Psychological features of attitudes towards unemployment as a social phenomenon: trends and perspectives of study

The article notes that the current spread of coronavirus infection creates difficult conditions for the life of society, having a negative impact on many social spheres. It is shown that the labor crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic can increase global unemployment, and as a result, have a negative impact on the development of the economy as a whole, which increases the relevance of the research problem. The authors analyzed publications devoted to studies of unemployment in various branches of science, which made it possible to identify different social levels of its negative impact (global, national and regional). A separate group includes works on the socio-psychological problems of unemployment. It was revealed that the socio-economic or personal characteristics of the experience of unemployment in the context of the coronavirus pandemic have not yet become a significant subject of fundamental research. In particular, the scientific literature does not present facts that reflect the structure of user experiences. Analysis of messages from forums of the unemployed and from social networks allowed the authors to state a high level of reasoning related to unemployment as a social phenomenon, genuine regret about the high level of education of many of them and painful feelings about the low standard of living. Frequency and semantic analysis of messages also made it possible to demonstrate ideas about the factors causing unemployment, which are most often associated with the conditions of the social environment. The analysis of the emotional background of the messages carried out in the work showed the absence of neutral or positive assessments of unemployment (all assessments are negative). High emotional tension in assessing unemployment and its consequences indicates a pronounced decrease in the psychological well-being of users, which becomes the basis for negative judgments, including political content. In conclusion, it is noted that the study of “digital traces” seems to be a very promising direction in the study of macropsychological processes.

Strip planted mechanical seeding of mustard and mungbean with crop residue retention is more profitable than conventional practice

Smallholder agriculture of the Asian continent faces a significant challenge of declining soil productivity and an acute shortage of ag-ricultural labor. Reduced tillage and crop residue mulch application is an integrated approach to preserving soil health and addressing the labor crisis to maintain farm sustainability. We undertook this study to evaluate the effect of strip planting and increased residue mulching on mustard and mungbean's productivity and profitability in northern Bangladesh during 2015 and 2016. Mustard cv. BARI Sharisha 14 and mungbean cv. BARI Mungbean 6 was grown follow-ing (i) Conventionally Tilled broadcasting method (CT) and (ii) Strip Planted line seeding (SP) with two levels of crop mulch (i) no-mulch and (ii) 50% mulch. The CT was done by a two-wheel tractor with four plowings and cross plowing followed by leveling. In SP, single tillage, seeding, fertigation, and field leveling were done simultane-ously by a Versatile Multi-crop Planter machine. Results reveal that mechanized seeding of mustard and mungbean in SP with 50% resi-due mulching fetched 62% higher profit than broadcasted CT with-out residue through producing 24% higher seed yield. This practice reduced the land preparation costs by 68%, in association with re-ducing the labor and fuel requirements by 30%. Hence, it could be concluded that the mechanized seeding of mustard and mungbean with the retention of 50% of crop residue is profitable to the con-ventionally broadcasted seeding process.

Introduction to “Cultures of Argument”: The Loose Garments of Argument

At the January 2019 MLA convention in Chicago, I gave a paper entitled “The pressure to intervene: A case for the modest (Young) Critic” on a panel called Post-critique and the Profession. The purpose of the panel was to encourage us to think about the postcritical debate in terms of the material realities of literary studies today. My paper interrogated the recent call for postcritical forms of scholarship from the perspective of the humanities' current labor crisis. I had been struck by how arguments for imagining alternatives to traditional hermeneutic modes of literary criticism were inherently future-oriented: “this book joins an animated conversation about the future of literary studies,” Rita Felski writes in The Limits of Critique (2015 [10]). While intrigued by her and others' encouragement to decenter critique and forge other ways of engaging with our texts, I couldn't help thinking to myself, “Wait; what future?” Though one might imagine that the target audience of this plea for new kinds of criticism would be people like me—at the time a graduate student trying to break into the profession—my future as an academic was so terrifyingly uncertain that to plan for a future in which I'd be able to do any form of scholarship, critical or otherwise, seemed imprudent at best. To write about a postcritical future of literary studies and to insufficiently address how grim the future looks to those of us who hold the future of literary studies in our hands seemed a worrisome oversight. In short, while arguments for postcritique, surface reading, and the like seemed as if they should be talking to me, I couldn't help but sense that they weren't really talking to me at all.

Crisis del empleo, austeridad y relaciones de género en Portugal: el caso de la Región Autónoma de Madeira

Resumen En Portugal, a pesar de las mejoras experimentadas en los últimos años, la discriminación en las relaciones laborales basada en el género aún persiste. En el contexto de la crisis económica, financiera, política y laboral, donde la austeridad, implementada y supervisada por el Fondo Monetario Internacional, ha agravado la precariedad laboral, es fundamental analizar el impacto de esta realidad en el mercado de trabajo y en las relaciones de género. En este marco se sitúa esta reflexión. Desde un primer enfoque sobre las perspectivas teóricas de las transformaciones laborales y las relaciones de género, pasamos al análisis y comprensión de los cambios y tendencias recientes del mercado de trabajo, de la flexibilidad y del futuro de la igualdad de género, a la luz de las contribuciones de las sociólogas Sara Falcón Casaca (2012) y Virginia Ferreira (2014). Abstract In Portugal, despite the improvements experienced in recent years, discrimination in labor relations based on gender still persists. In the context of the economic, financial, political and labor crisis, where austerity, implemented and supervised by the International Monetary Fund, has aggravated labor precariousness, it is fundamental to analyze the impact of this reality on the labor market and on the relationships of genre. In this framework, this reflection is placed. From a first approach on the theoretical perspectives of labor transformations and gender relations, we turn to the analysis and understanding of recent changes and trends in the labor market, of flexibility and of the future of gender equality, in the light of the contributions of the sociologists Sara Falcón Casaca (2012) and Virginia Ferreira (2014).

Factors Affecting Ginger Production in Surkhet District, Nepal

Ginger is a high value crop belongs to family Zingiberaceae. Ginger has multiple health benefits and can be easily grown in mid-hill regions of Nepal. The major challenge is the limited availability of information on factors affecting ginger yield. The objective of this project was to analyze different factors influencing ginger production. The study was conducted in Surkhet district of Nepal in 2018. A total of 100 farmers (60 and 40 from Barahtal and Chingad rural municipalities respectively) were selected using simple random sampling technique. Primary data were collected using interview schedule, focus group discussion and key informant interview. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel. The descriptive statistics, chi-square test and correlation were used to derive conclusion. The average age and land under ginger cultivation were 41 years and 0.093 hectare respectively. Average ginger production in the study area was 980 kg per ropani. There was a strong positive relationship between farm size and ginger production. Training, subsidy and labor crisis had positive association with ginger production. However, family size and years of schooling were not significant but positively correlated. It is recommended that concerned authorities should give emphasis on farmer training, extension services, and subsidy to enhance ginger production. Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 7(2): 269-273

Cultivating Feeling

Ollie Miss brings together the labor politics of Alabama, reflecting George Wylie Henderson’s personal connections to the state. With this unique perspective, Henderson subtly intervenes in a labor crisis brought on by the Depression and the New Deal-era Agricultural Adjustment Act. What’s more, Henderson shifts from the focus on male workers that dominated the period, suggesting black women workers’ feeling as a central issue of his day. Setting the affect of a single migrant woman’s erotic stirrings in tension with agricultural toil, Henderson rethinks dominant labor narratives. Ollie’s real work —transcending confining labor circumstances by cultivating the pangs of erotic feeling —generates what we may call “cultivated desire.”

Apontamentos sobre experiências contemporâneas femininas de migrações e trabalho/Notes on feminine contemporary experiences of migration and work

A feminização das migrações foi compreendida, nos últimos anos, como uma das principais tendências do século XXI. O objetivo deste artigo é investigar tal processo, dando relevância para as conexões possíveis de serem estabelecidas com o conjunto da reprodução social. Para isso, consideramos as trajetórias de mulheres bolivianas que se inseriram em oficinas de costura na cidade de São Paulo. As experiências femininas de migração podem ser compreendidas como conteúdo concreto da crise contemporânea de reprodução do capital que se desdobra, simultaneamente, em crise do trabalho e da reprodução.Palavras-chave: feminização das migrações, crise do trabalho, migração boliviana. ABSTRACTOver the last years, the feminization of migrations has been considered one of the main social trends of the 21st century. The present paper investigates this process, underlining possible connections with social reproduction as a whole, through the analysis of Bolivian female migration trajectories. Feminine migratory experiences can be understood as a concrete content of the contemporary crisis of capital reproduction that simultaneously unfolds as a crisis of labor and reproduction.Keywords: feminization of migrations, labor crisis, Bolivian migration.

Japanese Internment as an Agricultural Labor Crisis

Japanese Internment inflicted a grave injustice on Japanese immigrants and Japanese American citizens. At the same time, it resulted in the sudden loss of ethnic Japanese farmers, triggering a serious labor shortage in California, where vegetable production was an integral part of wartime food security. This article examines the economic impact of Japanese Internment on California agriculture as well as political debates over food security versus military necessity. Using state and federal government documents, records of congressional hearings, and the Japanese immigrant press in Los Angeles, this article demonstrates that Japanese Internment prompted voices sympathetic to ethnic Japanese farmers to question the necessity of the full-scale implementation of mass evacuation and also led to a growing demand for Mexican farmworkers who would come through the Bracero Program. Consideration of these processes helps us to better understand the Japanese Internment as not solely about race but about economics in wartime, multiethnic California.