Social Science sites of the week Archive

23rd April was World Book day Read the  UN statement and links to resources it has created for the lockdown period according to the  Reading Agency's most recent survey more people are reading in self isolation How much do people normally read in the UK? in 2014 the  Book Trusts survey of 1500 adults found Nearly a fifth (18%) never read physical books, and 71% never read e-books. How does this compare with elsewhere? In the USA the  Pew Center conducts a regular annual survey  on who doesnt read. 27% recorded not reading a book in the last year. Higher figures recorded for poorer and hispanic adults. On a global scale  UNESCO records literacy statistics However reading does have the power to change lives. in 2018 Demos published a report called a  society of readers.  which summarised research on a variety of factors including well being and social mobility. The National Literacy Trust has conducted  a number of surveys o...

Here is the latest round up of new and interesting sites of the week Just for Easter! Some fun and academic links on chocolate How much chocolate do we eat? According to a 2020 poll of the Uk public by the British Heart foundation in January 2020. "The average Brit will consume 7,560 chocolate bars, 2,268 slices of chocolate cake and 8,316 chocolate biscuits in a lifetime " However According to Statista Switzerland was the nation which consumed the most chocolate in 2019 For more scientific studies try the ONS which has a Family food survey . In 2017 it had a graph on expenditure on different types of food it maps purchases by income and region. The National Diet and Nutrition survey provides details of food intake and calories. Favourite chocolate bars! The Heart Foundation survey found Snickers was the favourite brand Campaign live has revealed the success of its marketing campaigns It was first made in 1930 and originally marketed as Marathon in the Uk. The ...

Here is the latest  weekly update We are continuing to offer links to key uk government  papers and reports on our blog. We also have link to items on furloughing and economic impact reports Hansard Society Launch coronavirus Statutory instruments dashboard It aims to highlight key facts and figures about the Statutory Instruments (SIs) being produced using these powers in the Coronavirus Act 2020 and other Acts of Parliament.  This includes monitoring of which departments  are producing the most instruments and the impact on civil liberties Conspiracy theories fuel non compliance with virus public health advice Research by  Centre for Countering Digital Hate  Kings College London . They  conducted a public survey of over 900 people on the impact of  three conspiracy theories about the virus and actions taken in following public health advice and found those who believed them were less likely to follow social distancing measur...

In the news this week Coronovirus In the blog we are adding  links  to uk government reports There is also some  comment and reaction from think tanks News on womens group  reactions and the launch of an inquiry by a parliamentary select committee is also linked on the Scoop.it page. ComScore has a special page with brief insights into consumer behaviour.  Some worldwide coverage. Coronavirus Policy Watch From the Kaiser Family Foundation in the USA offers up to date, polls, articles and comments on  aspects of US policy and public reaction to it. Covid-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19),  a resource build by AI includes over 45,000 research papers from peer-reviewed journals as well as sources like bioRxiv and medRxiv  which have preprints and working papers featuring the latest scientific research.Created by  Allen Institute for AI  it is in a a machine readable JSON format. Details about the compilatio...