Scientific consensus,the law,and same sex parenting outcomes

While the US Supreme Court was considering two related cases involving the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, one major question informing that decision was whether scientific research had achieved consensus regarding how children of same-sex couples fare. Determining the extent of consensus has become a key aspect of how social science evidence and testimony is accepted by the courts. Here, we show how a method of analyzing temporal patterns in citation networks can be used to assess the state of social scientific literature as a means to inform just such a question. Patterns of clustering within these citation networks reveal whether and when consensus arises within a scientific field. We find that the literature on outcomes for children of same-sex parents is marked by scientific consensus that they experience “no differences” compared to children from other parental configurations.     

Equality Bargaining: Where,Who, Why?

It is common to identify a role for trade unions in combating sex inequality at work through collective bargaining. This article uses a survey of paid union officers to identify the context in which equality bargaining by unions is likely to occur, using the specific issue of bargaining on equal pay. It concludes that equality bargaining is a function of women’s voice within unions, the characteristics and preferences of bargainers themselves and of a favourable public policy environment. Bargaining on equal pay is also more likely in centralized negotiations that cover multiple employers.     

Book Reviews

Book reviews: Rosemary Crompton (ed), Restructuring Gender Relations and Employment: The Decline of the Male Breadwinner Susan Eisenberg, We’ll Call You If We Need You: Experiences of Women Working in Construction Fiona M. Wilson, Organizational Behaviour: A Critical Introduction Rohan Collier, Equality in Managing Service Delivery Joyce K. Fletcher, Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power and Relational Practice at Work Miriam Glucksmann, Cottons and Casuals : The Gendered Organisation of Labour in Time and Space     

国际基督教工会联合会与早期欧洲一体化

第二次世界大战后 ,作为欧洲压力集团之一的基督教工会通过其国际组织———国际基督教工会联合会 ,以个人活动和参与欧洲机构正式协商机制的方式 ,试图在欧洲早期一体化进程中维护基督教工会和工人的权利及利益。该组织的活动虽然取得了一定成就 ,但从总体上讲 ,其对欧洲经济政治一体化的影响仍然十分有限     

Remaking the labour movement in Italy: the revival of strikes at Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles in 2015–17

ABSTRACT

After the Fiat-Chrysler merger in 2009, CEO Sergio Marchionne imposed a drastic reorganization of labour relations in Italy’s plants, precipitating a profound crisis of the system of industrial relations in the country. But between 2015 and 2017 a significant section of workers at Melfi, Atessa and Termoli plants went on strike against compulsory overtime and labour intensification, establishing links with grassroots unions that successfully organized in logistics. The metalworkers’ union FIOM-CGIL, however, delegitimized the union representatives who resisted Marchionne’s plans. In this article, we trace the context and development of these still little-known strikes. Because of their growing institutionalization, we argue, the confederal unions (CGIL, CISL, UIL) have both failed to mobilize workers and repressed workers’ attempts to resist the deterioration of their conditions. The strikes at FCA and in logistics, however, show that new forms of radical unionism are emerging, pointing to new possibilities for working-class organizing.     

Society without the social: the Spanish labour movement and the rise of the social, 1840–1880

Focusing on the Spanish case, this article addresses two fundamental questions: why were many unionized workers sceptical about state intervention in labour issues throughout the nineteenth century, and why did this attitude begin to change from the 1860s onwards? Its main thesis is that workers’ attitudes derived ultimately from different historical notions of ‘society’ that shaped their perceptions and experiences of labour relations and their attitude toward the role of the state. Thus, a notion of society as an aggregation of individuals shaped unionized Spanish workers’ hostility toward state intervention since the creation of the first unions in the 1840s. From the 1860s onward, a new conception of collective relations, namely ‘the social’, began to transform some workers’ expectations of the role of the state in labour conflicts. The main factor that explains this change, it is argued, lies in the relationship between the workers’ imaginary, their actions, and their expectations about these actions.     

Marriage and separation risks among German cohabiters: Differences between types of cohabiter

We propose a typology of different meanings of cohabitation that combines cohabiters’ intentions to marry with a general attitude toward marriage, using competing risk analyses to examine whether some cohabiters are more prone than others to marry or to separate. Using data (N = 1,258) from four waves of the German Family Panel (PAIRFAM) and a supplementary study (DEMODIFF), we compared eastern and western German cohabiters of the birth cohorts 1971–73 and 1981–83. Western Germans more frequently view cohabitation as a step in the marriage process, whereas eastern Germans more often cohabit as an alternative to marriage. Taking into account marital attitudes reveals that cohabiters without marriage plans differ from those with plans in their relationship careers, and also shows that cohabiters who plan to marry despite holding a less favourable view of marriage are less likely to realize their plans than cohabiters whose intentions and attitudes are more congruent.     

韩国劳动力市场灵活稳定性状况研究

根据国际社会提出的灵活稳定性概念对韩国金融危机以后劳动力市场的灵活稳定性状况进行分析。韩国政府采取的许多改革措施没有使劳动力市场的稳定性得到提高,反而使灵活性不断下滑。社会保障体系的不完善及工会组织的政治化是造成韩国劳动力市场灵活稳定性无法提高的主要原因。     

Beards and Bloomers: Flight Attendants,Grievances and Embodied Labour in the Canadian Airline Industry, 1960s–1980s

This paper examines union grievances dealing with the body, appearance and demeanour fought by the Canadian Air Line Flight Attendants Association, on behalf of its female and male members over a 30‐year period. Taking a historical, materialist‐feminist approach, we examine how workers used the grievance system to resist regulations they believed contradicted their right to dignified labour. We ask how and why bodily regulation differed for men and women, and how this changed over time, as the union merged its male and female job occupations. Using arbitrated grievances, union records and discussion of these issues in the mass media, we show how both feminism and service union activism encouraged flight attendant resistance to airlines’ efforts to regulate the appropriate body and attire for male and female workers. The use of labour law offered workers some respite from regulation, but did not facilitate fundamental questions about the power of management to ‘dress’ its workers.     

Making it Work: Supporting Group Representation in a Liberal Democratic Organization

Providing oppressed social groups with rights of representation is one suggestion for counteracting bias towards privileged groups in society. In order to counteract a bias towards their white, male, heterosexual, able‐bodied membership, a number of trade unions have provided social groups with resources to self‐organize and represent their group interests to mainstream decision‐makers. However, enabling group representation at the same time as individual representation is problematic in trade unions that are organized along liberal democratic lines. This case study of UNISON shows that while the union supported the self‐organization of oppressed social groups, these groups were excluded from matters affecting pay and working conditions. The article argues that this outcome reflects the difficulty of reconciling the representation of social groups with the representation of individuals in a liberal democratic organization. The implications of this organizational framework are illustrated by contrasting the organizing strategies of two women's self‐organized groups. While one strategy (the organization of women shop stewards) fits the prevailing organizational structure, the other (the organization of all women) attempts to be different and may have more potential for counteracting the bias towards privileged groups in the future. The article argues that a radical organizational framework is required if oppressed social groups are to gain real power within trade unions.