Dear Lister
We've been asked to put up the following notice. Sounds interesting, and
there's no mention of cost.
Regards,
Bashyr Aziz
Occ-Health List
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I would be grateful if you could circulate details of the seminar
listed below to your members. Many thanks
International Centre for Health and Society
2003 Public Seminar Series UCL
Monday 13 October 5.00pm
(RSVP attendance essential)
Dr David Erdal,Executive Director, Baxi Partnership
'Are humans adapted for an egalitarian social environment?'
or 'Employee ownership makes you live longer'
Abstract
Research on hunter-gatherer societies showed two egalitarian features
general to all groups: meat sharing and counter-dominance. Meat
sharing went beyond what is explicable by kinship or reciprocity.
Counter-dominance ensured that no leader became dominant for long.
Thus the social environment to which humans are adapted is likely to
have been egalitarian. A pilot study was run comparing social health,
widely defined, in three towns in a prosperous area of Northern
Italy. The towns had varying levels of egalitarianism, marked by
employee ownership of the companies in which they worked. Those
working in co-ops comprised 26%, 13% and 0% of all employed,
respectively. The data collected on education, health, crime, social
participation and social perceptions supported the thesis that people
may be adapted to an egalitarian social environment. The most
egalitarian town had the most positive measures and the least
egalitarian town had the least positive, with the third town
intermediate on both egalitarianism and social health.
David Erdal, Executive Director, Baxi Partnership, runs a £20m fund
which structures and supports all-employee buyouts of the companies
in which they work, moving the social environment in the direction of
egalitarianism. He dreams of one day returning to research.
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
(indicating any special needs and for directions to the seminar room)
Ms Patricia Crowley
International Centre for Health and Society
Dept of Epidemiology & Public Health, UCL
1 - 19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT
T: (International code +44 20) or (Domestic code 020) 76791708
F: (International code +44 20) or (Domestic code 020) 7813 0280
W: www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology
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