Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, April 22, 2016

April 22, 2016

 

Announcement:

University of Toronto MIRHR Students Bring Home the Cup

University of Toronto MIRHR students are winners of annual 2016 Inter-University Negotiations Competition Negotiation event held at the Universite de Montreal. This event is a unique and stimulating opportunity for students to put their knowledge of employment relations into practice and to demonstrate their talents in multiparty negotiations. Members of the winning teams include Akbar Raza, Shawn Greenstone, Morley Driedger, Rudolf du Toit, Daniel Gaspa, Martina Matija, Victoria Tersigni, and their instructor Bob Thompson.

Follow us on the CIRHR Library Tumblr and on the CIRHR Library Twitter.

Equal Pay Day

“Introduced in the United States in 1996, the day marks the point in the year when women will have earned what men earned in the previous year. In the U.S. and Canada, that’s typically in April; the Ontario Equal Pay Coalition is observing the day on April 19, while in the United States it was April 12. France observed its Equal Pay Day on March 29, Germany on March 19, Britain on March 11 and Switzerland on Feb. 24.”

“Women working full-time in Canada earn about 73.5 cents for every dollar a man makes, despite women attaining higher levels of education than men do.”

The Globe and Mail, April 19, 2016: “Equal Pay Day: How much do Canadian women earn compared with men?”

Rabble, April 19, 2016: “This Equal Pay Day, let’s mobilize for change,” by Angella Macewan

“Consider that the latest Statistics Canada figures, from 2013, indicate that women in Ontario still make only 70.6 cents for every dollar a man earns, for a gap of 29.4 per cent. Then consider that no matter what women have done over the years to close the gap -- whether it’s climbing the corporate ladder, getting more education, earning more experience or changing occupations -- it has barely budged, according to a new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.”

“Among its findings:

  • The higher up the ladder women climbed, the larger the wage gap. For the top-earning 10 per cent, the wage gap is 37 per cent, or $64,000 a year. That means that over a 35-year career, a woman in that category will earn $2.24 million on average less than a man.
  • Even though the majority of post-secondary degree holders are women and they are moving into professions once dominated by men, their average annual earnings are still less than men’s for a gender wage gap of 27 per cent.
  • Nor is the wage gap affected by which occupation women choose. In every category, including those where they are in the majority, women’s average annual earnings are less than men’s. For sales and services, for example, there was a gender pay gap of 48 per cent. For health care it was 37 per cent.
  • Experience doesn’t close the wage gap, either. In fact, it seems to increase it. The gap increases to 38 per cent for women aged 55 to 64, from 23 per cent for women 15 to 24.”

The Toronto Star, April 18, 2016: “Close the wage gap between men and women: Editorial”

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, April 18, 2016: “Every Step You Take: Ontario’s Gender Pay Gap Ladder,” by Mary Cornish

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Retail's Gender Pay Gap

“It’s the biggest source of jobs in the country, employing more than one million people in Ontario alone. But unequal wages and unfair distribution of hours in the retail sector are keeping women workers down, a new report shows.”

“Although almost 60 per cent of the province’s overall retail workforce is female, men still outnumber women in the highest-paid retail job: management. Men are also paid more than women in every single category of retail work, and are more likely than women to enjoy a full-time role, the study finds.”

“In the retail sector, female workers are more likely to be concentrated in minimum wage jobs, according to the report, which draws on Statistics Canada data. Although the wage gap experienced by women in the retail sector is somewhat lower than the overall pay disparity in Ontario, 65 per cent of retail workers making $12 or less are women.”

“But female workers in retail are additionally penalized by the unfair distribution of hours and full-time work, according to the study, entitled ‘The Gender Wage Gap in Ontario’s Retail Sector: Devaluing Women’s Work and Women Workers.’ Around 65 per cent of male retail workers are in full-time jobs, compared to 57 per of women.”

The Toronto Star, April 18, 2016: “Women in retail jobs hardest hit by gender pay gap, says new report,” by Sara Mojtehedzadeh and Geoffrey Vendeville

Revolutionizing Retail, 2016: “The Gender Wage Gap in Ontario’s Retail Sector: Devaluing Women’s Work and Women Workers,” by Kendra Coulter, Angella MacEwen, and Sheetal Rawal (28 pages, PDF)

“Our report makes several recommendations about how Ontario’s Employment Standards Act can address the gender gap in hours, including:

  • advance notice for work schedules,
  • minimum hours guarantees,
  • requiring that part-time, contract, and temporary workers be paid the same wage as full-time workers doing the same tasks, and
  • paid sick leave.”

Broadbent Institute, April 19, 2016: “New report shines light on dynamics of gender pay gap,” by Angella MacEwan

“In countries like Canada and the United States, retail jobs are generally not considered ‘good jobs.’ This needs to change. This site highlights strategies for improving retail work and retail workers’ lives. It provides information on:

  • the realities of retail work and the retail work force
  • workers’ diverse forms of organizing
  • public policy and legislative strategies
  • good retail employers and managers”

Revolutionizing Retail [website]

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What Salary Disclosures Tell Us

“There are far fewer women than men on Ontario’s 2015 ‘sunshine list,’ and the ones who made it were typically paid less than their male counterparts, an analysis by the Star reveals.”

“There were 62,428 men but only 40,065 women on the annual public disclosure of all provincial employees who earn more than $100,000. The women earned an average of about $124,000, while the average man earned almost $130,000. And there were twice as many men making more than $162,000 than women.”

“By sector, women were most under-represented at Ontario Power Generation, where they accounted for just 14 per cent of the 7,633 employees who made more than $100,000. Those who did make the list earned, on average, $11,211.15 less than their male colleagues.”

“Hospitals and boards of public health was the sector with the biggest proportion of women on the sunshine list, but also reported the largest pay gap. Women made up 65.5 per cent of hospital and public health employees on the sunshine list, but they earned, on average, $26,925.38 less than their male colleagues, or about 82 cents on the dollar.”

“Colleges were the most equitable employer on the 2015 sunshine list. Women made just $152.64 less than their male colleagues, and were almost as likely to make the list as men. Of the 4,910 employees on the sunshine list from colleges, 44 per cent were women, 50 per cent were men and 6 per cent were undefined (see note on methodology at the end of this article).”

“At universities, on the other hand, only about 35 per cent of employees on the sunshine list were women, about 53 per cent were men and 12 per cent were undefined. Women, on average, were paid $12,832.62 less than their male colleagues.”

“While men employed in government ministries were almost twice as likely to be on the sunshine list as women, women made an average of $2,722.80 more -- the only sector on the list to show a pay gap in women’s favour.”

The Toronto Star, April 6, 2016: “Ontario’s sunshine list shows men far outnumber women -- and women earn less,” by Robin Levinson King and Matthew Cole

Government of Ontario, March 30, 2016: “Public sector salary disclosure”

“[Mary Shortall], the president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour told CBC there are benefits to knowing how much all workers make, not just the highly paid ones:”

“If there are great gaps between employers, and employees’ salaries, if there’s great inequality between certain groups of workers, that information will be helpful for us to ensure there’s a greater and equitable share of the whole economic pie.”

“Right now, collective agreements for public employees are available publicly. It lists salaries for each classification. But Shortall says that doesn’t give the full picture:”

"If [an] individual’s annual wages far exceed that because of forced overtime or a lot of overtime issues, in a province like Newfoundland and Labrador that has a high unemployment rate for example, we would be able to make the case that employers should be hiring more people rather than jeopardizing the health and safety of workers.”

CBC News, April 7, 2016: “N.L. Federation of Labour sees benefits in salary disclosure,” by Peter Cowan

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Everyday Sexism on Parliament Hill

Michelle Rempel writes:

“The everyday sexism that I experience is grating. It angers me, and it makes me roll my eyes. Sometimes, when it’s bad enough, it causes me to second guess myself. I address it. I speak out about it. That said, I’ve never lost a job because of it. I’ve never experienced violence because of it. I’ve never had to worry about feeding my family because of it.”

“So, who am I to tell other women how they should combat everyday sexism? In fact, who are any of us to do the same?”

“While I applaud the efforts many women have made to empower other women to address sexism in the moment it happens, we should upend the table. The responsibility for combatting everyday sexism doesn’t lie with those who live with it; it lies with you.”

The National Post, April 19, 2016: “Michelle Rempel: Confront Your Sexism,” by Michelle Rempel

“Female MPs are applauding one of their colleagues for writing a scathing op-ed that sheds light on the routine discrimination endured by women in politics.”

“In an opinion column, Michelle Rempel, the Conservative MP for Calgary Nose Hill, recounted what she described as the ‘everyday sexism’ she has experienced. She wrote that the biased treatment she receives includes being talked down to by male colleagues, being labelled a ‘bitch’ if she takes a strong stand during an argument, and ‘my ass being occasionally grabbed as a way to shock me into submission.’”

“She described how one male MP told her he wanted to wait to speak with her about an issue until she was ‘less emotional’ and advised her to ‘(be) nicer in the future.’ When she made a request of another MP, Rempel wrote in the National Post column on Monday, he responded by saying, ‘It turns me on when you’re direct.’”

“In the column, Rempel, who was appointed as the Conservative immigration critic last year, wrote that it shouldn’t be left to women to call out misogyny. ‘The responsibility for combating everyday sexism doesn’t lie with those who live with it,’ she wrote, ‘arguing that people who harbour biases against women should own up to their views.’”

The Toronto Star, April 19, 2016: “MP Michelle Rempel paints picture of routine sexism in Parliament,” by Ben Spurr

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What the World's Wealthiest, Self-Made Women Have in Common

Jonathan Wai, research scientist at Duke University writes:

“Despite being significantly underrepresented among the wealthy and business elite, more females are making it to the top.”

“In a recent research paper, David Lincoln and I used the Wealth-X database to examine some of the characteristics of self-made females who also had net worths of $30 million or higher. We looked at 597 women primarily from the US and UK but also from around the world who were part of a larger study of 18,245 ultra-high net worth individuals. Although all of these self-made females can be considered leaders, 348 of them were chairmen, presidents, CEOs, and founders, what we considered to be top leaders.”

“To reach these pinnacles, self-made females achieved success at an earlier age, had to be more educationally selected, built a larger network of power than their male counterparts, and perhaps had to be more focused on themselves and their careers.”

“Here are some interesting facts we’ve uncovered about the wealthiest self-made female leaders [compared to self-made males and everyone else]:

  • “hey are underrepresented overall, by a factor of 30 to 1
  • They have lower net worths
  • They are younger
  • They have a higher number of wealthy connections and network power
  • They are less generous
  • They had to be more select to reach the top”

Quartz, April 19, 2016: “What the world’s wealthiest, self-made women have in common,” by Jonathan Wai

Intelligence, 2016: “Investigating the right tail of wealth: Education, cognitive ability, giving, network power, gender, ethnicity, leadership, and other characteristics,” by Jonathan Waia and David Lincoln (32 pages, PDF)

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This is Progress? 2015's New CEOs

“The latest batch of CEOs hardly fit the profile you might think of when you consider a corporate leader in 2015. For starters, almost all of them are men. Globally, the share of new CEO positions that were filled by women fell to a pitiful 3% in 2015, down from a pathetic 5% in 2014.”

“Spencer Herbst, a senior associate at Strategy&, says that the industries with the highest CEO turnover recently -- energy, materials, and industrials -- aren’t exactly known for attracting and grooming women leaders. ‘If we look over the past 12 years, these are the three industries least likely to hire women CEOs,’ he notes.”

“Breaking it down by region, the US and Canada dragged the average down. Of the 87 incoming CEOs in at big listed companies in North America last year, only one was a woman. That said, over the past 12 years the US and Canada have hired a larger share of women CEOs than other regions, on average: a whopping 4%.”

“Not only have the world’s newest CEOs become more male, but they also have less international work experience than before. This seems weird, too: the world of business is more global than ever, so you would think that experience beyond one’s own borders would be a prerequisite for becoming the boss. But here we are. 'The global CEO is a myth,' the study says.”

Quartz, April 19, 2016: “This is progress? The newest CEOs are less worldly and more male than ever,” by Jenny Anderson

Strategy&, April 2016: “2015 CEO Success study”

Strategy&, April 2016: “2015 CEO Success study: Outsider CEOs” (25 pages, PDF)

Strategy&, April 2016: “2015 CEO Success study: Women CEOs” 

Strategy&, April 2016: “2015 CEO Success study: Incoming Class of CEOs”

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Mobilizing Against Inequality

“The Worker Institute at Cornell is re-launching 'Mobilizing Against Inequality,' a website focused on building a conversation around immigrant worker struggles for rights and representation, and the organizations that advocate for them.”

“On the updated website, visitors will find interviews with leading immigrant worker rights scholars and organizers, profiles of unions and organizations developing innovative strategies to advocate for immigrant workers, and academic research.”

“They will also find case studies and other resources that challenge xenophobia and racism while celebrating the social and economic contributions of immigrant workers.”

Mobilizing Against Inequality [website]

ILR School, Cornell University, April 11, 2016: “Mobilizing Against Inequality”

Mobilizing In Toronto

“The decision to stage a sit-in outside police headquarters has transformed Black Lives Matter Toronto from a moment into movement, observers say.”

“The Toronto branch of Black Lives Matter formed in 2014.They’ve staged a 'die-in' at Yonge-Dundas Square, crashed a Toronto Police Services board meeting and marched across the Allen. However, it’s only taken a few days of staying put outside police headquarters for the group to finally get traction at City Hall.”

“The sit-in was instrumental in getting Afrofest’s two-day music permit reinstated and on Friday [April 1, 2016], city council will consider the group’s call to reform the Ontario Special Investigations Unit, which investigates cases like that of Andrew Loku, a 45-year-old black man shot to death by police last July.”

Metro News, March 31, 2016: “Occupy-style tactics mark shift for Black Lives Matter Toronto,” by Luke Simcoe

The Toronto Star, April 17, 2016: “Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founders declare partial victory,” by Mary Warren

“As many as 20 members of Idle No More and Black Lives Matter have been occupying the Toronto office of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) since mid-morning [on April 13th], demanding that the federal government take action following the suicide crisis.”

“Protesters started the occupation with a die-in on the floor of the office, before holding a ceremony that included the burning of sweetgrass and sage.”

“They say they are standing in solidarity with the Attawapiskat community, which declared a state of emergency Saturday following reports of 11 suicide attempts in one day alone last weekend. There are also reports of more than 100 suicide attempts and at least one death since September in the remote community of nearly 2,000 people.”

CBC News, April 13, 2016: “Idle No More, Black Lives Matter protesters demand action on Attawapiskat suicide crisis,” by Chantal Da Silva

VICE News, April 18, 2016: “Indigenous Youth to Canadian Politician: ‘Tell Me Why We Live in Third World Conditions’,” by Tamara Khandaker

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What a Farmer Looks Like

“When most people think of a farmer, they might envision an Old MacDonald type in a straw hat -- but that’s far from reality."

“The Female Farmer Project is shattering the stereotypical image of a farmer by showing exactly who America’s agricultural workers really are: women.“

“Photographer Audra Mulkern was shopping in her local farmer’s market in 2012 when she noticed something about the farm interns: all of them were women.”

“Mulkern spent the next three years traveling the country to capture images of female farmers, whose stories often go untold”:
“This project disrupts the idea of what women’s work is, and what a farmer looks like.”

“Around one in three farmers in the U.S. are women, according to the USDA. In some states, like Arizona, they make up almost half of farmers. But as in most industries, the higher up you go, the fewer women you see: Women only control seven percent of U.S. farmland, according to the USDA.”

The Female Farmer Project [website]

The Huffington Post, April 19, 2016: “Stunning Photos Shatter the Stereotype Of What A Farmer Looks Like,” by Sarah Grossman

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The Value of Keeping it in the Ground

“An important new study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, says that climate change will be expensive. Extremely expensive. It turns out that if you mess with the planet’s thermostat, it’s not great for the economy or investments. Forget the polar bears; your pension and retirement funds are in trouble.”

“It’s not the first time economists have warned us about the costs of a changing climate. Some past studies on climate economics, like the famous Stern Report a decade ago, assessed the macro-level risk to GDP as a whole. Others have drilled down to explore what worldwide action to control carbon would mean for fossil fuel investments specifically. But this new report, by estimating the risk to all financial assets and portfolios, finds a powerful middle ground that should get investor attention.”

“If we stay on the current emissions path, the study predicts, the value at risk in global portfolios could range from about $2 trillion to $25 trillion. In a bit of understatement, Simon Dietz of the London School of Economics, the lead author of the report, told The Guardian, ‘long-term investors ... would be better off in a low-carbon world.’”

Harvard Business Review, April 14, 2016: “The Data Says Climate Change Could Cost Investors Trillions,” by Andrew Winston

The Guardian, April 4, 2016: “Climate change will wipe $2.5tn off global financial assets: study,” by Damian Carrington

Nature Climate Change, April 4, 2016: “‘Climate value at risk’ of global financial asset,” by Simon Dietz, Alex Bowen, Charlie Dixon and Philip Gradwell (6 pages, PDF)

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Big Business Takes a Stand for Social Justice

“When you think about the role that big corporations play in American life, fighting for social justice is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Yet many corporations are doing precisely that in the ongoing struggle over the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. This year, legislators in at least twenty-five states have proposed more than a hundred bills limiting L.G.B.T. rights, often under the guise of protecting religious freedom; North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi have passed laws that, in various ways, make anti-L.G.B.T. discrimination legal. In an effort to roll back these laws, and prevent new ones from being enacted, some of America’s biggest companies are pushing a progressive agenda in the conservative heartland.”

“Last month, executives at more than eighty companies -- including Apple, Pfizer, Microsoft, and Marriott -- signed a public letter to the governor of North Carolina urging him to repeal the state’s new law. Lionsgate Studio is moving production of a new sitcom out of the state, Deutsche Bank cancelled plans to create new jobs there, and PayPal has cancelled plans for a global operations center. In Mississippi, G.E., Pepsi, Dow, and others attacked the law there as ‘bad for our employees and bad for business.’ Disney said that it would stop making movies in Georgia, which has become a major venue for film production, if the governor signed the bill. Something similar happened last year in Indiana, after the state passed a religious-freedom law allowing businesses to discriminate against L.G.B.T. customers and employees. At least a dozen business conventions relocated.”

“A little corporate muscle flexing can work wonders, it turns out. Last month, Georgia’s governor vetoed its religious-freedom bill, implicitly acknowledging that the state could not afford to lose Disney’s business, and South Dakota’s governor, citing opposition from Citigroup and Wells Fargo, vetoed a law that would have required people to use the bathroom that corresponded to their biological sex at birth. Last year, Indiana and Arkansas amended their religious-freedom bills after a corporate backlash (led, in Arkansas, by Walmart).”

The New Yorker, April 25, 2016: “Unlikely Alliances,” by James Surowiecki

Quartz, April 5, 2016: “PayPal has decided to punish North Carolina for its transgender discrimination,” by Melvin Backman

The Charlotte Observer, March 24, 2016: “American Airlines, Apple, NBA denounce NC law ending LGBT protections,” by Katherine Peralta and Rick Rothacker

Yahoo News, March 31, 2016: “Drug maker reconsidering $20 million North Carolina factory,“ by Emery P. Dalesio

NBC News, March 28, 2016: “Georgia Governor to Veto ‘Religious Freedom’ Law as N.C. Is Sued for LGBT Bias,” by Jon Schuppe              

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The Economics of What People Really Want

“Economics isn’t just a number’s game. Human irrationality is so intrinsically tied up in the human need to rationalize that financial decisions are often made when our conscious brains are held for ransom by our emotions. Because of this, the study of money has specific branches devoted to the study of Homo sapiens interacting with money. The dismal science has genetic, experimental, and neurological branches. Then there is cognitive economics, the economics of what is going on in people’s minds.”

“Cognitive economics is characterized by its unique use of data. Rather than skimming from markets or hooking up sensors to subjects, cognitive economists rely on surveys, interviews, and attitudes. Still, the internal dynamics of cognitive economics still hinges more on the numbers-side of economics, rather than psychology. This area of study can help researchers understand what people are looking for, whether it’s a successful retirement or just general happiness, and how policy can shape or reshape that search.”

Miles Kimball, professor of economics and survey research at the University of Michigan, says:

“Historically, the first thing that a behavioral economist did was try to document the things people do when their actions look strange from the standpoint of standard economic theory. My way, as a cognitive economist, is to look at the reasons why they have these preferences. The first category of explanation is that standard economics is fine, but there may be something deeper going on that you just didn’t see, even though what you’re doing makes perfect sense according to standard economic theory. Like any scientific discipline, one of the jobs of economics is to understand how the world works. Trying to understand why people do what they do, how society fits together, and how that fits into a policy point of view -- economics has taken on the job of helping people get more of what they want. And we can use data to actually get a good idea of what that is. For example, a goal would be to use this data to influence public policy so that people understand when to claim their social security benefits.”

Inverse, April 5, 2016: “What Is Cognitive Economics? Understanding the World through New Types of Data,” by Sarah Sloat

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New Routes in Graduate Education

“Sprott’s MAcc program is one example of the graduate level offerings by Canadian business schools, which allow students to explore more technical or focused business skills and, for some, act as an alternative to an MBA.”

“Academics agree they are answering the demand from employers for more specialized skills among business people as well as the call from prospective students for business schools to provide whole graduate degrees, not just a few courses, in sought-after professions, such as accounting and finance.”

The Globe and Mail, April 19, 2016: “Alternatives to MBAs allow students to zero in on specialized skills,” by Daina Lawrence

“A growing number of PhDs [are] skipping the academic route to start their own businesses. Universities across Canada are capitalizing on the trend by launching entrepreneurship programs to help students build their companies. For example, UBC has its e@ubc program, which Mr. Brown and Ms. Costello are involved in, while the University of Toronto has its Banting & Best Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (BBCIE). These programs, and others like them, provide mentorship and education on how to start and run a business.”

“More PhDs are seeking these skills in part because professor jobs and other academic positions are hard to get, but also because they’ve seen the success others with similar credentials have had starting a business based on their research. Many are interested in doing more than putting their findings on paper to sit on a library shelf, but proving them commercially.”

The Globe and Mail, April 19, 2016: “More PhDs are leaving academia to launch their own businesses,” by Brenda Bouw

“While the overall age of Ph.D. candidates has dropped in the last decade, about 14 percent of all doctoral recipients are over age 40, according to the National Science Foundation. ... Educators are seeing increasing enrollment in doctoral programs by students in their 40s and 50s. Many candidates hope doctorates will help them advance careers in business, government and nonprofit organizations; some ... are headed for academic research or teaching positions.”

“At Cornell University, the trend is driven by women. The number of new female doctoral students age 36 or older was 44 percent higher last year than in 2009, according to Barbara Knuth, senior vice provost and dean of the graduate school.”

“Some schools are serving older students in midcareer with pragmatic doctoral programs that can be completed more quickly than the seven or eight years traditionally required to earn a Ph.D. Moreover, many of those do not require candidates to spend much time on campus or even leave their full-time jobs.”

The New York Times, April 15, 2016: “Taking On the Ph.D. Later in Life,” by Mark Miller

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Predicting Gentrification with Social Media

“Presently, governments try to use censuses to measure the socioeconomic well-being of urban areas. But census data is often lacking and inconclusive -- the way to really get to the heart of what’s going on is exploring the content within social media.”

“The researchers behind ‘Measuring Urban Social Density Using Interconnected Geo-Social Networks’ will describe gentrification as the displacement of residents within a ‘deprived area’ by the arrival of a economically and digitally affluent population. Think of New York City’s Bushwick neighborhood, or, in the case of this study, London’s Hackney neighborhood. In their analysis the team identified Hackney as the near-perfect example of the sort of neighborhoods they were identifying: deprived in finances, high in social diversity, and with rampant gentrification.”

“The researchers discovered this pattern by making a new sort of socioeconomic map. They took data from Twitter and Foursquare to create a network of 37,000 users who had checked in at approximately 42,000 venues around London. Over ten months the researchers analyzed more than half a million check-ins, which allowed them to see the 'social diversity' of London’s neighborhoods. They defined social diversity as by measurements of brokerage, serendipity, entropy, and homogeneity.”

“From there, the researchers compared the metrics they determined with the UK Index of Multiple Deprivation, which is a statistical index for the economic prosperity of England’s neighborhoods. They realized that correlation of a ‘depraved’ area -- meaning low economic status -- with ‘high social diversity’ meant that a neighborhood was in the process of being gentrified. Besides Hackney, the boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, Lambeth, and Hammersmith seemed to be affected by gentrification.”

“The researchers say that they hope their predictive gentrification research could help policy-makers make more informed decisions regarding urban development. With a new interconnected geo-social network like this, local governments may have a better sense of how (and where) to implement measures that will protect neighborhoods from the negative effects of gentrification.”

Inverse, April 13, 2016: “The Best Way to Predict Gentrification May Be Through Social Media Data,” by Sarah Sloat

International World Wide Web Conference, April 2016: “Measuring Urban Social DiversityUsing Interconnected Geo-Social Networks,” by Desislava Hristova, Matthew J. Williams, Mirco Musolesi, Pietro Panzarasa, and Cecilia Mascolo (10 pages, PDF)

EurekAlert!, April 12, 2016: “Predicting gentrification through social networking data”

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What Are the Keys to Happiness? Lessons from a 75-Year-Long Harvard Study

“Last year, we highlighted the Harvard Grant Study and The Glueck Study, two 75-year studies that have traced the lives and development of hundreds of men, trying to get answers to one big question: How can you live a long and happy life? For answers, watch Robert Waldinger above. He’s the director of what’s now called the Harvard Study of Adult Development and also an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.”

“According to the decades-long study, you won’t get health and happiness from wealth and fame (nor hard work), the mirages that many Americans chase after. Instead they come from something a little more obtainable, if you work at it -- good, strong relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and folks in your community. These relationships, the study finds, protect us mentally and physically. They increase our happiness and extend our lives, whereas, conversely, loneliness and corrosive relationships put us into decline sooner than we’d like. The key takeaway here: good relationships are the foundation on which we build the good life. Start putting that into practice today.”

Open Culture, April 5, 2016: “What Are the Keys to Happiness? Lessons from a 75-Year-Long Harvard Study”

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The Big Business of Music: Bob Dylan Explains

“I expected another old-guy-yelling-from-his-porch sentiment on how modern rock is boring blah blah blah (I’m looking at you, Scorsese). What I got, however, was a heartbreaking revelation of a silent assassination.”

Bob Dylan:

“I was still an aspiring rock n roller. The descendant, if you will, of the first generation of guys who played rock 'n' roll -- who were thrown down. Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis. They played this type of music that was black and white. Extremely incendiary. Your clothes could catch fire. When I first heard Chuck Berry, I didn’t consider that he was black. I thought he was a hillbilly. Little did I know, he was a great poet, too. And there must have been some elitist power that had to get rid of all these guys, to strike down rock 'n' roll for what it was and what it represented -- not least of all being a black-and-white thing.”

Love probed further, asking Dylan, “Do you mean it’s musical race-mixing and that’s what made it dangerous?”

“Racial prejudice has been around awhile, so, yeah. And that was extremely threatening for the city fathers, I would think. When they finally recognized what it was, they had to dismantle it, which they did, starting with payola scandals. The black element was turned into soul music, and the white element was turned into English pop. They separated it [...] Well, it was apart of my DNA, so it never disappeared from me. I just incorporated it into other aspects of what I was doing. I don’t know if this answers the question. [Laughs.] I can’t remember what the question was.”

White Negro & and the Hendrix Enigma

“Let’s face it, rock ’n’ roll opens up all kinds of cans of worms. Racial/cultural integration through music (along with a shit ton of alcohol) is intimately tied to the American tradition of protest and unruly congregation.”

“In fact, it goes back to the first days of early America. In Renegade History, Russell speaks to the fact that in the late 1770s, American cities from Boston to New York to Philadelphia to Charleston were busting at the seams with rowdy taverns and public houses (aka pubs) on every corner. The average ratio was something sick like 1 tavern for every 100 residents. In the wake of America’s independence, prominent figures like John Adams looked down on the new country’s street culture -- and its rhapsodically free commoners -- with a certain resentment. Russell attributes it more to disgust.”

“Where some see depravity and vulgarity, others see liberation. Where some hear raging delirium, others hear music.”

“Indeed, those who shared Adams’ brand of liberty, with its elitist sense of puritanical morality, laid the foundations of American ‘independence' -- and its consequently detrimental value systems still being inherited up to this day.”

"There are those, though, that actively reject such bequeathed value systems. And it’s this kind of rejection, deviation, transgression that not only lies at the root of what uninhibited Americana is all about, but it’s become a left-handed American tradition unto itself."

Medium.com, April 2016: “Like It Is: Bob Dylan Explains What Really Killed Rock ‘n’ Roll And no, it wasn’t Nickelback,” by Brent L. Smith

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Book of the Week

What Works: Gender Equality by Design, by Iris Bohnet. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016. 385 p. ISBN 9780674089037 (hardcover)

From the publisher: "Gender equality is a moral and a business imperative. But unconscious bias holds us back, and de-biasing people's minds has proven to be difficult and expensive. Diversity training programs have had limited success, and individual effort alone often invites backlash. Behavioral design offers a new solution. By de-biasing organizations instead of individuals, we can make smart changes that have big impacts. Presenting research-based solutions, Iris Bohnet hands us the tools we need to move the needle in classrooms and boardrooms, in hiring and promotion, benefiting businesses, governments, and the lives of millions. What Works is built on new insights into the human mind. It draws on data collected by companies, universities, and governments in Australia, India, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, Zambia, and other countries, often in randomized controlled trials. It points out dozens of evidence-based interventions that could be adopted right now and demonstrates how research is addressing gender bias, improving lives and performance. What Works shows what more can be done -- often at shockingly low cost and surprisingly high speed."

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