Working Paper: Drinking-Water and drinking water: Trajectories of Provision and Consumption in the UK, Taiwan and Delhi

Pre-industrial configurations of water and sewage in the UK (c) 2012 University of Essex

This paper, Drinking-Water and drinking water: Trajectories of Provision and Consumption in the UK, Taiwan and Delhiby Mark Harvey considers the economic sociology and political economy of drinking water infrastructures in the UK, Delhi and Taiwan to show how the emergence of all-purpose (including drinking) water was the outcome of long and varied historical processes, involving major changes in both systems of provision and patterns of consumption.

CRESI working paper: A Framework for Local Policy Response and a Proposal for a Resilience Index

Resilience Model (c) University of Essex 2012

This paper, “Economic Analysis of Resilience: A Framework for Local Policy Response Based on New Case Studies“, written by Pierre Régibeau (Imperial College, London and CRA International) and Katharine Rockett (University of Essex) takes a recent set of case studies on resilience of ecocultures to form the basis for a critical review of the resilience literature and the development of a proposal for a novel resilience index.

The paper notes the diversity of definitions of resilience and the confusion this creates in implementing resilience studies and develop a synthesis view that establishes a framework for defining resilience in an implementable way. This framework emphasises the importance of defining the source of and magnitude of shocks as part of the definition.

CRESI research features in #essexsociology research bytes

Professor Mark Harvey: Research Byte (YouTube)

Professor Miriam Glucksmann: Research Byte (YouTube)

Essex Sociology’s new ‘Research Bytes‘ YouTube channel includes interviews with Professor Mark Harvey and Professor Miriam Glucksmann. Mark discusses his research on the tomato and on new approaches to sustainable biofuels and land-use whilst Miriam describes her recent research on work and especially the new paradigm of ‘consumption‘ work.

Fresh media coverage for Mark Harvey’s research on false self-employment

Mark Harvey and Felix Behling‘s work on false employment in the construction industry is gathering media attention:

• Daily Mirror – 15th July 2010

These tax-evasive labour practises practices are estimated to cost the UK tax payer conservatively £1.7 billion per year.

• Update 15 July 2010: UK House of Commons early day motion based on this work
• Update 6 January 2011: Mark comments on Daily Mirror investigation that highlights false self-employment practices

New CRESI working papers/publications on transitions to biofuels

A number of papers have recently been published by CRESI staff and colleagues on the issue of bio-fuels.

The first, by Sarah Pilgrim and Mark Harvey reports a series of interviews with staff at a number of NGOs (Greenpeace, Oxfam, WWF, RSPB, Friends of the Earth) and suggests that in many cases the development of NGO policy has been driven more by narrow political opportunities for influence than by broader and more coherent policy responses to global climate change or economic development, or indeed rigorous assessment of the scientific evidence.

Mark Harvey’s work on bioresources data features in Science

Writing in the 29th October 2010 issue of Science Mark Harvey and co-authors outline how the development of powerful, high-throughput technologies, together with globalization of scientific research, presents the biomedical research community with unprecedented challenges for the management, archiving, and distribution of data and bioresources. In this context scientific progress depends on efficient and open sharing to generate maximum value.

They suggest that despite this the provision of public funding for these long-term repositories does not fall into the traditional model of science funding and so although funding agencies may exhort their experimental investigators to develop a “dissemination plan” for the data and bioresources they develop, in reality, such requirements are often not fulfilled with few if any consequences.

Mark Harvey’s new edited collection ‘Markets, rules and institutions of exchange’ published

This book, edited by Mark Harvey is about how to understand the huge variety of markets and market organisation in contemporary economies through a dialogue between a group of UK and French scholars. It presents a critique and development of institutional views of markets, and ‘puts markets in their place’ in a wider political and social context.

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis in markets, the book makes a topical and significant contribution on the importance of the rules and regulations that constitute markets, and their broader political and legal frameworks. Moreover, the disruption of markets brings to the fore their interconnection with the broader economy, with production, distribution and consumption in a way often ignored at the height of market bubbles.

Europe’s approach to biofuels: The Road to Nowhere

Mark Harvey‘s research featured at a Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Biofuel seminar at the Royal Society on 22nd July 2010.

“Mark echoed what other speakers also noted that in order to deliver a transition to sustainable transport energy strong, long-term strategic political direction is required, together with strong state support and steering from basic science to commercialisation. ‘Market signals will not drive radical, comprehensive or urgent technological change,’ he added.” Read  more coverage of the seminar from the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

In the Orbit of the Tomato

“After my father died, I discovered a film he had directed in 1938 for the historically famous GPO (General Post Office) film unit. It was called The Islanders, and in it, to my amazement, was a short section about Guernsey and the once-renowned Guernsey tomato.”

From tomatoes via genomes to biofuels – by public road

This presentation, which was given at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent on March 18 2010 gives an overview of Mark’s work of the last decade, and its specific contribution to the development of the understanding of economic sociology and innovation. The presentation covers a wide range of research, picking out the main features, rather than going into great depth. There are detailed notes to each slide which can be viewed via the Slideshare version.