bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trade Unions and the National Training Reform Agenda in Australia, 1983—1996
Authors: Phillimore John
Published: March 2003

From its election in 1983 to its defeat in 1996, the Labor Government in Australia initiated major reforms to the vocational education and training (VET) system. Here the author examines these reforms from the perspective of ‘skilled‐oriented unionism’—a strategy explicitly followed by unions in Australia. While much progress was achieved, particularly at national and industry levels, enterprise‐based reform lagged behind, reflecting the relative strengths and weaknesses of union organisation. In addition, union conflict and uncertainty over the appropriate labour market orientation for VET adversely affected the reform agenda.
Higher Level Skills Training: Meeting the Needs of Small Businesses
Authors: Sadler‐Smith Eugene , Sargeant Adrian , Dawson Adele
Published: March 2003

In order for businesses to remain competitive it is suggested that across industry there is a requirement for ‘higher and broader’ skills. Universities have an important role to play in satisfying the need for higher level skills training for businesses of all sizes. With respect to small firms, the training and development provided by universities has traditionally been founded upon an educational/large firm model. In order to make significant in‐roads into the small firm training market it is argued that universities need to attend more closely to the specific needs of client organisations. One way in which the small firm higher level skills training market can be segmented is in terms of sector. The present study examines the higher level skills training needs of a sample of UK small firms from the perspective of sectoral variations. Differences between firms occupying different sectors were observed in terms of funding of training, responsibility for training and types of higher level skills training undertaken. Attitudes towards universities as training providers were generally favourable with little inter‐sectoral variation. It is argued that these findings need to be taken into account if universities are to address the real, as opposed to perceived or presumed, needs of small businesses. A systematic‐collaborative model of the customer‐supplier relationship for the small firm training market is put forward.
Training does not imply learning: the individual’s perspective
Authors: Antonacopoulou Elena P
Published: March 2003

Using recent empirical findings from an in‐depth study in the Financial Services Sector in the UK, this article provides new insights into the association between training and learning from the individual’s perspective. The analysis provides an account of the perceptions of individual managers across three Retail Banks regarding the role, significance and impact of training as a learning opportunity and shows the multiplicity of factors affecting whether individuals actually learn from training. The findings challenge some of the assumptions which have guided our thinking in the management training and development field. The implications of the findings for research and practice are considered.
Towards A Framework For The Comparative Analysis Of National Systems Of Skill Formation
Authors: Sung Johnny , Turbin Jill , Ashton David
Published: March 2003

This article builds on earlier attempts to develop a conceptual framework for the comparative analysis of training and skill formation systems. Following a critical review of previous approaches, the article identifies the main underlying relationships which shape national systems of skill formation. We identify four such ‘models’ of the skill formation process. These models show how such a framework can help us understand why societies have different approaches to the provision of education, training and skill formation and why there are significant differences in government policies towards training as they at tempt to respond to the challenges of globalisation.
Comparing managerial careers, management development and management education in the UK and the USA: some theoretical and practical considerations
Authors: Martin Graeme , Butler Mark
Published: March 2003

This article explores some of the issues surrounding changing patterns of managerial careers, management development and management education in the UK and the USA. It addresses three lines of questioning: the new rhetoric of careers in the new economy, the evidence on changing organisational forms and the implications for careers and management development and education, and the future of management education and the role of business schools. The article is intended as a ‘think piece’ and acts as a backdrop for a comparative study of management development in Scotland and California currently being undertaken by the authors.
Person‐environment fit and transfer of training
Authors: Awoniyi Enoch A. , Griego Orlando V. , Morgan George A.
Published: March 2003

Results support the hypothesis that individuals transfer their training to the job when their ‘real’ environment matches or fits the preferred ‘ideal’ environment. Five aspects of environment were assessed: supervisory encouragement, sufficient resources, worker’s perceived freedom, workload pressures, and perceived worker creativity. In addition to the traditional criteria of hiring people whose skills match the job, organizations might consider creating environments to match employees’ needs.
Globalization and the Corporations: The Case of the California Fortune 500
Authors: Sklair Leslie
Published: March 2003

This article argues that there is a genuine process of globalization taking place among the Fortune Global 500 corporations domiciled in California. Globalization is assessed in terms of four criteria: (1) foreign direct investment; (2) benchmarking and world best practice; (3) global corporate citizenship; and (4) global vision. The study is based on interviews in ten of the fifteen Global 500 corporations in California, plus one private corporation with comparable revenues. The interviews focused on the uses and meanings of globalization in corporate vocabularies and practices, and the salience of these four criteria. The interview findings and company, business press and scholarly publications provide substantial support for the thesis that a genuine process of globalization is taking place, even if it is more advanced in some corporations than others, and that this globalization has important effects on local and regional economies.

Cet article maintient qu'un processus réel de globalisation est en train de prendre place parmi les 500 compagnies globales Fortuneétablies en Californie. La globalisation est évaluée par quatre critères: (1) l'investis‐sement étranger direct; (2) les points de repère et la meilleure pratique dans le monde; (3) la citoyenneté corporative globale; et (4) une vision globale. Cette étude est basée sur des entrevues conduites dans dix des quinze compagnies globales 500 en Californie et dans une compagnie privée ayant des revenus comparables. Les entrevues portaient sur l'utilisation et la signification de la globalisation dans le vocabulaire et les pratiques des compagnies et sur l'importance de ces quatre critères. Les résultats de ces entrevues, la presse commerciale et les publications académiques apportent un soutien considérable à la thèse qu'un processus réel de globalisation est en train de se produire – bien qu'il soit plus avancé dans certaines compagnies – et que cette globalisation a des effets important sur les économies locales et régionales.
The New Urban Left: Parties Without Actors
Authors: Lustiger‐Thaler Henri , Shragge Eric
Published: March 2003

One of the hallmarks of late political modernity may be that grassroots groups and urban social movements are fixed in increasingly distal relations with left of center parties. We examine the history of these relations in the city of Montreal, where there has been an historic progression from left parties, with significant constituencies, to parties without local actors. The 1994 municipal election in Montreal is reviewed in this light. Our findings indicate, however, that urban movements have developed a ‘transfunctionality’. This places them in a conflict‐laden stance to urban social policy, by signaling that which has been excluded from that relationship, through the arbitrariness of the service function they have taken on. These transformations have ushered them away from protest activities and towards a politics of everyday life (needs satisfactions, well‐being), increasing their base constituencies, while lowering their ideological and rhetorical positions. Grassroots groups are bringing an unaccustomed political diversity into the discourse of the traditional and new urban left. These are not programmatic rehearsals, in search of a reworked or revised totality, but rather represent strategically placed claims to appropriate greater political, social and cultural spaces around issues of mutuality, self‐help and effective local power

Une les caractéristiques de la modernité politique récente est peut‐être que les groupes populaires et les mouvements sociaux urbains sont immobilisés dans des relations de plus en plus éloignées des partis de centre‐gauche. Nous examinons l'histoire de ces relations dans la ville de Montréal, où il y a eu une progression historique des partis de gauche, avec des circonscriptions électorales considérables, vers des partis sans participants locaux. Les élections municipales de 1994 à Montréal sont reconsidérées sous cet angle. Nos conclusions indiquent, cependant, que les mouvements urbains ont développé une ‘transfonctionnalité’. Ceci les place dans une position de conflit par rapport aux politiques sociales urbaines, en indiquant ce qui a été exclus de cette relation par l'arbitraire des fonctions de service qu'ils ont adoptées. Ces transformations les ont éloignés des activités de protestation et rapprochés des politiques de la vie de tous les jours (satisfactions des besoins, bien‐être), augmentant leurs circonscription électorale de base et en même temps abaissant leurs positions idéologique et rhétorique. Les groupes populaires apportent une diversité politique inhabituelle au discours de la gauche traditionnelle et de la nouvelle gauche urbaine. Ce ne sont pas des répétitions programmatiques cherchant une totalité remodelée ou révisée mais représentent plutôt des demandes stratégiques pour approprier plus d'espaces politiques, sociaux et culturels quant aux questions de réciprocité, d'efforts personnels et de pouvoir local efficace.
The Immoral Economy of Housing in Turkey
Authors: Bugra Ayse
Published: March 2003

This paper presents an examination of the political, social and economic coordinates of informal housing in Turkey within an analytical framework in which the complex interaction between the organizing principles of reciprocity, redistribution and exchange is taken into account. The discussion is centered on two ideas: (1) both redistribution and reciprocity incorporate a moral principle which can be defined as ‘the unequal treatment of the unequal’ as opposed to the moral neutrality of market exchange which takes place between formally equal trading partners; and (2) in certain contexts where redistributive processes are not institutionalized in a rule‐based, depersonalized manner but involve relations which take place within informal networks of reciprocity, the element of moral relativity that forms their basis might lead to situations where they lose their legitimacy and generate negative social consequences. The paper thus introduces a moral dimension into the discussion of informal sector activity by complementing Karl Polanyi's approach with Marshall Sahlins' typology of different types of reciprocity and shows that particular systems of redistribution might lead to the emergence of forms of negative reciprocity which shape both the market and the political process in a highly undesirable manner.

Cet article présente un examen des coordonnées politiques, sociales et économiques du logement informel en Turquie, utilisant un modèle analytique dans lequel l'influence mutuelle entre les principes d'organisation, de réciprocité, de redistribution et d'échange, est prise en considération. La discussion porte sur deux idées: (1) la redistribution et la réciprocité comprennent toutes deux un principe moral qui peut être défini comme ‘le traitement inégal de l'inégal’, par opposition à la moralité neutre de l'échange de marché qui prend place entre des partenaires de commerce formellement égaux; et (2) dans certains contextes, lorsque les processus redistributifs ne sont pas institutionnalisés d'une façon formelle et impersonnelle mais incluent des relations qui prennent place dans des réseaux informels de reciprocité, l'élément de relativité morale qui forme leur base pourrait conduire à des situations où ils perdraient leur légitimité et auraient des conséquences sociales négatives. Cet article introduit donc une dimension morale à la discussion de l'activité du secteur informel en complémentant l'approche de Karl Polanyi avec la typologie des différents types de réciprocité de Marshall Sahlins, et montre que certains syst èmes de redistribution pourraient conduire à la naissance de formes de réciprocité négatives qui modèleraient de manière hautement indésirable et le processus du marché et le processus politique.
Socialism and urbanization in Ethiopia, 1975–90: a tale of two Kebeles
Authors: Woube Mengistu , Sjöberg Örjan
Published: March 2003

Where implemented, socialism and central planning have long been thought of as wielding powerful influence over the process of urbanization. Traits common to countries as diverse as China, the formerly socialist economies of Europe and third‐world socialist regimes are frequently found; conversely, well‐established patterns of convergence and divergence can profitably be used for analytical ends. However, by and large Africa has been overlooked by analysts of a comparative bent. As a result, on the one hand, potentially enlightening material may have been left unutilized. On the other, area specialists have often failed to avail themselves of comparative material. Based on the shortage economy approach to socialist urbanization, through the use of two local level case studies this paper endeavours to show how comparative insights can be used to illuminate issues of urbanization in socialist Ethiopia.

On a longtemps pensé que la mise en application du socialisme et de la planification centrale influencent profondément le processus d'urbanisation. Des traits communs ont été trouvés à des pays aussi divers que la Chine, les anciennes économies socialistes d'Europe de l'est et les régimes socialistes du tiers monde; à l'inverse, des modèles de convergence et de divergence bien établis peuvent être utilement employés pour les analyses. L'Afrique a cependant été largement ignorée par les analyses comparatives. Par conséquent, d'un côté, des données qui pouvaient être pleines d'enseignements n'ont pas été utilisées. D'un autre côté, les spécialistes des régions ont souvent négligé certains éléments comparatifs. Cet article, qui s'appuie sur une approche d'économie de pénurie de l'urbanisation socialiste, et utilisant deux cas d'étude au niveau local, essaie de montrer comment les savoirs comparatifs peuvent être employés pour mieux comprendre les problèmes de l'urbanisation dans Éthiopie socialiste.
The Reassertion of Economics: 1990s Gentrification in the Lower East Side
Authors: Smith Neil , DeFilippis James
Published: March 2003

This article utilizes property tax arrears data to trace the contraction of gentrification at the end of the 1980s and its resurgence in the 1990s in New York City’s Lower East Side. Contrary to the claims made during the recession about the end of gentrification, this article provides an important historical record of the resurgence of gentrification in the 1990s. The paper also argues that this new ‘third round’ gentrification has to be seen as a dramatic reassertion of economics in the central urban land market. That this shift is also expressed within the popular cultural discourses accompanying the process reveals an altered relationship between economics and culture in fin de siècle gentrification.

Cet article utilise les données sur les arriérés des impôts sur la propriété pour retracer le déclin de l’embourgeoisement á la fin des années quatre‐vingt et son renouveau dans les années quatre‐vingt‐dix dans le Lower East Side de New York City. Contrairement á ce qui fut dit sur la fin de l’embourgeoisement durant la récession, cet article fournit un dossier historique important qui montre le renouveau de l’embourgeoisement dans les années quatre‐vingt‐dix. Cet article soutient aussi que ce nouveau ‘troisième tour’ d’embourgeoisement doit ?tre regardé comme une réaffirmation dramatique de l’économie politique dans le marché foncier urbain central. Le fait que ce changement est aussi perceptible dans les discours de la culture populaire qui accompagnent ce processus révèle une relation changée entre l’écomonie politique et la culture dans l’embourgeoisement de fin de siècle.
‘Territorial deregulation’: local authorities at risk from technical networks
Authors: Offner Jean‐Marc
Published: March 2003

Technical networks (transport, telecommunications, energy etc.) possess paradoxical virtues. They produce ‘structuring effects’ on space, obtaining comparative advantages for the places they serve. But they are ubiquitous factors which also enable a homogenization of space. The myths of deterritorialization and dual space are refuted by empirical analyses of the interaction between networks and territories. Networks ‘format’ market areas and political territories. They create matrixes which until now were controlled by the public powers. Linked to current transformations – globalization, deregulation – the present mode of development of the technical macro‐systems brings about a telescoping of geographical scales which is having an adverse effect on the historic compromise between networks and territories. The boundaries of traditional political space have become obsolete and an economic rationale in the form of an extension of the technical networks predominates. In order to rediscover their policy‐making capacity, local authorities must pay more attention to controlling the occupation of public space as well as to the design and organization of the networks’ hubs. They should encourage the emergence of users as players in the regulation of public utilities so that debates on universal service and territorial equality may be activated.

Les réseaux techniques (transport, télécommunication, énergie etc.) sont parés de vertus paradoxales. Ils produiraient des ‘effets structurants’ sur l’espace, procurant des avantages comparatifs aux lieux desservis. Mais, facteurs d’ubiquité, ils permettraient aussi une homogénéisation de l’espace. Ces mythes de la déterritorialisation et de la dualisation de l’espace sont réfutés par les analyses empiriques des interactions entre réseaux et territoires. Les réseaux ‘formatent’ des aires de marché et des territoires politiques; ils fabriquent des métriques, dont les pouvoirs publics avaient jusquà présent la maîtrise. Liées aux transformations en cours – globalisation, dérégulation – le mode de développement actuel des macro‐systèmes techniques entraîne un télescopage des échelles géographiques qui met à mal le compromis historique entre réseaux et territoires. Il y a obsolescence des frontières des espaces politiques traditionnels et prédominance de la logique économique dans l’extension des réseaux techniques. Afin de retrouver des capacités d’action, les collectivités locales doivent porter plus d’attention au contrôle de l’occupation de l’espace public ainsi qu’à la conception et à l’organisation des noeuds de réseau. Elles ont aussi à favoriser l’émergence des usagers comme acteurs de la régulation des services en réseau, afin que soient activés les débats sur le service universel et sur l’équité territoriale.
Explaining Urban Regimes
Authors: Dowding Keith
Published: March 2003

This article examines the history of the use of regimes in urban politics. It argues the highlight is Stone's Regime politics because he uses the concept of regime to answer a specific problem – why did politicians with different electoral bases of support create similar governing coalitions? Stone's answer acknowledges the need for the ‘capacity to act’ within structures of power. Broadening the account to different types of regime makes analysis more descriptive and less explanatory. But rather than dismissing broader accounts, it is better to unpick the components underlying different regime forms to understand the capacity to act in different contexts. Here we find that factors which go into explaining collective action provide the foundations for regime analysis.

Cet article étudie, dans une perspective historique, l'application du concept de ‘régime’ en politique urbaine. Il présente Regime politics de Stone comme l'ouvrage‐clé, son auteur employant le concept de régime pour résoudre un problème particulier – pourquoi les politiciens issus de bases électorales différentes créent‐ils, pour diriger, des coalitions similaires? La réponse de Stone admet la nécessité de la ‘capacité d'agir' au sein des structures de pouvoir. Élargir le propos à divers types de régime rend l'analyse plus descriptive, quoique moins explicative. Toutefois, plutôt que d'écarter une généralisation, il vaut mieux négliger les éléments qui sous‐tendent diverses formes de gouvernement afin d'appréhender la capacité d'agir dans des contextes variés. C'est ainsi que l'on peut identifier des facteurs qui, tout en entrant dans l'explication de l'action collective, fournissent les bases pour une analyse des régimes.
Contingent Chicago: Restructuring the Spaces of Temporary Labor
Authors: Peck Jamie , Theodore Nik
Published: March 2003

Hiring‐halls, specializing in the placement of day‐laborers in temporary jobs, have in recent years been proliferating along major transport arteries in Chicago's low‐income neighborhoods. This article examines the phenomenon of low‐wage temporary work in Chicago from the perspective of the principal institutional actors in these highly ‘flexibilized’ or ‘contingent’ labor markets – the ‘temp’ agencies. Particular emphasis is placed on the labor‐market effects of temp‐agency strategies, both in respect to patterns of labor segmentation and in terms of the spatial (re)constitution of urban job markets. It is suggested that temp agencies are actively engaged in both the exploitation and facilitation of contingent labor‐market conditions. In this sense, they are assuming important new roles as privatized ‘labor‐market intermediaries’, with apparently deleterious effects for job security and social segregation in the lower reaches of urban labor markets. Their strategies can also be related to the social and geographic restructuring of these job markets, because the growth and polarization of temp employment has been associated with a ‘hardening’– and indeed ‘stretching’– of extant ethnic, gender and spatial inequalities.

Des bureaux d'embauche, spécialisés dans le placement de journaliers sur des postes temporaires, ont récemment proliféré le long des grands axes de transport dans les quartiers défavorisés de Chicago. Cet article étudie le phénomène du travail temporaire à faible revenu dans cette ville, et ce, du point de vue des principaux acteurs institutionnels sur ces marchés du travail hautement ‘flexibilisés’ ou ‘aléatoires’: les agences de travail temporaire. Il insiste sur les conséquences des stratégies de ces agences pour le marché de l'emploi, à la fois au niveau des schémas de segmentation du travail et en termes de (re)constitution spatiale des marchés du travail urbains. Aussi peut‐on suggérer que ces agences sont activement impliquées dans l'exploitation et la facilitation des conditions aléatoires du marché du travail. En ce sens, elles jouent un rôle important et nouveau comme ‘intermédiaires du marché du travail’ privatisés, avec des effets apparemment néfastes pour la sécurité de l'emploi et la ségrégation sociale dans les circuits inférieurs des marchés urbains. Leurs stratégies peuvent aussi être liées à la restructuration sociale et géographique de ces marchés, la croissance et la polarisation de l'emploi temporaire ayant ètè associées à un ‘durcissement’, et assurément à une ‘extension’, des inégalités existantes au plan ethnique, spatial et des sexes.
Grounded Speculations on Theories of the City and the City of Theory
Authors: Crang Mike
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this article:

G. LeClerc, R. Villa and M. Dear, (eds.) La vida Latina en L.A.: urban Latino cultures

M. Featherstone, and S. Lash (eds.) Spaces of culture: city — nation — world

M. Dear, The postmodern urban condition

B. Meyer, and P. Geschiere (eds.) Globalization and identity: dialectics of flow and closure

S. Lash, Another modernity, a different rationality

R. Beauregard, and S. Body‐Gendrot (eds.) The urban moment: cosmopolitanessays of the late‐20th‐century city
Ecosocialization or Countermodernization? Reviewing the Shifting ‘Storylines’ of Transport Planning
Authors: Low Nicholas , Gleeson Brendan
Published: March 2003

In recent decades, in most western countries, conventional transport planning has encountered growing social opposition from environmentalists and increasing scientific criticism on the grounds of its unsustainability. In some places, including the United Kingdom, the assumptions, beliefs and values (‘storylines’) about transport have shifted to some degree away from the car in favour of public and slow forms of transport. The article elaborates a concept of ‘ecosocialization’ to describe and explain the various reform pressures that have sought to reorient transport planning away from car‐dominated approaches. We use this concept in preference to the more familiar one of ‘ecological modernization’ in order to foreground the influence of embedded value systems and habits, as well as institutions and rules, on key pathways of social development. Whilst these reformist pressures and their consequences have been evident for decades, it is also apparent that in other contexts, after moments of subordination to alternative policy settings, conventional car‐dominated transport planning has reasserted its pre‐eminence. Our article explores the shifting discourses and practices of transport planning in three national policy settings, charting the contest between critiques of car‐dominated approaches and those ‘countermodernizing’ forces, especially road building institutions, that have resisted this ‘ecosocialization’.
Hidden Cities
Authors: Gandy Mathew
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this article:

Borden, Iain, Joe Kerr and Jane Rendell (eds.) with Alicia Pivaro The unknown city: contesting architecture and social space

Coutard, Olivier (ed.) The governance of large technical systems

Easterling, Keller Organization space: landscapes, highways, and houses in America

Melosi, Martin V. The sanitary city: urban infrastructure in America from colonial times to the present
Private or public: debating the meaning of tenure legalization
Authors: Varley Ann
Published: March 2003

Hernando de Soto’s book The mystery of capital has renewed debate about illegality in low–income housing in Latin America, Asia and Africa. De Soto and others argue that property titles provide the poor with collateral for loans to improve their housing or set up a business. Critics argue that incorporation into the formal market will displace the original inhabitants. In this article I analyse these debates about legalization as expressions of the dualisms that have shaped western thought. The relation between legal and illegal can be understood as a variant of the public/private dichotomy. Challenging the opposition of legal to illegal, I argue that the difference between them is not as great as the proponents of legalization assume. This questions the efficacy of legalization as an engine of change. In Mexico, the beneficiaries of legalization have little interest in formal credit, preferring loans from friends or relatives, and legalization does not lead to displacement. The failure of theories about legalization to predict the outcome is a product of their reliance on dualistic thinking and of the exclusion of the private from their accounts of the process.

Le livre d’Hernando de Soto, The mystery of capital, a relancé le débat sur l’illégalité de l’habitat à faible revenu en Amérique latine, Asie et Afrique. Selon de Soto et d’autres, les titres de propriété procurent aux pauvres une garantie pour emprunter afin d’améliorer leur logement ou de créer une entreprise. Les opposants affirment qu’une intégration au marché officiel déplacerait les habitants d’origine. L’article analyse ces débats sur la légalisation en tant qu’expressions des dualismes qui ont façonné la pensée occidentale. On peut appréhender la relation entre le légal et l’illégal comme une variante de la dichotomie public–privé. En contestant l’opposition légal–illégal, on peut affirmer que la différence n’est pas aussi importante que le supposent les partisans de la légalisation, ce qui remet en cause l’efficacité de celle–ci en tant que moteur de changement. Au Mexique, les bénéficiaires de la légalisation s’intéressent peu au crédit officiel, préférant les prêts entre amis ou parents, et cette légalisation ne provoque pas de déplacement. Les théories sur la légalisation ont échoué dans leur prédiction des résultats, car elles s’appuient sur une réflexion dualiste et excluent le privé de leur évaluation du processus.
The Question of Discrimination: Skilled Migrants’ Access to Australian Employment
Authors: Hawthorne Lesleyanne
Published: March 2003

Following a decade of increasing non English‐speaking background (NESB) migration to Australia, including the migration of unprecedented levels of NESB professionals, this article examines two recent studies which report cases of direct and indirect labour market discrimination. The first relates to qualifications recognition for migrant doctors. Key findings include a growing trend to federal government intervention (in alliance with the medical professional bodies) to limit the entry and registration of migrant doctors, as well as the potential for English language ability to negatively impact on pre‐registration examination outcomes.

The second study concerns labour market outcomes achieved by an élite sample of Australia’s skilled migration programme – migrant engineers of prime workforce age and advanced level English, with fully recognized qualifications pre‐migration. Based on longitudinal research conducted over a three year period, this study reports significant evidence of employer bias by region of origin, operating in favour of English‐speaking background (ESB) and European origin engineers, compared with those of Asian or Middle Eastern origin.

The findings of both studies are contextualized by reference to a 1997 study (based on the Australian census) which reports the employment outcomes obtained by migrant professionals by country of origin, including the length of time taken to achieve professional integration.
Mexico and Central America
Authors: Bronfman Mario
Published: March 2003

This article covers migrants from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama. While their main destination is the US, Mexico is also a destination for Central Americans and a transit place on their way to the US.

Central America’s migrant population comprises mainly illiterate and unqualified men, rural in origin and of economically active age. Many are heads of families and significant numbers are from marginal groups, including indigenous peoples. Mexican migrants are similar in age, but most come from urban zones. Whether Central American or Mexican, the majority are undocumented. Many return home after having lived in the US for a time.

The little data that are available on HIV/AIDS in the region relate more to Mexico than to Central America. Honduras is the most affected country in Central America, with more than a half all reported cases. Currently, rural cases make a small but rapidly growing percentage of the total in both Mexico and Central America, an indicator of the growing impact of migra‐tion on epidemiological trends.

Available data on HIV/AIDS in the migrant populations of Central America mostly concern migrants in their places of destination (i.e., Mexico and the US). In contrast, a number of research projects on migratory conditions in Mexico shed some light on HIV diffusion, particularly research on Mexican migration towards the US. Among current AIDS cases in Mexico, 10 per cent have a history of residence in the US. This group is clearly differentiated from the rest of People Living With HIV/AIDS’s (PLWHA) recorded in the country, with a demographic profile similar to that of temporary migrants.

Studies assessing risk behaviours and levels of knowledge of HIV/AIDS among migrants to the US show a descending gradient: almost everyone has heard of condoms, few know about its preventive possibilities, fewer still have appropriate information about its correct use, only a minority use it, and even fewer do so correctly. Widespread risk and vulnerability factors among migrants include highly stressful living environments, high rates of alcohol use and sexual intercourse, and sex with sex workers and/or multiple sexual partners.

Migration in Mexico and Central America is profoundly related to economic and political conditions. Police and restrictive measures in the US have resulted in high levels of undocumented migration which has had significant and broadly documented consequences for the spread of HIV, while restricting migrants’ use of services.

Two priorities are suggested. First, more research on Central American migrant flows to Mexico and the US. Second, reducing illegal migration will require intense political and technical work to convince decision makers of the risks that restrictive measures generate for the public health.
Trends of International Migration since 1965: What Existing Data Reveal
Authors: Zlotnik Hania
Published: March 2003

Relying on data from a variety of sources, this article sketches the main trends of international migration during 1965–1996, thus documenting the changes that both the character and the direction of international migration have undergone over the course of time. In doing so, it provides a quantitative basis to assess the validity of certain common tenets regarding the evolution of migration at the end of the twentieth century.

The article concludes that the changes observed are generally less striking than usually claimed, although major historical events, such as the end of the cold war and the transformations it entailed, have had a determining influence in shaping many of the key migration movements occurring since 1985.

In particular, migration originating in the former Eastern bloc countries increased markedly and the dynamics of population mobility within the former Soviet space underwent important modifications. In addition, the end of the bi‐polar era allowed the resolution of some long‐standing conflicts that permitted the repatriation of large numbers of refugees.

However, the proliferation of ethnic or civil conflict that has accompanied the nation‐building process in several regions has led to a series of forced migration movements. These developments plus the social, economic and demographic differentials that persist between countries at different levels of development have continued and will continue to fuel international migration.

By reviewing the quantitative evidence available at the regional level, this article sets recent developments in perspective.
Peopling Skilled International Migration: Indian Doctors in the UK
Authors: Robinson Vaughan , Carey Malcolm
Published: March 2003

This article uses a case‐study approach in relation to the migration of Indian doctors to the UK in order to illustrate the complexity and multi‐levelled nature of explanations for international migration.

It argues that whereas, at the level of discursive consciousness, the movement of Indian doctors to the UK appears an economically driven and shapedphenomenon akin to other examples of highly skilled international migration, when the practical consciousness of participants is investigated through qualitative methods, the migration can also be seen as a cultural and social phenomenon.

Although migrants move to “better themselves”, they also make choices based on factors such as the kind of novels they read as children or “taken for granted” familial obligations rooted in the everyday life of their culture.
Survival of the Fittest: Russian Immigrant Teachers Speak about Their Professional Adjustment in Israel
Authors: Remennick Larissa
Published: March 2003

This qualitative study explores the determinants of occupational integration among recent immigrants whose profession is culturally and linguistically dependent. It compares personal accounts of 36 former Soviet school teachers of math and physics, of whom 20 succeeded in regaining their occupation in Israel and 16 left teaching for different reasons. Analysis of the interviews shows that, even in a society committed to the goal of professional integration of the immigrants, cultural barriers to successful work performance are rather high. Beyond instrumental skills to master (the Hebrew language and new curriculum), immigrant teachers have to adjust to the new school culture and student‐teacher relationship. They also have to face competition with their local colleagues, threatened by the influx of the better‐educated peers. The study points to a number of external conditions and personal characteristics that are conducive to successful adjustment to the new school system. The reported findings may be applicable to immigrant education workers in other national contexts.
Averting Forced Migration in Countries in Transition
Authors: Martin Susan
Published: March 2003

Many countries of emigration are in transition from conflict to peace and from authoritarian to democratic governments. Addressing population movements from these countries requires more than economic opportunities; equally important is the establishment of the rule of law, respect for human rights, and, in countries recovering from conflict, reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure and housing. Otherwise, fragile peace and democratization processes can easily break down, creating new waves of forced migrants and hampering efforts towards repatriation and reintegration of already displaced populations.

This background paper discusses the nature of forced migration, pointing out that the end of the Cold War has produced new pressures and new opportunities to address these flows. While extremism, particularly rampant nationalism, has provoked massive forced migration in many parts of the world, the changing geopolitical relations has also led to peace settlements in some countries and humanitarian intervention to reduce suffering in others.

Addressing forced migration pressures in countries in transition requires comprehensive policy approaches. Four types of best practices are considered in this paper.

First, mechanisms to ameliorate the causes of forced movements, including the role that expatriate communities can play in strengthening the rule of law and respect for human rights, particularly minority rights.

Second, mechanisms that enhance refugee protection while minimizing abuses of asylum systems, including enhanced respect for the refugee convention, adoption of complementary forms of protection when the refugee convention does not apply, strengthened regional protection, and the establishment of in–country processing of refugee claims.

Third, mechanisms to resolve the longer–term status of forced migrants, including decisions on when to cease refugee status and temporary protection and encourage/permit return or integration.

Fourth, mechanisms for more effective repatriation when return is possible, particularly programs to help returnees reintegrate and communities reconstruct themselves.
The Migration–Development Nexus: Afghanistan Case Study
Authors: Jazayery Leila
Published: March 2003

This paper looks at the relationship between migration and development in the context of Afghanistan. It begins with a brief outline of the historical and political background to the refugee crisis of the past two decades, and looks briefly at the society and economy of Afghanistan. The history and pattern of aid flows are described and analysed in the next section, followed by consideration of migration and refugee flows over the past two decades, and of remittances and diaspora activities. Repatriation and reconstruction are covered in the following two sections. The penultimate section looks at lessons to be learned for policy making in Afghanistan in the future, and is followed by concluding observations.

A cautionary note on data on Afghanistan: although the recent months have seen a surge of interest and writing on Afghanistan, there has always been a shortage of data on the country. Much writing on Afghanistan, both by journalists and a few academics during the 1980s and 1990s, relates to politics, given the Cold War context of the conflict at the time. Most other data available on Afghanistan tend to come from aid agencies involved in the country. While this provides the bulk of information and data on aid and refugee issues – as reflected in the sources used in this paper – it has little to offer on other aspects of life in Afghanistan, especially on recent history and economy.
On the Demand Elasticity of Initial Public Offerings: An Analysis of Discriminatory Auctions
Authors: Liu Yu–Jane , Wei K. C. John , Liaw Gwohorng
Published: March 2003

We analyze 52 Taiwanese IPOs that were introduced through discriminatory auctions (you pay what you bid) between December 1995 and October 1998. The evidence suggests that the elasticity of demand for IPOs in Taiwan through discriminatory auctions is relatively flat. The elasticity is significantly negatively correlated with bidders’heterogeneity, which is consistent with the investor heterogeneity hypothesis. We also find that the average winning bidders earn a significant average abnormal return of 7.83% in the post–IPO market. The post–IPO market abnormal return is positively correlated with the demand elasticity, the idiosyncratic risk of stock returns and the institutional participation rate, and is negatively correlated with the auction clearing price, which is consistent with theory. Finally, there is evidence that informed investors have an incentive to shade their demand for IPOs to avoid the winner’scurse. The most aggressive bidders (the top 5% of the winning bidders) on average incur a small loss of 1.64% (not significant) in the market–adjusted initial returns.
Designing Markets for Developing Countries
Authors: O’Hara Maureen
Published: March 2003

This paper highlights what we know from market microstructure and how this should guide the design of equity markets in developing counties. I first consider the basic economic functions of capital markets and of exchanges. I develop more fully the importance of price discovery and liquidity, and how these are affected by the market environment and by characteristics of firms themselves. I then consider the particular implications of this for capital markets in emerging countries. Research has suggested various links between market designs and performance, and I review the implications of these for exchange structure. I conclude with some thoughts on how best to structure markets for newly listing companies.
Street Youth in Southern Africa
Authors: Mufune Pempelani
Published: March 2003

The majority of people in southern Africa today are youth, some of whom spend much of their time on streets. Structural adjustment programmes, factors associated with modernisation and AIDS have all led to an increase in the number of young people who are on the streets. Street youth are a diverse group, although the distinction between youth on the street, youth of the street and abandoned youth does not make much sense in southern Africa. This is due to the fact that most children work and these groups do not have distinct lifestyles. Street youth have attracted attention because of the problems that they face as they interact with wider society. These problems include negative perceptions by the public, health problems, deviance, and psychopathological symptoms. This article looks at the various policy approaches towards street youth and concludes that a multi‐sectored and integrated approach is needed to deal with the phenomenon of street youth.
Reconsiling devolution and equity in income security
Authors: Whiteford Peter
Published: March 2003

This article outlines a range of issues to be considered when assessing the advantages and disadvantages of devolution strategies, specifically in the context of income support policies. The objective of the article is to provide a starting point for discussion of the relationship between devolution and interregional and intra‐regional equity.
Money and the International Drug Trade in São Paulo
Authors: Mingardi Guaracy
Published: March 2003

The literature on organised crime usually presents it as transnational: this is what the author discusses. No criminal organisation canmanage without the cooperation of people with influence locally, whether they be criminals themselves, state officials, or employees. Thearticle analyses the types of relationships between foreign criminal organisations involvedin drug trafficking and local, Brazilian criminal organisations.
The “right distance” when dealing with violence
Authors: Lefranc Sandrine
Published: March 2003

The issue of the researcher's relationship with the subject of ‘extreme violence’ is approached here from the point of view not of subjective motivations, but of the scientific rule of distanc‐ing which, in the absence of specific epistemo‐logical recommendations, seems to apply in this case as in others. At times of ‘exit’ from violence, when a repressive authoritarian regime is replaced by a democratic government, the ‘right Distance’ of the researcher has particular consequences: it may coincide with the tenets of governmental ‘reconciliation’ policies, in particular the injunction to victims to weigh their demands against the need for pacification in the general interest. This convergence ‐ which does not necessarily involve collusion ‐ shows how difficult it is to find the right stance towards the subject of ‘violence’: epistemological rules cannot be dissociated from a particular political context and from a social relationship with violence, and may thus have normative implications.
Civilian populations and wartime violence: towards an historical analysis
Authors: Horne John
Published: March 2003

Since the eighteenth century, relations between civilian populations and wartime violence have passed through three stages. First, the politicisation of war. The leveé en masse, an invention of the French Revolution, involves a total mobilisation of the population for war ‐ an idea that reached its zenith in the twentieth century's two World Wars. The same logic of total mobilisation turns the enemy population as a whole into a legitimate target of military violence. Second, the industrial revolution and technological progress have made it possible to unleash unprecedented destructive power against civilians. Last, in the half century following the Second World War, the politicisation and industrialisation of war have been altering (and redressing) the substantial military imbalance between Europe and the European colonies. Extreme violence against civilian populations results in part from these changes in the way war is waged. However, it is also a product of how ‘normality’ is defined in warfare and the perception by contemporaries that, under certain circumstances, such norms are completely inva‐lid. Extreme violence constitutes, so to speak, an ‘extreme moment’ in war.