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.
Mark Harvey and Felix Behling‘s work on false employment in the construction industry is gathering media attention:
These tax-evasive labour practises practices are estimated to cost the UK tax payer conservatively £1.7 billion per year.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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).
“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.” Read the rest of this entry »
CRESI’s Professor Joan Busfield’s research on the expansion in medicine use has been published in Social Science & Medicine in March 2010. The paper documents the substantial increase in expenditure on drugs by the NHS in England (a 60% increase in real terms over the decade to 2006) whilst the number of prescribed medicines dispensed increased from an average of 8 per person in 1989 to 16.4 in 2008 – a doubling over twenty years, with annual increases now running at around 4–5 percent. Such increases are matched elsewhere. Read the rest of this entry »
CRESI’s Prof. Diane Elson‘s work featured recently in two panel sessions at the United Nations as part of the 54th Annual UN Commission on the Status of Women (March 1-12, 2010).
The first, “Vision for A Better World: From Economic Crisis to Equality” centred on the contributions of the Casablanca Dreamers, an international group of female activists and thinkers established in 2007 with the aim of empowering women in the developing world in order to help them overcome poverty.
Speaking to MediaGlobal, Diane who is a member of the Casablanca Dreamers criticised the response of many governments to the current economic crisis Read the rest of this entry »
