The Use Of Ergonomics Health And Social Care Essay

The Use Of Ergonomics Health And Social Care Essay The practice of safety in workplace has seen incredible advances as time has gone, due to advancement in technology, although there is still considerable amount of challenges that comes in form of injuries and illnesses (Hopwood and Thompson, 2006). This is where ergonomics comes to play a role in making the workplace safe for activities that would be carried out by the employee. Ergonomics draws on many disciplines in its study of humans and their environments, including anthropometry, biomechanics, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, industrial design, kinesiology, physiology and psychology (Wikipedia, 2010). Unsafe, unhealthy, uncomfortable or inefficient situations at work or in everyday life are avoided by taking account of the physical and physiological capabilities and limitations of humans (Dul and Weerdmeester, 1993). Human health and safety is at optimum range when the workplace environmental parameters are suitable for the employee (Story, 2010). Each year, poorly designed products and workplaces account for thousands of injuries and skyrocketing costs. That is why ergonomics the human factor in product and workplace design is fast becoming a major concern of manufacturers (Gross, 1995). This report is about how is about applying and proper training on the use of ergonomics to everyday workplace can prevent life threatening illnesses, discomfort, accidents, and how employers can save money by reducing costs related to issues like workers compensation, absenteeism and turn over, as it makes operations more efficient by creating work place designs with fewer errors and improve on workplace user friendliness (MacLeod, 1995), with the goal of reducing musculoskeletal discomfort, increase work productivity, efficiency and comfort, as an employee who is more comfortable is more productive (Meriano and Latella, 2008). 1.1 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The aim of this report is to know what ergonomics is all about and how it can be incorporated into the health and safety sector. The objectives of this report are; Reduce risks factors associated with poorly designed work stations and, To design a workplace that is suitable for the human body rather than the human body adapting to workplace. To be able to identify, measure, control and monitor the occupational health hazards/agents in the workplace which may cause ill-health to employees. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 WHAT IS ERGONOMICS? Ergonomics is the science of fitting workplace conditions and job demands to the capabilities of the working population, it tends to look into work related problems that poses a risk of musculoskeletal disorders and ways of alleviating them (Cohen et al, 1997). It is also the applied science that is devoted to provide comfort, efficiency and safety into the design of items in the work place (Shelly and Vermaat, 2010), ergonomic intervention can benefit both employer and employee (Meriano and Latella, 2008). The International Ergonomics Association defines ergonomics as follows: Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. A large number of factors play a role in ergonomics; these include body posture and movement, environmental factors, information and operation as well as work organization. Ergonomics differs from other fields by its interdisciplinary approach and applied nature (Dul and Weerdmeester, 1993). The benefits of ergonomics include job satisfaction and enhanced worker motivation, added problem-solving capabilities, and greater acceptance of change. Involving staffs can help to identify job hazards, suggest ways to control these hazards and working with management in deciding how to put this control in place. 2.2 WHO IS AN ERGONOMIST? An Ergonomist is one who has adequate knowledge of the relation between humans health and humans performance (Schlick, 2009) taking into consideration the job, equipment used and information used (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergonomics). According to Dul and Weerdmeester, 1993, the professional ergonomists can work for the authorities (legislation), training institutions (universities and colleges), research establishments, the service industry (consultancy) and production sector (occupational health services, personnel departments, design departments, research departments, etc.), they also wrote that the ergonomist highlights the areas where ergonomic knowledge is essential, provides ergonomic guidelines and advises designers, purchasers, management and employees, on which are more acceptable systems. 2.3 HISTORY OF ERGONOMICS: Science of Ergonomics dates back to 1717, when Bernadino Ramazzini, father of occupational medicine, speculated on factors within the work environment that contributed to his patients illnesses, he described violent and irregular motions, bent posture and tonic strain on the muscle as factors that contributed to musculoskeletal pains in his patients (Meriano and Latella, 2008). However, in the United Kingdom, ergonomics started in 1917 in World War I when the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Medical Research Council were asked to investigate industrial conditions, particularly of munitions workers, this led to the establishment of Industrial Fatigue Research Board who performed research on above topic in 1929 because of the expanded scope of work (hours of work, training, accidents, lighting and ventilation, and design of the machinery. In 1949, the Ergonomics Research Society was established at a meeting held by a small group of research workers at the Admiralty; this made the society the earliest to be formed in the world (Meister, 1999). 2.4 LEGAL CONTROL OF ERGONOMICS: The law serves as a vital function in complex social setting as it provides standards or guidelines that define unacceptable and acceptable human behaviour. A breach in this law can be considered violation of the law and the transgressor could face civil or criminal penalties the legal system of every governmental jurisdiction and at every level of organised society must constantly adapt to changing demands, so there has and will be a continuing effusion of controlling laws. It is for this reason that the legal system is based on concepts of human faults. Liability prevention or mitigation is the avoidance of fault by investigation, analysis, evaluation, risk assessment, corrective action, and preventive remedies. The probability of a scientist or engineer having contact with law is high, it is wise to become familiar with the area of entanglement (Marras and Karwowski, 2006), as there are a myriad of roles that can be played in state or federal common law actions, workers compensati on cases, allegations of statutory violations, arbitrations or mediations, government agency hearings, or citations involving Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Vinal, 1999). According to Health and Safety at Work (HASAW) Act 1974, which is legislation, it states that; it is the duty of the employer to carry out a risk assessment in the work place. Failure to this is regarded as a breach in the law and has its consequences. 2.5 METHODS OF UNDERTAKING ERGONOMIC ASSESSMENT The fundamental goal of human-centred engineering is to match human characteristics such as body size, strengths and weaknesses, and capabilities and preferences with the relevant attributes of equipment, tasks, and procedure (Kroemer, 2006). The different methods used in the assessment of ergonomics include; I Physical methods II Psycho physiological methods III Behavioural and Cognitive Methods IV Team methods V Environmental methods VI Macroergonomics methods (Stanton et al., 2005) All these methods make use of the following techniques listed below; Measurement teams Anthropometric techniques Assessing energetic capabilities Assessing muscle strength Assessing mental workload Assessing vision capabilities Systematic gathering of information The ideal field assessment tools used should possess the following attributes; Predictive: the tool should provide predictive measure of risk of musculoskeletal injury, Robust: can be used in any work situation, Inexpensive: tool can be available at minimal monetary cost, Non-invasive: should not affect when worker performs or process work flow, Quick: assessment could be performed quickly, Easy to use: tool could be used with minimal training, (Marras and Karwowski, 2006). 3.0 METHODOLOGY 3.1 INTEGRATED ERGONOMICS ASSESSMENT FOR THE WORK STATION For the purpose of this assessment to be done, several protocols would have to be met. The first thing that would be done is to get a work station that can be used to carry out an ergonomics assessment, and the Help Desk in the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) has been selected. A proposed meeting was set up with the Manager of the LRC to get permission to carry out the assessment, the manager approved of this and forwarded necessary messages to the supervisors in the LRC who helped in completing the task. A confidentiality questionnaire was handed to one of the supervisors, which was filled and returned and would be used as a point of reference in the results. Using anthropometric method of ergonomic risk assessment, measurement of the work station would be taken using a measuring tape and pictures snapped for further evidence of the work station for ergonomics assessment. Ergonomics assessment on the work station would be done on the basis of the task carried out. The task carried ou t in the Help Desk in the LRC involves helping students use the computer systems to locate books in the library and helping to arrange books in shelves. For this reason, there is the need to alternate between sitting down and standing. Below is a chart that shows a plan on how the work would be carried out. Observation Hazard Identification Ergonomics Assessment Evaluation Risk Validation Control and monitor Review Chart 1: Flow Plan on the methodology of the ergonomic assessment. 4.0 RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATION The particular work station selected for this ergonomics was carefully observed for the different task carried out to see if there is any problem associated with the work place. Anthropometric technique was used to carry out this work by getting measurements of the work place. 4.1 OBSERVATION: The help desk offered assistance in carrying out this work after permission was granted by the Manager of the LRC. Looking carefully at the way work was done and asking questions from the staff being monitored were put into consideration, also photographs were taken to also get a clear picture of how the employee carries out the task. Fig 1: A Staff carrying out her duties on a Visual Display Unit. 4.2 HAZARD IDENTIFICATION: hazard identification was obtained mainly by asking questions from the employee on the work station, making use of a questionnaire and viewing the work station for possible activities that may cause health disorder(s) and affect the employee. Health and Safety at Work (HASAW) Act 1974 demands that the employer should make sure that employers carry out a risk assessment in the work environment to ensure safety of staffs. See result in table 1 below. Table 1: Hazard Identification on the help desk. Hazard Hazard aspect Impact/ Effect Posture Stooped posture (resulting from fatigue and long hours of working) Stiffness of the back, neck, and wrist from working too long on the Visual Display Unit Variety of health problems, like caved shoulders, muscular imbalances, rounding of the upper back and a tendency to lean forward while walking. Incidence of lower back disorders. Movement Twisting of the waist, neck, stretching the hand and holding in that position for a long time (straining muscles in the hand) Pain and strain on neck muscles and waist. Stress on muscles of the arms while stretching causes fatigue of the arm muscle. Visual Display Unit (VDU), keyboard and mouse. Fixed position of the neck when staring at the VDU, and stress on fingers from too much typing, twisting and flexing of the wrist when handling the mouse. Makes the employee aware of some eye defects that he/she was not aware of. Straining of the arms to reach the mouse and twisting of the wrist to get to the keyboard and grabbing the mouse. 4.3 ERGONOMIC ASSESSMENT: Ergonomics assessment on the work station showed that the design of the station has a moderate score as it accommodates the employee and has a low risk level. Below is a table of the total ergonomic risk factor and how it was derived. Table 2: Ergonomic Work Position Evaluation. Assessed by: Igho Date:14/12/2010 Ergonomic Evaluation Risk Factor Static Points Comments/Action Work Positions (Sitting) 0 pts 2 pts 4 pts √ if 20 secs + X 3 if static Neck (Flexion) bending head forward √ √ 6 Moderate Shoulders (Raising elbows) √ √ 6 Moderate Wrists/Hands √ √ 6 Moderate Back (flexion) bending forward at the hips √ √ 12 High Hiking Shoulders √ √ 0 Low Twisting (incorrectly with feet stationary) √ √ 0 Low Table 3: Task factor Evaluation Task Factors Points Awarded Muscle force Low √ Moderate High 0 Vibration Low √ Moderate High 0 Lighting Good √ Fair Poor 0 Workplace Temperature Comfortable √ Warm/Cool Hot/Cold 0 Table 4: Risk Factor total on the work station. Risk Factor total Risk Factor Points Total Comments/Action 0 pts 2 pts 4pts Work Positions 0 7 8 15 16 pts+ = 4 High (8-12) Task factors 0 8 9 15 16 pts+ = 0 = 4 Moderate (4 7) Lifting 0 7 8 13 14 pts+ = 0 Low (0 3) Table 5: Key Descriptor Scale Descriptor Consequence Control 0-3 LOW Little or no complaints of muscle aches and pains Taking of short time breaks 4-7 MODERATE Stress and fatigue on muscles which is tolerable Selection of an employee to monitor how tasks are being carried out 8-12 HIGH Work Musculoskeletal disorder, static load on muscles leads to painful fatigue on muscles Reduction of work that can cause musculoskeletal disorder and training of staffs to become more aware of ergonomic risk factors related to musculoskeletal disorders. Below is a sketch on the work station used in the LRC, measured in cm. 48cm 24cm 96cm 48cm 72cm Floor Fig 1: Sketch and measurement of the work station. The sketch above can be compared to the British standard dimension to know if the measured work station meets up with the standard. Table 6: Work place measurement compared with British Standard Dimension Measured Work Station British Standard Dimension (5th 95th Percentile (mixed Population 19 65 yrs) Popliteal height 48cm 44cm Thigh Clearance 23cm Table Height (Popliteal height + Sitting Elbow height) 72cm 68.5cm Sitting Shoulder Height Position 57cm 59cm Back rest 48cm RISK VALIDATION Based on the production of a well ergonomically equipped work station, a good control and review of the work station, and everything put in order, information and training of employees there may still be a problem that can pose as a threat to the work place. This can be seen in workers habit; sitting forward on the chair, sitting in the middle of the chair, leaning on arm rest and back rest, arms resting on the table are some examples of employees habit, and this can result in intervertebral disc injuries and back problems as the muscles of the back are easily stressed. CONTROL AND MONITORING To control occupational health and safety risks, improvement of performance and benefits in work places in order to eliminate or minimize risk to employees and other interested parties exposed to risks associated with its activities, it is necessary to implement, maintain and continually improve occupational health and safety in the work place. The following can be used to control and monitor on-going activities and tasks in the work place; Avoid Unnatural Posture: bending the trunk/head sideways is more harmful than bending forward The working area should be located so that it is at the best distance from the eyes of the operator. Hand grip, materials and tools should be arranged in such a way that the most frequent movements are carried out with the elbows bent and near to the body. Manipulations can be made easier by using supports under the elbows, forearms or hands. Padded/soft warm materials that can be adjustable to suite people of different sizes. It is essential that the workplace should be suited to the body size and mobility of the operator/employee, since neutral/natural postures and movements are a necessary part of efficient work. Neck and head posture: head and neck should not be bent forward by more than thirty degrees when the trunk is erect, else fatigue and troubles may occur. 4.6 REVIEW Having seen that ergonomically, the work station is tolerable, and staffs have been informed on how to position themselves whilst working, there is need to review work practice every three months to ensure and enforce that the mode of working is still in place to avoid injuries that may have built up with time. 4.7 RECOMMENDATION After measuring the work station and comparing with the British standard measurement, it is recommended that the chair (adjustable) should be adjusted to fit the user so as to get the comfortability needed in order not to stress and strain muscles in the back and feet. The mouse and Visual display unit should be ergonomically put in place to the comfort of the operator, to reduce tension and strain to the eyes, hands and wrist ERGONOMICS POLICY AND CONCLUSION 5.1 ERGONOMICS POLICY: The purpose of this policy is to endeavour staffs to adhere to guidelines in the work place with the aim of ensuring a safe working environment as well as to bring health hazard to a minimum. It is the managements responsibility to carry out duties under the Health and Safety at work Act 1974 and other legislation including amendments to ensure safe working practices and work environment. For this reason, the help desk shall abide to the following guidelines; Ergonomics efforts shall be embedded, maintained and preserved on the help desk in Learning Resource Centre (LRC) to ensure a safe and healthy work place environment for employees. Cooperation of work force in making sure that ergonomic improvement is realised. (Joint effort of managers, supervisors, employees and other supporting staffs) Designation of post to a responsible employee to check that workers are well positioned, to prevent Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders in the work station. Training of staffs to be more aware of ergonomic risk factors related to Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders. Informing staffs about ergonomics and its risk factors can help to reduce cost of treatment of Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders, as the budgeted cost can be used as employees benefits. This policy would be implemented and reviewed three times a year to ensure that the health conditions of the employees are in order, to reduce money spent on treating employees for work related musculoskeletal disorders. This policy would be handed to each staff through information and trainings and in written form. 5.2 CONCLUSION After a thorough ergonomic examination of the help desk in the LRC, and assessing the working environment, proper ergonomics evaluation was done and control measures put in Place as well as a policy for the safety and health of the employees so as to reduce chances of the risk of having a staff complain about a work related musculoskeletal disorder. Control measures used after ergonomic assessment and risk validation was carried out is to help in reducing the chances of getting a work related musculoskeletal disorder and cost of treatment from injuries sustained (if any at all, considering the tolerable amount derived from the evaluation and chances of any injury sustained, this is as a result of proper training of the staffs).

Consolidation in Banking Essay

1.Introduction In our daily life , we can receive banking service from banks and branches whose headquarters may from different city, region or nation . This is because banking consolidation has improved banking expansion in the past decades. It is a fact that many banks regard consolidation as a strategy for their growth and development in new market . Consolidation usually consist of mergers and acquisitions. The former one means two independent companies combine as a new one ,the latter one means a bank has a controlling interest in other firms but they still remain independently. (Heffernan, 2005 ) The following part of the article will be divided in third parts. The first part will focus the reasons , trends and effects of consolidation in banking industry. The second part is mainly about the benefits and disadvantages of consolidations for the industry and society. The last part is evaluation about challenges consolidation bring to the regulators. 2.Consolidation in Banking Sector 2.1. Reasons for Consolidation in the Financial Sector There are lots of issues concerning about banking consolidation. The basic one is the motivation. Why banks want to mergers and acquisitions? DeYoung, Evanoff and Molyneux think the primary reason for banking consolidation is financial and technological innovations in the industry ( DeYoung, Evanoff and Molyneux,2009) . This is concerned to be a significant factor because after a wave of new technology, the structure in the industry will change since all banks make changes to fit to innovations. Thus many small banks struggle to survive or go bankruptcy after innovations, finally they decide to consolidation to get better development. To the larger banks, they are stronger in competition, they are willing to consolidate with those smaller banks to be more competitive in the market . However, Researches show that technologies spread to small banks rapidly because of third-party technology vendors and decreasing costing of technology delivery in recent years. (Frame and White ,2004; cited in DeYoung ,2007 ). Therefore this cannot be regard as an significant reason now. Some researchers argue that the better explanation for banking consolidation is the relationship paradigm between market power and profitability (market-power theory). (Shepherd ,1982 and Berger ,1995. Cited in Santillà ¡n-Salgado ,2005 ). They address that in banking industry, â€Å" firms with large market shares can reach the minimum economic scale of operations to develop a differentiated base of products which can be priced at a premium to obtain extraordinary profits(efficiency-structure hypothesis).† ( Santillà ¡n-Salgado ,2005, p85).Due to this reason, in order to earn more profits , banks want to increase market shares. Mergers and acquisitions are the most important way for corporate restructuring and enlarge corporate scale in new markets.

Global Citizenship †Towards a Definition

Global Citizenship – Towards a Definition Taso G. Lagos Copyright protected under Taso G. Lagos. Permission to cite should be directed to the author. Abstract: Global protest activity is on the rise. Demonstrations in Seattle in 1999, Genoa in 2001 and in dozens of other sites brought activists together from around the world and localized global issues in unprecedented ways. These and other activities suggest the possibility of an emerging global citizenry. Individuals from a wide variety of nations, both in the North and South, move across boundaries for different activities and reasons.This transnational activity is facilitated by the growing ease of travel and by communication fostered by the Internet and telephony. While it is hard to quantify these numbers, or to give global citizens a legally defined political status, these qualifications do not obviate the existence and influence of transnational activists seeking new institutional forms in an interdependent world. We e xamine global citizens as active political, social, environmental or economic agents in an interdependent world in which new institutional forms beyond nations are beginning to emerge.Introduction: By itself, citizenship has certain legal and democratic overtones. Conceptually, it is wrapped up in rights and obligations, and in owing allegiance to a sovereign state whose power is retained by the citizenry but with rights that are shared by all members of that state. We distinguish â€Å"citizen† from â€Å"national† or â€Å"subject,† the latter two implying protection of a state. Citizenship, as it has come down to us via the ancient Greeks and Romans, via the Enlightenment, and the American and French Revolutions, is tied into the emergence of members of a polity with specified privileges and duties.To speak of a â€Å"citizen† is thus to speak of individuals with distinct relationships to the state, along with the social status and power these relation ships imply. The lift the citizen concept into the global sphere presents difficulties, not least of which is that global citizens are not legal members in good standing with a sovereign state. More importantly, there are no recognizable privileges and duties associated with the concept that would envelop global citizenship with the status and power (in an ideal world) currently associated with national citizenship.Since modern nation-states are the repositories and main expression of citizenship, discussion of global citizenship necessarily dictates an existence outside the body politic as we know it. If we follow Preston’s (1997) model of citizenship (â€Å"who belongs to the polity, how the members of the polity in general are regarded and how they exercise power†), then global citizenship cannot be expressed in any legal sense. It is, however, expressed in other ways that may have a significant and profound impact on the development of civic engagement and citizen- state relations.Three examples are worth mentioning. Since January 1, 2000, negotiations amongst WTO member states regarding the movement of professionals to and from member countries has taken place, under the General Agreement on Trade in Services, Article XIX. While this does not signal de facto recognition of trans-national citizens, it may indicate halting steps toward it. This is all the more significant given that around the globe there is greater and easier movement of goods than human beings.The European Community has taken halting steps to change this: it allows the free movement of its peoples to live, work, pay taxes and, significantly, to vote in other member states. Habermas (1994) notes this as a utilitarian model that may have greater implications than merely for Europeans; it is possible the model may be expanded in other regions of the world, or to the entire world itself. The ability of a Spaniard to pick up and move to Germany and be a â€Å"citizen† there indicates that notions of ties a country of origin may weaken.The Spaniard may be quite happy living in Germany and not wish to go back to Spain. Is she still a Spaniard, a German, or now a global citizen? Finally, there is the rising tide of individuals with more than one passport. Where once the U. S. State Department frowned on its citizens carrying more than one passport, the reality is that today that it is turning a blind eye. (In war, this may change). Many immigrants to the U. S. in the 1990s, a decade that saw the largest influx of newcomers to the state, came to work but still retained their old passports.While many immigrants permanently stay in the U. S. , many others either go back to the old country, or travel back and forth. If not global citizens, what label do we give them? T. H. Marshall (1949), in his classic study on citizenship, noted that citizenship as it arose in Western liberal democracies has both positive and negative connotations. In the positive sense, citizenship is an expression of activism on the part of citizens; in its negative quality, it is the freedom from bureaucratic control and intervention.If his theory is true, where does global citizenship fit into it? Very nicely it would seem. A visible expression of global citizenship is the many global activists who debuted spectacularly at the Battle in Seattle. These protestors continue to carry on in other venues, such as at meetings for the World Bank and the IMF, and most recently at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. Other activists fight for environmental protection, human rights to the impoverished and the unrepresented, and for restrictions on the use of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.Freedom from bureaucratic intervention seems to be a hallmark of global citizenship; the lack of a world body to sanction and protect these citizens also means to a certain degree freedom from bureaucratic control. To return to our Spaniard, how much control does Spain exercise o ver her when she lives in Germany? Towards a Definition: Since global citizens are not recognized legally, their existence may be best represented as â€Å"associatively. † 1. Global citizenship is less defined by legal sanction than by â€Å"associational† status that is different from national citizenship.Since there is no global bureaucracy to give sanction and protect global citizens, and despite intriguing models suggested by the EU, global citizenship remains the purview of individuals to live, work and play within trans-national norms and status that defy national boundaries and sovereignty. Assocational status in this realm does double duty. It serves to explain a unique characteristic of global citizenship while it also expresses that particular lighthouse of post-modernity known as â€Å"lifestyle politics. (Giddens, 1991, Bennett, 2000, et al) Steenbergen (1994) so far comes closest to explaining this relationship between global citizenry and lifestyle poli tics as more â€Å"sociological† in composition. Rather than a technical definition of a citizen â€Å"on his or her relationship to the state (p. 2), Steenbergen suggests that the global citizen represents a more wholistic version: you choose where you work, live or play, and therefore are not tied down to your land of birth. The greater number of choices offered by modern life (from consumer roducts to politics) lies at the root of lifestyle politics. (Franck, 1999) As Falk (1994) put it, in global citizenship there is the rudimentary institutional construction of arenas and allegiance — what many persons are really identifying with– as no longer bounded by or centred upon the formal relationship that an individual has to his or her own territorial society as embodied in the form of a state. Traditional citizenship is being challenged and remoulded by the important activism associated with this trans-national political and social evolution. 1994: 138) Traditi onal ties between citizen and the state are withering, and are replaced by more fragmented loyalties that explain lifestyle politics. Notions of ties between citizen and state that arose in the aftermath of the American and French Revolution, and the creation of the modern state after the 18th century no longer hold sway. It is not by coincidence, for example, that the first to receive the enfranchisement were adult males who also happened to serve in American and French armies. (Kaspersen, 1998) The citizen army today is replaced by the professional army, and a central cog in the bonds between state and citizen removed.Voting turnout decreases, and the public has low regard for politicians. With such loose ties between citizen and state, does the emergence of global citizenship seem farfetched? Many of newly emerging global citizens are actively engaged in global efforts – whether in business ventures, environmentalism, concern for nuclear weapons, health or immigration prob lems. Rather than citizenship, being the result of rights and obligations granted by a central authority, the lack of such authority gives primacy to the global citizens themselves: not a top-down but a down-up scenario. . While various types of global citizens exist, a common thread to their emergence is their base in grassroots activism. We may identify different types of global citizens, yet many of these categories are best summarized by their emergence despite a lack of any global governing body. It is as if they have spontaneously erupted of their own volition. Falk (1994) identified five categories of global citizens which he named as, †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ global reformers elite global business people global environmental managers politically conscious regionalists trans-national activistsWith the exception of global business people, the other categories have grassroots activism at their core. i If the Battle in Seattle is an applicable demonstration, these activists are responsible for their own activism rather than â€Å"granted† by an institution. This earmarks global citizenship as qualitatively different from the national variety, where rights and obligations came (even when fought and protested for) at the behest and generosity of the state. With global citizenship, individuals exercise communicational and organizational tools such as the Internet to make themselves global citizens.No government sanctioned this development. None, it seems, could. Jacobson (1996) noted this fracture of the state as dispenser of citizen rights and obligations, although he sees the decline of overall citizenship as a result. Keck and Sikkink (1998) on the other hand, regard such global activism as a possible new engine of civic engagement. These global activists, or â€Å"cosmopolitan community of individuals† (p. 213) as they call them, transcend national borders and skillfully use pressure tactics against both government and private corporations that make them viable actors on the merging global public sphere. A striking example of this pressure is the well-publicized anti-sweatshop campaign against Nike. Literally dozens of websites are devoted to exposing Nike’s labor practices in manufacturing shoes in overseas factories. In 1996, with the aid of Global Exchange, a humanitarian organization that later helped to organize the Battle in Seattle, Nike’s labor practices became the subject of increasing mainstream media attention. In the process, Nike was linked to sweatshop labor, a label it has tried to shed ever since.Is the Internet central in the development of these emerging global activists? The Internet and other technologies such as the cell phone play an instrumental role in the development of global activists, as do easy and cheap air travel and the wide use and acceptance of credit cards. But there are other forces at work: decline in civic engagement, rise of lifestyle politics, homogen ization of products, conglomeration in media systems and communicational tools that let us know more about each other than ever before.Add to the mix the rising concern for universal human rights and for trans-global problems such as environmental degradation and global warming, the result is a landscape that tends to be more global than national. This is not the first time in the history of our civilization that society has been â€Å"internationalized,† but never has it been easier for average citizen to express herself in this globalized fashion – by the clothes she wears, soda she drinks, music she listens to (e. g. â€Å"world music†) and vacation land she visits.It is increasingly obvious that our identities, as Lie and Servaes (2000) and Scammell (2001) suggest, are tied to our roles as citizens. Scammell’s â€Å"citizen-consumers† vote with their purchases and are engaged in their communities to the extent they have the freedom to shop. Eng agement, in this modern sense, is as audience members at a play clapping at the high points of drama. Can we say this is true of global citizenship? The evidence is scanty to make such judgment; if global activists are replaced by global citizens-consumers the sea change will be complete. 3. Global citizens may redefine ties between civic engagement and geography.The town hall meetings of New England and other regions of the U. S. seem increasingly supplanted by â€Å"electronic spheres† not limited by space and time. This heralds a potentially startling new mechanism in participatory democracy. If we return to the Spaniard living in Germany, what can we say about the geography of community? An output of modernity is greater and greater choice placed upon the individual; the social networks and systems that suited hundreds if not thousands of generations are breaking down in favor of personal choice and individual responsibility.No longer do we entirely rely on the social bul warks of the past: the family, the community, the nation. Life is continually being â€Å"personalized. † Can the Spaniard still be called one while living in Germany? Absentee ballots opened up the way for expatriates to vote while living in another country. The Internet may carry this several steps further. Voting is not limited by time or space: you can be anywhere in the world and still make voting decisions back home. Most of our nation’s history has been bound up in equating geography with sovereignty. It did matter where you lived, worked, played.Since travel was expensive and cumbersome, our lives were tied to geography. No longer can we entirely make this claim. Thompson (1996), writing in the Stanford Law Review, suggests that we can do away with residency and voting in local elections. Frug (1996) even suggests that alienation in the way we regard our geography already creates a disconnect between it and sovereignty. If we are not entirely â€Å"home† at home, do boundaries make any difference anymore? This is not just an academic question, but one rife with rich and disheartening social and political possibilities. Global citizens float within, outside and through these boundaries.The implications seem significant. Many elements seem to spawn global citizenship, but one is noteworthy in this discussion: the continuous tension that globalization has unleashed between various forces local, national and global. An interesting paradox of globalization is while the world is being internationalized at the same time it’s also being localized. The world shrinks as the local community (village, town, city) takes on greater and greater importance. Mosco (1999) noted this feature and saw the growing importance of â€Å"technopoles,† or high-technologized city-states that hark back to classical Greece.If this trend is true, and I believe it is, then it seems global citizens are the glue that may hold these separate entities t ogether. Put another way, global citizens are people that can travel within these various layers or boundaries and somehow still make sense of the world. 4. Any rights and obligations accorded to the global citizen come from the citizens themselves, growing public favor for â€Å"universal rights,† the rise of people migrating around the world, and an increasing tendency to standardize citizenship.Difference may exist on the cultural level, but in bureaucracies, increasing favor is placed on uniformity. Efficiency and utilitarianism lie at the core of capitalism; naturally a world that lives under its aegis replicates these tendencies. Postal agreements, civil air travel and other inter-governmental agreements are but one small example of standardization that is increasingly moving into the arena of citizenship. The concern is raised that global citizenship may be closer to a â€Å"consumer† model than a legal one. The lack of a world body puts the initiative upon glob al citizens themselves to create rights nd obligations. Rights and obligations as they arose at the formation of nation-states (e. g. the right to vote and obligation to serve in time of war) are at the verge of being expanded. So new concepts that accord certain â€Å"human rights† which arose in the 20th century are increasingly being universalized across nations and governments. This is the result of many factors, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948, the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust and growing sentiments towards legitimizing marginalized peoples (e. . pre-industrialized peoples found in the jungles of Brazil and Borneo). Couple this with growing awareness of our species’ impact on the environment, and there is the rising feeling that citizen rights may extend to include the right to dignity and self-determination. If national citizenship does not foster these new rights, then global citizenship seems more accessible to them. One cannot overestimate the importance of the rise of human rights discourse within the radar of public opinion. What are the rights and obligations of human beings trapped in conflicts?Or, incarcerated as part of â€Å"ethnic cleansing? † Equally striking, are the pre-industrialized tribes newly discovered by scientists living in the depths of dense jungle? Leary (1999), Heater (1999) and Babcock (1994) tend to equate these rights with the rise of global citizenship as normative associations, indicating a national citizenship model that is more closed and a global citizenship one that is more flexible and inclusive. If true, this places a strain in the relationship between national and global citizenship.Boli (1998) tends to see this strain as mutually beneficial, whereas Leary (1999) and McNeely (1998) regard the rupture between the two systems as merely evolutionary rather than combative. Like much of social change, changing scopes of modern citizenshi p tend to be played out in both large and minute spheres. Habermas (1994) tends to place global citizenship in a larger, social context, arguing that nation-states can be central engines of citizenship but culture can also be a powerful spurt.He regards the formation of the â€Å"European citizen† as a kind of natural epiphany of governmental conglomeration within the forces of globalization, only remotely alluding to the corporate conglomeration that has been both the recipient and cause of worldwide economic expansion. Others, including Iyer (2000) see globalization and global citizens as direct descendents of global standardization, which he notes, for instance, in the growing homogeneity of airports. Standardization and modernity have worked together for the past few centuries.Ellul (1964), Mumford (1963) and other scholars attack this as a form of oppression, in the same vein that Barber (1996) saw the proliferation of carbon-copy fast-food chains around the globe. Why n ot a set of basic citizen rights followed the world over? 5. Global citizenship may be the indirect result of Pax Americana. The 20th century, as well as the 21st, may be a time dominated by the United States. America’s domination of the WTO, IMF, World Bank and other global institutions creates feelings of imperialism among lesser nations.Cross national cooperation to counter American dominance may result in more global citizens. If economic, environmental, political and social factors push towards more global citizenry, we must also within this camp consider the ramifications of the post cold war world, or realpolitik. Modifying Marshall’s metaphor, we may ask if global citizenship is not a response to the changing factors and response against American domination? In the corporate world, conglomeration leads to larger and larger companies who merge to effectively work against other mega corporations. The evolution of the â€Å"UnitedStates of Europe† (in theor y if not in practice) is in a similar vein; a reaction to the dominating power of the U. S. Other regional alliances may yet emerge. Within such trans-national ties may emerge greater acceptance of one another’s citizens, emulating the European model which Habermas, Bellamy (2000), and others so favor. These alliances may provide the bureaucratic backbone to make global citizenry about more than just lifestyles or personal politics. This development would also change the definition of national citizenry; global citizens may come to favor their status over those who have no such designation.Worse, there may emerge two tracks of citizenship: national and global, with the latter being more prestigious. Along with greater separation between rich and poor, educated and not, there would also be those relegated to living out their entire lives in one land, compared to those who freely travel to many. The darker aspects of this are not hard to miss. Clarke’s (1996) contention that citizenship tends to be more exclusive than inclusive would be borne out. Rather than McNeely’s (1998) flexible citizenship, or Preston’s (1997) multiple loyalty model, we get two separate tracks of citizenship that respond to prestige, wealth and power.Global citizens may be so favored that nations fight to attract them to their land, similar to today’s fight for corporate sites. Conclusion: To concretize what appears an amorphous concept – global citizenship – presents dangers, not least of which is the tendency towards speculation. Spending some time at an airport, especially one of the many airline frequent flyer lounges, reveals that global citizens exist and are a growing number. Within my own Greek immigrant community in Seattle, for example, there are several Greeks who split the year living between Greece and the U.S. I am hard pressed to call them either Greeks or Americans, since they do not fit neatly into either category (not that most ever do). Higher living standards than ever before in civilization’s history allow these dualities to exist. Increasingly, we put them into the camp of global citizenship. Capitalism, and the consumeristic child it has spawned, is particularly good at offering choices, and global citizenship may simply be another facet of this tendency, or what Bennett (unpublished, 2001) and other allude to as lifestyle politics.Any discussion on global citizenship thus must take into account the changing political climate of a globalized world. Scholars have already noted the emerging power struggle between corporations and global activists who increasingly see the nexus of de facto governance taking place more and more within the corporate world (and as mediated by communication technologies like the Internet) and not in the halls of representative government. Hence, the tendency on the part of activists to promote rallies and events like the protests at WTO, as more effective means of citizen participation and democratic accountability.The rise of security concerns as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11 have curiously both grown the importance of national states as well fostered more internationalism. U. S. President George W. Bush who during his election had difficulty remembering the names of heads of states has suddenly transformed into an internationalist with deep concerns for the affairs of other states. While this may be a temporary event with political overtones, the events of 9/11 suggest that the world has become more international than ever before.Whether global citizenship will follow in its wake is problematical. It is simply too early to tell. The role that global citizenship plays in this changing political landscape is a murky one. Yet the fact that there is a growing body of global citizens and their influence is increasingly felt on the world’s political stage indicates the need to observe and study these individuals in e arnest. The attempt to begin developing a definition of global citizenship is a small step towards understanding their presence and influence better. iA case can be made to add academics, sports and artists in categories, but I shy away from this since their overall numbers tend to be small, if not limited. The world it seems can only support so many traveling artists and sport stars, and so a ceiling may be placed on their populations. Also, some concern is raised here regarding other globalists, such as those working for the UN, for example, but again, I tend to shy away from their categorization since their numbers can never expand beyond a limited population (given the resources of the organization, etc. . But with Falk’s categories, in theory, their numbers are limitless and therefore more tenable to categorize. Bibliography Babcock, Rainer, Transnational Citizenship (1994: Edward Elgar, Aldershot, England) Bauman, Zygmunt, Intimations of Postmodernity (1992: Routledge, London) Bellamy, Richard, â€Å"Citizenship beyond the nation state: the case of Europe,† from Political Theory in Transition, edited by Noel O’Sullivan (2000: Routledge, London) Bennett, W.Lance, News: the Politics of Illusion (1996: Longman, New York) Bennett, W. Lance, â€Å"Consumerism and Global Citizenship: Lifestyle Politics, Permanent Campaigns, and International Regimes of Democratic Accountability. † Unpublished paper presented at the International Seminar on Political Consumerism, Stockholm University, May 30, 2001.Best, Steven & Kellner, Douglas, The Postmodern Turn (1997: Guilford Press, New York) Boli, John, â€Å"Rights and Rules: Constituting World Citizens† in Public Rights, Public Rules: Constituting Citizens in the World Polity and National Policy, edited by Connie L McNeely (1998: Garland, New York) Clarke, Paul Berry, Deep Citizenship ( 1996: Pluto Press, London) Eriksen, Erik & Weigard, Jarle, â€Å"The End of Citizenship: New Roles Challenging the Political Order† in The Demands of CitizenshipI, edited by Catriona McKinnon & Iain Hampsher-Monk (2000: Continuum, London) Falk, Richard, â€Å"The Making of Global Citizenship† in The Condition of Citizenship, edited by Bart van Steenbergen (1994: Sage Publications, London) Franck, Thomas M. , The Empowered Self: Law and Society in the Age of Individualism (1999: Oxford University Press, Oxford)) Habermas, Jurgen, â€Å"Citizenship and National Identity† in The Condition of Citizenship, edited by Bart van Steenbergen (1994: Sage Publications, London) Heater, Derek, What is Citizenship? (1999: Polity Press, Cambridge, England) Henderson, Hazel, â€Å"Transnational Corporations and Global Citizenship,† American Behavioral Scientist, 43(8), May 2000, 1231-1261. Iyer, Pico, The Global Soul (2000: Alfred A. Knopf, New York).Jacobson, David, Rights across Borders: Immigration and the Decline of Citizenship (1996: Johns Hopkins University Press , Baltimore) Lie, Rico & Servaes, Jan, â€Å"Globalization: consumption and identity – towards researching nodal points,† in The New Communications Landscape, edited by Georgette Wang, Jan Servaes and Anura Goonasekera (2000: Routledge, London) Kaspersen, Lars Bo, â€Å"State and Citizenship Under Transformation in Western Europe† in Public Rights, Public Rules: Constituting Citizens in the World Polity and National Policy, edited by Connie L. McNeely (1998: Garland, New York) Keck, Margaret E. & Sikkink, Kathryn, Activists Beyond Borders (1998: Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York) Kennedy, John F. Profiles in Courage (1956: Harper & Brothers, New York) Leary, Virginia, â€Å"Citizenship, Human Rights, and Diversity,† in Citizenship, Diversity, and Pluralism, edited by Alan C. Cairns, John C. Courtney, Peter MacKinnon, Hans J. Michelmann, & David E. Smith (1999: McGill-Queens’ University Press, Montreal) McNeely, Connie L. , â€Å"Constitut ing Citizens: Rights and Rules† in Public Rights, Public Rules: Constituting Citizens in the World Polity and National Policy, edited by Connie L. McNeely (1998: Garland, New York) Mosco, Vincent, â€Å"Citizenship and Technopoles,† from Communication, Citizenship, and Social Policy (1999: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, England) Preston, P. W. Political/Cultural Identity: Citizens and Nations in a Global Era (1997: Sage, London) Scammell, Margarett, â€Å"Internet and civic engagement: Age of the citizen-consumer† found at http://jsis. artsci. washington. edu/programs/cwesuw/scammell. htm Steenbergen, Bart van, â€Å"The Condition of Citizenship† in The Condition of Citizenship, edited by Bart van Steenbergen (1994: Sage Publications, London) Turner, Bryan D. , â€Å"Postmodern Culture/Modern Citizens† in The Condition of Citizenship, edited by Bart van Steenbergen (1994: Sage Publications, London) Weale, Albert, â€Å"Citizenship Beyond Borders† in The Frontiers of Citizenship, edited by Ursula Vogel & Michael Moran (1991: St. Martin’s Press, New York)

Do Insects Hibernate in the Winter

An insect doesn’t have the benefit of body fat, like bears and groundhogs, to survive freezing temperatures and keep internal fluids from turning to ice. Like all ectotherms, insects need a way to cope with fluctuating temperatures in their environment. But do insects hibernate? In a very general sense, hibernation refers to the state in which animals pass the winter.1 Hibernation suggests the animal is in a dormant state, with its metabolism slowed and reproduction paused. Insects dont necessarily hibernate the way warm-blooded animals do. But because the availability of host plants and food sources are limited during the winter in cold regions, insects do suspend their usual activities and enter a dormant state. So how do insects survive the cold winter months? Different insects use different strategies to avoid freezing to death when the temperature falls. Some insects employ a combination of strategies to survive the winter. Migration When it gets cold, leave! Some insects head to warmer climes, or at least better conditions, when winter weather approaches. The most famous migrating insect is the monarch butterfly. Monarchs in the eastern U.S. and Canada fly up to 2,000 miles to spend their winter in Mexico. Many other butterflies and moths also migrate seasonally, including the gulf fritillary, the painted lady, the black cutworm, and fall armyworm. Common green darners, dragonflies that inhabit ponds and lakes as far north as Canada, migrate as well. Communal Living When it gets cold, huddle up! There’s warmth in numbers for some insects. Honey bees cluster together as the temperatures drop, and use their collective body heat to keep themselves and the brood warm. Ants and termites head below the frost line, where their large numbers and stored food keep them comfortable until spring arrives. Several insects are known for their cool weather aggregations. Convergent lady beetles, for example, gather en masse on rocks or branches during spells of cold weather. Indoor Living When it gets cold, move inside! Much to the displeasure of homeowners, some insects seek shelter in the warmth of human dwellings when winter approaches. Each fall, peoples houses are invaded by box elder bugs, Asian multicolored lady beetles, brown marmorated stink bugs, and others. While these insects rarely cause damage indoors – theyre just looking for a cozy place to wait out the winter – they may release foul-smelling substances when threatened by a homeowner trying to evict them. Torpor When it gets cold, stay still! Certain insects, particularly ones that live in higher altitudes or near the Earth’s poles, use a state of torpor to survive drops in temperature. Torpor is a temporary state of suspension or sleep, during which the insect is completely immobile. The New Zealand weta, for example, is a flightless cricket that lives in high altitudes. When temperatures drop in the evening, the cricket freezes solid. As daylight warms the weta, it comes out of the torpid state and resumes activity. Diapause When it gets cold, rest! Unlike torpor, diapause is a long-term state of suspension. Diapause synchronizes the insect’s life cycle with seasonal changes in its environment, including winter conditions. Put simply, if it’s too cold to fly and there’s nothing to eat, you might as well take a break (or pause). Insect diapause may occur in any stage of development: Eggs – Praying mantids survive the winter as eggs, which emerge in spring.Larvae – Woolly bear caterpillars curl up in thick layers of leaf litter for winter. In spring, they spin their cocoons.Pupa – Black swallowtails spend winter as chrysalids, emerging as butterflies when warm weather returns.Adults – Mourning cloak butterflies hibernate as adults for the winter, tucking themselves behind loose bark or in tree cavities. Antifreeze When it gets cold, lower your freezing point! Many insects prepare for the cold by making their own antifreeze. During the fall, insects produce glycerol, which increases in the hemolymph. Glycerol gives the insect body â€Å"supercooling† ability, allowing body fluids to drop below freezing points without causing ice damage. Glycerol also lowers the freezing point, making insects more cold-tolerant, and protects tissues and cells from damage during icy conditions in the environment. In spring, glycerol levels drop again. References 1 Definition from Hibernation, by Richard E. Lee, Jr., Miami University of Ohio. Encyclopedia of Insects, 2nd edition, edited by Vincent H. Resh and Ring T. Carde.