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How to Topple Dictators and Transform Society

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Jan 3, 2020

Nonviolent resistance scholar Erica Chenoweth explains the key ingredients of successful social movements.


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H-Diplo Review Essay 192 on Lawson. Anatomies of Revolution

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Feb 14, 2020

Emily Whalen reviews Anatomies of Revolution by George Lawson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).


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The Impact of AI and Digitalization on Social Cohesion

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 1, 2020

February 24th, 2020, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dr. Gesche Joost, Professor of Design Research at the Berlin University of the Arts and head of the Design Research Lab since 2005, discussed the digital divide and how it will shape social connectivity in an event moderated by Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, Executive Director of the Future of Diplomacy Project and the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship, and Lauren Zabierek, Executive Director of the Cyber Project.


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So Do Morals Matter in U.S. Foreign Policy? I Asked the Expert.

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 24, 2020

In his new book, Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump, Joseph S. Nye developed a scorecard to determine how U.S. presidents since 1945 factored questions of ethics and morality into their foreign policy. In an interview, Henry Farrell asked him a few questions to get to the heart of his findings.


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COVID-19's Painful Lesson About Strategy and Power

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Mar 26, 2020

Joseph Nye writes that while trade wars have set back economic globalization,  the environmental globalization represented by pandemics and climate change is unstoppable. Borders are becoming more porous to everything from drugs to infectious diseases to cyber terrorism, and the United States must use its soft power of attraction to develop networks and institutions that address these new threats.


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So Do Morals Matter in U.S. Foreign Policy? I Asked the Expert.

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 24, 2020

In his new book, Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump, Joseph S. Nye developed a scorecard to determine how U.S. presidents since 1945 factored questions of ethics and morality into their foreign policy. In an interview, Henry Farrell asked him a few questions to get to the heart of his findings.


Full Article

so

COVID-19's Painful Lesson About Strategy and Power

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Mar 26, 2020

Joseph Nye writes that while trade wars have set back economic globalization,  the environmental globalization represented by pandemics and climate change is unstoppable. Borders are becoming more porous to everything from drugs to infectious diseases to cyber terrorism, and the United States must use its soft power of attraction to develop networks and institutions that address these new threats.


Full Article

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What I Wish I Had Said on CNN About Trump's 'Lysol and Sunshine' Speech

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 29, 2020

Joel Clement appeared on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront on April 23, 2020.  In this blog post for the Union of Concerned Scientists, he elaborates on what he wishes he had said during that interview.


Full Article

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How to Topple Dictators and Transform Society

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Jan 3, 2020

Nonviolent resistance scholar Erica Chenoweth explains the key ingredients of successful social movements.


Full Article

so

H-Diplo Review Essay 192 on Lawson. Anatomies of Revolution

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Feb 14, 2020

Emily Whalen reviews Anatomies of Revolution by George Lawson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).


Full Article

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Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson Outlines Ways Organizations are Changing in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic and Climate Change in New Edition of "Environmental Insights"

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 8, 2020

Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, shared her perspectives on how large organizations are changing in response to the coronavirus pandemic and climate change in the newest episode of "Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program," a podcast produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. Listen to the interview here. Listen to the interview here.


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Organizational Responses to COVID-19 and Climate Change: A Conversation with Rebecca Henderson

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 8, 2020

Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, shared her perspectives on how large organizations are changing in response to the coronavirus pandemic and climate change in the newest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.”


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Selective Wilsonianism: Material Interests and the West's Support for Democracy

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 9, 2020

Analysis of the West's differing responses to Ukrainian and Armenian mass movements reveal that, contrary to the popular Wilsonian narrative, the West assists democratic movements only when that assistance coincides with its material interests.


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Global Problem, Local Solutions

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 21, 2020

The Arctic Initiative is pairing policy and science scholars with local experts to find practical climate solutions.


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So Do Morals Matter in U.S. Foreign Policy? I Asked the Expert.

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 24, 2020

In his new book, Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump, Joseph S. Nye developed a scorecard to determine how U.S. presidents since 1945 factored questions of ethics and morality into their foreign policy. In an interview, Henry Farrell asked him a few questions to get to the heart of his findings.


Full Article

so

So Do Morals Matter in U.S. Foreign Policy? I Asked the Expert.

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 24, 2020

In his new book, Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump, Joseph S. Nye developed a scorecard to determine how U.S. presidents since 1945 factored questions of ethics and morality into their foreign policy. In an interview, Henry Farrell asked him a few questions to get to the heart of his findings.


Full Article

so

Alonso thankful of 'gift'

By en.espnf1.com
Published On :: Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:32:01 GMT

Fernando Alonso said that his second place in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix was payback for the bad luck he had received earlier in the season


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COVID-19's Painful Lesson About Strategy and Power

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Mar 26, 2020

Joseph Nye writes that while trade wars have set back economic globalization,  the environmental globalization represented by pandemics and climate change is unstoppable. Borders are becoming more porous to everything from drugs to infectious diseases to cyber terrorism, and the United States must use its soft power of attraction to develop networks and institutions that address these new threats.


Full Article

so

So Do Morals Matter in U.S. Foreign Policy? I Asked the Expert.

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 24, 2020

In his new book, Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump, Joseph S. Nye developed a scorecard to determine how U.S. presidents since 1945 factored questions of ethics and morality into their foreign policy. In an interview, Henry Farrell asked him a few questions to get to the heart of his findings.


Full Article

so

Vettel sorry after Button collision

By en.espnf1.com
Published On :: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:08:36 GMT

Jenson Button admitted the collision which ended his Belgian Grand Prix was a "massive blow" adding that he "did not know what he [Sebastian Vettel] was doing"


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Barrichello apologises to Alonso for mistake

By en.espnf1.com
Published On :: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:58:06 GMT

Rubens Barrichello has apologised to fellow driver Fernando Alonso for his part of a racing incident that put the Brazilian out and compromised the Ferrari driver's race


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So Do Morals Matter in U.S. Foreign Policy? I Asked the Expert.

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 24, 2020

In his new book, Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump, Joseph S. Nye developed a scorecard to determine how U.S. presidents since 1945 factored questions of ethics and morality into their foreign policy. In an interview, Henry Farrell asked him a few questions to get to the heart of his findings.


Full Article

so

What I Wish I Had Said on CNN About Trump's 'Lysol and Sunshine' Speech

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 29, 2020

Joel Clement appeared on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront on April 23, 2020.  In this blog post for the Union of Concerned Scientists, he elaborates on what he wishes he had said during that interview.


Full Article

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The U.S. Is Now Resorting to Plan C

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 29, 2020

Americans are not going to wait for sufficient testing. So what happens then? Juliette Kayyem describes "opening up" as a high-stakes version of a coloring book. States can use more and more crayons, but the goal is to avoid going over the edges.


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Alonso backs down on 'manipulated' race comments

By en.espnf1.com
Published On :: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:35:02 GMT

Fernando Alonso has admitted that he over-reacted when he said the European Grand Prix was "manipulated" after Sunday's race


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Hyde Says Texts With Giuliani Associate Taken Too Seriously, Denies He Surveilled Amb. Yovanovitch

By www.belfercenter.org
Published On :: Jan 15, 2020

Ambassador Nicholas Burns speaks to CNN's Anderson Cooper about the possible surveillance of Ambassador Yovanovitch.


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Priority is to finish race, says Alonso

By en.espnf1.com
Published On :: Sat, 23 Oct 2010 07:30:38 GMT

Fernando Alonso said his main priority is to finish the Korean Grand Prix and collect points after qualifying third on the grid


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Alonso wins dramatic race to take title lead

By en.espnf1.com
Published On :: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:11:09 GMT

Fernando Alonso won a dramatic if curtailed Korean Grand Prix to blow the title race wide open as Mark Webber crashed into retirement and Sebastian Vettel's engine blew with a handful of laps remaining


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Alonso hails best result of year

By en.espnf1.com
Published On :: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:13:40 GMT

Fernando Alonso said it had been one of the best results of the year for Ferrari after he won the Korean Grand Prix and took the lead of the divers' standings thanks to the retirements of both Red Bull drivers


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Red Bull still favourites - Alonso

By en.espnf1.com
Published On :: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:05:17 GMT

New championship leader Fernando Alonso believes Red Bull still has the advantage in the title race and is expecting the championship to go down to the wire at the final round in Abu Dhabi


Full Article

so

How to Topple Dictators and Transform Society

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Jan 3, 2020

Nonviolent resistance scholar Erica Chenoweth explains the key ingredients of successful social movements.


Full Article

so

H-Diplo Review Essay 192 on Lawson. Anatomies of Revolution

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Feb 14, 2020

Emily Whalen reviews Anatomies of Revolution by George Lawson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).


Full Article

so

How to Topple Dictators and Transform Society

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Jan 3, 2020

Nonviolent resistance scholar Erica Chenoweth explains the key ingredients of successful social movements.


Full Article

so

H-Diplo Review Essay 192 on Lawson. Anatomies of Revolution

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Feb 14, 2020

Emily Whalen reviews Anatomies of Revolution by George Lawson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).


Full Article

so

Raikkonen needs time to acclimatise, says Watson

By en.espnf1.com
Published On :: Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:19:17 GMT

Former grand prix winner John Watson says that Kimi Raikkonen will need time to familiarise himself with the new technicalities of the sport when he returns to drive for Lotus Renault for the 2012 season


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Alonso plays down team orders row

By en.espnf1.com
Published On :: Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:12:12 GMT

German Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso has played down the furore surrounding the possibility of Ferrari using team orders to rig Sunday's race result


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So Do Morals Matter in U.S. Foreign Policy? I Asked the Expert.

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 24, 2020

In his new book, Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump, Joseph S. Nye developed a scorecard to determine how U.S. presidents since 1945 factored questions of ethics and morality into their foreign policy. In an interview, Henry Farrell asked him a few questions to get to the heart of his findings.


Full Article

so

Africa in the news: Debt relief in Somalia, government efforts to combat COVID-19, and new Boko Haram attacks

By webfeeds.brookings.edu
Published On :: Sat, 28 Mar 2020 11:30:13 +0000

Debt relief in Somalia and other African countries On Wednesday, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) jointly announced that Somalia is now eligible for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Successfully completing the HIPC program will reduce Somalia’s external debt from $5.2 billion currently to $557 million in about…

       


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As conflict intensifies in Nigeria’s North East, so too does a reliance on troubled militias

By webfeeds.brookings.edu
Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 13:58:17 +0000

Since 2009, Boko Haram has caused devastating insecurity, impoverishment, displacement, and other suffering in Nigeria’s poor and arid North East region. Although the Nigerian government and military mobilized against the group between 2015 and 2018, intense insecurity and violence not only persist, but have actually increased since 2018. In the past two years, the Nigerian…

       


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Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson Outlines Ways Organizations are Changing in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic and Climate Change in New Edition of "Environmental Insights"

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 8, 2020

Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, shared her perspectives on how large organizations are changing in response to the coronavirus pandemic and climate change in the newest episode of "Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program," a podcast produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. Listen to the interview here. Listen to the interview here.


Full Article

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Organizational Responses to COVID-19 and Climate Change: A Conversation with Rebecca Henderson

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Apr 8, 2020

Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, shared her perspectives on how large organizations are changing in response to the coronavirus pandemic and climate change in the newest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.”


Full Article

so

Can crowdsourcing be ethical?

By webfeeds.brookings.edu
Published On :: Wed, 03 Feb 2016 07:30:00 -0500


In the course of my graduate work at Harvard University, I paid hundreds of Americans living in poverty the equivalent of about $2 an hour. It was perfectly legal for me to do so, and my research had the approval of my university’s ethics board. I was not alone, or even unusual, in basing Ivy League research on less-than-Walmart wages; literally thousands of academic research projects pay the same substandard rates. Social scientists cannot pretend that the system is anything but exploitative. It is time for meaningful reform of crowdsourced research.

This is what crowdsourced research looks like. I posted a survey using Mechanical Turk (MTurk), a website run by Amazon.com. Across the country, hundreds of MTurk workers (“turkers”) agreed to fill out the survey in exchange for about 20 cents apiece, and within a few days I had my survey results. The process was easy, and above all, cheap. No wonder it is increasingly popular with academics; a search on Google Scholar returns thousands of academic papers citing MTurk, increasing from 173 in 2008 to 5,490 in 2014.

Mechanical Turk is a bargain for researchers, but not for workers. A survey typically takes a couple minutes per person, so the hourly rate is very low. This might be acceptable if all turkers were people with other jobs, for whom the payment was incidental. But scholars have known for years that the vast majority of MTurk tasks are completed by a small set of workers who spend long hours on the website, and that many of those workers are very poor. Here are the sobering facts:

  • About 80 percent of tasks on MTurk are completed by about 20 percent of participants that spend more than 15 hours a week working on the site. MTurk works not because it has many hobbyists, but because it has dedicated people who treat the tasks like a job.
  • About one in five turkers are earning less than $20,000 a year.
  • A third of U.S. turkers call MTurk an important source of income, and more than one in ten say they use MTurk money to make basic ends meet.

Journal articles that refer to Mechanical Turk. Source: PS: Political Science and Politics

It is easy to forget that these statistics represent real people, so let me introduce you to one of them. “Marjorie” is a 53-year-old woman from Indiana who had jobs in a grocery store and as a substitute teacher before a bad fall left her unable to work. Now, she says, “I sit there for probably eight hours a day answering surveys. I’ve done over 8,000 surveys.” For these full days of work, Marjorie estimates that she makes “$100 per month” from MTurk, which supplements the $189 she receives in food stamps. Asked about her economic situation, Marjorie simply says that she is “poverty stricken.”

I heard similar stories from other MTurk workers—very poor people, often elderly or disabled, working tremendous hours online just to keep themselves and their families afloat. I spoke to a woman who never got back on her feet after losing her home in Hurricane Rita, and another who had barely escaped foreclosure. A mother of two was working multiple jobs, plus her time MTurk, to keep her family off government assistance. Job options are few for many turkers, especially those who are disabled, and MTurk provides resources they might not otherwise have. But these workers that work anonymously from home are isolated and have few avenues to organize for higher wages or other employment protections.

Once I realized how poorly paid my respondents were, I went back and gave every one of my over 1,400 participants a “bonus” to raise the survey respondent rate to the equivalent of a $10 hourly wage. (I paid an additional $15 to respondents who participated in an interview.) This cost me a little bit more money, but less than you might imagine. For a 3-minute survey of 800 people, going from a 20-cent to a 50-cent payment costs an additional $240. But if every researcher paid an ethical wage, it would really add up for people like Marjorie. In fact, it would likely double her monthly income from MTurk.

Raising wages is a start, but it should not be up to individual researchers to impose workplace standards. In this month’s PS: Political Science and Politics, a peer-reviewed journal published for the American Political Science Association, I have called for new standards for crowdsourced research to be implemented not only by individual researchers, but also by universities, journals, and grantmakers. For instance, journal editors should commit to publishing only those articles that pay respondents an ethical rate, and university ethics boards should create guidelines for use of crowdsourcing that consider wages and also crowdsourcers’ lack of access to basic employment protections.

The alternative is continuing to pay below-minimum-wage rates to a substantial number of poor people who rely on this income for their basic needs. This is simply no alternative at all.

Image Source: © Romeo Ranoco / Reuters
      
 
 


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Can crowdsourcing be ethical?

By webfeeds.brookings.edu
Published On :: Mon, 08 Feb 2016 09:33:00 -0500


This post originally appeared on the TechTank blog.

In the course of my graduate work at Harvard University, I paid hundreds of Americans living in poverty the equivalent of about $2 an hour. It was perfectly legal for me to do so, and my research had the approval of my university’s ethics board. I was not alone, or even unusual, in basing Ivy League research on less-than-Walmart wages; literally thousands of academic research projects pay the same substandard rates. Social scientists cannot pretend that the system is anything but exploitative. It is time for meaningful reform of crowdsourced research.

This is what crowdsourced research looks like. I posted a survey using Mechanical Turk (MTurk), a website run by Amazon.com. Across the country, hundreds of MTurk workers (“turkers”) agreed to fill out the survey in exchange for about 20 cents apiece, and within a few days I had my survey results. The process was easy, and above all, cheap. No wonder it is increasingly popular with academics; a search on Google Scholar returns thousands of academic papers citing MTurk, increasing from 173 in 2008 to 5,490 in 2014.

Mechanical Turk is a bargain for researchers, but not for workers. A survey typically takes a couple minutes per person, so the hourly rate is very low. This might be acceptable if all turkers were people with other jobs, for whom the payment was incidental. But scholars have known for years that the vast majority of MTurk tasks are completed by a small set of workers who spend long hours on the website, and that many of those workers are very poor. Here are the sobering facts:

  • About 80 percent of tasks on MTurk are completed by about 20 percent of participants that spend more than 15 hours a week working on the site. MTurk works not because it has many hobbyists, but because it has dedicated people who treat the tasks like a job.
  • About one in five turkers are earning less than $20,000 a year.
  • A third of U.S. turkers call MTurk an important source of income, and more than one in ten say they use MTurk money to make basic ends meet.

Journal articles that refer to Mechanical Turk. Source: PS: Political Science and Politics

It is easy to forget that these statistics represent real people, so let me introduce you to one of them. “Marjorie” is a 53-year-old woman from Indiana who had jobs in a grocery store and as a substitute teacher before a bad fall left her unable to work. Now, she says, “I sit there for probably eight hours a day answering surveys. I’ve done over 8,000 surveys.” For these full days of work, Marjorie estimates that she makes “$100 per month” from MTurk, which supplements the $189 she receives in food stamps. Asked about her economic situation, Marjorie simply says that she is “poverty stricken.”

I heard similar stories from other MTurk workers—very poor people, often elderly or disabled, working tremendous hours online just to keep themselves and their families afloat. I spoke to a woman who never got back on her feet after losing her home in Hurricane Rita, and another who had barely escaped foreclosure. A mother of two was working multiple jobs, plus her time MTurk, to keep her family off government assistance. Job options are few for many turkers, especially those who are disabled, and MTurk provides resources they might not otherwise have. But these workers that work anonymously from home are isolated and have few avenues to organize for higher wages or other employment protections.

Once I realized how poorly paid my respondents were, I went back and gave every one of my over 1,400 participants a “bonus” to raise the survey respondent rate to the equivalent of a $10 hourly wage. (I paid an additional $15 to respondents who participated in an interview.) This cost me a little bit more money, but less than you might imagine. For a 3-minute survey of 800 people, going from a 20-cent to a 50-cent payment costs an additional $240. But if every researcher paid an ethical wage, it would really add up for people like Marjorie. In fact, it would likely double her monthly income from MTurk.

Raising wages is a start, but it should not be up to individual researchers to impose workplace standards. In this month’s PS: Political Science and Politics, a peer-reviewed journal published for the American Political Science Association, I have called for new standards for crowdsourced research to be implemented not only by individual researchers, but also by universities, journals, and grantmakers. For instance, journal editors should commit to publishing only those articles that pay respondents an ethical rate, and university ethics boards should create guidelines for use of crowdsourcing that consider wages and also crowdsourcers’ lack of access to basic employment protections.

The alternative is continuing to pay below-minimum-wage rates to a substantial number of poor people who rely on this income for their basic needs. This is simply no alternative at all.

Image Source: © Romeo Ranoco / Reuters
      
 
 


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8 recommendations for universities and professors during the coronavirus pandemic

By webfeeds.brookings.edu
Published On :: Fri, 03 Apr 2020 19:07:23 +0000

Over 200 colleges and universities have closed in the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic. Some have canceled in-person classes for the rest of the spring 2020 semester, while others have canceled graduation. Universities are trying to make decisions in a fluid and unprecedented environment. Professors and instructors face their own challenges as they…

       


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Why is the United States So Bad at Foreign Policy?

By feedproxy.google.com
Published On :: Jan 13, 2020

Stephen Walt writes that the United States' unusual historical experience, geographic isolation, large domestic market, and general ignorance have weakened its ability to make viable foreign-policy strategies.


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