Social science sites of the week

In the news this week: What’s wrong with the British Steel Industry?

Get the facts on its contribution to UK manufacturing, employment and trends in production.

Guardian Newspaper  launch campaign against Internet abuse and harassment

Guardian comment on nature and extent of online abuse.

They have also released some initial analysis of comments posted and blocked on their website. This reveals  more abusive comments were blocked about articles written by women. As a result the site is leading a discussion on what can improve social relations on the Internet.

Here are some other useful sources measuring the extent and nature of online abuse.

In 2015 the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development issued a report calling for a world-wide wake up call against cyberviolence targeting women and girls.

In England/ Wales Official figures on negative online experiences are gathered by the Office for National Statistics and published as a supplementary table they record online harassment by gender. In 2014 Demos published an interesting report on the extent and nature of misogyny on Twitter

In Australia a recent Norton survey found that 47& of women responding had suffered online abuse. In the USA a 2014 survey found that 73% of those responding had witnessed online harassment

Reports on cyberstalking and Cyberbullying in the USA can be retrieved from this special feature on the NCRJC website. and WAM has some resources concerning harassment, women and twitter.

Which graduates earn the most? Do family, class and Gender matter?

New from IFS an analysis of 260,000 student tax and loan records which examines variations in earnings over a 10 year period after graduation . It considers whether gender, socioeconomic class, institution and subject studied effect income. A key conclusion is that

p.55 Graduates from higher income households earn more (up to around 60%

more for males and 45% for females) than their peers from lower income households.

There were also shocking  large variations by institution

‘For instance, more than 10% of male graduates from LSE, Oxford and Cambridge were earning in excess of £100,000 a year ten years after graduation in 2012/13, with LSE graduates earning the most. LSE was the only institution with more than 10% of its female graduates earning in excess of £100,000 a year ten years on . Whereas the median male graduate earnings were nearer £45,000

Universities UK response to the report

Million+ report

Russell Group Response

New EU referendum reports this week

This week IFS launch an interactive tool to allow voters to explore the EU budget which countries pay in the most? Who gets the most?

The Electoral Commission designated the two lead campaigners at the EU Referendum – designating ‘The In Campaign Ltd’ to be the lead campaigner for the “Remain” outcome, and ‘Vote Leave Ltd’ for the “Leave” outcome. Its decision , with associated papers can be downloaded from the website.

LSE launches EU referendum videos on its YouTube channel. The 10-week video series (starting 13^th April) will feature daily  expert comment from the School’s academics on a wide range of issues relating to the EU referendum on 23 June.

See the links to the latest papers, speech transcripts and reports on our blog

Million pound homes – get the facts!

According to some data releases from the Office for National Statistics. 13,679 was the number of properties sold for £1million or more in England and Wales, in the year ending September 2015. In 1996 it was 270 . Get the full data set   House price statistics for all areas from 1995-2015 and Test your knowledge in the million pound properties quiz!

A report by the LSE and Santander has predicted that by 2030 1 in 4 London homes will be valued at £1milion or more.

In terms of affordability . In 2015 Shelter published a report that from 1969-2014, house prices for first time buyers had increased by 48 times, whereas incomes had risen 29 times. the London Data store has information on  house price ratios to salary in London Boroughs.   Recently the Centre for London also issued a report on Housing and inequality in the capital which shows rising housing costs (both in the rented and mortgage sector)  causing greater wealth disparity.and a move to the suburbs for poorer people. Shelter has also issued a tube map of affordability of rented housing in London stating that of 270 stations only 15 are in affordable renting areas.

Use the BBC tracker tool to find out where you can afford to live

Fairness for Children: a league table of inequality in child well-being in rich countries

The latest report card from UNICEF examines the condition of children in  the EU and wealthy OECD nations. It focuses on the gap between rich and poor in four areas: income, education, health and life satisfaction

Key policy concerns include:

 Protect the incomes of households with the poorest children.
• Improve the educational achievements of disadvantaged learners.
• Promote and support healthy lifestyles for all children.
• Take subjective well-being seriously.
• Place equity at the heart of child well-being agendas. 

See the UK ranking. UNICEF concluded that the gap between rich and poor had narrowed .

Denmark was ranked first in the report's findings. Britain 1. There were concerns in gaps about educational performance, and health eating where the uK was rated lowly.

Another key report published this week relating to Child wellbeing was CentreForum Commission on children and young people’s mental health. It revealed the problems young people face when trying to access mental health care.

Hansard Society Audit of Political Engagement released.

The 13^th annual edition of this key publication  has just been published. It is based on is based on an opinion poll conducted by Ipsos MORI between 11 and 29 December 2015 with a representative quota sample of adults aged 18+ across Great Britain measuring factors associated with interest in and engagement in politics amongst voters. Topics covered include interest in EU and certainty to vote in the referendum, perception of parliament and levels of participation.

Data USA

A great new site which visualizes American government Data. It is developed by Deloitte, Datawheel, and Cesar Hidalgo, Professor at the MIT Media Lab with the aim of making statistical data visible and accessible.

View maps or profiles  by location, occupation and industry and education . The site also has visual stories created by users. See for instance this one on the skills required for an economics degree. Which also has data on gender, racial composition of award holders, geographic concentration in the USA and pay!

Trussell Trust Food Bank data visualization.

The Trussell Trust has worked with data scientists, business model specialists and academics from the University of Hull and the commercial sector to create the UK’s first ever dynamic visualisation tool for crises leading to foodbank use, mapping 18 months of foodbank data against deprivation indices from the 2011 census and other open data. See the mapping hunger report

How to choose a world Leader

This week the United Nations held its first public debates to select a new secretary general. This press release explains the process. Further detail is on the UN website .  UN webTV has recordings.

There is also a twitter feed where you can see questions submitted.

1 for 7 Billion is a global campaign supported by organisations and individuals from all corners of the globe committed to getting the best UN Secretary-General. see its discussion of the process and its 10 urgent reforms.        

Finally find a remedy for your hayfever!

Digital archive of Druggist and Chemist

A fascinating digital journal archive project completed by the Wellcome Library and available on the Internet Archive.  The Chemist and Druggist is weekly journal of the pharmacy trade, the online issues cover over 150 years from the 1850s. As well as  constituting a fascinating  resource on the history of medicine and pharmacy; Social historians can browse original advertisements for patent medicines, medical products and more.  See this example from May 1889 which features on the front page an advertisement for Royal embrocation- I was not sure if this was for the horse or the rider to rub in!  Read more about the digitisation project on their blog.

Social science sites of the week

Celebrating LGBT History month

To celebrate LGBT History month take a look at recommended academic resources on our blog. Items will be added throughout February

Take a look at the Gay t-Shirt archive!
Wearing Gay History
a digital archive of American LGBT t-shirts. created by Doctoral student Eric Gonzaba who digitized the entire t-shirt collection of the Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives in Indiana
T-shirts have been used to express gay identity, politics and pride as well as fashion. There are current 6 exhibitions including gay pride
alternatively browse the t-shirt map!


What does your vice – chancellor earn?
How do does pay and perks compare at the UK top universities? Find out in the annual report from UCU union Transparency at the top? This was published as part of its campaign for greater transparency in UK university executive pay. It also includes expenditure on air flights, hotel accommodation and expenses.

How does your pay compare? Use their Rate for the Job calculator to compare your wages with people in other institutions performing a similar role
Look at out Scoop.it page to read more recent reports on Higher education, teaching and learning


Also published this week
NMC Horizon Report 2016 Higher Education Edition

is a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Download the full text from the website. What trends does it predict for the future use of technology in higher education. What are the challenges? Bring your own device and learning analytics are seen to be some of the key areas in the coming year. The report is based in the USA but is applicable elsewhere each section has links to supporting reading and some case studies.

Draft Investigatory Powers Bill- parliamentary report launched
Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill has just published a report with 86 recommendations on improving the clarity of the bill. The website has access to written and oral evidence presented.
View the full text of the Bill and associated documents on the Home Office website
Also released this week the Intelligence and Security Committee report on the Bill.
The Open Rights Group Wiki has a good timeline of key events in the run up to the bill with links to UK government documents.

Guardian viewpoint published 2nd November 2015

Open Rights Group response to the select committee report.

Don’t Spy on us Coalition response.

Article 19

Internet Service Providers.

We are starting to develop a data and society scoop.it page covering data policy, access, control, potential uses of big data . discover more


Economists on Twitter.
The great working paper site RepEc has just launched its own directory of economists who tweet. This currently lists over 150 who fulfil a criteria of inclusion given on the website. It you have not visited RepEC recently it now indexes over 2 million economics, finance working papers many leading to abstracts and full text. The site also links to EconAcademics.org which aggregates postings from key economics blogs and is hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.


USA 2016 elections: New York Times Resource
Good use of technology from the New York Times its Election 2016 bot can send users live news updates. You can also submit questions to the newsroom by using the command /asknytelection.” Nieman Labs has a review of how this feature works. The New York Times is also experimenting with Virtual reality film from the campaigns. See the smiling Donald Trump!

Also using new technology

New United Nations app
UNU Jargon Buster glossary app for smartphones, with about 450 A-to-Z entries . Find out what the many abbreviations abbreviations mean including programmes and organisations . They are also helpfully cross referenced cross-referenced with the Sustainable Development Goals
If you are looking for help with research on the United Nations try the helpful guides produced by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library . They are great for getting help on tracing UN documents and reports. A good example is this beginners guide to tracing UN documents.

Euro health consumer index 2015
This annual report from Health Consumer Powerhouse analyses European health systems and assesses them on 48 indicators, looking into areas such as patient rights and information, access to care, treatment outcomes and range and reach of services. The main conclusion of this report is that European healthcare is steadily improving, despite worries about financial crisis austerity measures, aging population and migrants.

For worldwide data on health systems and access try the WHO website. They have a Global Health Observatory . Browse the data there is a section for Health Systems.

For the UK , and analysis of NHS performance, a great starting point is the Kings Fund website . They publish quarterly monitoring reports. Also issued by them this week public opinion on the performance of the NHS. How satisfied are patients?

Oman Digital Library
Access hundreds of online resources digitised from the Oman Library Middle East Institute. Most manuscripts and books date from 1700 to 1921. They include Arabic documents as well as travellers accounts and colonial books from the Middle East offering insight into the cultural life and political history of the region.

A snapshot of examples include:
· Report on the Russian army and its campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878
Greene, F. V. (Francis Vinton 1908
Kitāb-i Maẓhar al-ajāʼib
Authors: ʻAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn Language: Farsi 1316 [1937]
The Persian crisis of December, 1911
Authors: Browne, Edward Granville, 1862-1926 [1912]

Culture under threat map – antiquities threatened by conflict 2016

The Antiquities Coalition has produced an interactive map to provide a visual mapping of sites and regions under threat by recent violence in the Middle East/ North Africa. The focus is upon countries who are members of the Arab League. The maps has been produced using the ArcGIS mapping system from Esri . There is a focus on sites ‘deliberately targeted by Daesh and indication of UNESCO world heritage sites and major museums. The ‘terrorist groups have been defined using data from the National Counterterrorism Center. The site has definitions and data sources.

Colouring books from the worlds most famous museums and libraries

In February 2016 a major campaign was launched on social media #ColorOurCollections–made available free colouring books, letting you colour artwork from the collections of art museums and galleries then share them
See some fun examples from the Bodleian Library
Smithsonian Library
New York Public Library
And the amazing colouring book of Patents – with an eye protector for chickens and many kinds of robots!

Social science sites of the week

Here is the latest round up of new and interesting sites form social scientists

Holocaust Remembrance Day

27th January has been designated as  as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust by the United Nations as it commemorates the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp . Our special blog posting has links to resources for background information as well as a focus on the 2016 theme : Don’t stand by.

Flames for Humanities Heroes is a national art project which saw 12 groups of students across the UK create artwork that tells the stories of heroes who refused to stand by when faced by Nazi atrocities. View examples of their stunning work online

Presidential Elections in Haiti

Run off presidential elections in Haiti have been postponed for the third time. Use the links from our special election blog posting to find out more on the background and impact of this.

Councils struggling to cope with homeless people

This is the finding from the latest annual review of the extent and nature of homelessness in England published this week by Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as part of its Homelessness monitor series. The homelessness monitor is a five year study (2011-2015), funded by Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, that provides an independent analysis of the impact of recent economic and policy developments in the UK on homelessness. There are particular concerns about young homeless people

Also launched this week from Crisis as part of a new campaign Crisis- Lead London Home Manifesto for
single homeless people 2016 

On this topic see the official Uk government statistics on homelessness

They include rough sleeping, families in bed and breakfast accommodation

St Mungos publishes research on the lives of homeless people as well as policy issues

Homelessness in Europe FEANTSA is the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless is an umbrella of not-for-profit organisations which participate in or contribute to the fight against homelessness in Europe. It maintains the European Observatory on homelessness

Which offers free access to the European Journal of Homelessness

UN Demographic yearbook has statistics on household characteristics by country. Most recent covering 2014. This includes the homeless.

In which British city do people earn the most?

Find out this and other fascinating facts and figures on the economic and social indicators of Britain’s major cities by consulting the latest Cities outlook 2016  which has just been published by the Centre for Cities.

It also has a great associated data tool which enables you to generate and compare your own map. 17 main indicators are covered including

Population, Business dynamics, Productivity , Innovation , Employment, Skills, Wages , Housing,  Environment, Digital connectivity

Political TV Ad Archive,

Just launched by the Internet Archive to provide a resource for the 2016 US elections.

This fabulous  free online digital library resource where reporters can find political TV ads from key primary states in the 2016 elections. Each ad has its own page with metadata files that can be downloaded by researchers. There are also sections on the site which fact check the facts. It is possible to browse ads by candidate, sponsor . There are currently over 50 ads for Donald Trump.

Parents, Teens and digital monitoring

Find out what percentage of American parents surveyed checked their teenagers Facebook accounts, texts and emails in this enlightening new study from Pew Internet Research Centre  

The EU Kids online research network website contains a wealth of reports and data on children’s internet use. Its 2014 report 

The Berkman Digital Literacy Platform provides free access to resources for educators, parents and the public covering online safety, privacy, information quality, creativity, and copyright.

World Humanitarian Data And Trends 2015
The United Nations Office For the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). Has just released the latest annual report which has overall country and regional data. The full text can be
downloaded from the website. A review of natural and conflict related disasters in 2014. Topics covered include overall funding and capacity., displacement , data collection. There is a companion site which contains visualizations and instagrams of key facts and figures. Also valuable for exploring the trends is the UNOCHA sponsored Humanitarian Data Exchange project website. Also valuable for exploring the trends is the UNOCHA sponsored Humanitarian Data Exchange project website launched in 2014 it also provides free access to some other datasets from research bodies covering conflict, disasters food security.

Why Ethnic Minorities see immigration differently.

As the prime minister announces plans to require Muslim women to learn English, this new report from the Runnymede Trust gives the perspectives of BME Ethnic Minority groups on immigration to the UK. This covers  also considers attitudes towards integration.It is based on qualitative interviews with 7 focus groups involving 65 people.

Get more links to recent grey literature and reports covering social policy, economic policy and UK government publications on our current awareness blog which is updated daily.

New York Public Library digital Collections enhanced access     

From January 2016 the New York Public library provided enhanced public domain access to its online collections which include thousands of stunning historical images. See this announcing blog post which has lists of possible uses. These include usage of bulk API  data.  A great example is this 5^th Avenue now and then which compares 1911 with 2015 Google street views. The Green Book is a shocking example of racial segregation shown in maps between 1936-1944 it listed hotels restaurants and other public buildings where black travellers were welcome. The site also has many subject based collections – including Gay and lesbian history
Posters of the Russian Civil War and fashion illustrations and advertising

Also this week as part of a new exhibition the Bank of England Archive has released some of its historic photographs online. Some fascinating examples on the BBC website show the changing workplace. There is also a free Flickr site      

Social science sites of the week

Here is the latest update of social science sites of the week

Taiwan elects first woman president

To commemorate this historic event look at the links to news reports  and background academic assessments on our recent blog posting.

Only 7% of people describe themselves as feminists

According to the results from the 2016 Fawcett society state of the nation report  only 4% men , 9% women  polled labelled themselves as feminists. When asked to describe what the word meant to them a shocking 26% of the words used were negative eg irrelevant, bitchy while 22% used positive terms such as strong willed

This was based on market research Survation polled 8165 UK residents aged 18+ between 30th

November and 3^rd December 2015. The survey was

conducted via online panel. other topics covered include attitudes towards gender equality, perceptions of gender identity,

see more reports on Gender on our scoop.it page

         

However on a more positive note

EY Senior Civil Service Women Leaders Index found that the UK ranked 4^th in G20 countries amongst the representation of women in senior government official posts. The highest percentage is Canada at 46.1 the UK has 38.7%. However none had 50%

Download the full text of the report to find out more data on pay gap differentials between Uk government departments

LGBT Equality in the Workplace

Find out the best place to work in the UK by consulting the latest annual Stonewall Equality Index. The methodology examines 10 key areas: distinct areas of employment policy and practice, including networking groups, career development, training and community engagement. Interesting M15 and the security services are this year ranked top ! The Times Higher has conducted an analysis of the figures and comments on the highest ranked universities.

An economy for the 1%?

As the World Economic  Forum opens at Davos this week with the release of its 2016 Global Risks report. The risks are divided into five categories: economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological.. Oxfam released a report that showed shows that the wealth of the poorest half of the world's population - that's 3.6 billion people - has fallen by a trillion dollars since 2010. However, not all commentators accept these see the criticism from the FT.blog. Look at poverty and Inequality data on the World Bank website. This enables some worldwide trends from  1981 onwards to be tracked.

You can see more on our new scoop.it page for reports relating to International Development studies.

How and Why you should manage your research data

A new concise guide for researchers from JISC which gives a basic introduction to the data management cycle with links to free online courses and advice. The emphasis is upon why research data management is important and what they can do to get started.

What went wrong  in the 2015 election?

View the preliminary findings from the inquiry in to the polls ordered by the British Polling Council . Its terms of reference and methodology can be viewed on the website . The BBC has also been discussing the topic this week.

Also released this week Margaret Beckettis internal  investigation of the Labour Party failure . Useful response on this from the News Statesman. LabourList (Party supporters) http://labourlist.org/2016/01/what-does-the-beckett-report-tell-us-eight-initial-thoughts/ . Prospect magazine Labour uncut blog

From a different political viewpoint

Spectator response

New LGBT Archive

“U.S. Homophile Internationalism: is a new online exhibit which can be found on the Outhistory.org website It provides free access to essays and articles from a range of magazines from the 1950s and 1960s which represented and provided access to contributions about and from  homosexuality and homosexuals from different region of the world including Russia, Asia and Africa. The exhibit focuses on the years from 1953 to 1964 and it addresses three of the most important U.S. homophile magazines of the 1950s and 1960s: ONE, Mattachine Review, and The Ladder.

Florence Nightingale letters online.

Free access to this marvellous resource which has been created as an international collaboration.

effort between the Florence Nightingale Museum in London, England, the Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, the Royal College of Nursing and the Wellcome Library. It is possible to search by keyword or browse by data and or theme. Key topics include: history of public health care,  hospitals, nursing military nursing, health care of women, For instance see this example where she discusses the role of women nurses in military hospitals and an unsent letter on a similar theme

Wikipedia celebrates 15^th birthday

Get some facts and figures on the most edited articles etc from an official website on the history. Did you know that the first photo on Wikipedia was a pair of quail!