Welcome back everyone, to another year of ever-increasing information. As usual, if there are any areas that you think these posts should be covering, please let me know. A short post this week, as we all ease back into our regular routines after our breaks......
Business & management:
• Schools and councils in the UK are predicted to be facing over GBP2 billion in wage discrimination claims against them from women, where the law allows for 6 years of back pay to be claimed. There is the added complication of also needing to pay to protect the salaries of the estimated 20% of men working for councils, who have been “overpaid” in the past in relation to their female colleagues.
•The AC Nielsen Global Online Confidence Index shows that although NZ has slipped a little in the last part of 2007, consumers in NZ are confident enough in the local economy to ensure that NZ remains within the top 10 countries globally. (At the time of posting, the report for the 1st part of 2007 is still the report available on the Nielsen site.)
Environment & sustainability:
• Many people have noticed as part of NZ’s real estate boom, a trend towards building bigger houses (5, 6, 7 bedrooms or more). The Urban Land Institute (ULI) blog, “The Ground Floor” has a posting that looks at the phenomenon in the US where these houses are called “McMansions”.
Health & wellbeing:
• The Mental Health Foundation wants employers to take stress at work more seriously, and to make their workplaces more mentally healthy.
•The University of Otago report “Potential Health Impacts Associated with Mould in Leaky Buildings” is now available from the Local Government NZ website.
Law & Government:
• The Auckland Regional Council Annual Report for 2007 is now available online.
People, culture & diversity:
• From the Pew /Internet website: “Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency” is a report that provides information on the level of concern (or not!) amongst Americans online, about how much information about themselves may be available – i.e. their “online presence”. The site regularly presents reports from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, “that explore the impact of the Internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life.”
• ”Super-diversity” or “ethnic plurality” are set to become the future for a number of UK cities, as their populations become so diverse that no one ethnic group makes up a majority of the population. Coincidentally, a new book by Charles Landry and Phil Wood has just been published: “The intercultural city”, and has just arrived in LOGIS.
•Proposals have been made to change the law in the UK, to make it illegal to pay for sex, in an attempt to reduce the amount of human trafficking in the sex industry. Opinions are divided over whether the proposed law will work – some point to the lack of reduction in human trafficking in Sweden after the introduction of a similar law there in 1999, while the English Collective of Prostitutes is recommending that the government look at legalising brothels as in the NZ reformed law.
•The report: “Improving Work/Life Balance for DPB Beneficiary Sole Parent Families” that was supposed to be released by the Family Commission, is available online - a full copy can be found on the Greens website.
Science, technology & transport:
• There are often concerns about private entities being involved in public infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, etc. Also from the ULI blog “The Ground Floor”, comes a discussion of some misconceptions about who gains what from such ventures.
• A UK report released by the National Consumer Council’s “Consumer futures” project, has shown that elderly and poor consumers are being left behind by the increasing moves towards electronic or digital commerce, e.g. in the banking and retail industries. There is a growing gap between those comfortable with the new technology and those who either can't cope with it, or can't afford to use it.
Friday, 11 January 2008
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