump’s support correlated with relatively high rates of anxiety and relatively low levels of relatedness – and that higher relatedness would have been enough to negate the effect of racial animus.</p>
<p>This suggests people lacking a sense of relatedness in their own environment look to higher-level connections like patriotism and ethnic identity. </p>
<p>That conclusion is supported by social psychology experiments showing that stoking anxiety leads to exaggerated loyalty to an in-group and disdain for other groups. </p>
<p>As cognitive scientist <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3345305/">Colin Holbrook and his colleages explain</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Indeed, numerous studies have found that initially conscious reminders of threats that do not subsequently arouse conscious distress engender a form of evaluation bias termed worldview defence – the polarisation of ratings for pleasant and against aversive cultural attitudes.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-capitol-mob-highlights-5-reasons-not-to-underestimate-far-right-extremists-148610">US Capitol mob highlights 5 reasons not to underestimate far-right extremists</a>
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<h2>Diversity and social capital</h2>
<p>None of this is to suggest declining connectedness and heightened anxiety is the only reason people voted for Trump. The rural communities of “heartland America” that are traditionally majority Republican typically have high social capital (through church affiliations and the like).</p>
<p>But in the key swing “rust-belt” states – constituencies to whom Trump promised to bring back manufacturing and mining jobs – our research suggests worry and anxiety channelled into ethnic group identification was the decisive factor. These areas showed the lowest rates of relatedness in the US.</p>
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<p><strong>How anxiety and the need for relatedness lead to racial voting</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361337/original/file-20201002-16-r7bojh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361337/original/file-20201002-16-r7bojh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361337/original/file-20201002-16-r7bojh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361337/original/file-20201002-16-r7bojh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361337/original/file-20201002-16-r7bojh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361337/original/file-20201002-16-r7bojh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361337/original/file-20201002-16-r7bojh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>As he desperately tries to repeat his 2016 success, Trump’s “greatest hits” campaign has again sought to stoke the group fears of white voters. </p>
<p>His campaign has made some effort to suggest he has ethnically diverse supporters, but this is largely seen as as attempt to assure <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-28/women-from-the-suburbs-could-decide-donald-trumps-victory/12817730">white women</a> he isn’t a racist. </p>
<p>On the other hand, he has flubbed repeated opportunities to condemn white nationalism, defended Confederate statues, demonised the <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/donald-trump-says-black-lives-matter-is-becoming-a-symbol-of-hate-in-furious-twitter-tirade">Black Lives Matter movement</a> and made unsubtle statements about protecting suburbanites from “low-income housing”. </p>
<p>Such rhetoric, though, has been overtaken by events - namely Trump’s dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and failure to deliver a health-care plan. His other key strengths in 2106 – his appeal as an “outsider”, his promise to “drain the swamp”, his apparent unfiltered “candour”, and his assurances he would fix everything – are no longer so compelling. </p>
<p>But though Biden may well win the rustbelt states, these communities remain economically and cultural insecure, with thinning social capital. Their vulnerability to racial rhetoric remains.</p>
<p>To fulfil his promise to unite America, therefore, a Biden administration will need to address the underlying issues of low social capital and connectedness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan-Emmanuel De Neve is a Research Advisor to The Gallup Organization.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Fabian and Robert Breunig 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>For Joe Biden to make good on his promise to heal the nation’s divisions, he will need to address the social disconnection that underlies ‘racialised economics’.Robert Breunig, Professor of Economics and Director, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityJan-Emmanuel De Neve, Director, Wellbeing Research Centre, University of OxfordMark Fabian, Research Associate in Public Policy, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1401552020-06-11T20:06:12Z2020-06-11T20:06:12ZWhy the pleasure and meaning of mingling in bars can’t be matched by a table for 2<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340923/original/file-20200610-34688-vq2p1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C131%2C4112%2C2940&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sociologist Marcus Anthony Hunter found that for Black patrons of a Black nightclub, the ‘nightly round’ mitigated the impacts of spatial and social isolation. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unslpash/Tobias Nii Kwatei Quartey)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As bars begin to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/03/happy-days-return-paris-france-cafes-bars-restaurants-finally/">reopen across the world</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/here-s-what-different-provinces-territories-are-planning-for-covid-19-reopenings-1.5601572">after coronavirus closures</a>, the question of how we will socialize within them remains perplexing. The traditional bar is a complex social space and serves so many functions.</p>
<p>Twenty years ago, a group of French anthropologists <a href="https://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=9704">studied the behaviour of young people in a bar called Café Oz</a>, located in the <a href="https://en.parisinfo.com/transport/118359/Quartier-des-Halles">Halles district</a> of Paris. </p>
<p>Café Oz had an Australian theme, as its name might suggest, but this was not its main appeal. The bar’s popularity among young people had more to do with the kinds of social encounters that were possible within its walls.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.pavillon-arsenal.com/fr/edition-e-boutique/collections/19-x-30/9214-paris-la-nuit.html">the traditional Parisian café or bistro</a> kept customers confined to a single table (which the server had probably chosen for them), Café Oz — like British-style pubs — was designed to encourage customers to walk around. The “cash-and-carry” system, foreign to traditional French drinking establishments, required that customers go to the bar to fetch their own drinks. </p>
<p>This encouraged people to hang around the bar, joining in conversations already underway or to sit down with strangers at the long tables installed for that precise purpose. Customers could pursue new connections as they wanted and avoid others.</p>
<p>To the young people interviewed by the anthropologists, these arrangements made possible a freedom that <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/world-paris-caf%C3%A9">the age-old rituals of French drinking culture</a> discouraged.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340722/original/file-20200609-21208-wrntam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340722/original/file-20200609-21208-wrntam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340722/original/file-20200609-21208-wrntam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340722/original/file-20200609-21208-wrntam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340722/original/file-20200609-21208-wrntam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340722/original/file-20200609-21208-wrntam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340722/original/file-20200609-21208-wrntam.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">A woman cleans the terrace of a restaurant in Paris, June 1, 2020. France is reopening its restaurants, bars and cafés as the country eases most restrictions amid the coronavirus crisis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)</span></span>
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<h2>Student mobility, tourism</h2>
<p>Café Oz was a space for meeting strangers, its risks reduced by the fact that one usually arrived with friends. An evening out was a long series of short-term exchanges with the friends one came with and the new acquaintances one made. Those interviewed for the study noted, in particular, their pleasure at meeting people of identities and backgrounds other than their own.</p>
<p>Café Oz is now the brand of a chain of bars, scattered across Paris, whose various <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CafeOzChatelet/">Facebook pages</a> either carry frozen announcements of events in early March or advise <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CAFJpsMod8B/">patrons to have patience</a> in the face of the ongoing quarantine. </p>
<p>Café Oz’s hazy present-day identity combines features of the Anglo-Irish pub, the American sports bar, the casual restaurant and the dance club. Like so many of its competitors, Café Oz now belongs to an international model for drinking places, one whose popularity has followed the enormous growth of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/671752">student mobility</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17535069.2018.1449010">and night-life tourism</a> over the past decade. </p>
<p>With multiple functions and broad appeal, these spaces sell the possibility of casual, short-term sociability.</p>
<h2>Post-confinement future</h2>
<p>There are two principles that guide the future of bars post-lockdown.
The first is that to accommodate social distancing, <a href="https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2020/05/23/late-night-extensions-to-bar-and-restaurant-terraces-coming-to-city-in-spains-costa-blanca-south/">alcohol consumption outside of the home will be stretched out across time and space.</a> </p>
<p>Drinking hours will be extended forwards and backwards, and the spaces for drinking will spill out onto streets, squares and parks. Crowds of drinkers will be thinned out, over longer periods of time and more widely dispersed in space.</p>
<p>The second principle dictates that the mobility of customers be reduced. Drinkers will be confined to their tables, and the size of groups drinking together will be limited and enforced. Gimmicky innovations like <a href="https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2020/05/contactless-tableside-ordering-service-to-launch-in-uk/">remote ordering devices</a> and plexiglass separators are being hailed for their capacity to further reduce the chances of interpersonal contact.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340724/original/file-20200609-21191-1xhfrts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340724/original/file-20200609-21191-1xhfrts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340724/original/file-20200609-21191-1xhfrts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340724/original/file-20200609-21191-1xhfrts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340724/original/file-20200609-21191-1xhfrts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340724/original/file-20200609-21191-1xhfrts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340724/original/file-20200609-21191-1xhfrts.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">Patrons sit between plexiglass barriers on the patio of a restaurant and bar in Vancouver on May 31, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Vertical drinking’</h2>
<p>Even as we accept these measures, we cannot help but wonder how the social function of bars will change. In the 1970s, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13562570801969473">vertical drinking</a>” — consuming alcohol while standing up and moving around, as in Café Oz — was embraced by British bars as a lively alternative to the dull immobility of the traditional pub, where customers sat in groups faced inwards.</p>
<p>Standing up and moving around seemed to encourage higher levels of drinking and to instill a more sociable atmosphere. Its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmKjBHRze_k">detractors</a> saw vertical drinking as leading to boorish behaviour, more frequent sexual harassment and the death of meaningful conversation.</p>
<h2>Expressiveness spread</h2>
<p>A bar in which customers move around is a space that is constantly being redefined. In his <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3632650.html">history of New York nightlife</a>,
historian Lewis A. Erenberg describes the ways in which, as restaurants added dance floors at the beginning of the past century, people went out to bars and eating establishments to look at each other rather than at professional performers engaged to entertain them. </p>
<p>“Expressiveness,” he suggests, “spread to the audience as well.” Getting up, moving around, looking at strangers and mingling with others — these made going to a nighttime drinking place a sociable, entertaining experience. </p>
<h2>The ‘nightly round’</h2>
<p>Sociology professor Marcus Anthony Hunter <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6040.2010.01320.x">studied what he calls “the nightly round,” in urban Black nightlife</a>. He found there were restorative effects of nightlife movements and interactions in a Black nightclub for Black patrons for whom the daytime is often marked by the violence of exclusion and oppression. Heterosexual, as well as lesbian and gay patrons (who patronized the bar, respectively, for a Saturday “straight night” and a Friday “gay night”) used their movements around a bar “to mediate racial segregation [and] sexual segregation.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340935/original/file-20200610-34710-7jyf4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340935/original/file-20200610-34710-7jyf4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340935/original/file-20200610-34710-7jyf4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340935/original/file-20200610-34710-7jyf4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340935/original/file-20200610-34710-7jyf4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340935/original/file-20200610-34710-7jyf4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340935/original/file-20200610-34710-7jyf4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&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">Hunter found that Black patrons were exploring socio-economic opportunities while circulating in a Black nightclub.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Hunter found their “rounds” were ways of shoring up social capital — one’s place within community — and a way of exploring socio-economic opportunities (and for the lesbian and gay patrons, developing social support). In Hunter’s words, such contacts mitigate “the effects of social and spatial isolation.”</p>
<p>In her extraordinary 1944 novel <a href="https://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/The-Street/9780358187547"><em>The Street</em></a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/14/the-street-the-1940s-african-american-thriller-that-became-a-huge-bestseller">about life in Harlem</a>, Ann Petry wrote that, for its Black clientele, a certain neighbourhood bar served as “a social club and a meeting place,” its talk and laughter replacing “the haunting silences of rented rooms and little apartments.”</p>
<h2>Celebration or lament?</h2>
<p>As the spatial-temporal limits on social drinking are extended, there will be much to celebrate in the coming months. </p>
<p>But if the price of this extension is that patrons are immobilized at assigned tables in small groups — and if these groups nervously eye each other rather than revelling in the spectacle of mingling strangers — bars will have lost some of their most important functions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Straw receives funding from McGill University under the James McGill Professor program. . </span></em></p>If bars are forced to restrict people’s movement in our post-coronavirus pandemic world, they will lose some of their most important social functions.William Straw, Professor of Urban Media Studies, Department of Art History and Communications Studies, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1305192020-04-20T12:26:27Z2020-04-20T12:26:27ZReplacing workers has many costs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315558/original/file-20200214-10980-1mb1zta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Replacing an employee means taking time and resources to train someone new.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/human-resource-manager-explaining-work-dynamics-766701082">djrandco/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The labor market is changing rapidly with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<p>Many organizations are <a href="https://www.dailycamera.com/2020/04/14/boulder-furloughing-737-city-employees-beginning-april-20/">laying off</a> <a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/coronavirus-layoffs-trump-organization-cuts-1500-employees-pandemic-hurts-presidents-2952985">almost all</a> <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/daily-crunch-amazon-fires-two-173214935.html">of their workers</a>, while others are considering which workers to lay off, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/covid-19-testing-firm-quest-diagnostics-is-furloughing-employees">which to</a> <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/disney-world-furloughing-43000-workers-due-virus-70103647">furlough</a> and which to keep. Alternatively, some are <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/former-cdc-director-says-coronavirus-140000179.html">expanding their labor forces</a>.</p>
<p>When <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/nyc-mayor-urges-caution-reopening-virus-stalled-economy-70161298">the economy starts to open up</a> again, employers will need to consider rehiring or replacing workers, or hiring workers with a different mix of skills. The cost of replacing an employee is high for employers, and being out of work is harmful for workers, who may be replaced with artificial intelligence or contractors and risk losing their skills.</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/business/facultyresearch/facultydepartment/biodetail.html?mail=cheryl.carleton@villanova.edu">expert in labor economics</a>, and my work <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mary_Kelly18">with a colleague</a> investigates the increase in people engaging in alternative work arrangements such as contract or gig work, along with the implications such jobs have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11293-019-09628-3">for all workers’ well-being</a>.</p>
<p>There is no denying that the U.S. was experiencing <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/job-market-continues-crush-expectations-2020/">a tight labor market</a> and a low rate of unemployment before the coronavirus pandemic took hold. For some fields, particularly health care and services deemed essential by local governments, the labor market continues to be tight.</p>
<p>A sudden massive loss of demand for their goods and services is forcing companies to make quick decisions, and some employers may underestimate the cost to replace good employees. Knowing these costs may encourage them to keep more of their workers on the payroll.</p>
<h2>Where are the costs?</h2>
<p>There are costs involved in losing a worker and replacing them, such as completing paperwork when they leave, advertising the open position, reviewing resumes, interviewing candidates and training the new worker.</p>
<p>Once a new worker is hired, others must also spend time training them, and it will take some time for the new worker to achieve the same level of productivity as the worker who left.</p>
<p>Another cost is the loss in <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/socialcapital.asp">social capital</a>. Social capital is the relationships between individuals at work that take time to build and add to the productivity of the firm.</p>
<p>The Society for Human Resource Management <a href="https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/to-have-and-to-hold.aspx">found that departures cost about one-third of a worker’s annual earnings</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://wwww.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2012/11/16/44464/there-are-significant-business-costs-to-replacing-employees/">The Center for American Progress</a> drilled in deeper. They found the costs of replacing workers who earn less than US$30,000 per year to be 16% of annual salary, or $3,200 for an individual earning $20,000 per year.</p>
<p>For those earning $30,000 to $50,000 per year, it is estimated to cost about 20% of annual salary, or $8,000 for an individual earning $40,000. For highly educated executive positions, replacement costs are estimated to be 213% of annual salary – $213,000 for a CEO earning $100,000 per year.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/CostofTurnover.pdf">The much higher cost for replacing CEOs</a> is partly due to the fact that they require higher levels of education, greater training, and firms may lose clients and institutional knowledge with such turnovers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By mid-April, more than 10% of employees in the U.S. had lost their jobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Unemployment/8f21d0b7f1714cf4a4e714db4496eac7/5/0">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Employee alternatives</h2>
<p>This high cost of losing and replacing workers has important implications for organizations, consumers and workers, especially now with <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/04/15/the-unemployment-impacts-of-covid-19-lessons-from-the-great-recession/">an estimated 15 million unemployed</a>.</p>
<p>For those workers where the costs to replace them are high, firms will try to accommodate them. Strategies may include maintaining pay, increasing benefits and retraining. These actions are also costly, so firms will <a href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/alter-benefits-attract-retain.aspx">weigh them against the cost</a> of simply <a href="https://www.inproma.com/blog/2018/11/01/what-is-the-real-cost-of-hiring-a-new-employee-vs-retaining-current-staff/">hiring new workers</a>.</p>
<p>This means businesses face high costs to replace workers in the future, and high costs to retain current workers, leading to higher costs for consumers who buy the firms’ goods and services.</p>
<p>While the above consequences might sound great for workers that organizations choose to keep, these are not the only ways in which firms can respond.</p>
<p>The high cost of replacing workers, along with the increased uncertainty about the economy may cause businesses to use <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages">more automation and robots</a>. Though such switches may entail a significant upfront cost, once they are made the firms then have more control over their production processes. </p>
<p>Another alternative for firms is to hire fewer permanent employees and turn instead <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w22667">to contract workers</a>. With contract workers, employers are not responsible for benefits, and they can more simply increase or decrease the number of workers as needed.</p>
<p>While this may increase employment for some workers, it will decrease it for others and it has serious implications for the availability of health and pension benefits as well as unemployment benefits, as the current crisis has revealed. </p>
<p>Businesses might also consider limiting the scope of what some workers do to limit the cost of replacing them. If the scope of a worker’s job is limited, then fewer areas will be impacted by the individual leaving, and the costs to train a replacement will be lower. For workers, however, it means fewer opportunities to gain experience.</p>
<p>For example, instead of training workers on several or all parts of the production process, the business may limit them to one specific aspect. It will then be less costly for the firm to replace them and the worker will have less experience to add to their resume. This also means less bargaining power for employees.</p>
<h2>Some win, but others lose</h2>
<p>The high cost of losing and then hiring new workers along with increased restrictions on hiring nonresidents might mean higher wages and increased benefits for some workers.</p>
<p>However, the high degree of uncertainty in the current labor market, along with the potential increase in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/gig-economy-grows-15percent-over-past-decade-adp-report.html">contract workers</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-results-automation/u-s-companies-facing-worker-shortage-race-to-automate-idUSKBN1X11T9">automation</a> means that some workers will not realize these potential gains, and all of us as consumers will most likely end up paying higher prices for the goods and services we buy.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cheryl Carleton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As more and more Americans are laid off, employers have to consider the cost of letting their staff go.Cheryl Carleton, Assistant Professor of Economics, Villanova UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1277862019-12-01T13:37:12Z2019-12-01T13:37:12ZWhat Don Cherry, Canada’s Archie Bunker, shows us about cancel culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304571/original/file-20191201-156099-d7pzqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C10%2C1117%2C481&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Don Cherry, left, at the Manitoba Legislature building in Winnipeg, September 2009, as part of the "Honouring Canada's Olympic and Paralympic Athletes Day," and Archie Bunker, right. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Afexa Life Sciences Inc./ YouTube</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Don Cherry’s recent <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/history-working-class-families-american-sitcom-180968555/">Archie Bunker</a>-inspired tirade revealed an alienating view of new and, by implication, racialized Canadians. Cherry inflamed the Canadian culture wars revealing deep ruptures in Canada’s social landscape we can’t seem to bridge.</p>
<p>The work of Harvard University professor <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Bowling-Alone/Robert-D-Putnam/9780743203043">Robert Putnam</a> can help us understand the implications of what the Cherry fiasco unveiled. Putnam argued that Americans are less civic minded and socially connected compared to generations past. </p>
<p>He highlights a myriad of reasons for this such as generational differences, demographic shifts, the rise of individualized media, suburbanization and urban sprawl, which have resulted in longer commutes, growing time constraints, and greater class and racial neighbourhood segregation. He also says economic decline and restructuring have left people with less money for social activities. </p>
<p>These phenomena have led to social divisions and a general decline in socializing, especially with people and communities beyond the boundaries of our usual social milieus. </p>
<p>Putnam used the term social capital to refer to the social ties and bonds of trust that are essential to human existence. He contrasted two types. There is bridging capital when we connect with people outside our social circles. The other is called bonding capital: those connections we make within our communities. </p>
<p>Bonding social capital often encompasses an “us-versus-them” outlook. Ideally that attitude is mitigated by bridging capital. Putnam said that “bonding social capital constitutes a kind of sociological superglue, whereas bridging social capital provides a sociological WD-40.” </p>
<p>Putnam laments the historical erosion of bridging social capital in the U.S., which he argues has, for many Americans, resulted in a lack of connectedness to the wider society and a depletion of overall reservoirs of social trust. Broad-based social capital, asserts Putnam, expands our opportunities, helps to broaden our perspectives, and, in general, “makes us smarter, healthier, safer, richer and better able to govern a just and stable democracy.”</p>
<p>The Don Cherry fallout illustrates that Putnam’s thesis is equally applicable to Canada. </p>
<h2>Canada’s Archie Bunker</h2>
<p>When Cherry, 85, used his venerable “Coach’s Corner” segment on a November <em>Hockey Night in Canada</em> telecast to demand, in the most offensive of ways and with the nuanced subtly of a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNVG_zldQ8s">Dustin Byfuglien body check</a>, that everyone wear poppies, he may have been promoting his version of bridging social capital. By encouraging everyone to wear a poppy and admonishing those, particularly new Canadians, who don’t, Cherry’s aim may have been to bring Canadians of all ethnoracial backgrounds together using collective support for veterans as a rallying point. </p>
<p>This, at least, would be the most generous interpretation of his tirade. But he situated immigrants as a digression from a normative Canadian whiteness (“you people”) who pillage the nation’s treasure chest (they “enjoy our milk and honey”) while offering little or nothing in return — of course, an absurd notion given the vast <a href="https://www.conferenceboard.ca/e-library/abstract.aspx?did=9678">economic benefits immigrants bring to a nation with a declining birthrate and aging population</a>. </p>
<p>While some have debated Cherry’s intent, unbridled racism and xenophobia was what many inferred. His perspective at best was ethnocentric and condescendingly assimilationist. If this was an attempt on Cherry’s part to foster bridging capital, that bridge quickly collapsed. </p>
<p>The swift public reaction vividly brought to light escalating divisions in Canada.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/maxime-bernier-either-doesnt-know-or-doesnt-care-that-immigrants-have-a-positive-impact-on-the-economy-125035">Maxime Bernier either doesn't know or doesn't care that immigrants have a positive impact on the economy</a>
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<p>Fervent and polarized debates on the merits and detriments of free speech and cancel culture took centre stage. Accusations of “snowflake,” “<a href="https://www.narcity.com/news/ca/fire-jess-allen-petitions-have-reached-thousands-of-signatures-as-viewers-make-their-point">toxic masculinity</a>” and “fascist” were flung. In a nation increasingly divided by intersections of <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/09/30/toronto-is-segregated-by-race-and-income-and-the-numbers-are-ugly.html">race, class</a> and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-survey-shows-widening-provincial-divides-in-canada/">regional differences</a>, the turbulent reaction to Cherry’s comments and cancelled TV segment illuminated the widening rupture <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-don-cherry-and-the-rural-urban-divide/">between urban progressivism and “old stock” (read: older, white and conservative) small-town Canadians</a> to whom Cherry has long appealed.</p>
<p>In short, the Cherry debacle revealed that while there is a fair degree of intra-tribal bonding Canadians aren’t doing a lot of bridging. <a href="https://www.getproof.com/thinking/the-proof-cantrust-index/">The 2019 “CanTrustIndex” revealed a sharp and alarming decline in overall levels of trust among Canadians</a>. We’re losing trust in our leaders, dominant institutions, information sources and each other. Research shows that <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v8y2016i4p322-d67024.html">a lack of trust in those who govern us reflects a shortage of bridging social capital</a>.</p>
<h2>Unbridged differences</h2>
<p>Persisting inequalities and injustices have spurred the proliferation of identity politics over the past few decades. Such activist pursuits may also provide individuals with a sense of belonging when wider social ties have broken down. Progressive identity-based movements like <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/">Black Lives Matter</a> have promoted awareness of prevailing inequities and combated social biases of the sort reflected in Cherry’s remarks. Those social biases punctuate daily the lives of Canadians who aren’t white, heterosexual, middle-class, cis-males. </p>
<p>But, as events like Cherry’s downfall remind us, inevitable right-wing political backlash and resultant polarization and divisions will seemingly forever frustrate efforts to nurture bridging social capital. This is unfortunate, as mutually created bridging capital allows for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226012883/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0226012883&linkCode=as2&tag=thplofyo07-20&linkId=4QCXIF457L26NDJI">inter-communal trust, collaboration and healthy dialogue</a>. </p>
<p>When there’s a dearth of bridging ties and trust, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/after-service/201901/how-modern-life-made-us-angry">stereotypical assumptions</a> dictate how we interact with people outside of our identity groups. We assume worst intentions on the part of those with whom we disagree. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-trump-effect-in-canada-a-600-per-cent-increase-in-online-hate-speech-86026">The Trump effect in Canada: A 600 per cent increase in online hate speech</a>
</strong>
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<p>Bridging social chasms would enable us to collectively and rationally decide how to equitably and inclusively welcome newcomers into the Canadian social fabric, and how to treat fairly those who run afoul of present day values intended to promote equity and inclusivity. </p>
<p>Without implying that Cherry is necessarily deserving of a second chance given his cumulative track record, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if bridged differences and enhanced social trust resulted in a more forgiving society that defaults to redemption over cancellation. </p>
<p>That beats yelling at each other across divides and fuelling a perpetual impasse.</p>
<p>In the introduction of his book, Putnam suggests that Americans “need to reconnect with each other.” We Canadians need to do the same. In terms of making that happen, the fallout from Don Cherry’s latest antics shows we have a lot of work to do.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127786/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Gosine 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>Without implying that Don Cherry is deserving of a second chance given his track record, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if bridged differences resulted in redemption instead of cancellation.Kevin Gosine, Associate Professor of Sociology, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1175182019-05-22T12:04:51Z2019-05-22T12:04:51ZGang culture appeals to disenfranchised young people – but ‘social mixing’ offers a way out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275907/original/file-20190522-187147-fvbvtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C23%2C3954%2C2524&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/silhouettes-shadows-people-on-street-crowd-1348196033?src=y9PZ-0Ao6DTLdkoU0CWAeA-1-98">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past ten years, violence among young people involved in gangs has claimed <a href="http://www.reference.com/government-politics/many-gang">hundreds of lives</a> and dominated national debate in the UK. There have been many well-documented attempts to counter gang culture, ranging from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-intervention-the-next-steps--2">early years intervention</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/26/london-gangs-police-crackdown">zero tolerance policing</a>. </p>
<p>But authorities have yet to fully consider social mixing – otherwise known as “<a href="http://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/what-is-bridging">bridging</a>”. Bridging is an approach which helps people go out beyond the neighbourhood where they live to create new, more diverse social networks in other areas. This might happen when they start training or volunteering, or get a part-time job.</p>
<p>These kinds of activities offer an opportunity to form new friendships outside of their local area. In academic terms, it gives people a chance to develop <a href="http://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/literature/definition">social capital</a> – that is, accrue the opportunities and benefits that come from having a wide and varied social network. And there’s <a href="http://www.academia.edu/39223463/DOCTORAL_THESIS_2018_DEPOSIT_VERSION">new evidence</a> to show that this can have a positive impact on young people. </p>
<h2>Getting away from gangs</h2>
<p>My <a href="http://www.ljmu.academia.edu/RobertHesketh">earlier research</a> into what drives young people to join gangs involved interviewing a mix of 44 young people aged 18 to 25, half of whom were gang members, and half of whom said they were not gang members, based in Merseyside, UK. One of the key differences between these two groups of young people was whether or not they found opportunities for social mixing. </p>
<p>Those who identified themselves as gang members had restricted themselves to their local area, where in many cases there were active gangs. With limited opportunities available, the only places for young people to develop friendships were in school, and on the streets after school. </p>
<p>As a result, they had little choice but to get involved in the main activity around the streets, which was to join groups of young people hanging around shops and parks. Over time, the values and beliefs of these young people became bound up with gang culture that involved anti-social behaviour and crime. </p>
<p>These factors also gave young people a sense of belonging, identity and excitement as well as a way to earn money, as some of the older members found a substitute for the lack of employment in the local area through “grafting” (drug dealing).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275909/original/file-20190522-187172-1cqzrfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275909/original/file-20190522-187172-1cqzrfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275909/original/file-20190522-187172-1cqzrfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275909/original/file-20190522-187172-1cqzrfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275909/original/file-20190522-187172-1cqzrfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275909/original/file-20190522-187172-1cqzrfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275909/original/file-20190522-187172-1cqzrfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A way to get paid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/howardlake/4550765098/sizes/l">Howard Lake/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>By contrast, non-gang members decided to commute out from their living space to seek activities in different areas: they were either encouraged by their parents, or decided themselves to opt out of relationships with peers who they deemed to be trouble-makers. This allowed them to create new, diverse and morally stable friendships, and develop more open and optimistic mindsets. </p>
<h2>Gentrification by governments</h2>
<p>The traditional forms of bridging, encouraged by governments in the past, have included long-term projects such as mixed tenure housing. This is where local property developers – including social housing providers – encourage upwardly mobile people to buy new or regenerated housing stock in areas alongside marginalised people with very limited choice. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/62884/1/02_Auty_mixed%20tenure%20housing.pdf">obvious problem</a> with this idea is that it can create a divided community of “haves” and “have-nots”, with the former living in good quality new builds, while disenfranchised neighbours reside in poorly furnished, dilapidated and ageing dwellings. Ultimately, this can lead to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMz1x5_yF2Q">gentrification</a>: where long-term residents and businesses are displaced, and communities disrupted or destroyed, due to the influx of wealthier residents. </p>
<p>This method of long-term bridging ignores two crucial factors: trust and balance. Encouraging people from different backgrounds to move into areas where the local community has already developed <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/psd/bonding-and-bridging">a collective bond</a> based on empathy and reciprocity, can actually create distrust of newcomers. There’s also a need to consider how many new faces are coming in: too many, and this can create a fear among established residents of being “invaded” by new people out of touch with local activities, issues and concerns. </p>
<p>Many communities – including my own in North Huyton, Merseyside – have as a result of social exclusion become very insular and territorial, and will not take kindly to new faces. The important step of developing trust between locals and newcomers is all too often forgotten by planners and local government, who are eager to improve neighbourhoods quickly. </p>
<p>Yet the bridging that was evident among the young people who opted not to join gangs in my research came not in the form of new residences or urban regeneration, but in exposure to new opinions, ideas, experiences, values and beliefs, which introduced issues such as moral citizenship, and ambition beyond the limited opportunities available in their local area. </p>
<p>I also found that it is possible to create bridging within communities themselves, through role models who can have a positive influence on others. For example, every one of the young people who took part in the study remembered the name of a favourite teacher, and spoke of the impact this figure had had on them. </p>
<p>Graduates who return to socially excluded areas can also help to internally bridge by acting as mentors. This would allow possible employment opportunities for those who have returned to socially excluded locations and found very little in terms of graduate provisions which are usually non-existent. </p>
<p>Over the last few years, <a href="http://www.veesplaceprescot.co.uk">a local charity</a> on Merseyside has run a pilot involving bridging through social and leisure activities, which have brought in other young people and facilitators from outside areas. This has seen many disenfranchised local residents become more positive and open minded about their future aspirations. Many have come away with a new willingness to invest time and energy in a more law abiding pathway.</p>
<p>While bridging may not completely prevent crime among young people, it seems worth exploring further – especially methods of bridging which involve local people, and focus on addressing issues of inequality and social exclusion, rather than ignoring them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Hesketh 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>Gentrification happens when attempts to build bridges between disenfranchised people and their better-off peers go awry – but it doesn’t have to be this way.Robert Hesketh, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1072002018-12-02T09:44:20Z2018-12-02T09:44:20ZWhy under valuing families is a problem for South Africa’s economy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246448/original/file-20181120-161633-1dv415h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Families and the state are equally responsible for contributing towards human capital. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A country’s wealth goes hand in hand with its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the market value of goods and services over a defined period of time. In contrast, wealth is capital or assets: the tools we have to create GDP sustainably. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.forumforthefuture.org/the-five-capitals">several types of capital</a> available to a country: manufactured capital, natural capital, financial capital, social capital and human capital. Human capital includes people’s health, education, skills, motivation and inclusion. Social capital, on the other hand, refers to institutions and organisations that help to develop human capital: families, communities, businesses, schools, faith organisations, and the like. </p>
<p>A recent World Bank <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/29001/9781464810466.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y">analysis</a> concluded that two thirds of the wealth differentials between countries can be attributed to variations in human capital. It found that human capital accounts for 70% of wealth in high-income countries, whereas natural capital remains the biggest asset in low income countries. </p>
<p>Importantly, low-income countries that have moved to middle-income status have done so mainly by investing in human capital, particularly, health, education and infrastructure. </p>
<p>Human capital depends on social capital. Young children are born healthy, grow well, learn, get on with other people, work productively and pass on their resources to their children when government and families collaborate to create social capital. </p>
<p>Schools, health services, neighbourhoods and other social institutions in which we live work best when the state provides a facilitating environment and high quality services – and recognises this is only half of what is needed to realise and maintain its people’s potential. </p>
<p>The other half comes from the sacrifices made in families to give children the best possible chances, love, encouragement, support and help children receive from teachers and peers, and higher ideals and motivation inspired by leaders. </p>
<p>While overwhelming numbers of South Africans know that they owe almost everything to their families, families are massively under-valued in the country’s economy. This is what is argued in the <a href="http://www.ci.uct.ac.za/ci/child-gauge/2018">2018 Child Gauge</a>, an annual publication which explores how the country’s children are faring. The state and families both have to step up to improve South Africa’s human and social capital. </p>
<h2>Human capital is built from the start</h2>
<p>Human capital development starts young. In the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27717614">first three years of life</a>, the brain is a sponge that soaks up experiences. These experiences mould who we become, including our vulnerability to illness, our confidence to learn, our ability to relate to others and our determination to push on even when things are hard. </p>
<p>Long term <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27717610">studies</a> show that a poor start in life translates into an average loss of adult income per year of 26%. At a country level this exerts a downward pull on GDP, wealth as well as the country’s future growth. </p>
<p>The effects of poor early childhood development are expressed throughout life and into the next generation: poorer physical growth and health, less learning and schooling, lower prospects of work, poorer wages and increased social risks. Children born into these conditions start with lead on their feet.</p>
<p>Among the findings in the 2018 edition of the South African Child Gauge is the fact that more than 60% of children live in poverty. This means most children in South Africa live in households where the income is less than R1 138 per person per month. 12% of children live in households where they go hungry and more than a quarter of children younger than 5 years old show stunted physical growth. Poor conditions for children’s development, coupled with <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220388.2012.693168">poor quality schooling</a>, mean that fewer than half of young people end up obtaining a school-leaving matric certificate. </p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>For its part, government must recognise that it cannot develop human potential –- a country’s most significant source of wealth –- on its own. Families and communities have a strong role to play. But to do this, families have to be enabled, supported and appreciated. Most critically, families must be provided with quality services that match their investment in their children. </p>
<p>Families must recognise that the state cannot develop their children’s potential on its own. Even the best schools and health services will not make or keep their children healthy, educated and well-adjusted without their families’ deep commitment and engagement.</p>
<p>Families and the state are equal partners in ensuring that the most critical element of our wealth and our future –- human capital – is nurtured and fostered from young, and throughout life. In this way, human wealth can be shared by us all and handed on to South Africa’s children – with interest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda M. Richter receives funding from the National Research Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, the Conrad N Hilton Foundation, and the Graca Machel Trust</span></em></p>Human capital is a key contributor to a country’s economy. Here’s how families and the state can nurture this asset.Linda M. Richter, Distinguished Professor, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/929762018-03-28T10:39:05Z2018-03-28T10:39:05ZWhy it’s so hard to #DeleteFacebook: Constant psychological boosts keep you hooked<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212304/original/file-20180327-109199-1f071dx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=521%2C8%2C4842%2C3463&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Your finger may hover, but it's hard get rid of it once and for all.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/adelaide-australia-october-3-2012-deleting-269010830">ymgerman/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Here we go again: another Facebook controversy, yet again violating our sense of privacy by letting others harvest our personal information. This flareup is a big one to be sure, leading some people to consider leaving Facebook altogether, but the company and most of its <a href="https://qz.com/1236564/facebook-is-too-big-to-fail/">over 2 billion users</a> will reconcile. The vast majority will return to Facebook, just like they did <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/inside-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-2-years-of-hell/">the last time</a> and the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/timeline-facebook-s-privacy-issues-its-responses-n859651">many times before that</a>. As in all abusive relationships, users have a psychological dependence that keeps them hooked despite knowing that, at some level, it’s not good for them.</p>
<p>Decades of research has shown that our relationship with all media, whether movies, television or radio, is symbiotic: People like them because of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/268109">gratifications they get from consuming them</a> – benefits like escapism, relaxation and companionship. The more people use them, the more gratifications they seek and obtain.</p>
<p>With online media, however, a consumer’s use provides data to media companies so they can serve up <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2013.845827">exactly what would gratify her most</a>, as they mine her behavior patterns to tailor her online experiences and appeal to her individual psychological needs. </p>
<p>Aside from providing content for our consumption, Facebook, Twitter, Google – indeed all interactive media – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118426456.ch3">provide us with new possibilities for interaction on the platform</a> that can satisfy some of our innate human cravings.</p>
<p>Interactive tools in Facebook provide simplified ways to engage your curiosity, broadcast your thoughts, promote your image, maintain relationships and fulfill the yearning for external validation. Social media take advantage of common psychological traits and tendencies to keep you clicking – and revealing more of yourself. Here’s why it’s so hard, as a social network user, to pull the plug once and for all.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212309/original/file-20180327-109182-75ia6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212309/original/file-20180327-109182-75ia6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212309/original/file-20180327-109182-75ia6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212309/original/file-20180327-109182-75ia6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212309/original/file-20180327-109182-75ia6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212309/original/file-20180327-109182-75ia6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212309/original/file-20180327-109182-75ia6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212309/original/file-20180327-109182-75ia6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People get a lot of pleasure from their social media interactions – and that’s by design.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-girl-friends-watching-internet-social-743137216">guruXOX/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Buoying your ‘friend'ships</h2>
<p>The more you click, the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/2160-4134.1.S.2">stronger your online relationships</a>. Hitting the 'Like’ button, commenting on photos of friends, sending birthday wishes and tagging others are just some of the ways in which Facebook allows you to engage in “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00394.x">social grooming</a>.” All these tiny, fleeting contacts help users maintain relationships with large numbers of people with relative ease.</p>
<h2>Molding the image you want to project</h2>
<p>The more you reveal, the greater your chances of successful self-presentation. Studies have shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.10.033">strategic self-presentation is a key feature of Facebook use</a>. Users shape their online identity by revealing which concert they went to and with whom, which causes they support, which rallies they attend and so on. In this way, you can curate your online self and manage others’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.02.012">impressions of you</a>, something that would be impossible to do in real life with such regularity and precision. Online, you get to project the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118426456.ch1">ideal version of yourself</a> all the time.</p>
<h2>Snooping through an open window</h2>
<p>The more you click, the more you can keep an eye on others. This kind of social searching and surveillance are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/1357054.1357213">among the most important gratifications obtained from Facebook</a>. Most people take pleasure in looking up others on social media, often surreptitiously. The psychological need to monitor your environment is deep-rooted and drives you to keep up with news of the day – and fall victim to <a href="http://www.projectinfolit.org/shyam-sundar-smart-talk.html">FOMO, the fear of missing out</a>. Even privacy-minded senior citizens, loathe to reveal too much about themselves, are known to use Facebook to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.04.015">snoop on others</a>.</p>
<h2>Enhancing your social resources</h2>
<p>The more you reveal, the greater your social net worth. Being more forthcoming <a href="https://doi.org/10.2753/MER1052-8008240102">can get you a job via LinkedIn</a>. It can also help an old classmate find you and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/1240624.1240695">reconnect</a>. Studies have shown that active use of Facebook can enhance your <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12078">social capital</a>, whether you’re a college student or a senior citizen wanting to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.02.080">bond with family members or rekindle ties</a> with long-lost friends. Being active on social media is associated with increases in <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2006.9.584">self-esteem and subjective well-being</a>.</p>
<h2>Enlarging your tribe</h2>
<p>The more you click, the bigger and better the bandwagon. When you click to share a news story on social media or express approval of a product or service, you’re contributing to the creation of a bandwagon of support. Metrics conveying strong bandwagon support, just like five stars for a product on Amazon, are <a href="https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1358873">quite persuasive</a>, in part because they represent a consensus among many opinions. In this way, you get to be a part of online communities that form around ideas, events, movements, stories and products – which can ultimately enhance your <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/088394179290028H">sense of belonging</a>.</p>
<h2>Expressing yourself and being validated</h2>
<p>The more you reveal, the greater your agency. Whether it’s a tweet, a status update or a detailed blog post, you get to <a href="https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2207731">express yourself</a> and help shape the discourse on social media. This self-expression by itself can be quite empowering. And metrics indicating bandwagon support for your posts – all those “likes” and smiley faces – can profoundly enhance your sense of self worth by appealing to your ingrained psychological need for <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/17/4/369/4067663">external validation</a>.</p>
<p>In all these ways, social media’s features provide us too many important gratifications to forego easily. If you think most users will give all this up in the off chance that illegally obtained data from their Facebook profiles and activities may be used to influence their votes, think again. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212310/original/file-20180327-109169-1n16k5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212310/original/file-20180327-109169-1n16k5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212310/original/file-20180327-109169-1n16k5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212310/original/file-20180327-109169-1n16k5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212310/original/file-20180327-109169-1n16k5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212310/original/file-20180327-109169-1n16k5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212310/original/file-20180327-109169-1n16k5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212310/original/file-20180327-109169-1n16k5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social media train us to crave the feedback and respond to the nudges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/falling-on-top-chips-like-heart-595210961">SPF/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Algorithms that never let you go</h2>
<p>While most people may be squeamish about algorithms mining their personal information, there’s an implicit understanding that sharing personal data is a necessary evil that helps <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10799-005-5879-y">enhance their experience</a>. The algorithms that collect your information are also the algorithms that nudge you to be social, based on your interests, behaviors and networks of friends. Without Facebook egging you on, you probably wouldn’t be quite as social. Facebook is a major social lubricant of our time, often recommending friends to add to your circle and notifying you when a friend has said or done something potentially of interest.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212000/original/file-20180326-159078-h0ieb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212000/original/file-20180326-159078-h0ieb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212000/original/file-20180326-159078-h0ieb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=84&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212000/original/file-20180326-159078-h0ieb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=84&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212000/original/file-20180326-159078-h0ieb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=84&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212000/original/file-20180326-159078-h0ieb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=105&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212000/original/file-20180326-159078-h0ieb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=105&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212000/original/file-20180326-159078-h0ieb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=105&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Facebook ‘nudge’ can push you to attend a local event.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook screenshot</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Consider how many notifications Facebook sends about events alone. When presented with a nudge about an event, you may at least consider going, probably even visit the event page, maybe indicate that you’re “Interested” and even decide to attend the event. None of these decisions would be possible without first receiving the nudge.</p>
<p>What if Facebook never nudged you? What if algorithms never gave you recommendations or suggestions? Would you still perform those actions? According to <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300122237/nudge">nudge theory</a>, you’d be far less likely to take action if you’re not encouraged to do so. If Facebook never nudged you to attend events, add friends, view others’ posts or wish friends Happy Birthday, it’s unlikely you would do it, thereby diminishing your social life and social circles.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212001/original/file-20180326-159060-fk85gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212001/original/file-20180326-159060-fk85gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212001/original/file-20180326-159060-fk85gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212001/original/file-20180326-159060-fk85gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212001/original/file-20180326-159060-fk85gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212001/original/file-20180326-159060-fk85gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212001/original/file-20180326-159060-fk85gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212001/original/file-20180326-159060-fk85gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Are you willing to say goodbye?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook screenshot</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Facebook knows this very well. Just try deleting your Facebook account and you will be made to realize what a massive repository it is of your private and public memory. When one of us tried deactivating her account, she was told how huge the loss would be – profile disabled, all the memories evaporating, losing touch with over 500 friends. On the top of the page were profile photos of five friends, including the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KP-DwH0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">lead author</a> of this article, with the line “S. Shyam will miss you.”</p>
<p>This is like asking if you would like to purposely and permanently cut off ties with all your friends. Now, who would want to do that?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Shyam Sundar receives funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bingjie Liu, Carlina DiRusso, and Michael Krieger 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>Social media provide shortcuts to things we yearn for, like connection and validation. Media effects scholars explain the psychological benefits we get from Facebook that make it so hard to quit.S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communication & Co-Director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory, Penn StateBingjie Liu, Ph.D. Candidate in Mass Communications, Penn StateCarlina DiRusso, Ph.D. Student in Mass Communications, Penn StateMichael Krieger, Ph.D. Student, Department of Sociology, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/926022018-03-06T14:59:24Z2018-03-06T14:59:24ZHow class and social capital affect university students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208477/original/file-20180301-152575-1494gth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C160%2C849%2C837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Work hard, read your books, and university will be a breeze...or will it? </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s a great deal of comfort to be had in the idea that success at university is primarily or exclusively the result of a student’s hard work. All that’s needed is for students to do their best and fairness will prevail. Students who don’t apply themselves will fail. End of story. </p>
<p>Or is it?</p>
<p>A far more complex picture of student success and failure has emerged from <a href="http://www.africanminds.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/9781928331698_web.pdf">a study</a> tracking the influence of higher education on young people’s lives. We worked with 73 people who first registered for a BA or BSc six years before the data was collected. They had pursued these degrees at three South African research-intensive universities.</p>
<p>Many of the participants shared a strong sense that their university years had provided them with access to powerful knowledge. They felt better able to act in ways aligned to their values and goals. But not all had been able to attain this overwhelmingly positive experience equally. Social class – as well as a range of other factors in the institutions themselves – played a huge role in people’s experiences of accessing and succeeding in higher education, and then getting into the workplace.</p>
<p>Those from impoverished rural settlements or towns, or from peri-urban townships, experienced far more significant hurdles than their urban, middle-class counterparts. This was in part about connections: middle-class, urban students were able to draw on networks before, during and after university. So they tended to enjoy shorter, smoother routes through the institution.</p>
<p>This finding is neither new, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/212017/the-tyranny-of-the-meritocracy-by-lani-guinier/9780807078129/">nor specific to South Africa</a>. The study refutes common sense explanations of higher education success and failure that continue to dominate in our <a href="https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1391&context=ij-sotl">universities</a>. These understand higher education success to be predominantly a function of attributes inherent in the individual. Failure is understood to result from the student’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079.2015.1072148">lack of such attributes</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, common sense explanations <a href="http://cristal.epubs.ac.za/index.php/cristal/article/view/80">conceptualise universities</a> as being acultural, apolitical spaces where people acquire skills. This maintains the fiction that higher education is a <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674088023&content=reviews">meritocracy</a> which fairly rewards individual students’ hard work, motivation, “language skills” and intelligence.</p>
<p>Our data shows the institutional culture, the curriculum structure, teaching and learning approaches, and family support and relatives’ own knowledge of how universities work all played a role in students’ making their way through the system.</p>
<p>Our findings raise a number of concerns for institutions – and individuals – who would like to see fair opportunities for young people wanting to advance their education. </p>
<h2>Family support</h2>
<p>In South Africa, as in similar economies, it is a huge investment for a family to have a young person who is not earning for a number of years after school, and who might also add costs to the household during this period. </p>
<p>The families of some of the participants were able to manage this investment. Some funded their studies through a combination of resources from bursaries, family, or part-time work.</p>
<p>Others, though, came from families with absolutely no financial flexibility and were frequently in financial crisis. This pressure took a toll on the students’ academic progress. Even those who had some funding from the <a href="http://www.nsfas.org.za/content/">National Student Financial Aid Scheme</a> struggled: they had no safety net for any crisis. It took a great deal of energy to manage their basic financial requirements. </p>
<p>But the extent to which the family was able to foster aspirations and engage with the young person’s deliberations and choices was perhaps even more important than financial support. </p>
<p>The data showed that having people with whom to discuss their decisions played a very important role in participants’ higher education journey. This meant having informed people – not necessarily graduates themselves – to talk through their choices. </p>
<p>For instance, a young person might not get access to their first choice of university, and could turn to relatives for discussions and alternative ideas. A more challenging experience for some participants was when they failed academically in their chosen degree and had to figure out a new course of action. </p>
<p>Much of this kind of understanding came from another family member’s experience of going to university. But it was also closely tied to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0142569042000236952">cultural capital</a>: social class played <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01425692.2011.527723">a significant role</a>. The transition to the expectations of the university, to its peculiar and discipline specific knowledge making practices for example, is difficult for all students. But access to these powerful knowledge practices is uneven and it is a disservice to pretend <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/books/review/degrees-of-inequality-by-suzanne-mettler.html">otherwise</a>. </p>
<p>The social side of university life was also enormously important to these young people, as might be expected. Fitting in, making friends and experiencing campus life were often mentioned. Students from less well-off families sometimes struggled, feeling they had to keep up with more affluent friends in a materialistic culture.</p>
<h2>Cohesion</h2>
<p>How can prospective students from settings where family members or teachers do not have the cultural capital related to university study get support in making decisions? And how can universities assist in attending to these needs once they have made their way into higher education? </p>
<p>While universities can’t attend to all societal problems, the data would suggest that institutions have some role to play in forging social cohesion among their own staff and student body.</p>
<p><em>This is an edited abstract from “Going to University: The influence of Higher Education on the lives of young South Africans” (2018) Case, J., Marshall, D., McKenna, S. & Mogashana, D. African Minds. Available for <a href="http://www.africanminds.co.za/dd-product/going-to-university-the-influence-of-higher-education-on-the-lives-of-young-south-africans/">download here</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>The other authors of the book from which this piece is extracted are Professor Jenni Case (Head of Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech), Professor Delia Marshall (Faculty of Natural Science at the University of the Western Cape) and Dr Disaapele Mogashana (student success coach and consultant at <a href="http://www.mytsi.co.za/">True Success Institute</a>).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors of the book 'Going to University: The influence of higher education on the lives of young South Africans' are grateful for the financial support of the NRF.</span></em></p>Social class plays a huge role in people’s experiences of accessing and succeeding in higher education.Sioux McKenna, Director of PG Studies & Higher Education Studies PhD Co-ordinator, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/799522017-06-26T14:57:30Z2017-06-26T14:57:30ZFinland’s brain drain: what happens to small countries when the talent leaves?<p>Young Finnish professionals are <a href="http://www.migrationinstitute.fi/fi/web/finns-abroad-new-forms-mobility-and-migration">attracted to</a> major European capitals. They move to Stockholm, Berlin and Amsterdam, as well as farther away. The sun shines in Dubai; the world’s top organisations and institutes are in New York and Washington. The occupations of these migrants are manifold: bankers, graphic designers, computer engineers, photographers and researchers, to name only a few. </p>
<p>They leave Finland <a href="http://www.migrationinstitute.fi/fi/web/finns-abroad-new-forms-mobility-and-migration">because of</a> poor employment opportunities and future prospects. This has been happening for a long time. Finns were moving to North America 100 years ago and to Sweden after World War II – in both cases because growing economies needed factory workers. </p>
<p>The difference with today’s migrants is <a href="http://www.migrationinstitute.fi/fi/web/finns-abroad-new-forms-mobility-and-migration">they are</a> better <a href="http://www.migrationinstitute.fi/files/pdf/artikkelit/suomalaiset_maailmalla_-_katsaus_suomen_siirtolaisuuteen_kautta_aikain.pdf">educated</a> and leaving a welfare state that <a href="http://stat.fi/ajk/satavuotiassuomi/suomimaailmankarjessa_en.html">ranks as</a> one of the best places to live in the world according to most indices. The likelihood of them returning has nevertheless fallen sharply. Why?</p>
<p>I conducted <a href="http://www.migrationinstitute.fi/files/pdf/siirtolaisuus-migration/sm_2_2017_nettiin.pdf">a survey</a> of Finns living abroad aged 20 to 40 along with the Helsinki-based journalist Johannes Niemeläinen. Of 799 survey respondents, only 19% saw returning as a likely option. This was down more than 20 percentage points on a <a href="http://www.migrationinstitute.fi/files/siirtolaisuustutkimuksia_a30_esr_1.pdf">2006 survey</a>, which had also included retirees who had settled abroad. When we compared only 20 to 40-year-olds, the decline was even sharper.</p>
<p>This comes at a time when working-age emigration from Finland has steadily increased. The net loss of about 2,000 citizens in 2015 <a href="http://www.stat.fi/index_en.html">was almost</a> four times that of 2009, and over half were university educated. Interestingly, the majority of leavers were women. Put together, we are talking about a case of brain drain that could have severe consequences.</p>
<h2>The broken circle</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30083992.pdf">recent study</a> of international perceptions of Finns working abroad found them to be highly adaptable, linguistically talented and sought after. The Finnish welfare state clearly provides its citizens with the skills and education to make it in the world. </p>
<p>The government’s logic has long been that a well-trained, healthy workforce will return the favour later in life. Emigrants are supposed to come home with broader minds and international experience and contacts, to the benefit of the economy as a whole. All countries become embedded in the global economy one citizen at a time, goes the thinking. </p>
<p>But why would they go back? The cracks in Finland’s supposed virtuous circle are all too apparent. The country <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Migration_and_migrant_population_statistics">attracts fewer</a> immigrants from elsewhere in the EU than its Scandinavian peers. Even Helsinki does not keep up with the competition, with the number of highly educated 30 to 34-year-olds in decline. In other northerly capitals such as Copenhagen, Stockholm and London, the opposite <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Migration_and_migrant_population_statistics">is the case</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175578/original/file-20170626-7749-1vdfnxr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175578/original/file-20170626-7749-1vdfnxr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175578/original/file-20170626-7749-1vdfnxr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175578/original/file-20170626-7749-1vdfnxr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175578/original/file-20170626-7749-1vdfnxr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175578/original/file-20170626-7749-1vdfnxr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175578/original/file-20170626-7749-1vdfnxr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175578/original/file-20170626-7749-1vdfnxr.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">Copenhagen: brain gain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.goodfreephotos.com/denmark/copenhagen/rooftop-view-of-copenhagen.jpg.php">Jens Peter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finland’s problem is not directly comparable to the mass migrations of workers in the past, driven by vast demographic, political and economic upheaval from the likes of the world wars. It is also not the same as the ongoing worldwide migration that we see from poorer to better off countries – which sadly now includes the likes of Spain and Greece. </p>
<p>Instead, it speaks to larger structural changes in the postwar welfare state. Everything from retiring baby boomers to the rising cost of healthcare to the economic crisis have forced the Finnish state to cut back. The damage to the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35656150">economy</a> and the <a href="http://vm.fi/valtion-budjetti">education system</a> has encouraged young people to move abroad. </p>
<p>Several high-profile academics have left Finland in protest at the <a href="https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/new-government-tripping-up-higher-education-in-finland">circa €500m (£439m)</a> cuts to higher education. Echoing this, we found that the likelihood of emigrants returning is down most sharply among PhD holders – a decrease of 36 percentage points since 2006. These academics tended to point to a direct correlation between cuts to education and their attitude to working in Finland. With other sectors, we found the same kind of attitudes. </p>
<p>This illustrates that in the end, the question of returning home boils down to employment. And as Finland celebrates 100 years of independence, most respondents felt that the experience they have acquired abroad won’t translate into better employment back home.</p>
<h2>The greater threat</h2>
<p>Small welfare states like Finland are more dependent on their educated workforce than more market-driven countries. If they don’t educate enough new people or recruit them from elsewhere, it will create structural problems for the welfare economy <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJSE-05-2014-0092">such as</a> the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tie.20439/abstract;jsessionid=F439D9A85F6335E1FB9FCC082F631B01.f04t04?wol1URL=/doi/10.1002/tie.20439/abstract&regionCode=GB-EN&identityKey=50959745-9e94-4e62-8fef-a764812cce8b">loss of</a> foreign investment. </p>
<p>And in a system that is heavily funded by the central government, cutbacks affect everyone much more than in a country where government spending is more concentrated on the poorest. This increases the chances of the most talented people leaving, which in turn risks undermining the country’s networks of knowledge and productive social relationships – often described as <a href="https://www.oecd.org/insights/37966934.pdf">social capital</a>. This forms the foundation of the whole welfare regime and acts as a buffer against external shocks, so there is a risk of system-wide effects. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175259/original/file-20170622-16449-1w3gliu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175259/original/file-20170622-16449-1w3gliu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175259/original/file-20170622-16449-1w3gliu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175259/original/file-20170622-16449-1w3gliu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175259/original/file-20170622-16449-1w3gliu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175259/original/file-20170622-16449-1w3gliu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175259/original/file-20170622-16449-1w3gliu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175259/original/file-20170622-16449-1w3gliu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Living in Finn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/finland-map-3d-illustration-548537263?src=X9k5icPdFfcEJ1XlxS3ItQ-1-56">Yodchai Promduang</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Coupled with further pressure on the welfare state from the ageing population, these developments have the potential to spiral irreversibly. We can liken this to oil leaking from an engine: it does not affect the machinery immediately, but over time it could damage it beyond repair. </p>
<p>What then is the solution? In 16 follow-up interviews, we found our young professional respondents remained tremendously proud of the Finnish welfare regime and worried about it. They might have been drawn overseas, but they still very much believed in the system from which they had come. </p>
<p>This points to the possibility of new forms of solidarity and welfarism that might yet somehow benefit countries like Finland. Tapping into this requires thinking beyond the nation state, create new transnational welfare regimes either by reaching out to emigrants or by cooperating with similar countries. This would of course be a radical shift. It may be necessary to prevent this brain drain problem from turning into a full-blown catastrophe. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is part of a series on sustainability and transformation in today’s Europe, published in collaboration with <a href="http://www.europenowjournal.org">EuropeNow Journal</a> and the <a href="https://councilforeuropeanstudies.org">Council for European Studies (CES)</a> at Columbia University. Each article is based on a paper presented at the <a href="https://councilforeuropeanstudies.org/conferences/upcoming-conferences/2017-ces-conference">24th International Conference of Europeanists</a> in Glasgow.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juho Korhonen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This problem masks a greater threat to the welfare state than it first appears.Juho Korhonen, PhD Researcher, Brown UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/646642016-09-23T04:55:03Z2016-09-23T04:55:03ZThe internet helps us translate ‘social capital’ to economic benefits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137323/original/image-20160912-3796-11b2vym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Networking online might not be so good for your "social capital" overall.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kyle Steed/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Keeping up with our social networks online helps us get what we want in the short term, but could be worse for our accumulation of “social capital” in the longer term, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592615300515">our research shows</a>. One explanation for this is that the benefits from increased online social connectivity are outweighed by the loss of face-to-face social interactions. </p>
<p>The idea of “social capital”, is where the use of social networks helps people achieve goals that would otherwise not be possible or would come at a higher cost. For example if you befriended someone and then they helped you move house. Online social capital is similar except it’s via the internet. For example using your LinkedIn account to connect with potential employers while you’re looking for a job. </p>
<p>Social capital is difficult to measure and so far there is no consensus on how this should be done. Since trust is recognised as the most important factor in social capital, our study uses the Australian data on trust gathered from <a href="http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org">the World Values Survey</a> in multiple waves from 1981 to 2014. </p>
<p>This is measured as the percentage of people who answer “most people can be trusted” to the survey question “Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you need to be very careful in dealing with people?” </p>
<p>We found using the internet had a negative effect on trust and therefore on social capital in the long term. However online social capital contributes significantly to the economy.</p>
<h2>How social capital contributes to the economy</h2>
<p>A lot of research to date has found a positive relationship between social capital and real GDP.</p>
<p>Trust, a measure of social capital, can be an important factor in reducing transaction costs (especially market transaction costs) and as a result, <a href="https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=10290">increasing economic welfare and productivity</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2951271?origin=JSTOR-pdf&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Researchers Stephen Knack and Philip Keefer</a> investigated the association between social capital and economic performance for a sample of 29 economies. They argued that countries with higher trust also have better and more efficient financial institutions, such as more dynamic share market, and a more stable banking sector. Higher levels of trust are also likely to enhance confidence levels in the market which in turn boosts investment, vital for economic growth. </p>
<p>Our research didn’t find any correlation between the trust and this same kind of economic growth in Australia in both the short and long term. However, when taking into account the trust gained through internet use - online social capital, the effects on economic growth were significant.</p>
<p>Research shows internet transactions <a href="https://rsmg.group.uq.edu.au/files/1981/WP70.pdf">create economic benefits</a> because of convenience, compared to the alternatives. The more people who use social networking online, the more people trusted those they connected with over the internet. This enhanced trust contributed to an increase in the number of internet-based transactions, as well as a reduction in transaction costs, helping to boost economic growth. </p>
<p>Social networking online also helped people to learn about buying and selling online which then may potentially contribute towards a significant rise in online retailing and shopping. </p>
<p>There are some major challenges involved in accounting for the economic and personal consequences of changes in social capital. While social capital increases as a result of using the internet, some disadvantaged individuals and groups (for example, some elderly and disabled members of the community or refugee migrants <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/ITP-04-2014-0083">are marginalised by this</a>). This is potentially due to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/digital-divide-4156">“digital divide”</a>: the difference between those who can use the internet and those who can’t. </p>
<p>Disadvantaged people living in rural and remote Australia are at particular risk of being excluded from the benefits of using the internet because of a few factors such as a relatively slower internet speed. </p>
<p>However, apart from various other measures to reduce digital divide, internet use itself can be a potential means to narrow this divide through its positive social capital effect.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Khorshed Alam receives funding from local government agencies. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clement Tisdell, Lorelle Burton, and Mohammad Salahuddin 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>Spending lots of time on the internet might be good for getting what you want in the short term but it might not work in the long term.Mohammad Salahuddin, Research Assistant, School of Commerce, University of Southern QueenslandClement Tisdell, Emeritus Professor, School of Economics, The University of QueenslandKhorshed Alam, Associate Professor (Economics), University of Southern QueenslandLorelle Burton, Professor, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/498182015-11-03T04:05:45Z2015-11-03T04:05:45ZFinancial stress distracts university students from academic success<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100135/original/image-20151029-15334-1lduolx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's difficult for students who are struggling financially to focus on their academic work.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The #feesmustfall student movement in South Africa has garnered a great deal of popular support. It has its <a href="http://www.news24.com/Opinions/Student-radicals-or-hooligans-20151016">critics</a>, too. They have suggested that the country’s government and its universities simply <a href="http://www.rdm.co.za/politics/2015/10/29/prepare-yourself-for-the-decline-of-our-universities">can’t afford</a> the free tertiary education students are demanding as their right. </p>
<p>These critics and those who have proliferated on social media miss an important point. Students are not just looking for a free ride. For many, stress about money is a distressing and unwelcome distraction from their degrees – qualifications they hope can lift themselves and their families out of poverty.</p>
<h2>Financial stress is a reality</h2>
<p>I recently concluded <a href="http://digitalknowledge.cput.ac.za/jspui/bitstream/11189/3160/1/Pather_S_DEd_2015.pdf">research</a> about the factors that influence first-year students’ experiences and academic performance. </p>
<p>The vast majority – 94% – of the students involved needed external funding like student loans, bursaries and scholarships to support their university life. Some had even enrolled for degrees without having funding confirmed – so their days were consumed by worries about finance. One said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I left my job to study full time it was not easy, my money saved paid for my registration fees and res [residence], yeah, but that was, like, it. I couldn’t pay for food, clothes, books, transport or anything and then I applied for [a bursary scheme] and [it] didn’t take me. So right now I’m not paying, literally. I am just staying at res. So I’m not paying there and I’m not paying my fees because I thought if I get the bursary, it’s gonna come through but it didn’t come through. I have to think of a way to pay for my studies!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most of these students cannot rely on their families for financial support. Parents’ jobs influence the amount of financial support that they can offer their children. In the study sample, only 24.45% of fathers and 22.2% of mothers had professional occupations and could offer their children some help with money.</p>
<p>Students keenly felt this lack of support, with one saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I had the financial support from my family I would have done much better in maybe some of the work [academic work]; it’s no excuse, I could do better if I had this support.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In total 41% of the participants received some form of financial support from their parents, 53% relied on external funding – 10% received student loans and 43% obtained student bursaries – and 6% paid for their own studies. </p>
<p>Across the board, the students’ main priority was to desperately secure financial aid before focusing on academic activities. Only once they were able to deal with this stumbling block did they shift focus to their studies. </p>
<h2>Promoting social integration</h2>
<p>Being at university is not solely about studying. Socialising is an important component, giving students the chance to meet new and different people. </p>
<p>However, many of the students I interviewed had picked up part-time jobs to try and keep the wolf from the door. This kept them off campus at times when other students were socialising or getting involved in university activities beyond the classroom. That, in turn, made these financially struggling students feel less like they belonged at university. </p>
<p>The study reveals that social disintegration with both academics and peers deprives students of a holistic university experience.</p>
<p>Universities need to proactively provide the space and opportunities to encourage social connection on campus. Social networking on campus would certainly help disadvantaged students who have limited social and cultural capital. <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1015-60462011000200004">Research shows</a> that developing these students’ social connections can be an important factor in them becoming successful university students.</p>
<h2>Universities have a role to play</h2>
<p>Universities have an obligation to ensure that their students get the most out of the degree experience. This helps them to produce well-rounded graduates. How, then, should institutions rise to the challenge of helping students who are forced into employment as a priority ahead of their academic studies?</p>
<p>One suggestion is for universities to play a more active and aggressive role in ensuring that students don’t have to wait for money. Some existing funding schemes only pay out after the academic year commences. Others only confirm student funding once term has started. Many students are not even able to get past the hurdle of paying upfront registration fees. </p>
<p>So, policies and programmes are needed to make financial aid available from the very first day of study or even a few weeks before a course starts. In addition student fees should be determined by individual applicants’ economic and social circumstances.</p>
<p>Addressing students’ funding challenges as early as possible would mitigate the burden and stress of students trying to secure financial aid while also trying to cope with their academic and other commitments. These include finding a part time job and addressing personal issues such as accommodation, food and living expenses.</p>
<h2>Towards great graduates</h2>
<p>The best universities want to produce the sort of graduates who can do great things for their country and community. To do this, institutions must realise that financial stress is a terrible burden – one which distracts potentially excellent graduates from their academic goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Subethra Pather received funding from National Research Council and a PhD DHET scholarship from CCRRI - Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity - UKZN. </span></em></p>For many students, stress about money is a terrible and unwelcome distraction from their degrees – qualifications they hope can lift themselves and their families out of poverty.Subethra Pather, Academic Development Lecturer, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/473932015-09-15T04:35:41Z2015-09-15T04:35:41ZHow Africa can instil entrepreneurship as a tool of development<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94644/original/image-20150914-4693-es84bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Africa needs to utilise different kinds of capital to grow its entrepreneurs. Nigeria's Aliko Dangote relied on family savings to start his businesses. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Denis Balibouse</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past 20 years, Africa has been steadily growing and is expected remain one of the fast growing <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/10/07/africa-growth-may-exceed-five-per-cent-in-2015-16-but-ebola-terrorism-and-other-risks-pose-concern">regions</a> in the near future. Central to this is entrepreneurship and the role of entrepreneurs. </p>
<p>The idea of entrepreneurship proposed here is one where African people play a key role in economic activities. They study and practice entrepreneurship in a focused fashion in order to control their own economic destinies. In this way, entrepreneurship becomes a conscious lifelong programme of mastering capital to improve productivity and quality of life for the largest number of people.</p>
<p>An entrepreneurial organisation is one that has grown revenues, jobs or profits in the past five years by several multiples of GDP growth. These organisations grow large by introducing new products, services and sometimes even undermining existing ones. </p>
<p>Cellphone groups MTN and Vodacom represent this picture in South Africa. On the other hand, fixed line provider Telkom was found to be unresponsive to the growing demand for telecommunications services. </p>
<p>Typical entrepreneurs include <a href="http://www.econetwireless.com/strive_masiyiwa.php">Strive Masiyiwa</a>, <a href="https://www.naij.com/426890-wealth-secrets-of-aliko-dangote.html">Aliko Dangote</a>, <a href="http://www.kaizerchiefs.com/kc_content.asp?contTitle=HISTORY&cid=2989">Kaizer Motaung</a>, the <a href="http://www.kunene.co.za/index.htm">Kunene Brothers</a>, <a href="http://www.mapdev.co.za/about-maponya.html">Richard Maponya</a> and many others running multi-million rand enterprises across the continent. </p>
<h2>Harnessing different forms of capital</h2>
<p>The entrepreneur then is the person or team that masters the art of forming, mobilising and deploying capital for the best return over time. Capital is simply anything that can be used to produce goods or services. African entrepreneurs have yet to get a proper grip of what capital is.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Finance capital: serious economic development starts with financial savings rather than consumption. The <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-01/chinese-consumers-cling-to-saving-suppressing-spending">Chinese</a> have been saving 30% of their disposable income in their personal capacities and as families since 1978. As a nation their savings rate is around 50%. This saving’s <a href="https://www.resbank.co.za/Lists/News%20and%20Publications/Attachments/2513/occ14fin.pdf">rate</a> has spurred Chinese economic growth. Similarly, in Africa many entrepreneurs, including <a href="https://www.naij.com/426890-wealth-secrets-of-aliko-dangote.html">Aliko Dangote</a>, relied on family savings to start their own businesses. Families, community saving schemes and burial societies need to find meaningful ways to create a pool of capital to invest in family businesses and emerging entrepreneurs. This requires the creation of robust capital raising structures beyond the traditional avenues.</p></li>
<li><p>Human capital: this is the totality of useful skills that people have. This includes entrepreneurship, leadership, managerial and engineering skills. Firms that grow and innovate are typically ones where young people are given a chance to innovate and to <a href="http://jfe.rochester.edu/Ouimet_Zarutskie_app.pdf">lead</a>. And human capital that elevates the overall productivity and sophistication of a nation is typically inter-disciplinary. It encompasses, for example, the arts, sports and technology. The Nigerian film industry, Nollywood, is a good example. It represents the formation of human capital which promises to be the torch bearer of African visual arts in the next 20 years. </p></li>
<li><p>Intellectual capital refers to ideas that have been properly formalised, documented, and in some cases legally protected and packaged for commercial exploitation. Entrepreneurs need to be aware that every business has intellectual capital. This includes a range of unique methods of operation such as marketing, branding and manufacturing. For example, <a href="http://www.imd.org/research/challenges/india-pharmaceutical-strategy-ralf-boscheck.cfm">India</a> has exploited intellectual capital to gain world leadership in pharmaceutical generics. African businesses and entrepreneurs must intentionally seek to be owners of intellectual capital.</p></li>
<li><p>Social capital: successful entrepreneurs are masters of human relations and building a network of productive people who are actively interested in <a href="https://hbr.org/2005/12/how-to-build-your-network">making each other successful</a>. The pillar of human capital is reciprocity where members of a network are prepared to invest in each other’s success. Reciprocity needs to be formalised for entrepreneurial purposes. For a start, members of a given family and community must openly realise the necessity for social capital and organise themselves for ongoing mutual support. Support that produces top performance cannot be haphazard but must be systematic and sustained. This sustained systematic collaboration must have a mutually reinforcing relationship between the entrepreneur, family and community.</p></li>
<li><p>Physical capital: the story goes that it is cheaper to freight cargo from Atlanta to Mombasa than to get the same cargo from Mombasa to Kampala. What it takes to transport cargo is physical capital including trucks, trains and cargo planes. It is the task of entrepreneurs to ensure that physical capital is created, mobilised and deployed in all its forms. This starts at the most basic of level of ensuring that we are not dressed up in expensive clothes when we have not setup proper internet connection in our homes. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Collaboration and professionalism are two key ingredients for building an entrepreneurial culture and base that can sustain decent living standards for Africans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandile Swana 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>Innovators and entrepreneurs will ensure that Africa continues to grow. But they need to be nurtured to lead the development.Sandile Swana, Lecturer at Wits Business School, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/274432014-06-04T01:48:21Z2014-06-04T01:48:21ZVIDEO: Coworking – the benefits of collaborative workspaces<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50169/original/twf935n6-1401846581.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XB7zxBHRfho?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><br></p>
<p>From a single collaborative workspace in San Francisco in 2005, coworking has ballooned into a popular movement, with an estimated 3,000 spaces around the world.</p>
<p>Tim Butcher and Julian Waters-Lynch explain how the principles of coworking also offer advantages for big businesses, as well as for freelancers and individuals.</p>
<p>This video is a co-production between <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/">SBS World News</a> and The Conversation.</p>
<p><strong>See also:</strong><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quitting-the-cubicle-farm-for-coworking-19517">Quitting the cubicle farm for coworking</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-how-the-weather-affects-our-mood-27171">VIDEO: How the weather affects our mood</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-what-are-stars-26511">VIDEO: What are stars?</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-how-laser-tattoo-removal-works-25857">VIDEO: How laser tattoo removal works</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-solving-the-worlds-toilet-shortage-25738">VIDEO: Solving the world’s toilet shortage</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-were-the-first-artists-women-25590">VIDEO: Were the first artists women?</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-the-benefits-of-high-intensity-workouts-26326">VIDEO: The benefits of high-intensity workouts</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Waters-Lynch is a member and previous employee of Hub Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Butcher is a Hub Melbourne member.</span></em></p>From a single collaborative workspace in San Francisco in 2005, coworking has ballooned into a popular movement, with an estimated 3,000 spaces around the world. Tim Butcher and Julian Waters-Lynch explain…Julian Waters-Lynch, PhD Candidate, RMIT UniversityTim Butcher, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/195172013-11-21T01:22:17Z2013-11-21T01:22:17ZQuitting the cubicle farm for coworking<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35366/original/23qdw3t2-1384487895.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More workers are ditching the cubicle for a collaborative coworking space.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">madrideducacion.es/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From humble beginnings, the coworking movement has exploded to an estimated 3000 spaces around the world, with hundreds of thousands of people choosing to ditch the home or corporate office in favour of a shared workspace.</p>
<p>Coworking spaces offer sanctuary and solidarity to those escaping the isolation of working at home, and those in search of an alternative to the grind of the office or cubicle farm. The “co” in coworking might possibly be “community”.</p>
<p>Bernie DeKoven is credited with coining the term “coworking” back in 1999 to describe an emerging pattern of people choosing to work on their own projects but in shared physical proximity. As is often the case with zeitgeist “inventions”, several parallel examples of the idea appeared at the same time. Early reports depict coworking as becoming both a recognised social movement and growing form of enterprise.</p>
<h2>Serendipity works</h2>
<p>San Francisco, 2005: Brad Neuberg was facing the dilemma of choosing between the “structure and community” of a nine to five job and the “freedom and independence” of contract work. He opted for the “both-and” option (a phrase in itself that has become emblematic of coworking philosophy). Brad opened one of the first recognised coworking spaces. In his own words:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I grew up in Texas and it was like a desert. There was no community, no connection. I was like the only geek… so to have a coworking space, that could be really powerful.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>London, the same year: A small group of social entrepreneurs led by Jonathan Robinson opened the first “Hub” on the top floor of an old warehouse in Islington. Their vision was for a new work space structured around serendipitous encounters between “unlikely allies for a radically better world”. The model aimed to meld together the best of a business incubator, think tank, learning lab and a professional membership community.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We discovered this whole set of people trying to realise good ideas from their bedrooms; lonely, cut off from the world, not really fulfilling the potential of their ideas. So it dawned on us: what if these people could come together in the same physical space and have a place to connect?”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>By the numbers</h2>
<p>For fans, coworking offers something missing from the home office and lost in the daily grind. And people are drawn to its collaborative potential. Its growth signals this.</p>
<p>The dedicated online coworking magazine Deskmag this year claimed 100,000 people coworked; and a new “space” is estimated to open each day somewhere in the world.</p>
<p>In Australia there are over 60 coworking spaces in operation, and the country boasts both the highest density per capita and, with the majority of spaces opening over the past two years, one of the highest growth rates. While the majority of coworking spaces tend to be single location, founder-owner operated and close to the CBD, we are starting to see forays into regional and suburban areas.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35364/original/43n4xhvt-1384486665.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35364/original/43n4xhvt-1384486665.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35364/original/43n4xhvt-1384486665.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35364/original/43n4xhvt-1384486665.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35364/original/43n4xhvt-1384486665.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35364/original/43n4xhvt-1384486665.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35364/original/43n4xhvt-1384486665.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">Coworking enables the sharing of knowledge and the breeding of new ideas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ZonaCoworking/Flickr</span></span>
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<p>It’s ironic that at the very moment many white collar workers are able and have chosen to “live the dream” of working from home, a model has sprung up to cater to an unmet social need emerging as people spend less time communicating face-to-face. Twenty years after Robert Putnam published <a href="http://bowlingalone.com">Bowling Alone</a> we see the development and growth of a service offering a communal experience akin to a bygone utopia of “village life” amid the competition and anonymity of the CBDs of major cities. The curiosity of coworking, as Clay Spinuzzi puts it, is in people’s desire to be “<em>working alone together</em>”.</p>
<p>But despite the rapid growth rates estimated above, just a small proportion of workers in the economy are engaged in coworking. Indeed, few have the luxury to choose to.</p>
<h2>Here to stay?</h2>
<p>Emotionally, coworking doesn’t necessarily feel right for everyone. The prospect of sharing work spaces with people from other organisations, and the general buzz of the place doesn’t appeal to all. Coworking spaces are unfamiliar to those accustomed to conventional workplaces. Likewise, coworking’s constant stream of activity can be a distraction to those who prefer the silence and stillness of working alone.</p>
<p>Socially, individuals are attracted by the promise of professional connections and a supportive community but, for a variety of reasons, not all are able to realise their promised value and end up leaving. Meanwhile, for large organisations which aim to leverage the innovative potential of coworking by sending their people in, the pull of “community” and the tales of its members can initiate talent drains. People seeking alternatives to the cubicle farm begin easing their transition from employee to free agent.</p>
<p>Is coworking simply a peripheral social movement that will remain at the edge of the mainstream economy, or does it signal the beginning of a wider structural transformation and convergence in the place of work and social engagement?</p>
<p>One argument is that the existing management and institutional models are fundamentally broken. In <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/04/a-brief-history-of-the-power-o/">The Power of Pull</a>, the authors claim the source and means of value creation is shifting away from knowledge <em>stocks</em> towards <em>flows</em> and as a result the basis of competition is fundamentally changing. </p>
<p>Most organisational structures are framed around protecting existing stocks of knowledge rather than participating in knowledge flows and the creation of new knowledge.</p>
<p>Their suggested remedy for this structural malaise is institutional innovation - not simply conceiving of new approaches within existing organisations but rethinking the relationships between and across many varied independent enterprises. From their perspective larger organisations need to seek out and participate in “creation spaces”, such as those found in coworking, where physical and digital environments whose diversity and density offer fertile ground for the “unlikely creative collisions” that breed new ideas.</p>
<p>If this narrative gains popularity we are likely to see larger organisations shifting towards distributed collaborative work models, indeed there’s already clear evidence of corporate interest in participating in coworking networks.</p>
<p>It’s still too early to determine coworking’s wider social and economic impact, or whether it represents a future of work that will be widely embraced. What is clear now though is that as a social movement and institutional form it is showing no sign of slowing down. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19517/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Waters-Lynch is a former employee of Hub Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Butcher is a member of Hub Melbourne.</span></em></p>From humble beginnings, the coworking movement has exploded to an estimated 3000 spaces around the world, with hundreds of thousands of people choosing to ditch the home or corporate office in favour of…Julian Waters-Lynch, PhD Candidate, RMIT UniversityTim Butcher, Director - Undergraduate Programs, College of Business, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/139452013-06-20T20:36:22Z2013-06-20T20:36:22ZIntegrated reporting to walk more than the bottom line<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25632/original/jskv8m8j-1371429258.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1000%2C663&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Boards will need to be ‘six-capital literate’ in order to assess performance, identify risks and develop strategy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Paul Druckman, the CEO of the International Integrated Reporting Council <a href="http://www.theiirc.org">(IIRC)</a>, recently led the coalition’s global charge on corporate reporting changes to Australia, where he bolstered support and talked uptake turkey with business leaders and officials. </p>
<p>“We’re not about more reporting, we’re about better reporting,” Mr Druckman told <a href="http://www.thesustainabilityreport.com.au/iirc-ceo-favours-market-led-adoption-of-integrated-reporting/3829/"><em>The Sustainability Report</em>.</a></p>
<p>The council’s Integrated Reporting initiative has the potential to change the relationship between business, society and the environment by changing the way accountants and boards, in particular, think about business success and strategic-decision making. </p>
<p>Climate change and scarce natural resources, for example, all have an impact on the long-term success of a business and Integrated Reporting would bring this into focus.</p>
<p>Until now, corporate reporting has primarily focused on bottom-line dollars. Integrated Reporting requires organisations to also report on their governance and strategy in the context of their internal and external environments - including their workers and environment. </p>
<p>The initiative has high-profile backers, including regulators, the accounting profession, investors, standard-setters and non-government organisations concerned with social and environmental stakeholders.</p>
<p>However, the consultation draft of the international Integrated Reporting framework released in April is already causing concern among directors, with the <a href="http://www.afr.com/f/free/markets/capital/cfo/regulators_stay_away_from_integrated_fIsbX7cXqeid6vR89TVEKN">Australian Financial Review</a> quoting directors worried about the prospect of being sued if disclosures on future strategies and business models don’t come true. </p>
<p>Anticipating resistance, the consultation draft states: “…the banner of commercial sensitivity is not to be used inappropriately to avoid disclosure”.
In fact, Integrated Reporting can help directors in their governance of risk-management processes and their decisions about strategy. It requires the development of processes to identify issues that materially affect strategy, the business model or the ability to create value. Such processes will improve risk management – thereby reducing director risk. It makes good business sense.</p>
<h2>Corporate changes</h2>
<p>The key issues on which Integrated Reporting is set to change corporate thinking are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Longer-term strategic planning</li>
</ol>
<p>Integrated Reporting stands out from other reporting frameworks with its emphasis on long-term thinking. The requirement to provide information on an organisation’s strategy will encourage senior executives and boards to think long term.</p>
<p>This is a win-win for the environment, society and business. Short-term thinking has contributed to significant negative environmental impacts that have damaged business reputations. There are ample examples of companies plundering the environment and abusing human rights to make a quick buck.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Focus on the ‘six capitals’</p>
<p>The ‘six capitals’ concept is a key innovation. These are: financial capital, manufactured capital, intellectual capital, human capital, social and relationship capital, and natural capital. In preparing an Integrated Report, a business recognises that they are all play a role in creating value. </p>
<p>Natural capital includes water, land, minerals, forests, biodiversity and ecosystem health. The maintenance of natural capital is seen as fundamental to long-term business success and organisations would be required to report its importance to the business, how the company affects it, and steps taken to maintain it.</p>
<p>Integrated reporting promotes an understanding of the trade-offs that are made across the six capitals in the process of creating value for providers of finance. This will improve decision-making. Boards will need to be ‘six-capital literate’ in order to assess performance, identify risks and develop strategy.</p></li>
<li><p>Creating value</p>
<p>The concept of creating value by working with a broad range of stakeholders such as workers, customers, local communities and regulators encourages senior executives and boards to think about performance more broadly than the financial bottom line so that value creation is long term and considers the effect on the other capitals. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The process of developing an Integrated Report has many benefits:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>‘integrated thinking’, which involves collaboration across functions to consider the business model and identify trade-offs in the development of strategy</p></li>
<li><p>a future focus on strategy</p></li>
<li><p>identification of risks to the continued availability, quality and affordability of all six capitals, which are required to fulfil the strategy</p></li>
<li><p>development of systems and processes that will capture a broader set of information needed to make sound decisions.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Issues are defined as material if they could “change the assessments of providers of financial capital with regard to the organisation’s ability to create value”. This style of reporting relies on providers of capital having an understanding of what creates value, being concerned about the long term and communicating this to business. Reporting on social, environmental and economic sustainability performance will remain important for informing investors and others where value is depleted as well as enhanced.</p>
<p>The Integrated Reporting Consultation Draft mentions stakeholders in terms of their potential to affect the ability to create value – but not their concerns about organisations depleting value. </p>
<p>However, organisations ignore stakeholders at their peril. Stakeholder engagement is critical to challenging organisational thinking and making this change.</p>
<p>According to Mr Druckman, such engagement will be an ongoing process. </p>
<p>“The more that mature organisations are doing integrated reporting, the more they understand that they’re on a journey,” he told <a href="http://www.thesustainabilityreport.com.au/iirc-ceo-favours-market-led-adoption-of-integrated-reporting/3829/"><em>The Sustainability Report</em>. </a>“Integrated Reporting should be flexible enough that as societies’ objectives change, as investors’ objectives change, as the company changes its strategy and philosophy, that Integrated Reporting should change and mature at the same time. I don’t think there is a destination.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/13945/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Adams receives funding from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. She was a member of the IIRC's Capitals Technical Collaboration Group. </span></em></p>Paul Druckman, the CEO of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), recently led the coalition’s global charge on corporate reporting changes to Australia, where he bolstered support and talked…Carol A Adams, Director, Integrated Horizons. Part-time Professor, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.