Negotiating user preferences, discrimination, and demand for migrant labour in long-term care

The restructuring of long-term care for older people has been marked both by the role of the market and by the role of migrant labor. This article develops the analysis of these processes at the microlevel of the provision of care. It draws on data collected as part of a cross-national comparative study on the employment of migrant care workers in residential care homes and home care services for older people in England and Ireland. The article examines, first, the ways in which divisions of race, ethnicity, and citizenship shape the preferences of service providers/employers and some service users as regards who provides care. Second, it examines how the institutional context of quasi-markets in long-term care shapes the negotiation of demand for migrant labor, the racialized preferences of individual users, alongside the rights of care workers to non-discrimination. It is argued that market-oriented policies for personalization, as well as for cost containment, raise implications for divisions of race, ethnicity, and citizenship in the provision of long-term care. At the same time, those divisions point to the limits of framing care in terms of the preferences of the individual as opposed to the social relations in which care is embedded.     

Child Labor Supply on US Family Farms: An Interdisciplinary Conceptualization

The conceptual model developed in this paper presents a unique way of understanding child labor on US family farms. It incorporates non-economic factors into an economic framework creating models that are different from the standard economic approaches to adult labor supply and/or child labor in developing countries. The paper argues for the importance of a balance between economic factors and non-economic factors such as social development, health and safety risks, and education in understanding child labor supply.This research is part of the first authors dissertation research. The research was supported by a Hatch grant to the second author from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the Univerrsity of Wisconsin-Madison. Gratitude is expressed by the second author to the Helen Riaboff Whiteley Center at the Univerrsity of Washington Friday Harbor Marine Lab for facilitating the completion of this article. Authorship is jointly shared.     

STATUS DIVISIONS AND WORKER MOBILIZATION

The relatively conservative trajectory of the American labor movement often has been attributed to enduring status divisions among workers such as race and ethnicity, occupation, and skill. Such divisions, it has been argued in the literature, fragment working-class organization and pose limits on solidarity. Recent analyses of labor and class-based mobilization, however, have begun to challenge this assumption, suggesting that the impact of pertinent worker divisions is quite varied. In this article I draw from and extend these literatures by examining how workplace stratification impacts individual strike participation. The analyses draw on unique individual level data from a recent strike by the Communication Workers of America. Findings speak to the complexities of worker action, and show that status divisions among workers, while meaningful for strike participation, do not preclude successful collective action. I conclude by discussing the implications for labor mobilization more generally.     

LABOR MARKET SEGMENTATION AND INCOME DETERMINATION IN POLAND

The model of income determination, as introduced by labor market segmentation students, is applied to Polish data. This article argues that divisions between sectors, industries, branches, and enterprises, imposed institutionally by the Polish central management system, determine dimensions of labor market segmentation in Polish society. Research findings demonstrate a substantive effect of economic segmentation dimensions on income inequalities, with industrial divisions affecting income variation the most strongly. The second stage of anaysis shows substantive differences in the process of income determination between five industries. This article argues that industrial differentials cannot be explained away by differences in labor force composition and that there are substantial variations in how worker characteristics are rewarded. The results are interpreted as evidence of the effect of labor market segmentation on social inequalities in Poland. In addition, differences in structural mechanisms of segmentation between Poland and capitalist societies are noted.     

Patterns of household immigration into South Texas

This article examines Mexican migration into South Texas in recent decades and focuses on changes in the characteristics of the migrants' households. An ethnographic approach is used in examining 56 permanent, immigrant households. "This article introduces a hypothesis for explaining the increase and permanency of household immigration." It is found that "immigration often leads to downward social mobility with respect to legal status of household members, type of employment, and property ownership. Of particular note is the transformation of the household from a single to a multiple worker unit, in response to agricultural labor demands and growing employment opportunities in the non-agricultural sector."     

The impact of labor migration on the Jordanian economy

"This article considers the effects of labor migration on the economy of the East Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The article is presented in two sections. The first attempts to quantify the external migrant flows which impinge on the Jordanian labor market. The second section presents a theoretical model of the macroeconomic impact on output and employment of flows of migrants and migrants' remittances and an empirical analysis of the effects on the agricultural and construction sectors."     

Discourses of flexibility and the rise of the 'Temp industry,or, How I met the 'Kelly Girl' commuting between public and private

This paper argues that multinational Temporary Help Service (THS) firms use gender narratives to sell labor as flexible and in doing so, they proliferate the flexibilization of labor on a global scale and contribute to economic restructuring. How do global processes become daily lived experience? In this article, it is argued that the Temporary Help Service industry expands and maintains a flexible labor force by referring to the multiple identities of women workers. This process is visible in the print advertisements produced by the industry: 943 advertisements which appeared between 1980 and 1990 were analyzed to show how the industry relies on the trope of white womanhood to position and sell its product.     

Gender,education and training: an international perspective

This article examines the causes and consequences of sex discrimination in education in developing countries and considers whether the available educational structures improve gender equity or reinforce the status quo. After an introduction that distinguishes between "education" and "schooling" and identifies schooling as a means of patriarchal control, the article sketches the growing awareness of gender disparities in education. The next section describes how gender inequality in education leads to low participation of women in the labor market and limits women's access to information and services, to mobility, and to decision-making. The article then reviews the international agenda on promoting female education that has resulted in donor-driven initiatives arising from such events as the 1990 World Conference on Education For All. A look at the benefits of educating women then focuses on the "family welfare" perspective and the acknowledgement of women's full socioeconomic role. After pointing to the slow progress towards gender equity in education, the article discusses barriers to this goal posed by poverty, social conventions, early marriage, violence in schools, and curricular gender stereotyping. The article then considers problems encountered by efforts to provide informal education and training and the fact that educational initiatives are donor-driven and fail to address the causes of the gender gap. It is concluded that governments and donors must transform schools as part of a larger program of socioeconomic reforms designed to improve women's status.     

Planning for the worst: risk, uncertainty and the Olympic Games

Security for the Olympic Games has become undeniably visible in recent years. A certain degree of this visibility became unavoidable after the 1972 Munich Olympics when military personnel and hardware became standard elements of Olympic security. Yet, this visibility is qualitatively different today in that it is often deliberately fashioned for public consumption. This article argues that this expressive dimension of security at the Games provides a window into wider issues of how authorities 'show' that they can deliver on the promise of maximum security under conditions of radical uncertainty. The latter sections of this article examine three ways in which this promise is extended: the discursive work of managers of unease, the staging of highly stylized demonstration projects, and the fabrication of fantasy documents. We focus on how officials emphasize that they have contemplated and planned for all possible security threats, especially catastrophic threats and worst-case scenarios. Actually planning for these events is epistemologically and practically impossible, but saying and showing that authorities are 'planning for the worst' are discursive ways of transforming uncertainty into apparently manageable risks that are independent of the functional activities they describe. As such, our analysis provides insights into the much broader issue of how authorities sustain the appearance of maximum security in order to maintain rhetorical control over what are deemed to be highly uncertain and insecure situations. Such performances may paradoxically amplify uncertainty, thus recreating the conditions that foster the ongoing securitization of everyday life.     

Lesbian women and household labor division: A systematic review of scholarly research from 2000 to 2015

ABSTRACT

Recent studies have begun to attend to distribution of household labor within same-gender couples compared to heterosexual couples, yet much of the available research with lesbian couples has attempted to superimpose division of household labor frameworks developed with heterosexual couples (e.g., gender role socialization, exchange bargaining theories) to fit the experiences of same-gender couples. Using two academic search databases, the present article provides a systematic review of the available 28 peer-reviewed articles published from 2000–2015 about lesbian partnerships and household labor divisions. Results indicate that lesbian couples engage in a more equal distribution of household labor than heterosexual couples, and that lesbian women often opt to eschew traditional gendered divisions of chores in favor of other factors such as quality of task or ability. The systematic review uncovered notable constraints in the demography of participants (e.g., race, socioeconomic status, geographic location) across studies. Strategies for deepening the depth and breadth of this line of work for future researchers, and implications for relationship satisfaction are also discussed.     

Intergroup conflict,law, and the concept of labor market discrimination

This article begins by reviewing problems that arise in attempts to operationalize standard social scientific definitions of labor market discrimination. It then argues that some of these problems occur because conventional studies of discrimination pay insufficient attention to the role of cultural contests and social and political conflict in disputes over what constitutes fair treatment in the labor market. It proposes a way to reconceptualize labor market discrimination that takes conflict into account and suggests that much could be learned about labor market discrimination by examining how such conflict is expressed in legal disputes occurring under the equal employment opportunity laws. The examination of such conflict also provides a way to link political struggle with labor market outcomes.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 1988 annual meeting of the Law and Society Association.     

A Unit in Current Events

The authors encourage teachers to make use of existing, standard social studies curriculum to uncover and to make visible the normative assumptions that underlie American cultural beliefs about gender and sexuality. The article provides an overview of how some cultures within the various Native American nations conceptualize gender and sexuality in ways that challenge Western norms. An example lesson plan addressing Two Spirit history is included as well as reflections from teachers who have taught the curriculum in their classrooms.     

Risk factors for computer visual syndrome (CVS) among operators of two call centers in São Paulo, Brazil

The aims of this study were to investigate work conditions, to estimate the prevalence and to describe risk factors associated with Computer Vision Syndrome among two call centers' operators in S?o Paulo (n = 476). The methods include a quantitative cross-sectional observational study and an ergonomic work analysis, using work observation, interviews and questionnaires. The case definition was the presence of one or more specific ocular symptoms answered as always, often or sometimes. The multiple logistic regression model, were created using the stepwise forward likelihood method and remained the variables with levels below 5% (p < 0.05). The operators were mainly female and young (from 15 to 24 years old). The call center was opened 24 hours and the operators weekly hours were 36 hours with break time from 21 to 35 minutes per day. The symptoms reported were eye fatigue (73.9%), "weight" in the eyes (68.2%), "burning" eyes (54.6%), tearing (43.9%) and weakening of vision (43.5%). The prevalence of Computer Vision Syndrome was 54.6%. Associations verified were: being female (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.6 to 4.1), lack of recognition at work (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.8), organization of work in call center (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.7) and high demand at work (OR 1.1, 95% CI 1.0 to 1.3). The organization and psychosocial factors at work should be included in prevention programs of visual syndrome among call centers' operators.     

Free Enterprise

Exploring controversial and difficult events and issues with young children can be challenging. The Civil Rights Movement is an abstract, perhaps remote, issue for young children today. However, it is an important part of our country's history and a theme worthy of study. This article suggests ways to use photographs to explore this mature subject matter that allow children to observe, discuss, and relate to pictures as a means of developing language along with concepts. Furthermore, discussions inspired by viewing the photographic documentation of the historic events surrounding the struggle for civil liberties allow students to share their insights about basic human rights and relate them to their lived experiences. The essential question guiding this lesson plan is: How can photographs provide insight into historical events? Scaffolded questions, based on the photographs, guide the students from observing and understanding to reflecting and analyzing. In addition to the lesson plan, the article contains historical background on the marches and related picture books and teaching resources based on the marches.     

Peasant struggles and social change: migration,households and gender in a rural Turkish society

"This article sheds light on the interrelationship of seasonal migration, subsistence production and peasant relations in a community (Sakli) located in Turkey's northwestern countryside.... While migrant labor is understood by local villagers as forming part of a continual battle to preserve local tradition and kinship ties, this article shows how it reduces the dominion of landlords while creating internal household differentiation and gendered hierarchies."     

Gender and Feminization in Health Care Professions

Within health care, there has long been a gender division of professional labor: men have predominated in higher-status, higher-paying professions like medicine and dentistry, while women’s health care work has been clustered in so-called support occupations such as nursing. Historically, health care professions were gendered, and beliefs about gender came to be embedded in professional work. Recently, however, traditional gender divisions of labor are being challenged by the feminization of professions in the United States and Canada. Women’s participation is expanding in traditionally male-dominated professions. This article explores the nature and causes of this feminization and considers whether feminization is changing the significance of gender to health care employment.     

Immigrant qualifications: recognition and relative wage outcomes

"One aim of this study is to examine the labor market outcomes of immigrants relative to the Australian born.... In particular, this article examines both the extent of formal nonrecognition of overseas qualifications and the indirect implications for wage outcomes of a lack of full recognition of qualifications. Immigrant relative wage analysis...is the subject of the second part of this article...."     

Masculine domination and gender subtexts: The role of female professionals in the renewal of the Swedish video game industry

The video game industry is a showcase industry in the entrepreneurial, knowledge-intensive, and technology-based economy. Despite recent technological shifts rendering digital media portable in the form of smartphones, tablets, and laptops, attracting new categories of gamers, most notably women above the age of 35, the video game industry is struggling to handle its masculine domination, prescribing specific and gendered divisions of labor in terms of lowering thresholds for female video game developers. This article reports on empirical material based on interviews from the burgeoning Swedish video game industry and suggests that female professionals entering the industry encounter inherited gendered beliefs and ways of organizing work which locate women in specific, and not always desirable, roles within the industry. In this regime of masculine domination, the study concludes, female video game developers are understood as a particular group primarily knowledgeable about female gamers’ preferences and not as the possessors of general skills attractive to the video game companies. Ultimately, the masculine domination and the historical gendered divisions of labor are preventing the industry from creating more gender-equal workplaces and, as a consequence, fully exploiting market potentials.     

Inside contracting at the Sargent Hardware Company

Conclusions Four major points emerge from the events at the Sargent factory. First, the image of inside contracting as a system pitting owners against contractors is simplistic and incomplete. Rank and file workers constituted an important third force and were involved in a complex set of changing relationships with each group and within their own group. Shifts of power in this three-way straggle led to the organizational transition away from inside contracting.Second, the history of the Sargent factory organizational structure cannot be understood without reference to the labor unions. Too often, organizational historians act as if the unions had no effect on an organization's internal structure. Conversely, labor historians often overlook the ways in which factory structures shaped the organizational task work of unions. At Sargent's, the labor unions took on a part of the work done by inside contractors, such as representing the owner to the workers and enforcing contractual obligations. The unions did serve as a voice for workers, but they also categorized workers and enforced contracts, work that enabled the new more bureaucratic structure to emerge.Third, the Sargent case provides important information about the nature of early unionization efforts and the link between those efforts and the evolving union structure. The initial worker coalition was based on a broad vision of an altered workplace, one that valued mutuality. The results of the struggle, however, gained influence for workers in only a very narrow arena and did so only at the expense of a large portion of the workforce. Unions then became a major force for division within the rank and file, separating them by craft category and perpetuating community ethnic divisions.Finally, ethnic and community ties were significant factors in the shifting patterns of alliance within the factory. Irish and Italian workers brought commonalities as well as differences into the workplace and these qualities interacted with their emerging class and occupational identities. It is important to note that the final hierarchy, Sargent on top, Irish unions and craft workers in the middle, and Italian laborers on the bottom, paralleled the larger New Haven community class and ethnic structure.The Sargent case pushes the traditional frame of analysis outward, beyond a two-way struggle, beyond an examination of just the factory structure, beyond a conventional view of business unions and beyond the factory walls into the community. As a result, a much richer and more comprehensive history emerges.