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Over the last several decades, there has been a growing recognition of the precarious nature of employment in creative economies, including craft industries. Despite this work, little research has explored how the rise of the platform economy is affecting labour market precarity. Our article explores the nature of precarity in craft blogging, looking in particular at the domestic arts and crafts. We examine how a growing number of women have left other forms of employment to engage in sewing, knitting, quilting, cooking and baking. Many women have also taken to blogging about their endeavors. However, there is a paucity of research on the variety of types of work that craft bloggers engage in and the challenges they face. Drawing upon interviews with female domestic arts bloggers in Canada and the United States, the article explores the work that craft bloggers engage in, the space and time of labour, and the variable sources of income that they access through their work. The article analyzes the experiences of precarious labour that arise at the interface of craft and the internet, and the multiple identities that stem from hybrid forms of creative work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Twitter is a microblogging platform increasingly used in medicine to overcome geographic barriers and promote international connections. Tweets, the 280-character microblogs, are catalogued by hashtags (#). This study evaluates and describes the participation, content, and impact of Twitter at the 2015 Canadian Geriatrics Society (CGS) Annual Scientific Meeting, during which #CGS2015 was the official conference hashtag. Methods Twitter transcripts of #CGS2015 were obtained from Symplur to prospectively analyze tweets for content and quantitative metrics. TweetReach was used to retrospectively analyze tweets with the hashtag #CGS2014 from the 2014 meeting for growth analysis. The impact of Twitter on the conference experience was derived from questionnaires. Results There were 1,491 #CGS2015 tweets, 40% of which were original. Tweet content was categorized into conference sessions (38.8%), networking (29.2%), resource sharing (17.6%), and conference promotion (14.3%). Of the 279 participants, 60% were non-Canadian. The questionnaire data from 86 respondents demonstrated generally positive experiences with Twitter, particularly with facilitating collegial interactions, resource sharing, and insight into sessions not attended live. The most cited drawback was divided attention when using personal devices. Analysis comparing #CGS2014 to #CGS2015 demonstrated increases in total participants (50 to 279), number of tweets (434 to 1,491) and impressions (155,600 to 943,825). Conclusions Twitter engagement at the CGS 2015 annual meeting enabled international participation in networking, resource sharing, and online discussions of sessions. Future conferences may benefit from a workshop on Twitter basics for attendees and presenters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For people living the dramatic biographic change of a migration process, online communities turn out to be very important as they can meet other migrants online and exchange their experiences. Within these Communities of Practice (Wenger 1998, henceforth CoP), individuals not only share practices - in our case, the practice of becoming and being a migrant, of doing migration - but at the same time they share opinions and orientations, their social, cultural and/or linguistic features, values and experiences. In doing this, they jointly (re)construct new migrant identities and become part of a community in which the practices of migration are the main focus of communication. This is also the case in virtual communities of immigrants to Quebec. Our corpus consists of (mainly) francophone and hispanophone weblogs. In this article, we consider identity as fragmented and multifold, dynamic and actively negotiated by means of communicative practices. The focus of the current article is placed on different multilingual practices, including the use of different varieties of one language. By making use of all the linguistic resources available to them and which they feel to be able to claim as their 'own', members of the different CoP index to each other their feeling of having multiple identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several theorists have entertained the possibility that the egalitarian nature of Internet-based discussion may facilitate meaningful democratic deliberative discussions amongst citizens. This article provides a preliminary empirical test of these claims by examining the extent to which blogs and blogroll communities act as forums for such deliberations. The analysis uses a dataset derived from a content analysis performed on blogs from three Canadian partisan blogrolls in October 2005. We perform three tests of the deliberative qualities of blog-based discussions: (a) whether discussion is characterized by equality of participation; (b) whether bloggers discuss substantive issues; and (c) whether bloggers engage constructively in discussions with political opponents. We find that this online discussion does exhibit some deliberative characteristics but that this discussion is often characterized by inequality of discussion, a focus on non-substantive issues, and unconstructive engagement between bloggers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds upon current hyperlink mapping research to determine the degree of party loyalty and partisanship in the Canadian political blogosphere. The article develops a hyperlink-based method of determining blogger endorsements as a means of tracking cross-party recommendations. The article concludes that bloggers affiliated with the governing Conservative Party of Canada exhibit the most cohesive ideological and party loyal set of blog recommendation links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: A randomised controlled trial found no evidence of an impact of a blog written by a registered dietitian (RD) on vegetables and fruit and milk and alternatives (e.g. soya-based beverages, yogurt and cheese) consumption - two food groups included in the 2007 version of the Canadian Food Guide - in mothers and their children compared with a control condition. To investigate these null findings, the current study explored participants' perceptions of engagement with the blog and its influence on their dietary behaviours., Design: Mixed methods process evaluation using a post-intervention satisfaction questionnaire and a content analysis of mothers' comments on the blog (n 213 comments)., Setting: French-speaking adult mothers living in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada (n 26; response rate = 61·9 % of the total sample randomised to exposure to the blog)., Results: Most mothers (n 20/26; 76·9 %) perceived the blog useful to improve their dietary habits - with the most appreciated blog features being nutritional information and healthy recipes and interactions with fellow participants and the RD. Mothers reported several facilitators (e.g. meal planning and involving children in household food activities) and few barriers (e.g. lack of time and children's food preferences) to maternal and child consumption of vegetables and fruit and milk and alternatives. Lack of time was the principal reported barrier affecting blog engagement., Conclusions: The findings from the current study suggest that blogs written by an RD may be an acceptable format of intervention delivery among mothers, but may not alleviate all the barriers to healthy eating and engagement in a dietary intervention.

This article analyzes how lesbian mommy bloggers in Canada are using their blogs as forums for self-expression and a means to form community, as they record their unique experiences as queer parents. Further, it argues that lesbian mommy blogging is documenting a subtle form of homophobia that exists in Canada in terms of social acceptance. Although there is legal acceptance of queer families, society has not necessarily caught up with the law. These blogs show that lesbian parents in Canada still struggle with issues of equality, including difficulties being "out," invisibility, and having to advocate for the non-birth parent.

Objective: The notion of "suffering" is understood in very different ways in a variety of contexts. In palliative care, the relief and prevention of suffering is considered to be a fundamental goal (Pastrana et al., 2008). However, the avoidance of suffering has also been used as an argument by those campaigning for the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide (Finlay, 2009). In reflecting upon suffering in these two contexts, we were intrigued by Finlay's (2009) contention that to laypeople, the phrase "'unbearable suffering' conjures up images of patients on their deathbeds wracked with uncontrolled pain" (p. 1841)., Method: This article explores how suffering is used and understood in an "everyday" discourse, by analyzing comments posted to a website debating assisted suicide in the context of the Canadian case of Sue Rodriguez., Results: Using a broad social approach to discourse analysis (Tonkiss, 2004), three themes emerged in our analysis: (1) when people suffer, (2) how people are understood to suffer, and (3) how suffering should be dealt with. We also examined what was not said in this discussion: there was little consideration of the more holistic goals of palliative care and how suffering might be understood and managed in ways other than within the frame of assisted suicide., Significance of Results: Paying attention to the everyday discourse of suffering is important because, as members of society, we all play a role in negotiating the meaning of suffering. Such meaning has a significant impact upon patients and palliative care professionals alike.