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Universities and policymakers increasingly use 'research culture' and 'research environment' to govern as well as describe research. Both terms help frame who is considered a research actor; how researchers interact with the contexts in which they make knowledge; and what is considered malleable when attempting to improve how research is done. There are very few conceptual‐critical analyses of either term, even as each is a complex abstraction with rich and contested histories and usage. I explore both, largely using the example of the United Kingdom (where improving 'research culture' is currently prioritised by many funders, and will be assessed by the UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2028). Research culture has a close relationship with the concept organisational culture, which emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s and prioritised particular – frequently psychological – constructs that focused on the norms, values, and attitudes of an organisation. 'Research labour' – the labour relations that underpin how people work together and shape organisational norms, values, and relational dependencies – tends to drop from view. Geographers have much to offer these debates, given how extensively the discipline has contributed to what culture and environment might mean. Institutional, national, and sectoral policies concerning research culture and environment significantly shape how knowledge‐making is understood and intervened on. The processes that 'research culture' and 'research environment' authorise and foreclose require greater examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the composition of families in the parish of São José de Encoge, northern Angola, in the early colonial era, using a series of 'family bulletins' collected by the Portuguese colonial government in 1910. Encoge was one of the earliest centres of coffee cultivation in west-central Africa. While not all local families participated in this economy, the census sheds light on family-based cash-crop production after the abolition of slavery in Angola. The literature on post-slavery labour arrangements in Africa almost unanimously suggests that family-extension strategies predominantly aimed to integrate young women and girls into households, using pawnship and guardianship as important methods. The family bulletins from Encoge provide a means to evaluate this assumption on a quantitative basis in an Angolan context. They indicate that, besides natural reproduction and the adoption of second wives, the incorporation of wards, nephews, and nieces was the most common form of household extension, in which elders showed a remarkable preference for male dependants. The bulletins do not provide clear evidence of the presence of enslaved dependants, although some individuals listed as servants were possibly enslaved. Overall, the data suggest that, contrary to common assumptions about agricultural labour in Africa, family-based cultivation and trade of coffee did not discriminate against men or boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foodwork is a political matter, and baking is no exception. Many messages are associated with the symbolic significance of baking, such as idealised notions of white, middle-class domesticity, femininity and visibility. The rise in home-baking during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a surge in social media content, which conveys much about the different meanings ascribed to baking. Relatedly, scholarship on 'COVID-19 foodwork, race, gender, class and food justice' highlights that intersecting oppressions are implicated in such matters. Drawing on different lines of research that specify and address structural power relations (e.g. gendered whiteness), I analyse the aesthetics and accompanying attitudes conveyed via Instagram posts about #pandemicbaking and #quarantinebaking. In doing so, I draw and build on critical studies of whiteness and digital food media, and connections between consumerism and COVID-19. This work considers what such online content suggests about the relationship between a 'feminised, white, aestheticised ethos' and digital discourse and depictions regarding food, family, domesticity, work and rest. Consequently, this research ponders over whether the labour and framing involved in documenting #pandemicbaking and #quarantinebaking on Instagram reflects a neoliberal form of entrepreneurial 'freelance feminism', which is animated by the tension between the 'frequently polarized figures of "the feminist" and "the housewife"'. I examine the significance of three key themes related to #pandemicbaking and #quarantinebaking: (1) Gendered domestic labour and digital depictions and discourses of motherhood; (2) productivity, pausing and so-called 'soulfulness'; and (3) domestic minimalism and aesthetics of whiteness. In turn, this article critically reflects on the relationship between mediated constructions of gendered whiteness and baking, while echoing calls for more research that explicitly addresses dynamics between digital whiteness, class, aesthetics, gendered racial capitalism, foodwork, feminism and online content creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How policymakers and academics organize and visualize core ideas affects how they define and perceive problems and generate policy solutions. While understanding complex ideas—such as productivity—as the product of a set of discrete inputs can help target inquiry and structure policy interventions, this can also lead to siloed thinking that neglects dynamic effects and interactions between elements. This paper explores how three organizations conceptualize the 'productivity puzzle' and suggests that they might be oversimplifying the roots of productivity. We present a systematic review of labour productivity literature using bibliometric coupling and network analysis to develop an alternative framework and map of themes and gaps. This work encourages policy to (1) adopt a systems lens and perceive productivity as the product of dynamic interactions and (2) think critically about how to structure future research on productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food processing sector is the transformation of raw agricultural products into food, or one form of food into other forms. Food processing comprises many forms of processing foods starting from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industrial methods of food processing and it is used to make convenience foods. The Indian Food and Beverage Industry is evolving as a high-profit sector and contributes about 3 % of India's GDP with value of two-third of total retail market in India. The projected revenue in the food and beverage business segment is estimated to show a CAGR growth rate of 14.2 percent from the year 2020 to 2024. A total of 160 key informants were selected from each start up food processing industry in two districts namely Trichy and Krishnagiri district and all the two districts, the Key Informants was asked collectively to list the constraints faced by the food processing industry through participatory method. The RBQ value for the availability of raw material connection between production and processing is 84.67 which implies that lack of inferior quality production with RBQ value of 75.33. The difficulty in dispatching and follow up the production constraint with RBQ value of 72.67, procedural delay was ranked first among the financial constraint with RBQ of 76.67 and the challenges in identifying the specific market for the produce was ranked first among the marketing constraint with RBQ value of 77.33. These are the major constraints among the respondents. The implementation of green business practices - from production to packaging and supply chain management - is a critical solution to addressing current food industry issues. The Policy would seek to create a favorable environment for agripreneurs to establish Food Processing sectors through fiscal initiatives/interventions such as rationalization of tax structures on fresh foods, processed foods, and machinery used in the production of processed foods. Also, to encourage the establishment of agro-processing facilities close to agricultural production and sorting facilities to reduce waste and improve product quality and shelf life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Activity sampling is a technique to monitor onsite labourers' time utilisation, which can provide helpful information for the management level to implement suitable labour productivity improvement strategies continuously. However, there needs to be a review paper that compiles research on activity sampling studies to give readers a thorough grasp of the research trend. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the activity sampling techniques applied in earlier research from the angles of activity categories formation, data collection methods and data analysis. Design/methodology/approach: The method used in this paper is a systematic review guided by the PRISMA framework. The search was conducted in Scopus and Web of Science. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, selecting 70 articles published between 2011 and 2022 for data extraction and analysis. The analysis method involved a qualitative synthesis of the findings from the selected articles. Findings: Activity sampling is broadly divided into four stages: targeting trade, determining activity categories, data collection and data analysis. This paper divides the activity categories into three levels and classifies the data collection methods into manual observation, sensor-based activity sampling and computer vision-based activity sampling. The previous studies applied activity sampling for two construction management purposes: labour productivity monitoring and ergonomic safety monitoring. This paper also further discusses the scientific research gaps and future research directions. Originality/value: This review paper contributes to the body of knowledge in construction management by thoroughly understanding current state-of-the-art activity sampling techniques and research gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While term life insurance has historically been sold to income-earning men to secure the financial futures of their families, in India there is a growing number of life insurance products targeting women, particularly unwaged housewives. In marketing these financial products to Indian women, I show how life insurance companies incorporate the feminist critique of devalued domestic labor. Drawing on analysis of insurance policies, marketing and promotional materials, as well as personal advice articles, it goes on to show how there is, something uncanny or unsettling about the way life insurance not only commodifies and financializes domestic labor, but also focuses on the reproductive bodies of women through health riders. The article situates contemporary discourses of life insurance for women within a longer history of women's property and of mobilizing capital through rather than for women in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the 1985 documentary film, Sweet Sugar Rage (co-directed by Honor Ford-Smith and Harclyde Walcott), and its methodologies of renewable resistance to the enduring choreographies of planter's pageantry in the postcolonial Caribbean. Produced by Jamaica's Sistren Theatre Collective – a radical community theatre group formed in 1977 – the film (the collective's first) documents a set of dramatic interventions focused on women's labour exploitation in Jamaica's sugar cane fields. A series of workshops and plays depicts the historical and current material conditions of cane workers and aims to support participants in the practical navigation of plantation labour. In staging the material conditions of post-independence Jamaican plantation labour, including the gendered hierarchies of union organising, these counter-choreographies of workers' solidarity re-occupy the cane field as a historically dense site of collective resistance. Furthermore, I argue, in their rejection of the ubiquitous and insidious staging of the plantation as an ahistorical, hyper-aestheticised dreamscape of leisure and play, these local counter-choreographies intervene on the scale of global history. The essay articulates the stakes of this refusal by historicising the installation of plantation heritage tourism as a nostalgic site of planter's pageantry that continues to erase the violent legacies of enslaved and indentured labour into the present day. Engaging the aesthetic and political consequences of these competing choreographies, the essay looks towards the future of the Caribbean as a global proscenium of postcolonial possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we reassess Marxist notions of labour and value for our datafied societies, where data is allegedly becoming one of the dominant sources of economic value. Our contention is that the existing accounts of value, which assume that value is produced exclusively by human labour, are unable to fully account for the processes of exploitation that take place in our digital platform dominated economy. We begin addressing these shortcomings by critiquing the anthropocentric notion of agency that informs the Marxist account of labour. This notion of agency locates productive activity exclusively in human intentionality. After offering an overview of anthropocentric concepts of labour that still dominate (post-)Marxist theories today, we draw on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari to develop a post-anthropocentric account of agency that we term machinic agency. Machinic agency sees activity as a matter of connectivity between different human and nonhuman actors (technologies, organisms, minerals etc.), which productively combine and amplify their capacities to act. These affective connections precede and shape, but often also completely bypass, human consciousness. We make a case for the concept of machinic agency by comparing it with Actor-Network Theory (ANT), an established theory that conceptualises agency as arising from compositions of both human and nonhuman elements. Our contention is that, unlike ANT, machinic agency is able to collapse both, the distinction between human and nonhuman, and that between mechanism and vitalism. We conclude by suggesting that machinic agency allows us to demonstrate that data capitalism exploits and appropriates not only the surplus value produced by conscious human effort, but also the co-production of affective, technological, and ecological aspects of our existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the problems of providing clergy with land for farming. It was revealed that the sources of replenishment of land allotments used by the clergy differed markedly depending on the specifics of individual parishes. There is detailed information about the church land received by the clergy from parishioners immediately after taking office (ordination). Another source of land replenishment was the own work of priests and clergy in clearing land from the forest and draining swamps. State measures aimed at improving the financial situation of the clergy and endowing clerics with land sufficient to maintain a stable economy have not been successful for a number of reasons. The Church authority believed that work on arable land brings clergy and laity closer together, contributing to mutual understanding. Among rural pastors, the conviction gradually grew that the basis of a priest’s income should be a government salary.

Introduction Pregnancy and childbirth have historically been considered, both in collective imagination and cultural transmission, as situations that threaten maternal and fetal survival. Purpose This study aims to understand the experiences of women who underwent Caesarean sections at Isiro General Reference Hospital, in relation to their pregnancies and labour, in order to inform precautions for future cases. Methods This is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach. The population consists of women who underwent Caesarean sections in the gynecology-obstetrics department of Isiro General Reference Hospital. Data were collected through individual, semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Results For most women in the town of Isiro, pregnancy and childbirth are perceived as difficult and painful experiences. They reported discomfort and embarrassment, describing a variety of symptoms that were often mild: various pains, eating and digestion disorders, headaches, shortness of breath, dizziness, etc. In addition, the expectant mothers often felt vulnerable. Conclusion The conception of a child triggers a significant emotional upheaval in women, with psychological and physiological changes, particularly hormonal. These should not obscure the psychological challenges involved. Pregnancy and childbirth represent a period of identity crisis and psychological maturation for the woman transitioning into motherhood.

This paper reports the experience of the symposium “Mobbing and health”, held at the First Ibero American Conference on Workplace and Institutional Mobbing. Based on original research, the authors agreed that mobbing is harmful to physical and mental health, to social life and the relationship with the partner. Symptoms range from sleeping problems, food habits, mood, psychoactive substance use, anxiety, depression, fatigue and deterioration of sexual life, to headaches, hypertension, fibromyalgia and suicide, in extreme cases. The authors also agreed that family support, social support at work and psychotherapeutic intervention are key ways to help the victims. Harassment is recognized as a serious public health problem particularly, though not exclusively, in economically disadvantaged countries. This refers to the fact that mobbing, like other forms of violence, is one of the great evils resulting from the economic crisis that increased social inequality. The authors also said that phenomena such as mobbing should be made clear to the general society in seeking solutions. Thus it is important to target appropriate forums and opportunities to influence public policies and to encourage politicians to legislate and regulate comprehensive health protection of workers. Key words: mobbing, health, workplaces

This essay deals with a frequently discussed theme: the organization of work and the health of people who work, revealing that as ways to organize work have been modified in today’s workplace, work has intensified and the forms of exploitation of the working class have multiplied. Various studies in this field allow us to understand the conditions of work and organizational density, including work itself and the use of time by the capitalist establishment as well as emergent risks that workers are exposed to in their daily work lives and the demands that they are subjected to during their exhaustive work days. KEY WORDS organization of work, workplace bullying, flexibilization of labor

Abstract: This article analyses the abolition of slavery and the transition to free labour in late nineteenth-century Puerto Rico, seeking to understand the terms and timing of Puerto Rican abolition and the nature of society in its wake. Especially important in Puerto Rico, it argues, was the intertwined nature of slavery and other forms of forced labour as well as the predominance of foreign merchants and planters in the island's economy, which created multi-class alliances between working-class Puerto Ricans and creole elites. These class dynamics interacted with events in the metropole to influence the terms of labour on the island.

Industry is the substratum of material production and the economy as a whole. Numerous discussions about the need for new industrialisation make us turn again to the analysis of the state of industrial potential and results of industrial development in Russia. The study aims to explain the performance of the Russian industry in terms of the most relevant and aggregated indicators characterising its functioning, and to formulate its long-term development tasks. The methodological basis of the study is the theory of industrial development. Methods of planning and industrial analysis are used. The evidence is the data for 2012–2022 retrieved from the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation and the Unified Interdepartmental Statistical Information System. The research concludes about the ‘contracted’ development of the Russian industry. The growth rate of the gross value added is more significantly impacted by the dynamics of fixed capital rather than that of labour. Yet the labour contributed greatly to the creation of the new value, which indicates the predominance of labour-intensive technologies, or obsolete capital-intensive technologies. The study empirically confirms that some periods saw a ‘paradox of rapid industrialisation’, that is, a substantially lower rate of economic growth against a higher growth of industry and modernisation of its fixed assets. The general conclusion is that when conducting industrial policy, it is necessary to influence the state of the labour and capital factors in the manufacturing sectors. The industrialisation of the Russian economy needs to be oriented towards the technological substitution through the creation of new fixed assets; in addition, the losses of greatly reduced labour potential should be compensated. A promising avenue is the organisation of analytical planning for the state-owned industry and indicative planning for private industries along with the adoption of a law on the state sector.

The global economic downturn due to the pandemic has resulted in shrinking the digital market in big economies such as the US and China. After the pandemic, many of the major tech and internet-based companies had to take action to reverse their the declining balance sheets and look for ways to financially rebound. Illustrated in this paper is how these digital giants in China could further advance their economy by minimising their paid manpower by working with/under the education system and inventing new temporary intern positions as semi-(im)material labour to expand their workforce. Based on our ethnographic work and interviews with interns, we elucidate the case of a Chinese tech intern, which exemplifies what we refer to as involution. Involution is a process by which the new generation is induced to accept a much more precarious economy as a result of nominal pay, yet is able to nevertheless survive, meet their daily needs and dwell in big cities, rather than engaging a radical change or revolution.

Abstract Background Mental health is a growing concern worldwide. It is not well understood whether international labour migrants from Nepal who return to Nepal are at higher risk of developing mental health problems. The purpose of our study was to determine the prevalence of and examine the associated factors for depressive symptoms among returnee migrants and non-migrant working male adults in Nepal. Methods A cross-sectional survey of a probability-based sample of 725 participants was conducted in February 2020. The sample was comprised of two groups based on migration status: returning migrants and non-migrants. The 21-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-21) questionnaire was used to assess depressive symptoms. Logistic regression was applied to investigate factors associated with symptoms of depression. Results The overall prevalence of depressive symptoms was 10.1%. However, the prevalence of depressive symptoms was lower (7%) among returnee migrants compared to non-migrants (13.7%). Men in the lower income group had a higher chance of having depressive (AOR = 5.88, 95% CI: 2.17–15.96) than those in the higher income group. Similarly, Buddhists and Christians were more likely to be depressed (AOR = 2.20, 95% CI: 1.03–4.68) than Hindus. Participants with more than two children had a higher chance of having of depressive symptoms (AOR = 4.80, 95% CI: 1.15–20.05) compared with those without children. Unmarried men were more likely to be depressed (AOR = 4.07, 95%, CI:1.11–14.92) than those who were married. Conclusion The working Nepali adult male population in Nepal, including returning migrants, is at risk of depressive symptoms, but this association was lower in those in the higher income group, returnee migrants, those who were married, Hindus and those with no children. Our results highlight the need to monitor and develop national policies to ensure the mental health of the Nepali male adult population, including returnee migrants.

Abstract Objective This systematic review and meta-analysis investigated whether the use of azithromycin during labour or caesarean section reduces the incidence of sepsis and infection among mothers and newborns. Data sources We independently searched the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and EMBASE databases for relevant studies published before February, 2024. Methods We included RCTs that evaluated the effect of prenatal oral or intravenous azithromycin or placebo on intrapartum or postpartum infection incidence. We included studies evaluating women who had vaginal births as well as caesarean sections. Studies reporting maternal and neonatal infections were included in the current analysis. Review Manager 5.4 was used to analyse 6 randomized clinical trials involving 44,448 mothers and 44,820 newborns. The risk of bias of each included study was assessed using the criteria outlined in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.Primary outcomes included the incidence of maternal sepsis and all-cause mortality and neonatal sepsis and all-cause mortality; secondary outcomes included maternal (endometritis, wound and surgical site infections, chorioamnionitis, and urinary tract infections) and neonatal outcomes (infections of the eyes, ears and skin). A random-effects model was used to test for overall effects and heterogeneity. Results The pooled odds ratios (ORs) were as follows: 0.65 for maternal sepsis (95% CI, 0.55–0.77; I 2 , 0%; P

Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) is a fundamental right of every childbearing woman. It is aimed at lessening disparities in medical care and assists in achieving an optimal outcome for both mothers and newborns. However, studies have shown that Disrespect and Abuse (D&A) are extremely widespread in low socio-economic countries and that care quality has been neglected at all levels. To minimise disrespectful Maternity Care, we must create situation-specific, proof-based interventions as well as strategies and plans of action. RMC needs a lot more than the ending of misconduct. Care should be provided to all women in a way that safeguards their respect, privacy, and confidentiality. They should not be ill-treated and constant support should be provided at the time of labour and childbirth. Respectful treatment should not be dependent on the social status of the mother. The implementation of RMC through the labour and delivery process is a complicated procedure that demands that healthcare providers possess both interpersonal and scientific abilities. In this regard, it is crucial to recognise the probable hurdles and execute efficient approaches for implementing RMC into action. The present review aimed to further focus the discussion around the creation of RMC policies for various healthcare settings. The authors emphasise the value of RMC and highlight that poor treatment and disrespectful care are issues that are essential to be addressed across all research fields, including community health, quality assurance, administration, and human rights.