Dear all
Here is the latest round up of new and interesting sites for social scientists.
Local elections 2018
Local elections in England were held on Thursday 3 May 2018. with elections to all 32 London boroughs, 34 metropolitan boroughs, 67 district and borough councils
The electoral commission your vote matters website explains to voters where elections were taking place and the process
The Local government Association also
has a more detailed explanation.
Official guidance to candidates and regulations can be
found on the Electoral commission website
They also
have results and turnout data from 2006 onwards for downloading
Research reports on the conduct of earlier
elections
BBC news coverage of events.
Elections centre established by
Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher,
Associate Members of Nuffield College, Oxford has a wealth of data on local election results from 1964 onwards. They include local election data handbooks
with results
and analysis. Those from
1964-2011 can be downloaded free of charge more recent handbooks for purchase only. However tables and graphs
with council compositions and results can be accessed online.for more recent years
Universal
Ballot Database.has been built from the data .
It uses Google maps to show all of the current ward boundaries across England and Wales together with the name, party and votes of the top-placed candidate at the
most recent election for that ward
World Press Freedom day is celebrated annually on the 3rd May
2018 is the 25th anniversary and the focus is upon the rule of law . Find out more about the events on the
UNESCO official website
These include a book
on press freedom and the safety of journalists and other resolutions, papers and resources
The United nations website has links to related resolutions, reports and committee websites
Why is this day important?
Find out which country has the
most free press according to the annual barometer complied by RSF . The methodology used is displayed on the website
According to the analyses ‘hatred of journalists is growing and is threatening democracy’
. The UK is now ranked 40 out of 180
An Alternative
freedom of the Press ranking is compiled annually by Freedom House . In 2017 it declared that press freedom had declined to its lowest level for 13 years.
Other well known indexes are:
IREX's Media Sustainability Index (MSI) which provides in-depth analyses of
the conditions for independent media in 80 countries across the world.It specialises in conditions fro change in transition developing nations.
Media development Indicators - UNESCO
priority areas of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) are : promotion of freedom of expression and media pluralism;
development of community media; and human resource development (capacity building of media professionals and institutional capacity building).
The African Media Barometer was developed by fesmedia Africa, the Media Project of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Africa, and the
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in 2004.
Every two to three years a panel of 10 to 12 local experts, consisting of at least five media practitioners and media expert and five representatives from civil society,
meet to assess the media situation in their own country. A report is then compiled by expert panellists based on 39 criteria,
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom has a resource section on its website with useful research reports and papers on trends
in media pluralism and threats to media freedom in the region
See also the
The State of Global Air website which is created by
Health Effects Institute and the
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, with expert input from the
University of British Columbia. It has interactive data on air pollution worldwide. It includes data on household air pollution and its connection with health. Data derived from It is based on data from IHME's
Global Burden of Disease,
Karl Marx 200
British Library
has a digital copy of parts of the original manifesto - only 26 are believed to have survived worldwide! It also provides background information on its publication. The library website also has an image of
Marx’s original British Library readers ticket
You can read his classic works, letters and writings free from the
Marxist Internet Archive. Which also provides free access to a wealth of other primary resource materials on later Marxist writers worldwide.
Special Marx 200 collection
this website has numerous links and articles.
See more academic links on our blog
To celebrate a hopefully sunny spring bank holiday from the International Institute of Social History
Tulip book
.
Tulip Book
Book with 122 images of tulips, painted by Jacob Isaacsz van Swanenburch (1571-1638) and 16 images by Adriaen Jansz. van Witvelt (ca. 1581-1638).
As the institute is a research centre for socialism it discusses Tulip mania and the high cost and price paid in 17th century. The images are lovely
Best wishes
Heather Dawson