The Impact of Liberalization on Female Workers in Quebec: Four Case Studies

Cet article explore l'impact de la libéralisation des marchés sur la main‐d'?uvre féminine au Québec. Il cherche à valider une intuition formulée par Brunelle, Beaulieu and Minier ( 2004 ) en guise de conclusion d'un rapport de recherche mettant en relief l'essor et la prolifération des marchés périphériques du travail dans le capitalisme mondialisé. Parce qu'elles sont surreprésentées dans le travail atypique, les auteurs se demandaient alors si la restructuration des marchés du travail avait des impacts négatifs les femmes. En nous appuyant sur quatre études de cas dans différents secteurs de l'économie (habillement, commerce de détail, télécommunications, services d'aide à domicile), l'article valide l' hypothèse d'une rehiérarchisation genrée du marché du travail sur la base de statuts d'emploi dans le sillage du processus de libéralisation. The article explores the impact of market liberalization on Quebec's female workforce in a context of global capitalism by testing a hypothesis formulated by Brunelle, Beaulieu, and Minier ( 2004 ) as a concluding remark of a research that exposed the burgeoning of secondary labor market: “Is liberalization leading to an employment‐statuses‐based restructuration of labor markets that would have negative impacts on women?” Using four case studies in key sectors of the economy (garments, retail, telecom, home‐care services), the article suggests a genderized rehierarchization of labor markets based on employment statuses in the wake of the liberalization process.     

Ethics and social media: Implications for sociolinguistics in the networked public1

As a popular agora for writing identity into being, the networked public of social media sites presents exciting and unprecedented possibilities for sociolinguistic research. At the same time, these sites raise a wealth of unfamiliar methodological and ethical issues, and debate concerning appropriate ethical measures for research targeting online discourse communities is emergent. One of the most pressing debates concerns the visibility of online interaction (i.e. its locus between the public and private ends of the continuum). Although they exist freely online, networked publics are not public forums. They are governed by both personal and communal norms, and they are networked. This combination of factors gives rise to unique ethical challenges, particularly in the case of Facebook, an accessible and data‐rich, yet problematic, research site. This paper reviews the ethical difficulties presented by Facebook, and presents a framework for ethnographic sociolinguistic research that uses this site as a source of data. En tant qu’espace public privilégié pour la création de l’identitéà travers l’écriture, le public ?réseauté? (interconnecté) des sites des médias sociaux présente des possibilités prometteuses et sans précédent pour la recherché en sociolinguistique. Cependant, ces sites soulèvent de nombreuses questions méthodologiques et éthiques qui sont nouvelles, d’où l’émergence de discussions portant sur les mesures éthiques appropriées pour la recherche qui vise les communautés discursives en ligne. Un des débats concerne la visibilité de l’interaction en ligne (c.‐à‐d. sa place entre les extrémités privée et publique du continuum). Bien qu’ils existent de façon libre en ligne, les réseaux publics ne sont pas des forums publics. Ils sont gouvernés à la fois par des normes personnelles et communautaires, et ils sont interconnectés. Cette combinaison de facteurs donne naissance à des défis éthiques uniques, en particulier dans le cas de Facebook, un site de recherche accessible et riche en données, mais problématique. Cet article passe en revue les difficultés éthiques que Facebook présente, et offre un cadre de travail pour la recherche sociolinguistique ethnographique utilisant ce site comme source de données. [French]     

Eight years after – a follow‐up study of mothers and children at psychosocial risk who received early treatment: does early intervention leave its mark?

One‐hundred forty‐five mothers at psychosocial risk who, with their babies, had been given treatment at a parent–baby clinic during a 2‐year period starting in 1999, treatment designed to strengthen the mother–child relationship, were followed up 8 years later. Both the mothers who had agreed to take part in the treatment programme (n= 73) and those who had declined (n= 72) were searched for in the records of the Social Welfare office to determine if the treated mothers had been focused on to a lesser degree in the following 8 years than those who had declined treatment, a hypothesis that was initially put forward. The behaviour of the children whose mothers had undergone treatment (n= 46) was studied. The initial hypothesis had to be rejected; support and intervention from the social authorities had been equally common in both groups. However, the children of treated mothers had fewer externalizing behaviour than children of untreated mothers at psychosocial risk.     

Conditions of Radical Transformation in State‐Owned Enterprises*

This study analyses the key contributors to radical organizational change in five New Zealand state‐owned enterprises during their ownership transition between 1985 and 1995. Abrupt government reform policies, organizations' market positions, realization of rapid technological innovation, proactive managerial actions and the new owners' strategic intent are established as key conditions of radical change in state‐owned enterprises. We integrate our findings with institutional theory and resource dependency theory to argue that organizational dynamics in times of uncertainty depend on de‐institutionalization of old and institutionalization of new patterns of resource dependency.     

Men’s Work Efforts and the Transition to Fatherhood

In this paper we tested three hypotheses: (a) the transition to fatherhood is associated with an increase in work effort; (b) the positive association (if any) between the transition to fatherhood and work effort is greater for fathers who are married at the time of the transition; and (c) the association (if any) is greater for men who make the transition at younger ages. The data are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort. The transition to fatherhood was associated with an increase in work effort among young unmarried men, but not for married men. Among married men who were on-time fathers, work effort decreased. Among childless men, the marriage transition was associated with increased work effort.     

Effects of the physical accessibility of maternal health services on their use in rural Haiti

An analysis of data from the 2000 Demographic and Health Survey shows that little use is made of antenatal and delivery-care services in rural Haiti. After adjusting for individual-level factors, poor road conditions significantly reduce the likelihood of timely receipt of antenatal care and of four or more antenatal care visits, while the availability of a health centre within 5 kilometres significantly increases the odds of each outcome. The odds of being attended at delivery by trained medical personnel and of institutional delivery are significantly reduced by mountainous terrain and distance from the nearest hospital, and are increased if a health worker providing antenatal care is present in the neighbourhood. Neighbourhood poverty reduces the likelihood of safe delivery care. The findings suggest that improving the use made of maternal healthcare services would require, among other things, improvement of the availability of services and road conditions, and the reduction of poverty.     

Women’s employment and the decline of home cooking: Evidence from France, 1985–2010

We here investigate the extent to which labour-market changes explain the decline in the time spent home cooking by married women in France between 1985 and 2010. Using time use data and Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, we find that rising women’s employment and observed wages together account for about 60% of the fall in the time married women spent cooking. We then use a semi-parametric matching technique to construct an implicit wage rate, which better reflects the change in labour-market incentives that individuals face. The rise in women’s implicit wages explains no more than 20% of the decline in their cooking time, while the wage of their partner has no effect. Changing labour-market incentives are thus far from being the main driver of the decline in home-cooking. We also find evidence that home cooking continues to be structured by the gendered social norm of the “proper family meal”.     

Nursing-Home Resident Quality of Life: A Longitudinal Case Study Approach

Longitudinal quality-of-life (QOL) research incorporating multiple perspectives can add to knowledge about how nursing home residents experience QOL, but these methods are seldom used. This study employed interviews and participant observation to conduct multiple-perspective, longitudinal case studies of six residents. Close, reciprocal relationships with staff members, staff knowledge of residents, and autonomy were fundamental to QOL. Autonomy was experienced through choice and self-advocacy. Changes in QOL over time related to changes in resident health status, acclimation to the setting and family member availability. Study results may have implications for staffing and staff training.