Archive | July, 2007

Legal news update from Intute: Social Sciences

31 Jul

A new report from the Law Commission has outlined a series of proposals to change the law as it affects cohabitants’ property and finances when their relationships end, whether by separation or by death. It is for the Government to decide whether it accepts the recommendations and, if so, when it will introduce legislation into Parliament to implement them.

The results of a major, independent evaluation of the Public Defender Service (PDS) in England and Wales have been published by The Stationery Office. A team of academics including scholars from Warwick University and UWE concluded that “the PDS can be a vital safeguard in the new market-based system of criminal legal aid, providing protection against the market concentration and instability that may result from a system of competitive tendering for defence services”.

The Law Society has proclaimed an important victory in its battle with the Legal Services Commission (LSC) over the reform of legal aid with a judgement that the LSC has breached Public Contracts Regulations 2006 and European Law in its reform of legal aid. This forms part of their broader campaign which asks the question -  What price justice?

Intute: Law features further resources on the issues of family law, criminal law and procedure and legal aid

Internet use in Britain

25 Jul

The latest report in a series of Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS) that cover the changing landscape of Internet access, use and attitudes in Britain has been launched.

The OxIS 2007 Report includes headline findings on:

  • Internet users in Britain are moving to high speed connections: 85% use a broadband connection for home access.
  • People think the Internet is more reliable than newspapers, but only Internet users think it is just as reliable as television. Those who do not use the Internet trust television more.
  • 17% of Internet users currently maintain an online social networking profile.
  • One third (35%) of student users have met someone online, and 13% have met a person offline who they first met online.
  • Ex-users are most likely to have stopped Internet use due to a lack of interest and access, whereas non-users give ‘lack of skill’ as the main reason for not being online.
  • 72% of Internet users believe that ‘the Internet can be addictive’.
  • 93% of all internet users send emails and as many as 60% use instant messaging.

Intute: Social Sciences features more web resources on the issue of internet use.

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Mathematics for Economics: enhancing Teaching and Learning

24 Jul

METAL logo

How can lecturers help their students with the maths involved in an economics degree?

METAL (Mathematics for Economics: enhancing Teaching and Learning) has released the first version of its web site, with presently about 60% of the project’s resources. These include more than 30 video clips, more than 20 Flash animations and thousands of questions in Maths for Economics.

The project “aims to enhance teaching and learning by providing lecturers and students with a selection of resources that will help to engage Level 1 students more fully and enthusiastically in mathematics for economics”.

A series of regional workshops will promote the new project, including one at the Developments in Economics Education conference organised by the Economics Network.

Intute: Social Sciences features more resources on the issue of Mathematical Economics.

Girl Talk: a new study from SIRC

23 Jul

Social Issues Research Centre

How much effort do you put into your friendships?

Girl Talk: The new rules of female friendship and communication is a new report from the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford that looks at female friendship and communication.

The new rules of female friendship and communication. For women friends play many roles, helping them to define themselves at particular stages in their lives. Women aged between 25-35 in particular value their friendships a great deal – investing time, commitment and emotion in them and expecting the same in return.

The full text of the report is available as a PDF download.

Intute: Social Sciences features more internet resources on the issue of friends.

Heterodox Economics

13 Jul

The Association for Heterodox Economics conference begins today in Bristol and covers the theme of pluralism in action, with papers that are pluralist themselves or promoting debate between or within theoretical perspectives on specific areas of interest.

The Economics Network recently published a new addition to their excellent Handbook for Economics Lecturers on Teaching Heterodox Economics Concepts written by Andrew Mearman of UWE, who is chairing this years conference.

The Heterodox Economics portal Hetecon.com has details of previous conferences, as well as details of heterodox economists, societies and journals, with further links to explore.

Heterodox economists are also part of the wider community of economics bloggers and one of the best places to start is with the Heterdox Economist, Eric Nilsson of California State University, San Bernardino.

Intute: Social Sciences features more resources on the topic of heterodox economics.

Meet the Intute: Psychology Editor

12 Jul

In the latest of a mini-series of podcasts, we talk to some of the people who help produce Intute: Social Sciences. In this episode we talk to Ian Hocking, the editor for the Psychology section.

Listen to the programme

Download:

Some of the websites Ian talks about in his interview include:

Explore more resources on this topic in our Psychology section

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Happy Fair Use Day

11 Jul

Fair USe Day logoToday is Fair Use Day where you are actively encouraged to celebrate and exercise your Fair Use rights, with regard to digital or hard copy information – or as the About Fair Use Day puts it:

… celebrate Fair Use in any lawful way you wish. Exercise your Fair Use rights or contact a corporation or government of your choosing and let them know you want Fair Use rights and you want them protected … Fair Use isn’t just about what you can play on your ipod. Fair Use promotes interoperability and the advancement of learning and expansion of knowledge.

The rise of the Internet and the ability to produce perfect digital copies of information has challenged the area of intellectual property law all around the world and asked fundamental questions about the ownership and control of cultural outputs.

These are areas that the American scholar Lawrence Lessig has been involved with for some time and a recent presentation he gave on these themes is available as part of the excellent At Google Talks channel on YouTube.

This is also an area of interest for Cory Doctorow, one of the founders of the Boing Boing blog who also spoke at Google recently and (in the spirit of Fair Use Day) provided the initial inspiration for this blog post.

Intute: Social Sciences features more internet resources on the topics of copyright and intellectual property law.

Too many UK companies fail to see the point of history

6 Jul

ESRC logoUS companies take their corporate history far more seriously than most of their UK counterparts, according to a new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). American companies are more likely to draw attention to official published histories on their websites, more likely to invest in historically orientated visitor attractions or museums, such as The World of Coca Cola in Atlanta, and more likely to publish official histories.

The research was carried out at Queen Mary, University of London and is based on a survey of 36 British companies in the 2004 Fortune Global 500 ranked by revenue, 46 US companies from the Global 500, plus the joint British and Dutch companies Unilever and Royal Dutch/Shell Group and companies including Microsoft (US), Bertelsmann (Germany) and News Corp. (Aus). Researchers analysed websites, annual reports, entries in directories and, for a smaller sample of companies, published company histories.

Find out more about this piece of research from the ESRC website and explore similar Internet resources via the Intute: Social Sciences sections on Economic History, Business History and the Intute: Arts and Humanities section on Economic History.

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Meet the Intute: Statistics and Data Editor

5 Jul

In the first of a mini-series of podcasts, we talk to some of the people who help produce Intute: Social Sciences. We start by talking to Stuart MacDonald, the editor for the Statistics and Data section.

Listen to the programme

Download:

Some of the websites Stuart talks about in his interview include:

Explore more Internet resources on this topic in our Statistics and Data section

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Putting Research Into Use

4 Jul

The Research Into Use (RIU) programme is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) that aims to take existing research knowledge and get it out into the communities of developing countries, where it can make a real impact.

An introductory video highlighting the work of the programme is available on YouTube

This programme is the the first product of a shift in DFID priorities which seeks to move away from the generating new knowledge to ensuring that existing research is disseminated in ways that are relevant to people who may be able to make use of it.

Find out more about this from the research section of the DFID website, the Research for Development portal and comment on the new DFID research strategy.

Intute: Social Sciences links to more resources on the issue of Development Economics

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