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When the phone's away, people use their computer to play: distance to the smartphone reduces device usage but not overall distraction and task fragmentation during work
No full textThe smartphone helps workers balance the demands of their professional and personal lives but can also be a distraction, affecting productivity, wellbeing, and work-life balance. Drawing from insights on the impact of physical environments on object engagement, this study examines how the distance between the smartphone and the user influences interactions in work contexts. Participants (N=22) engaged in two 5h knowledge work sessions on the computer, with the smartphone placed outside their immediate reach during one session. Results show that limited smartphone accessibility led to reduced smartphone use, but participants shifted non-work activities to the computer and the time they spent on work and leisure activities overall remained unchanged. These findings suggest that discussions on smartphone disruptiveness in work contexts should consider the specific activities performed, challenging narratives of 'smartphone addiction' and 'smartphone overuse' as the cause of increased disruptions and lowered work productivity
Cost-effectiveness decision modelling in social care: exploring the why, the how, and the what next
No full textContext In social care research economic evaluation has had limited impact, in contrast to other health related areas. However, increasing research funding and policy interest is occurring, including regarding the role of cost-effectiveness decision modelling. Objectives We explore why cost-effectiveness decision modelling is informative in a social care setting, how it can and has previously been implemented, and what next steps are needed to ensure consistent, robust, and informative models are produced to inform social care decisions. Method This paper consists of an overview of the theoretical added value of cost-effectiveness decision modelling in a social care setting, alongside a literature search summarising the key features of decision models in the current published and grey literature. Findings Cost-effectiveness decision modelling in social care is relatively undeveloped with only a few examples identified and minimal methodological research in the area. These studies varied greatly in the approaches taken but demonstrate the practicality and value of decision modelling. Limitations The pragmatic approach to the literature review may have missed some existing decision models but we consider the findings to be appropriate. Implications Cost-effectiveness decision modelling has the potential to play an important role in informing effective, consistent, and transparent decision-making processes in social care. However, methodological developments are needed to standardise the approaches taken
The financial activist: shareholding and the inconvenience of collective ownership
No full textWith the increasing financialization of the global economy, social movements and activists increasingly target financial actors to enact social change through the framework of shareholder-led corporate governance. Where finance penetrates individual households, activists harness the widespread “collective ownership” of corporations through shareholding to push for social change. Drawing on three instances of shareholder mobilization in relation to a mining corporation, this essay examines how activists engage financial actors, particularly in relation to extractive industries. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in London, interviews with global activists, and analysis of corporate materials, the article draws on Lauren Berlant’s theory of inconvenience to show how activists learn to live with and inconvenience financial systems, while simultaneously working to undo or lessen some of the harms caused by extractive industries. While in the first instance, institutional investors respond to an event and act as traditional activist shareholders, in the second and third, activists work to mediate and inform investors to hold the corporation to account. The article concludes on the financialization of activism, and the limits to undoing inequalities embedded in finance as a terrain of political contestation
Artificial intelligence, recessionary pressures and population health
No full textEconomic and labour policies have a considerable influence on health and well-being through direct financial impacts, and by shaping social and physical environments. Strong economies are important for public health investment and employment, yet the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to reshape economies, presenting challenges beyond mere temporary market disruption. Generative AI can perform non-routine cognitive tasks, previously unattainable though traditional automation, creating new efficiencies. While this technology offers opportunities for innovation and productivity, its labour-displacing potential raises serious concerns about economic stability and social equity, both of which are critical to health. Job displacement driven by generative AI could worsen income inequality, shrink middle-class opportunities and reduce consumer demand, triggering recessionary pressures. In this article, we propose the existence of an AI-capital-to-labour ratio threshold beyond which a self-reinforcing cycle of recessionary pressures may emerge, and which market forces alone cannot correct. Traditional responses to such pressures, like fiscal stimulus or monetary easing, may be ineffective in addressing structural disruptions to labour markets caused by generative AI. We call for a proactive global response to harness the benefits of generative AI while mitigating risks. This response should focus on reorienting economic systems towards collective well-being, as emphasized in the World Health Assembly resolution Economics of health for all and the United Nations' Global Digital Compact. Integrated strategies that combine fiscal policy, regulation and social policies are critical to ensuring generative AI advances societal health and equity while avoiding harm from excessive job displacement
Intertextuality as method in a time of technologised misinformation: the case of Hindutva fascism in India
No full textThe spread of hateful disinformation and the domestication of new technologies have been implicated in off-screen discrimination, lynch mobs, mass shootings and the rise of far right governments worldwide. Yet many have been reluctant to name these entrenched communicative strategies of disinformation and dehumanisation as fascist, particularly when discussing non-western contexts. This raises questions about how the narratives, semiotics and aesthetics of these media operate. In this paper, I discuss the comparative visual research methods which can be used to support a plausible case about the role of texts such as WhatsApp messages, posters, films, documentaries, websites, star endorsements and political advertising in the politics of fascism in India. Most particularly, I explore the methodological promises of the notion of “intertextuality”. In doing so, I use examples from two decades of research on visual cultures of Hindutva fascism in India, paying attention to the colour saffron, the furore around an Indian actress’ participation in the Netflix series Quantico, and the use fascist fantasy, myth and disinformation in memes and profile pictures. Using sociological and historical evidence as critical media education, the conclusion sums up the best uses of audiovisual analytic methods in the fight to recognise fascist tropes originating outside Europe and North America
The fragile power of political nations: Adam Smith’s federative
No full textThis article examines Adam Smith’s concept of the federative: the double-facing constitutional power to conduct international relations today called the treaty or foreign-affairs power. We reconstruct Smith’s account of the federative from his major and minor works and demonstrate its importance in his account of law and empire. We first examine Smith’s early “internal federative,” where the power grows from the internal constitutional organization of the state. What starts as a democratic right to wage war and make peace becomes concentrated over time in the sovereign and its advisers as a “senatoriall” power. We then turn to the “external federative” in Smith’s later works, where the federative is redesigned as a power to unify colonial legislative bodies, connecting the familial sentiments of Britain and America, and forming a model for moving, slowly, towards the conditions Smith deemed necessary for international justice
When breaking the law gets you the job: evidence from the electronic dance music community
No full textWhy would a law-abiding occupational community support members engaged in legally prohibited actions? We propose that lawbreaking can elicit informal support when it is construed as a disinterested action—intended to serve the community rather than the perpetrator. We study how illegal remixing (“bootlegging”) affects an artist’s ability to secure opening act and other performance opportunities in the electronic dance music (EDM) community, whose members endorse the substance of copyright law but whose norms about bootlegging are ambiguous. Data on 38,784 disc jockeys (DJs) across 97 countries over 10 years reveal that producing bootlegs is associated with more opportunities to perform, compared to producing official remixes or original music. This effect disappears when community members view bootlegging as a self-serving action—primarily designed to benefit the perpetrator. An online experiment and an expert survey rule out the possibility that bootlegs are considered more creative, of higher quality, or better able to attract attention. We shed additional light on our proposed mechanism by analyzing data from 34 interviews with EDM professionals. This helps us to explain how a lawbreaker can paradoxically be perceived as serving the community, thereby eliciting active community support for their action
The return of the state: how European governments regulate labour market competition from migrant workers
No full textWhat is the role of the market economy and of the European Union in shaping policies that limit migrants’ access to the labour market? While much of the existing research has examined the development of border policies in Europe, less attention has been given to post-entry measures regulating the employment of Third Country Nationals. We examine the role of different market economies and the European Union in devising lesser-known measures that target migrant labour market competition. Focusing on the period from 1990 to 2020, we analyse four case studies: Austria, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. We hypothesize that these migrant labour market competition measures (MCM) have emerged in ways that challenge both the marketization of migration thesis and predictions from theories of EU immigration policymaking and varieties of capitalism (VoC). While the European Union’s influence partially explains the adoption of some selective policies, the emergence of MCM transcends the VoC framework. Furthermore, contrary to marketization claims, states have sought to address labour market concerns about competition from migrants by adopting selective, rather than indiscriminate, regulatory approaches. We argue that the interplay between selectivity and measures restricting migrant labour market competition has become central to understanding how states regulate migration in the European Union
Comedy and refugee liminality: transformative narratives in German comedy film Welcome to the Hartmanns
No full textThis article analyzes the portrayal of refugees in comedy through the 2016 German film Welcome to the Hartmanns. The study highlights a shift in representation, whereby refugees are not depicted as vulnerable individuals in need of protection but as active, transformative figures. The refugee character in the film reshapes the life of his host family, establishing a new social order—an element central to comedic conventions. His uniqueness arises not from his race or origin but from his liminality—existing between countries, cultures, and identities. Situated at the intersection of refugee liminality and comedic theory, the article explores how his presence induces change, compelling the family to confront their past and embrace a new future. By positioning the refugee as a catalyst for transformation rather than a passive beneficiary of aid, Welcome to the Hartmanns challenges conventional narratives and invites viewers to reconsider refugees’ roles in host societies. The film demonstrates how comedy, beyond entertainment, can provide critical commentary on social issues, offering humor as a tool for fostering empathy and understanding in an increasingly complex worl