Author Archives: A Youngson

Time Out: Sexual Politics and the Question of Progress

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This post was contributed by Dr Tara Atluri, visit research fellow in the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities (BIH) and the Department of Geography, Environment, and Development Studies.

Here Dr Atluri gives an insight into her approaching BIH and Birkbeck Gender & Sexuality (BiGS) workshop on sexual politics (February 18,  1.30pm-3.30pm, room 402, Malet Street Main Building)

Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Wei Wei states that, “The internet is a wild land with its own games, languages, and gestures through which we are starting to share common feelings.”

And yet, how can one access cyber-utopias of meritocratic dreams on street corners and back alleys, in the traffic of cities, with no place from which to revel in blissful platitudes?

The “It gets better” campaign is predominantly a viral media campaign that began as a response to the suicides of queer youth in North America. The campaign involves online videos staging inspirational narratives of those who have overcome adversity. It is undoubtedly a tool of support for those who experience oppression.

However, one can consider how this viral media campaign exists in cyberspace, apart from the politics and economics of material space. ‘Betterment’ can describe individual embodiment. And yet, “betterment” can also describe “development” in ways that assume that economic wealth and the gentrification of cities are improvements. (Watch Guardian video: Anthony Gormley: “London is bought, developed and abandoned”)

We are told that cities “get better” with more expensive coffee bars where one can access Wi-Fi, and yet rising prices in rent and the disillusion of the commons can spell suicide for sexual politics in the streets.

Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner state, “There is nothing more public than privacy”(547) They further discuss `sex publics’ stating that,

Some of these publics have an obvious relation to sex: pornographic cinema, phone sex, “adult” markets for print, lap dancing. Others are organized around sex, but not necessarily sex acts in the usual sense: queer zones and other worlds estranged from heterosexual culture, but also more tacit scenes of sexuality like official national culture, which depends on a notion of privacy to cloak its sexualization of national membership. (547) (Read more here)

The authors discuss zoning laws that came into place in New York which lead to the closure of many gay bars on St. Christopher Street, once a well-known queer area. They state,

Now, gay men who want sexual materials or who want to meet other men for sex will have two choices: they can cathect the privatized virtual public of phone sex and the internet; or they can travel to small, inaccessible, little-trafficked, badly lit areas, re- mote from public transportation and from any residences, mostly on the waterfront, where heterosexual porn users will also be relocated and where the risk of violence will consequently be higher. (551)

Similarly, one can consider recent closures of many queer spaces in London such as the bar, The Joiners Arms in East London. While “betterment” within neoliberal discourse involves images of financially successful queers working overtime, the doors of the after hours that once housed alternative sex publics are slammed shut.

Far from being endemic to the West, questions of space, sex, and “betterment” cross borders. As Mayur Suresh writes,`

One of the first documented protests against police harassment of queer men in India was held in response to police raids targeting gay cruising in Central Park, Connaught Place in New Delhi. (Suresh, opendemocracy)

In the traffic of Mumbai, in the traffic of Delhi, flamboyant sari clad dancers strut between rows of cars asking tourists en route to airports, businessmen en route to offices, and middle class families in SUVs for change. Hijras, often referred to in secular English language discourse as male to female transgender persons are often found in contemporary neoliberal India, begging in the traffic of cities. The genealogy of the Hijra is connected to mythologies pre-dating colonial rule. Hijras originary religious role lay in blessing children.

In the space of neoliberal urban India, the Hijra body has not necessarily gotten “better” with Victorian colonial moralities and laws policing sex, or with capitalist models of “development.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymukBIfDDDk

Suresh discusses a 2004 case of a Hijra who was gang raped and subject to police harassment,

Kokila told the police about the gang rape, but instead of registering a case and sending her for a medical examination, they harassed her with offensive language and took her along with the two men to the Byappanahalli Police Station. (Suresh, opendemocracy)

Beyond the tempo of Google there are bodies in the streets, beaten and harassed, living and loving in the streets. Solipsistic urban publics stare into cell phones, ignoring those whom they encounter in shared space. Privacy exists for the privileged few. Fear is fuelled by gated communities and an infinite array of private passwords. In the meantime, cities of wealth turn citizenship into a question of capital, dividing insiders from outsiders, with the colonizing spirit of settlers extending to the gentrification of dark corners of cities.

If we are to envision inspirational sexual politics today, we should perhaps avert our eyes momentarily from the glare of mall lighting and MacBooks. Before it can ever get better, perhaps it should get critical.

Tara Atluri will be giving a BIH and Birkbeck Gender & Sexuality (BiGS) workshop (titled “Time Out: Sexual Politics and the Temporal Maps of International Development”) on 18 February (13.30 -15.30), Room 402, Malet Street Main Building. Book your place here.

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Pricing players: Measuring football players’ media coverage merits

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This post was contributed by Nick Eisen, Business Engagement Reporter, Birkbeck School of Business, Economics and Informatics

Image under CC courtesy of Eva Rinaldi via Flickr.com

Image under CC courtesy of Eva Rinaldi via Flickr.com

Media coverage of individual footballers may be as good as – or even better than – sporting performance as a criterion for estimating those players’ monetary value in terms of the return they can bring to their teams.

This view emerged from a talk on 18 January by Dr Pedro Garcia-del-Barrio, senior lecturer in Economics and Vice-Dean at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC Barcelona).

Titled Economic Evaluation Of Football Players Through Media Value, the talk was presented by Birkbeck’s Sport Business Centre (BSBC) and facilitated by the Department of Management’s Dr Giambattista Rossi at the British Medical Association in Tavistock Square.

Measuring ‘non-sport skills’

In his talk, Dr Garcia-del-Barrio described a footballer’s media value score as the number of news stories referring to a player expressed as a multiple of the number of news stories of the average player in a sample derived from the top 2,500 individuals in a data set of more than 5,000 players. In recent years, this data set has been selected from the top English, German, Spanish, Italian and French leagues, as well as Portugal, Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and teams playing in the European Championship.

According to the speaker, this method, known as MERIT (Method for Evaluation and Rating of Intangible Talent), gives an estimate of a player’s “non-sport skills”. This Merit rating could also be used to estimate a theoretical value of transfer fees for professional footballers, and could offer a basis for estimating a media value ranking of teams and leagues.

Media value can be seen as connected to sporting performance but distinct from it, and Dr Garcia-del-Barrio noted that a player’s media value is important in determining that player’s market value, because that media value could be vital in areas such as team branding, and in increasing sales of tickets, TV rights and advertising space.

Other factors affecting the calculation of transfer fees, apart from sporting performance, include contract duration, the economic status of the hiring team, the player’s age at the end of the contract and years of experience, and the player’s media value as a proportion of the team’s media value.

MERIT – advantages and shortcomings

One advantage of Merit is that it enables comparison across sports: for example, the media value of a footballer versus that of a tennis player, who could never meet in a sporting arena, but may both appear in the media arena, where their respective presences can be compared.

At the same time, different Merit values (local, regional, international, time-related and others) could be calculated for one individual. For example, the same player could have one Merit value in one country and another Merit value in a different country, where coverage of the same player could differ between the media of the two countries.

The speaker also considered Merit’s potential shortcomings, one being that it does not currently distinguish between positive and negative coverage (although what constitutes “positive” and “negative” here might perhaps require further definition).

With a wealth of graphic presentations and data, Dr Garcia-del-Barrio also illustrated how Merit valuations compared with completed transfer fees.

An attentive audience responded with some complex questions to a fascinating and demanding field of study.

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Social is Beautiful

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Birkbeck/SOAS contribution to Global Entrepreneurship Week reveals value of small-scale enterprise

For seven days each November, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) celebrates the people and activities that turn ideas into enterprises. During the week, around the world, events large and small enable individuals to network, learn from experts, meet possible collaborators, and “explore their potential as self-starters and innovators” who can “launch start-ups that… drive economic growth and expand human welfare”, as the GEW website explains.

Asami Miyamoto (pictured right) of Asami Language Services takes part in a Speech Mentoring session

Asami Miyamoto (pictured right) of Asami Language Services takes part in a Speech Mentoring session

For GEW 2015, which ran from 16 to 22 November, Birkbeck teamed up with the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) to present a wide range of events. One achievement of this partnership was to draw attention to small-scale enterprise and the possible social value of entrepreneurship – the “human welfare” part of GEW’s description: an important focus, alongside images of high-tech Silicon Valley start-ups attaining vast commercial success, which the word “entrepreneurship” may first bring to mind.

This social role was the focus of a talk by Hugo Sintes Pons, Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) Manager, Oxfam GB, on Monday 16 November in SOAS’s Khalili Lecture Theatre, presented by Birkbeck/SOAS. The subject for the evening was “Solving Inequality: Supporting Entrepreneurs Where It Matters Most”.

Hugo’s Oxfam web entry, says the EDP “promotes and invests in early-stage agricultural enterprises that promote economic opportunities”. Its web page explains the EDP “helps many thousands of people – especially women – to work their way out of poverty”. The programme invests “where others don’t go and where the potential for social impact is highest” by providing “expertise from a board of successful businesspeople” as well as loans and grants to build “sustainable businesses”.

Looking at the EDP, the evening offered a view of top-down assistance (capital and expertise) encouraging bottom-up empowerment. By seeking potential entrepreneurs in communities that lack resources, the programme’s aim was to enable local, small-scale entrepreneurship as a vehicle for the poor and disenfranchised to generate initiatives and some wealth and influence for themselves.

In this approach, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) specifically could benefit. In developing countries, enterprises are often “micro” and informal. SMEs have been labelled the “missing middle” as their financial needs ($5,000 to $2 million) are too large for microfinance lenders, but too small for banks or other investors. Both MEs and SMEs may therefore require forms of support that other institutions cannot offer but that the EDP can draw attention to or consider.

The EDP also sees women specifically as essential to development, and support for their enterprises can help women achieve more influence in otherwise male-dominated societies, and can create wider economic opportunities.

A question-and-answer discussion followed the talk, and the evening also considered ongoing issues facing the EDP and how it was adapting to circumstances and with experience to improve the tactics, strategy and targeting of support.

Issues raised included dealing with low or slow success rates; high costs and challenges for rural enterprises (distance, electricity supply, volatile markets, uncertain climate); difficulties in obtaining business advice; cooperatives versus private limited enterprises; women-friendly versus women-owned businesses; managing relationships with multiple stakeholders, including philanthropists providing time and money; and moving from a market approach towards an enterprise approach.

The event also introduced the audience to the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network (on Twitter @GlobalSEN). Supported by the Cabinet Office, this platform works with social entrepreneurs around the world, pooling their learning, models and expertise.

Overall, the talk was an excellent starting point for GEW 2015 at Birkbeck and SOAS.

GEW Bazaar

Small-scale and social enterprises led by women were also prominent at the Bazaar in the SOAS junior common room on 18 November, a Birkbeck/SOAS version for GEW of an event that SOAS holds roughly once a month.

At the event, SOAS Student Enterprise Officer Issy Schmidt explained that the Bazaar exemplifies the college’s enterprise provision, offering a platform to entrepreneurial students and alumni, and invited external entrepreneurs and small-scale enterprises.

The partnership also found a venue for an event involving a project that perhaps epitomises entrepreneurship’s welfare role: on Tuesday 17 November, Birkbeck’s Clore Management Centre hosted the launch of the book Yeshialem Learns About Fistula, by SOAS student and founder of the Women’s Health Organization International, Habiba Cooper Diallo.

This children’s book, about a medical condition that can result from childbirth, is of great social rather than commercial value, and publication required considerable entrepreneurial ability from the author. Together, Birkbeck and SOAS played a part in promoting this book, in providing a platform for a project that perhaps represented an aspect of these colleges’ partnership in promoting social enterprise for GEW 2015.

Businesses at the Bazaar included Women Worldwide, founded by director Susan Ma, in October 2014 as a platform to sell products made by women, “supporting these women to earn a living through craft, and not through charity”.

On display were an enticing range of creams, jewellery and other beautifully handcrafted items sourced globally, and Susan saw her company as addressing a need that extends beyond developing countries: “It’s for women all over [the world]… We’ve got women who are refugees here… It’s about trying to create opportunity through trade, and for women to be able to take their own direction in life and make their own choices – and money helps that.”

She also considers a wider economic argument for women’s empowerment: “One projection I have heard is that if we empowered all women in the world today, its economy would increase by $30 trillion.” That’s almost twice US GDP in 2014.

Susan was one of the day’s external participants. An invitation to speak at a careers event led to the Bazaar and involvement in Student Hub internship schemes.

Another enterprise at the Bazaar was the henna stall run by economics students Khadeeja Shahid and Sharmeen Shani. Besides raising money for the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, the two entrepreneurs were helping to extend henna’s cultural reach in London – and generate male as well as female interest in a form of body art reassuringly less permanent than tattooing.

Social anthropology student Tayler Ulmer has brought her family’s baking from back home in Chicago to SOAS, giving others the chance to try it at the Bazaar. Did she see herself as a global entrepreneur? “Sure,” the Bazaar had given her a taste for business….. and for London “I love it here… It’s very diverse – just a great experience… I think I want to live here – as long as I can make my own food!”

Starting a business

For those inspired to turn ideas into business, perhaps by events during GEW, Enterprise Club at Birkbeck on Wednesday 18 November offered some important insights on first steps.

The evening’s facilitator, Ben Leon, founded executive coaching and consulting company Bravo Lima, and has extensive experience in many areas of business, particularly travel.

Points addressed included planning – strategy on one page – and realistic schedules divided into timeframes of six months, three months and one month, with the customer at the centre of the strategy.

Highlighting examples from his own career as well as case studies of other businesses, Ben indirectly discussed what Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, in a Harvard Business Review article, call “creating ‘shared value’ – generating economic value in a way that also produces value for society by addressing its challenges”. Doing this could help start-ups build a virtuous cycle of recommendations and advocates.

Reflecting Birkbeck’s student diversity, international differences were discussed, ranging from policy, regulation, and tax complexities around starting new businesses in France, to attracting international trade to Brazil, and ecommerce in Georgia.

The discussion identified various resources. For business mentoring, Birkbeck has Enterprise Pathways, Mentoring Pathways, and the Work Readiness Programme. Outside Birkbeck there are the Institute of Directors’ 99 Programme and student membership, Meetup, London Small Business Centre and general interest events on Eventbrite.

For business services there are Upwork or Fiverr to find freelancers to work with, firms like Veale Wasbrough Vizards for start-up-specific legal services, Escape the City to seek like-minded people looking to change career, and Worthwhile for those seeking to start a career with social impact.

Concluding, Ben warned that start-ups could be rewarding but hard work. While those concerned with intellectual property rights and protecting ideas would have to take care with what and how to communicate, the speaker outlined the benefits of sharing the burden by taking advice, sharing ideas and meeting others with complementary strengths.

Speed Mentoring: Key Note Speaker

Dr Harveen Chugh (pictured right) leads a Speed Mentoring session

Dr Harveen Chugh (pictured right) leads a Speed Mentoring session

The Speed Mentoring event on 19th November in the Court Room of Senate House, was the perfect opportunity for entrepreneurial students to get some one-to-one expert advice on a whole range of subjects. The Key note speaker was Dr Harveen Chugh, who recently established her own entrepreneurship consultancy business working with universities, start-ups and the government.

During her speech, Harveen suggested that starting an enterprise was down to the passion and desire of the individual, and firmly believes that there is an entrepreneurial personality with specific traits. These traits include creativity, being innovative, a risk-taker and an idea-generator. Entrepreneurial individuals could be motivated by money, ambition, or not having any fear of failure.

She also pointed out that more enterprise support is available now than ever before, with last year seeing a record-breaking 581,713 start-ups in the UK, which meant it ranked 4th most entrepreneurial country in the world, and the most entrepreneurial in Europe.

Harveen drew attention to Accelerators, which can speed up the process of launching businesses and typically take equity for seed funding to help finance the start-up. She highlighted the importance of selecting an Accelerator which has the most relevant network of contacts. She also emphasised the proximity of London’s own Tech City: with so many experienced entrepreneurs so close, it is incredibly helpful to get involved at the silicon roundabout. As she pointed out, it is the third-largest technology start-up cluster in the world after San Francisco and New York City.

Harveen highlighted the importance of being prepared to be able to discuss a new start-up with anyone at any time, as funding can come from anywhere. Harveen also encouraged students to organise sale meetings in order to experience the process and take feedback on focus areas.

She concluded by drawing attention to an important attitude shift, where it is now ‘cool to fail’ in business. Many employers see the passion and courage necessary for establishing a start-up as positive attributes. There are also now more opportunities available for entrepreneurially-minded individuals within organisations to lead and develop projects.

Her final words encouraged her audience to go out, take the risk, and enjoy it!

Speed Mentoring Sessions

Harveen’s speech was then followed by 1-2-1 speed mentoring for students with 11 specialist entrepreneurial mentors, allowing students the opportunity to discuss their enterprise ideas and gain valuable advice and insight into starting their own business.

The mentors were:

  • Dr Harveen Chugh, Entrepreneurship Consultant
  • Natalie Campbell, Founder of ‘A Very Good Company’; Director of ‘Kensington Creates’
  • Vivi Friedgut, Founder of ‘Blackbullion’
  • Asami Miyamoto, Founder of ‘Asami Language Services’
  • Ben Leon, Managing Partner of ‘Bravo Lima’
  • Frederique Prevost, Founder of ‘Aware Square’
  • Nishal Desai, Co-Founder of ‘Imin’
  • Ilma Ibrisevic, Business Development Associate at ‘Balloon Ventures’
  • Naqiyah Sultan, Founder, ‘Kashka’
  • Yasmin Desai, Founder of ‘thestartupgirl.co.uk’
  • Anisah Osman Britton, Founder of ‘Allia.io’

“There was a wonderful buzz in the room for the Enterprise Speed Mentoring event. As a mentor, whilst the 1-to-1s with the students were short and intense, I was impressed with their level of preparedness for the sessions and their engagement.  The incredible richness of diversity of business ideas the students brought to the table was inspiring, and the feedback received was the most rewarding.”

Ben Leon, Managing Partner, Bravo Lima

Tea & Cake Drop In.

This was an opportunity for students to drop in and gain specific one to one advice related to their business ideas or enterprises provided by Claire Renwick, Student Enterprise Manager, SOAS.

Advice included:

  • Branding
  • Funding
  • Marketing
  • Target Market
  • Networking

The event was an opportunity for students at all stages of their enterprise journey to have an honest chat regarding their business idea in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.

The way ahead

Together, Birkbeck and SOAS presented a variety of exciting events during GEW 2015. The experience offers an enticing prospect for future collaborations. Please visit Enterprise Pathways for upcoming opportunities.

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Keeping students competitive

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This post was contributed by Charles Shaw, founder of the Birkbeck Economics & Finance Society

Students at the Venture Capital Investment Competition (CM 2016. All rights reserved)

Students at the Venture Capital Investment Competition (Venture Capital Movement or VCM 2016, All Rights Reserved)

The best thing about studying in London, apart from the outstanding education options, is the sheer number of opportunities to expand one’s professional network. This is particularly important for those students seeking careers in finance or professional services, where tens or even hundreds of applicants are often chasing the same job.

As many students are no doubt discovering, an excellent academic record is necessary but not sufficient as employers often want relevant work experience and excellence in an extra-curricular activity. Internships are also rare, making it at times particularly challenging to obtain practical experience and to gain relevant insight in one’s chosen future industry.

With this in mind, Birkbeck’s Economics & Finance Society enters student teams into select competitions, with the hope that preparation for and participation in such contests augments their understanding of financial concepts, and sharpens their technical skills in preparation for the challenges of the job market.

Last month, the Society entered a team in the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC). This event, supported by the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association, is designed to simulate the analysis, preparation, and delivery that private equity and investment professionals engage in when evaluating risk-return trade-offs and executing exit options. Taking place over the course of one day, students from multiple disciplines have the opportunity to test their understanding of the praxis of corporate finance against top teams from other universities.

About the competition

Although this marked the first time that the competition took place in London, VCIC enjoys a strong tradition of participation in United States. The original Venture Capital Investment Competition began at UNC Kenan-Flagler in 1998 as an educational event for MBAs to learn about venture funding.

The format has largely remained unchanged. Experienced investors act as judges and students have the opportunity to interact with actual entrepreneurs to analyse capital structure of young firms and decide potential investment opportunities; students work in teams to conduct due diligence, look through topical, complex business problems and present valuation, investment analysis, and relevant proposals concerning syndication, option pools, and anti-dilution measures.

VCIC in London

The event had a strong London flavour to it as a number of the capital’s institutions were represented. Eight teams were participating in total, with students from LBS, LSE, Queen Mary’s, UCL, King’s, Cambridge and Birkbeck. The event received wide coverage in diverse international media, including outlets in United States and Singapore’s The Straits Times reflecting the London’s international workforce and diverse student population. In addition, all of the participating start-ups were London-based technology companies, reflecting the capital’s vibrant network of tech hubs.

The competition was organised under the aegis of UCL School of Management, and served as a both a training ground and a marketplace. On the one hand, future finance professionals were able to learn a great deal about technology commercialization and investment due diligence by working with owners of actual start-up companies. On the other hand, students were able to engage with the full spectrum of entrepreneurial activity, from a company’s planning and execution strategy, to the due diligence process for potential investments. In turn, firms’ owners benefit from students’ management insight and strategic recommendations they otherwise might not obtain.

Although the competition is new to London, it enjoys a strong tradition of participation in United States. Indeed, the event, which originated in North Carolina in the midst of the technology bubble as an opportunity for graduate students to learn about venture funding, is now in its 18th year. As a result of this tradition, the winning team, LSE, was invited to take part in the VCIC International Finals at UNC Kenan-Flagler in North Carolina, United States.

Deepening understanding of financial processes

2 VCM 2016. All rights reservedDuring the competition, students were able to deepen their understanding of the links between potential investors and business owners. Such links include, for example, both the explicit contractual arrangements between entrepreneurs and venture capital providers, and the implicit contract which gives a successful entrepreneur the option to reacquire control from the venture capitalist by using a floatation as a means by which the venture capitalist exits from an investment. Students were also able to gauge the viability of alternative forms of investment such as acquisitions, alliances, and licensing.

The company evaluation case-studies provided up-to-date and real-life corporate finance challenges that offered participants practical experiences in the field of financial services. Overall, the competition was an opportunity to interact with students from other top academic institutions, to immerse in a global business context where competitors are potential partners, and to become familiar with the challenges of managing a company.

The importance of gaining field-based knowledge

Was it a valuable experience for participants? Without a doubt, yes. Students of investment have long been interested in how firms can achieve growth. In this vein, a long tradition of scholarship exists on the various tools that firms can employ to pursue financial growth and corporate development. While there are extensive opportunities available for learning about various means for business development and corporate growth, both at undergraduate and graduate level, there are relatively few opportunities for students to augment the entrepreneurial concepts learned in lectures and seminars with practical field-based knowledge. There are even fewer opportunities to solve realistic business problems with a corporate finance focus under the direct guidance of senior M&A practitioners, industry experts and company directors.

It is hoped, through the continued engagement of London’s business and investment leaders, as well as through our academic network, that we can help prepare our society members for job market success. This competition, and others like it, can help understand how business strategy would flow down to operations and to financial performance of a business. It highlights how competition, contracts and external factors dictate business in terms of pricing and quality. It was also an opportunity to integrate appreciation of demand, pricing, legal factors, finance and accounting, and strategy, towards a common goal of financial performance.

The Birkbeck team consisted of: Dimitrios Bissias (MSc Economics), Ahmed Razzaq (LLM), Hannah Duck (BSc Statistics and Economics), and Ved Vyass Boojihawon (BSc Financial Economics with Accounting).

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