bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Precarious Footing: Temporary Employment as a Stepping Stone out of Unemployment in Sweden
Authors: Korpi Tomas , Levin Henrik
Published: July 2003

In the intense debate around questions related to labour market flexibility one of the contested issues has been the relationship between temporary work and unemployment. Temporary work has here been regarded either as a precursor to recurrent unemployment, or as an entry port to stable employment. Little is however known about actual mobility patterns, including whether or not temporary employment can act as a stepping stone out of unemployment. Using a sample of initially unemployed, this is here examined through an analysis of the relationship between temporary employment during a one-year observation period and employment and unemployment during a subsequent twelve-month long follow-up period. The results evince the great overall vulnerability of the unemployed, but also that the permanent and temporary jobs obtained by unemployed differ relatively little in the employment security they offer. This suggests that the type of employment contract is of minor importance for the long-term employment prospects of the unemployed. This holds for women as well as for men, contradicting some earlier conjectures about gender specific mobility patterns.
`You're only as Good as Your Last Job': The Labour Process and Labour Market in the British Film Industry
Authors: Blair Helen
Published: July 2003

Recent debates surrounding the future of work and non-standard forms of employment have, especially in the United States, used the film industry as an exemplar and signifier of future industrial change. Much research conducted in the film industry implicitly or explicitly draws on the flexible specialisation framework to understand industrial organisation and labour market operation. It is the contention of this paper, however, that the dual labour market analysis associated with flexible specialisation explanations is too simplistic, failing to reflect the range of factors affecting labour market organisation and operation. The resulting static and atomised analysis is, as such, ill-equipped to conceptualise the complex patterns of organisation and movement evident in the highly uncertain context of film making. Furthermore, the operation and organisation of the labour market cannot be understood independently of the management of labour within the labour process. Production company management set the context and targets of work (in terms of work scheduling, pay, and conditions) and departmental heads retain method autonomy and control the recruitment and performance of `their' group members. However, this is the case within a context in which people need to continually resecure work and maintain positions within groups and contacts. Therefore, a seeming lack of control over tasks at the point of production is reinforced by the use of labour market mechanisms and influences their form.
Household Work in the UK: An Analysis of the British Household Panel Survey 1994
Authors: Bond Sue , Sales Jill
Published: July 2003

This paper examines the organisation and performance of household work among dual earner couples of working age. Utilising data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) 1994 the research employs linear modelling techniques in order to model the variables associated with both the time spent on household work and the sharing of household work between men and women living together. In particular, household circumstances and characteristics of partners are considered as independent variables. The findings show that the time men and women spend in paid employment, their partners' time in paid employment, economic power, attitudes, social class and presence of children emerge as variables significantly associated with the two measures of household work performance. The explained variation for time spent on household work is also much higher for women than men. The results show that women continue to carry a `dual burden' of paid and unpaid work which disadvantages them in terms of employment, income and welfare.
Flexible Work and Flexible Fathers
Authors: Brandth Berit , Kvande Elin
Published: July 2003

The expansion of the parental leave scheme in Norway, which now grants extensive rights to employed fathers, has occured in a period of great changes in working life. The equality politics of the welfare state have been explicitly focussed on bringing reproduction more into the open in working life by allowing mothers and fathers the right to stay at home on leave when they have children. To have working life adapt to family life is, however, in contrast with the new trends in working life whereby some workplaces are becoming more and more seductive and greedy. In this article we examine two different types of leave with regard to standardisation and flexibilisation, and ask what type is most successful considering central characteristics of late-modern working life such as individualism and choice, flexible working hours and boundless jobs. Findings show that the majority of fathers use the compulsory leave while the uptake of the flexible leave is inhibited by considerations of its impact on men's employment.
Young People in Rural Areas: Socially Excluded or Not?
Authors: Pavis Stephen , Hubbard Gill , Platt Stephen
Published: July 2003

Tackling social exclusion is at the heart of current British social policy, yet the concept remains' essentially contested'. Here we report on the transitional experiences (school to work, parental home to independent household, family of origin to family of destination) of young people (eighteen to twenty-five years) with low educational qualifications living in two areas of rural Scotland. Through in-depth interviews we explore: whether labour market participation always enhances social inclusion and, if so, in what ways; how young people experience and balance the relationship between labour market participation and demands (and their priorities) in other areas, such as family life, education and housing; and how age, gender, lifecourse stage and local opportunities affect labour market participation and social inclusion. The findings challenge the political rhetoric that all employment is broadly equivalent with respect to promoting social inclusion. We argue that to develop further the concept of social inclusion it is necessary to examine and promote `opportunity', something which in turn rests upon the twin elements of available `resources' and accessible `arenas'.
Changes in Social Capital and School-to-Work Transitions
Authors: Strathdee Rob
Published: July 2003

This article draws on data generated in semi-structured interviews to describe changes in social capital in the form of social networks across two generations of male school leavers. The article achieves this by comparing and contrasting the school-to-work transitions of eleven poorly qualified males, who left school in the late 1990s, to the transitions made by their fathers in the years between 1955 and 1980. The data show that the value of the social networks available to today's school leavers has declined in comparison to the value of the networks that were available to their fathers. It is argued that the decline in the value of social networks has contributed to risk and uncertainty in school-to-work transitions.
`Apprentice Entrepreneurs'? Ethnic Minority Workers in the Independent Restaurant Sector
Authors: Ram Monder , Abbas Tahir , Sanghera Balihar , Barlow Gerald , Jones Trevor
Published: July 2003

Ethnic minority business activity has often been presented as a vehicle for `upward mobility' for owners and workers alike. Much attention has focused upon the owners themselves. The co-ethnic labour that such employers usually rely upon has often been treated as unproblematic. This paper aims to illuminate the experiences of workers in ethnic minority owned restaurants. In particular, the widely held view that working in a co-ethnic firm serves as an `apprenticeship' for eventual self-employment is explored.

Rather than co-ethnic ties, workers' labour market experiences highlight the importance of the `opportunity structure' in shaping employment choices. The evidence of the current research suggests that the goal of self-employment was not widely held; and although many workers did move around to acquire better paid work, this was not part of a strategic route to becoming a restaurateur. Some workers did cherish such ambitions, but were inhibited by major obstacles. These included intense competition, high start-up costs, and a lack of `know-how'. The labour market and social context of the firm often militated against the hazardous proposition of self-employment.
Women in the Indian Informal Economy: Collective Strategies for Work Life Improvement and Development
Authors: Hill Elizabeth
Published: July 2003

Strategies for work life reform amongs informal sector workers in developing countries are currently dominated by resource-based approaches such as the micro-credit movement. This policy framework is predicated upon certain liberal assumptions about individual human action and the relationship between human behaviour and economic development. This article contends that these assumptions are inappropriate when applied to informal sector workers and their economic activities. A focus on the intersubjective conditions of work and economic development, based on the work of Axel Honneth (1995), provides an alternative way of conceptualising the work life experience of marginalised workers and appropriate interventions for economic and social security. An example of a collective strategy implemented by the Self Employed Womens' Association (SEWA) in India, demonstrates the important role that interpersonal recognition plays in activating worker identity and agency to achieve development. The success of SEWA's methodology has implications for how we think about the meaning of development and work life reform in poor countries, suggesting that interventions for economic and social security must engage workers at both the economic and cultural levels at which insecurity, moral injury and social exclusion are produced.
Female finances: Gender Wage Gaps and Gender Assets Gaps
Authors: Warren Tracey , Rowlingson Karen , Whyley Claire
Published: July 2003

The size and source of the gender wage gap in Britain has been well researched. Women's typically lower status employment and their reduced, discontinuous career profiles when they have caring responsibilities have combined seriously to damage their ability to earn a decent wage. Such marked gender differences in employment patterns produce a substantial gender gap in levels of wealth too, yet despite this there has been less attention paid to the gendering of assets than there has to gender differentials in earnings and income. So to pull out these multi-dimensional effects of a gender disadvantaged labour market, this article explores the extent of wage and assets inequality in Britain in the mid 1990s. Analysis of the Family Resources Survey shows that women continue to have lower incomes than men even with their increased entry to the labour market, and have fewer chances to build up a safety net of savings in their working lives and a good income for their retirement. It would seem that in a future Britain where individuals will increasingly depend on private pensions rather than a state minimum, even if women continue to increase their participation levels, the poverty they face in old age will persist.
Closure in an Open Profession. The Impact of Social Origin on the Educational and Occupational Success of Graduates of Law in Norway
Authors: Hansen Marianne Nordli
Published: July 2003

Education in law in Norway must be characterised as an open educational field, with lower entry requirements than other prestigious professional fields. Such an open system might be expected to lead to a high degree of equality by social class origin among the graduates. The impact of social origin is assessed at different steps of the educational and occupational career in a unique sample consisting of all Norwegian graduates in law between 1981 and 1996. The results demonstrate that there is a high level of social inequality in academic performance, which is greater at later stages than early in the educational career. Large and increasing income inequality is found also, for graduates with equal levels of academic performance. Various mechanisms that may produce this pattern are discussed, including specific forms of cultural capital, such as knowledge about strategies of self-employment, social and financial capital.
Working for the Fenland Dollar: An Evaluation of Local Exchange Trading Schemes as an Informal Employment Strategy to Tackle Social Exclusion
Authors: Seyfang Gill
Published: July 2003

This article argues that in the current context of rising unemployment and growing exclusion from the traditional locus of social cohesion and income distribution, a new approach to social policy and employment is required. The scope of informal employment strategies to tackle social exclusion needs to be examined. One such initiative, which has been attracting increasing attention from policy-makers, is the Local Exchange Trading Scheme (LETS) local grassroots community currency which operates as a cashless trading network for members. LETS have been growing throughout the UK in recent years. Findings are presented from a case study of a LETS scheme. LETS was found to be successful at delivering new informal employment opportunities to socially excluded groups, boosting their income, and providing a forum for social interaction and community-building. However, there is scope for much greater participation. LETS's small size restricts its usefulness in the labour market for informal employment, and current state policy towards benefit recipients working on LETS is an obstacle. Possibilities for mainstream incorporation into welfare strategies are limited by the informal, non-commercial and deeply personal value regime enacted within LETS. Yet professionalisation would threaten this nascent socially embedded economic geography. State support for LETS, while highly desirable, should not be considered an unproblematic advocacy issue.
`Portfolio Workers': Autonomy and Control amongst Freelance Translators
Authors: Fraser Janet , Gold Michael
Published: July 2003

Recent literature has begun to disaggregate groups of the `self-employed without employees' to examine in greater detail what determines their working conditions. This article continues this trend by presenting the findings of a survey of professional translators and discussing their status as `homeworkers', `teleworkers', and `portfolio workers'. It reveals that freelance translators enjoy higher levels of autonomy and control over their working conditions than other comparable self-employed groups. This is largely because the nature of their expertise and their relationship with clients create inelasticities in the supply of their skills. The more successful are then able to use their market position to exert substantial control over areas like pay and deadlines. In addition, the lack of a traditional career structure means that many translators have actively chosen freelance work and that even those who were originally forced into it would not now take an in-house job. The article concludes that labour market characteristics are a key factor in determining differences in working conditions between various groups of `portfolio workers'.
Imbalances in the GP Labour Market in the UK: Evidence from a Postal Survey and Interviews with GP Leavers
Authors: Young Ruth , Leese Brenda , Sibbald Bonnie
Published: July 2003

There is concern that the UK general practitioner (GP) workforce has declined relative to the expanding needs of a primary care-led NHS. Much of the debate about possible solutions within the profession and amongst medical workforce planners has focused on the need to raise medical school intakes and recruit more new GPs. However, other evidence shows that, as with medicine in general, a differential relationship exists in the GP labour market based upon socially ascribed characteristics. It follows that many already qualified GPs (e.g. women, ethnic minority and older doctors) are under-used in the context of generally accepted career structures. Hence, we would argue, part of the solution to workforce shortages lies in better retention and management of existing human resources. This paper first suggests a simple re-conceptualisation, which will help to frame a more sophisticated analysis than so far used for workforce planning of the nature of GP demand and supply. The framework is then used to explore the findings of the first ever national survey (n=621) and follow-up interviews (n=32) with a cohort of GP principal leavers. These showed that a variety of more flexible employment arrangements are needed in order to improve both GP recruitment and retention. In taking this approach, the paper also explores the potential implications of changing social trends for the structure of the GP profession.
Worker Responses to Quality Organisation: Discourse and Materiality in Organisational Change
Authors: Rees Chris
Published: July 2003

This paper explains varying degrees of employee commitment to organisational change across four organisations. Of the many workplace innovations in recent years, Quality Management (QM) is one of the most common and also, potentially, the most far-reaching. QM is the backdrop for a focus on variations in worker acceptance of change and the factors which explain this. These factors are split into two dimensions. First, the discursive aspects of quality are analysed, that is, the management ideology or `culture of quality' and the way this is communicated to employees. Second, the more material bases of work and employment are examined. Neither discourse or materiality are privileged in the analysis; rather, it is argued that only by grasping the interrelationship between the two can a thorough explanation of employee responses be derived.
Age and Participation in Vocational Education and Training
Authors: Taylor Philip , Urwin Peter
Published: July 2003

In recent years increasing attention has been paid to the problems faced by older workers in the UK labour market. In this paper we examine the issue of older workers' participation in vocational training and education, drawing upon data from the Labour Force Survey. Our initial analysis identifies how rates of participation in workrelated education and training differ between age groups. Further exploratory analysis attempts to identify possible reasons for this, analysing the type of training undertaken by various age groups as well as the incidence of self-financed training. We then estimate an ordered-probit model for males and females separately, in an attempt to isolate the extent to which this lower incidence among older workers is due to employer or employee decision making. We find that, when compared to a reference group of prime aged individuals, those aged between 40 and 49 and 50 and 59/64 are less likely to undergo training and, also, less likely to be offered training. We conclude that the lower incidence of training among older workers can be mainly attributed to employer decision making. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for public policy.
Household Division of Labour: Generation, Gender, Age, Birth Order and Sibling Composition
Authors: Punch Samantha
Published: July 2003

Many studies have examined the household division of labour from a gender perspective, but comparatively few have considered age and the intergenerational distribution of household work. Using empirical evidence from my ethnographic study of rural households in Bolivia, I argue that whilst adult household labour is highly determined by gender roles, children's unpaid household work often cuts across gender stereotypes and does not merely mirror the adult division of labour. Furthermore, this paper argues that it is not sufficient to include only an intergenerational and gender analysis of household divisions of labour but that other intragenerational issues also need to be considered. Drawing on both children's and adults' perspectives, this paper discusses the nature of generation-specific tasks not only by gender but also by age, birth order and sibling composition. Whilst the paper is based on a case study of a rural community in a low-income country, it highlights the importance of the sibling order which has frequently been overlooked or ignored in household divisions of labour throughout the world. The findings show that the allocation of household labour in rural Bolivia is worked out according to generation, age, gender, birth order and sibling composition.
Gender, Work and Transitions in the Local State
Authors: Webb Janette
Published: July 2003

The paper describes the current employment patterns of men and women in local government in Scotland, Wales and England, and examines the gender relations of work during a period of restructuring which is challenging the professionalised welfare bureaucracy and replacing it with a managerialised state informed by market principles. Men are declining as a percentage of employees, alongside decreasing numbers of full-time jobs and increasing part-time and temporary contracts, suggesting some decrease in the relative desirability of public service employment. Nevertheless the challenges to traditional conceptions of paternalistic, bureaucratic welfare have facilitated women's increasing access to professional and managerial grades, but men have continued to dominate most positions of power and authority. The continuing gender divisions of labour, and women's perceptions of a sharper axis of gender conflict surrounding the period of reorganisation into single tier authorities in Scotland and Wales, suggest that it is not simply a matter of time until a rational, functional state eradicates remaining inequalities between the sexes. Neither however can a radical feminist perspective, which treats the state as bound to reproduce women's subordination, account for the degree of progressive change. Instead it is argued that there is genuine indeterminacy in the restructuring process, which, given women's representation and participation, seems likely to disrupt further the legacy of patriarchal relations informing the trajectory of state bureaucracies.
The Dynamics of Informality: Employment Relations in Small Firms and the Effects of Regulatory Change
Authors: Ram Monder , Edwards Paul , Gilman Mark , Arrowsmith James
Published: July 2003

This paper addresses two related issues: the effect of the `regulatory shock' of the National Minimum Wage on small firms and the consequent effects on the commonly observed practice of `informality'. It draws on a survey of such firms but primarily uses case study evidence from five firms to examine the processes at work. Detailed case studies of such firms remain rare, and they tend to analyse a largely unchanging world. We show how patterns of informality change over time. The regulatory shock had varying effects, as some firms moved up-market and others were pressed to the edges of the legitimate market and in some cases out of business altogether. In the firms moving up-market, informality was redefined into a more disciplined and formalised approach, while those going down-market relied even more heavily on family and other ties to survive. The NMW led to some improved wages, though there was also evasion, and it has sharpened the divide between the legitimate and illicit areas of business.
The Labour Market Prospects for Pakistani and Bangladeshi Women
Authors: Dale Angela , Fieldhouse E. , Shaheen Nusrat , Kalra Virinder
Published: July 2003

This paper examines change and diversity in the lives of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women using qualitative interviews based in Oldham and secondary analysis of the Fourth National Ethnic Minority Survey. There was clear evidence of change across generations. Most of the older women had not been born in the UK and many were limited in their ability to speak English. This, together with a lack of formal qualifications, posed a considerable barrier to seeking paid work outside the home. In addition, many women had heavy family responsibilities that were compounded by material hardship. However, younger women who had been educated in the UK and had no language barrier saw paid work as a means to independence and self-esteem. Multivariate models showed that women with higher qualifications were much more likely to be economically active than women without qualifications or with overseas qualifications. However, the presence of dependent children had a strong negative effect. These factors also influenced the economic activity of white women but with much smaller differentials. Even with higher-level qualifications, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women experience considerable barriers to employment and have high levels of unemployment. Whilst most women subscribed strongly to the centrality of the family, it is clear that the majority will follow very different routes through the life-course from their mothers. Adherence to the lslamic faith was not, of itself, seen as a deterrent to women's participation in the labour market.
Informal Labour Market Governance: the Case of the British and German Media Production Industries
Authors: Baumann Arne
Published: July 2003

This article is concerned with labour market transactions in the occupational labour markets (OLM) of the media production industries of Germany and the UK. In both countries, labour markets are characterized by a high inter-firm mobility of workers and patterns of short-term employment and freelance work. In this environment, missing standards produce uncertainty about skill levels of workers and qualification needs of firms. As a result, co-operation costs increase and opportunism becomes possible. It will be argued that, in the absence of manifest labour market institutions such as apprenticeships or skill certificates, which traditionally safeguard OLM transactions, the use of intermediaries and restriction of access will take over as informal mechanisms for governing the labour market. Labour market data from interviews with media firms in Germany and the UK, and from surveys on German and British media professionals, are used in order to test this hypothesis.
The Technicization of Sales Work: an Ethnographic Study in the US Electronics Industry
Authors: Darr Asaf
Published: July 2003

When do salespeople become technical experts, and when does sales work become technical in nature? To address these questions, this study presents a typology of markets and compares the impact of the structure of knowledge on the organization of sales practices in a mass and in a non-standard market in the electronic industry. A year-long ethnographic study in the United States shows that the technicization of sales occurs only in the non-standard market, in which buyers do not possess knowledge on products' quality and in which no common image of use exists. The technicization of sales is manifested in a larger percentage of engineers in the sales force, an infusion of engineering knowledge into initial sales interactions, and in a greater dependence on social and interactive skills. The technicization of sales is further compounded by the need to communicate contextual knowledge. Co-development and shared practice emerge as dominant forms of work organization in the non-standard market.
Changing Labour Markets and Early Career Outcomes: Labour Market Entry in Europe Over the Past Decade
Authors: Gangl Markus
Published: July 2003

The paper addresses the driving forces behind recent changes in labour market outcomes among market entrants in Europe. Based on data for 12 European countries from the 1988-97 European Community Labour Force Surveys, the empirical analyses estimate panel data models to assess the effects of cyclical changes in aggregate economic conditions, changing youth cohort sizes, increasing educational expansion and structural changes in labour demand on market entrants' unemployment risks and occupational allocation. In general, it is found that unemployment risks have closely followed the evolution of aggregate economic conditions with only slight impact from demographic factors. Changes in occupational allocation, in turn, are more dependent on the relative evolution of educational expansion and occupational upgrading trends. In addition, these trends have not affected all school leavers evenly: the lowest qualified are most heavily affected by cyclical changes in economic conditions, while leavers from tertiary level education have been more strongly affected by recent trends of changing occupational attainment. More troublesome, however, is that continuing occupational upgrading is established to contribute to increasing labour market difficulties in particular among the lowest qualified leavers.
Work Organization, Control and the Experience of Work in Call Centres
Authors: Taylor Phil , Mulvey Gareth , Hyman Jeff , Bain Peter
Published: July 2003

Despite the integration of telephone and VDU technologies, call centres are not uniform in terms of work organization. It is suggested that diversity can best be understood by reference to a range of quantitative and qualitative characteristics. Consequently, perspectives that treat all call centres as if they were the same hybrids of customization and routinization are rejected, along with over-optimistic interpretations of labour control over work organization. Empirical evidence from nine `workflows' in two call centres - an established financial sector organization and a rapidly growing outsourced operation - provide excellent grounds for an examination of similarity and difference. A picture emerges of workflows which are volume-driven and routinized, involving low levels of employee discretion, and, by contrast, those less dominated by quantitative criteria offering higher levels of operator discretion and an emphasis on the quality of customer service. Despite these distinctions, larger numbers of operators report an experience of work which is driven by quantitative imperatives, most manifest in the pervasive implementation of targets. Targets are also used increasingly to assess and mould the quality of the call centre operator's interaction with the customer. Overall, the evidence casts doubt on the optimistic perspective that call centre work, in time, will come to resemble `knowledge work'.
The Uneven Geographies of Informal Economic Activities: a Case Study of Two British Cities
Authors: Williams Colin C. , Windebank Jan
Published: July 2003

This article explores the uneven geographies of informal economic activities. Drawing upon 511 interviews conducted in higher- and lower-income neighbourhoods of one affluent and one deprived city in Britain, we explore whether the capabilities of households to perform necessary work and household work practices vary across space. We reveal not only the ways in which household work capabilities and practices vary between areas, but also the complex spatial variations in the extent, character and reasons for households participating in self-provisioning, mutual aid and paid informal work. To conclude, we explore the implications of our findings both for understanding uneven development and for policy making.
Spectres of Marx and Braverman in the Twilight of Postmodernist Labour Process Research
Authors: Tinker Tony
Published: July 2003

John Bellamy Foster's 1998 introduction to the 25th anniversary edition of Braverman's Labor and Monopoly Capital (1998) missed an opportunity in failing to engage the industry of (largely British) postmodernist labour process scholarship that followed the first edition of the book. This research `almost universally rejects [Braverman's] understanding of the labour process' (Spencer, 2000: 223). Using Braverman (and Marx) as benchmarks, this article finds the postmodernist tradition deficient in several respects. First, it consistently underappreciates the political aims and impact of Braverman's work (notwithstanding constant rhetorical support for political engagement). Second, it remains incorrigibly philosophical (logocentric) - entrapped in incessant recycling of philosophies of undecidability. Despite claims to reject the hubris of Cartesian analysis, it remains infatuated by it. Third, it misconstrues Braverman's anthropological humanism as a degenerate form of (idealistic) humanism, and thus leaves underexplored the dialectical politics of transcendent negation. Fourth, it psychologizes social and political processes, and ultimately retreats to an unreconstructed notion of ideology, where working people are construed as wrongheaded for seeking refuge from coercion in supposedly false identities. Fifth, in urging working people to release an `inner self' from a false identity, the analysis presupposes an underlying human essence that is atheoretical and essentialist. Finally, the analysis is blind to the social and historical specificity of Braverman's political task; exposing `skill upgrading via education' as an ideology that obfuscates economic decline, recession and deindustrialization. The upgrading canard - expounded by all recent US presidents up to George W. Bush III - is dutifully discharged (to this day) by most business schools and management centres, including those in Britain.
Social Movement Unionism: the Case of South Africa
Authors: von Holdt Karl
Published: July 2003

In the context of renewed international debates about the significance of social movement unionism, this article undertakes a detailed analysis of social movement unionism in a South African steelworks. The study investigates the importance to union formation of political, racial, migrant and ethnic identities forged beyond the workplace, and assesses the impact of the transition from apartheid to democracy on union social structure. It argues that the prevalence of both popular political and premodern identities, and of intense internal contestation, coercion and violent conflict, contradicts what are frequently regarded as core features of social movement unionism. With the transition to democracy and processes of elite formation in postcolonial South Africa, social movement unionism has undergone an erosion, as solidarity has fractured along new and old lines. The article argues that the term social movement unionism has become ambiguous through too broad an application, and concludes that, rather than attempting to define a specific model of social movement unionism, analysis should focus on understanding the movement dimension of trade unionism, its relation to the institutional dimension, and how this changes historically and varies in different sociopolitical contexts. Claims about the transferability of union strategies across national frontiers must be regarded with scepticism.
Trade Union Strategy and Renewal: the Restructuring of Work and Work Relations in the UK Aerospace Industry
Authors: Danford Andy , Richardson Mike , Upchurch Martin
Published: July 2003

The adoption of new management strategies and flexible working practices in the manufacturing industry has caused a fragmentation of the traditional collective base of British trade unions. Such changes have led some commentators to argue that, in order to survive, manufacturing unions must reject oppositional stances and instead offer support for company objectives, work reforms and partnership relations with management at the workplace level. This article compares the responses of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) and the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union (MSF) to the rapid and wide-ranging restructuring of the UK's aerospace industry. The article questions current typologies of union policy and identity and associated prescriptive analysis of appropriate union strategy. We argue that such prescriptive analysis understates the complexity of union behaviour at the workplace level. Our findings suggest that the local traditions of workplace organizing far outweigh the influence of national union strategy. In the case of the MSF, the workplace unions failed to engage with the restructuring of work and were constrained by technical union traditions of sectionalism. By contrast, the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) workplace unions were able to adapt their historical form of organizing, based on work group representation and job control, to maintain significant constraints against managerial prerogatives.
Is Lean Mean?
Authors: Anderson-Connolly Richard , Grunberg Leon , Greenberg Edward S. , Moore Sarah
Published: July 2003

This article examines the relationship between workplace transformation (or restructuring) and the well-being of employees, in terms of both psychological and physical health, at a large manufacturing corporation in the United States. While the previous literature has been largely divided over the issue - some researchers providing unqualified enthusiasm and others equally strong criticism of workplace changes - we found, after decomposing workplace transformation into five distinct dimensions of intensity, autonomy, team-work, skilling and computing, that certain components were harmful while others were beneficial to the employees. Furthermore, some effects of reengineering varied between managers and non-managers. Overall, increases in workplace intensity were associated with the largest increases in stress and symptoms of poor health. The data were produced by a longitudinal (two-wave) survey questionnaire of over 1000 employees and were analyzed by means of a structural equations model.
Making Money
Authors: Gaetz Stephen , O'Grady Bill
Published: July 2003

Three hundred and sixty homeless youth in Toronto, Canada were asked to report how they made money in order to survive. Income generation among this marginal population was conceptualized by fusing theory and research in the fields of the informal economy and the `underclass', and sociological criminology. While economic activity was found to be flexible, our analysis also reveals that work on the street is stratified on the basis of worker backgrounds and job/situational conditions. In terms of policy, our key theme in this paper is that successful strategies to move young people off the streets cannot rest simply on low paying employment as a solution.
Barriers to Participation in Residual Rural Labour Markets
Authors: Hodge Ian , Dunn Jessica , Monk Sarah , Fitzgerald Maureen
Published: July 2003

Structural change in rural areas has led to a differentiation in the ranges of experience of rural life. Within generally prosperous localities, some individuals may be unable to achieve what is widely accepted as an adequate standard of living. This article focuses on the barriers that individuals face with respect to participation in residual local labour markets in rural areas. A variety of factors influence capacity to participate. Empirical evidence is provided from a study that used in-depth interviews in two rural case study areas. The article assesses the barriers influencing labour market participation identified in the interviews, including the mismatch between skills and opportunities, recruitment practices, accessibility, the costs of labour market participation and housing. All may be influenced by the rural nature of the locations. The approach offers a framework for a qualitative analysis of labour markets from an individual perspective, avoiding the presumption of a common experience of a labour market determined by the general characteristics of labour market conditions.
Labour Market Flexibility in the Netherlands
Authors: Remery Chantal , van Doorne-Huiskes Anneke , Schippers Joop
Published: July 2003

Almost two decades have passed since Dutch employers, unions and the government, in their struggle against unemployment, agreed on a policy to increase labour market flexibility. Over the years the share of flexible jobs in the Netherlands has gradually increased to around ten percent. According to some parties the introduction of more labour market flexibility would lead to more inequality and a division in the labour market between workers with permanent employment and an underclass of women, immigrant workers and poorly educated workers with temporary contracts. The Dutch government has always claimed that a special set of legal rules regarding labour market flexibility would prevent the development of such an underclass. In this article three questions are addressed: Who has a flexible labour contract and who is in permanent employment? What is the pattern of transition to permanent contracts? What are the consequences for wage rates for those on permanent or flexible contracts respectively? The answers to these questions are provided using panel data for the period 1986-96. The results show that labour market flexibility has been introduced into the Dutch labour market without detrimental consequences for specific groups of workers.
Union Derecognition and the New Human Relations: A Steel Industry Case Study
Authors: Bacon Nicholas
Published: July 2003

This paper presents a detailed case study of a non-union company that adopts a comprehensive HRM approach. Recent accounts of such workplaces identify benefits for employees inducing a perceived lack of need for union membership. This paper reveals a rather different picture in a case where some of the gains for employees proved illusory. Managerial strategy was geared towards attitudinal compliance, work intensification and the suppression of any counterbalancing trade union activity. The costs of compliance were high and management were exceptionally harsh upon individuals who could not or would not fit in. Workers resistance was more evident than in previous work suggesting they are not easily seduced by `human relations' practices.
Change in the Benefits Agency: Empowering the Exhausted Worker?
Authors: Foster Deborah , Hoggett Paul
Published: July 2003

Using case study evidence from an investigation of `quality' initiatives and working practices in three offices within a District of the Benefits Agency (BA), this article examines the contradictory role of new public management on employees. Decentralised management, performance related pay, teamwork philosophies and the promotion of a `customer' culture reflect a move away from a traditional civil service bureaucratic form of organisation. However, the implementation of change within local settings has brought about variations in local management approaches, work organisation and staff perceptions. The consequences of these are explored and we consider whether the BA's attempts to empower staff have been thwarted by a progressive intensification of workloads. Our research, by illustrating the importance of variations in local settings, warns of the dangers of evaluating institutional and employment change in the public sector as if it were the result of a coherent and consistent neo-liberal re-structuring strategy. Moreover, it examines reasons why some change initiatives have been unsuccessful. Finally, we identify a recent shift in emphasis within the BA which presages a move away from service quality to economy and draw some initial conclusions about the future impact on employment in this sector.
Myths and Counter-Myths: An Analysis of Part-Time Female Employees and Their Orientations to Work and Working Hours
Authors: Walsh Janet
Published: July 2003

The nature and character of the part-time workforce has been at the forefront of recent controversies about women's employment. Drawing on new data on the characteristics, attitudes and preferences of over one thousand female part-time employees, this study highlights important diversities amongst the part-time workforce. The results show that the women in the sample had gravitated to part-time work from a range of different employment backgrounds, and for a variety of motivations. While the majority of the women workers were content with their current part-time work arrangements, a significant minority wished to change their employment status to full-time work and a substantial number of part-time women workers wanted to return to full-time work in the future. The research examines the characteristics of such women, and argues that the stereotyping of the part-time workforce as universally `home-centred' or committed to the `marriage career' is misplaced.
Friends in Low Places: Gender, Unemployment and Sociability
Authors: Russell Helen
Published: July 2003

The recent debates about the underclass and social exclusion have focused attention on the social networks of the unemployed. However the research in this area has largely failed to take on board the gender dimension of sociability. Using survey data this paper compares the patterns of sociability of unemployed men and women. It is argued that women's more home-centred social activity and their stronger neighbourhood and kinship links means that their social networks are less vulnerable to unemployment than men's. It is found that women's previous pattern of labour market participation is critical in building up a social network which is resistant to unemployment. However a social network that is external to the labour market may also have some negative implications. An absence of friends in employment could lead to a detachment from the world of work. The networks of unemployed men and women are found to feature a much higher than normal concentration of unemployed members and are deficient in employment contacts. Contrary to underclass predictions this does not lead to a reduction in employment commitment but it does have repercussions for the availability of support and access to job information.
The Changing Boundary between Home and Market: Australian Trends in Outsourcing Domestic Labour
Authors: Bittman Michael , Matheson George , Meagher Gabrielle
Published: July 2003

It is widely believed that domestic outsourcing is booming. Many believe the growth of market services is a response to increasing time pressures arising from new responsibilities in the paid workforce, and to an inflexible sexual division of labour at home. The interpretation of the consequences of the purported growth of domestic outsourcing has been both divided and extreme. Paid domestic services have been declared: (1) a thing of the pre-industrial past (Coser 1973); (2) a victim of self-servicing (Gershuny 1983); and (3) the last frontier in the continuing advance of the market in post-industrial society (Ruthven 1994). Consequently, the alleged boom in outsourcing has been viewed either as the resurgence of a pre-modern form of the exploitation of labour (possibly based on race or ethnicity), heralding a deeper and more intractable form of social stratification (Arat-Koç 1989; Glenn 1992; Gorz 1994; Gregson and Lowe 1994; Probert 1997; Romero 1992), or as the future engine of opportunity (Ruthven 1997). Unfortunately all this discussion has run ahead of the facts. Two areas of research are vital - one is a study of the demand for outsourced domestic goods and services, and the other is wide-ranging comparative study of the labour relations in the domestic outsourcing industry. This paper addresses the first of these areas. It describes a study of trends in expenditure on domestic outsourcing drawing on an analysis of Australian Household Expenditure Surveys 1984-1993/4. This information is then interpreted in the light of our knowledge of trends in time use over the same period.
Flight Paths and Revolving Doors: A Case Study of Gender Desegregation in Pharmacy
Authors: Tanner Julian , Cockerill Rhonda , Barnsley Jan , Williams A. Paul
Published: July 2003

This paper examines practitioner reactions to occupational desegregation in pharmacy-the effects, for women and men, of a rapid female entry into the profession. The topic is documented in terms of processes of integration, ghettoisation, and re-segregation. With data collected from licensed pharmacists in Ontario, Canada, we find little evidence of either genuine gender integration in the profession or gender re-segregation precipitated by collective male discontent. While female practitioners are more positive in their evaluation of their jobs and their profession, there is no indication that current satisfaction and dissatisfaction is a harbinger of male-or female-flight from pharmacy. We discuss these findings in the light of arguments about a job and gender queue in the labour market.