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Bogliaccini, J.A. (2024) Empowering Labour: Leftist Approaches to Wage Policy in Unequal Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781-0094335-25 240 pp. US$105.00 (hardcover).
Full text linkSlowly climbing a slippery slope: Trade unions at COP
Full text linkThis piece is a reflection on the role of the trade union movement in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, including its annual Conference of the Parties (COP). I write it as someone who has been engaging in COPs as part of the global trade union delegation for the past four years. And it’s important to stress: for the labour movement, climate action is not reducible to the UNFCCC. Whatever trade unions decide to do or not do inside the COP process, there is an enormous need for climate activism in a range of other spaces, from the workplace to national politics.
That being said, I will argue that trade unions should continue to engage in COPs, as it is a key forum where the new climate economy is being shaped. Although I recognise the many failings and structural weaknesses of the COP process, with Brazil taking up the COP30 Presidency this year, this would be a bad time to withdraw from it
A partnership between an undergraduate student and a university faculty member: Experiences and takeaways of a student course coordinator
Full text linkIn this reflective essay, we discuss a partnership between a 4th-year undergraduate student and a faculty member in developing and teaching a 3rd-year inquiry-based learning (IBL) course. This partnership, characterized by shared decision-making, introduced a newly defined role: the student course coordinator (SCC). Through this collaboration, a student’s voice was integrated into every stage of the process, from course development and delivery to end-of-course reflection and evaluation.. In many ways, this partnership was akin to an education practicum in which a student gains valuable experience in coordinating and co-teaching a course while developing skills essential for an effective mentor and educator. In this essay, we highlight the context, practicalities, benefits, and challenges of such a partnership and provide our reflections on the experience. We hope the reflections and experiences shared here will provide an account of the value of student voices and partnership in education
Implementing Publicly Funded Psychotherapy Services: What Can Ontario Learn from England?
Full text linkTo address high rates of unmet need for mental health services in Ontario and England, both jurisdictions undertook the implementation of publicly funded psychotherapy programs with similar objectives, albeit in different time periods. Given the policy decision in Ontario to implement this approach, this paper aims to understand the lessons Ontario can learn from England in scaling up the Improving Access to Psychological Therapy program through an application of Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework. The key policy difference between the two jurisdictions is that England has fully implemented its program nationwide, while Ontario is at the demonstration project phase. Therefore, a comparative health reform analysis (CHRA) is undertaken to trace the evolution of the mental health system reforms in relation to publicly funded psychotherapy services in the two jurisdictions. Across the problem, policy and politics streams, key concepts included indicator tracking, coalition building, and policy entrepreneurship. Key lessons Ontario can learn from the England story include further framing of the policy issue to rally public support and continuing to engage policy entrepreneurs in coalition building exercises. Research results may be useful for policymakers, provide groundwork for researchers, and encourage the public to play an active role in this important cause.
Pour répondre aux taux élevés de besoins non satisfaits en matière de services de santé mentale en Ontario et en Angleterre, les deux entités politiques ont entrepris de mettre en oeuvre des programmes de psychothérapie financés sur les fonds publics avec des objectifs similaires, bien qu’à des périodes différentes. Compte tenu de la décision de l’Ontario de mettre en oeuvre cette approche, cet article vise à comprendre les leçons que l’Ontario peut tirer de l’Angleterre dans l’extension du programme d’amélioration de l’accès à la psychothérapie, en appliquant le cadre des courants multiples de Kingdon. La principale différence politique entre les deux juridictions est que l’Angleterre a entièrement mis en oeuvre son programme à l’échelle nationale, tandis que l’Ontario en est à la phase du projet de démonstration. Par conséquent, une analyse comparative de la réforme de la santé (CHRA) est entreprise pour retracer l’évolution des réformes du système de santé mentale en relation avec les services de psychothérapie financés sur fonds publics dans les deux entités politiques. Parmi les courants du problème, des solutions politiques et des possibilités de réalisation politiques, les concepts clés comprennent le suivi des indicateurs, la création de coalitions et l’entreprenariat politique. Les principaux enseignements que l’Ontario peut tirer de l’histoire de l’Angleterre sont les suivants : mieux formuler la question politique afin de rallier le soutien du public et continuer à engager les entrepreneurs politiques dans des exercices de création de coalitions. Les résultats de la recherche peuvent être utiles aux décideurs politiques, fournir un travail de base aux chercheurs et encourager le public à jouer un rôle actif dans cette cause importante
Protector or Polluter? Environmental Impacts of Remittances
No full textAs remittances are largely viewed as potential factor of financial development and economic growth, their role in polluting the environment cannot be denied. In this paper, we investigate the environmental effect of migrant remittance in the global south. By using panel data of 37 countries in the southern hemisphere from 1980 to 2014, results show that remittances worsen the environment. We, therefore, support the remittances-led emission hypothesis. Interestingly, we found that the inflows of remittances do not affect CO2 emissions directly, but indirectly through household consumption, private investment, urbanization and importations. Our results deeply suggest that policymakers in the South should (1) consider remittances as a policy instrument to design strategies related to sustainable and responsible investing, and (2) channel remittances into green consumptions and investments
Testing students-as-partners theory: Science and engineering students’ perspectives on a students-as-partners consultant model for supporting an instructor-centered curriculum development community of practice
Full text linkStudents as partners (SaP) has emerged as a way to innovate curriculum development and create more inclusive learning experiences for students in postsecondary settings. Popular models of SaP are time intensive, involving student and instructor dyads that meet frequently. Less is known about short-term consultant models of SaP and the impact on students. This study proposes a student-as-partners consultant (SaP-C) model and tests whether it can operationalize the principles of SaP theory. Student responses to a questionnaire (n= 7, 41% response rate), analyzed using an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach, indicate that the SaP-C approach does, according to students’ perspectives, operationalize SaP principles and positively influences students’ feelings of connection to other students and faculty. This model offers instructors an evidence-based, less time-intensive way to work in partnership with students in order to be pedagogically responsive to their perspectives and experiences in course or program design efforts
Succeeding in Energy Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does Institutional Quality Matter?
No full textThe objective of this article is to examine the effect of the quality of institutions on energy transition in 19 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 1996-2016. To achieve this, we proceed in two steps. We first use the principal component analysis (PCA) to construct a composite indicator of institutional quality, from Kaufmann’s (1996) six indicators of governance. Then, we estimate an autoregressive distributive lag model (ARDL) on panel data using the pooled mean group (PMG) estimation technique. Our results show that the quality of institutions determines the energy transition in SSA. The associated coefficient is positive and statistically significant. In addition, our results show that economic growth and trade openness promote energy transition. On the other hand, it emerges that CO2 emissions hinder energy transition, due to the high dependence of the countries considered on fossil fuels. We suggest an improvement in the quality of institutions and the implementation of political incentives favorable to the adoption of new technologies
Practice or Product? Labour, Training, and the “Ethics” of AI
Full text linkThis essay interrogates the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI) to intellectual labour and human skills and capacities. Employing insights from ethical philosophy, political theory, and the Marxist tradition in an engagement with recent manifestos calling for AI regulation, I adopt an interdisciplinary approach to the question of labour and technology, using translation work as a case study. Intentionally bracketing whether AI will be able to replace human translators, I explore the foundation of the conflict between AI and human intellectual work: namely that the former risks destroying the cultural practices and institutions that maintain the human ability to think and communicate in the most general sense. Even if regulation were to succeed in making AI more “ethical” – that is, more transparent, less exploitative, less biased, and less environmentally destructive – it would still be “unethical” in the strict etymological sense of the term that I advance here as a hermeneutic device: AI destroys the ethos (habits, abilities, way of being) of translation by degrading the cultural and institutional “training milieu” conducive to it. This conclusion is applicable to numerous domains of labour and has implications for education and democratic citizenship