How do labour laws affect unemployment and the labour share of national income? The experience of six OECD countries, 1970–2010

Using longitudinal data on labour law in France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States over the period 1970–2010, the authors estimate the impact of labour regulation on unemployment and the labour share of national income. Their dynamic panel data analysis distinguishes between the short‐run and long‐run effects of regulatory change. They find that worker‐protective labour laws in general have no consistent relationship to unemployment but are positively correlated with labour's share of national income. Laws specifically relating to working time and employee representation are found to have beneficial effects on both efficiency and distribution thus proxied.     

Understanding Care Leavers in Russia: Young People's Experiences of Institutionalisation

Abstract

Care leavers in Russia represent one of the most disadvantaged groups in society. However, they have rarely been the focus of welfare policy debate and they receive little or no support in their independent living. This paper presents the findings of a survey of Russian care leavers. The emphasis is on care leavers' experiences of the Russian institutional care system, and the issues that impacted on their postcare transition to adulthood. A number of factors were found to influence the wellbeing of care leavers, including placement instability, institutional isolation, poor education, stigmatisation of care leavers, relationships with “houseparents”, and supportive and often challenging friendships. Findings are discussed in relation to debates about the degree and nature of institutional care of children in Russia and elsewhere.     

Droit du travail,chômage et part salariale: l'expérience de six pays de l'OCDE, 1970–2010

Utilisant des données sur le droit du travail dans six pays (Allemagne, Etats‐Unis, France, Japon, Royaume‐Uni et Suède) entre 1970 et 2010, les auteurs évaluent les effets de la réglementation du travail sur le chômage et la part du travail dans le revenu national. Leur méthode montre la différence entre les effets à court et à long terme des changements de réglementation: la législation protectrice des travailleurs n'est pas associée de façon systématique avec le chômage, mais est corrélée positivement avec la part du travail dans le revenu national. Les dispositions relatives au temps de travail et la représentation des salariés ont des effets bénéfiques tant sur l'efficacité que sur la répartition.     

Competing Frameworks in Planning for the Aged in the Growth Corridors of Melbourne

The Ageing in the Growth Corridors Project was initiated as a partnership between the University of Melbourne and the Department of Health in the Northwest Metropolitan Region of Melbourne, Australia. It involved a research team working with six project officers appointed to stimulate development in relation to an aging population in the sprawling outer metropolitan growth corridors. This article identifies the key lessons learned in terms of project implementation relating to attitudinal and structural barriers to the development of an age-friendly environment in areas of rapid urban growth. The findings illustrate some of the dilemmas raised by competing program conceptions, a dynamic and changing federal/state policy context, and local resource and strategic management constraints. The partnership with the university, nevertheless, provided a point of stability and continuity for the project officers in implementing their mandate.     

The medicalization of sunlight in the early twentieth century

This paper traces the emergence of the therapeutic use of sunlight in medicine during the first half of the twentieth century. This was a period of considerable flux in medicine with various strands of practice and theory competing. Drawing on two case studies of sunlight therapy, both artificial (actinotherapy) and natural (heliotherapy), in the treatment of rickets and tuberculosis this paper will explore how medicine was constituted within these regimes. The paper will argue that therapeutic and clinical applications of sunlight helped establish an association between sunlight and health but also defined a particular and specific performance of medicine.     

The stochastic distribution of available coefficient of friction on quarry tiles for human locomotion

The available coefficient of friction (ACOF) for human locomotion is the maximum coefficient of friction that can be supported without a slip at the shoe and floor interface. A statistical model was introduced to estimate the probability of slip by comparing the ACOF with the required coefficient of friction, assuming that both coefficients have stochastic distributions. This paper presents an investigation of the stochastic distributions of the ACOF of quarry tiles under dry, water and glycerol conditions. One hundred friction measurements were performed on a walkway under the surface conditions of dry, water and 45% glycerol concentration. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit test was used to determine if the distribution of the ACOF was a good fit with the normal, log-normal and Weibull distributions. The results indicated that the ACOF appears to fit the normal and log-normal distributions better than the Weibull distribution for the water and glycerol conditions. However, no match was found between the distribution of ACOF under the dry condition and any of the three continuous distributions evaluated. Based on limited data, a normal distribution might be more appropriate due to its simplicity, practicality and familiarity among the three distributions evaluated.     

Improving wheelchair prescription: an analysis of user needs and existing tools

Wheelchair users experience many situations that affect the stability and associated performance of their wheelchair. Stability is affected by user characteristics and abilities, environmental features and conditions, and wheelchair modification and accessories. Wheelchair prescribers need effective tools and methods to provide quantitative evaluation and prediction of the behavior of the user-wheelchair system in a variety of static and dynamic situations. Such information is very important to guide efficient management of associated risks and adjust chairs accordingly. This project involves a user-centered approach for design and evaluation of a load cell based wheelchair stability assessment system (Wheel-SAS). Here, the current methods for assessing stability are described, and their shortcomings explained. The user-centered design approach being applied to the development of the associated Wheel-SAS hardware and software is described. Future work including semi-structured interviews and an online survey with wheelchair prescribers and associated healthcare professionals for deriving user requirements and a design specification for a load cell system for measuring dynamic wheelchair stability are detailed.     

Les acteurs sociaux et la modélisation phénoménologique1

The phenomenological approach has a quasi‐monopoly in the individual and subjectivity analyses in social sciences. However, the conceptual apparatus associated with this approach is very restrictive. The human being has to be understood as rational, conscious, intentional, interested, and autonomous. Because of this, a large dimension of human activity cannot be taken into consideration: all that does not fit into the analytical categories (nonrational, nonconscious, etc.). Moreover, this approach cannot really move toward a relational analysis unless it is between individuals predefined by its conceptual apparatus. This lack of complexity makes difficult the establishment of links between phenomenology and systemic analysis in which relation (and its derivatives such as recursiveness, dialectic, correlation) plays an essential role. This article intends to propose a way for systemic analysis to apprehend the individual with respect to his complexity.