Social class

Don’t blame parents for wanting their children to speak differently – blame society

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Life, BBC, RP, Language, Police, Sibling, Speech, Parent, BBC English, Housing, Social class, Toy

One way his mother did this, he says, was to send them to extra drama lessons.

Key Points:

One way his mother did this, he says, was to send them to extra drama lessons.
To make sure they “didn’t speak with accents”, and instead would be able to “speak properly”.
It is hard to criticise Mrs Sunak for wanting to do what’s best for her children.
She was aware of an injustice that her children were facing, and so she did what she could to minimise that injustice.

What does ‘to speak without an accent’ mean?

In fact, the right accent does such a good job of going unnoticed, that it ceases to be seen as an accent at all.
And like all accents, its use can give us insights into who somebody is, or who somebody is trying to be.
The way we speak is inextricably linked to who we are, to our sense of identity.
But it is not the fault of the parents in encouraging their children to speak in ways that erase their background.
Surely we should work to change the way we listen, not force others to change the way they speak.

Rob Drummond has previously received funding from The Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Leverhulme Trust, and The British Council

Who will be picked for vice president? Let’s discuss who’s qualified for the job

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Democrat, GOP, Republican, News, Trump, Len Bias, The New York Times, White, Heat, CNN, Judgement, Social class, Fox News, Democracy, Senate, Research, Running, Management

You know, that favorite game of pundits, politicos and political junkies who, every four years, obsess over the presidential candidates’ choice for vice president.

Key Points:

You know, that favorite game of pundits, politicos and political junkies who, every four years, obsess over the presidential candidates’ choice for vice president.
Who will Trump pick for vice president?
Will Biden drop Vice President Kamala Harris from the Democratic ticket?
But what matters most to voters, according to my research, and to the future of this country is finding someone who is well qualified to serve as vice president – and president, if necessary.

What the media get wrong

Veepstakes media coverage deserves its poor reputation as little more than an electoral parlor game.
This is the conclusion from my 2023 book, “News Media Coverage of the Vice-Presidential Selection Process: What’s Wrong with the ‘Veepstakes?’” I used data from presidential elections from 2000 through 2020 to conduct the first systematic analysis of veepstakes media coverage.
This allows me to characterize the media’s messages about what is important when selecting a vice presidential candidate.

What does the evidence show?

Whether a candidate was qualified to serve in the White House attracted much less attention.
A potential vicen presidential candidate’s political or professional experience gets even less media coverage in the run-up to a close election.
Choosing a well-qualified vice president is treated as a luxury that only some presidential candidates can afford.

How to get it right

And in what used to be a simple ceremonial function, they also open and count the states’ electoral votes after a presidential election.
It is therefore important for presidential candidates to choose a running mate who can help them govern once in office.
In short, running mates mostly have an indirect effect on how people vote by influencing what they think of the presidential candidates.
That is to say, very few people change their vote simply because they like the vice president or come from the same state or demographic group.

The media’s role

Informative news articles can provide answers to the most important questions: What are the potential running mate’s qualifications?
My research suggests that this is the standard to which journalists and their audiences should aspire as they enter the veepstakes season.
You can pay attention to those who treat it as such – and ignore those who don’t.

Christopher Devine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Why do we have single sex schools? What’s the history behind one of the biggest debates in education?

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Policy, Social class, Book, Parent, Curriculum, History, Research, Social environment, School, Moral development, Learning, Education, Channel 9, Student, Channel, Toy

Protesters have even threatened legal action to defend the 160-year-old tradition of boys’ education at the school.

Key Points:

Protesters have even threatened legal action to defend the 160-year-old tradition of boys’ education at the school.
One told Channel 9 they fear the change is driven by “woke […] palaver” that will disadvantage boys at Newington.
Read more:
As another elite boys' school goes co-ed, are single-sex schools becoming an endangered species?

What is the history of the debate?

Boys and girls were thought to require different forms of education for their intellectual and moral development.
In the 1860s, the colony of Victoria introduced a policy of coeducation for all government-run schools.
At that time, education authorities did not believe parents would agree to enrol their children in mixed high schools.
Historically, coeducation has been more controversial for older students, but less so for students in their primary years.

A changing debate

This was at a time of national expansion of secondary schooling in Australia and new psychological theories about adolescents.
This view was in turn challenged during the 1990s, with claims girls were outstripping boys academically and boys were being left behind in co-ed environments.

Which system delivers better academic results?

There is no conclusive evidence that one type of schooling (co-ed or single sex) yields better academic outcomes than the other. Schools are complex and diverse settings. There are too many variables (such as resourcing, organisational structures and teaching styles) to make definitive claims about any one factor. Many debates about single-sex vs co-ed schooling also neglect social class as a key factor in academic achievement.

What about the social environment?

Research about the social outcomes of co-ed vs single-sex schools is also contested.
Some argue co-ed schooling better prepares young people for the co-ed world they will grow up in.
Others have suggested boys may fare better in co-ed settings, with girls acting as a counterbalance to boys’ unruliness.

Why such a heated debate?

Often, parents want their children to have a similar schooling experience to themselves.
Many of these schools have spent decades marketing themselves as uniquely qualified to educate boys (or a certain type of boy).
More concerning are the Newington protesters who suggest this move toward inclusivity and gender diversity will make boys “second-class citizens”.

Jessica Kean receives funding from an Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative grant 'Australian Boys: Beyond the Boy Problem'. Helen Proctor receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Kellie Burns previously received funding from the University of Sydney, Equity Prize.

Electriq Power’s Intelligent Energy Storage & Operational Software Compatible with California’s Demand Side Grid Support Program

Retrieved on:

Thursday, November 9, 2023

Environment, Technology, Other Energy, Utilities, Alternative Energy, Sustainability, Green Technology, Energy, Batteries, California Energy Commission, NYSE, VPP, Social class, Multimedia, Solar energy, DSGS, Baumgarten an der March, FICO, Electric battery

Electriq Power Holdings, Inc. (“Electriq”) ( NYSE:ELIQ ), a trusted provider of intelligent energy storage and management solutions for homes and small businesses, announced today its battery storage system, the PowerPod 2 and proprietary operational software, is compatible with California’s new Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) program.

Key Points:

Electriq Power Holdings, Inc. (“Electriq”) ( NYSE:ELIQ ), a trusted provider of intelligent energy storage and management solutions for homes and small businesses, announced today its battery storage system, the PowerPod 2 and proprietary operational software, is compatible with California’s new Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) program.
View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231109044114/en/
Electriq Power PowerPod 2 Solar Battery Storage System (Photo: Business Wire)
DSGS is a California statewide program introduced by the California Energy Commission.
It incentivizes owners of distributed energy resources (DERs), such as battery storage systems, to discharge excess energy to the grid and help stabilize it during periods of high demand.
The Sustainable Community Networks program will be essential as utilities begin to rely more heavily on distributed energy resources.

'Limitless' Cape Town - a vision of inclusivity in the world's greatest city

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Travel, Tourism, Life, Social class, Limitless, DMO, Paratriathlon, Marketing, Movement, Marine Management Organisation, City, Disability studies, Environment, Family, General store

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Sept. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- South Africa's Cape Town, which the 2023 Telegraph Travel Awards named the 'Greatest City on Earth', has launched a first-of-its-kind universal access 'Limitless Cape Town' movement.

Key Points:

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Sept. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- South Africa's Cape Town, which the 2023 Telegraph Travel Awards named the 'Greatest City on Earth', has launched a first-of-its-kind universal access 'Limitless Cape Town' movement.
Enver Duminy , CEO of Cape Town Tourism, says, "This movement reflects our commitment to providing accessible and welcoming experiences and inspiring every visitor to explore new horizons, break barriers, and create unforgettable memories."
In addition to Cape Town being voted the Greatest City on Earth, the 2023 Telegraph Travel Awards named South Africa the world's best country to travel to for its sensational scenery and attractions.
Visit capetown.travel to find out how to book a tour with Winston and explore Cape Town.

'Limitless' Cape Town - a vision of inclusivity in the world's greatest city

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Travel, Tourism, Life, Social class, Limitless, DMO, Multimedia, Paratriathlon, Marketing, Movement, Marine Management Organisation, City, Disability studies, Environment, Family, General store

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Sept. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- South Africa's Cape Town, which the 2023 Telegraph Travel Awards named the 'Greatest City on Earth', has launched a first-of-its-kind universal access 'Limitless Cape Town' movement.

Key Points:

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Sept. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- South Africa's Cape Town, which the 2023 Telegraph Travel Awards named the 'Greatest City on Earth', has launched a first-of-its-kind universal access 'Limitless Cape Town' movement.
Enver Duminy , CEO of Cape Town Tourism, says, "This movement reflects our commitment to providing accessible and welcoming experiences and inspiring every visitor to explore new horizons, break barriers, and create unforgettable memories."
In addition to Cape Town being voted the Greatest City on Earth, the 2023 Telegraph Travel Awards named South Africa the world's best country to travel to for its sensational scenery and attractions.
Visit capetown.travel to find out how to book a tour with Winston and explore Cape Town.

Umlungu: the colourful history of a word used to describe white people in South Africa

Retrieved on:

Monday, August 7, 2023

Apartheid, Poverty, Languages of Ethiopia, University, Nongqawuse, Culture, Nguni, Language, Zulu Kingdom, Time, Cattle, Colonialism, Social class, Hunger, Group, Safety, Hunting, Xhosa

In South Africa “umlungu” is a word that’s commonly used to refer to white people.

Key Points:

In South Africa “umlungu” is a word that’s commonly used to refer to white people.
There was, however, a word “ubulungu” which meant “that deposited out by the sea” or sea scum.
Many white South Africans don’t mind calling themselves umlungu – there are even T-shirt ranges bearing the word.
The word umlungu has taken on multiple meanings as a result of historical events, showing how language evolves through social interactions.

Colonial times

The sea’s tendency is to toss anything out that is dirty in order to clean itself.
The shipwrecked white people were given the name “abelungu/umlungu”, which means “filth that is rejected by the ocean and deposited on the shore”.
Some of those shipwrecked remained and the clan name Abelungu was used to record their children.
Read more:
Shaka Zulu is back in pop culture – how the famous king has been portrayed over the decades
Various events throughout the colonial era forced black people into poverty, particularly after the Nongqawuse episode.

Apartheid

An umlungu was an esteemed member of society during the apartheid era because of the power and authority that they possessed.
It’s my view that because of the apartheid system, black people were psychologically influenced to perceive everything linked with a white person as better and of a higher standard.

Today

The concept that anything finer, richer and whiter in colour is umlungu has given rise to new positive connotations for the term.
The word umlungu today can refer to an employer, a black person of a certain ethnicity with a lighter skin colour, someone of higher standing, a wealthy person – or simply a white person.
A black person who owns and runs a farm like a white person using a labour tenancy arrangement, for example, is referred to as an umlungu.

Is equality compatible with the nuclear family? Alva Gotby proposes a radical politics of friendship

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

But it also disguises how much love is also work: a labour performed disproportionately by women.

Key Points:

But it also disguises how much love is also work: a labour performed disproportionately by women.
Review: They Call it Love: The Politics of Emotional Life – Alva Gotby (Verso) Gotby’s book is a fascinating account of how this makes women subordinate carers (or apologist secondary co-workers) within nuclear families.
She crusades to unmask the “naturalness of feminine care” – and to expose care inequalities and incite political awareness.
Love can thus be used to extract an ongoing, infinite amount of labour – a work relationship that may stretch over a whole lifetime.

Class and ‘emotional elites’

Alternative forms of attachment have been discredited, while children’s emotional needs have expanded – so, the care required from mothers has intensified.
Now, argues Gotby, working-class children destined for the service economy also need to learn and deploy emotional skills.
Emotional elites include bosses, managers, owners – people with resources and privilege who can displace their emotional difficulties onto others.
Read more:
What is emotional labour - and how do we get it wrong?

Invisible work, female anger

Gotby argues that the capitalist economy relies on invisible reproductive work to survive.
But for women, it reflects weakness, flaws and excessive emotion:
feminised workers are mainly made to absorb anger and frustration […] masculinity, on the other hand, works through the displacement of anger onto others.
feminised workers are mainly made to absorb anger and frustration […] masculinity, on the other hand, works through the displacement of anger onto others.
She champions women’s use of anger to ignite solidarity against male backlash and aggression.

Abolish it all?

She argues that getting men to do more childcare without challenging “the conflicting needs and contradictions within capitalism” will have limited effect.
She even claims true equality is impossible within existing gendered categories:
Sexual difference already contains a construction of hierarchy, making “gender equality” a contradiction in terms.
This means “following black, indigenous, trans, and intersex feminists” and embracing the openness and pleasure of queer sexual identity.

A convincing call to arms?

Conceiving of emotional care work as “capital”, which can be learned, allows for change.
For example, men can learn caring skills in teaching and nursing work – albeit with greater difficulty, later in their lives.
The ebb and flow of emotional capital allows for emotional winners and losers to emerge, beyond Gotby’s conventional male-oppressor and female-oppressed binary.
Gotby’s strong critical feminist Marxist position risks inflexibility – and a degree of highly gendered structural determinism.
Women’s agency to avoid or resist exploitation – and men’s agency to become involved in care work – is underplayed throughout the book.

Arresting, dry and fast-paced: ABC series Bay of Fires brings a new humour to the tradition of Australian Gothic

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

But Anika is betrayed by Johann and becomes the target of an attempted murder.

Key Points:

But Anika is betrayed by Johann and becomes the target of an attempted murder.
She soon discovers Johann has hired professional thugs to murder her and her children, Otis (Imi Mbedla) and Iris (Ava Caryofyllis).
Bay of Fires, the new drama from the ABC, is arresting, dry and fast-paced.

An Australian Gothic

As we get to know the townsfolk, they open the door into a Gothic world of mystery and the supernatural.
Australian Gothic began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, combining elements of traditional European Gothic literature – characterised by horror, mystery and the supernatural – mixed with the unique Australian landscape, history and cultural identity.
The harsh and unforgiving Australian environment provided a fertile ground for the development of a distinctive Gothic tradition.
These experiences became a central theme in Australian Gothic literature and the sub-genre Tasmanian Gothic.
Read more:
Australian Gothic: from Hanging Rock to Nick Cave and Kylie, this genre explores our dark side

Twisting the genre

Bay of Fires is a continuation of this significant Australian genre.
The series captures dark and mysterious aspects of the nation’s past and present which shape our national imagination and the Australian Gothic genre, all with a larrikin wit.
Read more:
How Deadloch flips the Nordic Noir crime genre on its arse and makes it funny

The British public often has unexpected opinions about welfare spending – here's why

Retrieved on:

Monday, June 26, 2023

Government, Parent, Review, Systematic review, Tax, Poverty, Food, Housing, Altruism, Time, Social class, Public opinion, Safety, Income, Logic, Management, Recycling, Insurance, Book

Wages have failed to recover since the 2008 financial crash and public services have suffered in availability and quality.

Key Points:

Wages have failed to recover since the 2008 financial crash and public services have suffered in availability and quality.
But public opinion about redistribution, shifting resources from society’s richer to support its poorer, doesn’t always follow an immediately obvious logic.
Evidence suggests that broadly redistributive policies, like increasing general taxation to fund public services, are not always more popular among poorer people.

Material and non-material factors

These arguments are powerful because many Britons rely on a regular income, absent significant savings or housing assets.
When people do have access to such wealth, it also drives their social attitudes.
As house prices rise, for instance, homeowners feel less reliant on the welfare state and become less supportive of government spending.
Poorer individuals might support redistribution in principle, but in practice it is not always clear that they are the ones benefiting.

Who deserves help?

In some circumstances, and at personal cost, richer individuals feel genuine concern for the wellbeing of others and are willing to redistribute resources to them.
But the extent of this generosity is often limited and depends on someone’s definition of “others”.
The same is sometimes true when the recipient is seen to be a member of a lower social class.
This variability is essential for campaigners, policymakers, and politicians to understand, in order to devise policies that will remain sustainable over the long term.