Towards an Inclusive Creativity: reCreating Europe for World Intellectual Property Day 2021

Authors: Giulia Priora – Postdoctoral researcher, Institute of Law Politics and Development, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies Pis, Caterina Sganga – Associate Professor, Institute of Law Politics and Development, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies Pisa, Arianna Martinelli – Associate Professor, Institute of Economics, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa

Social Structures

ReCreating Europe Logo. Mustard background with blue starts and white shapes underneath forming the shape of a lightbulb
ReCreating Europe Logo

Today more than ever, digital technologies are revolutionizing the ways we express our creativity, access culture, information, and knowledge. Technology and, in particular, the Internet have the potential to bring an unprecedented democratization of our practices related to both the production and consumption of music, literature, news, movies, and so many other intellectual and artistic works. However, the reality still presents considerable uncertainties and profound inequalities: among the main obstacles to a sound democratization of creative and cultural processes are the complexity and obsolescence of laws and norms involved, the lack of awareness thereof, and a growing digital divide.

Copyright law is a fundamental building block in this shift towards digital creativity and digital access to culture. By protecting the creators’ exclusive rights to exploit their works and regulating the limits of such protection, copyright law essentially aims at striking a balance between the safeguard of creators and investors, on the one side, and end-users’ interests, on the other. The discipline boasts a long-standing European history, having started interacting and regulating the “offline” creative world over three centuries ago. The entry into the scene of digital technologies represents a significant disruption in the EU and national copyright legal frameworks as well as an opportunity to modernize the law.

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Let’s talk about non-verbal communication

Stories/Lived Experience

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Authors: Shauna Louise Byrne, Sales Assistant, studying Sign Language and QQI Level 5 Medical Terminology & Kimberly Wright, Postgraduate LLM student Global Legal Studies

Shauna Louise Byrne (LHS) Kimberly Wright (RHS)

“My name is Shauna Louise, and I was diagnosed with profound hearing loss at the age of 2. I contracted Scarlet Fever and have since lost 100 per cent of my ability to hear high frequency sounds. Throughout childhood, my teenage years and continuing into adulthood, my only form of communication is lip-reading.

The pandemic has highlighted just how much I rely on lip-reading as a primary method of communication in addition to the struggle of those around me to accommodate me by removing their face masks. Although, many deemed this as high-risk and left me feeling extremely isolated in my social and work life, resulting in me feeling as though I was a burden to those around me.

Consequently, I feel no other choice but to remove myself from social gatherings while it is required to wear a mask in public. The risk of asking someone to remove their masks when speaking to me isn’t a responsibility I want to bear. This goes as far as saying that I will only engage with people on video call as I can see their lips and it is safer, thereby lessening my physical social interactions where possible.

I have no shame in being Deaf and I embrace it as much as I can. I recently purchased hearing aids which allows me to pick up background noises. Furthermore, it has allowed me to connect to my phone where I can video call with ease, listen to music and has even allowed me to connect to my laptop so I can achieve my dream of completing an online course. This would have not been made possible without such hearing assistive technologies. Nevertheless, it does not provide me with the ability to communicate with others.

I think more awareness needs to be echoed in terms of accommodating those who are Deaf and hard of hearing. For instance, cinemas have their hearing aid loop signs to help those who wear hearing aids. I think all establishments should adopt similar strategies to allow those who are Deaf to have access to different ways of communication. In addition, I strongly believe that sign language should be provided as an optional language alongside Spanish, French, German, and others. It gives the opportunity to enable everyone to engage in a form of communication between the hearing world and the Deaf world” –Shauna Louise Byrne.

Shauna’s experience has prompted me to reflect on the rights of persons with disabilities, and on the need to value their diversity.

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International Day of Sport for Development and Peace

Author: Ana Geppert, Masters student of Global Health at VU Amsterdam, intern with the ALL Institute at Maynooth University, in partnership with Loughborough University.

Social Lives

Ana Geppert Profile Picture
Ana Geppert

Sport can be a powerful tool contributing to community development. Engagement in Sports has the ability to unify people from the most diverse backgrounds, as well as strengthen the relationship we have with ourselves. In many ways, the practice of engaging in Sport (in the broadest sense of the concept) is like accessing a gateway to so many different levels of society. From our closest surrounding context (micro level) to the highest structures of society (macro level). It can help accessing community services and assistive technologies, which are all crucial to community development. In my discussion today, I am speaking about Sport broadly – not elite-level performance, but rather the every-day sports practices many of us engage in. Encompassing everything from physical activity, to exercise but also recreational play.

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World Autism Awareness Day: Inclusion in the Workplace

Author: Marco Lombardi, Department of Social Educational Care Work and Researcher at Equality Research Collective, Hogent University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Ghent, Belgium.

Social Lives

Marco Lombardi Profile Picture
Marco Lombardi

Since its establishment in 2007, World Autism Awareness Day has grown up. It began as a celebrative day to facilitate acknowledgment of persons with Autism and the recognitions of supports enable participation in society. A few years have passed and the awareness of persons with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has increased. The improvement has brought greater visibility, respect and access to treatments.  Guidelines have been developed worldwide and more personalized supports have been tailored and delivered for pupils and teenagers. As the awareness grow up, persons with ASD have grown too. This growing awareness has revealed different barriers to the participation to society, especially for adults, that have not been considered at earlier ages.

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Tragedy and Endeavour: Society and Disability in the Post-Modern Era

Social Structures

Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisted Living and Learning Institute (ALL Institute)

Matthew McKenna

On March 24th, we celebrate the United Nations International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. This day honours the memory of victims of gross and systematic human rights violations and promotes the right to truth and justice. In this context, it reminds us of historical and contemporary violations of the rights of persons with disabilities who, in many regions, still experience institutionalization, forced treatments and conditions amounting to torture. This piece briefly discusses the post-modern chronology of suffering endured by persons with disabilities in the struggle for equal treatment and recognition. It emphasises the importance of remembering victims of the past by advancing the struggle for full-spectrum equality for persons with disabilities in the modern world.

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Disability and urban accessibility in cities: how can we improve?

Author: Nicola Posteraro, Qualified Italian Lawyer, Post-Doctoral Research fellow in Administrative Law, University of Milan, Qualified as Associate Professor of Administrative Law

Social Structures

Dr Nicola Posteraro

According to data compiled by the National Association of Workers with health conditions or impairments (ANMIL), there are cities in Italy where people with disabilities can live their life and exercise their free movement right on an equal basis with others, and other cities that are still very hostile. Accessibility interventions, when undertaken, are often inadequate. This is due to the lack or limitation of public funding available, and to the regulatory fragmentation, which certainly does not help those who have to apply the legal provisions on accessibility. Not all residents are able to have equal access to the services of the city, to participate in municipal decision-making processes and to benefit from the economic growth of the city. This is a problem that negatively impacts on the fundamental right to health of people with disabilities: in fact, being able to access places and public facilities allows mobility and amplifies the network of social relations. While the data above concerns Italy, a similar situation can be found in many other countries.

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Including Patients and the Public in Research

Stories/Lived Experience

Author: Jamie Howell; PhD researcher, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University

Animation, 6 people on a blue background 3 healthcare practitioners 2 elderly people 1 person in a wheelchair and a female.
BioMed Central-

In recent years, health researchers have begun to embrace the concept of patient and public involvement (PPI). Rather than conducting research on or for various populations, we have begun to move towards working with patients and the public by prioritizing their needs and concerns. This allows researchers to learn from those who have lived experience and can help them design research projects which are more beneficial to the population being researched.

I first heard of PPI during my MSc, when my supervisor, Dr Rebecca Maguire encouraged me to include aspects of PPI in my research. Dr Maguire has worked as both a researcher and as a patient advocate, and her expertise has been invaluable to my own research.

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Lá Idirnáisiúnta na Máthairtheangacha agus an tOideachas sa Mháthairtheanga

Audio Version

Lá Idirnáisiúnta na Máthairtheangacha agus an tOideachas sa Mháthairtheanga Údair: Is Ollamh Comhlach le Dlí in Ollscoil Mhá Nuad í an Dr Noelle Higgins agus Is í Riarthóir Theagasc na Gaeilge in Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge, OÉ Gaillimh í an Dr Dorothy Ní Uigín- in Maynooth University, Ireland. Voiced by Caoimhe Ní Fhaogáin.

A Feminist Ethic of Care Can Deliver a Post Pandemic Careful Recovery [i]

Social Lives

Author: Pauline Cullen , Associate Professor Department of Sociology Maynooth University

Pictured Dr Pauline Cullen

“The majority of healthcare workers are women, and both paid and unpaid caring roles mostly fall to women as well. Then there is the additional challenge of increased pressure on the domestic front,” writes campaign group Covid Women’s Voices, a  diverse range of  female healthcare workers, teachers, academics, lawyers and others that observe daily the gendered realities of the pandemic. This group echoes calls from feminist organisations including the National Women’s Council that women’s voices are insufficiently heard during the pandemic.

The facts bear out their lived experience. Ireland ranks 101st in the world for women’s parliamentary representation.   Successive and severe lockdowns have closed schools, childcare and supports for older people and those with disabilities for long periods of time  placing significant burdens on women. Inconceivably, there are  no women on Ireland’s governmental committees on Health and Covid-19.

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Promoting Equal Participation and Eliminating Discrimination: Time to Change the Narrative.

Social Lives

Author: Mohamed Maalim – PhD Researcher, of the ALL Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University

Blue Butterfly with Brown slate background. Zero Discrimination Day 01 March 2021 wording in top right hand corner

The Zero Discrimination day is celebrated annually on the 1st day of March, to reflect on our rich human diversity and the need for equal opportunity to enjoy fundamental human rights, and to fight against discrimination in all its forms and manifestations. This year, above all previous, the ongoing global COVID-19 Pandemic with all its disruptive nature and the misfortune it has brought and caused, has also offered humanity a glimpse of its ‘non-discrimination’ attribute. The advent of COVID-19 reinforced upon us that we are all equal as humans in our susceptibility, our fear and concern for self and others, and indeed in our hope of getting back to as ‘normal life’ as possible or whatever that ‘normal’ means. 

Additionally, with Covid-19, we have adopted a common enemy enforcing upon us an almost military-type operation to fight back. The nations of the world in an unprecedented fashion formed ‘NATO’ type alliances and collaborative networks with the ‘Big Tech’ and ‘Big Pharma’ in a concerted effort to develop digital contact tracing and tracking apps‘ and vaccines, respectively.  Individual governments assumed the role of commanding officers alongside senior health personnel, frontline healthcare workers, and other so called ‘essential’ workers as the foot soldiers of the operation, while the general public’s hearts and minds were won by calls to stay at home to suppress the virus. 

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