The three main types of insecure work, casual, zero‐hours and self‐employment, are all on the increase.  Ongoing labour market deregulation, the impact of information technology and the new gig economy means income, hours, days or even work locations can no longer be guaranteed as employment rights are eroded. More and more workers are becoming socially isolated. This and flexible working raises barriers for organising the rapidly growing precarious workforce.

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Book by Alexis M. Elder: “Various emerging technologies, from social robotics to social media, appeal to our desire for social interactions, while avoiding some of the risks and costs of face-to-face human interaction. But can they offer us real friendship?

Techwire Asia: “A Non-Governmental Organization is using blockchain technology to provide stateless Rohingya refugees who fled Burma (Myanmar) with digital identity cards in a pilot project aimed at giving access to services like banking and education.

Book by Avani Parikh and Prashant Parikh: “From Vitruvius in the 1st century BCE on, there has been an attempt to understand how architecture works, especially in its poetic aspect but also in its basic

Review by Stuart Jeffries of new book by Byung-Chul Han: “During a commercial break in the 1984 Super Bowl, Apple broadcast an ad directed by Ridley Scott.

Chapter by Sarah Hartmann, Agnes Mainka and Wolfgang G. Stock in Enhancing Knowledge Discovery and Innovation in the Digital Era: “Cities all over the world are challenged with problems evolving from increasing urbanity, population growth, and density. For example, one prominent issue that is addressed in many cities is mobility. To develop smart city solutions, governments are trying to introduce open innovation.

Mara Hvistendahl at Wired: “…During the past 30 years, by contrast, China has grown to become the world’s second largest economy without much of a functioning credit system at all. The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central banking regulator, maintains records on millions of consumers, but they often contain little or no information. Until recently, it was difficult to get a credit card with any bank other than your own. Consumers mainly used cash….

Andrea Hickerson at the Oxford Bibliographies: “Until recently, I firmly believed whistleblowers would increasingly turn to secure, anonymizing tools and websites, like WikiLeaks, to share their data rather than take the risk of relying on a journalist to protect their identity.

What happens with our central democratic values like freedom, equality and truth in the digital society?How does the public sphere fulfill its function of forming a societal self-understanding in times... MORE
The post Democracy and public sphere in the digital society appeared first on HIIG.

Symposium Paper by Dominique Boullier: “When in 2007 Savage and Burrows pointed out ‘the coming crisis of empirical methods’, they were not expecting to be so right. Their paper however became a landmark, signifying the social sciences’ reaction to the tremendous shock triggered by digital methods.

Project by WWF: “Can data on how people respond to a warming world help us anticipate human impacts on wildlife?

Index:
# COPYRIGHT AND ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION
– Directive of the European Union on Copyright in the Digital Single Market
– “Canon Digital” Private Copy Levy in the Spanish State
– Copyright exceptions and limitations in Spain
# FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND PROTECTION OF LEAKERS / ALERTERS / WHISTLEBLOWERS
– Anticorruption whistleblowing platforms
– Whislteblowers protection legilslation: Catalonia / Spain / Europe

Basándose en un análisis entre variables ambientales precedentes y la superficie incendiada desde 2012, los profesores de la Facultad de Ciencias Forestales Pablo García y Miguel Castillo, predicen una temporada de incendios severa para nuestro país. En la siguiente columna de opinión de los académicos, el llamado a las autoridades es a levantar acciones preventivas coordinadas para aminorar riesgos. Chile enfrenta nuevamente una temporada de incendios forestales. Las cifras de ocurrencia no variaron sustantivamente en la pasada temporada 2016-2017.

Colombia, Perú y Ecuador son los países de origen de la mayoría de los extranjeros interesados en estos programas centrados en la investigación.

Aaron Bastani has written a fantastic, concise analysis of the current political economy vis a vis environmental realities. While I agree that we need attractive visions of the future (see our recent Commons Transition Primer for ours) and that, yes, States and unions are key components for any realist, short-term change, I found the article’s undertones to be too growth-oriented and vanguardist – the Commons or community-led change are sadly absent.

Jerome Roos: In January 2017, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the infamous Doomsday Clock featured on the cover of its journal to 2.5 minutes before the hour — the second-closest to midnight it has been since its inception in 1947. “This year’s deliberations felt more urgent than usual,” the Board noted, citing the existential threats posed by climate change and rising nuclear tensions between the Trump administration and North Korea.

Innovative Approaches to Digital Financial Inclusion Challenges.

Three Bengalureans and two organisations from the city have been selected this year for the Helen Keller awards, given by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) and Mindtree.

The article was published by Deccan Herald on November 30, 2017

Manasa Rao attended a workshop organized by Twitter titled "The Network Effort". It was an effort by the Public Policy and Government team at Twitter to enable NGOs and non-profits to conduct successful Twitter campaigns and teach them best practices.
The handbook for the workshop is here.