Precarious leisure: (re)imagining youth,transitions and temporality

ABSTRACT

The precarity of young people’s transitions to work has been a longstanding focus in youth studies. As Furlong and others have demonstrated, processes of social, political and economic restructuring have led to a pronounced instability for young people entering the labour market. While the notion of labour market precarity has gained attention, the ‘contamination’ of precarity into other spheres of life such as leisure has been less developed. This article seeks to extend these debates through interrogation of the concept of ‘leisure precarity’. Drawing on a qualitative study of youth leisure in Glasgow, it argues that temporal anxieties have reframed young people’s experiences and understandings of leisure such that young people have come to fear ‘empty’ or unproductive time. The pressures of juggling work and study, or looking for work, meant that most participants in our research had limited time free for leisure, and temporal rhythms became fragmented between past, present and future. The paper argues that these multiple and contradictory leisure dispositions reveal new forms of individualisation and uncertainty, as well as traditional patterns of inequality, thereby bringing youth transitions into dialogue with the study of precarity in the twenty-first century.     

All Forecasters Are Equal

From an analysis of the track records of U.S. economic forecasters, Stekler (1987) concluded that “all forecasters are not equal” (p. 158). This article shows that his result is based on an incorrectly defined test statistic. When a more appropriate test is conducted, the figures suggest that accuracy rankings are not significantly different from those that might be expected as a result of sampling error in a population of equally accurate forecasters.     

Out of touch: local government and disabled people's employment needs

In autumn 2003 we contracted to undertake a study in two district council areas of ways in which they could meet their Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA) targets in respect of disabled people returning to work. We undertook a literature review of barriers to work, interviewed a number of people involved in working with unemployed people and a number of disabled people in these areas. All the employment organisations we had contact with were working to an individual model of disability and the need to change their orientation became the central recommendation of the first phase of this study. This was rejected by those funding the study. At the end of the first year none of the organisations active in this area was able to identify a single disabled person who had returned to work as a result of their help. We conclude that central government policies are doing little to change the perception of the employment needs of disabled people within local government.     

用于低渗透油田的腐殖酸高温堵剂研究

主要研究了一种耐高温体系，该体系由腐殖酸钠、甲醛，增强剂和0.02％的HPAM溶液四部分组成，考察了腐殖酸钠质量分数、甲醛质量分数、pH值、矿化度的变化对堵剂性能的影响，通过正交实验得出堵剂的最优配方并对该配方进行了评价。结果表明，该堵剂基液初始粘度为10mPa·s，易于输送和泵入，成胶时间18h，成胶后的强度为0.087MPa，最佳适用的pH值范围为7～9，具有良好的耐温抗盐能力、长期稳定性、封堵性能及廉价等优点，在高温低渗透油田具有广阔的应用前景。     

Policy planning and central-local relations

This paper is based on research carried out at the Institute of Local Government Studies at the University of Birmingham. Policy Planning Systems are ways of dealing with the division of functions between central and local government and they provide a structure for the flow of information by means of specified procedures and processes. As this tends to create an increased flow of work, this area of planning is threatened by central and local government cut-backs in expenditures and manpower, and may well only survive by a positive demostration of its usefulness.     

From Children's Departments to Family Departments

Drawing upon his own experience as a child care officer, the author draws attention to the local authority Children's Departments which were established 50 years ago in 1948. To mark the anniversary, interviews were held with 20 former children's officers. From these, it was possible to identify three major achievements of the Children's Departments, namely the restoration of natural parents to child care, the promotion of child care skills, and the formation of a highly committed staff force. The Children's Departments were abolished over a quarter of a century ago and amalgamated into the Social Services Departments (Social Work Departments in Scotland). Despite some notable advances, it is argued that, under these departments, preventative work with children, child care skills and staff morale have declined. As a way forward, the author proposes the formation of a local authority Family Department which would consist of family workers equipped with child care skills, a facility approach which offers open services, and backing for locally run neighbourhood groups. It is contended that this service would be acceptable to and particularly helpful to parents and children living in conditions of social deprivation.