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In India, the COVID-19 pandemic called attention to the plight of the informal migrant workforce who travelled back to their villages on foot intending to sustain themselves and survive. Based on the responses of 374 migrants originally from West Bengal migrating to other regions in India and abroad, this paper explores how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped migrants’ employment conditions. Using non-parametric tests, i.e. the Kruskal–Wallis, Wilcoxon, effect size, etc., the study compares migrants’ access to work before the initiation of lockdown, during the lockdown and post-lockdown relaxation. Further, by applying logistic regression analysis, the study examines the factors influencing their preference to seek employment in regions other than their home states. The results indicate that the migrants experienced shortfalls during times of crisis. There were differences in their access to the previous jobs during and after the upliftment of the lockdown measures. Though there was uncertainty in accessing the previous jobs and fear of facing similar situations in the future, the analysis suggests that the migrants still preferred to move to other states in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has been conducted on job insecurity and participation in the workplace. However, to date, empirical research on the relationship between job insecurity and citizen participation is extremely scarce. To fill the void, the aim of this study is to examine the nexus between job insecurity and citizen participation in Chile and South Korea where embraced the New Public Management principle. Grievance and resource theory of participation offer contrasting predictions for the influence of job insecurity on citizen participation. Analyzing the wave 7 of the World Values Survey, this paper verifies the two lines of enquiry in examining the influence of job insecurity on citizen participation. The results of an ordered logit regression model demonstrate that the impact of job insecurity on citizen participation varied depending on the types of job insecurity and citizen participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates three potential mechanisms of educational differentials in formal childcare uptake in Belgium, a country characterised by high availability, but also pronounced gradients in childcare uptake. We investigate whether and to what extent educational differentials can be accounted for by (i) differences in employment opportunities of mothers with different educational backgrounds, (ii) variation in local childcare availability which may entail different access, or (iii) differential availability of grandparents as an alternative source of affordable and flexible care. We use data from the 2011 Belgian census, which provides us with information on the socio-demographic characteristics of the entire population legally residing in Belgium. The census was linked to tax register data which gives insight into the uptake of formal childcare as childcare expenses are tax-deductible, as well as municipality-level data on childcare availability. Using logistic regression analysis, we investigate the uptake of formal childcare among two-parent families with one child younger than 2.5 years old. Results indicate that educational gradients are mainly due to differences in employment opportunities rather than differential availability of formal childcare at the local level or informal childcare availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how employees make sense of their long work hours. We use a case study of an administrative unit at a public university in the United States, where expectations of working long hours are relatively low and employees have organizational resources to achieve work-life balance. Even so, we find that many employees still work more than expected and feel the need to work over the weekends. These employees overwhelmingly attribute their long hours to their personalities. Because many employees view their work as central to their existence, they invest their emotional energy and drive themselves to work longer hours than is expected from their supervisors and the institution. This individualized understanding that uses personality as a cultural frame persists and operates as a justification for long work hours even when other causes, such as staff shortage, were present. These findings imply that removing organizational expectations and rewards for long work hours alone is not enough for employees to achieve work-life balance because personal work ethics can still drive working long hours in the cultural context that puts high moral values on long work hours. In the conclusion, we discuss policies and cultural shifts needed to address these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the mediating role of work-family conflict (WFC) in the relationship between job insecurity and mental health. Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and the Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, a conceptual model is developed and tested. An online survey was created, including a sociodemographic questionnaire and measures of job insecurity, WFC, and mental health. Participants were 189 community social workers actively working with disadvantaged groups in social intervention projects. The results show that job insecurity increases depression / strain among community workers and significantly impacts on time-based and strain-based work-family conflict. Strain-based and behavior-based work-family conflict negatively influence social functioning and increase depression / strain. The mediation results show that strain-based WFC was the only WFC dimension that significantly mediated the relationship between job insecurity and mental health. The study findings and its contribution to current research in the JD-R model and COR theory are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, a Belgian women's organisation experimented with a 30-hour work week for all of their full-time employees. This work time reduction was an excellent opportunity to study these female employees' wishes, expectations and experienced reality concerning their extra non-work time. Their wishes and expectations – as well as how these relate to their perceived reality – was studied through longitudinal questionnaires, in-depth interviews and focus groups. The women wished for more time for themselves and their intimate relationships. However, their wishes reflected an ideal situation. Their expectations reflected their wishes but were slightly more realistic. The perceived reality did not fulfil all of their wishes. The 'me-time' that they wished for prior to the experiment did not always emerge to be the 'me-time' that they had. Some women appropriated a less conventional form of 'me-time', such as housework, which helped them to ease their mind and relax. Others felt unable to fulfil their wishes through (social) context factors such as the embeddedness of time structures, time schedules and the rhythms of family and friends. This paper reflects on the gendered norms and values and inequalities in time use that can help to explain the discrepancies between preferences and experienced reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of individual and household characteristics on time allocation decisions for both women and men, and how these effects have evolved in Urban Guatemala using data from the National Survey of Living Conditions (2000 and 2014). We built a multivariate Tobit to model the decision of individuals to allocate time, distinguishing between three different types of time uses: housework, childcare and paid work. The results suggest that time allocation is strongly determined by gender. For both periods, on average, women devote more time to housework and childcare than men, while men spent more hours in paid work than their counterparts. However, men that report themselves as spouses tend to allocate significantly more hours to housework and childcare in 2014. Moreover, women's time allocation is more responsive to individuals and household characteristics than men in both periods. Finally, we find that educational attainment plays a central role in shaping how individuals allocate their time between market and non-market activities, especially for women. For instance, while housework time is negatively associated with education level, time devoted to childcare increases with instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel theoretical model for the community-based enterprise, which could assist in achieving UN sustainable development goals within craft communities in developing nations. This model focuses on building enterprise skills in vulnerable communities, sustaining traditional crafts and strengthening community capacity for self-determination. This article distills qualitative data from case studies, participatory action research workshops and field observations within traditional handloom craft communities in Sri Lanka. It explores the prevailing status of community-based entrepreneurship practices and argues that under current practices, entrepreneurial culture is not deeply embedded in community life, leading young people to move away from the traditional way of life and damaging the cohesion of traditional communities. This study establishes the need to sustain levels of social capital, support family networks, and encourage innovation to develop enterprise in craft communities. We recommend various strategies for overcoming structural and socio-cultural barriers to enterprise and to establish community-based sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The closure of schools and preschools due to the Covid-19 pandemic constrained millions of workers with children to modify their care arrangements. In Italy and France, governments adopted different measures to support parents in handling the additional care workload, including promoting access to telework. However, we argue that equating access to telework to a childcare policy, especially during the pandemic, had significant consequences in terms of gender and class inequalities. Based on multi-sited fieldwork in Italy and France, the article analyses the impact that telework as a social policy had on gender and class inequalities, stressing common trends and pointing out that caring for children while teleworking reinforces economic and gender inequalities. Moreover, the paper identifies strategies implemented by parents to cope with the challenge of child-caring while teleworking, highlighting that promoting such a policy can have unequal consequences depending on parents’ social and economic capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]