Mandatory access to digital platforms’ data is one of the remedies proposed to address potential failures in digital markets. In addition to the high costs of implementing a governance framework for data access, such remedy is likely to involve important trade-offs that should be carefully balanced by regulators. In particular, data access is likely to undermine competition on the merits and the incentives to offer services to consumers free of charge. Furthermore, it could distort companies’ incentives to innovate with user data. To avoid these unintended effects, this article proposes to focus instead on prohibiting exclusionary practices by large digital platforms.

By Jordi Casanova1

Brennan Hawkings, an 11-year-old boy from Utah, was found after being lost for more than four days in rugged terrain at a Boy Scout camp.2 Brennan’s parents later discovered why it had taken so long to find him: he had avoided passers-by, including the search teams looking for him. The boy was afraid that someone would steal him, as he’d been told “not to talk to strangers.”

Brennan’s case is a textbook example of the so-called Law of Unintended Consequences. Not talking to strangers is a universal lesson taught by well-intentioned parents to protect their children. In the context of Brennan’s disappearance, however, it had the unintended effect of leaving him unprotected.

This article discusses how data access regulation of online search aggregators may similarly result in unintended negative effects, risking a not so happy ending for consumers as in Brennan’s story.

The first challenge we face is in understanding the business models of individual platforms and aggregators and their implications for consumer welfare.3 This is a critical question that is likely to determine whether one supports regulatory intervention at all and, if so, its form. Unfortunately, despite significant research, we are far from a consensus view on the features and impacts on competition and consumers of online search business models.

One view suggests that these markets are characterized by high barriers to entry, due to supply-side economies of scale, switching costs and demand-side network effects.4 Accordingly, dominant firms’ competitive advantage stems from the inherent features of the market in the form of entry barriers, making it all but impossible for other businesses to compete on the merits.

Another view, found in the research on “killer acquisitions” and platform envelopment suggests that dominant online search engines (“OSEs”) are engaged in a myriad of acquisitions of potential entrants, which they acquire to avoid entry and competition in their core market(s).5

That a market could be characterized by entry barriers and at the same time the existence of many potential entrants, purchased by dominant firms to avoid entry and competition, seem in our view two propositions that are at least difficult to reconcile.

Conversely, some commentators argue that the scope for barriers to act as a deterrent of entry or expansion in online search markets may have been overstated.6 First, the investments needed in physical assets are significantly lower than those required in industries typically associated with high barriers to entry, such as utilities. In fact, small online search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Yahoo, or even Microsoft’s Bing (with market shares below 5 percent worldwide each) have managed to enter and remain viable.

Second, low user switching costs, combined with the same zero-pricing applied by virtually all OSEs, may explain why consumers have the incentives and ultimately switch in great proportions to the OSE that they consider offers the highest quality, providing an alternative explanation for the relatively high levels of concentration observed in these markets.

Third, there is an ongoing debate about the role played by network effects resulting from feedback loops in data, which allow to train and improve search algorithms. This is a technical issue on which we are still far from reaching a consensus in the literature.7 Consider that a small online search engine such as DuckDuckGo (with a 0.5 percent market share worldwide) received as many as 60 million daily queries in 2020.8 Thus, it would seem that even small OSEs gather very large samples of queries that they can use to train their algorithms.

As digital businesses are built upon large investments in innovation, it would seem reasonable to pay particular attention to the role played by innovation in explaining market outcomes. In online search, as businesses do not differentiate in price, quality and innovation are likely to be important determinants of competitive advantage. Accordingly, dominant positions may not be the result of differences in the amount of data that search engines collect, but rather of the difference in the amount of research and innovation that they conduct to train their search algorithms with the data collected.

Consider that Google is the worldwide leader in R&D, with more than 27,000 employees dedicated exclusively to this activity. Compare this to DuckDuckGo’s total workforce of around 100 employees. Even a large company such as Microsoft had R&D investments in 2019 that were 40 percent lower than those of Google, and potentially focused to a much lesser degree on online search. Yet Microsoft’s Bing has been able to attract an increasing number of users, particularly in the US, and to remain viable.

If one accepts that innovation is an important parameter of competition in online search, then the high and increasing levels of innovation by dominant online search firms is another observation that is difficult to reconcile with a finding of a lack of competition due to high barriers to entry. In markets characterized by entry barriers, market forces do not typically constrain dominant players to continuously re-invest in innovating. Yet, well-known dominant OSEs such as Google, Yandex (Russia) or Baidu (China) have done precisely that, as shown in Table 1: R&D expenses ($ millions) by major online search engines (2013-2019) below.

Source: Casanova (2020)9 from companies’ income statements.

There are at least several factors that may explain this behavior by dominant search engines. The first is that entry by fringe competitors is viable in the long term: DuckDuckGo, Bing or Ecosia are examples of small search engines that have entered the market and remained viable over the long term. The evidence from Russia, China, the Czech Republic or South Korea also seem to suggest that entry and viable competition against large players such as Google is possible.

The second factor has to do with the way competition works in sectors characterized by technological innovation and low end-user switching costs. In technology-driven markets, late movers are able to “free-ride” on pioneering firms. First, because “imitation costs” are considerably lower than the “innovation costs” of the first mover. Second, because innovations are subject to “inter-firm diffusion.”10 This can be seen in how smaller OSEs largely compete with incumbents by copying their innovations and investing less than the dominant players, as shown by the example of Microsoft’s Bing.

Furthermore, shifts in technology or customer needs may be exploited by new entrants to displace existing incumbents,11 as Google itself did with Altavista and Yahoo. Due to low costs, user switching can be quick, and because platforms and aggregators have a tendency to tip in short time, growth of new businesses can be exponential, with limited ability for incumbents to react. There are many past examples of incumbents being displaced by new competitors through technology shifts. Think of how IBM lost its dominance in the 90s due to its failure to foresee the relevance of software and the personal computer; how Microsoft misjudged the importance of mobile operating systems, leading to the appearance of new global players in that market; how Microsoft lost its dominance in web browsers to new players such as Firefox and Chrome; or more recently the rapid success of Zoom in video-conferencing services and TikTok in social media.

A third factor has to do with potential competition or, alternatively, the way we define the markets in which we assume these businesses compete. In the case of Google, several factors suggest that there is at least a large business that is already competing with Google to some extent12 and that could enter its core online search market with relatively low incremental costs: Amazon.13 Amazon is already an online (product) search engine; it has the computer scientists needed; data center capabilities (it is the worldwide leader in that market); it is the fourth largest company worldwide in digital ad revenues, including with its own ad tech business; and it owns Alexa, its window to website insights only comparable to those obtained by Google from being the most visited website worldwide. Furthermore, China’s Amazon equivalent (Alibaba) entered Baidu’s core online search market in China in 2014 with Shenma, a hybrid OSE.14

These combined features could explain why dominant online search aggregators are constrained to continue to deliver for consumers through ever greater investments in innovation. They also distinguish them from the network industries that we typically regulate, such as telecoms, water or railway. Namely, the viability of entry at lower scale and cost and the scope for technological discontinuities and inter-firm diffusion to displace incumbents through exponential growth in short time, with limited ability for reaction by incumbents. Overall, these factors seem to suggest that we should carefully consider the need for and the potential impact of regulation on the high levels of innovation that we observe in online search markets.

It could be argued that online search markets represent the perfect conundrum. They tend to be highly concentrated markets, at least when the market is defined without taking into account potential competition. Yet, they exhibit high levels of innovation,15 quality and low prices.16 Arguably, the opposite outcomes that one would expect from a highly concentrated market.

This paradox has driven some economists to recognize the large consumer benefits of digital platforms, yet to presume that a regulatory framework can be engineered that would deliver “even greater benefits for consumers.” However, there is an inherent risk in this presumption at a time where we still have relatively little certainty on digital platforms’ business models and their impact on consumers. As eloquently put by US Judge Stephen Breyer (now Justice Breyer) in a different context, “antitrust laws very rarely reject […] ‘beneficial birds in hand’ for the sake of more speculative […] ‘birds in the bush.’”17

One potential risk is that we elevate the achievement of lower market concentration to such a pivotal objective of regulatory policy that it should be attained at any cost, discounting the potential for unintended consequences for innovation, competition and ultimately consumers. As the example of Brennan shows, there are rarely universally valid rules. Thus, we shouldn’t assume that the achievement of lower market concentration will always deliver net benefits for consumers independently of the costs, particularly if such objective is attained by law rather than market forces. Instead, it would seem preferable to assess policy proposals on a case-by-case basis and to act with restraint, recognizing that our relative ignorance is likely to be prone to unintended consequences.

In this sense, we focus on two areas in which regulatory intervention in online search should carefully balance potential trade-offs: (i) trade-offs between competition for data and competition with data and (ii) trade-offs between data access and competition with data.

A. Trade-Offs Between Competition for Data and Competition with Data

Dominant OSEs compete for data by offering multiple services to consumers for free. Google invested in Android to compete with Apple, provided a free Gmail service to compete with Microsoft’s Outlook and Hotmail, a free web browser Chrome to compete with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari, a free Sheets and Docs service to compete with Microsoft’s Office, a Google Shopping e-commerce aggregator and drone delivery service18 to compete with Amazon, and more recently is aiming to acquire Fitbit to compete with Apple’s wearables.

Additionally, dominant OSEs compete with data by offering mainly online search services and digital ads. The most likely outcome of an obligation of access to a dominant online search engine’s data, if successful, is that it would increase competition in prices from alternative OSEs in search advertising. This could have a significant impact on these businesses: consider that out of all the services it provides, Google derives around 70 percent of its earnings from online advertising through Google Search.19 Thus, mandatory access to data is likely to impact the regulated OSE’s incentives to compete for data by offering free services to consumers, because any competing OSE could now request access to the user data obtained from those services, and use it to undercut its prices in online advertising.

Faced with decreasing online advertising revenues in search, dominant online search businesses are most likely to either reduce their investments in free-of-charge services or to rebalance their tariffs through higher prices for the other services they provide. That would be similar to what Google proposed to do following the European Commission’s Android remedies: charge a $40 fee for licensing Android in the EEA, combined with an auction process amongst online search engines.20

Access to dominant OSE’s data will also alter the incentives of other platforms and startups to provide valuable end user services in exchange for user data only. Why would other platforms and startups risk their capital in competing on the merits for data by providing valuable end user services, if they will have access to the best dataset out there, that of dominant OSEs?

Consider that Microsoft developed its own Windows Mobile/Phone and lost ignominiously the battle for a successful mobile operating system, with its CEO laughing at iPhone’s launch because it did not have a keyboard.21 Only in 2015, Microsoft had to write-off more than $7bn invested in Nokia before completely exiting the market.22 Through mandatory data access, Microsoft’s Bing could be able to require access to user location data obtained by Google through Android and use this to undercut Google in search advertising – the market in which it recovers the vast majority of the costs of investing in Android. It is hard to see how that could qualify as “competition on the merits.” Furthermore, it could distort the incentives of other firms to compete for the data that Google gathers through Android – remember that not only Microsoft but also Amazon, another business active in digital advertising, could give another shot in the future to the smartphone market after the failure of its Fire phone.

The concerns above would be greatly accentuated if access to a dominant OSE’s data was imposed at a zero price, because the dominant OSE did not acquire that data at zero cost. To balance this, regulators could set a “reasonable price” for access to data, as they do for access to utilities’ networks. The challenge is that economists have the right tools to set the prices for access to the physical infrastructure of mature businesses such as network industries, but we are not well equipped to assess the reasonable return on services of highly innovative companies, such as Google.23 Let alone of new services that these companies may offer in the future to compete for data. Therefore, the answer to whether we should or should not mandate access to data should depend on whether regulators can set an appropriate price for it, one that does not undermine incentives to offer free-of-charge services to collect it.

Overall, given the trade-off described, it would seem that an important question facing regulators wishing to impose an access to data remedy is whether consumers will be better-off by trading more competition with data in online search and advertising, relatively immature markets that are experiencing increasing levels of innovation and decreasing prices, for potentially less competition for data.

B. Trade-Offs Between Data Access and Competition with Data

There will also be important trade-offs in terms of the data that is allowed to be accessed and the extent by which alternative OSEs will be able to effectively compete with it. Greater anonymization of user data will be more respectful of privacy. However, there will be a trade-off between privacy and the value for alternative OSEs of the data shared. This is because anonymized user data is of relatively little value to perform search engine analytics and to personalize advertising.

Conversely, it is likely that an effective remedy will require sharing as much personal information as possible. As noted by the CMA, search query data alone is unlikely to be particularly valuable for alternative OSEs, unless it is shared combined with other information such as the click-through behavior of the user.24 However, the greater the amount of data shared, the easier it will become for competitors to understand the workings of the dominant OSE’s search algorithm. In turn, the easier it will be for alternative OSEs to reverse-engineer it.

In sectors characterized by a high degree of innovation that is subject to inter-firm diffusion, such as pharmaceutical companies or technology equipment vendors, we typically guarantee these companies’ exclusivity to their innovations through a patent protection system, in order to maintain their incentives to continue innovating. Instead, the proposal to mandate access to data could result in the opposite extreme, by further facilitating inter-firm diffusion in a sector that is similarly characterized by high levels of innovation and inter-firm diffusion.

Just like with patented drugs, the risk is that cash-restricted alternative OSEs will spend their resources in cheaper reverse-engineering of the dominant OSE’s algorithm, rather than in considerably more costly and risky innovation. This could in turn distort the incentives for dominant OSEs to dedicate resources to improving their online search service. Ultimately, we could end up with a system that resulted in a “level-playingfield-to-the-bottom” which reduced both, competition for data and the incentives of dominant OSEs to compete in improving their OSEs with that data.

Thus, even if regulation resulted in the desired lower market concentration over time, it could come at the cost of lower innovation and quality. Particularly, if this greater competition was not on the merits but rather triggered by regulation that artificially facilitated inter-firm diffusion, diminished the incentives of successful dominant firms to invest, and resulted in “imitators” competing away “innovators” in the market.

The important and complex trade-offs involved in regulating access to data require careful consideration to avoid unintended consequences. As OSE markets are characterized by relatively low switching costs and competitive advantages that are contestable by both a competitive fringe and potential competitors, our focus should not be on undermining a dominant players’ earned market position through access regulation, but rather on ensuring that competition is on the merits and not maintained through anti-competitive foreclosure. Compared to access regulation, which involves significant trade-offs, focusing on prohibiting exclusionary practices is unlikely to risk undermining competition and investment incentives. There may be a need for an ex ante regulator that monitors dominant OSEs’ behavior to avoid exclusionary practices and to ensure that intervention is timely.

These proposals would be in line with the objectives of competition authorities of ensuring that online search markets remain fair and contestable. As mentioned by Professor Philip Marsden, “competition authorities do not try to take the crown from a victor in any competition on the merits – but try to stamp out illegal behavior so that legitimate competition and innovation can thrive.”25

1 Jordi Casanova is a Regulatory Economist at the EFTA Surveillance Authority’s Competition and State Aid Directorate. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views of the EFTA Surveillance Authority or its members.

3 Caffarra C., Eto F., Scott Morton F. & Latham O. (2020), Designing regulation for digital platforms: Why economists need to work on business models, Voxeu, 4 June,

4 See, for example, Zingales L., Rolnik G. & Lancieri F. M. (2019), Stigler Committee on Digital Platforms, Final Report, Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State,; Furman J. (2019), Unlocking digital competition, Report of the Digital Competition Expert Panel, 13 March, Furman Report,; Competition and Markets Authority (2020), Online platforms and digital advertising, Market study final report, 1 July,; Crémer J., Montjoye Y.A. & Schweitzer H. (2019), Competition policy for the digital era, Special Advisers Report,

5 See, for example, Condorelli D. & Padilla J. (2020), Harnessing Platform Envelopment in the Digital World, Journal of Competition Law and Economics, 1-45,; Zingales L., Rajan R.G. & Kamepalli S.K. (2020), Kill zone, CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP14709,

6 For a review of the literature, see Casanova (2020), Online Search Engine Competition with First-Mover Advantages, Potential Competition and a Competitive Fringe: Implications for Data Access Regulation and Antitrust,

7 Idem.

9 Casanova (2020), supra note 6.

10 See Ghenawat P. & Spence A.M. (1985), Learning curve spillovers and market performance’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 100, pp. 839-852; Lieberman M. (1987), The learning curve, barriers to entry, and competitive survival in the chemical processing industries, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, March; Lieberman M.B. and Montgomery D.B. (1988), First-mover advantages, Strategic Management Journal 9 (Special Issue: Strategy Content Research): 41–58.

11 See, for example, Foster R. N. (1986), The Attacker’s Advantage, Summit Books, New York; Scherer F. M. (1980), Industrial Market Structure and Economic Performance, Rand McNally, Chicago, pp. 431-438; Gomez J., Lanzolla G. & Maicas J. P. (2016), The Role of Industry Dynamics in the Persistence of First Mover Advantages, Long Range Planning, 49(2), pp. 265-281; Varadarajan R., Yadav M.S. & Shankar V. (2013), First-Mover Advantage in the Internet-Enabled Market Environment, Handbook of Strategic e-Business Management, pp. 157-185.

12 Business Insider (2020), Google may cut commission fees for sellers, attempting to compete with Amazon for ecommerce-related search dollars, July 27,

13 For a more detailed description see Casanova (2020), supra 7.

14 Tait Lawton (2018), What is Shenma Search? China’s Lesser-Known Mobile Chinese Search Engine, Nanjing Marketing Group,,to%20search%20via%20the%20PC accessed June 30, 2020.

15 A recent study by the Boston Consulting Group of the 50 most innovative companies worldwide ranked Apple first, Google second, Amazon third, Microsoft fourth and Facebook tenth, see Boston Consulting Group (2020), The Most Innovative Companies 2020 – The Serial Innovation Imperative, June, accessed July 28, 2020.

16 For a discussion of the levels of innovation, quality and prices in online search markets, see Casanova (2020), supra note 6.

17 Barry Wright Corp. v. ITT Grinnell Corp., 724 F.2d 227, 1984, para 24,

18 Luke Dormehl (2020), When it comes to delivery drones, Google’s Wing is miles above the competition, Digital Trends, January 27, accessed June 30, 2020; Isabella Lee (2019), Google Overtakes Amazon in Race to Make Consumer Drone Deliveries a Reality, UAV Coach, April 10, accessed June 30, 2020 and Urban Air Mobility (2020), Google’s Wing drone deliveries soar during pandemic with 500% volume increase, May 26, accessed June 20, 2020.

19 CMA (2020), supra note 4, Appendix D, page D11.

20 Simonetta Vezzoso (2018), Android Remedies: Tearing Down the Wall?, CPI International, November 19, 2018 accessed July 28, 2020.

22 Tom Warren (2015), Microsoft writes off $7.6bn from Nokia deal, announces 7,800 job cuts, The Verge, July 8, accessed July 20, 2020.

23 See Jordi Casanova (2020), Estimating Reasonable Prices for Access To Digital Platform’s Data: What Are the Challenges?, European Competition and Regulatory Law Review, Volume 4, Issue 3,

24 This is recognized by the CMA (2020), Appendix V, paragraph 96, supra note 4, where the CMA states that “other stakeholders suggested that without associated insights into users’ behaviours on the search engines, such as which websites they choose to visit after making such a query, the provision of access to user queries may limit the ability of search engines to train their algorithm and improve the relevance of their search results.”

25 Ahron Peskin (2020), Tech & Competition – A Conversation with Professor Philip Marsden, LinkedIn, 8 June, accessed June 30, 2020.


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Can Duran is a house that is located in Sant Josep street, 15, in the town centre of Vilassar de Mar, in the Maresme region.

The building of Can Duran is made up of a ground floor and two upper floors. The whole of the main façade is symmetrical to the same vertical axis marked by the entrance door, the balcony on the first floor, a double window on the second floor and the central part of the cornice.

From this building we can highlight the decoration of the railings of the first floor balcony, and the railings of the double windows on the second floor. This decoration is made up of plant elements.

We can also highlight two attached pilasters that separate the different bodies of the building, the corbels that support the cornice, and a triangular pediment that crowns Can Duran.


This essay will examine the significance of sociology and the importance of a good understanding of the society in which we live. This essay will also provide an understanding of what sociology is, and an insight into each perspective in relation to a particular concept and some of the social problems surrounding it. It will identify how an understanding of sociology is useful in helping social workers understand, evaluate and resolve the potential problems faced by their client groups, and will assess the importance of sociology in social work practice.

Sociology differs to psychology, in as much as psychology studies the individual and that individual’s reactions and involvement within society. Sociology concentrates its approach on a much wider level, looking at the bigger picture. Giddens (1989:18) reports that the study of sociology offers the individual an opportunity to detach oneself from preconceived ideas about social life, however it does pose specific problems, mainly because of the complex problems involved in subjecting our own behaviour to study. It is hard to be objective which you are directly involved in, and later on in the essay, it is apparent how this has influenced, and biased some perspectives.

Sociology developed as a science in the late 1700s. It was initially a way of attempting to understand the great changes happening in industry and society around that time, following a period of social and industrial revolutions throughout England and the transition from feudal England, into a more capitalist and industrialised society.

Although there are many definitions of sociology, there is no clear cut definition as to what it encompasses.

Macionis and Plummer (1997:4) say that the definition of sociology is the “systematic study of human society”, whilst “The study of human social behaviour, especially the study of the origins, organization, institutions, and development of human society”

– is the definition taken from

We can therefore deduce that sociology is a study of looking at things from a wider angle. So, what psychologists may view as a personal tragedy to one person, when viewed from the wider angle, can provide an insight into imbalances in the equilibrium of society. For example, C Wright Mills (taken from Macionis and Plummer) wrote famously about the “Sociological Imagination”, which enables the individual to reflect upon the societal impact of what can be apparently individual events, such as divorce, and unemployment. Whilst divorce is a personal tragedy for the individual, the impact of it nationally becomes a social problem, given that Britain statistically has one of the highest divorce rates in Europe. So, sociology is about learning how to look at things with more than just knowledge or common sense, it is about being able to turn situations around and examine the impact on both the individual and the surrounding society.

To do this however, one must be able to identify what society actually is. What does it encompass? How many people does it take to make a society? Even if we assume that a society is, for example, a group of people with self perpetuating rules, living within a particular framework of social relationships, we still have to question to who’s rules are they are adhering, and to what extent is the framework of social relationship to be extended?

Classical sociologists had no problems in identifying what constitutes a society, as they assumed that society was something that could be investigated or analysed in a laboratory, such as with any other science. Classical sociology was in effect the “scientific” study of society. Whilst more modernist approaches such as Cree (as quoted in Cree:1997:276), have identified that today’s society is a much more mosaic and fragmented society, and realises that “much as we all have more than one identity, so we live and move in many different, and at times competing, societies”.

To enable them to study this, sociologists have identified many different perspectives on different sociological concepts.

A concept is an issue that is directly related to sociology or society, and as such includes issues such as the family, crime and deviance, the community, class, status, poverty, race and youth. All these concepts have a direct impact on society and so sociologists are interested in studying them. Each concept is often intrinsically linked to the remaining ones.

If we take as a simplistic example, a young black boy who has been caught stealing, he is from an impoverished background and is being brought up by his single parent mother. In this single example, a sociologist could choose to look at this case study from any or all of the above concepts. The family unit has broken down, leading the youth to commit acts of crime and deviance, possibly because the family’s standard of living has deteriorated, leading to a lowering in class and status, which in turn could have led to prejudice and isolation from the surrounding community.

A perspective however, is the actual viewpoint and theory which surrounds the explanation used to evaluate and identify society and social problems. For example, classical perspectives include Marxism, Interactionism, and Functionalism.

In the very simplest of definitions a Marxist perspective would examine a concept with its relativity to social class, and class conflict. Interactionists would be examining the meanings and interpretations of the study matter, and would focus on the individual. A Functionalist perspective, however, would examine the purpose and needs of the social structure surrounding the concept, and would be looking at the social system and sub systems.

These classical perspectives originated mainly from Western, heterosexual, middle class men, and highlight one of the many problems sociologists face, and that is distancing oneself from the matter which is being studied. The viewpoints of the classical sociologists appear to be from white, heterosexual men, FOR white, heterosexual men. These early classical attempts to study a society which is in itself a constantly changing and nebulous mass, has meant that new sociologists have had to emerge, bringing with them new, broader perspectives, and these are called contemporary sociologists.

Contemporary sociologists include views of society from perspectives such as Feminism, Anti Racism, Disablism, and the Gay Rights lobby, and the perspectives from which they write are fairly self explanatory, but Feminism will be discussed in more detail further on.

When examining one concept in detail, such as the family, and viewing it from each different perspective, we are provided with an insight on not only the historical background of the viewpoint from which it was written (eg – Marxism and Feminism were established in very different historical episodes), but it also enables us to lay this across different aspects of working practice in social work.

Therefore in order to operate in the social work profession efficiently, one needs to be able to look at the bigger picture, and put aside our own values and opinions of the family – i.e. all the differing family types etc, as it is hard to be objective about something with which you have direct experience of. We have all had experience of family, and so our expectations of the family life of our client groups will ultimately be influenced by this, much in the same way as sociologists will be influenced by the society in which they are part of,

To identify the family from differing perspectives, one must first reach an agreed definition as to what the family is in sociological terms, broadly speaking because if there is no agreed definitive answer as to what the family consists of, then each perspective may be constructing theories about what could fundamentally be very different social groups.

As a society we have stereo-typical ideas and ideologies of what a family “should” consist of and these are perpetuated through the media and advertising with images of the ideal family (i.e. husband, wife, 2 children, dog), and through humour, with television programmes such as 2.4 Children, My Family etc.

Macionis and Plummer (1997:438) suggest that the family “has been seen as a social institution that unites individuals into co-operative groups that oversee the bearing and raising of children.” Cree however, (2000:26) defines the family as a group of people bound together by blood and marriage ties, but not necessarily located in one geographical place.

When providing a definition, it has to adequately address the changing nature of family life in Britain throughout the last century. For example, using statistics from Giddens (1989: 181) over 20 per cent of dependent children now live in lone parent households. In addition to the rise in lone parent households, there have also been a significant increase in the emergence of differing family compositions..

It is easy to see that family structure and composition has changed greatly over the last century, and this could be due to the way that society adapts to accommodate social problems, for example, an increased number of lone parents, gay couples and sexual relationships outside of marriage etc. These were social problems during the 1900’s and earlier, and were immoral, which in the local communities at that time, could have been punishable by law, but today’s society has started to adapt and accept these changes, making something which was originally perceived as deviant into a social “norm”, and this will lead eventually into this behaviour becoming part of the social mores of our society. It is therefore safe to say, that in order for society to be maintained it has to accept the changing threats to values and adapt around the social problems it encounters.

Using statistics from Giddens (1989:176) we can see that the number of couples with dependent children has dropped significantly from 38% in 1961 to only 23% in 1998, whilst this signifies a decline in the amount of young married couples having children, it also highlights the fact that our society is also now increasing in age. This shows that the current population is likely to be comprised of adults without dependent children. In addition to this, the number of lone parents has risen dramatically from 2% in 1961 to 7% in 1998. Using figures from Macionis and Plummer (1997:447) which state that, “the numbers in adoption have sharply fallen. 6,000 in England in Wales in 1994, compared with 21,000 in 1971”, we can see how society has accommodated the issue of unmarried mothers. The number of one person households has also risen from 11% in 1961 to 28% in 1998, and this is probably due to the rise in divorcees having to find alternative accommodation following the breakdown of a marriage.

So, whilst we have identified what a family is, and an example of the social problems surrounding it, it is useful now to look at how each perspective views the family and its purpose and usefulness in society.

Looking at the functionalist perspective, who provide the most positive view of family life, it is essential to understand that functionalists view the family as the “basic social unit and the core institution of society” (Jorgensen et al:1997:72)

The functionalists see one of the integral familial contributions as social integration. They view the family’s main function as teaching the family members how to belong within the group (ie: society) around them. This function of the family stems from the fact that functionalists believe the family exists as the primary institution in any society, for the initial socialisation of children. In this respect any institution charged with this responsibility will play a large part in producing and maintaining cultural norms and values.

In addition to the socialisation function, they also believe the family plays a part in stabilising society. They believe the family reinforces values such as emotional and sexual stability, economic co-dependence etc. These regulations are an integral part of the society in which we live, and include moral boundaries, for example, such as incest. This is a purely human concept, and we are the only species which impose regulations on sexual interaction between family members. Our own society forbids the act of sexual relations between family members, but limits it to close relatives, such as those included in our extended family. In some societies however, it is permissible for siblings to marry. There are biological reasons why incest is not advised, however, the primary concerns are societal. Macionis and Plummer (1997) suggest that the reasons for this taboo are to minimise sexual competition within the family, it also forces people to marry outside of the family encouraging wider alliances to form, and it also protects kinship from falling into chaos. They suggest that as kinship defines people’s rights and obligations towards each other, forbidding reproduction between close relatives protects the family.

Another relevant example of the functionalist perspective is in the “institution” of marriage. For example, when an individual chooses to marry, they do so within the predetermined constraints of their individual society. In Britain for example, marriage partners are chosen at will, and marriage is based on personal choice and love. But in other societies, such as the Hindu religion, the couple have often not met before the marriage, which will have been arranged by the two families involved and is considered to be a “suitable union”.

So in this respect, the family is itself an institution in charge of maintaining the social equilibrium.

Talcott Parsons called these two features of the family Primary socialization and Personality stabilization. As quoted in Giddens (2000:175) “Parsons regarded the nuclear family as the unit best equipped to handle the demands of industrial society. In the “conventional family” one adult can work outside the home, while the second adult cares for the home and children.”

This has meant that Parsons’ view of the family is now seen as outdated, and critics have implied that the functionalist perspective reinforces the division of labour between men and women. Giddens (2000) however said this apparently sexist view could be explained primarily given the historical context in which Parsons was writing. He was writing immediately following the Second World War, which saw an immediate return of women to their traditional roles in the household, and men returning to their roles as sole breadwinners. However, I would dispute this, as upon reflection of Parson’s quote, he doesn’t actually specify gender, in his quote, he just reflects that one adult can work outside the home, therefore whilst he is outdated in his view that there are two parents, it could be perceived as forward thinking for being non gender specific..

The Functionalist perspective also negates the influence of other social institutions such as schools, the government etc and their important roles in the socialisation of children.

This perspective does not account for the breakdown of the traditional model of the family, and the fact that more children are now being raised outside of this. There is no real mention either of the incidents of abuse and violence, of which there is strong evidence to suggest that the family is in fact a very dysfunctional place in which to raise children, and this could be due to the fact that the sociologists writing on this perspective at the time were white, middle class me and not looking outside of the society they are a part of.

Moving on to the contemporary perspectives, the Feminists bring this to the forefront in their approaches to the family. The feminists believe that unequal power relationships exist within families. Not least importantly then, are the issues of domestic violence, marital rape, incest and sexual abuse. The feminist perspective does not perceive the family as a haven for love and support, but that issues such as incest and domestic violence provide a further opportunity for men to dominate and oppress women.

Feminism became influential in the 1970s and 1980’s and has continued to grow in strength and followers to this day. Before feminism, sociologists have been criticised for the male bias in their studies of society as a whole. From a feminist’s sociological viewpoint, women had previously always been viewed as appendages to men. Feminism has been concerned with the analysis of male/female relationships in terms of the relative significance of sex, class and patriarchy – ie; Male headed dominance

There are several different views within the feminist perspective, with as Lena Dominelli writes “a plurality of views, – liberal, radical, socialist, anti-racist and post-modernist – which can be held by both black and white feminists; for example, white radical feminism, black socialist feminism” (1997:97)

Neil Thompson (1993:53) writes that whilst there is no such thing as uniformed and consistent feminism, there are common themes and points of argument, they “all share a focus on the critique of patriarchy and the need to establish a fairer society in which women are no longer marginalised, alienated and pushed into secondary roles”. It also does not account for the fact that when women come out of the home, and enter the employment arena they are still being discriminated against, with low pay, maternity issues etc, which is perpetuating social problems.

Marxist feminism portrays the woman’s role in the family environment to that of the Proletariat, or exploited class, and the man’s role as that of the Bourgeoisie or exploiter. Seen from the Marxist feminist viewpoint, the woman is the loser in the inequal marriage partnership.

Marxist feminists believe that marriage is perpetuating the capitalist industry by prostituting the domestic services of the woman in return for financial security. What this means essentially is that by staying at home and looking after the children in an unpaid capacity, the woman is not only helping the man to work in the capitalist industry, but providing heirs to perpetuate the class division further. Thus, patriarchy is not simply a matter of biological difference, but is directly related to the economic base and the emphasis on comparing the woman’s role in the family to the exploitation of the capitalist class over the working class. According to Thompson(1993:56) this is one of the main weaknesses in the theory, as it does not explain how there is still continuation of male dominance in the non-capitalist societies

Liberal feminism has been evident since the early eighteenth century, and its main objective was to make it illegal to discriminate against, or use unequal treatment for women, and it was largely based on notions of free choice, empowering women to take control of their own lives. Liberal feminism is primarily concerned with issues of overt discrimination against women in all areas of social life, in particular, work education and the portrayal of women in the media, as well as arguing for legal protection and social rights. It argues that women are not inferior to men and should be allowed to compete equally in all aspects of life, especially education and work. It has been successful so far in using its main weapon (the legal system) in outlawing discriminatory behaviour towards women, and in establishing legislation to protect female workers in the UK and USA, such as equal pay etc. The main criticism of this perspective is that the women involved in the writing were middle class women, therefore the changes implemented were benefiting middle class women.

I understand that sociology can assist the social work practitioner in assessing situations from the wider picture and drawing on relevant perspectives in their own merit to help the client group involved in reaching a suitable resolution.

I therefore believe that an understanding of sociology can help social workers to develop a mind set which will provide the foundations for the commencement of good practice skills. I think that society modifies itself to accommodate social problems and that sociology itself has adapted to identify these, therefore, as sociology helps us to identify what the social problems are, it can help social workers to help the society in which they work.


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G20: Leaders make mild pledges on carbon neutrality and coal financing as COP26 begins

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By Euronews  with AP
Leaders of the G20 throw coins inside the Trevi Fountain during an event for the G20 summit in Rome, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021.   -   Copyright  Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP

Leaders of the world’s biggest economies made a compromise commitment on Sunday to reach carbon neutrality “by or around mid-century” as they wrapped up a G20 summit paving the way for the crucial COP26 conference now getting underway in Scotland.

Negotiators for the Group of 20 worked through the night and talks continued Sunday morning trying to reach consensus for a final statement.

According to the communique, the G-20 reaffirmed past commitments by rich countries to mobilise $100 billion (€86.50) annually to help poorer countries cope with climate change, and committed to scaling up financing for helping them adapt.

A key sticking point remained the deadline for nations to reach carbon neutrality or “net-zero” emissions, meaning a balance between greenhouse gases added to and removed from the atmosphere.

Going into the summit, however, Italy had all-but conceded it would only be able to secure commitments to reach net-zero emissions “by mid-century,” rather than a specific year.

The final communique appeared even weaker, "acknowledging the key relevance of achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions or carbon neutrality by or around mid-century".”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had wanted every G20 member to commit to net-zero by 2050, said after the summit that the pledges were not enough, saying some countries were "not doing their fair share of the work".

The UK's Prince Charles, a long-time environmentalist, addressed the G20 on Sunday morning before the final communique was known.

Warning that “it is quite literally the last-chance saloon," Charles told the Group of 20 leaders that public-private partnerships were the only way to achieve the trillions of dollars in annual investment needed to transition to clean, sustainable energy sources that will mitigate the warming of global temperatures.

“It is impossible not to hear the despairing voices of young people who see you as the stewards of the planet, holding the viability of their future in your hands," Charles told the presidents and prime ministers gathered in Rome.

Earlier on Sunday, G20 leaders gathered at Rome’s Trevi Fountain before getting back to work hammering out a final statement on climate change. Each tossed a coin into the water in line with tradition, although US President Joe Biden was a notable absentee.

The Group of 20 countries represent more than three-quarters of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The commitments they agree on are seen as key in setting an example for COP26. It's feared that weak pledges may lead to momentum being lost.

“We must accelerate the phasing-out of coal and invest more in renewable energy,” Italian Premier Mario Draghi said going into the final working session. “We also need to make sure that we use available resources wisely, which means that we should become able to adapt our technologies and also our lifestyles to this new world.”

Western countries have moved away from financing coal projects in developing countries, and major Asian economies are now doing the same: Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the UN General Assembly last month that Beijing would stop funding such projects, and Japan and South Korea made similar commitments earlier in the year.

China has not set an end date for building domestic coal plants at home, however. Coal is still China’s main source of power generation, and both China and India have resisted attempts for a G20 declaration on phasing out domestic coal consumption.

G20 leaders also discussed the COVID-19 pandemic and the uneven distribution of vaccines in the world. On Saturday they endorsed a global minimum tax on corporations, a linchpin of new international tax rules aimed at blunting fiscal paradises amid skyrocketing profits of some multinationals.

And after a meeting on the sidelines about Iran's nuclear program, Biden, Johnson, Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron made a joint statement expressing their “determination to ensure that Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon.”

They also voiced concern that Tehran “has accelerated the pace of provocative nuclear steps” after halting negotiations on a return to the nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.


How do you describe a stable economy?

How do you describe a stable economy?

Economic stability is defined as the lack of large swings in the macroeconomy. Economic stability is defined as an economy with relatively consistent production growth and low and stable inflation. The central bank plays an important role in maintaining economic stability by controlling the money supply and interest rates when necessary.

Some factors that affect the stability of an economy are the size of the economy, the rate of growth, and the extent to which it is integrated into the global economy. An economy that is small relative to other economies is vulnerable to changes in those other countries. This is why small countries try to develop their economies quickly to avoid being dominated by larger countries. An economy that is growing rapidly may have problems dealing with its increased output. In addition, an economy that is highly integrated with others will experience any changes in those countries' economies. For example, if China slows down its economy, this would have an impact on the United States and Japan because they rely on Chinese demand for their products.

An integrated economy can be stable even if some parts of it are not. For example, during the financial crisis of 2008-2009, many countries had trouble keeping their economies going, but most were able to do so successfully. Some countries, such as Greece, could not deal with their debt burden and went through a process of bankruptcy.

Why are market economies supposed to be stable?

In truth, most frequently used macroeconomic models assume that, in the absence of external perturbations, the economy will converge to a stable path. In this respect, these models are predicated on the assumption that a decentralized economy is a stable system and that market forces do not cause booms and busts on their own.

The idea that market economies are stable may seem counterintuitive because large fluctuations often occur in the prices of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and futures. However, it should be noted that such price movements are not indicative of any fundamental change in the health of the economy. Rather, they are a product of changes in investors' expectations about future economic conditions and therefore have no substantive impact on businesses' investment decisions.

For example, if investors believe that future growth will be higher than expected, then they will buy today's stocks at today's prices. This means that they expect future profit margins to remain high, which in turn leads to increased investment and thus production. As a result, we see an upward trend in stock prices. Conversely, if investors believe that future growth will be lower than expected, then they will sell today's stocks at today's prices. This means that they expect future profit margins to decline, which in turn leads to reduced investment and thus production. As a result, we see a downward trend in stock prices.

In conclusion, market economies are stable because individuals take risk into account when making investment decisions.

How does macroeconomic theory help to stabilize the economy?

The advancement of macroeconomic theory has demonstrated to policymakers how to mitigate the severity of economic swings. By "leaning against the wind" of economic change, monetary and fiscal policy may stabilize aggregate demand and, as a result, output and employment. This article discusses several ways in which theory has helped policymakers to manage the economy.

First, theoretical insights have helped policymakers understand why some countries or regions recover more quickly from downturns than others. The difference is not due to superior planning or management but rather reflects differences in the timing of policy responses, with less-aggressive policies resulting in slower recoveries.

Second, theory has provided guidelines for policymakers on how best to use interest rates and government spending to achieve their goals. In particular, theories on inflation and unemployment have helped officials to judge when and how fast to tighten or loosen money or budget policy.

Third, theories have helped policymakers design effective financial systems that minimize systemic risk while maximizing efficiency. For example, theories on credit allocation have helped policymakers avoid excessive reliance on any one source of income, maintain access to funds during periods of low demand, and prevent companies from gaining an unfair advantage by paying too high a rate of interest.

Finally, theories have informed policymakers about what measures might be expected to have certain effects on growth rates or other macro variables.

What is the general condition of the economy?

Important Takeaways Economic circumstances relate to the current status of macroeconomic factors and trends in a nation. Factors such as GDP growth potential, unemployment, inflation, and fiscal and monetary policy orientations are examples of such conditions.

The overall health of an economy can be described as the balance between production and consumption. Production refers to the output of goods and services while consumption includes all items purchased by households and businesses. If consumption increases faster than production, then we say that there is excess consumption relative to production. Excess consumption leads to shortages, hoarding, and price fluctuations. Excess production has the opposite effects.

When production exceeds demand, we have a supply curve with no intersection at the origin. This means that producers cannot sell all they make; therefore, some of it is wasted or spoiled before it gets sold. When consumption exceeds production, we have a demand curve with no intersection at the origin. This means that consumers cannot buy all they want; therefore, some of them must wait or go without.

In conclusion, an economy is in good shape when both production and consumption are high. Poor conditions will show up as low levels of activity for one or both of these sectors.

An economy is in recession if there is a decline in economic activity for two consecutive quarters.

About Article Author

Oscar West

Oscar West is a professional working in the field of marketing. He has experience in both digital marketing and advertising. His favorite thing to do is come up with new and innovative ways to reach customers, which he does with great success.

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Grocery Stocker PT

Company: Lowes Foods
Location: Greensboro
Posted on: January 15, 2022

Job Description:

4. Maintain organized, inventoried backstock in the backroom area.

11. Perform all other duties as assigned by management.

1. Friendly, outgoing personality. 2. Ability to work well with others. 3. Ability to lift 40 lbs. constantly 60 lbs. occasionally. 4. Ability to read and understand information and direction. 5. Knowledge of grocery operations. 6. Demonstrated ability and willingness to learn multiple tasks and technical requirements of the job. 7. Effective communication and guest service skills. 8. Ability to bend, kneel, stand, push/pull stock carts and operate pallet jack for extended periods of time. (Anyone under the age of 18 may not operate an electric pallet jack, baler, or use a box cutter.)

Keywords: Lowes Foods, Greensboro , Grocery Stocker PT, Other , Greensboro, North Carolina

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Dataset Information

Information Limited Oligonucleotide Amplification Assay for Affinity-Based, Parallel Detection Studies.

ABSTRACT: Molecular communication systems encounter similar constraints as telecommunications. In either case, channel crosstalk at the receiver end will result in information loss that statistical analysis cannot compensate. This is because in any communication channel there is a physical limit to the amount of information that can be transmitted. We present a novel and simple modified end amplification (MEA) technique to generate reduced and defined amounts of specific information in form of short fragments from an oligonucleotide source that also contains unrelated and redundant information. Our method can be a valuable tool to investigate information overflow and channel capacity in biomolecular recognition systems.

SUBMITTER: Bokkasam H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4792472 | BioStudies | 2016-01-01

REPOSITORIES: biostudies

Similar Datasets

2019-01-01 | S-EPMC6605094 | BioStudies
1000-01-01 | S-EPMC3644699 | BioStudies
2014-01-01 | S-EPMC4006702 | BioStudies
1000-01-01 | S-EPMC2726112 | BioStudies
2006-01-01 | S-EPMC1681507 | BioStudies
2018-01-01 | S-EPMC7512888 | BioStudies
2014-01-01 | S-EPMC3670909 | BioStudies
2012-01-01 | S-EPMC3509006 | BioStudies
2018-01-01 | S-EPMC5806868 | BioStudies
2011-01-01 | S-EPMC3146565 | BioStudies


Master Temporal Arteritis with Picmonic for Medicine

Temporal Arteritis

Temple of Arteries
Temporal arteritis is a vasculitis of medium and large arteries which typically presents as a severe unilateral headache in an elderly patient.  There can be a variety of atypical presentations depending on the arteries involved, but uniformly a granulomatous “giant cell” reaction will be appreciated on biopsy. The characteristic lab findings will show elevated ESR with normal serum creatine kinase.  There is a strong association of temporal arteritis with polymyalgia rheumatica which is an inflammatory disorder resulting in proximal muscle pain.  The most severe consequences of the vasculitis are when it involves the ophthalmic artery and can compromise blood supply to the eye resulting in blindness.  It is for this reason, patients must be immediately treated with high does steroids.
Giant Cell Arteritis
Giant Cell of Arteries

Temporal arteritis can be called giant cell arteritis due to the granulomatous response producing giant cells when the inflammation occurs more in the neck, upper body, and arms.

The inflammation of temporal arteritis is a granulomatous inflammation which occurs when the immune system attempts to wall off substances that it perceives as foreign but is unable to completely eliminate the substance.

Old females

This disease occurs primarily in older females.

Polymyalgia rheumatica
Poly-muscle-algae and Rheumatoid-hands

Inflammatory disorder that causes muscle pain and stiffness primarily in proximal muscles including neck, shoulders, upper arms and the proximal leg muscles. Many patients with temporal arteritis have coexisting polymyalgia rheumatica.

Unilateral headache
Unilateral Head-bump

Due to the inflammation of the blood vessels supplying the temporal region, patients with temporal arteritis will often present with a unilateral headache.

Jaw claudication
Jaw Claws

Refers to pain or discomfort in the jaw or ear when chewing.

Inflammation of the ophthalmic artery can threaten vision and cause blindness if not treated promptly.

Increased ESR
Up-arrow ESR test tubes

ESR stands for erythrocyte sedimentation rate, which is an indirect test of inflammation in the body. Patients with temporal arteritis have a characteristically elevated ESR.

Normal serum creatine kinase
Normal-bell-curve CK

Creatine kinase is a marker of muscle breakdown and will be elevated in pathologies like myocardial infarction and rhabdomyolysis. In temporal arteritis, serum creatine kinase is not elevated.

Potent anti-inflammatory drug used to treat temporal arteritis. Patients complaining of visual deficits must be treated with high dose steroids to prevent permanent blindness.

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Managing Bottlenecks, Delays and Supply Chain Strain in the Age of Coronavirus

To move forward, we must prioritize full resiliency and visibility along the supply chain.

Stock Package Delivery
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The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has put an unprecedented strain on the national and global supply chain, toilet paper and hand sanitizer shortages included. It’s easy to blame shortages on consumer panic and hoarding, but the root cause is one the industry experiences even during times of normal consumer behavior, just now exacerbated by the crisis.

Delays and restrictions

Typically, suppliers and retailers have built in agreements to ensure that shipments get from place to place at precise times. Yet even under normal circumstances, this isn’t always the case due to issues like human error, inclement weather and more. Now add the challenges of managing a supply chain during a global pandemic. For example, cities and countries across the globe are implementing time window restrictions on when commercial vehicles are allowed to cross borders or enter city centers, resulting in unanticipated delays and making estimated time of arrival (ETA) calculations near impossible.

While a 60-minute delay at a port of entry or loading zone may not seem like a major factor in overall delivery time, these seemingly inconsequential periods of time can pile up and create a ripple effect, resulting in delays of several hours or even days. The same way a single flight delay can lead to a headache for travelers across multiple cities, one delayed shipment can cause a ripple effect and completely throw off a supply chain.

Beyond the bottleneck of materials and goods, dynamic events and delays create frustrations across back-end offices and technology teams, leaving supply chain managers in the dark and rendering ETAs tremendously inaccurate.

Transparency along the chain

Today’s pandemic is unlike any other in recent history. Every aspect of the modern supply chain is being stress-tested, and the industry is being forced to accelerate its digital infrastructure investment. In the short term, suppliers and retailers are fighting to maintain operations. But, there will also be an opportunity to step back, assess the situation and audit the tools needed to create real-time, end-to-end visibility throughout the supply chain, during times of crisis and beyond.

Two aspects define end-to end-visibility. The first is process visibility, which lets suppliers and shippers know where shipments and goods sit within various stages of the transportation chain. This form of visibility (enabled via electronic data interchange, or EDI) provides management with updates as a shipment progresses through the chain, and most importantly, when process milestones vary against the plan. It’s when these variances occur that the second aspect of end-to-end visibility comes into play.

The second is physical visibility. Enabled by GPS and telematics data, physical visibility allows managers to see in real-time where shipments are located on a digital map. Typically, when a shipment doesn’t meet a specific process milestone within an expected timeframe, managers will quickly turn to physical visibility to figure out where the shipment is stuck and determine how to expedite the process. Once the shipment clears the process bottleneck, using the physical location, the shipment ETA can be re-calculated based on real-time traffic and weather conditions.

In addition to real-time physical visibility, managers can collect, aggregate and analyze historical GPS data to identify trends and patterns across the entire transportation.  Having this historical “visibility” allows managers to identify and mitigate pockets of inefficiency as well as account for seasonable variables like weather or tourism-related traffic in the summer.

What can we learn from this?

As the supply chain slowly regains normalcy, we can conduct root-cause analysis on the data generated throughout this period and begin gleaning insights on how to create more efficient processes for future times of volatility. As it stands, we’re learning in real-time, though the data is already actionable and robust, given the volume of vehicles moving across the network every day.

Beyond tapping this refreshed set of historical data to influence scenario planning, retailers and suppliers must integrate real-time capabilities into their everyday processes. Through continuous ETA calculation, teams can make quick decisions on how to allocate resources to prepare for arrival. Whether it’s preparing equipment for docking or ensuring that there are enough workers to unload supplies, real-time visibility helps teams better prepare for the transfer of goods and shipments.

Coronavirus and beyond

This crisis has uncovered a number of vulnerabilities throughout the broader supply chain and logistics industry; namely, a general lack of agility to address heightened product demand in tandem with increased traffic barriers. Because relevant historical data doesn’t yet exist to guide response at the current state, we’re collecting an entirely new set of data to reference later on. Eventually, we will amass enough intel to help inform improved processes and resource management in the future.

To move forward, we must prioritize full resiliency and visibility along the supply chain. While the crisis is certainly not behind us, the industry can implement the lessons learned throughout the process to create a stronger and more efficient supply chain overall.


How to Be a Better Leader in 2021

leader leadership Jan 05, 2021

The new year is finally here, and we can now start taking action on all the goals we’ve planned for the upcoming 12 months. If you’re like most leaders, you experienced unforeseen challenges in 2020, and want to do better this year.

So how do you become a better leader in 2021?

Keep reading for easy tips.

1. Invest in yourself.

Becoming a better leader starts with investing in yourself. This includes a healthy commitment to self-care and personal development, but in the office, it also means putting stock in valuable coaching and training.

Spend some time researching topics that will help develop you as a leader, such as learning how to motivate a team, developing your leadership style, and even recent issues that include successful remote work

2. Invest in your team.

You are nothing without your team, so invest in them too!

Give your employees the skills they need to constantly grow within your industry by supporting their development like you would your own. They’ll gain even more competence, confidence, and get to know others within your line of business as well!

Investing in your team can also mean regular sync ups to develop a better relationship, delegating tasks to encourage independence, and better benefits and company perks when possible!

3. Lead by example.

As a leader, it’s vital to lead by example. How do you want your company culture to be? Represent that each and every day. Be clear about how you want your people to think about you!

That means getting in the trenches with your team, taking ownership, and having tough conversations when necessary.

4. Be proactive instead of reactive.

While leaders usually can’t tell the future, learning to be proactive can go a long way when it comes to being a better leader.

Be proactive in your schedule so that your schedule doesn't run you. Be proactive in planning ahead so you are doing tasks TODAY to get you where you want to be LATER.

Rather than being reactive, being proactive can take a lot of stress out of leading, and it serves as an example to your team, too.

In what areas of your leadership could you be more proactive?

5. Be forward-thinking and visionary.

Much like training yourself to become proactive, being forward-thinking is an excellent way to lead better in the new year.

Rather than operating just in the here and now, spend time envisioning where you want your team to end up this year. How can you become a visionary, leading your team strong into the future?

Can you host more brainstorming sessions? Can you take inventory from staff and glean ideas about how to grow?

Great leaders are always looking towards the future.

6. Strive to be a better communicator.

One of the biggest lessons we all learned in 2020 was how important it was to communicate, especially with so much of the workforce moving remote.

Ask yourself, how can you strive to be a better communicator? Can you work on your response time? Can you listen more? Do you need to schedule time each day to touch base with your team?

Striving to be a better communicator will carry you into the next phase of being a better leader in 2021.

Which tip will you implement first? We want to offer you a free leadership course that you can complete on your own time and further develop as a leader.

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The Letter of James

Written by Scot McKnight Reviewed By Mariam J. Kamell

Scot McKnight’s commentary on the letter of James is a greatly welcome addition to the field. This commentary replaces Adamson’s 1976 NICNT commentary and more than doubles its length, but despite that it does not make for dry or pedantic reading. McKnight writes in an engaging, humorous, and thoughtful manner, drawing the reader into the various issues he approaches and bringing clarity to the various debates on introductory and interpretive issues.

The commentary follows standard format, with an introduction to the background issue of authorship in all its complexity for this epistle, a helpful guide on how to read James, and introductions to the (controversial) question of central themes in the epistle and how the epistle is structured. Perhaps less interested in questions of audience and remaining relatively non-committal on date (although opting for the 50s), McKnight’s introduction seems more focused on helping the reader to read James themselves, understanding the character of the author and the literary context of the letter, so that the voice of the epistle can emerge in the canon. In this sense, McKnight follows through his introductory admonitions to “read James!” and then “read James in light of James!” (p. 1), first by helping the character and context of the author, as well as the themes and potential structures of the epistle, to emerge such that one approaches the text with a great deal of respect before even beginning.

As the commentary progresses, each pericope is given a brief introduction, a translation that usefully compares NRSV and TNIV interpretations, and then a detailed verse-by-verse discussion. As is normal for the series, the Greek is in footnotes, so as not to interrupt the flow of the text, and the transliteration and use of vocabulary is seamless, making this a useful text for those who know Greek and Hebrew as well as for those who do not. Likewise, detailed grammatical conversations are kept to a minimum and more often appear in the footnotes with the Greek, again supporting the notion of a comprehensive commentary that does not alienate various levels of readers. Where grammatical discussions are significant, he does include them in the text, such as the implications of the present tense in 2:9 as not simply “something currently going on” but, based on aspectual theory, actions “depicted as incomplete and depicted as going on before our eyes” (p. 209; see 71n12). McKnight balances well between technical discussions and keeping the reader aware of where they are in the theology and argument of the larger text.

McKnight does take some less established positions, such as seeing all of 1:2–27 as “a single unit addressed to a specific audience: the poor messianic community that is being oppressed by persons in positions of power” (p. 68), finding an economic twist to all the trials and temptations described in this chapter. This leads him, for instance, in 1:2–4 to see these “trials of any kind” as more particularly “socio-economic suffering” (p. 76). Likewise, he holds that “the entirety of 3:1–4:12 is addressed to teachers in the messianic community” (p. 267), which I would argue has some implications for how this is read in community. While he remains consistent, he also shows other prominent interpretations and, where he differs significantly, describes how they play out in the text. As such, the commentary does not swing into any isolated positions, remaining consistent to McKnight’s outline of the text even while fairly presenting the various interpretations. His use and awareness of the current scholarship is sound.

One of the greatest strengths is McKnight’s masterful use of external literature to help unveil the meaning in the text. With every verse there are at least parenthetical references to other NT texts with common vocabulary or teaching (e.g., his discussion of “wickedness” in 3:16, p. 309), but more often he gives citations to Wisdom, Deuteronomy, Proverbs, Sirach, the prophets, the Gospels, and other biblical texts, as well as to Greek and other early Jewish literature. In this, the commentary becomes a treasure-trove resource for those who wish to give the text a literary context and understand where James is both like and unlike other literature. Likewise, McKnight’s literary-theological reading of James allows him to see texts such as 2:14–26 as flowing “naturally from 2:1–13” (p. 223). His reading of James as a coherent and theological document may be one of the greatest contributions of this commentary. Even where one may disagree with his interpretation, McKnight demonstrates deft awareness of the Jewish-Christian world from which the epistle originated, the relevant literature (then and now), and a respect for the text that is refreshing. In my perspective, this greatly expanded NICNT commentary stands as a prize addition to the field as a widely useable resource.

Mariam J. Kamell

Mariam J. Kamell
Regent College
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Other Articles in this Issue


Insecure and insular in urban India

In the design of a recent house in Delhi, I was intrigued by how the owner’s interest in the building was sustained merely by the gadgets that were part of the home. All rooms had air conditioners and humidifiers, each fitted with its own fridge, television and home entertainment, Internet, security and alarm system. A private lap pool and barbecue extended along the side of the house; four cars were parked in the driveway. Gadgetry proclaimed independence for all the residents of the house, while old ideas of comfort, familiarity, family togetherness were all but forgotten.

It is easy to see how in the past 20 years the idea of private ownership has had a huge debilitating impact on urban life. The city has changed from being a congenial space of shared amenities and relationships to a fearful nightmare of private strongholds and walled compounds — insecure, insular and isolated. As the boundaries of the city have expanded to take in more people, the real boundaries around residents have closed in. In Gurgaon outside Delhi, Vastrapur in Ahmedabad, or Whitefield in Bengaluru, the gated community coaxes the home owner into believing in the security of living among people like each other. The house comes now with greater realms of private facilities: private parking, private entertainment, private office, private pool, private barbecue … when the home acts as a virtual city, there is no need to go out.

Concept of sharing

Has the privatisation of what were once public assets and opportunities endorsed a better quality of civic life? How has the continual expense on private goods and services produced anything but a lazy and bland convenience? If anything, isn’t its larger impact, a more pervasive isolation and despair? What indeed is the effect of the bloated house on the consumption patterns of the neighbourhood, and life in the city?

In the 1970s, with little use for a car, my parents opted to share the expense of a car and driver with four other homes in the neighbourhood. Such efficient allocation ensured that the shared car was fully employed during the day within selected time slots. Five houses came together to share one car; today, each of those houses has four to five cars, mostly clogging the driveway. At the time, the local market had several lending libraries with the latest books. The system of short-term borrowing ensured that every book was happily thumbed by many interested readers, as were magazines and later, videos. The larger thrust of the shared life also extended to living spaces within and outside the home. The absence of multiple TVs and fridges allowed the family to share time together; as did the community park, where people met in the evening.

Global trends

Throughout the world, cities are attempting to create optimal conditions for shared interactive lifestyles. Suburbs in Washington and Boston encourage carpooling by creating special fast lanes into the city. In a new scheme in Orlando, tight-knit town houses open out into a common garden, allowing an easy mingling of all residents. Offices in Bogotá hire shared taxis to ferry their staff into the city. Other initiatives such as co-housing in Denmark support communities planned and managed by the residents who share responsibilities of child care, recreation and security along with social activities. Some new Chinese cities discourage any form of private ownership — whether house or car — so people live close to places of work in rental housing. Stockholm’s suburban ordinance even allows private gardens to be used publicly. Families without their own lawns are encouraged to use someone else’s as their own. The world’s most liveable cities are without doubt those that encourage such shared patterns in civic regulations.

Does the idea that every successful Indian must isolate himself behind encircling shields of privacy seem an absurd, lopsided form of civic entitlement? What is the real purpose of living among others if every action states you really don’t want to live among them? Wouldn’t it make more sense to evolve a more deliberate pattern of shared routines and consumption based on a common lifestyle?

Obviously, when domestic life is measured as an outcome of scarce resources put to efficient use, the new urban affluence begins to appear a terrible waste. The undying urge to excessive material possessiveness produces a selfishness that has a contemptible and miserly social dimension. With only one time or one person use, the possession itself loses its utility and usefulness, and becomes redundant. The multiple uses of cars, homes, gardens, city space, offices, books, films, etc. in the long run will reduce private possessions, increasing public dependence and interaction and result in a more hospitable city.

Governments abroad have also made conscious and consistent efforts to eradicate the visible hierarchy of their cities, ensuring that everyone lives together, works and shares a common pool of services and facilities. Senators in Washington live in standard suburban homes and commute every morning like ordinary citizens. In the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix could be seen choosing vegetables in the local market. Warren Buffett, one of America’s richest men, still maintains his old family home in Omaha, and is often seen playing with his grandkids on the sidewalk.

What would it take to get President Pranab Mukherjee to walk across to Connaught Place to pick up a pair of wool socks for his winter wardrobe, or Prime Minister Narendra Modi to select his vegetables at Subzi Mandi? How would it look if Mukesh Ambani lived in a two bedroom flat in Lower Parel and commuted by hanging on to the suburban train, instead of residing in ‘Antilia’, his 27-storied home on Altamount Road? When every politician, industrialist, tyre manufacturer and bureaucrat resides in palatial isolation on select real estate and is followed by a posse of machine- gun toting guards, the message of civic insecurity and isolation comes out loud and clear. The city is a dreadful place, so protect yourself. Divided by caste, class, rank, economics, social order and professional position, the shared life becomes a distant and impossible dream.

Evaluating the civic model

Naturally, a government that still follows antiquated regulations and by-laws is hardly capable of offering thoughtful solutions in this direction. Equally, it is a shameful sign of our times that builders profiting from construction, continue to lavish all their efforts where none is needed. As money and good times roll in, developers begin a steady and relentless marketing of luxury villas and townships, privatising the city further with high electrified boundaries and yet more isolation.

Why is it then that these fortress walls in suburban Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune foster such seclusion and despair, but the narrow lanes of Mehrauli and Dharavi — despite the stigma of slum living — are welcoming and unrestrained? In a society that has traditionally lived on the ideal of dependence, a return to a more egalitarian shared existence is a certain possibility. Now, more than ever, with the threat of smart cities looming large, the creation of a civic model needs careful stating, design and evaluation. Beginning with the redesign of the middle-class home, its relation to its neighbours, the value of community over privacy, shared transport over the private car, the compaction of distance between home, workplace and recreation, the abolishing of gated complexes, the inclusion of common greens, the reduction of private commerce, the conversion of roads to parks and walking tracks, can all be directed in the thrust for a different type of city. If private builders wish to apply any such ideas in their projects, the government should allow them a slate clean of all local restrictions to make it possible.

There are of course colossal economic and environmental benefits of a shared life — fewer cars on the street, more people accommodated more comfortably in less space, larger common open areas, consequently increased personal security, healthier cities and a happier more connected citizenry. If such an ideal is to be tested in India’s new towns, planners would have to create conditions where people don’t need to buy cars or houses. Obviously the present structure of city living is unlikely to accommodate such concerns. But given that cities are expanding and new ones being proposed, it may be useful to explore and state a new set of regulations before any construction begins, so that the larger benefits of sharing could be enjoyed by all sections of society. Without these, we may only end up creating yet more Gurgaons and Whitefields.

(Gautam Bhatia is a Delhi-based architect and sculptor.)

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Printable version | Jan 20, 2022 5:34:39 AM | https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/insecure-and-insular-in-urban-india/article10927329.ece

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