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Lloyds fined £90m for misleading customers about home insurance quotes

Written by: Emma Lunn

09/07/2021

The regulator said the bank failed to ensure that language in home insurance renewals communications was clear, fair and not misleading

The bank has paid out £13.6m to 350,000 customers following an investigation into home insurance renewal policies.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Lloyds Bank £90m for failures in communications for home insurance renewals between 2009 and 2017. The bank failed to ensure that language contained within millions of home insurance renewals communications was clear, fair and not misleading.

The fine related to communication sent to customers by four Lloyds brands: Lloyds Bank General Insurance (LBGI) Limited, St Andrew’s Insurance Plc, Lloyds Bank Insurance Services Limited and Halifax General Insurance Services Limited.

Between January 2009 and November 2017 Lloyds sent nearly nine million renewal communications to home insurance customers which included language to the effect that they were receiving a “competitive price” at renewal.

But Lloyds didn’t substantiate the “competitive price” language included in the renewal communications by taking steps to check that it was accurate. Policies were renewed in respect of approximately 87% of renewal communications containing this language.

The bank rewrote its renewal communications and began to remove “competitive price” wording from 2009 onwards, but the language remained in a substantial number of renewals communications throughout the period concerned.

The FCA says this caused a “risk of harm” for the majority of Lloyds’ home insurance customers who received the communication, because it was likely that the premium quoted to them at renewal would have increased when compared to their prior premium.

Renewal premiums offered to customers would also likely have been higher than the premium quoted to new customers, or customers that chose to switch insurance provider. This was particularly likely to be the case for customers who renewed repeatedly.

Separately, Lloyds informed about half a million customers that they would receive a discount based on either their “loyalty”, on the fact they were a “valued customer” – but the described discount was not applied and was never intended to apply.

This affected about 1.2 million renewals, with approximately 1.5 million communications sent by LGBI. The erroneous discount language was only identified and rectified by Lloyds during the course of the FCA’s investigation.

Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Firms must ensure their communications with customers are clear, fair and not misleading. LBGI failed to ensure that this was the case. Millions of customers ended up receiving renewal letters that claimed customers were being quoted a competitive price which was unsubstantiated and risked serious consumer harm.”

The watchdog has not established whether individual customer behaviour would have been different had the communications in this case been clear, fair and not misleading.

The FCA hasn’t forced Lloyds to refund or compensate affected customers, but the bank has voluntarily made payments of about £13.5m to customers who received communications that erroneously referred to the application of a discount when none was applied. This has been taken into account in the assessment of the financial penalty.

Under the FCA’s new rules, which come into effect on 1 January 2022, insurers will be required to offer renewing customers a price that is no higher than they would pay as a new customer. The FCA estimates that these measures will save consumers £4.2bn over 10 years, by removing the ‘loyalty penalty’ and making the market work better.

Israel destroys West Bank home of detained US citizen

Israeli forces have demolished the family home of Palestinian-American Montaser Shalabi
July 9, 2021 

Israeli forces have demolished the family home of Palestinian-American Montaser Shalabi, who was accused of being involved in a shooting that killed one Israeli and injured two others. Shalabi was indicted in an Israeli military court in the occupied West Bank in May when Israeli student Yehuda Guetta was shot dead.

A father of seven and estranged from his wife, Shalabi appealed in an Israeli court against the demolition, saying that he spent most of the year in the US and only came to the occupied West Bank for a visit every summer.

An Israeli human rights group also appealed against the razing of the Shalabi family home, stating Shalabi suffered from mental health issues and had been prescribed antipsychotic medication.

READ: Israel expels former Palestinian prisoners from occupied Jerusalem

The appeal was unsuccessful, and their two-storey home in Turmus'ayya was flattened by occupation forces in a controlled explosion yesterday.

Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Israel's use of demolitions as a form of collective punishment, illegal under international law.

Sanaa Shalabi, the accused Palestinian-American's wife, told Al Jazeera: "They want to demoralise us, but we are steadfast. This is the situation of the entire Palestinian people."

The US embassy released a statement following the demolition, calling on "all parties to refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution."

"This certainly includes the punitive demolition of Palestinian homes," a US embassy spokesperson told Al Jazeera.

As we stated numerous times, the home of an entire family should not be demolished for the actions of one individual.

 

‘Wasteful spending!’: Bipartisan committee approval of $3.3 billion in US security assistance to Israel slammed on Twitter

9 Jul, 2021 15:20

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Many United States taxpayers were far from pleased after the bipartisan US House Appropriations Committee approved a $3.3 billion security assistance package to Israel at a time when so many Americans are struggling.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) celebrated on Twitter Friday, following the approval last week, thanking both the Democrat and Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee.

AIPAC declared that the “critical aid helps ensure our ally has the resources needed to defend itself by itself in the world’s most dangerous region.”

Despite AIPAC’s enthusiasm, many Americans on social media were not happy to see their tax money being shipped off to a country with one of the highest GDPs in the world.

“As an American taxpayer I do not approve of this wasteful spending,” complained one person, while another commented, “Are they broke? It’s humiliating for them to even ask for or accept this money.”

Others questioned why the money would not be going toward Americans and joked that the US “must be currently running at a surplus if we have all this money to give away” – a reference to the nation’s $28.5 trillion debt, which is currently on track to reach as high as $89 trillion by 2029, according to the US Debt Clock website.

“There are millions of people who are homeless, unemployed, suffer from trauma and have a multitude of issues that need to be taken care of first,” another person wrote.

Israel is the second-highest receiver of US foreign aid, behind only Afghanistan.

The aid was approved last week as part of the 2022 State and Foreign Operations bill, which also condemned perceived “anti-Israel bias” at the United Nations – which has launched investigations into alleged Israeli war crimes – and expressed concern over international boycott movements of Israel.

AIPAC declared last week that “the committee’s appropriation, with no added political conditions, reflects the strong bipartisan commitment for Israel’s security in Congress.”

Bangladesh: Rising sea levels force women into sex work

Sky News has spoken to Pervin who left her home due to rising water levels and thought she would be working in a garment factory but she ended up being brought to a brothel and sold aged 15.


By Katerina Vittozzi, Sky correspondent, Bangladesh
Friday 9 July 2021 
Bangladesh

Bangladesh: Rising sea levels force women into sex work | Climate News | Sky News
Play Video - How climate change fuelled this brothel


Climate change reporting isn't normally like this.

When you write about rising sea levels and intensifying cyclones, you don't expect to end up in a brothel, talking about human trafficking.

You don't think you'd hear a story about a graveyard for sex workers getting washed away.

Image:The strip of land that Banishanta is built on is disappearing.

Or end up visiting a place with so little hope.

But after six weeks of working on Bangladesh's climate emergency, this is where our reporting has led us: to Banishanta, a shoreline brothel, on the southwest coast.

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Here, women are called "girls" and houses are places of work, not rest.


And it's where we meet Pervin.

She's diminutive, her face wrapped in a light pink scarf, but as she leads us along the shoreline to her hut, she calls out to various neighbours in a surprisingly loud, bassy voice that there are foreigners here who want to speak.

She laughs at their shouted replies, audible from the interior of the tightly-packed shacks.

We sit on a small wooden bench, next to the water's edge, and there Pervin tells us about where she came from, and how her family home and farm were destroyed by a combination of rising sea levels, river erosion and cyclones.

She was 15 and says the family needed money.

Then, one day, a woman came to them and said, if Pervin went with her, she would get her a job in a garment factory.

The story seemed plausible and the family readily agreed.

But instead of finding Pervin factory work, the woman brought her to Banishanta brothel and sold her.

Image:Pervin was brought to the brothel and sold aged 15

"I was young, I didn't know what to do," she says, "so I just stayed here".

"She abandoned me and I stayed."

Banishanta is one of Bangladesh's oldest brothels, drawing customers from the nearby Mongla port.

Even though sex work is legal, sex workers - and any children - are hugely stigmatised in mainstream culture.

Although Pervin was the victim, she says she felt she could not tell her family what happened.

To this day, her mother thinks she is married and working in a factory.

"I tell her I live with my in-laws," she says, pinching the bridge of her nose as if admitting this to us is giving her a headache, "I don't tell her about this. She doesn't know."

Many of the women have been trafficked and some have been exploited because the impact of climate change on their lives has left them vulnerable

There are around 100 women working in Banishanta brothel.

Many have been trafficked and some, like Pervin, have been exploited because the impact of climate change on their lives and livelihoods have left them vulnerable.

They are sold into a precarious, dangerous life that few will ever escape.

There are women here in their seventies, no longer working, but with nowhere else to go.

Oddly, the wide-range of ages, from the very young to the old, does create a sense of community.

There are children running around, in and out of the shacks, playing, laughing and getting in the way of their mothers who, during the day, are cooking food and washing clothes.


Rising sea levels threaten 'the hanging village' of Bangladesh

We see one group of women playing a board game.

Another fishes for shrimp at the water's edge.

But even this tiny shred of stability is being eroded.

The strip of land that Banishanta is built on is disappearing.

Rising sea levels and regular flooding are chipping away at the brothel's banks.

At some points, at high tide, the land is under 10 metres wide.

The women tells us their homes frequently flood, even from a small storm.

They are forced to spend the money they earn on repairs and many have fallen into debt trying to keep their homes - without which they can't work, of course - upright.

We go and meet the brothel's chief madam, Razia Begum, who tells us they are stuck.

Banishanta is one of Bangladesh's oldest brothels, drawing customers from the nearby Mongla port

The sex workers can't rebuild their homes any further inland, because that would mean they would cross the boundary into the nearby village, where they are not welcome.

"This land is disappearing and that's a risk to us and our children," she says, "but we earn better money here because of the port and passing boats."

"If we move, we lose clients and what then?" she asks.

It's an impossible question, because if there is any way out of this place, money is it.

Rina was sold into sex work when she was 10.

She now has an eight-month-old baby son, called Chandon.

Image:Rising sea levels and regular flooding are chipping away at the brothel's banks

When we first meet he's full of smiles and drool but as we talk it starts to rain and the cool breeze seems to make him sleepy.

Rina carries him into her shack, popping him on her black satin bed-spread with a little blanket over him, whilst we speak.

She tells me she hopes one day they can leave here but knows it will take an enormous effort and money.

She also know there is little dignity for those that stay.

"When girls die here, they only get covered with earth," she says, "we don't get a religious burial".

"There was a graveyard here but even that got washed away."

She shrugs, "you just have to hope and work hard".

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52 Killed in Fire at Bangladesh Food Factory

By Associated Press
Updated July 09, 2021 

Firefighters try to extinguish a massive fire that broke out in a beverage and food factory in Narayanganj, central Bangladesh on July 9, 2021. (Photo by Munir Uz zaman / AFP)

DHAKA, BANGLADESH - At least 52 people were killed, 20 injured and many more feared trapped after a massive fire raged through a juice-making factory in Bangladesh, officials said Friday, the latest industrial fire accident in the country.

The fire started on Thursday evening at the ground floor of a six-story factory building in the Narayanganj district, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka, run by the private firm Hashem Food and Beverage, which is a unit of Bangladesh's multinational Sajeeb Group. The factory makes mango fruit drinks under the Shezan brand.

"Three people died from jumping off the building to escape the fire and 49 charred bodies have been recovered so far," Mustain Billah, the administrator for the Narayanganj district, told Reuters by phone from the scene.

"It is still burning on the top floor. Firefighters are struggling to control it, as chemicals and flammable materials were stored inside the building."

He said that the cause of the fire is not yet known. "Plastics and flammable substances and chemicals all made it hard to douse the fire," said Abdullah Al Arefin, a district fire service official, adding the severe heat from the fire caused cracks in the building.

Al Arefin said each floor in the building is about 35,000 square feet (3,250 square meters) but they were only accessible by two stairways and that many workers could not get out as the fire spread to the stairs.

One of the doors leading from the stairs to the roof were locked, he said.

"We rescued 25 people after setting a ladder to the rooftop. We could have saved more if others could reach the rooftop,” said Debashish Bardhan, deputy director of the national fire service.
Firefighters try to extinguish a massive fire that broke out in a beverage and food factory in Narayanganj, central Bangladesh on July 9, 2021. (Photo by Munir Uz zaman / AFP)

Where is my son?

Many workers were injured in trying to jump off the building's second and third floors to escape, said Shah Alam, another district fire service official.

Officials at Hashem Foods and Sajeeb Group did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

As relatives of the missing staged protests around the factory site, a mother searching for her son, Nazma Begum, cried out, "There is no justice! Where is my son?"

Narayanganj in central Bangladesh is packed with factories making everything from jute to textiles.

Disasters because of poor fire and building safety standards are common in Bangladesh, largely in the textiles sector that employs millions and contributes the most to its economy.

Industry officials promised better safety standards after the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in 2012 in Dhaka that killed more than 1,000 workers and injured hundreds. But many factories inside and outside the textiles sector still fall short, leading to accidents each year.

The Narayanganj district administration has formed a five-member probe committee to examine the incident, Al Arefin said.

Turn off the blue light!

Researchers from University of Tsukuba in collaboration with Yamagata University scientists find that exposure to light with less blue before sleep is better for energy metabolism

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Research News

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS FROM UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA HAVE FOUND THAT EXPOSURE TO SPECIFIC TYPES OF LIGHT BEFORE SLEEP CAN HAVE VARIABLE EFFECTS ON ENERGY METABOLISM DURING SLEEP. SPECIFICALLY, PARTICIPANTS WHO WENT TO... view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Tsukuba, Japan - Extended exposure to light during nighttime can have negative consequences for human health. But now, researchers from Japan have identified a new type of light with reduced consequences for physiological changes during sleep.

In a study published in June 2021 in Scientific Reports, researchers from University of Tsukuba compared the effects of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which have been widely adopted for their energy-saving properties, with organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) on physical processes that occur during sleep.

Polychromatic white LEDs emit a large amount of blue light, which has been linked with many negative health effects, including metabolic health. In contrast, OLEDs emit polychromatic white light that contains less blue light. However, the impact of LED and OLED exposure at night has not been compared in terms of changes in energy metabolism during sleep, something the researchers at University of Tsukuba aimed to address.

"Energy metabolism is an important physiological process that is altered by light exposure," says senior author of the study Professor Kumpei Tokuyama. "We hypothesized that compared with LEDs, OLED exposure would have a reduced effect on sleep architecture and energy metabolism, similar to that of dim light."

To test this hypothesis, the researchers exposed 10 male participants to LED, OLED, or dim light for 4 hours before they slept in a metabolic chamber. The researchers then measured energy expenditure, core body temperature, fat oxidation, and 6-sulfatoxymelatonin--which is a measure of melatonin levels--during sleep. The participants had not recently traveled or participated in shift work.

"The results confirmed part of our hypothesis," explains Professor Tokuyama. "Although no effect on sleep architecture was observed, energy expenditure and core body temperature during sleep were significantly decreased after OLED exposure. Furthermore, fat oxidation during sleep was significantly lower after exposure to LED compared with OLED."

In addition, fat oxidation during sleep was positively correlated with 6-sulfatoxymelatonin levels following exposure to OLED, suggesting that the effect of melatonin activity on energy metabolism varies depending on the type of light exposure.

"Thus, light exposure at night is related to fat oxidation and body temperature during sleep. Our findings suggest that specific types of light exposure may influence weight gain, along with other physiological changes," says Professor Tokuyama.

Many occupations and activities involve exposure to artificial light before sleep. New information about the effects of different kinds of light on physical processes may facilitate the selection of alternative light sources to mitigate the negative consequences of light exposure at night. Furthermore, these findings advance our knowledge regarding the role of light in energy metabolism during sleep.

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The article, "Metabolic responses to polychromatic LED and OLED light at night" was published in Scientific Reports at DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-91828-6

The work was supported financially by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (KAKENHI grant no. JP 20H04120) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency's Centre for Innovation (grant no. JPMJCE1312). The authors declare no competing interests.

Summary:

Researchers from University of Tsukuba have found that exposure to specific types of light before sleep can have variable effects on energy metabolism during sleep. Specifically, participants who went to sleep after exposure to organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), which emit polychromatic white light that contains less blue light than light-emitting diodes (LEDs), exhibited significantly decreased energy expenditure, core body temperature, and increased fat oxidation, indicating fewer negative health consequences compared with after nighttime exposure to LEDs. Thus, OLEDs may be a worthwhile alternative to LED lighting, especially for exposure at night.

 

Recess quality influences student behavior, social-emotional development, OSU study finds

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: KIDS AND ADULT PLAY FOUR-SQUARE ON PLAYGROUND BLACKTOP view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

Recess quality, not just the amount of time spent away from the classroom, plays a major role in whether children experience the full physical, mental and social-emotional benefits of recess, a new study from Oregon State University found.

"Not all recess is created equal," said William Massey, study author and an assistant professor in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences. With schools returning to full-time in-person classes this fall, he said, "Now is a good time to rethink, 'How do we create schools that are more child-friendly?' I think ensuring quality access to play time and space during the school day is a way we can do that."

Massey's study, published this week in the Journal of School Health, involved in-person observation of third- and fifth-grade students at 25 schools across five states during the 2018-19 school year. The schools covered a wide range of socioeconomic status and racial and ethnic diversity.

Researchers measured recess quality on a number of factors, including whether the schoolyard offered physical and environmental safety; whether kids had opportunities to play and had the requisite space and equipment; whether there were opportunities for inclusion; and if they had diverse options for play.

A safe space with basic playground equipment might seem like a given, but that's not always the case, Massey said.

"I've been on playgrounds where the kids go outside, and it's a parking lot with high fences, no play structure, no balls, no jump-ropes, no chalk -- they're literally outside, and there's nothing to do," he said. He has also seen large holes from construction, broken glass, used condoms and needles in play spaces.

Researchers also looked at student behavior and the occurrence of verbal and physical conflict, as well as conflict resolution; and watched what adults on the playground were doing.

"A lot of my previous research shows that adults are one of the most important entities on the playground," Massey said. "One of the most important things is: Do adults model and encourage positive interactions with the students, and do they actually engage with the students themselves? The more adults engage with and play with students at recess, the more kids play, the more physical activity there is and the less conflict there is."

Schools that ranked highly on these measures saw associated positive outcomes in classroom behavior and socio-emotional markers. There was significant correlation between high-quality recess and higher scores in student resilience, self-control, adaptive classroom behaviors and executive function, Massey said.

Based on these findings and his previous research on recess, Massey argues that schools should look at recess as a critical part of the school day -- which means investing adequate time and resources into it.

Schools don't need expensive play structures to accomplish that, he said. Simple, low-cost measures like having an adult do a safety sweep of the playground every morning, or making sure the soccer field is already set up so kids can maximize even 10- or 15-minute recess breaks, would make a big difference.

As schools emerge from the pandemic, Massey said there's a chance for teachers to recognize the importance of kids' social and emotional development and need for play, but some may also think they need to cram all the missed content from the last year into as short a time as possible.

"I would argue that's a huge mistake. Kids don't have the capacity to come in stressed and traumatized and out of the rhythm of school, and have all that dumped on them," he said. "These findings show that recess is not detrimental to what we want to see in the classroom, but rather, it's complementary."

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 ALL TEACHERS EVERYWHERE DO

Estonian teachers have a strong belief in students' creativity

ESTONIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

Research News

 

IMAGE: STANISLAV NEMERZHITSKI. view more 

CREDIT: TLÜ

The doctoral thesis focused on creativity in the school environment and studied how students and teachers perceive and experience creativity. A broader framework for studying creativity in the school environment, including cultural factors in the manifestation of creativity, means that the potential for creativity and support in every school or classroom should be considered in a cultural context, which includes, in addition to the culture and climate of the school itself, the wider aspects of the society and cultural space, for example, a tendency towards individualism or collectivism. In addition to taking students' understandings of creativity and its expression into consideration, it is important to understand their motivation to create novelty. From the teachers' side, in addition to the more specific teaching methods which are directed at highlighting creativity, it is important to understand the level of teachers' creative self-efficacy and their understanding of creativity. In other words, by contrasting how teachers and students understand the concept of creativity, we can examine which specific activities and methods are effective for supporting creativity.

Research found that students perceive creativity through four categories: new ideas, uniqueness, self-expression and freedom/autonomy. The most important school climate factors that encourage creativity in students are teachers' support, relationships between students, an open school climate and the freedom to be themselves. All of these factors affect students' internal motivation or the desire to engage in something out of interest and curiosity. Furthermore, the main motivator for Estonian students is the difficulty of the assignment; for Russian students, the most important motivator is studying out of curiosity. There is also an external motivation for Estonian students, to some extent - having their achievements recognised by others makes them engage in more activities and in novel ways.

From the teachers' standpoint, it is important to see students' creative potential; Estonian teachers generally have a strong belief in their students' creative potential. Meanwhile, creative self-efficacy or belief in their own creative abilities among teachers still needs a great deal of strengthening and invigorating. "Many teachers don't believe that they can recognise and support creativity, so in all likelihood they probably won't. Another thing to bear in mind is that motivation is different for everybody. Researchers of creativity have reached the understanding that external motivation, for example, grades, awards, money, is generally inhibitory from the standpoint of creativity - to get a good grade, I will finish my assignment using the tried, true and therefore not novel method. However, this type of factor shouldn't be excluded entirely. First, external 'poking' makes some people act more creatively, and second, if the external motivation is connected to my interests, then that might actually increase the desire to generate new ideas. For example, the parent promises to buy the child a new microscope for good grades, which seems to be an external influencer, but it coincides with the child's interest in biology. In this case, the external motivator will make them make a bigger effort," adds Nemerzhitski.

A number of research findings are worth highlighting according to Stanislav Nemerzhitski. First, when studying students, he compared Estonian students, in schools that used both Estonian and Russian as a medium of instruction, and Russian students, which has not been done before. Second, the research contrasted students' and teachers' viewpoints and placed them in one system. Previous research has focused on the views of either one group or the other. Nemerzhitski's thesis, however, tries to place these two important groups into one research framework.

The research found the difference in defining creativity - for Estonian students, it is mainly related to an element of self-expression and freedom; for Russian students, to novel ideas and uniqueness. "Although very big conclusions can't be drawn from my research and the sample of Russian students, it gives a good idea as to what the thoughts were. Students' understandings and opinions on creativity in Estonian schools that use Russian as a medium of instruction are more similar to those of Russian students," the doctoral student adds. Another difference is, as mentioned previously, the motivation for creative activity - for Estonian students, it is the difficulty of the assignment or the challenge of solving an assignment; for Russian students, it is the curiosity the assignment creates. Somewhat expectedly, Estonian students are significantly more individualistic, valuing autonomy more highly than Russian students, for whom qualities such as national and familial collectivism are more important. These cultural differences help us understand how young people and teachers with different backgrounds approach encouraging and supporting creativity.

The supervisors of the doctoral thesis are Associate Professor Eda Heinla from Tallinn University and Associate Professor Eva Hoff from Lund University. The opponents are Professor Maciej Karwowski from the University of Wroclaw and Professor Erika Löfström from the University of Helsinki.

The doctoral thesis is available in the ETERA digital environment of the Tallinn University Academic Library.

https://www.etera.ee/zoom/138747/view?page=1&p=separate&search=Anna-Maria%20Rebane&tool=search&view=0,0,2067,2835

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View of Estonian artists on the Soviet political-aesthetic project was ironic and playful

ESTONIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

Research News

 

IMAGE: PHOTO OF LIISA KALJULA BY TÕNU TUNNEL view more 

CREDIT: TÕNU TUNNEL

Estonian historians have generally viewed the Soviet Union as a regressive and anachronistic country. The picture of the Soviet project that emerges through the eyes of late Soviet Estonian artists is modern in its own terms. The Soviet Postcolonial studies, which is becoming more popular in Estonia, recognises that the Soviet state was modern by nature; in most cases, however, modernity brings about colonialism. In the doctoral thesis, this view is supported by the tension between societal Soviet modernity and cultural postmodernity in the late Soviet era.

In her monographic thesis, doctoral student Liisa Kaljula studied how the Soviet Union governed using visual culture, on the one hand, and on the other, how Estonian artists treated the Soviet political-aesthetic project in the late Soviet era. "Using contemporary vocabulary, it could also be said that I discovered the emergence of Soviet visual culture memes in late Soviet Estonian art, as Estonian artists' take on the Soviet political-aesthetic project were of course ironic and playful," adds Kaljula.

Research found that Estonian artists saw the Soviet political-aesthetic project as a grandiose visual-cultural spectacle, but it was increasingly difficult to take this spectacle seriously in the late Soviet era. "To the artist Andres Tolts," comments the doctoral student, "the Soviet Union seemed like an empire of kitsch; a society where the same visual-cultural clichés circulated for decades with the help of modern reproduction techniques. From the floral chintz working gowns, to which all Soviet women could inevitably relate to, to the mass-printed Socialist Realist reproductions."

While Estonian art historians have thus far described art that appropriates visual culture with the Anglo-American term of Pop Art, Kaljula describes it with the Eastern-European term of Sots Art. Sots Art is a regional term that is significantly less known globally, but Kaljula found that the term is more accurate for characterising works that appropriate Soviet visual culture. "By relinquishing the use of the dominant Western art term and using a regional term, we can describe Estonian art in the Soviet period in a significantly more accurate way."

The supervisors of the doctoral thesis are Senior Researcher Mari Laanemets from the Estonian Academy of Arts and Associate Professor Tiina Ann Kirss from the University of Tartu. The opponents are Linda Kaljundi, Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Senior Researcher at Tallinn University, and Professor and Senior Researcher Andres Kurg from the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The doctoral thesis is available in the ETERA digital environment of the Tallinn University Academic Library. https://www.etera.ee/zoom/138746/view?page=1&p=separate

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The fracking boom helps to raise crime rates in rural American states

This is the conclusion reached by economists who analyzed data from 1999 to 2015

URAL FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

Research News 

The shale boom (mining of shale oil and gas) has contributed to an increase of crime rates in US states where 50-60% of the population lives in rural areas. That is West Virginia, North Dakota, and Arkansas. Especially the number of violent crimes has increased. This is the conclusion reached by economists from Ural Federal University (UrFU, Russia) and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (USA). The research results are published in The Extractive Industries and Society.

The researchers studied utilizes panel data from various sources and comprised all US states from 1999 to 2015. They compared the performance before and after 2007, when the shale boom occurred. Researchers made the dependent variable retrieved from the data of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's website, from the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research data, Annual State-Level Measures of Human Capital Attainment database, Measures of Income Inequality database, State-level employment database.

"The analysis showed that the fracking boom states have lower unemployment rates on average," says Kazi Sohag, research co-author, assistant professor at UrFU. "We suggest the consequence of this was a decrease in the number of crimes against families and children, as well as a decrease in the number of vagrants. However, these states are poorer, with fewer educated people, a smaller share of the private sector, and a high public sector share. Over the years of the shale boom, burglaries have increased there, and the rate of violent crime has increased by about 36%. Because of this, each state had to spend $ 15.67 million additional victimization cost per year."

The rate of violent crime could have risen for several reasons, the researchers presume. First, fracking involves the creation of low-skilled temporary jobs. Basically, such work involves men who come to earn money for some time. Inequality in the number of men and women can, on the one hand, provoke certain types of crimes against women, and on the other hand, it encourages the development of a business associated with bars, prostitution, and drugs, the authors of the article note.

"The shale boom is also associated with increased income inequality: local royalty income is concentrated among a small segment of the local population," said Kazi Sohag. "Other residents do not benefit or are economically worse off. Inequality provides a rational incentive to commit a crime."

Third, residents in fracking states are disproportionately affected by disamenities like pollution, noise, water quality, and heavy traffic. This leads to tensions between local residents and temporary workers and, as a result, causes an increase in violent crime. All this is an additional burden on local authorities and law enforcement agencies.

To solve the problem, researchers advise several tools: to make the shale industry more technological and reduce human capital in it, to strengthen the work of law enforcement officials.

"Since local royalty income is concentrated among a small segment, the distribution of income and wealth should be improved. It will help improve the well-being of residents through optimal tax policies," said Kazi Sohag. "In addition, the damage that shale mining does to the environment should be reduced. This will reduce the number of negative factors affecting the lives of state residents."

The authors caution that it is premature to generalize the results of the study to other countries. Consideration should be given to the political, cultural, and other characteristics of each country.

"Our future studies can focus on more countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Norway. It will help to generalize the findings considering the spillover or spatial dependency of crimes," said Kazi Sohag.

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