Social Science sites of the week
This week is the ESRC festival of social science
To mark the occasion.
Making the case for the social sciences: Sport and leisure
The latest publication from the Academy of Social Sciences which seeks to examine the value of the social sciences to society. All can be downloaded from the website
The latest booklet is on sport and leisure and is 28 pages long. It summarises a number of key social science research studies including research on racism in sport, gambling and the role of sport in society.
Bibliographie der Schweizergeschichte = Bibliographie de l’histoire suisse
Now available free online. The bibliography is edited by Schweizerische Landesbibliothek (Bern)ISSN:0378-4584.It provides references to books and journal articles published in Switzerland and elsewhere covering all periods of Swiss History from prehistoric times. Subject sub-divisions include canton history, economic, social and ecclesiastical history. Many items in French and/or German.Note date ranges do currently seem to be split between different sites. Free access to all issues from 1913 – 1974
1975-1998.classification is by date, then subject.
7 billion and me
New interactive website created by the UN Population Fund to celebrate the birth of the 7 billionth person. It puts the figure in perspective by creating personalized data – find out how many people were on Earth when you were born! Consider how population growth effects access to resources.
if you want to find more materials on world population. Good free starting points include:
Popline POPLINE® (POPulation information onLINE) contains citations with abstracts to scientific articles, reports, books, and unpublished reports in the field of population, family planning, and related health issues. POPLINE is maintained by the K4 Health Project at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs and is funded by the United States Agency for International Development. (USAID).
Libya Situation: Institute for the Study of War (ISW)
Site maintained by the non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization. It mission statement declares however, that that ‘ We are committed to improving the nation’s ability to execute military operations and respond to emerging threats in order to achieve U.S. strategic objectives’ it has a Libya conflict daily tracker which focuses mainly on military operations from an American/ coalition perspectives. Plus analysis and video interviews with experts.
The site also has two large projects on its website relating to Iraq and Afghanistan these include materials assessing military operations in these regions.
Tracks in Time: the Leeds Tithe map project
A digitisation project managed by West Yorkshire Archive Service. Supported by Heritage Lottery funding which provides online access to historic tithe maps. These are a rich source of information for economic historians. They cover Leeds, enabling users to view land ownership and underlying data. Theseincludes historic and contemporary Ordnance Survey mapping data and detailed aerial photography. The site also has a glossary of terms explaining the resources and details of copyright.
Other useful tithe map resources include:
e-mapping Victorian Cheshire: Cheshire’s Tithe Maps Online. Which has almost 500 maps online. The site compares historic with modern ordnance survey maps. The National Archives has a good guide to the history of Tithes
Occupy Wall Street
The social movement now has a space on the Internet archive where they are permanently archiving protest materials. There are currently over 175 materials preserved. They include pictures of protests across the usa from activists, audio files of speeches and images of leaflets produced. For instance see the insert designed to deter companies that send junk mail. Sign up to the rss feed to get alerts when new items are added.
The riots of summer 2011: Seminar organized by the Campaign for Social Science
Access the presentations from this event which took place at Gresham College, London on 13th October 2011. Podcast available soon. They cover 3 main themes:
How did we come to this? Is Britain “broken”? Were the rioters “just criminals”?
Link via Sage social space
It also has some useful suggestions for further reading. Including links to articles and reports some free. On the same theme released by the government this week:
Cabinet Office: The August riots in England – Understanding the involvement of young people which examines motivations and who was involved.
Szabad Európa Rádió Szabad Kossuth Rádió
Provides to transcripts (currently no audio files) audio broadcasts by Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Kossuth made during October to November 1956. This is of key importance to historians of the Cold War and revolution of 1956. However bear in mind Radio Free Europe has receivde funding from the US government. The digitalization process is carried out by the National Széchényi Library interviews. Browse broadcasts by date. Transcriptions in Hungarian only.
How People Use Tablets and What it Means for the Future of News
Interesting report from the Pew Research Centre for Excellence in Journalism. Focuses on the USA. Read the text of view a slide show. The Pew site is also a good source of information on the impact of the internet on the media. They have a weekly New Media index. This was launched in 2009. It examines the news content of social media blogs and news sites and compares the content with mainstream press. The site has archives and details on methodology used.
Google Transparency report
Official Google website which provides 6 monthly reports on requests from governments to remove content. country files have graphs of trends plus comment on the content and information on court cases. Materials generally from 2009 onwards. See the notes on limitations to understand how the index is calculated.
