Newswise — Predictions, prognostications or peaks into the future. Whatever they’re called, we all want to know what’s ahead for the new year.
Seven faculty members at Binghamton University identify seven different issues, trends or events we’re likely to hear more about in 2011.
1: Changing the way we giveFrom David Campbell, assistant professor of public administration
“I predict that there will be new attention to philanthropy and technology in 2011. In 2010, giving by texting was all the rage. Entrepreneurial nonprofit leaders continue to look for ways to identify and connect with new donors. Mobile applications and the proliferation of marketing information gathered online will contribute to increased microtargeting of potential donors. Look for more partnerships between nonprofits and sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, which provide bargain shopping opportunities in cities around the United States and Canada. This development will reignite debates about whether such partnerships compromise nonprofit independence and core nonprofit values.”
2. Entrepreneurship is essentialFrom Eugene Krentsel, assistant vice president, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships
“In 2011, Republicans and Democrats will agree that the road to economic recovery in the United States begins with a return to the basic principle of promoting and incentivizing entrepreneurialism. That concept has been, remains now and will remain the brilliance of the American dream. Innovation and entrepreneurship have always flourished during economic crises: Many companies with what are today household names were born at those times, and in turn, they have ultimately contributed to tremendous job creation. Both sides of the political aisle will, in 2011, take steps to promote easier access to capital and entrepreneurship-friendly tax and intellectual property regulations. The entrepreneurial mindset will once again be at the forefront of American life. It will no longer be optional; it will be essential.”
3. Workers rights will weakenFrom David Cingranelli, professor of political science
“In the next few years, expect to see continued decline in government protection of the rights of workers around the world, including freedom to collectively bargain, strike, and join unions. Respect for these rights declined worldwide between 2008 and 2009, especially in Africa and Oceania. By summer 2011, staff and students of the Cingranelli and Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Data Project (www.humanrightsdata.org) will have gathered and quantified raw data from 2010, but I expect this downward trend in government respect for worker rights to continue for the next several years. The downward pressure on governments to weaken labor protection laws and/or enforcement is due to the increased global competition for foreign investment and the desire by most, if not all, governments to produce goods for export at the lowest possible cost. Even in rich democracies like the United States, worker rights are eroding as factory jobs are moved to countries with lower labor costs.”
4. New accounting rules: ours or theirs?From Sara Reiter, professor of accounting
“The new year will see an important crossroads for financial reporting in the United States and abroad. The Securities and Exchange Commission will make their decision on whether and how quickly U.S. firms will switch to International Accounting Standards as currently used by the European Union and more than 100 countries around the globe. While this change would be an important step toward global financial markets, critics point out that U.S. accounting rules have long been considered superior to accounting rules elsewhere and that the costs of conversion are staggering. Many feel that a process of convergence where both U.S. and International standards are changed to come closer to each other would be a better long-term solution.”
5. Rethinking a link between blood pressure and Alzheimer’sFrom Kenneth McLeod, professor of bioengineering
“I believe we can expect a sea change in our thinking about hypotension, or low blood pressure. For decades, medicine has focused on hypertension, or high blood pressure, as there are numerous, well-known complications of hypertension. The belief became that the lower one’s blood pressure, the better. Recent research on the cause of Alzheimer’s disease may reverse this thinking. While it was hypothesized that Alzheimer’s was caused by the brain cells making too much of a protein called beta amyloid, which then clumped together to kill brain cells, several studies (the latest published by Science in December) have now shown this thinking is incorrect. Rather, people with Alzheimer’s make normal amounts of amyloid, but it does not get cleared out of the brain adequately. The mechanism by which waste products are cleared from the brain is a “reverse peristaltic pump,” which only works if a person’s blood pressure is sufficiently high. While we have long known that chronic low blood pressure sometimes accompanies dementia, we never understood why. The connection has now been established and will become a research focus as scientists realize that people with hypotension have a decreased ability to flush amyloid from the brain.”
6. Electronics will be the latest trend in literacyFrom Karen Bromley, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, coordinator of the literacy program
“Electronic literacy will play an increasingly important role in K-12 classrooms. Wikis, blogs, podcasts, speech to print technologies like Smart Pens, web quests, word clouds, etc. will find their way into the curriculum as teachers learn to honor and use students’ out-of-school literacies to build traditional in-school literacy.”
7. New needs for nursesFrom Gale Spencer, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, Decker Chair in Community Health Nursing
“The new Affordable Care Act will require a new way of thinking about how we provide health care in the future. First of all health care screening and immunizations will be funded, which will encourage people to seek primary care to stay well and to get screened to treat disease as early as possible. Primary care will play a major role in health care, and nurse practitioners will fill in where there is an absence of primary care physicians. At the other end of the health-disease spectrum, children with pre-existing conditions will not be denied care, and healthcare plans can no longer place lifetime limits on care, which will increase healthcare costs. In order to keep these costs under control, people will continue to be discharged from the hospital “quicker and sicker.” This will require a greater need for nurses to provide care in the home, at less cost, and telemonitoring will be used to make sure that the patient is being monitored between nursing visits. Thus, nurses will play a major role in the new healthcare order.”
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