A question of independence. What if Scotland leaves the UK? Society ow. by numbers. Plus. Good to share: The housework gender gap

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1 Socety ow Plus Socety Now by numbers transport ESRC research makng an mpact sprng 2012 ssue 12 A queston of ndependence What f Scotland leaves the UK? Good to share: The housework gender gap IFS green budget: Frst cuts not the last Dance partners: Improvng understandng

2 SPRING 2012 ISSUE SUE 12 Welcome to the Sprng ssue of Socety Now, the ESRC s regular magazne whch showcases the mpact of the socal scence we fund. Ths ssue examnes the latest fndngs of the Understandng Socety survey whch show that couples stll don t share the housework, even when they re both wage-earners. Experts offer ther vews on new approaches to treatng addctons, the ntatves takng place n ctes around the world to combat the effects of clmate change, and, n the buld-up to the 2012 contest, what s the poltcal sgnfcance of Eurovson for former Sovet states? IFS Drector Paul Johnson looks at how the economy mght develop over the comng years and the lkelhood of more deep cuts n publc spendng. And devoluton and consttutonal expert Professor Charle Jeffery answers a range of questons about the possble mplcatons of a yes vote n the 2014 referendum on Scottsh ndependence. I hope you fnd the magazne enjoyable and nformatve. Please do emal us wth your feedback or deas for content. Nck Stevens, Edtor - nck.stevens@esrc.ac.uk All Socety Now photography Alamy unless otherwse marked Socety ow ESRC RESEARCH MAKING AN IMPACT Good to share: The housework gender gap IFS green budget: Frst cuts not the last PLUS Socety Now BY NUMBERS TRANSPORT A queston of ndependence What f Scotland leaves the UK? Dance partners: Improvng understandng The vews and statements expressed n ths publcaton are those of the authors and not necessarly those of the ESRC contrbutors Sarah Womack s former Socal Affars Correspondent of the Daly Telegraph Dr Paul Jordan s an expert on the Eurovson Contest Professor Gll Valentne, School of Geography and Dr Kahryn Hughes, School of In ths ssue REGULARS 3 News 18 The UK by numbers: Transport 20 Opnons The role of the famly n preventng addctons; Urban responses to clmate change 29 Informaton and updates People, publcatons, news n bref, webstes and events Socology and Socal Polcy, Unversty of Leeds Professor Harret Bulkeley holds an ESRC Clmate Change Leadershp Fellowshp Paul Johnson, Drector of the Insttute for Fscal Studes Dr Teela Sanders and Rose Campbell, School of Socology & Socal Polcy, Unversty of Leeds Professor Charle Jeffery s Head of School of Socal and Poltcal Scence, Unversty of Ednburgh Features 10 Chore wars Understandng Socety fnds that even when women are the man breadwnner, they stll do more housework than ther partner 12 A world of waste The Waste of the World project shows what happens to the thngs we throw away 14 Eurovson and the East How the Eurovson contest rases powerful ssues of natonal dentty 17 Healthy nterventons Takng a socal approach to young people s health behavours 22 More fscal tghtenng ahead IFS Drector Paul Johnson explans the key fndngs of the recent Green Budget 24 Lcence to dance ESRC research mproves erotc dancng lcensng and workng condtons 26 Voces: A queston of ndependence Professor Charle Jeffery explans some of the possble busness, socal, economc and poltcal effects of an ndependent Scotland 2 socety now sprng 2012

3 NEWS Who s to blame n the European Unon? n Wage top-up schemes may devalue work n Improvng chld nutrton n Inda n Socety stll values cvlty NEWS n Love at heart of cvl partnershps n A matter of convenence n Dementa assumptons need to be challenged n Trust n mental health n The benefts of teachng grammar n Long-term support vtal for young sex offenders n Vdeo ID parades fnd favour n Lessons n ctzenshp n Who s to blame n the European Unon? A KEY COMPONENT of democratc accountablty s for ctzens to understand who to blame. But lttle s known about how ctzens attrbute credt and blame n the complex multlevel structure of the European Unon (EU). In the frst project of ts knd, researchers set out to understand when and why voters attrbute responsblty to the natonal and EU levels of government for polcy, and what that means for democracy. It s mportant to understand how ctzens assgn credt and blame because ctzens ablty to assgn responsblty to government s crucal to the functonng of democracy, Professor Sara Hobolt explans. In electons, ctzens can vote poltcans out f they are unhappy wth ther performance. But ths only works f people know who s responsble for polcy outcomes. Ths s clearly complcated wth regard to the EU because t s hard for people to assgn responsblty correctly. Can ctzens make sense of the mult-level EU system? Based on a unque cross-natonal survey of ctzens n 27 EU member states, researchers at the unverstes of Oxford, Exeter, Nottngham and the London School of Economcs fnd that the answers to the queston are mxed. On the one hand, to a large extent people rely on ther general feelngs about the EU when decdng whether the EU or the natonal government should be blamed (or credted) for polcy outcomes. On the other, the study also demonstrates that when ctzens are more nformed about poltcs, they are better able to get t rght when assgnng credt and blame. Equally, when there s more debate about the EU between poltcal partes and n the meda ctzens are better able to brng ther attrbuton of blame nto lne wth the actual dvsons of responsblty. Researchers argue that wthout doubt European ntegraton makes t more dffcult for people to hold poltcans accountable for ther actons. Voters tend to smply rely on ther long-standng atttudes when makng judgements. Professor Hobolt says: Ths can be problematc f t means that natonal poltcans, for example, are absolved of blame because they can smply pass the buck to the EU. More encouragngly, our work shows that ctzens, when gven the rght tools and nformaton, can make sensble judgements about complex government structures. These fndngs have mplcatons for the debate on nsttutonal reform and democracy n the EU. For democracy to functon n the EU, researchers hghlght the need for greater transparency and debate on where decsons are taken combned wth nsttutonal mechansms that allow ctzens to hold the EU Ctzens, when gven the rght tools and nformaton, can make sensble judgements about the complex government structures responsble for actons, such as a drectly elected Commsson presdent or a stronger lnk between European Parlament electons and EU polces. Professor Hobolt concludes: Worryngly, the current negotatons on the so-called Fscal Compact pont exactly n the opposte drecton: the new treaty nvolves greater transfers of power to the EU, coupled wth less transparency and less nvolvement of ctzens and ther parlaments n crucal decsons on fscal polcy. n Contact Professor Sara Hobolt, London School of Economcs and Poltcal Scence Emal s.b.hobolt@lse.ac.uk Telephone ESRC Grant Number RES sprng 2012 socety now 3

4 IN BRIEF STUDENTS ABROAD Resdence abroad s a key experence for unversty students studyng languages and most beneft from t greatly. But students language development durng resdence abroad s varable. A new study ams to explore the factors nfluencng ths varablty and fndngs wll provde practcal gudance for students and ther teachers on how to mprove advanced language learnng durng students year abroad. ESRC grant number RES WORKING LIFE SURVEY A new ntegrated survey of the sklls and employment experences of workng lfe n Brtan n 2012 wll become a key and dstnctve resource for research on contemporary workng lfe. The Sklls and Employment Survey (SES) wll provde contnuty wth prevous ESRC-funded surveys, set a benchmark for future research and allow nternatonal comparsons. ESRC grant number RES IMPRISONMENT COSTS Drawng on nearly 100 years of data on prsons, a new study asks what lessons can be learned for current debates about sentencng offenders and managng the prson populaton. Researchers wll explore whether short sentences contrbuted to repeat offendng, whether early release schemes accelerated or nhbted recdvsm, and the fnancal costs of mprsonment to the country and the human costs to those mprsoned. ESRC grant number RES Wage top-up schemes may devalue work AS THE GLOBAL economc crss contnues, global wage nequaltes have become even starker. Whle the government s keen to reduce these nequaltes through tax credt schemes, a new study suggests that such schemes may well be corrosve to those they are amng to help. Researchers nvestgated the perceptons of low-pad workers who had been recevng the UK government s Workng Tax Credt (WTC). The WTC s the latest verson of a means-tested state beneft or credt that tops up the wages of low pad workers, explans researcher Professor Hartley Dean. WTC was ntroduced by the New Labour government n 2003, but wll be replaced by the Coalton government s new Unversal Credt scheme, whch wll also be used to top-up low wages. The assumpton of polcymakers from all three man partes s that usng publc funds to subsdse low wages s a way to make work pay and gve people an ncentve to take low-pad work, says Professor Dean. In ths study, we explored how 52 WTC recpents felt about havng ther wages topped up n ths way. Fndngs reveal clear support for the WTC, but confuson as to the purposes of the scheme. Although the WTC scheme was generally vewed postvely and most of the people we talked to were grateful for the addtonal ncome, there were stll some mportant undercurrents of resentment, says Professor Dean. WTC does not of tself compensate for the njustces or adverse effects of precarous and nadequately pad work. Paradoxcally, hardly any of the people who took part n ths research explctly recognsed that schemes lke WTC are n effect a subsdy to low-payng employers, but a lot of them felt devalued at work or locked nto menal jobs. Wage top-up schemes may not always be conducve to sustanng a morally meanngful work ethc among those workers who are systematcally confned to the low-pad perphery of a polarsed labour market, the study concludes. Professor Dean adds: It s worth rememberng that the Unversal Declaraton of Human Rghts holds that everyone has the rght to work that s freely chosen and subject to just and favourable condtons. Whether wage topup schemes serve to mtgate or perpetuate the volaton of that rght s a moot pont. n Contact Professor Hartley Dean, London School of Economcs and Poltcal Scence Emal h.dean@lse.ac.uk Telephone ESRC Grant Number RES socety now Summer sprng

5 Improvng chld nutrton n Inda INDIA IS ONE of the fastest growng economes as well as the hotbed of chld under-nutrton. To unravel ths conundrum sometmes termed the South Asan Engma researchers from the Unverstes of Warwck and Allahabad, Inda explored whether low levels of autonomy among women help explan the low levels of nutrton among chldren. Usng a new, robust measure of mothers autonomy, ntal fndngs show that greater women s autonomy causes a sgnfcant mprovement n the long-term nutrtonal health of younger chldren below three years of age but not upon older chldren. Researchers analyss of the effectveness of Socety stll values cvlty CIVILITY CAN SEEM lke an oldfashoned concept but a new report fnds that, far from beng a thng of the past, cvlty s somethng that people stll care deeply about. Indeed, experences of ncvlty cause hurt, stress and deeper socal problems, and these experences have a bgger mpact on people s sense of socal health than crme statstcs. Long-term trends such as growng pressures on people s tme, ncreased moblty and greater use of technology could be makng cvlty harder to sustan. To address ths challenge, researchers suggest changes n natonal and local polcy ncludng a better balance between puntve measures and those whch actvely encourage cvlty. One effect of puntve measures, for example, has been the Integrated Chld Development Scheme the largest maternal and chldcare government programme n the world suggests that t has massve potental to brng about a reducton n chld under-nutrton n Inda. What s now requred, say researchers, s a drver whch pushes and nspres effcency and outcome orentaton among some of the larger, poorly performng states. n Contact Professor Wj Arulampalam, Unversty of Warwck Emal wj.arulampalam@warwck.ac.uk Telephone ESRC Grant Number RES to make people over-relant on authortes such as the polce to control behavours whch n the past may have been dealt wth at a personal or communty level. The man role of nterventons should be to make ndvduals aware of, and change, ther own behavour even n small ways. People are quck to see ncvlty n others, yet less aware of how ther own behavour can offend, researchers conclude. n Contact Mr Wll Norman, The Young Foundaton Emal wll.norman@youngfoundaton.org Telephone Web reports/charm-offensve-oct-2011 ESRC Grant Number RES Connected Communtes Cross-Councl Programme IN BRIEF CHURCH AND GENDER The Church of England s approach to gender has been taken as a key test n how contemporary fath nsttutons ntegrate gender equalty ethcs. Recently, ths was lved out n the debate over whether women should become bshops. A new study wll look at how gender and parenthood nteract n the context of the Church, gvng a fresh perspectve on the contemporary clergy lfe. ESRC grant number PTA Post-doctoral Fellowshp GLOBAL CORRUPTION Surveys from more than 130 countres n Afrca, Asa, Europe, Latn Amerca and North Amerca wll be used to analyse the actual experence (as opposed to the percepton) of corrupton. Each survey asks questons about contacts wth health, educaton, polce and other muncpal servces, and whether any brbes were pad. The project partner s Transparency Internatonal s Secretarat n Berln. ESRC grant number RES AID ALLOCATION Donors choose to gve development ad to poorer countres around the world. Whle other budgets are beng cut, the UK government s stckng to the target of ad representng 0.7 per cent of Brtsh GDP. A new study wll examne several major ad donors and consder ssues ncludng how donors decde who to gve ad to and whether poverty s more mportant than trade lnks. ESRC grant number PTA Post-doctoral Fellowshp summer sprng socety now 5

6 IN BRIEF NEW TECHNOLOGIES Networks are clearly mportant to developng new technologes. Researchers am to fll an exstng evdence gap by mappng how networks develop, algn and, n some cases, msalgn. Ths study wll ask how the development of technology communtes can be co-ordnated and managed effectvely, and nfluenced by publc polcy. ESRC grant number RES Open Research Area n Europe (ORA) Programme ACHIEVING CHANGES The changng ways n whch Indonesan and Vetnamese ndvduals of dvergent backgrounds and experence have understood the dea of achevement over the course of ther lves s the focus of a new two-year project. Researchers based n Hano and Indonesa s borderland provnce of Kepr wll focus on four groups: polcymakers, teachers and pupls, export workers and relgous professonals. ESRC grant number RES MARITIME MIGRATION To what extent dd mmgrants n pre-ndustral Europe contrbute to economc performance? Researchers wll nvestgate how labour moblty and human captal (or skll) levels of workers nfluenced economc performance n the European martme sector between 1650 and The project ams to contrbute to current debate on the mpact of sklls and mgraton on the economy. ESRC grant number RES Love at heart of cvl partnershps THE PRIMARY REASON for same-sex couples to enter nto cvl partnershps s to express to each other, ther famles and frends the lovng nature of ther relatonshp and ther long-term commtment, says a new three-year study. Based on ntervews wth 100 partners (50 couples), researchers from the Unversty of Manchester conclude that, for the majorty, legal rghts and protectons are a secondary consderaton. The study shows that younger (up to age 35) couples n cvl partnershps largely A matter of convenence AN INCREASE IN the provson of tolets desgned to deter crmnal behavour could result n a shortage of publcly accessble tolets that meet the needs of older people and people wth dsabltes, warns a new study. For example, gudelnes for tolets desgned to reduce crme suggest that turnstles be nstalled to prevent ant-socal behavour through payment for facltes. Yet turnstles are not recommended for nclusve desgn as they present a barrer to access for older people and people wth moblty concerns, especally n facltes that are not attended and where alternatve barrer-free entry cannot be gven. The Robust Accessble Tolets (RATs) project set out to produce a desgn gude whch focused on user-acceptable, publcly accessble tolet desgn that provded access but also sought to dscourage ant-socal behavour. Fndngs suggest that fully automated and self-cleanng facltes ( superloos ) do not meet the needs of an ageng populaton as older users vew and present themselves as ordnary marred couples and subscrbe to broader cultural belefs about good marrages based on love, endurng commtment, mutual care and support, sexual exclusvty, equalty and respect, communcaton and stablty. n Contact Professor Bran Heaphy, Unversty of Manchester Emal bran.heaphy@manchester.ac.uk Telephone ESRC Grant Number RES frequently fear usng them. In contrast, researchers found successful examples of communtes takng charge of publc tolet provson and offerng facltes that a wde range of users found accessble and welcomng. The study suggests that although not a drect consequence of ageng, the need to use the lavatory more frequently, and reach the facltes faster, does ncrease wth age. In vew of the UK s ageng populaton, t s essental that those makng key decsons about tolet desgn and provson understand that publcly accessble tolets can be found and used when needed, and that people feel comfortable, safe and secure when usng them. n Contact Ms Jo-Anne Bchard, Royal College of Art Emal jo-anne.bchard@rca.ac.uk Telephone ESRC Grant Number RES Connected Communtes Cross-Councl Programme 6 socety now sprng Summer

7 Dementa assumptons need to be challenged People wth dementa and ther famly caregvers wll beneft from new research nto the levels of awareness of those wth mld to moderate dementa. Improvng the understandng, care and support of those wth early stage dementa s just one of the potental outcomes of ths three-year study. Developng dementa and recevng the dagnoss s extremely challengng not only for the person wth dementa but for famly members as well, says researcher Professor Lnda Clare. And t seems that the ncreasng numbers of people n ths poston may not always receve a great deal of help and support n comng to terms wth the dagnoss and managng ther stuaton. The study focused on the level of awareness of people wth early stage dementa. Awareness refers to the accuracy wth whch a person apprases hs/her stuaton and current abltes. It has often been assumed that people wth dementa are smply not aware and that ther frequent falure to acknowledge the dffcultes they face s merely a symptom of the condton. But study fndngs show that s untrue. Researchers studed 100 people wth early stage dementa together wth a spouse, partner or famly member, at ntal, 12-month and 20-month tme ponts to see how people perceved the changes that were happenng to them as well as the famly members perspectve, and how these two perspectves related to each other. Whle we found huge varablty n awareness, we also found that people were frequently much more aware than was assumed, says Professor Clare. Fndngs ndcate that whle changes n memory and thnkng ablty may certanly affect the ablty to apprase one s stuaton, other reasons may also affect the levels of awareness shown. For example, a person who s depressed or frghtened of the consequences of dementa (wll they put me n a home?) may be unwllng to admt ther dffcultes, partcularly to a medcal professonal. We mustn t assume no awareness even when a person appears not to acknowledge any changes, says Professor Clare. Instead, we need to help a person express how they are experencng ther stuaton. The research team has developed and ploted nformaton and tranng materals based on ther fndngs and conducted workshops for people wth dementa and carers, and tranng sessons for practtoners n health and socal care. Where the perspectves of people wth dementa and famly members dffer, ths can lead to a lot of tenson and stress wthn the famly. It s mportant to fnd ways to open up conversatons and help famly members and people wth dementa develop more of a shared perspectve on what s happenng, concludes Professor Clare. n Contact Professor Lnda Clare, Unversty of Bangor Emal l.clare@bangor.ac.uk Telephone ESRC Grant Number RES Trust n mental health LOW LEVELS OF TRUST between mental health patents and professonals can lead to poor communcaton whch generates negatve outcomes for patents, ncludng a further undermnng of trust, says a new study. Researchers used qualtatve methods to explore the nfluences on, and nfluences of, servceusers trust n mental health servces. The partcular focus was on the effects of trust on servce-users engagement wth psychoss servces. Fndngs show that trust can play a sgnfcant role n facltatng servceusers ntal and ongong engagement wth servces, the openness of ther communcaton, and the level of cooperaton wth, and outcomes from, treatment/medcaton. Trust also enabled professonals to respond to users needs and facltate postve outcomes. Our fndngs have sgnfcant polcy mplcatons n that they show how current nsttutonal and organsatonal polcy wth ts accent on rsk assessment tends to mtgate the development of trust relatons between practtoners and ther clents, says researcher Professor Mchael Calnan. Ths ndcates the need for a shft n emphass n mental health servce polcy n England. Prortsng trust, rather than rsk, would assst servces n meetng patents needs as well as managng rsk. n Stockphoto Contact Professor Mchael Calnan, SSPSSR, Unversty of Kent, Canterbury Emal m.w.calnan@kent.ac.uk Telephone ESRC Grant Number RES sprng 2012 socety now 7

8 The benefts of teachng grammar TEACHING GRAMMAR TO school chldren can have a sgnfcant postve mpact on student wrtng performance, accordng to a new study. Based on a project nvolvng 32 teachers and more than 850 Year 8 pupls, researchers found that chldren who were taught wth resources whch pad explct attenton to grammar relevant to the wrtng beng taught mproved ther wrtng scores by 20 per cent over the year. In contrast, a comparson group of chldren who dd not receve the same focus on grammar mproved ther wrtng scores by just 11 per cent. Researcher Professor Debra Myhll says: The benefts or otherwse of teachng grammar has always been a contested topc. But whereas prevous studes of the value of grammar teachng have focused prncpally on the mpact of decontextualsed grammar teachng, our am was to systematcally nvestgate whether teachng whch makes connectons between partcular lngustc structures and partcular wrtng tasks supports the development of pupls wrtng. The study provdes evdence for the frst tme of the postve beneft of teachng grammar when the grammar s contextualsed; n other words, lnked meanngfully to the wrtng beng taught. Researchers conclude that teachers should embed grammar n the teachng of wrtng. Professor Myhll concludes: Attenton to grammar should be explct, clearly explaned and lnked to meanng and effect, not smply the namng or dentfcaton of grammatcal features. Interestngly, we found that explct grammar teachng benefted able wrters more than less able wrters whch suggests that attenton to grammar may have provded the stretch these able wrters needed. n Contact Professor Debra Myhll, Unversty of Exeter Emal d.a.myhll@ex.ac.uk Telephone ESRC Grant Number RES Long-term support vtal for young sex offenders LONG-TERM PROFESSIONAL support s one of key factors nfluencng the later lfe outcomes for chldren and young people wth sexually abusve behavours, a new study suggests. In a three-year project, researchers analysed the experences and current lfe crcumstances of adults who, as chldren, were subject to professonal nterventons because of ther sexually abusve behavours. Researchers analysed 700 cases and collected n-depth ntervew data from 69 ndvduals who had been referred for sexually abusve behavours between ten and 20 years ago. They found that a small proporton only had reoffended sexually but that general reoffendng was more common. Researcher Professor Smon Hackett explans: Based on measures focusng on health, wellbeng and copng we found that 26 per cent of partcpants reported postve lfe outcomes, whle n 43 per cent of cases outcomes had been poor. In 31 per cent of cases outcomes were mxed. Researchers dentfed factors assocated wth poor and postve outcomes at ndvdual, relatonal, socal and envronmental levels. The most sgnfcant postve nfluence on the lfecourse of chldren at rsk was the presence of long-term professonal support as well as stable partner relatonshps, educatonal success and employment. In contrast, famly nstablty, poor housng and drug use were factors assocated wth ongong crmnalty, rsk and poor lfe outcomes. The qualty of the relatonshp between the chld and the professonal nvolved appears to be key, Professor Hackett states. Ths emphasses the vtal mportance of lastng socal anchors n the lves of chldren and adolescents at rsk. We suggest that achevng carer and famly constancy s an mportant part of professonal nterventons, as n general health promoton, though ths s an area as yet under-developed n the sexual abuse feld. n Contact Professor Smon Hackett, Durham Unversty Emal smon.hackett@dur.ac.uk Telephone ESRC Grant Number RES socety now sprng 2012

9 Vdeo ID parades fnd favour VIDEO IDENTIFICATION PARADES whch are less costly and more effcent than tradtonal lne-ups yeld comparable levels of dentfcatons to lve parades, says new research. An eght-month study of eyewtness dentfcaton decsons based on vdeo technology fnds a suspect dentfcaton rate of 40 per cent vrtually dentcal to the dentfcaton rate of lve parades. Vdeo ID parades have advantages n that they can be organsed quckly before a wtness s memory fades and are less stressful for the wtness, Lessons n ctzenshp THE PROCESS BY whch refugees to the UK can become Brtsh ctzens requres revew, accordng to a new research study of refugees lvng n Scotland. Based on ndepth ntervews wth 30 refugees n Scotland from 23 dfferent countres of brth, researchers from the Unversty of Strathclyde and Scottsh Refugee Councl conclude that the current polces may actually be operatng aganst the Government s desre to create ntegrated communtes where everybody s able to partcpate fully. Among a seres of recommendatons, researchers pont out that f ctzenshp can ever act as a unfyng bond, then t s essental that refugees receve clear and concse nformaton about the process of becomng Brtsh ctzens. One set of barrers to ctzenshp rased durng the project concerned the process tself and the lack of nformaton avalable to refugees. Researchers recommend that ctzenshp tests should take says researcher Professor Amna Memon. Ths ncreased the chances that wtnesses wll come forward and, f the polce can standardse procedures, courts wll be able to rely more on eyewtness evdence. n Contact Professor Amna Memon, Royal Holloway Unversty of London Emal amna.memon@rhul.ac.uk Telephone Web ESRC Grant Number RES ESRC Follow-on Fund account of the precarous nature and educatonal backgrounds of applcants. If Englsh language sklls are to reman a requrement of ctzenshp, then refugees from non- Englsh-speakng countres should receve ntensve support n ther language learnng. Fndngs also show that the costs of the applcaton process are prohbtvely hgh and requre revew. It s mportant that the fnancal poston of refugees s not the prmary determnant of whether people are able to become Brtsh, researcher Dr Emma Stewart ponts out. n Contact Dr Emma Stewart, Unversty of Strathclyde Dr Gareth Mulvey, Scottsh Refugee Councl Emal emma.s.stewart@strath.ac.uk Emal gareth.mulvey@scottshrefugeecouncl. org.uk Web polcy_and_research/research_reports Telephone ESRC Grant Number RES Thrd Sector Placement Fellowshp IN BRIEF Stockphoto COPYRIGHT TODAY Increasng llegal downloadng by ordnary meda consumers puts copyrght at the centre of dscussons concernng the creatve ndustres. A new study wll explore the complextes of copyrght n the dgtal age by examnng why and how users, polcymakers, nternet servce provders and producers construct, dstrbute and mantan deologcal justfcatons around copyrght. ESRC grant number RES PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT Recent controverses concernng new technologes have prompted nqures to fnd new ways to engage the publc. Ths Postdoctoral Fellowshp wll publcse an expermental nanotechnology engagement exercse whch drew on sensory methods to encourage publc debate and consder applcaton of the methodology to related emergng technologes such as geoengneerng or synthetc lfe. ESRC grant number PTA Post-doctoral Fellowshp TRANSPORT GAINS Ths project uses natonal data on actual transport mprovements to understand the mplcatons of transport nvestments on workers and frms (eg, productvty, employment and wages). Analyss wll lnk detaled geographcal data on road network nfrastructure mprovements to panel data on frms and workers n large-scale natonal surveys. ESRC grant number ES/J007382/1 - An ESRC Venture summer sprng socety now 9

10 understandng socety Chore wars New research fndngs from the Understandng Socety study show that although the gender gap n housework had been narrowng gradually, even when women are the man breadwnner, they stll do more housework than ther partner. By Sarah Womack THEY CALL THEM the chore wars and for good reason. Wth the huge nflux of women n the workplace, the ssue of whether domestc chores are shared has become a hot ssue for many couples. Does the woman complete a day at work and come home to do a second job cleanng the house and lookng after the chldren? Or does the man return from hs job, roll up hs sleeves and get stuck nto the washng, ronng and chldcare? Or do they share? More lkely, the rse n workng couples means martal dscord, uneasy compromses and the sense of explotaton. Housework s stll perceved as women s work, and men are stll often expected to be the breadwnners Research carred out by Dr Man Yee Kan from the Unversty of Oxford of more than 1,500 marred couples, ncluded n the Brtsh Household Panel Survey, shows that n the frst decade of the 21st century, wves stll undertake three quarters of the housework that s 15 hours compared to the husband s fve. You would expect women to do less dustng and washng-up f they are the man breadwnners but no. When they earn 65 per cent of the famly ncome, ther housework actually ncreases rather than decreases, whle men who earn 65 per cent of the famly ncome do less. However, the more money women and men earn compared wth ther partners, the less housework they generally do perhaps a reflecton of the fact that they can bargan for a smaller share of domestc chores. The research s especally nterestng amd separate fndngs showng that women aged between 22 and 29 n employment now earn more per hour, on average, than men of the same age. Fgures unearthed by Mary Curnock Cook, chef executve of the Unverstes and Colleges Admsson Servce, durng research nto the gender gap n educaton, found that women lead n the pay stakes. The lead s slght ther medan pay s now just over 10 an hour compared wth just under 10 an hour for men but t reverses a hstorc trend. So why, when women are brngng home the bacon, do they stll assume the domnant role when cookng t and washng the plates afterwards? Dr Kan says: Gender deology stll poses a barrer to gender equalty n the domestc dvson of labour. Women had not rd themselves of the dea that they were responsble for work around the house. Housework s stll perceved as women s work, and men are stll often expected to be the man breadwnners, she sad. It may be that men who already feel they fal to perform the tradtonal male role economcally tend to be more senstve about beng seen as also playng the female role at home. And women who are the man breadwnners feel that they should also be manly responsble for housework. Her research about the domestc dutes of men and women, usng recent data from Understandng Socety, found that men and women who don t go out to work at all tend to do more housework than ther workng partner, but educatonal background also plays a part. The amount of housework changes, for example, dependng on whether the woman has been educated to degree level. The more qualfcatons a woman has, the less lkely she s to regularly get the Hoover out. Other research undertaken by Dr Kan, Orel Sullvan and Jonathan Gershuny, based on tmeuse data from the 1960s to the early 2000s, found that the gender gap n housework had been narrowng gradually. Nevertheless, there was a vew of whether household chores were men s or women s work. Routne housework such as cleanng, cookng and carng for famly members was vewed as femnne whle masculne roles ncluded nonroutne chores lke DIY, car care and outsde work. As fears of an economc depresson loom, the extent to whch couples share responsbltes at home s ncreasngly pertnent, not least because work overload leads to stress, wth ts concomtant rsks of martal breakdown, unemployment, debt and emotonal depresson. Socal researchers and unons have ncreasng concerns about the level of stress n the workplace for women, and for men. The woman who wants to have t all the career, a husband and chldren realses she s n fact dong t all the job, the housework, the 10 socety now sprng 2012

11 Do modern couples share the domestc chores equally? chldcare. Around two out of three mothers of young chldren have jobs, encouraged by famlyfrendly and flexble workng laws and the need for many famles to have two ncomes n order to pay mortgages and meet the blls. Meanwhle men, who frequently stll bear the man fnancal burden of supportng ther famles or feel they should suffer anxety about retanng ther job n a tme of economc crss. Wth the offce norm now 9am-6pm, and job demands ntensfyng, stress levels are a worry for both employees and employers. Stress and mental llness s responsble for more than half of all workng days lost every year, and the economc mpact s unequvocal: mental llness costs employers an estmated 26 bllon a year. In hs research usng data from Understandng Socety, Dr Mark L Bryan, of the Insttute for Socal and Economc Research (ISER) at the Unversty of Essex, found nearly half 46 per cent of workers had felt tense durng the last few weeks, 27 per cent uneasy and 24 per cent worred at least some of the tme. Women reported feelng more stressed than men. More hours were assocated wth greater anxety at all levels of responsblty. Full-tme workers average around 37 hours per week, part-tme workers around 15.5 hours per week and just under a ffth of people n employment work more than 45 hours a week, says the Offce for Natonal Statstcs. By EU standards ths s a hgh proporton of long hours workers, though other developed countres such as Australa, Japan and the US have more than the UK. The rony s that whle marrage provdes the obvous emotonal shelter for those sufferng from stress, many women turn to frends and famly. Professor Heather Laure, also of ISER, used data from Understandng Socety whch asked respondents to rate how supportve ther spouse or partner was on a number of measures. The majorty of people were postve 88 per cent sad ther partner understood the way they felt, 94 per cent sad they could rely on ther partner, and 90 per cent sad they could talk to ther partner a lot or somewhat about ther worres. However, men were sgnfcantly more lkely than women to say ther partner crtcsed them a lot just under one n three of men compared wth one n fve of women. Women were more lkely to say ther partners let them down or got on ther nerves. Men who had a spouse or partner reled heavly on them for postve socal support whle women tended to look more wdely to other famly members and frends. It remans to be seen whether the chore wars wden ths trend. n Sarah Womack s former Socal Affars Correspondent of the Daly Telegraph Understandng Socety s a world-leadng study of the socoeconomc crcumstances and atttudes of 100,000 ndvduals n 40,000 Brtsh households. It s funded by the ESRC and run by the Insttute for Socal and Economc Research (ISER). Understandng Socety: Fndngs 2012 s the second volume of fndngs from the survey and ncludes some of the frst longtudnal research to make use of the very latest data, and a number of artcles analysng the unque ethnc mnorty boost sample. Web sprng 2012 socety now 11

12 A world of waste A world of waste What happens to our waste? Is t recycled, burned or transported to other countres? Everythng Must Go a publc event markng the culmnaton of the ESRC-funded Waste of the World project showed what happens to the thngs we throw away STAGED ON JANUARY at the Bargehouse on London s Southbank, Everythng Must Go brought together socal scentsts, artsts, desgners and socal entrepreneurs to create a vsually stmulatng envronment to examne ssues arsng out of research nto the global flow of waste. The event was curated by Dr Lucy Norrs of UCL and artst Clare Patey, and produced by arts organsaton Holy Mountan. The man focus was on anthropologcal research nto secondhand clothng markets and textle recyclng partcularly relevant to all of us as consumers and an ncreasngly mportant ssue for poltcal and envronmental agendas. Vstors brought along an unwanted tem of clothng to donate to the charty shop, on the ground floor of the Bargehouse. On the next two floors of the buldng, the event showed the global flows of old clothng that can t be re-sold by a charty shop or that has been placed drectly n a textle bank, and the role of commercal recyclers. At several ponts the event showed research that hghlghted the dstrbuton of value along the clothng chan and ts current concentraton n the hands of sortng busnesses and mddlemen. The market for re-use n Afrca was llustrated through an nstallaton by Oxfam, who have establshed Frp Ethque a small-scale socal enterprse n Senegal supportng local used-clothng sellers. Ths shows the potental for retanng the value of used clothng as a developmental tool throughout a dstrbuton network, rather than smply sellng t as a commodty to rase funds. The exhbton contnued wth a room devoted to recyclng technologes used n the UK, such as producng wpers from old cotton clothng and flockng from mxed fbres, and then moved on to show the shoddy recyclng ndustry n Inda, the focus of Lucy Norrs ethnographc research that hghlghts the poor labour condtons, low wages, and resultng low-qualty products. Throughout, research was llustrated by vsual projects ncludng Meghna Gupta s debut flm Unravel about the Indan recyclng ndustry and photographs by Tm Mtchell both projects partally funded by Brtsh Academy Small Research Grants wth support from the ESRCfunded academc research. And fashon desgner and socal enterprse leader Lzze Harrson of The event explaned global waste management and what happens to the clothng and textles we donate or recycle Remade n Leeds hosted workshops on upcyclng old clothng and rug-makng from scraps. The Waste of the World event featured a programme of talks, Talkng Rubbsh, where academc researchers, desgners, flm-makers, busness entrepreneurs and thrd-sector leaders dscussed the ssues rased by global waste management and the mplcatons for the way n whch we thnk about our old clothng, as well as wder ssues around waste and recyclng. The exhbton fnshed wth a dsplay on shpbreakng n Chttagong and Bootle, a research strand n the project led by Ncky Gregson and Mke Crang, ncludng a stunnng tme-release flm by Tm Mtchell of the breakng up of a shp. The research challenges the comfortable noton that our waste can be contaned, cleaned and endlessly recycled, showng t as a flthy, powerful and potentally dangerous flow of materals through the world. Everythng Must Go encouraged the publc to consder ther own relatonshp to materals, objects and waste and showed how socal scence research ncreases understandng of global ssues. n For more nformaton on the Waste of the World project and the Everythng Must Go event see ESRC grant number RES Tm Mtchell 12 socety now sprng 2012

13 esrc mpacts ESRC IMPACTS For further ESRC Impact Case Studes vst features-casestudes/case-studes/ndex.aspx Advance of Anthropology From schools to publc polcy the growng popularty of the Anthropology A-Level s helpng to create a new generaton of Anthropologsts. By Nafsa Fera ARCHWAY SCHOOL IN Gloucestershre s one of 30 schools and colleges takng up the new Anthropology A-level n the UK snce ts launch n September Developed by the Royal Anthropologcal Insttute (RAI) n conjuncton wth the Assessment and Qualfcatons Allance (AQA), the Anthropology A-level has been enthusastcally taken up by socology and geography teachers who are passonate about teachng the subject. The A-level provdes a crucal turnng pont n rasng the publc profle of the dscplne. Prevously, anthropology was only taught wthn a mnorty of schools whch offered an optonal unt wthn the Internatonal Baccalaureate Dploma but the A-level has enabled anthropology to expand to state, publc schools and sxth-form colleges, ncreasng partcpaton and dversty of students. The road from concept to delvery has been long. In 2003, the RAI prortsed developng anthropology wthn secondary educaton to enhance publc understandng and formed an Educaton Commttee that ncluded academc anthropologsts and teachers. They formulated the currculum whch would nclude bologcal and socal anthropology and self-drected ethnographc research. Over the followng years the Educaton Commttee campagned for an Anthropology A-level, gatherng support from all of the UK anthropology departments. In 2005, the ESRC co-drected an Internatonal Benchmarkng Revew of UK Socal Anthropology s nternatonal research standng. The Revew hghlghted the dscplne s strong contemporary mpact n felds such as development, the publc sector, NGOs and prvate sectors and was nfluental n helpng UK departments realse the potental of the A-level to spread awareness of anthropology, ensurng recrutment and better employment opportuntes. Insttutonal support and commtment was crucal n helpng advance the A-level but t became clear that to manage the subject s mplementaton the RAI would need to employ an educaton offcer to co-ordnate the Commttee s actvtes but would need support from statutory fundng bodes to do so. In 2005, the RAI receved a grant from the Hgher Educaton Fundng Councl for England (HEFCE) under ts Am Hgher Natonal Actvty Rollng Programme. The HEFCE grant consdered the development of the A-level wth ts specfcaton that hghlghted cultural and lngustc dversty as a way of attractng under-represented sectons of UK school-age populaton to hgher educaton. The fundng covered the educaton offcer poston for one year whch was extended for three more years by a grant from the ESRC under ts Scence n Socety strategy. The strategy promoted understandng of and engagement wth socal scence and helped shape the Insttute s Educaton and Publc Engagement Programme by drectng the educaton offcer s work across currculum, nformaton and actvty. The educaton offcer was central to co-ordnatng a network of teachers and schools nterested n takng up the subject and gettng ther feedback on the currculum. To secure acceptance of the new qualfcaton, the RAI needed to convnce the AQA of the A-level s ntellectual mert, ts potental market value, and ts ablty to complement rather than compete wth exstng A-levels. Once AQA agreed, the task was to jontly revse the content n order to make sure the specfcaton ft wth the standard A-level format and negotate accredtaton by the natonal regulator. Accredtaton n 2010 demonstrated to socal scence communtes the long-lastng mpact that could be acheved wth the collaboratve effort of commtted ndvduals and nsttutons. The success of the development and mplementaton of the A-level s now beng analysed by socal scence researchers and anthropologsts n Europe and the US to emulate wthn ther respectve secondary school educaton programmes. The RAI s workng to sustan the longevty of the course by organsng events, teacher tranng and support, creatng materals and platforms for communcaton as well as encouragng new graduates to consder teachng as a career opton. Yet f the A-level s to really floursh and grow to numbers matchng other socal scence courses, the subject wll need the ongong support of those nsttutons and communtes whch helped nurture the A-level at ts begnnng. n Nafsa Fera s RAI Educaton and Communcatons Offcer For more nformaton about the A-level and the RAI s Educaton Outreach Programme vst: sprng 2012 socety now 13

14 Eurovson and the east The Eurovson song contest s for many vewers nothng more than a fun spectacle. But n some former Sovet Unon countres the contest rases powerful ssues of natonal dentty and gves nsghts nto how they ntegrate wth Europe. By Dr Paul Jordan STUDIES FOCUSING ON the return of post-communst states to Europe have come to the fore n poltcal scence research snce the collapse of communsm n Eastern Europe. The way n whch many states of the former Eastern Bloc have engaged wth European geopoltcal power structures such as the European Unon and Councl of Europe are well-documented. These studes have rased nterestng questons about the countres of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Sovet Unon and ther relatonshp to, and engagement wth the European Unon as well as the broader constructons of Europe, namely the geopoltcal categores of East and West. My ESRC-funded research examned ssues of Europeansaton, natonal dentty and naton brandng n Estona and Ukrane through the Eurovson Song Contest (ESC), lookng specfcally at the role the ESC plays n hghlghtng ssues of dentty poltcs. Although some studes have been made of the ESC there has been no detaled research on the relatonshp of a former Sovet republc wth the contest. Frst naugurated n 1956, the Eurovson Song Contest s one of the largest televson and meda productons n the world although often dsmssed as muscally and culturally nferor. But t deserves attenton because of ts longevty and annual audence. And, as the research shows, dfferent countres attrbute dfferent meanngs to the ESC beyond the domnant (western) vew. Estona was the frst former Sovet republc to wn the ESC n 2001 and Ukrane the thrd n In both cases hostng the contest was sgnfcant for domestc poltcs. It was also an opportunty to promote a postve nternatonal mage, to move away from the Sovet past and, n the Ukranan case, the shadow of Chernobyl. In Estona the event concded wth a decsve pont n EU accesson negotatons and n Ukrane t followed on from the Orange Revoluton of Whlst comparsons between these two countres can be problematc, 14 socety now sprng 2012

15 EUROVISION AND THE EAST both states have broadly faced smlar challenges snce ndependence. Both have had to renegotate ther geopoltcal poston n relaton to East and West and both can be consdered plural socety states, home to ethncally dverse populatons wth dfferng understandngs and nterpretatons of ther recent hstory. It s therefore nterestng to observe how these countres have represented these dfferences n the external mage and the dentty they project to a wder global audence. The key research questons of my study examned constructons of natonal dentty. What offcal representatons of natonal dentty have the countres chosen to present through ether hostng or partcpatng n the ESC? Who ultmately took the decsons on how each contest was staged n Estona and Ukrane? How contested have these representatons been? For Estona there was a symbolc attachment to the Eurovson Song Contest as vewers n the north of the country were able to watch the programme va Fnnsh Televson durng Sovet tmes. Ths clandestne rtual was a form of resstance to Sovet rule and when Estona won n May 2001 the then Prme Mnster, Mart Laar, declared to a jublant crowd: Estonans crumbled the Sovet empre through sngng and that s how we wll enter Europe, not knockng on the door, but by sngng. Intally there were doubts n the (western) European meda about Estona s ablty to host the event. Mart Laar hmself became nvolved n the organsaton and hs government provded the necessary fundng to Estonan Televson n order to secure the event n Tallnn n The rhetorc around the fnancng of the event shows that the Laar government saw value n hostng the competton, and partcularly wanted to counter negatve stereotypes of backward Eastern European Estona represented n the Western European meda. Ths s precsely the mage that Estonan poltcans have been tryng to dspel snce ndependence. In fact, analyss of the meda debates from the tme show that Estona chose to promote ts Nordc credentals through stagng the ESC as a way to dstance tself from the former Sovet Unon. The rhetorc concernng Dave Benton (one half of the wnnng duo for Estona who s orgnally from Aruba) also hghlghted ssues of Estonan multculturalsm and how the szeable Russanspeakng mnorty ntegrates wth the rest of the country s populaton. Above left: the 2005 Eurovson contest n Ukrane followed Orange Revoluton protests aganst corrupton n the presdental electon; Left: t may be entertanment but the contest rases serous poltcal ssues The decson by the Estonan producton team to screen an ntroductory clp called Freedom drectly before the Russan entry sgnalled a strong message about the country s relatonshp wth Russa. On the face of t, Russan speakers n Estona are fully ntegrated; they speak Estonan and hold Estonan ctzenshp but the research shows that ntegraton ssues are more complcated n Estona than the prevous lterature suggests. Many Russan speakers ntervewed stated that somehow ther dfference s flagged, whether conscously or not and these respondents represent a form of hybrdty. Countres attrbute dfferent meanngs to the Eurovson song contest In Ukrane the Eurovson Song Contest played a sgnfcant role n promotng and refnng a postve nternatonal mage of the country. Unlke Estona, Ukrane s return to Europe has been protracted and confused. Ukranan poltcal leaders essentally walked a tghtrope between emphassng EU ntegraton whlst balancng the demands of the Russan government. Also, the legacy of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear dsaster has contnued to have an mpact on the nternatonal mage of post-sovet Ukrane. The hostng of the 2005 ESC n Kyv took on even greater sgnfcance followng the poltcal protests known nternatonally as the Orange Revoluton whch took place across the country at the end of As such the 2005 event was a hghly poltcsed affar and effectvely became a mouthpece for the Orange Revoluton government wth the slogan Awakenng. A study of the 2005 ESC offers a potentally rch set of nsghts nto the nature of the Orange Revoluton and the accompanyng debates on Ukranan naton-buldng and Ukrane s place n Europe more generally. Presdent Yushchenko, who appeared on the stage at the show fnale, became personally nvolved n the organsaton of the event after wdespread delays prompted an ultmatum from the European Broadcastng Unon. Falure to stage the event successfully would have damaged the nternatonal standng of the country. Azerbajan s preparng to host the 2012 ESC n Baku. Wth ths come serous questons concernng human rghts, freedom of the press as well as on-gong dsputes wth Armena. As the contest contnues to expand and be staged n new terrtores t offers further potental for future research. n Dr Paul Jordan s an expert on the Eurovson Song Contest and author of the thess The Eurovson Song Contest: Naton Brandng and Naton Buldng n Estona and Ukrane Emal jordanpt@cardff.ac.uk Web theses.gla.ac.uk/ ESRC Grant number PTA sprng 2012 socety now 15

16 It s your naton Be nformed POLITICSCULTUREENVIRONMENTSOCIETYBUSINESSSCIENCEECONOMYTYBUSINESSSCIE Annual magazne of the Economc and Socal Research Councl The state of the naton Your gude to the bggest ssues n Brtan s Olympc year Parlamentary power n declne Focus on f nancal servces Becomng energy-effcent ctzens Measurng socal moblty At a glance: 13 pages of Brtan n facts and fgures Brtan n Avalable from WH Smth Travel and Hgh Street shops, Watrose, Waterstones and Marks and Spencer. Or order drect by emalng sales@azonelogstcs.co.uk

17 healthy nterventons Healthy nterventons Dr Jeremy Segrott explans how socal relatonshps shape young people s health behavours and what nterventons could dscourage them from alcohol abuse ALCOHOL MISUSE IS a major publc health ssue and a partcular concern s the msuse of alcohol by chldren and young people, both n terms of the age at whch they begn to drnk, and the frequency or quantty of alcohol whch they consume. Socal scentsts have an mportant role to play n crtcally examnng the place of alcohol n socety, explanng the complex socal and envronmental factors whch shape young people s use of alcohol, and nformng the development of polces and nterventons whch respond to these ssues. A key polcy focus s the preventon of alcohol msuse by young people, dentfyng ways to delay the start of frequent alcohol consumpton, and reducng levels of bnge drnkng. Whle most agree that bnge drnkng among teenagers should be dscouraged, the ssue of when young people start drnkng alcohol s more complex. When s t acceptable for chldren to frst try alcohol? How and when should parents allow ther chldren to drnk regularly? And what are the best ways of provdng nformaton to young people about a substance whch, although unhealthy or rsky n certan crcumstances, s a wdely accepted part of adult lfe? These questons hghlght the mportance of ensurng that nterventons to prevent alcohol msuse by young people are well nformed and have dentfable actons. Gvng nformaton to young people about the health ssues around alcohol s mportant but preventon needs to take account of the wder socal and envronmental nfluences that shape health behavours. McLeroy s classc soco-ecologcal model has been wdely used to understand the dfferent levels of nfluence on health ncludng the ntrapersonal, socal relatonshps, and the wder physcal envronment and how these dfferent nfluences nteract. The ESRC-funded DECIPHer Centre a UKCRC Centre of Excellence n Publc Health uses the soco-ecologcal model as a framework for the development and evaluaton of preventon nterventons. A major strand of ths work looks at how socal relatonshps (n famles and schools, for nstance) shape young people s health behavours. A key example of ths research s a randomsed controlled tral of the Strengthenng Famles Programme 10-14, one of the frst such evaluatons of the programme outsde the US. Ths programme ams to prevent substance msuse and antsocal behavour by strengthenng key protectve factors found n the famly, ncludng parent-chld communcaton, parentng styles, and helpng young people develop lfe sklls and postve goals. The programme addresses health behavours such as alcohol, drug and tobacco use by recognsng that they often share common rsk and protectve factors. Another DECIPHer study s assessng the feasblty of a school-based preventon programme Kds, Adults, Together (KAT) whch nvolves parents/carers n ther chldren s learnng, and ams to promote pro-socal communcaton n famles. Whle KAT provdes nformaton to young people about the health effects of alcohol, the promoton of postve famly communcaton and relatonshps are crucal to the way n whch the programme s ntended to nfluence later drnkng behavours. Both these studes have resulted from strong partnershps between unversty-based researchers and polcymakers and practtoners. Trals of such nterventons to assess ther long-term mpact are often challengng, both n terms of the resources needed, and levels of famlarty wth and acceptablty of randomsed controlled trals n Interventons need to take account of wder socal and envronmental nfluences the feld of publc health. Yet such trals are vtal, and we need to be aware that even well-desgned nterventons do not always succeed, and others may have unntentonal harmful effects. The complexty and multfaceted task of evaluatng complex publc health nterventons ncreasngly calls for nterdscplnary research teams wth multple methodologcal and conceptual skll sets. Socal scentsts play a crtcal role n such teams, offerng theoretcally nformed understandngs of how socetal factors nfluence ndvduals health, how such factors can be shaped n postve ways, and the key nfluences on nterventon delvery. As the psychologst Kurt Lewn famously remarked, There s nothng more practcal than a good theory. n Dr Jeremy Segrott s Research Fellow n Publc Health, DECIPHer. DECIPHer s part of a 20-mllon nvestment nto publc health research and s funded by the UK Clncal Research Collaboraton (UKCRC) comprsng the ESRC, The Brtsh Heart Foundaton, Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust, the Welsh Government and the Medcal Research Councl Emal decpher@cardff.ac.uk Telephone Web sprng 2012 socety now 17

18 the uk by numbers THE UK by numbers transport We present an at-a-glance overvew of the key ssues n Brtan today. In ths ssue our focus s on Transport. All statstcs are from the Department for Transport unless stated otherwse Road accdents Car user casualtes have fallen by over a quarter snce 2001 whle pedal cyclst casualtes have rsen slghtly Reported road casualtes by class of road user: Great Brtan The bcycle s the most cvlsed conveyance known to man Irs Murdoch 250,000 Car users Motorcycle users Pedal cyclsts Pedestrans 200, , ,000 50, There are only two emotons n a plane: boredom and terror Orson Welles 46% 81% 68% Proporton of ral passengers natonally satsfed wth value for money for the prce of ther tcket Proporton of ral passengers natonally satsfed wth punctualty/relablty of ther tran journey Proporton of ral passengers natonally satsfed wth amount of room for all passengers to st/stand The percentage of passengers satsfed wth most tran and staton factors at a natonal level was mostly unchanged compared to Autumn But satsfacton wth sx servce areas mproved and one declned (value for money). The mprovements ncluded overall satsfacton wth the staton, tcket-buyng facltes and cleanlness of the nsde of the tran. (Source: Natonal Passenger Survey, Passenger Focus, Autumn 2011 wave) Commutng method In 2010, 85% of households n Great Brtan lved wthn a sx-mnute walk of a bus stop whle a further 11% lved wthn 13 mnutes Percentage of workers by method of travel UK excludng London, October-December 2009 Source: ONS Labour Force Survey Bcycle 3% Bus 6% Walk 11% Note: Fgures are rounded Motorbke 1% Tran 2% Car 76% 18 socety now sprng 2012

19 Cost of motorng The overall cost of motorng (ncludng purchase, petrol, ol, tax and nsurance) has rsen more slowly than the ncrease n the cost of lvng as measured by the all tems Retal Prces Index (RPI). However when the purchase of vehcle s removed, motorng runnng costs have rsen faster than the RPI Supermarket average prce per ltre (pence) UK - Source: The AA 150 Desel Unleaded 95 Octane Feb-01 Feb-02 Feb-03 Feb-04 Feb-05 Feb-06 Feb-07 Feb-08 Feb-09 Feb-10 Feb-11 Feb-12 Frequency of ar travel n the UK How often have you travelled by plane over the past 12 months? (sngle trp counts as one journey and return trp as two) The car has become... an artcle of dress wthout whch we feel uncertan, unclad, and ncomplete Marshall McLuhan Taxaton on ar travel Percentage who beleve taxes or other charges should be ncreased to encourage people to reduce ther travel by plane Less than once a year 49% More than twce a year 12% Once or twce a year 39% Don t know 4% Strongly dsagree 28% Tend to dsagree 26% Strongly agree 8% Tend to agree 11% Nether agree nor dsagree 23% Travel tme Usual tme taken to travel to work by regon of workplace, n mnutes, all methods of transport: October-December 2010 North East North West Yorkshre and The Humber East Mdlands West Mdlands East of England London South East South West England Wales Scotland Great Brtan sprng 2012 socety now 19

20 opnon GILL VALENTINE AND KAHRYN HUGHES Famly frst Professor Gll Valentne (pctured) and Dr Kahryn Hughes explan how famles can help problem nternet gamblers overcome ther addcton TRADITIONAL UNDERSTANDING of addcton has focused on t as an ndvdual, soltary, psychopathologcal complex. In partcular, clncal research has fxated on the physologcal, cellular, or psychologcal causes of addcton. But contemporary socal scence research s movng away from thnkng of addcton and ts resoluton as resdng n the ndvdual and s recognsng the need to examne addctons as a set of socal processes, relatonshps and practces. Ths new way of thnkng about addcton s llustrated by the growng nternatonal phenomenon of nternet gamblng. Globally there are over 2,300 dedcated gamblng stes, makng ths one of the fastest growng forms of bettng. Over 50 per cent of all UK households are connected to the nternet and whle tradtonal gamblng spaces such as bookmakers may be Problem nternet gamblng s less vsble because t can be part of everyday famly lfe perceved as ntmdatng, and deter some people from bettng, the home provdes a more conducve envronment for gamblng. Indvduals can combne onlne gamblng wth workng, lstenng to musc, watchng televson and even chldcare. They can also use ther technologcal sklls, control of the household s fnances and prvate spaces or personal tme wthn the home to help ther gamblng, often runnng up thousands of pounds of debt wthout ther partner s knowledge. Onlne problem gamblers often attrbute ther problem to socal causes, ncludng pressures of famly lfe or ther upbrngng, and some typcally report that ther parents were problem gamblers, especally fathers. Unlke problem drnkng whch often shows tself n publc dsplays of drunkenness and dsorder, problem nternet gamblng s less vsble because t can be part of everyday famly lfe. Its effects are not only felt by the addct but can also have a profound mpact on other famly members through fnancal hardshp, shared responsblty for a debt, and also a loss of trust, relatonshp breakdown, emotonal gult and self-blame. In the US, attempts to restran nternet gamblng have concentrated manly on access controls but ths s unlkely to be successful n the medum- to long-term. The gamblng ndustry too has taken some responsblty for tacklng the problem but the man organsatons seekng approaches to problem nternet gamblng are voluntary therapeutc agences such as Relate and Gamcare, who deal wth the consequences of gamblng for ndvduals. But even wthn these agences there s uncertanty about problem and pathologcal gamblng where the frst draws on psychologcal models of harm (eg, to one s lfe crcumstances, to sgnfcant others) and the second on bomedcal models of addcton. Ths causes confuson about whch agency or treatment s most approprate for problem gamblng. The unsettled debate about comorbdty whether gamblng s lnked to alcohol and drug use also means that gamblers are often referred to addcton agences dealng wth drugs/ alcohol, regardless of whether ther problem gamblng requres specalst therapeutc strateges. Recognsng nternet gamblng as a socal practce embedded n everyday famly lfe, rather than an ndvdual problem, opens up a new vew of how gamblers mght move n and out of problem gamblng wthout formal agency help. ESRC-funded research suggests that the emotonal commtment and sacrfces many famly members make for each other can be vtal to stoppng gamblng. Problem gamblers are often reluctant to contact agences offerng formal support, and are afrad to attend group therapy. Instead, many rely on ther famles to pay off ther debts; to provde preventatve support such as controllng access to the home computer and famly fnances; and to help them fnd alternatve sources of therapy such as onlne support from other problem gamblers. Further nvestgaton s needed to understand how and when nternet gamblng becomes problematc, who decdes t s problematc, and what types of famly-based strateges can stop problematc gamblng. But by explorng the smlartes and dfferences between professonals and gamblers belefs about causes of and treatment for problem gamblng socal scence research could dentfy how famly strateges mght be used as a model for treatment wthn the therapeutc communty. n Contact Professor Gll Valentne, School of Geography, Dr Kahryn Hughes, School of Socology and Socal Polcy, Unversty of Leeds Emal k.a.hughes@leeds.ac.uk / g.valentne@leeds.ac.uk Telephone Web New forms of partcpaton: problem Internet gamblng and the role of the famly Responsble Gamng Fund/ESRC Research nto Problem Gamblng Programme ESRC Grant Number RES socety now sprng 2012

21 HARRIET BULKELEY opnon The clmate challenge Ctes around the world are expermentng wth ntatves to address clmate change, explans Professor Harret Bulkeley, ESRC Clmate Change Fellow RESPONDING TO CLIMATE CHANGE n the world s ctes s now recognsed nternatonally as an urgent agenda (World Bank 2010). Snce the frst voluntary commtments by ctes to reduce ther Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emssons over 20 years ago, several thousand have commtted to acton. More recently, the challenges of adaptng to the mpacts of clmate change at the urban level are also beng recognsed through urban plannng. Over the past ten years, the research communty has documented the challenges of governng clmate change at the urban level, pontng to a persstent gap between rhetorc and realty. Dependent on strateges of self-governance and enablng or persuadng others to act, muncpaltes have often lacked the powers and resources to take adequate acton to address clmate change. At frst t may appear that despte growng nternatonal recognton of the urban dmenson of the clmate change challenge, ctes can do lttle to respond. But aganst ths backdrop of the gap between the promse of the commtments, plans and polces of muncpaltes and the realtes of ncreasng GHG emssons and urban vulnerabltes, the number of ntatves n ctes to address clmate change appears to be prolferatng. Whether ths relates to wholesale ecodevelopments, communty-based renewable energy schemes, new sustanable corporate buldngs, nfrastructure renewal projects or the lke, urban landscapes are ncreasngly lttered wth attempts to forge a response to clmate change. Through a survey of documentary evdence from a sample of 100 ctes globally, the Urban Transtons project found over 620 clmate change experments that were specfcally seekng to ntervene n the bult envronment, energy, water, waste and transport systems of ctes n order to address clmate change. The sample represents dverse urban characterstcs, wth ctes from across dfferent world regons. Analyss of the experments across the sample shows that they started recently 79 per cent snce the Kyoto Protocol was ratfed n Also, there s no sgnfcant varaton across dfferent regons of the lkelhood of expermentaton takng place, and common urban ndcators such as GDP or populaton do not explan varaton between ctes. Importantly, whle most urban clmate change experments are led by muncpal authortes (66 per cent), analyss shows that other actors are also crtcal to ther development and deployment; 42 per cent of the sample of experments had some form of prvate sector nvolvement, whle 19 per cent ncluded some level of nvolvement from communty-based actors. Faced wth lmted formal capacty, t appears that expermentaton s a new way n whch publc and prvate actors are seekng to address clmate change at the urban level. For the most part, such experments may provde the means through whch new strategc efforts to secure crtcal nfrastructure and ensure access to energy and other resources are beng pursued at the urban level. Other experments frame the clmate change ssue n very dfferent ways, offerng alternatve vsons of what t mght mean to be a low-carbon or clmate-reslent cty. The number of ntatves n ctes to address clmate change appears to be prolferatng Analyss of expermentaton n Bangalore, Berln, Hong Kong, Monterrey and Phladelpha shows that t s a result of current economc constrants. For example, n the US, ntatves such as the Solar Cty programme and the Coolest Block contest n Phladelpha have benefted from federal government economc stmulus funds. Expermentaton also results from opportuntes such as the Towards Zero Carbon housng development n Bangalore, amed at the rsng mddle class populaton of the cty. In nether case does clmate change expermentaton pose a radcal challenge to the lberal envronmentalsm or economc order on whch t s based. Instead t puts such logcs to work to create new forms of clmate governance. Elsewhere, for example n the numerous examples of Transton Town ntatves or n the provson of low-carbon, low-cost energy and housng systems n ctes n the Global South, clmate change expermentaton s a way to address ssues of socal and envronmental justce. As urban responses to clmate change gather momentum, these experments pont to a new form of governance where boundares between publc and prvate are flud, and where the potental for contestaton and conflct s ever present. n Professor Harret Bulkeley holds an ESRC Clmate Change Leadershp Fellowshp Urban Transtons: clmate change, global ctes and the transformaton of soco-techncal systems Emal h.a.bulkeley@durham.ac.uk Telephone Web sprng 2012 socety now 21

22 fs green budget More fscal tghtenng ahead Paul Johnson, Drector of the Insttute for Fscal Studes (IFS), explans the fndngs of the recent IFS Green Budget and the outlook for publc fnances, the key ssues relatng to the publc spendng cuts and possble decsons on taxaton The Chancellor, George Osborne, s facng exactly the stuaton he was hopng to avod. When he set out hs fscal polces n 2010 he was amng to sort out the budget defct wthn the lfetme of the current parlament. But weaker than expected growth, and a severe downgradng by the ndependent Offce for Budget Responsblty of ther vews about the potental future output of the economy, have left hm needng to pencl n two more years of publc spendng cuts after a probable 2015 general electon. In our annual Green Budget we set out the scale of ths planned fscal tghtenng. Our latest estmates, based on offcal forecasts, suggest that the fnancal crss and assocated recesson created a permanent hole n the publc fnances of 7.5 per cent of natonal ncome that s 114 bllon n today s terms. Ths broadly reflects a large reducton n the amount that the economy s expected to be able to produce sustanably gong forwards, wth ths expected to be a full 13 per cent lower n than the Treasury forecast n March The chancellor s amng to slghtly more than fll the hole that has opened up n the publc fnances through a combnaton of tax rses Seven consecutve years of spendng cuts s wholly unprecedented and spendng cuts that are expected to total 8.1 per cent of natonal ncome, or 123 bllon, by These are huge numbers. We have not experenced a fscal tghtenng on anythng lke ths scale n the last 60 years. That s because we have not experenced ether such a large loss of output or such a large defct at any pont over ths perod. That a substantal tghtenng s requred s not n doubt. Had ths government and ts predecessor announced no polcy acton then We have not experenced a fscal tghtenng on anythng lke ths scale n the last 60 years natonal debt would have spralled out of control passng through 100, then 150 and 200 per cent of natonal ncome. Two key choces have been made. One s over the speed of the tghtenng. The other s over ts composton. In terms of speed Mr Osborne has set hmself a fscal mandate whch requres hm to put n place polces to be able to expect to have suffcent recepts to cover non-nvestment spendng, after adjustng for the estmated mpact of temporary ups and downs of the economc cycle, by the end of the fve-year forecast horzon. Hs current polcy statements mean that he meets that mandate, but only because he has planned two years of unspecfed but substantal spendng cuts n and As t has turned out he s amng at a level of borrowng n almost dentcal to that mpled by Alstar Darlng s last budget. But that s because the outlook for the economy has deterorated n the ntervenng perod. Had Mr Darlng remaned chancellor and not adjusted hs tax and spendng plans n response to the economc news an entrely hypothetcal stuaton snce of course we cannot know for sure what he would have done then he would have been on course for more borrowng than s currently planned. The speed of the tghtenng carres rsks. Hgher taxes and lower spendng has the drect mpact of reducng economc actvty n the short run. On the other hand t can ncrease certanty and credblty, thereby potentally reducng 22 socety now sprng 2012

23 health wll be relatvely protected whle defence and publc order and safety wll see sgnfcant cuts the rsk that government borrowng rates rse sharply. There s clearly a trade-off here and Mr Osborne has made very clear where he stands on that trade-off: he puts a great deal of weght on the rsks of losng credblty and facng hgher borrowng costs. The opposton appear to put more weght on the rsks to the economy of a speedy tghtenng. There s another rsk assocated wth the speed of the tghtenng though, and that s one assocated wth the other bg choce made by the Chancellor the choce to weght the tghtenng very much towards spendng cuts as opposed to tax ncreases. About 80 per cent of the overall squeeze s planned to come through spendng cuts. The justfcaton for ths s that much of the bg ncrease n the defct arose because when the economy shrank spendng grew rapdly as a share of natonal ncome. By publc servce spendng s planned to be as hgh n real (nflaton adjusted) terms as t was n and at the same level as a proporton of natonal ncome as t was n But that doesn t change the fact that the planned real cut of 16.2 per cent n publc servce spendng between Aprl 2010 and March 2017 s nearly twce as bg as the prevous bggest seven-year fall (between 1975 and 1982) seen n the UK snce the second world war. And seven consecutve years of cuts s wholly unprecedented. The truth s we are n uncharted terrtory. Nether we nor the government can know what the poltcal and socal consequences of these cuts wll be. In terms of our analyss for the Green Budget, three further ponts stand out. Frst, whle most of the planned tax ncreases have already happened, the cuts n non-nvestment publc servce spendng have barely begun. The pan s mostly stll to come. Second, the pan wll not be evenly shared across the publc servces. On the whole those areas of spendng, partcularly health, whch dd well n the precedng decade wll be relatvely protected. And some of those, such as defence and publc order and safety whch dd less well wll see sgnfcant cuts. So n some ways the current plans contnue a long-term reshapng of the state wth growng focus on health and welfare. Thrd, longer term demographc pressures mean that more hard choces reman just around the corner. The pressure on health and penson spendng wll ncrease nexorably over the comng decades and a further set of fscal choces on a smlar scale to those we are currently experencng wll need to be made, albet over a longer tmescale. One thng s clear. The speed wth whch the cuts were announced, ther currently unknown effects, the need to specfy what plans are after 2015 and the long-term pressures, all pont to the need for a serous revew of spendng decsons by the Autumn of Ths revew should look at what s known of the composton and consequences of the cuts. It should take account of long-term pressures. And t should fll n at least some of the detals for and n Paul Johnson s Drector of the Insttute for Fscal Studes (IFS) The IFS Green Budget was produced n collaboraton wth Oxford Economcs wth addtonal fundng from the ESRC-funded Centre for the Mcroeconomc Analyss of Publc Polcy For more nformaton see Emal malbox@fs.org.uk Tel Web sprng 2012 socety now 23

24 Lcence to dance Research on the erotc dancng ndustry has gven dancers more nformaton on workplace safety and ther rghts, mproved workng condtons and nfluenced the lcensng polces of local authortes. By Dr Teela Sanders, Dr Kate Hardy and Rose Campbell WHY HAS LAP DANCING become an acceptable work and lesure opton and what has led to the ntegraton of sexual consumpton nto the nght-tme economy? These were the core questons of the project The Regulatory Dance (Sanders and Hardy, 2011) the largest study nto the erotc dance ndustry n the UK. The study focused on dancers experences n the ndustry, specfcally on workng condtons. We surveyed 197 dancers who had worked n 45 towns and ctes across the UK, askng about the last four clubs where dancers had worked to cover as many clubs and standards across the ndustry. The survey results were then qualfed by ntervews wth 35 dancers and 20 other people nvolved n the ndustry (ncludng bar staff, securty, house mums, managers and owners) and 15 regulators (ncludng lcensng and enforcement offcers, health and safety nspectors and the polce). Our research found that the majorty of dancers had made a decson to dance as a flexble, relatvely hgh-earnng (although unpredctable), cash-n-hand form of work. Dancers generally reported hgh levels of job satsfacton and descrbed both advantages and dsadvantages of ther work. Most women dd not report any volence and felt safe n ther workplace due to securty, but they dd report persstent unwanted touchng and harassment from customers (nearly half reported frequent verbal harassment and unwanted touchng from customers). There was no evdence of organsed prosttuton or traffckng/forced nvolvement, although some mgrant workers were payng more than the normal rate for accommodaton and organsaton of ther work. The key ssues for dancers dd not nclude gender explotaton or experencng ther work as a form of sexual volence, whch s the prmary argument of some femnst lobby groups aganst 24 socety now sprng 2012

25 LICENCE TO DANCE lap dancng. Dancers expressed practcal concerns about facltes, relatons wth management and fnancal arrangements n the workplace. Most dancers were concerned about the hgh house fees, commssons and fnes they were payng; especally on occasons when they were takng relatvely lttle money home. Seventy per cent of respondents sad they had left a shft wthout earnng any money. The research took place at a pvotal tme n whch all Local Authortes were re-wrtng ther polcy on lcensng lap dancng as a result of changes ntroduced under the Polcng and Crme Act, A new classfcaton of Sexual Entertanment Venue (SEV) has been ntroduced, algnng the lcensng process of lap-dancng clubs wth sex shops and cnemas. Further changes essentally gve Local Authortes greater powers to control the number of clubs, by usng quotas or ntroducng nl polces whch am to remove exstng clubs or prohbt new lcences. New powers also mean that Lcensng Commttees have the ablty to mpose certan condtons on lcences to dctate how they operate. There was a strong feelng expressed by dancers that the legal changes ntroduced under SEV lcensng would not make the ndustry safer or that ther welfare and workng condtons would be taken serously by the new legslaton. Instead they felt that assumptons were beng made about explotaton, partcularly gender explotaton, and that legslaton favoured communty s vews over dancers. Investgaton of ths latter pont led to ESRC Follow-on-Fundng awarded n November Towards the end of the ntal project we had to some degree been able to share fndngs wth lcensng practtoners about the soco-economc profle of dancers, ther experences and vews. Some authortes began to consder how they could address some of the ssues related to dancer welfare, safety and workng condtons but there was clearly a need for more dssemnaton of the fndngs to lcensng practtoners and commttees who are developng SEV polces often wth lttle nformaton about the sector and partcularly dancers experences. The follow-on project also found that dancers needed more nformaton, and ths led to the development of a webste and smartphone applcaton that contans safety advce at work Dancers reported hgh levels of job satsfacton and descrbed both advantages and dsadvantages of ther work (n assocaton wth the Suzy Lamplugh Trust), and self employment rghts and tax-awareness nformaton (wrtten n partnershp wth HMRC). These materals wll form the bass of workshops wth dancers and managers to try to ncrease knowledge, rghts and good practce. The other substantal am of the project s to work specfcally wth Local Authortes to share the fndngs wth lcensng and enforcement offcers, and to demonstrate how new condtons that prortse dancers welfare at work can be wrtten nto polces. At the start of the project we dentfed a small number of Local Authortes to whom researchers had presented the fndngs who were begnnng to nclude condtons related to dancers welfare, safety and workng condtons nto polces and lcences. For example, Leeds Cty Councl now requres lcence holders to provde a welfare pack to new dancers n the changng rooms. Ths pack must nclude: a copy of the Sex Establshment Lcense, ncludng the condtons appled by the Lcensng Commttee; detals of any other condtons appled by management of the premses; detals of how to report crme to the relevant authorty; detals of nsurance (publc lablty/personal); detals of unons, trade organsatons or other bodes that represent the nterests of dancers/entertaners; a copy of the code of practce for entertaners; a copy of the code of conduct for customers; fnng polcy and prcng polcy. Blackpool Councl has also taken the research fndngs serously. In response to the ssue of hgh competton and lmted custom, ther new SEV polcy now ncludes a maxmum number of dancers employed on any one nght, whch s calculated as no more than ten per cent of the total club occupancy. The councl has also responded to concerns about the farness of codes of conduct/house rules by requrng that a club s codes of conduct should nclude a system to ensure that performers who are sck or have a domestc emergency are not made subject to unfar puntve fnancal penaltes. We are contnung to work wth the Insttute of Lcensng to share our fndngs wth as many lcensng offcals as possble. We hope the project wll nform small changes n polcy whch could lead to a sgnfcant change n the treatment of dancers and sharng of good practce n the ndustry. n The Regulatory Dance: Investgatng the Structural Integraton of Sexual Consumpton nto the Nght- Tme Economy Dr Teela Sanders and Rose Campbell, School of Socology & Socal Polcy, Unversty of Leeds Emal t.l.m.sanders@leeds.ac.uk Emal r.campbell@leeds.ac.uk Telephone Web regulatory-dance.php ESRC Grant Number RES sprng 2012 socety now 25

26 voces charle jeffery A queston of ndependence Devoluton and consttutonal expert Professor Charle Jeffery explans some of the possble busness, socal, economc and poltcal effects of an ndependent Scotland How lkely s Scottsh ndependence? Charle Jeffery: There are now more or less weekly opnon polls on the Scottsh consttutonal debate. They ask dfferent questons n dfferent ways. Very few have ndcated that ndependence s a more popular opton than the status quo. That sad, we are not yet n a referendum campagn. When the campagn proper starts, the Yes campagn wll be fronted by a party, the SNP, wth a formdable campagnng machne, a clear message and a leader of real presence. It s not clear how a No campagn would be set up, how clear ts message would be as t would necessarly brng together dfferent groupngs wth dfferent vews or what leadershp t would have. What both opnon polls and more sophstcated tme seres on publc atttudes on the consttutonal queston show, s that the most popular consttutonal opton n Scotland s nether the status quo nor ndependence, but some varant of fuller devoluton devo-max or devo-plus. Whether or not fuller devoluton wll be on the ballot paper n the referendum s not yet clear the Scottsh Government s open to t, the UK Government opposed but f t were, the bookes would have that as the shortest odds outcome. Would Scotland be fnancally better or worse off f ndependent from the UK? CJ: Lke many questons about Scottsh ndependence the answer s unknowable unless and untl t happens. Supporters of ndependence clam that a Scotland wth the fscal polcy levers of an ndependent state would be better able to respond to Scottsh needs than UK-wde polces currently can. Opponents pont to rsks of not beng part of a larger state wth a greater capacty to pool rsk. Perhaps the best gude are the annual estmates of all government spendng and revenues n Scotland, produced by the Scottsh Government and generally regarded as relable, whch suggest that f tax revenues from ol and gas n Scottsh waters are ncluded, then Scotland has generally pad ts way n the UK n the last few years. What currency would Scotland use? Could t ssue ts own currency or adopt the euro for example? CJ: The SNP Government s polcy s that an ndependent Scotland would use the pound sterlng, and would look to a drect relatonshp wth the Bank of England to co-ordnate Scotland s fscal polces wth the needs of a Rest-UK/Scottsh shared currency area. It s not yet clear what knd of relatonshp the Bank of England would foresee, or ndeed what the UK Government thnks about such dscussons and co-ordnaton wthn a sngle currency area that the rest of the UK would domnate. Scotland certanly could ssue ts own currency, but the SNP Government would prefer to fnd a way of mantanng the Bank of England s monetary polcy framework to help underpn the Scottsh economy. The Euro remans n prncple an alternatve n the longer term, but gven the Eurozone s current problems s unlkely to be a real alternatve for the foreseeable future. Would an ndependent Scotland be able to sustan free unversty tuton fees wthout fnancal support from the UK? CJ: If Scotland were ndependent, students from the rest of the UK would, under EU rules, have access to the same condtons as Scottsh domcled students, that s at the moment free unversty tuton. The SNP Government would deally lke whether or not Scotland becomes ndependent to explore ways of levyng some knd of admnstratve charge on EU students, whch would then apply also to the rest of UK students f Scotland were ndependent. Scotland would certanly be able to sustan free tuton because the number of free (that s taxpayerfunded) places would be the same as now; the problem would be the hgh level of demand that mght come from Englsh students f fees there reman at current levels and the danger that Scottsh students would be crowded out from Scottsh unverstes by overwhelmng Englsh demand. If economc and fscal polcy powers were to revert to Scotland would there be a radcally dfferent polcy followed than currently n the UK. For example, would taxaton be hgher to fund better publc servces? CJ: All the hnts from the SNP have been about lower tax burdens, especally n corporate taxaton. Scotland does have hgher publc spendng per head than n England, but the annual revenue and spendng estmates also suggest that Scotland rases more tax revenues per head than England, f North Sea revenues n Scottsh waters are attrbuted to Scotland. If Scotland became ndependent who would grant lcences for ol/gas extracton? How would the nvestments that BP or Shell have made n ol extracton be affected? CJ: If Scotland were ndependent, the Scottsh Government would grant new lcences. Exstng lcences would no doubt be a key ssue n any post-referendum negotaton between Scottsh and 26 socety now sprng 2012

27 All the hnts from the SNP have been about lower tax burdens

28 voces charle jeffery Rest-UK Governments about the dstrbuton of assets and labltes between the two states. What would be the man sources of state ncome? Is t vable to reman hghly dependent on ol/gas revenue f clmate change mght mean ncreasng taxaton on carbon emssons? CJ: Agan the answer s unknowable untl and unless t happens, but clearly North Sea revenues would be a much bgger proporton of an ndependent Scotland s revenues than they are currently n the UK. The challenges are perhaps less about carbon taxaton than the often substantal fluctuatons n world ol and gas prces whch drectly affect tax revenues. Hedgng aganst such fluctuatons would be a central prorty. The most mportant longer term hedge would be future ncomes from renewable energy sources, especally wnd, wave and tdal power, where Scotland has massve potental. How wll Scotland fund major nfrastructure projects such as hgh-speed ral? CJ: Just as other states do: by usng tax revenues and by borrowng on captal markets. On the latter and no doubt wth a vew to potental future pronouncements of ratngs agences the SNP s fnance mnster John Swnney has been projectng an mage of steadfast fscal prudence. Would the Scottsh-based UK army regments become Scottsh and how would defence polcy be splt? What about the nuclear submarnes? How much would changes cost? CJ: There are plenty of hnts that the SNP would lke to mantan a defence unon wth the rest of the UK f t became ndependent, whch would make any transton around Scottshbased UK forces easer to envsage. But there are bg stckng ponts: the SNP s commtment to wthdraw Scotland from NATO, and ts commtment to the removal of nuclear weapons from Scotland. It should be noted that recent research among SNP members by James Mtchell of Strathclyde Unversty has shown that the SNP The Yes campagn wll be fronted by the SNP, wth a formdable campagnng machne, a clear message and a leader of real presence membershp s ncreasngly sceptcal on NATO wthdrawal. And the removal of nuclear weapons would surely be central to any ndependence negotatons, and current postons could shft n those negotatons. Would Scotland set up embasses, for nstance n Ireland/ Nordc countres? And would t become a separate member of and fully represented at the UN? CJ: Yes, an ndependent Scotland would set up embasses, but mght well look to negotate an arrangement to share facltes wth the Rest-UK. And yes, t would be a full member of the UN. What would Scottsh ndependence mean for Wales and NI. Would the UK become an Englsh state n all but name? CJ: Wales and Northern Ireland would become a smaller perphery to the UK s core n England. They mght well look to establsh greater levels of autonomy to mantan balance wth Anglo- UK. There are sgns n recent research by the Unverstes of Ednburgh and Cardff and the Insttute for Publc Polcy research that the Englsh are begnnng to look for ther own nsttutons of self-government. The UK could transform nto a looser groupng of self-governng natons as a consequence of Scottsh ndependence. Who would be the head of state of an ndependent Scotland? Would t be the Queen as the SNP prefers or would the post of presdent or equvalent be created? CJ: The SNP has been qute clear that Queen Elzabeth s also The Queen of Scots and would be the head of state of an ndependent Scotland. Would Scotland have ts own Research Councl? CJ: The SNP has talked of sharng some servces wth the Rest-UK should Scotland become ndependent, wth payments made to UK bodes for the supply of servces to Scotland. The Research Councls would, from a Scottsh perspectve, be a strong canddate for servce-sharng. Whether a Rest-UK Government would agree n ths or n other areas would be another agenda tem for post-referendum negotatons. If ndependent would Scotland develop natonal squads for the Olympc games? And would t have ts own Eurovson entry? CJ: Yes but would we see the knd of vote coordnaton between Scotland and Rest-UK that we see among the Nordc states, or the Balkans? Would the UK-wde sports teams such as the Lons be broken up and what would that do for socal coheson across the countres? CJ: The rugby unon Lons s already a jont team of two ndependent states, the UK and Ireland. There s no reason n prncple ths couldn t contnue. And don t forget the Ryder Cup, whch generates contnent-wde coheson around one of Scotland s natonal games. n Professor Charle Jeffery s head of School of Socal and Poltcal Scence, Unversty of Ednburgh Emal charle.jeffery@ed.ac.uk Telephone Web 28 socety now sprng 2012

29 nformaton UPDATES & INFORMATION & updates News brefs DATA RELEASE OFFERS GREAT RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY Understandng Socety s a worldleadng study of the soco-economc crcumstances and atttudes of 100,000 ndvduals n 40,000 Brtsh households. The frst large wave of data from ths survey s now avalable to researchers. As the survey s frst full wave of nformaton has been deposted wth the UK Data Archve, ntervews from the world s largest household panel survey are for the frst tme accessble for research analyss creatng countless exctng research opportuntes. A team of researchers wth early access to the data has already examned the materal across a range of areas from young people s health and wellbeng, lnks between parents ncome and chldren s achevements, and the role of socal support networks n copng wth stressful events, through to the dvson of housework and a range of specally-commssoned research usng the survey s ethncty boost sample. For more nformaton see www. understandngsocety.org.uk/default.aspx ENTER THE WORLD OF DATASETS The ESRC s research catalogue s gettng bgger. In addton to the 100,000-plus research outputs currently featured n the catalogue, we are now publshng detals of over 900 datasets generated by ESRC-funded grants. Over 200 datasets coverng every major project funded by the ESRC, from the populaton, health and housng surveys to the Brtsh Crme survey, are avalable to download from the Economc and Socal Data Servce and UK Data Archve. For more nformaton see GREEN BUDGET The fnancal crss and recesson have revealed a 114-bllon hole n the publc fnances, state researchers at the Insttute for Fscal Studes at the launch of the Green Budget n February 2012, ther annual analyss of the UK economy. The report also predcts that the Government wll borrow less than predcted n ( 2.9 bllon), wth departments underspendng by more than 3 bllon ths year. For the full report see org.uk/publcatons/6003 NEW TEAM TO NAVIGATE THE RETAIL SECTOR Buldng relatonshps, rasng the profle of socal scence research and dentfyng opportuntes for collaboraton wll be the man focus of a new Retal Knowledge Navgator Team announced n January Gven the broad range of stakeholders and research agendas, the ESRC has dentfed the need to supplement ts exstng resource wth a team of expert knowledge brokers who wll be able to forge stronger lnks between the socal scence communty and the retal sector. Ths team wll nclude Professor Km Cassdy, Dr Shelagh Resnck and Professor Paul Whysall, all from Nottngham Busness School, part of Nottngham Trent Unversty. THE BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE CORPUS PROJECT The Deafness, Cognton and Language (DCAL) research centre has announced that data from the Brtsh Sgn Language Corpus Project (BSLCP) s now publcly avalable. The collecton of vdeo recordngs shows 249 deaf men and women of dfferent ages and backgrounds conversng n BSL wth each other n pars. They answer questons, tell stores, and show ther sgns for 102 key concepts. DCAL hopes the vdeo data wll lead drectly to mproved sgn language teachng and mprovements n tranng BSL teachers, sgn language nterpreters and teachers of deaf chldren. For more nformaton see the data secton of AWARD-WINNING DRILLING IN VIRTUAL TEETH An nnovatve multdscplnary project that developed a 3D vrtual dentst s char has scooped a prestgous award. The haptel project whose name derves from haptcs, the scence of touch pcked up the BETT award for Innovaton n ICT resources for educaton at a ceremony n London on 11 January BETT s the UK s leadng trade show for educatonal technology and descrbed as The Oscars of Educatonal Software. The project had already won a Medcal Futures award n June For more nformaton see HISTORY MAKERS A book by Jane Humphres, a professor of economc hstory and ESRC Professoral Fellow, shows the terrble prce the labourers of the Industral Revoluton pad. A BBC 4 documentary based on her research, The chldren who bult Vctoran Brtan, won Best Hstory Producton at the 2012 Hstory Makers Internatonal festval n New York n January. The awards recognse the very best n hstory, current affars, and non-fcton programmng from around the world, across dgtal and TV platforms. SOCIAL MOBILITY The ESRC has produced a seres of evdence brefngs on socal moblty that nvestgate how health, parentng, educaton, sklls and poverty nfluence the opportuntes for ndvduals. The brefngs draw from a range of research produced by the centres and studes we fund, and analyse possble polcy nterventons that could gve people the chance to break the cycle of socal mmoblty. For more nformaton see ac.uk/news-and-events sprng 2012 socety now 29

30 UPDATES nformaton & INFORMATION & updates People PROFESSOR SIR ROGER JOWELL Professor Sr Roger Jowell ded on Chrstmas Day Professor Jowell, wth hs colleague, Gerald Honvlle, was the founder-drector of the Natonal Centre for Socal Research (NatCen), now Brtan s largest socal research nsttute, whch he ran from 1969 untl He establshed a Qualtatve Research Unt at the Socal and Communty Plannng Research (SCPR). In the early 1990s, the centre s most publcsed work was the comprehensve Natonal Survey of Sexual Atttudes and Lfestyles, prompted by a need to develop polces to combat Ads. Professor Jowell also made the news wth hs Brtsh General Electon Study whch explaned why the Conservatves had romped to vctory n 1992 despte predctons of a Labour wn. In 2001, wth nternatonal colleagues, he set up the 34-naton European Socal Survey (ESS) to study changng socal values throughout Europe. In 2003 Professor Jowell moved wth ESS to Cty Unversty, where he became Research Professor and Founder Drector of the Centre for Comparatve Socal Surveys. Professor Jowell was apponted CBE n 2001 and knghted n PROFESSOR TONY COXON Professor Tony Coxon ded on 7 February. Professor Coxon was the frst drector of the ESRC Research Centre on Mcro-socal Change (MISOC), whch was created n 1989 as the home of the Brtsh Household Panel Survey. He also worked as a consultant for several ESRC-funded research projects and was part of the revew team producng a comprehensve demographc revew of the UK socal scences. Professor Coxon was well known for hs work n quanttatve methods teachng. Partcular areas of research ncluded occupatons and perceptons of occupatons; sexualtes and socology of sexual behavour and homosexualty; and research methods relatng to cogntve socology. He was Honorary Professor at Cardff Unversty, and also Emertus Professor of Socologcal Research Methods, Unversty of Wales (snce 1988) and Professoral Research Fellow, Unversty of Ednburgh (snce 2002). NEW YEAR HONOURS 2012 Dame Commander of the Order of the Brtsh Empre Professor Glyns Mare Breakwell, DL Vce-Chancellor, Unversty of Bath; Char of the ESRC Research Commttee and Councl member. For servces to Hgher Educaton. Commanders of the Order of the Brtsh Empre Professor Karn Barber, Professor of Afrcan Cultural Anthropology, Unversty of Brmngham; ESRC grant holder. For servces to Afrcan Studes. Professor Eleen Munro, Professor of Socal Polcy, London School of Economcs; ESRC semnar partcpant. For servces to Chldren and Famles. Professor Judth Petts, Dean of the Faculty of Socal and Human Scences, Unversty of Southampton; ESRC grant holder. For servces to Scentfc Research. Offcers of the Order of the Brtsh Empre Professor Danne Berry, Dean of the Faculty of Socal Scences at the Unversty of Readng; former member of the ESRC Research and Evaluaton Commttee and ESRC grant holder. For servces to Scentfc Research. Professor Ella Rtche, Deputy Vce- Chancellor at Newcastle Unversty; former member of the ESRC Tranng Board and ESRC grant holder. For servces to Hgher Educaton. Professor Peter Jennngs Buckley, Professor of Internatonal Busness, Unversty of Leeds; ESRC grant holder. For servces to Hgher Educaton, Internatonal Busness and Research. Professor Jean Goldng, Emertus Professor of Paedatrc and Pernatal Epdemology, Unversty of Brstol; founder of the Avon Longtudnal Study of Parents and Chldren (ALSPAC). For servces to Medcal Scence. Members of the Order of the Brtsh Empre Professor Rhona Susan Johnston, Professor of Psychology, Unversty of Hull; ESRC grant holder. For servces to Educaton. Professor Robert Walker, Professor of Socal Polcy, Unversty of Oxford; ESRC grant holder. For servces to Socal Polcy Research. DR SABINA LEONELLI The Global Young Academy s an organsaton whch selects 200 top earlycareer scentsts around the globe to dentfy and voce scence-related ssues of relevance to polcy and socety. Dr Leonell, Senor Lecturer at the ESRC Centre for Genomcs n Socety (Egens), has been chosen as one of those 200. Accordng to the Academy, members are selected for the excellence of ther scence and ther commtment to servce. Members serve for a four-year term. The Global Young Academy ams to empower young scentsts, provdng a rallyng pont for them to come together to address topcs of global mportance. DR HELEN SIMPSON Dr Smpson from the Centre for Market and Publc Organsaton has been awarded a 70,000 Phlp Leverhulme Prze. Przes are awarded annually to outstandng scholars who have made a substantal and recognsed contrbuton to ther partcular feld of study. Dr Smpson has been awarded a prze for her research usng new data on frms, whch examnes the reasons behnd frms locaton decsons and the mpact of these decsons on frm performance. The Leverhulme Trust was establshed n 1925 under the Wll of the frst Vscount Leverhulme. It s one of the largest all-subject provders of research fundng n the UK. 30 socety now sprng 2012

31 nformaton & updates Publcatons Relgon, Cvl Socety & Peace n Northern Ireland Many commentators deny the churches a role n Northern Ireland s peace process, focusng on the few well-known events of church nvolvement and the small number of hgh-profle relgous peace bulders. Ths ESRC-funded study seeks to correct msapprehensons about the role of the churches by pontng to ther major achevements n both the socal and poltcal dmensons of the peace process. n Relgon, Cvl Socety & Peace n Northern Ireland by John D. Brewer, Gareth I. Hggns, and Francs Teeney. ISBN (hardback), 272pp, For more nformaton see ukcatalogue. oup.com/ product/ do Happness Rchard Layard, from the ESRC-funded Centre for Economc Performance, shows that there s a paradox at the heart of our lves. Most people want more ncome yet as socetes become rcher, they do not become happer. Ths s not just anecdotally true, t s the story told by countless peces of scentfc research. We now have sophstcated ways of measurng how happy people are, and all the evdence shows that on average people have grown no happer n the last 50 years, even as average ncomes have more than doubled. n Happness by Rchard Layard. ISBN , (paperback), 384pp, For more nformaton see co.uk/nf/book/ BookDsplay/ 0,, ,00.html Leadershp and the reform of educaton Western poltcans consder that leadershp s essental for the delvery of educatonal reform. Ths book, based on ESRC-funded research, examnes how leaders, leadng and leadershp became the domnant theme n educaton. It presents an analyss of the relatonshp between the state, publc polcy and the types of knowledge that New Labour used to make polcy and break professonal cultures. It s essental readng for all those nterested n publc polcy, educaton polcy, and debates about governance. n Leadershp and the reform of educaton by Helen M. Gunter. ISBN (paperback), 208pp, For more nformaton see co.uk/dsplay. asp?k= Young people n postconflct Northern Ireland Ths mult-faceted study of young people s lves and communtes s a remnder that makng a dfference requres us to work across all parts of ther lves, not just on those ssues that most powerfully present themselves. The study s based on the Young Lfe and Tmes (YLT) annual postal survey of approxmately 2, year-olds, whch has been systematcally collectng nformaton snce YLT s one of the key actvtes of ARK, an ESRC-funded jont ntatve by the two Northern Irsh unverstes. Relable, robust and ongong, t montors changes n atttudes and behavour over tme. n Young people n post-conflct Northern Ireland by Drk Schubotz and Paula Devne. ISBN (paperback), 144pp, For more nformaton see www. russellhouse.co.uk Events APRIL Genomcs n Socety: facts, fctons and cultures A conference organsed by the ESRC Centre for Genomcs n Socety (Egens) wll present the scope of research excellence n the socal scences of current boscence nnovaton and celebrate a decade of academc achevement. There are great expectatons that the lfe scences, ncludng genomcs, are deally postoned to delver solutons to global challenges relatng to health, food and energy. Smultaneously, polcymakers and the publc are concerned about socal changes and the protecton of ethcal goods on the one hand, and cultural and nsttutonal obstacles to the delvery of the benefts from the lfe scences on the other. For more nformaton see conference MAY European Research on Emoton Conference The Emoton Regulaton of Others and Self team wll hold a symposum at the conference ttled The effortful and exhaustng nature of emoton regulaton. Ths conference s sutable for scholars n all dscplnes carryng out research and emprcally relevant theory on the topc of emoton. The event wll nclude four parallel talk sessons, several poster sessons, socal events, and four outstandng keynote talks. For more nformaton see org/ndex.php/events/consortum_of_ European_Research_on_Emoton_ CERE_ Conference MAY Musc, Methods and the Socal: A Research Workshop Tryng to understand musc as a socal form rases the ssue of methods. Ths s partly because of the ubquty of musc. Yet t s clear that to understand why musc matters to people so profoundly we need a grasp both of the socal, and the ways that musc works as organsed sound. The am of a workshop organsed by the Centre for Research on Soco-Cultural Change s to gather, thnk and talk together about partcular ways of fndng out and artculatng the complex relatonshps between musc and the socal. For more nformaton see events/ musc-methods-and-the-socal-aresearch-workshop sprng socety now 31