Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Self-Reported Pain in Artisanal Fishermen from a Traditional Community in Todos-os-Santos Bay, Bahia, Brazil

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) can be characterized from their occupational etiology and their occurrence; their chronicity generates negative repercussions for the health of workers, especially of artisanal fishing. To investigate the prevalence of generalized musculoskeletal disorders by body region and self-reported pain in a fishing population of northeastern Brazil, an epidemiological cross-sectional study was carried out in Santiago do Iguape, Bahia-Brazil, in 2017. The Brazilian version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ), in addition to a questionnaire containing the socio-demographic and labor conditions were applied to a random stratified sample of 248 artisanal fisheries. There were 170 female shellfish gatherers and 78 fishermen, with a mean age of 36.7 years (SD = 10.5 years) and 43.3 years (SD = 11.8 years), respectively. The beginning of the labor activity was initiated at approximately 11 years of age. The average weekly income varied from 17.64 USD to 29.10 USD. The prevalence of MSD independent of occupation occurred in at least one body region in 93.5% and the presence of musculoskeletal pain/discomfort over the last seven days in 95.2% of the fishing workers. The highest prevalence of MSD was found in shellfish gatherers in: lower back (86.4%), wrist and hand (73.5%), and upper back (66.8%). In relation to the presence of pain in the last year, the frequency of pain was greater in the fishermen compared to the shellfish gatherers. The generalized severity of the MSD in 93.5% of this community of fishermen is evident, with emphasis in the following regions: lower back, wrist and hand and upper back in both groups, with occurrence of pain in more than one body region at the same time.

Studying Up Machine Learning Data

Research in machine learning (ML) has argued that models trained on incomplete or biased datasets can lead to discriminatory outputs. In this commentary, we propose moving the research focus beyond bias-oriented framings by adopting a power-aware perspective to "study up" ML datasets. This means accounting for historical inequities, labor conditions, and epistemological standpoints inscribed in data. We draw on HCI and CSCW work to support our argument, critically analyze previous research, and point at two co-existing lines of work within our research community \,---\,one bias-centered, the other power-aware. We highlight the need for dialogue and cooperation in three areas: data quality, data work, and data documentation. In the first area, we argue that reducing societal problems to "bias" misses the context-based nature of data. In the second one, we highlight the corporate forces and market imperatives involved in the labor of data workers that subsequently shape ML datasets. Finally, we propose expanding current transparency-oriented efforts in dataset documentation to reflect the social contexts of data design and production.

The state of implementation of socio-economic transformations in Ukraine in the context of European integration policy

The author has analyzed ranking indexes of the state in the period before and after active European integrational practices – in 2013 and in 2019. The indexes which, by their content, correspond to the principles which serve as a foundation for social and economical policy of the EU have been paid attention to. As a result, it has been concluded that the reputational progress of Ukraine is conditioned by European integration reforms, in particular, in the areas of entrepreneurship, economic rights and freedoms, information openness in relation to economics and public finances, creating conditions for citizens to manage their property and labor. The study highlights those aspects of the socio-economic plane that are sensitive to European integration processes: migration processes to increase labor, touristic and academic mobility. It has been stated the dual nature of the geographical reorientation of labor migration from Ukraine to the West in contrast to the Russian Federation, due to both the worsening of labor conditions and environmental safety in Russia and the simplification of employment procedures in the EU countries. It is emphasized that this layering of circumstances, in fact, made a choice on behalf of people and European integration in this case is a favorable condition, not a key reason. Four levels of European integration factor in the socio-economic development of Ukraine have been emphasized: adaptation of domestic legislation to the integration of principles and values of EU policy into Ukrainian practices; support and acceleration of systemic reforms, correlated with the European integration course by means of macro-financial assistance and loans; assistance in activation and reorientation of social mobility of Ukrainians to the European direction – within the framework of labor migration, academic mobility and touristic flows; improvement of Ukraine’s reputation indexes in world’s rankings.

Special assessment of working conditions and assessment of occupational risks

A special assessment of working conditions (SAUT) is a unified set of measures to identify harmful and (or) hazardous factors that should be carried out in production in the course of labor activity. An overview of judicial practice in terms of SAUT and professional risk assessment is presented by Konstantin Panin, head of the SRG-ECO labor conditions assessment department, developer of methodological programs, lecturer at the RANEPA under the President of the Russian Federation.

The diffusion of norms, rules and mechanisms for the enforcement of labor standards and the resolution of disputes in the Asia-Pacific, in particular among signatory countries of the TPP

<p>People are central to economic development. Workers are relatively vulnerable compared to the other factors of the economy, including governments and employers. Because violations of workers’ rights and poor working conditions are prevalent, especially in developing countries, the diffusion of internationally recognized labor standards is now emerging as a critical process in the world. This is a process by which internationally recognized labor rights are transferred between countries by various means with the expectation of improving labor conditions world-wide. For this process to be successful, it is important that not only labor standards but also rules and mechanisms for their enforcement be diffused. The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) is currently under negotiation. The TPP is expected to be the first “high-quality, twenty-first-century agreement” in the world. Norm entrepreneurs have chosen the TPP to be a channel for the diffusion of labor standards in the Asia-Pacific. How is the TPP likely to diffuse the norms, rules and mechanisms for the enforcement of labor standards and dispute resolution? Will it be by means of goodwill, cooperation and consensus or through material conditionality? Labor rights are human rights which must be upheld and promoted. The answer to the above empirical question is very important to the policy-makers of signatory countries of the TPP, given that labor standards are considered to be a sensitive issue in many Asian countries. Their concerns are grounded in history. The Government of Poland and the communist system in Eastern Europe were brought down as a result of the implementation of labor rights in the 1980s¹. How to implement these rights without causing social and political disorder is a complex question for policy-makers in the TPP countries. The thesis reviews the literature on theoretical norm diffusion and labor standards as well as provides the empirical evidence of past diffusion of labor standards in order to identify which mechanisms of diffusion are likely to prevail in the field of labor standards in the Asia-Pacific region. It answers who are the drivers of diffusion. It draws on the record of all signed FTAs in the region to provide an empirical foundation for its projection about the likely content of the TPP in terms of rules and mechanisms for the enforcement of labor standards. ¹ After the rights to organize freely and to strike was recognized by the Government of Poland, the Solidarity Unions was formed and after many ups and downs of its evolution, finally it had led successfully the overthrow of the communist Government of Poland and “played a central role in the demise of communism across the Soviet bloc, changing forever the course of history in Europe”. Read more at http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1060898.html, and http://future.state.gov/when/timeline/1969_detente/fall_of_communism.html</p>

The diffusion of norms, rules and mechanisms for the enforcement of labor standards and the resolution of disputes in the Asia-Pacific, in particular among signatory countries of the TPP

<p>People are central to economic development. Workers are relatively vulnerable compared to the other factors of the economy, including governments and employers. Because violations of workers’ rights and poor working conditions are prevalent, especially in developing countries, the diffusion of internationally recognized labor standards is now emerging as a critical process in the world. This is a process by which internationally recognized labor rights are transferred between countries by various means with the expectation of improving labor conditions world-wide. For this process to be successful, it is important that not only labor standards but also rules and mechanisms for their enforcement be diffused. The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) is currently under negotiation. The TPP is expected to be the first “high-quality, twenty-first-century agreement” in the world. Norm entrepreneurs have chosen the TPP to be a channel for the diffusion of labor standards in the Asia-Pacific. How is the TPP likely to diffuse the norms, rules and mechanisms for the enforcement of labor standards and dispute resolution? Will it be by means of goodwill, cooperation and consensus or through material conditionality? Labor rights are human rights which must be upheld and promoted. The answer to the above empirical question is very important to the policy-makers of signatory countries of the TPP, given that labor standards are considered to be a sensitive issue in many Asian countries. Their concerns are grounded in history. The Government of Poland and the communist system in Eastern Europe were brought down as a result of the implementation of labor rights in the 1980s¹. How to implement these rights without causing social and political disorder is a complex question for policy-makers in the TPP countries. The thesis reviews the literature on theoretical norm diffusion and labor standards as well as provides the empirical evidence of past diffusion of labor standards in order to identify which mechanisms of diffusion are likely to prevail in the field of labor standards in the Asia-Pacific region. It answers who are the drivers of diffusion. It draws on the record of all signed FTAs in the region to provide an empirical foundation for its projection about the likely content of the TPP in terms of rules and mechanisms for the enforcement of labor standards. ¹ After the rights to organize freely and to strike was recognized by the Government of Poland, the Solidarity Unions was formed and after many ups and downs of its evolution, finally it had led successfully the overthrow of the communist Government of Poland and “played a central role in the demise of communism across the Soviet bloc, changing forever the course of history in Europe”. Read more at http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1060898.html, and http://future.state.gov/when/timeline/1969_detente/fall_of_communism.html</p>

Purity Politics? Moral Sensibilities and the Commodity Form

This paper provides a comparative historical sociology of a contemporary phenomenon: the tendency to equate “ethical” goods with aesthetic quality. Studies of moral markets suggest that this equation of ethics and quality would reveal a process whereby moral sensibilities saturate market forms and processes. Yet this paper argues that we should also examine how these forms and processes can condition moral sensibilities, not just absorb them. Drawing on primary source archival materials from late eighteenth century abolitionists and turn-of-the-twentieth-century consumer activists, the author demonstrates that these activists participated in a recurring purity politics of consumption conditioned by the commodity form. This manifests in activists’ equation of: 1) the treatment of the laborers and 2) the quality of the labor with 3) the quality of the goods. To claim that goods were pure, in many instances, was also to claim that the laborers and the labor conditions behind those goods were as well. This purity politics, further, entails both public and private ways of arguing for the equation of ethics and quality, as well as distinct civic visions of ethical labor. It also opens up ways to explore certain racialized dimensions of the commodity form.

Not on air, but Online: The Labor Conditions of the Digital Journalist in U.S. Local Television Newsrooms

As American news preferences shift from broadcast to digital platforms, corporate-owned local television stations have hired digital teams to keep a growing array of mobile, social, web, and over-the-top platforms updated with revenue-generating and audience-friendly information. Yet, these workers are currently missing from the labor literature. Therefore, this exploratory study uses a political economy framework with a labor focus to begin to understand the day-to-day working conditions of these employees. Interviews outline workload issues including long hours of multitasking and nearly-constant connectivity even when off the clock, sped-up production expectations with a commodified information focus, and limited worker protections. The findings here aim to provide a starting point for digital journalism labor studies moving forward.

“My 9 to 5 Job Is Birth Work”: A Case Study of Two Compensation Approaches for Community Doula Care

With the increased policy emphasis on promoting doula care to advance birth equity in the United States, there is a vital need to identify sustainable and equitable approaches for compensation of community doulas, who serve clients experiencing the greatest barriers to optimal pregnancy-related outcomes. This case study explores two different approaches for compensating doulas (contractor versus hourly employment with benefits) utilized by SisterWeb San Francisco Community Doula Network in San Francisco, California. We conducted qualitative interviews with SisterWeb doulas in 2020 and 2021 and organizational leaders in 2020. Overall, leaders and doulas reported that the contractor approach, in which doulas were paid a flat fee per client, did not adequately compensate doulas, who regularly attend trainings and provide additional support for their clients (e.g., referrals to promote housing and food security). Additionally, this approach did not provide doulas with healthcare benefits, which was especially concerning during the COVID-19 pandemic. As hourly, benefited employees, doulas experienced a greater sense of financial security and wellbeing from receiving consistent pay, compensation for all time worked, and benefits such as health insurance and sick leave, allowing some to dedicate themselves to birth work. Our study suggests that efforts to promote community doula care must integrate structural solutions to provide appropriate compensation and benefits to doulas, simultaneously advancing birth equity and equitable labor conditions for community doulas.