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The Digital Campaign
No full textIn January 2024 Facebook users were invited to request a personalised video from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. ‘Hi [insert name]’, it went, ‘I just wanted to take a moment to wish you a very happy New Year. Now, like you, I think immigration levels are too high. So, I hope you know that today, and every day throughout 2024, whether I’m working in my office in Downing Street or at home in Yorkshire, I will deliver for you.’ Within hours, videos addressing Nigel (Farage) or with photoshopped backgrounds offering pro-Labour messages began to appear. The tool was removed soon afterwards. Initially rumoured to have been generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI), it was quickly reported that Sunak had in fact spent hours recording thousands of names, revealing a surprisingly low-tech infrastructure behind the flashy new tool
Lebanon’s LGBTIQ+ activism: between global representation and neoliberalism
No full textBeirut is often touted as being a refuge for LGBTIQ+ individuals from Southwest Asia and North Africa. With its LGBTIQ+ nightlife, queer-friendly cafes, political organising and ‘queer’ economy, Beirut does provide respite and a promise of progressive development. However, LGBTIQ+ life in Beirut continues to have its difficulties, and the complex dynamics of Lebanon’s economy and politics are intimately felt by queer-identifying individuals. This article critically examines how what is often touted as progress for LGBTIQ+ groups and people can produce economic and political alienation among queer-identifying individuals. It examines the top-down approaches of ‘NGO-ised’ organising and development, issues of self-representation, and neoliberal solutions to crisis-induced deprivation. The article finds that in these three areas, barriers to equity, inclusion and progress are maintained, ultimately harming LGBTIQ+ groups and people
Brain activation and connectivity after 2-3 weeks of escitalopram administration in anxiety disorders:A randomised trial
Get PDFDespite the extensive use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for anxiety treatment worldwide, their neural mechanism of action remains poorly understood. Based on a systematic line of experimental medicine studies from our laboratory, we posited that SSRI-mediated anxiolysis may be driven by a sustained reduction in positive coupling between the dorsomedial cortex and amygdala in anxious individuals. We conducted a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study investigating amygdala-dorsomedial cortex activation and connectivity during emotion processing after 2-3-week SSRI administration in anxious individuals (ANX) compared to healthy controls (HC). The baseline analysis included 96 HC and 45 ANX participants. The follow-up analysis included 86 HC (placebo n = 40, 73 % female, SSRI n = 46, 74 % female) and 42 ANX participants (placebo n = 22, 86 % female, SSRI n = 20, 80 % female). Consistent with predictions, 2-3 weeks of escitalopram administration altered bilateral amygdala connectivity with the dorsomedial cortex during emotional face processing in people with anxiety disorders compared to healthy controls. However, the effect was in the opposite direction to predicted - positive coupling increased following SSRI in the patient group (right amygdala: ANX-SSRI vs HC-SSRI t = 2.4, p = 0.02; left amygdala: ANX-SSRI vs HC-SSRI t = 2.6, p = 0.01). A follow-up sensitivity analysis confirmed this to be a bilateral effect. These findings suggest that our simple hypothesis of SSRIs inducing a reduction in amygdala-dorsomedial cortex connectivity is incorrect, and the associated brain connectivity may instead increase in the initial weeks of drug administration. The study is registered as a clinical trial at https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Its clinical trial name is: 'The Effect of SSRIs on Threat of Shock Potentiated Neural Circuitry', number: NCT07074652, URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07074652
Is firm leverage target adjustment mechanically determined by other financial behaviours?
No full textThis paper discusses how other financial behaviours (investment, cash holdings, equity issuance and profitability) influence leverage decisions and evaluates whether leverage target adjustment is mechanically determined. We extend the classical partial adjustment model by using interaction terms to capture the mechanical effects. We find that the aforementioned financial behaviours constitute 45% of leverage target adjustments. There is also a substantial fraction of the reversion showing active adjustments. The active adjustment is faster from below the leverage target than from above. It appears that firms consider both the optimal leverage ratio and balancing their budget constraints when making financing decisions
Reassessing the potential of FDI for poverty reduction in Africa: A replication and extension of Gohou and Soumaré (2012)
No full textThis study undertakes a replication and extension of the work by Gohou and Soumaré (GS hereafter; World Development, 2012). Using a sample of 52 African countries from 1990 to 2007, GS found a positive relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and poverty reduction, moderated by regional integration. This paper reassesses the robustness of GS's findings by (1) reproducing their study and (2) conducting a replication and extension with updated data (1990–2022), measures of poverty and FDI, and moderators including institutional quality and the sectoral composition of investment. Our analysis fails to corroborate the results. We uncover no consistent evidence to support the hypothesis that FDI reduces poverty, and the regional patterns differ from those originally reported. In our extended analysis, FDI inflows per capita are positively associated with the Human Development Index (HDI), FDI stock demonstrates no consistent effect on HDI or poverty indicators. Regional variation in FDI effects is evident, though results remain inconsistent across measures. Institutional quality yields mixed outcomes: it interacts insignificantly with FDI per capita yet strengthens the relationship between FDI-to-GDP and outcomes such as life expectancy and infant mortality. Evidence concerning the prevalence of malnourishment remains inconclusive. A sectoral disaggregation indicates that FDI directed toward the primary sector is associated with adverse outcomes, whereas the effects in the secondary and tertiary sectors are mixed, with the tertiary sector showing statistically significant results. These findings underscore sensitivity of results to measurement choices and highlight the need for efforts to ensure FDI contributes meaningfully to poverty reduction
An econometric evaluation of the effectiveness of in-work support for earnings progression
Get PDFIn many countries, jobseekers who receive unemployment insurance must commit to an action plan to support their return to work and are monitored and coached to ensure compliance. In some countries means-tested benefit claimants who are in regular but low income employment are also subject to monitoring and coaching (M&C), in order that they can progress into jobs with a higher level of income. In this paper we study the impact of M&C on in-work claimants in the United Kingdom using a difference-in-differences design. Drawing on data from a randomised controlled trial of Universal Credit claimants, we find that M&C leads to increased earnings over time. The results do however show considerable heterogeneity by gender, age and across the earnings distribution
A matter of trust? Policing violence against women and girls
Get PDFThere is limited research on how police engage with racially minoritised victims and survivors of violence against women and girls (VAWG), particularly VAWG that occurs at the intersection of race and gender. This article begins to address that gap examining police handling of these cases, as well as police constructions of the barriers they face and what works. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach – including focus groups with 52 police officers across two police forces, analysis of 55 case files involving VAWG (such as rape and sexual assault), and bodycam footage of police callouts – we examine current police practices and accounts about these practices, focusing on cases involving racially minoritised women and girls, and assess why these practices often fall short of victim/survivor needs and expectations. We highlight examples of good practice, alongside challenges and knowledge gaps, to suggest a path forward for more effective and equitable policing
Foreign Affiliate Performance: independence, location and parental control
No full textThis paper examines the causes of foreign affiliate performance, exploring the importance of the relationships between affiliates and parents in explaining apparent performance differences. By making use of a large firm level database, linking firm level data to numerous sources of official country level data, we explore the importance of headquarters effects, affiliate level effects, and location effects in terms of firm performance. Further, we contrast the effects in terms of both productivity and profitability. Affiliate-level factors explain most of affiliate performance. There are parent-level influences on affiliate performance, but not from the parent’s location. Our analysis provides insights into the interaction of parent (i.e. HQ) attributes with those of the foreign affiliate, as well as the locations of both HQ and affiliate, and thus provides insights into the complexity of these relationships
Thinking-being with a garden: Developing ecocentric ethics for sustainable organising
Get PDFIn this paper, we turn to gardens to offer a new ethics of being with the world that can inform sustainable organising. For this, we develop an ecocentric ethics perspective informed by the writing of Karen Barad, in particular her notion of ‘agential cuts’. By reviewing gardening literatures, and exploring our embodied gardening practices, we attempt to ‘step out’ of institutionalised ways of thinking and working to reach for different embodied and relational ways of being with earth-others. We contribute to debates by: (a) tracing multispecies mutualities of ‘cutting-together apart’ within the gardens we tend, to show how such cutting can develop understandings of an entangled ethics in which human involvement can at times be peripheral; and, (b) showing how garden(ing)s can help enrich understandings of ‘ethico-onto-epistemologies’ by situating embodied practices of organising within planetary processes and rhythms which are variously consequential for sustaining forms of life. These contributions stemming from garden(ing)s can help to inform ecocentric thinking-being in business organisations by developing possibilities for (re)conceptualising: how businesses practices, and connected imaginaries, are entangled in creating conditions that can diminish and enhance earth-others existences; and, how the fluidities and temporalities of specifically located webs of life in which businesses activities are part necessitate sensitivities to working with unknowing
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