Global Political Economy: Power, Labour, Politics

This discussion examines the issue of globalisation in terms of the interaction of economy, politics and power. It begins by considering the claims implied by the language of globalisation. How extensive and inclusive is the global economy? The second section goes on to outline the broad geography of globalisation in terms of a balance of power that is both highly uneven but also subject to marked changes. While the global economy as this developed since the 1970s may have reproduced established patterns of colonial and post‐war economic power, in the current century, power is shifting away from these nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century models to a new balance of regional power in which large Asian economies may dominate. Alongside these patterns of regional and national power, third, the discussion considers the uneven geography of capital and labour captured in models of an international division of labour that is organised by flows of capital investment but also of mobile workers. The final section offers an overview of the architecture of global politics, from the level of international institutions and nation‐states, to non‐governmental bodies that operate across borders to support or resist the workings of a global economy.     

Women,Political Participation,and the Arab Spring: Political Awareness and Participation in Democratizing Tunisia

This research examines the constraints to female political participation in democratizing Tunisia. Analyzing data from the Voter Registration & Voter Confidence Assessment in Tunisia Survey conducted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in March 2011 shows stark differences between men and women in their levels of political awareness, which causes a barrier to female political participation. Substantiated by a battery of tests, this gap is primarily structured by differences in university-level education and income levels. Contributing factors to explain the gap are differences in the degree of female public presence in urban settings, as opposed to rural areas, and a lack of access to information about politics. Policy recommendations to reduce this gap are creating educational funds for women and increasing the accessibility of political information outside of the capital.     

城市更新中的“公共利益”：界定标准与实现路径

界定公共利益,划清公共利益与私人利益的边界,是解决城市更新合法性问题的关键和基础。而目前公共利益的判定存在着无法明晰界定内涵与外延的困境。因此必须打破思维定势,将“什么是公共利益”转化为“由谁来界定公共利益”这样一个问题,以“公众受益性”和“受益人的不特定性和多数性”为标准,遵循法律保留、比例与正当程序原则;由人民代表大会及其常务委员会对“公共利益”的内涵与外延界定．并引入司法机构裁判．以听证、补偿、监督和救济程序为保障．     

Some Notes on Workplace Equality Renewal in the Swedish Labour Market

In 2001, Swedish authorities imposed a new obligation upon all firms with ten or more employees to undertake annual wage surveys, ‘workplace equality audits’ in which it is possible to ascertain, remedy and prevent unwarranted wage differentials and other unfair employment terms between men and women. An important implication of the new system, called ‘workplace equality renewal’ (självsanering), is that, at the level of the firm all Swedish employers must explain what they mean by work of ‘equal value’ as opposed to ‘different value’. This article discusses the practical pros and cons of the new system, and considers how the surveys can be used in research into the present state of gendered work division. A main finding is that the introduction of this new legislation in the long run might change the Swedish industrial relations system as well as the preconditions for many companies’ human resource management policies. Yet, neither the governmental agencies involved nor the parties’ confederate organizations have been able to clarify what the issue is really about to the single, small business employer or to the local trade union branches. Many employers find any interference, whatever it may be, threatening and trade unions have not realized the potentialities of the system from an employee perspective, potentialities connected to the fact that companies are now more or less forced to make transparent their wage policies at large.     

Pollsters, the Press, and Political Polling in Britain

This article reviews the history of political polls in Britainsince 1945, when the first such poll was conducted, and examinescurrent topical issues, including the relationship between themedia and the polls.     

Activism,Mobilisation and Political Engagement: Comparative Historical Perspectives

This editorial introduction discusses and explains the broader research context underpinning the essays, namely the Leverhulme Trust-funded Research Network, “The Comparative History of Political Engagement in Western and African Societies”. It provides a brief overview of the intellectual background to the network's agenda, and, in particular, argues that comparative sociological approaches to the study of political engagement have left it inadequately historicized. The introduction then discusses the general theme of “Activism, mobilization and Political Engagement”, which all contributors to the international conference were asked to consider. It argues that these essays, when taken together, offer new comparative historical perspectives for investigations into the history of political engagement, providing highly suggestive points of departures for future research.     

Reflections on Women and Political Participation

This article examines the unique role of Women &; Politics within the discipline of political science. A comparison of all of the articles appearing in the "top 15" political science journals with those published in Women &; Politics during the first 12 years of its publication made the magnitude of the difference in focus clear. Nearly one-half of all the female-focused articles published between 1980 and 1991 were published in Women &; Politics. The discipline of political science, has, for the most part, ignored the contributions of feminist epistemology and theory. As a relative newcomer, Women &; Politics is making a significant contribution by addressing the role of women in the political system.     

当代青年政治参与新特征之辩证观

青年政治参与是有序扩大公民政治参与中的优先领域。新世纪、新时代,当代青年政治参与的新特征主要表现为政治参与的主导力量多元化、政治参与的方式多样化、政治参与的能力娴熟化和政治参与的目标具体化。辩证分析当代青年政治参与的新特征,需要科学认识新社会环境对青年政治参与的决定性影响,需要科学把握青年政治参与中的耦合与偏离,需要科学判断青年知识分子在政治参与中引领作用的弱化。     

Judgment Analysis in Policy Formation: A New Method for Improving Public Participation

Effective communication between citizens and public officialsis essential to a representative democracy, but conventionalmethods of communication are inade- quate for the process ofcomplex policy formation. Such inadequacy is due, at least inpart, to known difficulties of understanding and describingcognitive processes. A new method, derived from social judgmenttheory, which enhances the quality of communication betweenthe public and its representatives, is described and illustrated.     

Theoretical Perspectives on the School-to-Work Transition: Reactions and Recommendations

Although extant career theories provide important conceptual insights into the content and process of the school-to-work transition, they have not addressed 2 questions that need to be considered in future theoretical and research agendas. These questions, which are addressed in this article, are (a) why are career theories not developed to account for the school-to-work process? and (b) are the career theories proposed here complete in their explanation of the school-to-work process?     

Labour,Legality and shifts in the Public/Private divide

This article discusses the changing role that work performed in private homes has played, and continues to play, in migration law in the Netherlands and at the EU level. It explores to what degree work performed in the home is defined as (exploitative) contractual labour or as inherent to family life, and what this means for claims to residence rights as a precursor to citizenship. It does this by reviewing case law of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and of the European Court of Human Rights (EctHR) against the background of the Dutch case. It reveals tension between how citizenship is constructed and reproduced at the national level and how it is constructed and reproduced at the EU level. Following Adam McKeown, this article concludes that different perspectives on (reproductive) labour as a qualification for citizenship may reflect different perspectives on (reproductive) labour and the quality of citizenship.

Policy Implications

• Third Country Nationals must be allowed to reside in the EU with their EU children, to ensure the latter's effective enjoyment of fundamental rights.
• Policies to combat trafficking of domestic workers must respect family life.
• Family migration policies must allow individual family members enough scope to resist exploitation within families.
• Policies concerning labour protection, social protection and migration should no longer take the breadwinner‐citizen as point of departure, but the current reality of flexible labour relations in which the distinctions between home and work, and between employment and self‐employment, are no longer sharply defined.

     

Public Relations and Technology: Practitioner Perspectives

The purpose of this research was to gather detailed information about public relations practitioners' new technology use. Seventeen semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted. This study describes how use of communication technologies can affect public relations roles. It discusses practitioner challenges associated with diffusing new technologies; practitioner perceptions of technology, organizational status, and power; and how public relations professionals are employing new technologies to improve research, increase productivity, and advance two-way symmetric communication in their organizations.