Working on worrying less
WORRYING AND RUMINATING about work during evenings and weekends impairs sleep quality, and leads to lower well-being and performance, according to a series of studies involving UK healthcare and central government employees. The research assessed the nature and
New wave of North African militants
MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF North African radicalism as a uniform phenomenon is wide of the mark, according to a three-year study of radicalisation in North Africa. “People tend to ‘lump’ together militancy in North Africa when a more nuanced and balanced view is required if you really want to understand the situation,” argues Alison Pargeter. “Militancy in Morocco, for example, has very different characteristics from militancy in Libya and to understand this properly we need to consider the different national or, more appropriately, local experiences.” Researchers set out to analyse what factors have had and continue to have a bearing on Islamic radicalisation in North Africa, in particular what local factors may have fuelled support for Islamist alternatives in the region. Researchers interviewed North African Islamists including militants and former militants, as well as officials, defence lawyers, human rights activists and the families of suspects imprisoned on terrorist charges. A key finding is that a new generation of militants has emerged that differs in many respects from that of the 1980s and 1990s. “This new generation is less overtly politicised,” explains Pargeter. “Up to the 1990s even those in militant groups had some sort of directed political goal and were also able to articulate the grievances felt by certain parts of
the population. In marked contrast, today’s militants seem to be driven by rejectionism, despondency, religious fervour and, in many cases, appear to be wrapped up in a reckless nihilism. Where violence used to be almost a by- product of the political environment, for this new generation it appears to have become an end in itself.” This reckless nihilism may, researchers say, be the consequence of the lack of progress made by earlier militants. Today’s militants seem to radicalise quickly and have shallow religious knowledge. The internet is not their biggest influence. Rather, these young militants are often heavily influenced by individuals within their own circle and by the radical ideology advocated by religious satellite channels from Egypt and the Gulf. While today’s militants may be inspired by Al-Qa’ida, particularly in terms of tactics, they appear largely driven by local preoccupations and grievances. “Despite repeated efforts by the State and by older generations of Islamists to portray this new current as something imported from abroad, the disaffection has deep roots within individual North African societies,” Pargeter concludes. n
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Contact Alison Pargeter, University of Cambridge Email
alisonpargeter@aol.com Tel 07958 643820 ESRC Grant Number RES-181-25-0022 New Security Challenges: Radicalisation and Violence Programme
SPRING 2011 SOCIETY NOW 7
impact of poor psychological detachment from work during leisure time (eg, evenings and weekends) among UK public sector employees. The same research also evaluated a brief mindfulness-based training programme, which was delivered to employees in the workplace. “We found the training resulted in
significant reductions in psychological distress, rumination and worry, and improved life satisfaction over a five-month evaluation period,” explains researcher Dr Paul Flaxman. Two key implications of this research
are: first, that thinking about work during leisure time is most harmful to our well-being and recovery when it takes the form of worry and rumination (known as ‘perseverative cognition’); and second, that mindfulness-based training delivered in the workplace appears to be an effective and efficient method for improving employees’ mental health.n
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Contact Dr Paul Flaxman, City University London Email
Paul.Flaxman.1@city.ac.uk Telephone 020 7040 8484 ESRC Grant Number RES-061-25-0232
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