Practicing Social Science: Gregory Jackson

Plagiarism Cases

2012-02-06T23:01:00.001+01:00

Last week, I discovered that four students in my class of 60-odd people had plagiarized their coursework essay. The essay was based on the careful reading of two texts that students selected from a list, and engaged in a compare and contrast of different theories of corporate governance. I discovered these cases through one of the usual plagiarism software packages. Interestingly, all of the cases seem to involve cutting and pasting passages from the very documents that the students were supposed to discuss in their essay. Some of these students were exchanage students on the Erasmus program, but some were regular students studying in my program. One gentleman was in his 7th semester of studies.

I wrote on the students feedback form: "The main problem with your essay is that much of its content has been inappropriately copied from other sources. Please see me during my office hours."

The final lecture of the course today was on the topic of "corruption." Do people behave corruptly because of their individual moral failings, or does the social structure that they inhabit create pressures and temptations that systemically produce corrupt behavior? These questions apply equally to the small bribes of petty businesspeople or the acquisence to moral wrongs of totalitarian regimes. In the university, we see this from the 2,000 words of cut-and-paste lies from students to the systematic deception of Guttenberg's PhD. Understanding the answer to our corruption question requires us to take account of both the "agency" and the "structure," whereby agency can include the self-deception of both the individual or group. I didn't know that this was dishonest because everybody is doing it! Or it was imperative to achieve the result, so I just did it! Or I knew it was wrong, but I did it for the good of someone else!

Following the corruption lecture, I held office hours: two of the four students that plagiarized their coursework indeed came to see me. One guy claimed that this was his first time doing academic writing, and did not understand how to use citations and quotations. The other guy said that he had never written in English before, and wanted the quality of academic language to be just as high as the original text that he was summarizing (most of his term paper was cut and pasted from the article that he was "summarizing"). An interesting perspective! This student seemed to be aware that copying the passages was "wrong." But he rationalized taking the words in an inappropriate fashion and pretending these were his own as a means to the end of a "better" paper. Is it the results that count, isn't it? While the aspect of human agency is clear, what is the structure around us that brings this student into the moral dilemma in the first place? I find it interesting how changing the rules of the game from the dominant more of testing students on factual knowledge (often which can be memorized) toward critical thinking (and showing one's line of reasoning in relation to different sets of values) exposes the very fragile foundation of learning.

On another front, I also discovered that one Chinese PhD student with top marks from a top university has plagiarized her English language published paper based on a CSR article from Caroll. The entire literature discussion was cut and pasted in from Caroll, whereby the direct quotations and citations are also pasted in (minus the quotation marks). The whole section is a kind of abridged version of the original. Her PhD application was also plagiarized by cutting and pasting large sections from an article from Hambrick and co-authors.

Already back around 1994, an undergraduate student under my supervision at Columbia University wrote a fantastic BSc honors thesis on "cheating." She interviewed fellow students and found that cheating was rampant at that time. I was most impressed by her evidence that certain "fraternities" had computers with a database of all term papers written from past alumni that were regularly re-used, recycled, and combined into ever new term papers from the next cohort of students.

Interactions with Students

2012-01-30T23:29:00.000+01:00

In my courses, attendance is required. I tell this to students repeatedly and explain that we need to have commitment of the group in order to work together. After a round of (not so friendly) emails informing students that they had failed to attend my class three or more times in 12 weeks, around ten students visited my office hours today. Several students cried telling me their stories, including a dying grandma. One student has been working on the day of class, and never attends. But she needs to complete the class since it is the final one that she needs for degree! One student said she comes, but on the wrong day and never signed in since her name was not on the sheet. But she was really there! One student comes to class regularly, but refuses to participate by preparing some input for the group. Why? He said that he is too busy with taking 7 other class, and already gave 4 presentations in those class. This presentation would be "too much."

One student said that she did not complete her written assignment because she started late and decided that she would get a zero anyway for turning it in late, so better to wordlessly not do it at all. She thought that even if she failed the assignment, she might pass the course if she aces the exam. Four students plagiarised parts of their assignment by copying and pasting long passages from the very articles that they were asked to summarize and critique...but none of these came to my office today. They have been attending class! These students will receive a separate invitation.

The first 11 paper submissions from 2012

2012-01-20T16:07:00.001+01:00

A full day of working with manuscripts for Socio-Economic Review today. Some papers coming are very exciting with excellent integration of theoretical argument and empirical social science. Other things going in the reject box--broad essayistic arguments about the state of the world, or decent empirical and applied research papers from narrow fields of study that do not link to the general themes of the journal. One very rich empirical paper came in that took almost zero account of previous theoretical work in the field. A constructive comment was provided. A satisfying workday, now done.

No new taxes?

2011-07-23T18:17:00.000+02:00

In the US, the Republicans currently seem willing to shut down the government in order to avoid any increase in taxation. If we look at the last 20 years (see figure), we see dramatic rise in corporate profits after tax and a stagnation of taxes paid by companies. In relative terms, US corporations paid around 35% of their profits in tax during 1990, but pay only around 22% today. Meanwhile, profits have increased relative to wages paid to working people.

A further question is how corporations used these increased profits? Looking at the evidence suggests that corporations distributed these profits to shareholders through increased dividend payments and share buy-backs. Notably, they did not invest the money into their companies as going concerns through fixed capital investment. Whereas the total amount spent by corporations on cash dividend payments and share buy-backs totalled about 60% of fixed capital investment in the 1990s, these payments to shareholders equalled over 100% of total investment in the mid and late 2000s.

In sum, corporations earned more over the last three decades. They have paid fewer taxes and wages in relative terms. The increased funds have been spent about half and half between new investment and restributing wealth away from wage earners and government to shareholders. (These payments to shareholders and the rise in stock market prices relative to GDP are a major factor fueling income inequality in the USA...but more on this another day).

As an order of magniture, corporate profits totalled USD 1.7 trillion in 2010, whereas dividends and share buy-backs totalled about USD 1 trillion. These figures are relative to the government budget deficit of USD 1.4 trillion. Surely one cause of the current fiscal crisis concerns the redistribution of income to corporations and their shareholders.

CSR and institutions

2011-07-05T00:25:00.000+02:00

A good day working on the issue of how institutions influence CSR practices. If the responsible company behaves in ways that meets or even exceeds our ethical expectations, where then do these expectations come from? Are they based on a view of the company as something essentially private, but which voluntarily reaches out to stakeholders based on various relational or instrumental motives? Or is our expectation based on a more public view of the company as a political creation, sharing societal responsibilities in exchange for its right to limited liability? Dirk Matten nicely explained this (citing Habermas) in terms of a difference between feudal benevolence or entitlements based on citizenship.

a burning question for musicians

2011-06-06T23:19:00.000+02:00

How to induce uncertainty? In most contexts, people try to reduce uncertainty, and establish ways of acting that make life go on in ways that conform to expectations. But in the creative moment, we embark into something uncertain! The paradox comes in how to intentionally organize (or better said to be available for) this very process that cannot (and should not) be fully organized? This tension plays out in different ways in different musical or performance cultures, and in relation to different modes of commercial expectations or economic exploitation (“the industry”). All this is not new. So a burning question: what sort of social science might contribute something meaningful to musicians today?

Career Expectations

2011-06-02T15:40:00.006+02:00

An email from a younger management scholar came to my attention in relation to an academic job recently advertised:

“The requirement for an appointee to have an outstanding track record of research and teaching for a junior position seems somewhat unethical to me.”

Is it unethical to require someone to be outstanding at what they do? Or to require some experience prior to appointment in a long-term position? In my interpretation, an outstanding track record of a “junior” colleague might entail not just a PhD, but the PhD consisting of very good research. Alternatively, one can distinguish good research by publishing an “outstanding” article. A more interesting question is what the correspondent means here by “somewhat unethical”? Kantian ethics would not allow for this intermediate position, although a utilitarian ethics might allow space for costs to “somewhat” outweigh benefits.

I do appreciate the concerns of junior colleagues regarding the mania for ever more publications in supposed top journals, the quality of which are often determined by either citation metrics or subjective academic opinions. But these concerns should not lead us to abandon a notion of quality. A better question for a junior colleagye to ask would be: what is my aim in being a social scientist, and how may I meet this aim in an outstanding fashion?

Relaunch

2011-06-02T00:06:00.002+02:00

This blog will report my observations about the practical challenges to creative work. The main focus here is the social sciences, and inevitably will touch upon my research in corporate governance and corporate responsibility. A secondary focus is to explore creative work in relation to music. My aim is to invite the interested public to looks at the practical activity of social science, as well as provide a means for reflection and pointed stick to my own thinking.

Welcome!

Saddam and the Death Penalty

2006-12-30T02:29:00.000+01:00

Dear Editor (the Times and the Guardian),

The execution of Saddam Hussein represents a tragic loss of opportunity to carry out justice. At a basic level, no human should be executed, not even after a fair trail and due process. The European Union (EU) is opposed to the death penalty in all cases, and Britain must do much more to live up to its European commitment to oppose this action or future actions in Iraq, where it bears particular responsibility. While a sovereign Iraq should decide such matters internally, it is very questionsable as to whether the death penalty, even of a former dictator, will make any positive contribution to future peace and reconcilation. Surely the most important message in any society undergoing such fundemantel conflict is that of non-violence, and the importance of resolving problems without violence rather than 'an eye for an eye' justice. Killing Saddam solves nothing, especially compared to investigating the crimes that he may have been involved in, and using this understanding to build a new Iraq based on such understanding.

Surely Tony Blair should be taking the message to Iraq that in Europe, 'we do not hang our criminals', not even the worst. Britain should be articulating the reasons behind this thinking, which make up the core of European political values. I write this as an American who is happy to live in Europe for this reason.

Gregory Jackson

The Paradox of Independence

2006-09-23T12:19:00.000+02:00

‘Independence’ is a central concept in debates over corporate governance, but remains relatively unexamined. Given the potential problems of professional managers running the firm unchecked, most reports or codes of corporate governance recommend oversight by ‘independent’ board members that are capable of effective engaging with and (when needed) exercising power over managers. But if directors are accountable to independent directors, to whom are independent directors accountable?

What do we mean by independence?

1. Independence from managers. Independent directors should not be chosen by or beholden to the managers they are supposed to monitor. Independence implies that these persons are not company insiders, but have autonomy from the firm and existing managers. Their 'outsider' position does, however, raise issues about their competence in understanding the complex operations and business environment of the firm. (As their independence from managers grows, their dependence on those managers may increase for information about the firm!)

2. Independence from shareholders. Independent directors are often seen as representing the interests of shareholders. However, they are not the shareholders themselves. And most often, they are not directly chosen by the shareholders, although their appointment may be approved by shareholder vote. To the extent that directors directly represent particular shareholders, they are often seen as lacking independence and being a vehicle of special interests. Conversely, if shareholders put their people on the board, this compromises the liquidity of their ownership stakes and puts them at risk of insider trading. Put another way, the discourse of ‘independent directors’ reflects a situation of dispersed share ownership where shareholders themselves are unable or unwilling to monitor managers themselves.

A Paradox results in that independence from managers is unlikely to be achieved at the same time as independence from shareholders. If independent directors do not represent anyone outside the management and are not held accountable to them, it is very unlikely that independent directors will remain independent from managers. There is probably trade-off between these two aspects, whereby one aspects of independence increases inversely to the other.

In the UK, independence is conventionally dealt with through the Nomination Committee. Here, the independent directors are nominated by other independent directors. This structure raises a number of important questions. One issue is the first mover. Who nominates the first independent nominating committee? Usually, it is done by company insiders, chosen from friends or friends-of-friends, old boys, members of the same golf clubs and so on. These people may be full of valuable, and non-redundant advice and expertise, but they are unlikely to rock the boat, unless it means saving their own skin. Most often these persons are similarly managers of firms with independent directors, who themselves don’t wish to be confronted with tough independent scrutiny. At worse, they may share similar ‘class interests’ such as rising managerial salaries. Of course, the selection of independent directors is increasingly ‘professionalized’ by outside advisors, head hunters and consultants who legitimate these choices and ostensibly serve as a source of professional norms. But the basic question of who chooses is a fundamental one.

A second and perhaps more important issue relates to whom these independent persons are accountable. Here a common answer is to offer stock options and other performance-based pay incentives to independent directors, which are the same incentive given to the directors’ they monitor. So ‘the market’ is left to monitor both groups. This system is quite different from, say, checks and balances that operate on opposing organizing principles such as in the political system, where the legislature represents the majority of polity and judiciary represents the legal or constitutional protections against the tyranny of that very same majority.

Given these two problems, it seems doubtful whether the Nomination Committee, as a structural feature of boards, is sufficient to guard against the ‘capture’ of independent board members or to ensure vigilant processes of engagement by the board. So despite the popularity of independence and high compliance with the provisions of the Combined Code among large UK firms, the social science evidence has failed to show a clear link between independence in terms of the formal structure of boards and good performance outcomes. As Terry McNultey (University of Liverpool) and others have argued, processes within the board may be much more important. What matters is engagement, but how do we get it?

At least a partial answer must relate to the second aspect of independence from shareholdres. Can we have directors that are independent from inside managers without having more transparent representation of shareholders or even other stakeholders? Must we not have investors that behave more responsibly? This could be achieved by the following:

1. Direct representation of particular shareholders in the board, but this has associated problems noted above.

2. New forms of professionalization and associations for independent directors that institutional investors could credibly nominate to represent shareholder interests. This seems an interesting angle worth exploring. If there is a market failure, what sort of associations or public action might fill the gap.

3. Representation of other stakeholder groups like employees, who would be willing to be directly involved in the selection of directors. German codetermination model follows this model, and some evidence does suggest that employee directors make beneficial contributions to governance, given their independence and also quasi-insider knowledge about what is going on in the firm.

While the principle of independence is most often applied to the board, it is a fundamental theme that extends to a variety of other gatekeepers, such as auditing firms, accountants and so on. A further issue is how independence relates to the degree of information and competence for understanding the business. More on that later!

Save the Intrepid Fox

2006-09-08T23:55:00.000+02:00

My favorite London pub will be closed on September 11th. I have been going to The Intrepid Fox since 1992, and always go back for the irreverent and no nonsense punk attitude that seeps from every nook and cranny. The closure is a heartbreaking example of corporate capitalism defeating cultural tradition. But Mitchells & Butlers, the major corporation managing pub chains such as O'Neils, has sold the site of the pub. For their directors, share prices are apparently more important. While the market economy should thrive on "creative destruction," this is destruction without creativity just to make a quick profit. Pubs survived on this site since the mid 18th Century, until this company came along.

My letter to the local MP is attached. Please support this campaign.

Dear Mr. Field,

I am writing regarding the impending closure of the Intrepid Fox pub in Wardour Street, Westminster, London. The pub has recently been sold for redevelopment by Mitchells & Butlers, as detailed in a recent news article:

Last orders at the Intrepid Fox

I would like to underscore that while Mitchells & Butlers may serve their private interests through the sale, the redevelopment of the site would violate the interests of the public in Westminster. The Intrepid Fox has a long history as an iconic cultural institution for alternative music that is known world-wide. Its a geniune London institution that deserves support of public officials in London for the sake of preserving the cultural capital of our beloved city. London is (punk) rock and roll, and the Intrepid Fox is rock and roll with attitude.

To my knowledge, saving the Intrepid Fox requires no public subsidy. The pub has proven a perfectly viable business, but simply one that doesn't generate the desired corporate rate of return for its past owners.

A petition has been circulated to prevent the redevelopment of the site. I look forward to your energetic support of this petition in the public interest. Further details are here.

Thanks very much for your support.

Sincerely,

Dr. Gregory Jackson
Department of Management
King's College London

The Vietnam war and the University of Wisconsin-Madison

2006-06-24T14:59:00.000+02:00

Last night, I really enjoyed watching a documentary on BBC Four entitled HOW VIETNAM WAS LOST.

The film focused on one week in 1967, where two very different occurrences began to change American opinion on the Vietnam War. On one hand, an American battalion was ambushed by the Vietcong, resulting in 61 casualties. The focus here seemed to reveal a drastic misjudgement by the commanding officers, and media cover up in portraying the battle as a step toward victory rather than the defeat it was. The other even were the local police attacking students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where a sit-in was staged to precent Dow Chemical (the manufacturer of napalm) from making a recruiting visit on campus.

As a student of U Wisconsin in 1989-1992, it was very interesting for me to see the footage of the Commerce Building, and hear interviews with the policemen and students involved. The students were pretty brutally beaten with lack of prior warning, as the police cleared the building. I was struck by the vast differences in opinion and perception between the two groups, which one policeman described very clearly in terms of the very different social backgrounds of the students from the police, who came from farm families and had little contact with the university. The police expressed quite a strong animosity against the student protestors. Sociologist Maurice Zeitlin (a UW staff member present, but now at UCLA) gave some very interesting comments about patriotism and civic cuty in the very different contexts of soldiers drafted into the war and the students involved in protest.

Similarly, the film interviews the Vietcong commanders and some soldiers involved in the same battle. Its very rare to hear all sides of such issues.

In sum, a very focused, but revealing view on American attitudes toward Vietnam.

Tool Concert - London

2006-06-17T10:10:00.000+02:00

Earlier this week, I went to see the band Tool at the Hammersmith Apollo (the second of two London shows, on June 14, 2006). The show was one of the best rock concerts I have seen in years -- certainly one of the all-time best that I have seen. I think any rock music concert is a real challenge to deal with huge obstacles of audience expectations, bad sound in acoustically challenged spaces, the band being tired and worn down on the road, and the like. This night, the band negotiated the space admirably, and things came together with rare grace. My seat was a bit far from the stage, high in the upper balcony. But the acoustics were largely good, apart from some very low electronic or synthesized bass notes in two or three short places in the show, which masked out the rest into indistinguishable mush!

The drummer Danny Carey particularly amazed me. I read that another musician had called him "the Billy Cobham of his generation" and I think its an apt comparison of his power and grace. He plays the inventive Mandalla Drum, which really takes electronic percussion up a notch in terms of its flexibility and expressiveness:

http://synesthesiacorp.com/home.html

Tool played a great set, and stretched out on some well known compositions. On Schism, the band added a double-tempo middle section that was amazing. From here, I really settled into deep listening of the middle of their set. One of my favorite aspects of Tool's music is the way that they subtley dispense with traditional verse-chorus song structures, which are the coffin of rock music. Their songs are more like taking a long journey through darkness and light, circling and revisiting themes, but always moving to the future. Lateralus is an excellent example. I appreciate how the band plays on-stage in half darkness and lets the power of the music and abstract film images take you ... "Spiral out, keep going."

SETLIST --Stinkfist,The Pot, Forty Six & 2, Jambi, Schism, Right In Two, Rosetta Stoned, Sober, Lateralus, Vicarious, Ænema.

Amazing!

R.Fripp Churchscapes at St.Paul's

2006-06-15T10:55:00.000+02:00

On Tuesday afternoon, I had the honour of visiting St.Paul's Cathedral and hearing a 30 minute performance by Robert Fripp, an extraordinary guitarist. The performance was part of Fripp's 'Churchscapes' tour of England, which as I understand it, aims to present his guitar soundscapes in spaces that are (hopefully) outside the realm of commercial expectations associated with music today. Not having visited St.Paul's for many many years, I really enjoyed how such a sacred place also had an atmosphere of a working environment where art and ideas were also being tested out and communicated in a very informal way. So as R.Fripp played, tourists, priests and conscience members of the audience intermingled, sat or walked past, and the music formed part of the sorroundings in ways which, at times, demanded one's attention and at times seemed to support attention toward other things in the space, such as the ceiling of the Dome or religious pictures or our thoughts.

I am really enjoying R.Fripp's current soundscape material, and the way it combines soaring and floating waves of sound, which pass like clouds, with the minimalistic melodic sketches based on a very direct, unprocessed guitar tone, used throughout the recent Fripp&Eno release "The Equatorial Stars". Simply wonderful, especially as the music scaled the heights of St.Paul's Dome.

Another take on the music comes from Sid Smith.

I was happy to have the chance to bring the family along, and observed how both children stretched themselves out over a few chairs, listened and rested without becoming restless.

The rest of the afternoon was spent scaling the heights of the Dome, by foot that is:

The day ended with a bit of interesting karma. The day before, my wife had gently tapped into a parked car while turning around and surpringly left a dent in the others' car door. No one saw the event and in fact no one was around at all, but she went to some lengths to find the owner of the car and report it. "Am I being stupid?" Or doing the right thing? The next day at St.Paul's, she mysteriously misplaced her wallet. After racing back from the Tube in a panic, sure enough it was returned to the guards with all contents intact. Two acts that were individually irrational, and yet without these, society could not exist.

English Summer

2006-06-13T00:25:00.000+02:00

"For as the nature of foul weather lieth not in a shower or two of rain, but in an inclination thereto of many days together: so the nature of war consisteth not in actual fighting, but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary" (Thomas Hobbes, 1651, Leviathan, Chap 13)

The English weather, as Hobbes knew well, comes close to a condition of war. So much more magical are the moments of sunlight, and their fleeting radiance which have been painted in magical pinks and oranges by Turner and others.

Here, a sampling from the garden window at sunset:

Or from the kitchen:

Or from upstairs:

The sun almost fading:

tenants rights

2005-12-24T03:05:00.000+01:00

Its been a while since the last entry.

This year has been quite a whirlwind. In summer, we were evicted from our apartment by an aggressive and bullying landlord. The landlord is the owner of several major estate agencies and property companies in London. He is also something of a local legend in our neighborhood, deeply unliked by locals. Although nobody could actually say anything specific about him. For example, various local people attributed to him at least 7 different ethnicities.

Our eviction was completely unexpected, after assurances that we could gladly renew our one year lease. I was surprised to discover how few rights renters have in the UK. Even when rights don't work, I somehow thought an appeal to reason and cooperation might make the transition bearable. The result of this was verbal threats and bullying from our screaming and insulting landlord. Still, it was the first time he actually spoke to me!

In the end, we were kicked out on the street like dogs with no place to live on the premise that the 'new tenants' were moving in on the Saturday, and we would be sued and held liable for moving costs and hotel costs for the poor people made homeless if we failed to vacate. We vacated, and watched the flat remain empty for another three weeks....in fact, it was exactly the same three weeks that we asked for as an extension until our new accomodation became available. In an ordinary context, I would say that the landlord 'lied' about the impending move of the new tenants. But power makes for 'truth,' in as much as we could not afford to wait and see what actually would 'truly' happen.

So out we went.... onto the street.

Its interesting also that the flat was barely in tolerable condition. The old wooden floors would splinter, and getting stabbed by nails or inch-long sharp pieces of wood were daily occurances. Still, the landlord initially claimed cleaning fees from us after we left (that is, deducting them unilaterally from our 'deposit'), since the property was not professionally cleaned. After some protest, he added them back on. But later discovered a missing key to the bathroom door, the replacement cost of which was exactly the same amount. I hope his 'new tenants' don't mind wet walls, or the chemicals wafting up from the dry cleaners below, or the sickening smell of the pizza oil that clogged the outdoor pipes and repeatedly flooded the area outside the building.

The rights of property... and obligations of tenants.

Employee Representation in Corporate Boards

2005-08-25T18:51:00.000+02:00

Many people in the English speaking world consider employee representation in the board to be a deviant exception. In fact, among 22 OECD countries, eight countries have legislation mandating employee representation in corporate boards. These countries include Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and France. Under these laws, employees or unions are allowed to elect or nominate representatives to attend and advise the board, or participate as full members and thereby 'codetermine' decisions. Germany has the most well-known and strongest scheme, where up to half of the Supervisory Board members represent employees.

Most econometric studies of board-level employee representation find that it has no clear adverse effects on company performance, although studies are conflicting on the particular issue of whether employee codetermination adversely impacts share prices. Meanwhile, a wide body of evidence does suggest that employee involvement in the board has a positive impact on trust, organizational culture and hence the effectiveness of implementing top-level corporate decisions.

I have just completed a comparative study as to why countries adopt codetermination. The comparative analysis highlighted two sets of factors or 'pathways' to codetermination.

Both pathways to codetermination are characterized by coordinated multi-employer collective bargaining, consensual political systems with strong proportion representation, and concentrated corporate ownership. The Scandinavian varient was characterized by stronger left political parties, and higher union density. An interesting result was that Scandinavian countries have both codetermination and relatively rules on investor protection and corporate disclosure.

Meanwhile, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands represent a more conservative pattern.

Unions and Social Democratic parties are less strong , but these countries also have weak investor protection and corporate disclosure.

These differences in the political strength of left and degree of investor rights suggest some interesting conjectures about the politics of corporate governance. In Scandinavia, the strength of unions and left parties allowed a political compromise with concentrated owners that involved not only codetermination, but usually also greater transparency and investor protection. In Germany, the comparative weakness of the unions and left led to codetermination rights, but allowed concentrated owners to shield themselves from both outside investors and employees representatives through less corporate transparency and investor rights.

The Scandinavian case has strong implications for the future of stakeholder models of corporate governance that seek to institutionalise strong rights for both shareholders and employees. In particular, these cases contradict the expected negative relationship between employee rights and legal rights for shareholders. This may suggest that employee representation may lead countries to adopt stronger legal protection for shareholders, either as a way for shareholders to counterbalance employee influence or more likely as a response to demands for greater transparency by employees themselves.

After Nine Days MP3

2005-08-16T02:48:00.000+02:00

A new musical piece -- a loop-based improvisation around a drum track and layers of acoustic guitar. The mood seemed to resonate with nine days after the bombings on the London tube. 'As the world around you gets more uncertain, you get quieter and quieter..'
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=42681

An interesting article in the ever-so-popular 'Evening Standard' today comparing the time budget of British women in the 1950s and today. The time spent on 'housework' has been reduced by half (e.g. shopping, cooking, cleaning). Most of the extra time was taken up my paid employment, but what I found interesting is the time spent 'taking care of children' has not increased as a result. One hooray for female employment! But I think the much more emphasis needs to be put on children, by women AND men. Who spends time with them?

Google Earth

2005-08-10T17:51:00.000+02:00

Today, I discovered Google Earth. I am very impressed with it, and found it quite informative even in its early stages. The resolution of the Tokyo map was good enough to locate the apartment building where I lived from 2002-2004. The satellite picture must be some years old, since another skyscraper is missing from the left-hand side of the picture, and the bits of green space around the house were built up before or during my time there:

Here my current place of employment in London:

Or a view from the other side:

London Accents

2005-08-10T02:38:00.000+02:00

I found an interesting article from Laura Wright (Cambridge) n the BBC today regarding the speech patterns of Londoners. The main classifications of accents in London are based on the East/West axis of the city's geography, but perhaps more importantly rooted in social class. Not surprising, of course. But an interesting element of the article was the fact that children develop local accents, since their social contacts are quite limited to particular schools and localities. Whereas adults move throughout London, and therefore remain exposed to a variety of accents. This 'cosmopolitan' effect is one reason why working class speakers vary greatly across regions, whereas middle class speakers become homogenized.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2005/06/02/voices_laura_wright_feature.shtml

When I meet new people, they comment on my 'funny accent' or more likely 'lack of an accent' almost without exception. I find it slightly irritating, particularly when non-native speakers of English begin to insist, 'But you don't sound American...' People often attribute this to my experience in speaking German, but actually I always believed it started much earlier and had different roots.

In high school, I am fairly confident that I had a 'Californian accent' or regional way of speaking. I spent one year on exchange in Germany during the 11th grade, but I don't think it changed at that point. A year later, going to university in the mid-western United States, I was determined to speak proper English! After three years in Wisconsin, I then spent one year in London. At that time, people didn't systematically comment on my accent, despite occassional remarks about not sounding 'too American.' It was really arriving in New York City that people began remarking on my 'accent', and haven't stopped to this day. In New York, a large portion of my social contact was with non-native speakers of English, particularly East Asians. My 'lack of accent' probably does not reflect an adopted 'German-ness' from speaking German, but simply my sustained exposure to very diverse patterns of regionally varied, as well native and non-native English speech.

Kouta MP3

2005-08-09T05:05:00.000+02:00

August 9, 2005. London.

Late night. A helicopter is whizzing around above like mad. While it happens sometimes, I am never quite sure if its the police, the queen or BBC helicopters. But there is something disturbing about it.

I recorded one of the kouta pieces called 'Eng Kai Na' that I rehearsed for the Hiroshima event. For the curious, its now on-line here. Its a slow piece, and a kind of sad mood. But I think its evocative of some of the sounds of the shamisen. Its now on my sound page:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=42681

Lately, I have also been recording some live loop-based material playing layers of guitars and electronic drums into my Headrush delay/looping unit, and recording into my home computer. The live loops build and build, one layer at a time. I edited one, now entitled 'Green the Brook', to make 8 minutes into a more concise piece! But its all a single live improvisation.

Enjoy!

60th Anniversary of Hiroshima Bomb

2005-08-08T02:49:00.000+02:00

August 6th, London.

On Saturday, I attended a 60th Anniversary ceremony and exhibition dealing with the bombing of Hiroshima. It is such an unimagineable atrocity, and so alarming to watch the profileration of nuclear weapons today. I was struck by the message of the Buddhist priest, who talked about the importance of inner peace in achieving peace in the world. Meanwhile, we could all here the police sirens and helicopters passing through central London, which formed a backdrop to the ceremony up on the rooftop garden at the Brunei Gallery. Somehow the message seems very close to home after the London bombings . The exhibition continues for several weeks, and features an interesting array of artworks from British and Japanese artists inspired by the events. I was particularly moved by the wall made from paper cranes! For me, the traditional symbol seemed the most powerful.

http://www.afterhiroshima.org/

Up on the rooftop garden, I got a chance to play 'Rokkudan' as part of the Japan Music Society from SOAS.

Then a personal highlight was to play a 20 minutes solo set on the shamisen down in the gallery. The shamisen is a traditional Japanese three-stringed instrument used in a wide variety of ways across the various genres of Japanese music. I played three 'kouta' or short songs, followed by one faster tsugaru pieice and one section of a nagauta piece from the play 'miyakodari'. Then I closed with another series of three kouta pieces. I enjoyed playing in the space, and hopefully playing a supportive role adding to the mood in the gallery room.

Lots of supportive friends came out. Thanks guys!