The Neoliberal Food Regime: Neoregulation and the New Division of Labor in North America

We undertake a comparative investigation of how neoliberal restructuring characterizes the third food regime in the three North American countries. By contrasting the experience of the two developed countries of the United States and Canada with that of the developing country of Mexico, we shine some empirical light on the differential impact of neoliberal regulatory restructuring on the division of labor in agriculture within the North American Free Trade Agreement region. In particular, we investigate these countries' agricultural production markets, trade, and food vulnerability—with an emphasis on Mexico—as analytical points for comparing and contrasting their experience with this neoliberal restructuring. We start with a synthesis of food‐regime theory and outline the key features of what we call the “neoliberal food regime.” We then discuss our case‐study countries in terms of food vulnerability and resistance in Mexico, their differential relationships to trade liberalization, and what these trends might mean for the evolution of the neoliberal food regime. We conclude that, while dominant trends are ominous, there is room for an alternative trajectory and consequent reshaping of the emerging regime: sufficient bottom‐up social resistance, primarily at the level of the nation–state, may yet produce an alternative trajectory.     

How social networks affect policy implementation: An analysis of street-level bureaucrats' performance regarding a health policy

Policy implementation is an interactive process between citizens and street-level bureaucrats. Although the literature has already addressed different factors that influence discretion, there is still a gap in understanding if and how bureaucrats' relational profiles affect policy implementation. This article analyses bureaucrats' interactions and the relational environments in which they exercise their discretion. The hypothesis is that bureaucrats' different relational profiles specify policy implementation at the street level. We study bureaucrats in a Brazilian health care programme involving community workers that requires regular visits to beneficiary families' homes. The research departs from ethnography and network analyses with workers from three very different contexts. We analyse bureaucrats' practices, the discursive styles mobilized in their interactions, and their personal networks. The results show that organizational factors are central to explain variations in practices, and their relational profiles highly influence the discursive styles used by bureaucrats in their interactions with citizens. The article concludes that relational elements can affect the exercise of discretion and influence interactions at the street level and should be incorporated more systematically in the implementation literature.     

Ergonomic evaluation of the preparation of cuttings and minicuttings for eucalyptus seedling production, with the use of scissors

This study was conducted in a nursery for eucalyptus seedling production in a forest Company, located in the southern state of Bahia, Brazil. It aimed to evaluate the ergonomic conditions of the preparation of cuttings and mini-cuttings with scissors for Eucalyptus seedling production to increase well-being, satisfaction and safety and minimizing the occurrence of occupational diseases, also improving the process efficiency and final product quality. Environmental conditions, levels of noise, postures, RSI risk and physical workload were assessed. The environmental conditions complied with the recommended norms, except at certain times of day, when workers should make compensation breaks. The workers that collect minicuttings presented postures classified as normal by OWAS. On the other hand, the posture of workers dealing with cutting preparation requires corrections in a short run. The workers were subjected to moderate RSI risk due to the high degree of repeatability found. The physical workload was classified as mild, with no need for ergonomic interventions.     

Methodological proceedings to evaluate the physical accessibility in urban historic sites

Historic urban sites are set by cultural and social diversities, generating multiple activities and use and access to these sites should be available to all people including those with disabilities. Taking into consideration that using the same methodology that was used in different historic sites researches with positive results facilitates replication, we aimed to develop methodological procedures that identify conditions of physical accessibility in open public spaces and access to public buildings in historic urban sites to support proposals about design requirements for improvements to the problems diagnosed and control inadequacies of the physical environment. The study methods and techniques from different areas of knowledge culminated in a proposal built with an emphasis on user participation that could be applied with low cost and in relatively short period of time.     

Ergonomic analysis jobs in recovered factories

With the advent of the deep economic crisis in Argentina on 2001, the recovery of companies through to the creation of the Cooperatives Working Self-Management or Factories Recovered by its workers was constituted as one of the ways in which the salaried disobeyed the increasing unemployment. When the companies turn into recovered factories they tend to leave of side practices that have been seen like imposed by the previous organization and not understanding them as a primary condition for the execution of his tasks. Safety and ergonomics are two disciplines that are no longer considered relevant to the daily work. Therefore this investigation aims to revalue, undergo semantic to give back to a place in every organization analyzed. This research developed a self-diagnostic tool for working conditions, and the environment, present in the recovered factories.     

Zeit- und Ziele-Management für Nachwuchswissenschaftler/innen

Within a vocational program at the University of Göttingen, the authors developed and evaluated an online-coaching in order to enhance the self-management, the work-life-balance and the job opportunities of junior researchers. 50 participants first attended an assessment center, 60 participants proceeded with an online-coaching of two weeks duration. The 3-month-follow-up included detailed feedbacks to every participant. Quantitative and qualitative analysis showed that media competencies affected the self-perception of training outcomes. Though female participants reported less media competencies than males, men and women benefited equally and sustainably in the enhancement of time options, work-life-balance, and self-management.