A Long Cycle in Industrial Relations,or: Regulation Theory and Political Economy

ABSTRACT: The main purpose of this paper is to test the Regulation Theory (la Théorie de la Régulation) ‘ on a subject — the long cycle of rigidity/flexibility in labour markets and industrial relations we have experienced between the late sixties and now — that should be one of the central concerns of such a theory, being linked to one of its basic concepts: the Rapport Salarial. Does the theory of regulation help us (more than rival theoretical frameworks do) in explaining why we underwent a rigidity/flexibility cycle? And in explaining why this cycle took such different forms in different countries? In order to achieve this purpose, the author first distinguishes several meanings, or dimensions, or rigidity/flexibility (money and real wage, numerical, functional, intensive, dualistic, geographical) and goes to some length in analysing why comparisons in this field between national industrial relations systems and labour market arrangements are rather difficult to perform. Having done that, the author argues that regulation theory is of little help in understanding our diachronic question — why we went through a flexibility cycle — because such a theory does not make any strong bet on the causes of change in the institutional arrangements of labour markets and industrial relations. On the synchronic question — why the forms of the cycle have been so different cross-nationally — the conclusion is that Regulation Theory can be useful as a focusing device, as an ideal-type, but that a lot of nationally-specific materials have to be added in order to obtain adequate answers. The paper ends up with a methodological discussion on the statute of regulation theory. It is argued that it is neither theory nor history: it is a series of ideal-types of system-integration, connected by ex-post, historical linkages.     

Conservative Christian teachers: possible consequences for lesbian,gay and bisexual youth

This essay explores the effects evangelical and/or fundamentalist Christian educators could have on the experiences of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals in schools. Evangelical and/or fundamentalist Christian educators’ beliefs about LGB individuals may be at odds with the goals of equity, social justice and activism a true multicultural education provides. Teacher educators, in particular multicultural teacher educators, must understand the historical and social influences Christianity has on how LGB persons are perceived and how teachers who are fundamentalist and/or evangelical may consciously or unconsciously oppress and marginalize these students and other LGB members of the education community.     

Fear and expectations: differences among female victims of domestic violence who come to the attention of the police

This study investigated a broad range of female victims of domestic partner abuse who came to the attention of the police. Ninety-five consecutive victims were interviewed by officers in a police department's domestic violence unit. Twenty-two percent of the victims matched expectations of women who were both afraid of their abusers and expected future abuse. Surprisingly, 46% of the victims were unafraid of their offenders and believed that future abuse was unlikely. A consistent pattern of findings supports the conclusion that a much broader range of victims than expected comes to the attention of the police. These results suggest exploring alternative police responses for different types of victims.     

War against War!: pictures as means of social struggle in post-First World War Europe

Germany 1925: Ernst Friedrich, a young anarchist and anti-militarist activist, publishes one of the first independent books composed only of photographs and captions: War against War! His stated goal is to employ classified pictures of the First World War (WWI) to unmask nationalistic propaganda and expose the false narratives of militaristic rhetoric. Published on the eve of the golden age of photojournalism, this book is the first grassroots attempt to use photography as a means of social and cultural change on a large scale. Through in-depth analysis of some key pictures, I will investigate the relation this series of images establishes with the beholder and the role it plays in shaping his visual experience. Emphasis will be placed on 24 close-ups of disfigured faces which constitute the last set of this visually driven narrative. As I will seek to demonstrate, the complex array of pictures created by Ernst Friedrich testifies to a fundamental yet still embryonic change in the social perception of photography in the post-WWI Europe.     

Modeling Longitudinal Obesity Data with Intermittent Missingness Using a New Latent Variable Model

We propose a latent variable model for informative missingness in longitudinal studies which is an extension of latent dropout class model. In our model, the value of the latent variable is affected by the missingness pattern and it is also used as a covariate in modeling the longitudinal response. So the latent variable links the longitudinal response and the missingness process. In our model, the latent variable is continuous instead of categorical and we assume that it is from a normal distribution. The EM algorithm is used to obtain the estimates of the parameter we are interested in and Gauss–Hermite quadrature is used to approximate the integration of the latent variable. The standard errors of the parameter estimates can be obtained from the bootstrap method or from the inverse of the Fisher information matrix of the final marginal likelihood. Comparisons are made to the mixed model and complete-case analysis in terms of a clinical trial dataset, which is Weight Gain Prevention among Women (WGPW) study. We use the generalized Pearson residuals to assess the fit of the proposed latent variable model.     

Gender differences in substance use and initiation of sexual activity

Even though widespread efforts have focused on educating young adults about HIV and AIDS, many individuals continue to engage in behaviors that place them at risk. These behaviors include frequent experimentation with alcohol and other drugs prior to sex, engaging in sexual activity with different partners, and inconsistent safe sex practices (Butcher et al. 1991). The combination of these risky behaviors causes increased concern about the spread of HIV among those of college age. This study focused on two behaviors by examining the relationship between substance use during adolescence and early initiation of sexual activity in a sample of 950 subjects aged 19–21 in a mid-sized southern city. Results indicate that early use of alcohol and marijuana relates to earlier initiation of sexual activity and subsequent risky sexual behavior among young adults. Also, gender differences were observed for frequent users of marijuana and alcohol with males engaging in riskier sexual practices. Recommendations for interventions are made.     

Becoming the best: by beating or ignoring the best? Toward an expanded view of the role of managerial selection in complex and turbulent environments

This paper explores how the rules that guide search affect organizational adaptation in complex and turbulent environments. Our consideration of such rules extends beyond search scope—i.e., exploitation of current technologies vs. exploration of new technologies—to include focus on competition. We consider two types of competitive focus—i.e., external, where the choice of focal technology to be improved is influenced by information about other organizations and internal, where it is not influenced by others. We refer to this expanded set of rules as managerial selection and vary it to explore how it affects organizational adaptation. Employing an agent based simulation model, built on the framework of NKC fitness landscapes, we consider multiple types of interdependencies within and between technologies and across competitors. We show that in the presence of these multiple interdependencies, the ability of organizations to adapt is conditioned as much or more by the focus of search than by its scope. In particular, we observe that in simple and stable environments, organizational adaptation is enhanced by an external focus but in complex and turbulent environments, such external focus is counterproductive.     

Prenatal Development of Interlimb Motor Learning in the Rat Fetus

The role of sensory feedback in the early ontogeny of motor coordination remains a topic of speculation and debate. On E20 of gestation (the 20th day after conception, 2 days before birth), rat fetuses can alter interlimb coordination after a period of training with an interlimb yoke, which constrains limb movement and promotes synchronized, conjugate movement of the yoked limbs. The aim of this study was to determine how the ability to express this form of motor learning may change during prenatal development. Fetal rats were prepared for in vivo study at 4 ages (E18–21) and tested in a 65‐min training‐and‐testing session examining hind limb motor learning. A significant increase in conjugate hind limb activity was expressed by El9, but not El 8 fetuses, with further increases in conjugate hind limb activity on E20 and E21. These findings suggest substantial development of the ability of fetal rats to modify patterns of interlimb coordination in response to kinesthetic feedback during motor training before birth.