Bee Industry

What It Is Like To Be A Bee

Lars Chittka | Princeton University Press | 21st November 2023 | U

A brave attempt to model the mentality of a bee by making inferences from the bee's environment and behaviour, in the tradition of Thomas Nagel (bats), Peter Godfrey-Smith (octopuses), and Kristin Andrews (crabs). Whatever the bee's actual worldview, it must be very different from our own. "Night or day, it is always dark in a typical honey-bee nest. Imagine a 100-story windowless skyscraper, as packed with people as a bus during rush hour. All main surfaces are vertical, and individuals are constantly scurrying up and down walls" (4,800 words)

Name Your Industry

Sarah Brownsberger | Hedgehog Review | 19th November 2023 | U

When a drop-down menu on a website asks what "industry" you work in, it is probably trying to slot you into a taxonomy approximating to what is now called the North American Industry Classification System, a box-ticking exercise which did a fairly decent job of listing every recognised line of paid work when it was was first compiled under the auspices of the United Nations in 1958, but which has been falling further and further behind the times ever since. "Poets, independent", are currently a line-item. Baristas, dog-walkers, videographers and Elvis-themed-wedding planners are not (3,020 words)