Author Archives: dawnyoung

Our Book of the Month choice for September

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The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

Andy Kernot selecting a book from the SSL shelves.

September’s Book of the Month was selected by Andy Kernot, Subject Consultant for Geography, Social Policy & Intervention, Public Policy, and Internet Studies.

 

The map in the machine: charting the spatial architecture of digital capitalism

Luis F. Alvarez Leon

University of California Press, 2024

GV109.4 ALV 2024

 

 

 

Digital technologies have changed how we shop, work, play, and communicate, reshaping our societies and economies. To understand digital capitalism, we need to grasp how advances in geospatial technologies underpin the construction, operation, and refinement of markets for digital goods and services. In The Map in the Machine, Luis F. Alvarez Leon examines these advances, from MapQuest and Google Maps to the rise of IP geolocation, ridesharing, and a new Earth Observation satellite ecosystem.

Book Overview

In this book Luis F. Alvarez Leon develops a geographical theory of digital capitalism centered on the processes of location, valuation, and marketization to provide a new vantage point from which to better understand, and intervene in, the dominant techno-economic paradigm of our time. By centering the spatiality of digital capitalism, Alvarez Leon shows how this system is the product not of seemingly intangible information clouds but rather of a vast array of technologies, practices, and infrastructures deeply rooted in place, mediated by geography, and open to contestation and change.

Reviews

“The Map in the Machine deconstructs the spatial architecture of the new digital economy, uncovering its deeply geographical foundations. Synthesizing geographical political economy and critical approaches to information technology, Luis Alvarez Leon offers an original framework for understanding processes of location, valuation, and marketization across the variegated worlds of digital capitalism.”

Jamie Peck, Professor of Geography, University of British Columbia

“Despite the persistence of abstract, fluffy metaphors like the cloud and Ethernet, The Map in the Machine conclusively demonstrates that digital information is–and always has been–intimately intertwined with our physical and material world. This is a must-read book for anyone looking to understand the place-based underpinnings of digital capitalism.”

Catherine D’Ignazio, Associate Professor and Director of the Data + Feminism Lab, MIT, and coauthor of Data Feminism

How can I access it?

We have one lending copy of this book, which is located on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is GV109.4 ALV 2024. It is also available as an eBook which can be accessed from a Bodleian Library computer or use it remotely, by logging on to SOLO with your SSO.

Image of an open book with the pages curled to form a love heartWhat would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

Our Resource of the Month for September: Cochrane Library

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Each month, one of our Subject Librarians chooses an electronic resource which they feel will be of interest to you.

Andy Kernot sat a desk using a computer.

September’s Resource of the Month has been selected by Andy Kernot, Subject Consultant for Geography, Social Policy & Intervention, Public Policy, and Internet Studies.

An open laptop on a desk with the words 'Cochrane Library' on the screen. Next to it are a pad and pen a cup of coffee.

Andy’s choice is the Cochrane Library. It was chosen because it provides access to the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) which is the leading resource for systematic reviews in health care and is a useful resource for students of Social Policy.

Overview

The CDSR includes Cochrane Reviews (systematic reviews) and protocols for Cochrane Reviews as well as editorials and supplements. A Cochrane Review is a systematic review that attempts to identify, appraise and synthesize all the empirical evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question. Researchers conducting systematic reviews use explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view aimed at minimizing bias, to produce more reliable findings to inform decision-making. Cochrane Reviews may be updated to reflect the findings of new evidence when it becomes available because the results of new studies can change the conclusions of a review. Cochrane Reviews are therefore valuable sources of information for those receiving and providing care, as well as for decision-makers and researchers.

Where can you access the resource

The Cochrane Library is available to access via SOLO.

A Single-Sign-On (SSO) is required this database remotely, as it is restricted to Oxford University students and staff members.

 

 

Our Resource of the Month for August is FitchRatings PRO

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Each month, one of our Subject Librarians chooses an electronic resource which they feel will be of interest to you.

John Southall sat next to a computer in the Social Science Library.

August’s Resource of the Month has been selected by John Southall, Bodleian Data Librarian and Subject Consultant for Economics and Sociology.

John’s choice is FitchRatings PRO which provides financial data on banks, insurance firms, corporates and sovereigns. It includes the world’s leading bank fundamental data set, and ratings and research covering the fixed-income universe.

Overview

Fitch Ratings Inc. is one of three leading American credit rating agencies (the other two being Moody’s and Standard & Poor). FitchRatings Pro (formerly part of a product called Fitch Connect) is a platform that includes:

  • Standardised financial data on over 33,000 private and public banks across 200 countries, along with up to 30 years of history
  • Annual and interim financial data for the largest 3,200 banks
  • Economic data and 3-year forecasts on 110 sovereigns
  • Accurate and timely financials on thousands of institutions globally

Where can you access the resource

FitchRatings PRO is available to access via SOLO. A Single-Sign-On (SSO) is required to access this database, as it is restricted to Oxford University students and staff members.

After logging into SOLO with your SSO, this resource requires you to log in with your SSO again at the homepage. From the login screen choose the SSO tab. Enter UniversityofOxford into the Organization ID box, then click Continue.

 

Our Book of the Month choice for August

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The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

John Southall retrieving a book from the shelves in the SSL.

August’s Book of the Month was selected by John Southall, Bodleian Data Librarian and Subject Consultant for Economics and Sociology.

 

British social theory: recovering lost traditions before 1950

John Scott

Sage, 2018

HM477.G7.SCO 2018

 

 

 

 

It was chosen because it is an enlightening book, not only for students in the social sciences, but also for scholars interested in social epistemology and the history of (sociological) ideas.

Book Overview

This book represents a fundamental challenge to the study of national traditions in social theory. Beginning with the central problem of unintended consequences in the Scottish enlightenment, John Scott, the leading authority on the history of British social theory, provides an eminently readable account of a largely forgotten and misrecognised sociological tradition.

The main themes detected by Scott focus critically on social structure, cultural idealism, developmental processes, and economic sociology. He argues that by the twentieth century ambitious sociological syntheses were being produced by three major social theorists, Patrick Geddes, Robert MacIver and Leonard Hobhouse, which stand comparison with better known social theories being produced in Europe and the US.

The book discusses how these traditions of theory were lost and forgotten and sets out why they are gaining renewed importance today.

Reviews

“John Scott has done a great service by providing this reconstruction of the long and distinguished history of British social theory, a tradition which the rest of the world reacted to and incorporated. Much of this history of social theory has been hidden in and obscured by the specialist literature on these thinkers – Scott brings them to light in an accessible form.”

Stephen Turner, University of South Florida

“A magisterial discussion of key lines of thought in the submerged history of classical sociology in Britain pre-1950. It examines key questions concerning what social theory in British sociology was, who did it and the ideas produced and is essential reading in re-evaluating the history of British sociology.”

Liz Stanley, University of Edinburgh

How can I access it?

We have one lending copy of this book, which is located on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is HM477.G7.SCO 2018.

Image of an open book with the pages curled to form a love heartWhat would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.

Free Webinar: The disinformation challenge with BBC Monitoring: Tues 13 August

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A television with the words 'BBC Monitoring' on the screen.

Webinar: The disinformation challenge with BBC Monitoring

Tuesday 13 August, 3pm BST/ 10 am EDT

OpenAthens will be hosting a free webinar in partnership with BBC Monitoring where they’ll discuss the issue of disinformation in digital resources.

Speakers:

  • Shayan Sardarizadeh, senior journalist, BBC Monitoring
  • Laura Harvey, business development analyst, BBC Monitoring
  • Kieran Prince, business development manager, OpenAthens

BBC Monitoring is part of the BBC World Service Group in BBC News. Committed to the BBC’s editorial values and guidelines, they provide services to the rest of the BBC, the UK Government and a range of commercial clients.

BBC Monitoring was featured as our May Resource of the Month, view our Blog post to find out more.

 

 

Changes to our Current Journals Display

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The current journal display in the SSL.

At the end of August we will be reducing the number of print journals on our current journals display in the library.

Titles we will have out on display after this date will be:

  • Africa Confidential
  • Development and Cooperation: D+C
  • Dissent
  • Economic and Political Weekly
  • Economist
  • Foreign Affairs
  • The Funambulist
  • Jacobin
  • New Statesman

All our current print journal subscriptions will continue to be available on the main journal shelves.

Please let us have your feedback on this change! Come to the issue desk or email us at: ssl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Open Access publications policy amendment

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View of a persons hands typing on a laptop keyboard.

The University of Oxford Open Access Publications Policy, and University Statute XVI which covers intellectual property rights, have now been updated to incorporate rights retention. This re-affirms the University’s preference for the green or self-archiving route to open access.

From 14 October 2024, by virtue of their employment and without requiring any action on their part, employees at the University provide the rights to make author accepted manuscript versions of their articles and conference proceedings available under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0) at the point of publication.

To utilise rights retention (https://openaccess.ox.ac.uk/rights-retention) authors can simply deposit the accepted manuscript of their work to ORA, the University repository, and the repository team will make it available once it has been published. Authors wishing to opt-out will be able to do so on a work-by-work basis when depositing their papers via Symplectic Elements.

Full news item can be found here: https://openaccess.web.ox.ac.uk/article/2024-07-03-university-oxford-open-access-publications-policy-amended-include-rights

Our Resource of the Month for July is Oxford Bibliographies

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Each month, one of our Subject Librarians chooses an electronic resource which they feel will be of interest to you.

Sarah Rhodes (Subject Consultant for African Studies) sat at a computer in the SSL.

July’s Resource of the Month has been selected by Sarah Rhodes, Subject Consultant for African Studies.

Sarah’s chocie is Oxford Bibliographies. It was selected as an excellent starting point and authoritative research guide for students and researchers, directing them to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects. It combines the features of an annotated bibliography (with links through to SOLO and Oxford holdings) and a high-level encyclopedia. Each bibliography, written and reviewed by academic experts is focussed on current scholarship, with original commentary and annotations.

Where can you access the resource

Oxford Bibliographies is available to access via SOLO. A Single-Sign-On (SSO) is required to access this database, so is restricted to Oxford University students and staff members.

 

Our Book of the Month choice for July

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The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

Subject Consultant Sarah Rhodes selecting a book from the SSL shelves.

July’s Book of the Month was selected by Sarah Rhodes, Subject Consultant for International Development and Forced Migration

The cover of the book 'Measuring global migration: towards better data for all' with a rosette on the top which says 'SSL Book of the Month.'

 

Measuring global migration: towards better data for all

Frank Laczko, Elisa Mosler Vidal and Marzia Rango

Routledge, 2024

JV6019.LAC 2024

 

 

 

It was chosen to highlight the technical and political challenges associated with the collection of comprehensive global migration data.

Book Overview

This book focuses on how to improve the collection, analysis and responsible use of data on global migration and international mobility. While migration remains a topic of great policy interest for governments around the world, there is a serious lack of reliable, timely, disaggregated and comparable data on it, and often insufficient safeguards to protect migrants’ information. Meanwhile, vast amounts of data about the movement of people are being generated in real time due to new technologies, but these have not yet been fully captured and utilized by migration policymakers, who often do not have enough data to inform their policies and programmes. The lack of migration data has been internationally recognized; the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration urges all countries to improve data on migration to ensure that policies and programmes are “evidence-based”, but does not spell out how this could be done.

Reviews

‘Measuring Global Migration is an essential read, which explores the use of new and non-traditional data for understanding contemporary migration. It offers students and researchers concrete examples, and a balanced view of the potential benefits of using big data, as well as highlighting the ethical concerns and limitations involved, making it a comprehensive guide for all those in the migration field.’

Dr. Stefaan Verhulst, Co-Founder of the GovLab (New York) and the Data Tank

How can I access it?

We have one lending copy of this book, which is located on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk). Its shelfmark is JV6019.LAC 2024. It is also available as an eBook which can be accessed from a Bodleian Library computer or use it remotely, by logging on to SOLO with your SSO.

Image of an open book with the pages curled to form a love heartWhat would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.