Category / Research themes

Planet under Pressure produces a policy brief on Green Economy to inform Rio+20

Planet under Pressure (http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/) a major international conference focusing on solutions to the global sustainability challenge has recently taken place in London (March 26-29). I have followed it on-line and found the plenary sessions extremely interesting. The conference must have been really extraordinary. While I would recommend to those interested in global sustainability to browse the website (I’m sure some might have already), having just finished my first year of teaching in Green Economy, I would like to say a few words on the policy brief on Green Economy.

The policy brief is downloadable from the website and while I would encourage everybody to read it, I have found these points particularly interesting:

1. A simple answer to why the green economy is important is that ‘the well-being of a nation is irrelevant if Earth’s environment is degraded to the point where human existence is threatened’.

2. However, continuing to use the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita to measure progress will lead the green economy path to fail.

3. Therefore, we should evaluate the country progress using a new set of measures which take into account the natural, social, human and produced capitals, and not just economic performance.

4. We should conduct in depth studies on the extent to which we are depleting the Earth’s natural capital before we transgress planetary boundaries of no return.

I will be happy to hear your favourite points for this policy brief. Feel free to email me.

Elena Cantarello

Two new copyright papers by Business School Professors

Professor Ruth TowseProfessor Ruth Towse’s article What we know, what we don’t know, and what policy-makers would like us to know about the economics of copyright, published in the Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues (2011, vol. 8(2), pp.101-120) was recently listed on Social Science Research Network’s (SSRN) Top Ten Download list for: Intellectual Property: Copyright Law eJournal.

Ruth Towse is Professor of Economics of Creative Industries in the Business School, and is Centre for Intellectual Property and Policy Management (CIPPM) co-director (economics).

Professor Paul Heald’s ongoing study exploring the public domain effects Professor Paul Healdof copyright law was reported on The Atlantic, among other places. It shows there are twice as many newly published books available on Amazon from 1850 as there are from 1950.

Paul Heald is Professor of Law at the University of Illinois and Professorial Fellow at the CIPPM, Bournemouth University. You can read more about Professor Heald’s work here.

Copyright levies & market growth: Kretschmer presents in Brussels

Professor Martin KretschmerBU’s Professor Martin Kretschmer presented his latest research on copyright levies to over 70 representatives from the European Commission, European Parliament and international organisations and firms including Google, Nokia and Apple in Brussels last week.

The event saw speakers thrash out the role of intellectual property (IP) in digital markets and particularly the barrier copyright levies pose to market growth. (The levy system adds a tariff to blank CDs, MP3 players, printers, PCs and other copying devices, and the money is given as compensation to the IP owner for loss of sale).

Professor Kretschmer’s research reported the results of three product CDsstudies (printer / scanners, portable music / video / game devices and tablet computers) and analysed the relationship between VAT, levy tariffs and retail prices in 20 levy and non-levy countries.

He argued that reproduction of files for personal use, storage or back up should fall under a (non-compensated) copyright exception as there is no harm due to loss of sale, but that file sharing, performance or social network activities will need a licensing solution.

Speaking alongside Kretschmer was Professor Ian Hargreaves; author of the ‘Hargreaves review’, which was conducted in 2011 for Prime Minister David Cameron, recommending an IP framework to support innovation and economic growth in the digital age.

Audio recordings and slides from the event, ‘Intellectual Property for Growth in Digital Markets’, can be accessed via the Bruegel website.

One of the three pillars – Social Sustainability: hardest to implement, easy to neglect

Interesting and insightful blogpost on the three dimensions (pillars) of sustainability, challenging the simplicity of the model and highlighting how little attention is given to social sustianability. Makes a lot of sense: the ‘economy’ is after all a social construction which benefits humankind; the environment is made better or worse for/by human beings.  And yet the ‘social’ is so often given little attention in the discourse.

http://ssppjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/recovering-social-is-sustainability.html?goback=.gde_1917135_member_104059828

 

Developing software to improve quality of life for disabled people

Bournemouth University (BU) is proud to be a part of an exciting project, aimed at improving the quality of life for people with physical and learning disabilities.

The SHIVA Project (Sculpture for Health-care: Interaction and Virtual Art in 3D) brings together computer science groups, including the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at BU, and medical organisations working with disabled people.

Professor Alexander Pasko is leading BU’s contribution to the SHIVA project: “The main idea behind SHIVA is to give people with disabilities the opportunity to do something in the area of 3D as a way of enhancing their creativity and expressing themselves.”

The project team are currently identifying the requirements of the medical organisations, in order to develop exercises to support a range of different patient needs. These exercises will also offer a wider range of activities for patients, which can increase the chances of a successful rehabilitation.

NCCA staff at BU are developing the 3D modelling software, which can be driven by gestures, as well as hosting the HyperFun project, which is a programming and language software tool, used to create, visualise, and fabricate volumetric 3D models.

One example case the project team are working on is to help improve physical activity in patients who have suffered a stroke.

“We are also working with children who are born disabled,” explained Professor Pasko, “helping them with simple tasks that engage and activate the right side of the brain.”

The final stages of the SHIVA Project will be to raise awareness of the exercises within the medical profession, so they can be applied in the education or rehabilitation process.

The project aims to be completed by February 2014, when an exhibition will be held to display the work of the disabled participants. This will be made possible through the use of 3D printers currently available at BU.

The other organisations involved in the project are the University of Lille in France, the HOPALE Foundation from France and the Victoria School from Poole. For further information and updates visit the project website.

The SHIVA project is part-funded thanks to the action of the European Union and with a contribution of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

BU is world number one for fish biology research

Research emerging from the Centre for Conservation Ecology and Environmental Sciences at Bournemouth University (BU) is rated the best in the world for the study of fish biology.

Head of the Centre, ProfessorRudy Gozlan, said: “Fish are carried by a vascular network of rivers and are the blood of millions of people that rely on healthy inland fisheries for food, business and sport fishing. We are delighted that our research contributes to that knowledge and comes in support of human communities all around the world.”

The statistic is from the bibliographic database ‘Scopus’, which calculates institutional strengths, based on article clusters. 

Institutions are ranked according to three measures:

  • Publication leadership, calculated through the proportion of articles from BU in the fish biology cluster
  • Reference leadership, calculated through the proportion of citations in the fish biology cluster that cite BU articles
  • State-of-the-art leadership, outlining how recent BU’s fish biology references are.

The accolade comes as BU researchers enter discussions with the Environment Agency regarding the testing of wild fish populations for the deadly parasite Sphaerothecum destruens.

More commonly known as the Rosette Agent, the parasite killed 90% of UK salmon in lab tests and has been blamed for the rapid demise of Leucaspius delineatus, or the sunbleak species, in parts of Europe.

Professor Gozlan said: “Since the first discovery of the Rosette Agent in wild populations five years ago we have carried out a set of tests and all species were highly susceptible to infection. We have carried out further tests in semi-natural conditions and found the same results. We looked at one wild fish population and found the disease present. In California our colleagues did the same in a population of returning salmon and found the parasite in around 40% of the fish. The Environment Agency will not determine the impact of the Rosette Agent unless they start specific health checks.”

More information on the Centre for Conservation Ecology and Environmental Sciences can be found on the centre’s webpages.

‘World Leading Academic to attend Media School Symposium’

Research themes

Professor Robert Picard, of Harvard and Oxford universities has confirmed his attendance at the forthcoming symposium on New Economic Models in the Digital Economy.
The event is being hosted by the Advances in Media Management (AiMM) research group and Dr John Oliver and Dr Sukhpreet Singh say that they are delighted to have Professor Picard, the world’s foremost authority on media economics, in attendance. The event will involve a brainstorming session with academics from Brunel and Westminster universities aswell as senior executives from Virgin Media, The Telegraph, the CC Group and the British Film Institute.

The aim of the symposium is to develop collaborative project ideas to submit to the EPSRC’s forthcoming call on New Economic Models.

 

Strategies for use of news websites in journalism education

Fusion

Funding Source: Association for Journalism Education
Chief Investigators: Dr Einar Thorsen and Sue Wallace, The Media School, Bournemouth University
Research Assistant: Dr Caitlin Patrick, The Media School, Bournemouth University

 

Project brief

Journalism is among the most rapidly changing industries, affected by both technological advances and shifting consumer habits. This makes it paramount for journalism education to keep pace with trends such as changing journalism practices and the migration of audiences to online journalism. One possible outcome of this imperative is for online news or magazine websites to be developed to a) showcase student reporting, b) serve as an educational tool in professional journalism practices, and c) facilitate research into news and journalism innovation. Journalism courses are increasingly making use of their own websites in one or more of these ways, but development, as in the news industry itself, has tended to be haphazard and quite often on a trial and error basis.

This project seeks to address this problematic by conducting a survey of news and magazine websites used in journalism courses, their history, evolution and integration into education practice. The aim is not to produce a standard model to be applied in every case. Rather, the intention is to collect and share experiences to inform education and curriculum development. The sharing of best practice can also help to maintain high standards in journalism education.

 

International survey

Phase One of the project launched in March 2012 and involves an international survey into the use of news and magazine websites in journalism education.

We would be most grateful if anyone involved in journalism education could assist by completing our survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/websites-in-journalism-education

We are interested in the views of both staff and students, so please circulate as widely as possible.

The survey is completed anonymously. For staff it takes no more than 10-15 minutes to complete, with the student section possible to complete in 5 minutes. All staff and students on undergraduate and postgraduate journalism courses are encouraged to partake and we welcome your participation.

 

Case studies

Phase Two of the project will take place in the second half of 2012 and involve up to five site visits to observe how websites are used in live news days simulating real-life news operations. During these visits we propose to conduct follow-up interviews in conjunction with examination of websites, to scrutinise in finer detail the patterns of application and usage.

 

Project outcomes

This project will investigate both technological and editorial issues associated with use of websites in journalism education.

Findings from this research project will be made available online and as contributions to relevant scholarly journals, including the AJE journal Journalism Education, outlining experiences, advice, and different models of application. The findings may also be of use to accreditation bodies and industry panels.

If you would like further information on the project, you can view the original project brief.

21 Issues for the 21st century- UNEP asserts that Skills and Education are Critical

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently completed their Foresight Process,

led by 22 distinguished members of the scientific community and involving more than

400 leading scientists and experts from around the world with the aim of  identifying and ranking the most pressing emerging environmental issues

for the 21st Century. The highest ranking priority was to overhaul global environmental governance to meet 21st Century challenges.

The Second was:

Transforming Human Capabilities for the 21 Century – upskilling the global workforce for a Green Economy.

Good news for those working in the area of SD and Green Economy .

Number 4  ‘social tipping points’  poses the question that for me is fundamental – how do we catalyse human behaviour change?

 

the report is available at

http://www.unep.org/publications/ebooks/foresightreport/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

st

 

 

 

 

 

Century: Meeting Global Environmental Challenges and

 

Moving Towards a Green Economy

 

re-tooling

the global work force for a Green Economy

 

 

 

– and this from a list of over 90 issues.

As Bill Scott said in his blog

 

 

1

:

 

 

“…good news for social scientists everywhere that governance, human

 

capability, the green economy, etc, feature so prominently.”

 

Find the Foresight Report at:

 

 

http://www.unep.org/publications/ebooks/foresightreport

 

 

AHRC seeks applications in Environmental Change and Sustainability

Funding opportunities

Applications for up to £1.5m (full economic cost) are invited under a highlight notice in AHRC’s standard and early career research grants routes. The highlight notice addresses the ‘Environmental Change and Sustainability’ area within the Care for the Future theme and is open until 30th October 2012.

Aims and Scope of the Highlight Notice

The aim of the highlight notice is to encourage collaborative arts and humanities-led research which explores the potential of a temporally inflected lens to provide new insights on the challenges of environmental change and sustainability.

For the purposes of the highlight notice, ‘environmental change’ is defined broadly and includes climate change, environmental hazards, agriculture and food security, water, landscape and natural resources. The issues may be at any environmental scale and be focused geographically anywhere in the globe. ‘Sustainability’ is also defined broadly but with particular reference to inter-generational relationships, and the broader ways in which the past, the present and the future inter-relate, in respect to issues of environmental change. There is no limit to how far back in time (or how far forward in the future) the temporal horizon may reach, but proposals must demonstrate a significant temporal dimension which extends beyond contemporary or near contemporary themes.

More information on the call can be found on the AHRC website and in the call document.

Looking to recruit a potential Post Doc – Food and Tourism

We are looking for a potential overseas Post Doc to work in the area of Food and Tourism.  In the first instance the candidate would work with collegues to secure the funding for this one or two year post, though we are looking at a funding route with a good success rate.

The specific package of work for the two years will be negotiated depending on the research interests of the candidate and the research team.

So if you have any connections with an individual that might fit the bill please get back to Sean for a chat. (sbeer@bournemouth.ac.uk )

Fusion Conference – Wednesday 18 April: Call for contributions and book your place

Fusion, Research themes

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fusion Conference – Wednesday 18 April:
 
The ‘Fusion’ series of internal conferences and seminars for 2011/12 continues on Wednesday 18 April with a ‘Fusion in Action’ conference hosted by Vice-Chancellor Professor John Vinney in the Executive Business Centre, Lansdowne Campus, from noon to 5pm.

The conference entitled ‘Fusion in Action: Knowledge exchange with students, society and the professions’ is firmly grounded in the context of Vision & Values and seeks to illustrate Fusion at its best. 

The conference will include contributions from staff and students through a combination of presentations, demonstrations and discussions.

The conference aims to showcase examples of staff engaged in academic and/or research-led activities associated with the professions and wider society and to identify:

  • ·         how this helps create a unique academic experience for staff and students at BU
  • ·         how students and staff can share in the learning experience
  • ·         how such knowledge exchange can foster innovative learning experiences, pedagogic developments and research activities.

This half-day conference replaces the previous Education Enhancement Conference and Research Conferences held in previous years.  

Proposals for papers, poster presentations, discussion groups and/or demonstrations related to the theme are now invited.  These should be submitted to: fusionconference@bournemouth.ac.uk by Wednesday 7 March using the abstract form here: http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/staff_new/edq/conferences/staff_conferences.html

If you wish to discuss possible contributions, please contact Julie Northam on extension:  61208 or Jennifer Taylor on extension: 61271 in the first instance.

The conference is open to all staff contributing to the delivery of programmes and research activities at BU and partner locations and will also involve presentations from the University Executive Team and members of the Students’ Union. 

Link to bookings page:

Re-framing Bournemouth the Town: a symposium and exhibition

An artist and former student has approached the University with a view to organising a symposium and exhibition as part of the 2012 Arts festival.

The symposium will be called Re-framing Bournemouth and will specifically focus on the issue of the visual and conceptual perception of Bournemouth by both residents and visitors, as well as how the resort might be re-imagined for the future. Really it’s thinking about the tourist experience and residents re-experiencing their hometown from a visual and aesthetic perspective.

If this is something that might be if interest please contact John Brackstone (65801/ jbrackst@bournemouth.ac.uk ) in the School of Tourism for a chat.

Tourism: a catalyst for existential authenticity

Over the last 2 terms the School of Tourism has been hosting a series of seminars on various aspects of research and philosophy.  The first was on reality, the second on post modernism and the latest will be on existential authenticity.

Dr Lorraine Brown has recently done some work which is helping recontextualize our ideas of existential authenticity in the area of Tourism.  All welcome.  Be prepared for some lively discussion and Lemon Drizzle cake!

Wednesday 7 March 1.30-3.00

TAG02

Lorraine Brown

Subject: Tourism: a catalyst for existential authenticity.  .

Atlantic Calling Success

 I am sure that you will be pleased to know that Lloyd Figgins and David Whiddon became the first modern day, independent oarsmen to row non-stop from Morocco to Barbados in their 23ft rowing boat ‘Atlantic Calling’.  Their journey took them 60 days and 17 hours. 

Bournemouth University’s Centre for Event and Sport Research provided psychological and physiological support. They brought together people such as Olympic rower, Bobby Thatcher and David Alred (Jonny Wilkinson’s kicking coach) to help provide training and focus. UK celebrity and previous Atlantic rower, Ben Fogle even popped into the RNLI to see Atlantic Calling and provide advice. 

As a team they worked with the rowers to develop and deliver a bespoke sports science support package for the rowers prior to their departure.  This included technique analysis and development, strength and conditioning, injury rehabilitation, musculo-skeletal assessment and sport psychology support between March and November 2011.  The team included Emma Kavanagh, Joanna Hawkes, Amanda Wilding, Kelly Goodwin, Shelley Broomfield and Andy Callaway from the sports team along with other external expertise. 

This experience has proved beneficial to the University team as well as the rowers.  As Emma Kavanagh made clear, 

“As you can imagine we are all very proud of the guys and feel fortunate as a sports team to have had the opportunity to work on this project.” 

Weight loss for the rowers apparently stands at 1 1/2 stone for David and 2 stone 5lbs for Lloyd so they look a little bit different to when they departed! 

For more information on Atlantic Calling go to: 

http://www.atlanticcalling.com/Home.html

 

 

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BU’s Professor Keith Brown announced as speaker at first National MCA/DOLS Conference

Professor Keith Brown, Director of the Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work at BU, has been added to the list of speakers at the Mental Capacity Act Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (MCA/DOLS) conference.

The national conference, which is the first of its kind, will focus on the current industry after MCA and DOLS legislation has been put in place.

Professor Keith BrownExhibitions from agencies and organisations will be displayed at the conference to further contribute to the knowledge of attendees. The day will be filled with presentations and various discussion groups around relevant topical issues.

Discussions will focus on whether the legislation has made a difference, the issues people are still experiencing and what still needs to be done to raise awareness and get people thinking about MCA/ DOLS.

The conference will be held on Tuesday 28 February 2012 at Inmarsat Conference Centre, London.

For more information or to book a place, please contact Denise Whickman at denise.whickman@sept.nhs.uk

Health, Wellbeing and Ageing – First Community Meeting

Dear all,      

Our first community meeting will be held on March 7th 10am – 1pm at the EBC, third floor. This is everyone’s opportunity to shape and frame the direction of the theme and therefore I would like to actively encourage everyone to attend.

I would also like to extend this invitation to all the post-grad students who have signed up; your input will be most valuable.

We have a lovely lunch booked

There are some key questions that we need to answer:

 

  •  Why it is important to society?

 

  • What BU has done to make improvements in this area?

 

  • What expertise and knowledge BU can provide for future collaborators, commercial partners, etc?

 

Your feedback would be really helpful and if you could email me your comments that would be brilliant:  hhartwell@bournemouth.ac.uk

With many thanks and see you in March,

 Heather, Edwin, Holgar and Carol