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Actively encouraging farmers to adopt green control techniques (GCT) is an important measure for achieving sustainable agricultural development and ensuring global food security. Based on microsurvey data covering 912 households in Henan and Shandong Provinces, this paper uses a binary probit model to explore the effect of off-farm employment on the adoption behavior of farmers' GCT and the mechanism of the effect. The study finds that off-farm employment has a capacity accumulation (CAP) effect and a crowding-out (CROWD) effect on farmers' GCT adoption behavior. Additionally, the CROWD effect generally exceeds the CAP effect, making off-farm employment unfavorable for farmers' adoption of GCT. Further analysis finds that off-farm employment has a positive effect on the adoption of GCT by farmers based on agricultural income, and as the distance from off-farm employment increases, the positive effect is greater. In contrast, off-farm employment has a negative effect on rural households whose main income is nonagricultural income, and with the increase in the distance from off-farm employment, its negative effect gradually increases. On this basis, to promote green prevention and control techniques for diseases and insect pests, we should focus on farmers whose main income is agricultural, enhance their CAP effect, and guide farmers whose main income is nonagricultural to transfer out of their land. While enriching research on GCT, this paper also provides an empirical basis and policy reference for how to better promote GCT during the period of rapid development of off-farm employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of migration involves the movement of people from one milieu to another. Different reasons underscore this movement by people such as escape from conflict, quest for greener pasture, search for employment, and coercion from criminal syndicates. This paper focuses on the dynamics of intra-regional migration in West Africa. The importance of migration within West Africa is emphasized in the region's development agenda, Vision 2020, which places importance on regional resource development. Ease of migration is central to harnessing the region's human resource potential for development ends. At inception, migration within West Africa was governed by the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons, residence, and establishment adopted in 1979. Within this framework, migration is considered as an integral element in the economic integration of the region. Hence, the protocol provides the right of entry for 90 days, residence and establishment for citizens of ECOWAS member countries. The ECOWAS Common Approach on Migration adopted in 2008 currently governs the migration process in the region. In interrogating migration governance in West Africa, this paper identifies challenges, such as, defective state capacities and continued underdevelopment, protectionist policies, language, colonial vestiges, such as, currency, among others, as factors militating against the successful exploitation of the region's productive population for development ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on Indo-Canadian Sikh women's issues after Covid-19 and their challenges of diasporic consciousness. It is based on a study conducted with face-to-face interviews in Victoria, Canada, to assess these women's post-Covid-19 challenges in healthcare and employment and their diasporic dual identity crisis. The research addressed questions like: What are the challenges of Indo-Canadian Sikh women in Canada after Covid-19 and the impact of current political affairs? What are women's integration challenges (perhaps insecurity, discrimination, etc.)? This research is significant for understanding the difficulties of Indo-Canadian Sikh women as a vulnerable group in terms of diasporic dual consciousness, racial discrimination and post-Covid experiences. Discussions on identity incorporate a diasporic theoretical understanding of the dual identity crisis and elaborate on Canadian multicultural policy from a political perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disabled individuals can and do lead successful careers as assistance dog instructors. However, the international percentage of professional disabled instructors is significantly lower than their able-bodied colleagues. This paper takes an initial step in questioning the benefits and challenges of creating more accessible and inclusive career paths for disabled assistance dog instructors, hopefully acting as a springboard for future research, and initiating conversation within the assistance dog sector itself, as well. Some disabled individuals may have a disability, or combinations of more than one, which could challenge the welfare and wellbeing of the dogs they educate. Others may have a greater aptitude for educating assistance dogs and offering deeper empathy at times. This paper was inspired by the author’s six years working as a guide dog instructor. It questions what the implications of a disabled trainer’s career might be for the disabled individual, assistance dog, employer, and client. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the report (khabar) that relates the reasons behind the killing of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), as transmitted in the famous History of al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923), exploring its historical, poetical, and practical facets. After considering its formal and historiographical structure, the paper analyzes some of the report's phonetical, lexical, and textual elements, revealing its affective poeticity, or capacity to move readers in various ways. A review of different citations of the report in other Arabic medieval compilations positively sheds light on the practical morality that Muslim compilers were orienting their readers to observe, in their employment of titles, subtitles, explicit evaluations, and contextual arrangements among other constructions. The paper aims to attest to the report's diverse potentials to aid its readers in ultimately answering the ethical question of "What to do, here and now?" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the wider political economy implications of unpopular cuts in the number of public sector employees in local self-governments in Serbia, which took place in the first half of 2010. Since the onset of the global economic crisis, Serbia has faced serious fiscal pressure at all government levels, and reduction of public sector expenditure was identified as one of the most important adjustment mechanisms to the crisis, in accordance with the Stand-by Arrangement concluded with the International Monetary Fund. As this process was unfolding concurrently with efforts towards greater fiscal decentralization, the paper tries to contribute to an understanding of how local revenues are being allocated in times of crisis. The paper casts light on one of the most important issues of decentralization - transparency of local public expenditure - and the political economy of public sector employment in local self-governments in a country where employment is so scarce that the ability to employ gives local politicians considerable power over their electorate. We also present some findings from interviews with local authorities in six Serbian municipalities regarding cuts in public employment. The paper concludes that local public sector reform in Serbia (and probably elsewhere) needs to be more comprehensive and more carefully designed if it is to redirect resources away from current consumption towards sustainable local economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates perceptions of unemployed ageing workers in Malta, in relation to disadvantages in the labour market and to discouragement with regard to chances of finding stable employment. The principal results are that educational level and number of breadwinners in one's household significantly affect perceptions; and that there are cases manifesting the 'discouraged worker effect', even though they are still registering to find employment. This challenges traditional views arguing that this effect is present only among individuals who already gave up the job search completely. This paper concludes that the struggle for productive employment requires mass representation of trade unions, which, in turn, require the construction of alliances to widen their appeal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calls for greater levels of protection for workers in the global economy have emerged as a repose to the growth of globally organised networks of production centred around the multinational corporation (MNC). The suggestion is made that, in this context, states, keen to attract foreign investment, are increasingly less able to enforce national labour standards. This paper considers the various debates and controversies that surround the issue of labour standards. I look at the way in which the debates have played out within the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and contrast this approach with the emergence of "self-regulatory" code of conduct based modes of MNC regulation. However, as a feminist researcher with interests in the subordination of female employment within the global economy, this paper also seeks to address the issue of how women's labour rights are being protected. A gender perspective on this issue is essential because of the massively important role of female employment in many of the globalized industries that have been at the heart of labour standards debate (in particular in clothing). It is noted that the emergence of an approach to international labour standards that embraces a human rights approach has, in practice, led to the emergence of very minimalistic definitions of labour standards that act to marginalise women's concerns as workers in global supply chains. Despite the limitations of codes of conduct as a mode of regulating labour standards, it is suggested that these codes do provide a space for the bringing in of gender concerns into the labour standards debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are both critical for economic development and highly disruptive to existing employment opportunities. Maximizing the potential of ICTs requires both promoting their use and addressing the inequality and dislocation they may cause. This paper examines South African national policy efforts that have an explicit goal of both growth and equity in the promotion of ICT use. Through an examination of two particularly high profile programs, the paper argues that national policy underestimates the potentially negative impact of ICTs on traditional employment sectors and fails to address the volatile nature of employment and skill requirements in ICT industries themselves. As a result, unless these shortcomings are addressed, national ICT policy in South Africa seems likely to further contribute to the disruption of existing employment opportunities while contributing to growing inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the productivity of ancient Egyptian agriculture, a discussion of economic theory, per capita GDP, economic growth, and agrarian economies through history, this paper tries to isolate the relative roles of land, labor, and grain in the economy of Ancient Egypt. There is little room for full employment in an agrarian economy; in Bronze Age Egypt the labor of a small fraction of the population would have sufficed to nourish all. Aside from services, an agrarian economy cannot expand employment much. Increasing productivity is counter-productive and none of the wealthy agrarian economies grew organically into an industrial economy. Govert van Driel pointed out that in agrarian ancient Mesopotamia there was no place for the market or silver, although both were present (as is claimed for Egypt). Overcapacity, trade, underemployment, and finance allow an understanding of the ancient economies, economics and economic growth; the impact of using modern economic thought based on production (and not economic behavior and activity) results in a flawed theory that must be revised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesia continues to bear the scars of the 1997 financial crisis, with the highest open unemployment rate in Southeast Asia. The orthodox interpretation is that the post-crisis era in Indonesia is typified by overly generous labour legislation that has seen an aggressive pursuit of minimum wages and other provisions. The consequent rise in real wages adversely impacted the investment climate and impeded employment growth in the formal sector. Detailed sectoral analysis reveals very little evidence of a wage-driven cost squeeze on profit margins. Econometric estimation of sectoral employment functions shows that output growth plays a more significant role in determining employment than real wage. This is also confirmed by enterprise surveys which reveal that current labour legislation is not at the top of the list of concerns among investors. Thus, this paper contends that Indonesia's current labour woes are best understood as the reflection of structural change and a demand-constrained economy. Any employment-creation strategy must therefore consider both demand and cost factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious communities and churches have traditionally been significant sources of employment. Many European countries have found ways to integrate into their legal systems particularities of religious employment that are alien to other areas of labor law. Until recently, constitutional courts have been reluctant to question the right of churches to define the occupational requirements of their secular employees, but the recognition of church autonomy in religious employment has not been straightforward in the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union. This paper provides some reflections on where Europe may be headed in this field, and whether well-tested principles, such as denominational neutrality, may offer some insight on how to address the still unresolved conflict between important human rights: freedom of religion and the right to autonomy of religious employers, and the individual fundamental freedoms of their employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal employment is commonly defined by being insufficiently covered by legal and regulatory frameworks, either in text or in practice. In this paper, I explore the intricate ways in which workers are excluded from these frameworks. Making a theoretical as well as empirical contribution, I suggest examining informal employment through the prism of intersectionality. This approach builds on an understanding of the informal economy as a continuum of labour relations, as interconnected with the formal economy and as socially constructed. Based on ethnographic research in the sectors of street trade and domestic work in Tanzania, I illustrate how intersections of ethnicity/race, gender, age and marital status as well as education and skill level interrelate with labour regulation along historical trajectories, workers' visibility and class relations in the two sectors. Recognizing these dynamics and the intersectional composition of informal employment offers a better understanding to address decent work deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italian case law on the immunity of international organizations is quite extensive, even though there are only a few international organizations headquartered in Italy. The first cases -- mainly labour disputes -- date back to the 1930s. While one might expect Italian case law to involve only a few lines of reasoning consistently developed, in fact the relevant cases can be characterised mainly by their inconsistency. This paper first considers the way in which Italian courts have addressed the central issues entailed by the granting of immunity to international organizations: its foundations and scope. It will then analyse the increasingly restrictive approach of the Italian courts, in particular the case law concerning employment claims and the right of access to court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's 2004 expansion was accompanied by worries in several western states about potential large-scale immigration by workers from new member states. In France, for example, the 'Polish plumber' featured as a symbol of cheap labour in the 2005 constitutional referendum. The accession treaty allowed existing member states to restrict the entry of workers from new member states for up to seven years; only the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden allowed immediate unrestricted entry of workers from new member states. Many workers, particularly Poles, did move, and a cursory examination of this migration could lead one to judge it a success. Ireland and Britain benefited from an influx of workers during a boom economic period and the Poles earned wages beyond what they would have earned at home. A closer examination illustrates the difficulties and discrimination faced by the Polish community in Ireland and Britain. This article documents how the skills of Polish migrants have been under-valued and how it was assumed that when the economy soured, they would leave. As many have stayed, they face further discrimination. The paper relies on both primary interviews and secondary sources to examine the treatment and future of Europe's largest recent internal migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the use of 'vague language' (Channell, 1994) in English L1 and L2 speaker discourse. In particular, the item 'thing', which is used about 2.5 times more often by the L1 than the L2 speakers, is analysed in job interviews in Australia. Since 'thing' has been termed 'vague language' this paper will first provide a theoretical discussion of the notion of vagueness with a special focus on 'thing'. The discussion of vagueness is mainly based on the 'underdeterminacy thesis' (Carston, 1988, 2002; Atlas, 2005) and is, thus, closely linked to explicature construction and the notion of saturation. The theoretical discussion will lead to a definition of vagueness as a pragmatic hearer based phenomenon (vaguenessP) which will be applied to an analysis of 'thing' in the L1 and L2 employment interview data collected. The analysis will show that 'thing' is used differently by the two populations with regards to the notion of vaguenessP but also with respect to the saturation requirement of this item. While the analysis shows that 'thing' is not inherently vagueP, some instances of 'thing' in the L2 data do seem to introduce the phenomenon of vaguenessP. Furthermore, the preference of L1 and L2 speakers for different saturation processes has an influence on the effect achieved by 'thing'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current unemployment rate in US is around 10 percent and is significantly lower in Mexico. The regional trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were intended to ease and ultimately reduce barriers to allow businesses to flourish in North America, but current economic conditions are having a negative effect on export, import, and many of the economic indices. This paper describes the relationship between NAFTA's execution and the general health of the current economy. It is suggested that the time is ripe to review and analyze NAFTA's effectiveness in managing the current economy, globalization trends and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines biofuel development in Indonesia initiated by the government through a presidential instruction issued in January 2006. Three layers of analysis are presented. One is related to the politics of oil during the Suharto era that shaped Indonesian energy policy for decades. The second layer looks at current political and economic situations in Indonesia, which has been much affected by a crisis of energy resulting from previous regimes. A biofuel initiative thus got underway to solve three major problems, namely, the energy crisis, high unemployment, and poverty. Finally, this paper observes how the biofuel policy impacts people in a village in West Java. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The educational attainments of Beijing's permanent ethnic minority population out perform or are on par with the dominant, local Hans. Yet, the Han demographic disproportionately dominates the high-wage, education-intensive employment sectors. What accounts for this paradox? What does this signify regarding the management of ethnic difference in the capital city? And how do we improve this situation? Drawing upon recent research, this paper will offer sociological explanations to answer these questions. Moreover, it will further suggest strategies for enhancing the development of ethnic minorities in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of gender and industrial employment on two dimensions of well-being. An analysis based on the 1996 DHS survey showed the non-significant effects of the two variables on material wealth and housing quality. Key factors in increasing household well-being were urban location, household labor, and education. Urban location showed the largest positive effect on well-being. The Chi-square test showed a significant relationship between free trade zone employment and access to durable goods (P ≤ 0.5). These findings show the larger impact of specific demographic conditions on women's well-being, favoring contextual analysis over exploitation and opportunity frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on changing female employment patterns in Singapore. This paper is a descriptive statistical summary of published data and research findings on recent changing patterns of female employment in Singapore. It is intended as a background paper for others interested in doing systematic research in this important area. Singapore provides a useful case study of the impact of rapid industrialization on the economic status of females. This impact has operated directly through the demand for female workers, as well as indirectly through changes in the social and cultural environment. The study of employment patterns in Singapore is greatly facilitated by the fact that employment is predominantly full-time and outside the ambit of home and family. Given these conceptual and practical constraints, it may be most useful to focus on only one dimension of occupational attainment, namely, income, in discussing patterns of male and female employment.

In the United States, the mother's employment has been studied not only with a developmental approach as a variable related to the child's behavior but also with an interaction approach. This latter approach is one of the most attractive for the family sociologist, because the family group is an excellent place to study the functioning of a multiple network of roles and overlapping relations either within the couple or in the parent-child community. The wife's employment is particularly useful in a comparative study of the interaction between couples with working wives and those with housewives. It is this latter approach, which will be used, in the following paper. the decision making process, the household task performance and the family planning realization will be studied in French couples with regard to the wife's employment. The household tasks in the family included here are first the budget management and the performance of several other tasks such as the cleaning of dishes, and floors, the purchasing of clothes, comparative shopping in department stores before the purchase of furniture or of electrical appliances, other shopping, letter writing, arrangement of the living room when entertaining friends, preparing the income tax return, etc. Nine of these household tasks have been included in a score of household task performance in the French survey, budget management was studied separately. However all these items are not comparable to those included in the American household task performance score because the way of life is different in the two countries.

This article examines labor and migration in the Gulf and variations in the legal provisions for workers. Since the 1970S, there has been a significant increase in South and Southeast Asian worker migration to the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council or GCC (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates). Over the last four decades, these migrant workers have replaced Arab migrants throughout the Gulf In order to deal with the massive influx of these workers, Gulf States have instituted a sponsorship system (kafala) which becomes the legal basis for residency and employment. This article analyzes the kafala system used in each Gulf State and explores the factors which account for differences in the structure and legal basis of the sponsor-employee relationship as well as variations in the application of the system to Arab and non-Arab migrant workers. We find that the economy of the GCC country heavily influences the type of kafala system used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because hotels are a microcosm of society, they offer a useful case study to explore social inequalities, including racial divisions. This article examines the experiences of African-Jamaican hotel workers and guests from independence in 1962 till the present to demonstrate the salience of Jamaica's race and color relations. It argues that hotel workers and guests at times challenged the racialized practices that they experienced but more often refrained from doing so because of their socialization into a long-standing ethos of "Black is nuh good" and exposure to a nationalist ideology that projected a vision of racial harmony. The article also shows that through their responses to claims of racial discrimination in hotels, a variety of stakeholders, including tourist organizations, failed to challenge the island's racial hierarchy which placed Whites on top, light-skinned Jamaicans in the middle, and dark-skinned Jamaicans at the bottom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the potentialities and risks deriving from the interaction between machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and preventive justice in the U.S. It mentions the possible employments of AI while respecting the rights of citizens, as the establishment by the European Parliament of the special committee on Artificial intelligence in a Digital Age.

The transnational urgency of tackling youth employment problems has prompted state interventions, which have strongly geared youth policies toward employability. Applying a cognitive and interpretative approach, this article compares youth employment policies in four contexts—France, Canada, Quebec and Argentina—to highlight frames of reference and social norms involved in public action. The results reveal, first, commonalities and differences in public-policy approaches, in terms of goals, targeted populations, solutions, services and tools. Second, beyond policies' formal characteristics, semantic analysis highlights the major national references and policy directions in the realm of youth employment. Third, the frames of reference show social norms shaping state solidarity and young people's role in the labour market. The results stem from a documentary analysis of some 100 youth employment policies and programs, as well as interpretative analysis of interviews (N = 20) with experts and coordinators of some of the main policies in each context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, social investment can be crucial for disadvantaged young adults, as intergenerational mobility is low and credentials are decisive for employment. However, the literature on policy implementation calls attention to 'Matthew effects', by which the most disadvantaged often have the least access to social investment. We contribute to ongoing research on Matthew effects by examining whether the worst-off among young German welfare recipients are assigned to active labour market policy measures that are more advantageous or less advantageous. Findings for a register sample of 20–22 year olds in 2014 support hypotheses that those with the lowest education and employment experience participate less often in the most advantageous measures; particularly in firm-based upskilling and employment assistance, and more often in measures that proved to be not as beneficial, such as workfare programmes. On a positive note, welfare experience during adolescence as an indicator of low socio-economic status in the family of origin does not additionally affect access to social investment policy measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or COVID-19 has undeniably changed the world forever. Capitalism in the United States and Europe can no longer feel immune from the effects of epidemics that were at one point in time the concern of minor countries, such as the recent (2014–2016) Ebola epidemic in Western Africa. This article examines how COVID-19 not only showed that Capitalism has no clothes in its inability to respond effectively to this momentous event, but shows the burgeoning of the impact on its slow-motion decline. This is evident from the still-unresolved healthcare crisis in the United States, which allows runaway contagion, sickness, and death due to a careless governmental attitude that prioritizes capital over human lives; the economic impact, which sidelines millions of workers into unemployment, leaving them without a way to sustain themselves due to a miserly and short-sighted governmental response; and the political and social cost that is yet to be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the labor heroines of Yan'an and their cultural representation in the context of the early 1940s. It shows how the phenomenon of women's labor heroism was formed during these years and it points out the rifts, contradictions and multiple understandings in the representation of labor heroines and their ideal role in the revolutionary process. In particular, this study highlights the co-existence of an instrumentalist and an idealist approach to women's participation in production which is attributed to the double temporality in the Chinese Communist Party's self-positioning at the time. The short-term necessities of the War of Resistance justified an instrumentalist approach which made labor heroines a "work force." New Democracy, on the other hand, as a period of incipient socialism, opened the temporal horizon towards the future and moved revolutionary discourse from "memory" to "prophecy." Writers embraced this creative space and imagined the social relations of a pacified, socialist society. Reportage as genre, labor heroines as subject and utopianism as orientation in time formed the basis for totally new conceptualizations of women's liberation through work, restituting women's agency and placing them in new sets of social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the low-wage employment sector has enlarged over the past 20 years in the context of pronounced flexibility in restructured labor markets, gender differences in low-wage employment have declined in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In this article, the authors examine reasons for declining gender inequalities, and most notably concentrate on explanations for the closing gender gap in low-wage employment risks. In addition, they identify differences and similarities among the German-speaking countries. Based on regression techniques and decomposition analyses (1996-2016), the authors find significantly decreasing labor market risks for the female workforce. Detailed analysis reveals that (1) the concrete positioning in the labor market shows greater importance in explaining declining gender differences compared to personal characteristics. (2) The changed composition of the labor markets has prevented the low-wage sector from increasing even more in general and works in favor of the female workforce and their low-wage employment risks in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The employment situation in Saudi Arabia and the dynamics of the labor market are the results of a series of decisions to grow the economy fast after the discovery of oil. Since the locals were not equipped and prepared with the required knowledge and expertise, to build up the nascent economy at rapid speed during that phase, there was a massive inflow of expatriates. The current research highlights the changing labor market in Saudi Arabia, unemployment among locals, remedial policies framed by the government, their drawbacks, and effect on the overall economy. The key antecedents are the preference of Saudi youth for the Public sector, unemployment, the role of the Education System, the private sector, the Nitaqat (job localization) system and expatriate factor. Finally, I propose a viable human capital development model that suggests a collaborative role for expatriates and employability enhancement programs for sustainable economic and social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the term "code switching" arose in linguistic contexts, its meaning has broadened to include shifting the use of language, interactions, appearance, and the body in all areas of social life. Uncritical applications of the concept render invisible the normative nature and power dynamics along familiar dimensions of social inequality such as gender and race. "Whiteness" and "maleness" often become cast as the neutral standards against which all else is judged and are rarely revealed as the social constructions that they are. The result is the call for non-dominant groups to assimilate. In employment, we see this call for assimilation often under the guise of "soft skills," with particular reference made to the needs of a postindustrial service-oriented labor market. Cast in terms of skill, the heightened demand for code switching in employment promises to reproduce and even intensify existing labor market inequalities along the lines of gender and race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary prevalence of complex business structures, and the limited resources and time of regulatory authorities charged with policing business organisations has increased the importance of whistleblowers for modern corporate governance. This article aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion in relation to the effectiveness of the existing regulatory regime, a regime that is intended to encourage whistleblowing in general and to provide sufficient safeguards to whistleblowers from dismissal or retaliation. The countries of the uk and Japan have been selected for this comparative study because they exhibit contrasting business and employment practices and because the relevant authorities have adopted distinct regulatory approaches. The comparative analysis intends to support the claim that, irrespective of the primary and secondary legislation in place in these two jurisdictions and the disparate corporate cultures existing in each, whistleblowers all too frequently end up as victims even when they have complied with the requirements and the procedures stipulated by the law, followed their conscience and reported wrongdoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the categorization of social space in five European countries, Germany, Belgium, Spain, France and Poland. It draws on analysis of reactions to the European Socio-economic Classification (ESeC) prototype designed by social science researchers for Eurostat. Looking beyond the logic underpinning the prototype, our work investigates how "ordinary" people understand the structuring of social space in different national contexts. By studying how respondents react to ESeC categories, we were able to address how they develop their own categories that guide them in social space. Through an experimental survey based on a list of occupations, classified according to the ESeC categories, we tested the self-consistency of the prototype by submitting it to ordinary individuals. Our results demonstrate that the respondents found it difficult to understand the main organizational principles of ESeC. We conclude by questioning the ability of the European classification system in question to take into account the diverse national socio-economic realities that still characterize the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to point out that there are still substantial differences between public and private workers. Using the Eurostat Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community, we define the public workers as those who are employed in Administration, Health and Education. The measure of targeted jobs is provided by the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which is a large sample survey among private house-holds. By following this approach, we can present several significant results. In every European country, public workers have an average aggregate employment tenure higher than private workers, a higher proportion of women and a higher proportion of high skilled workers. Beyond these global differences, we point out that the divide between public and private sector is differently shaped, according to the country and to the social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about the country Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). In the World Economic Forum it has ranked 105th out of 124 countries in 2015 Human Capital Index. It indicated the country's economic success by focusing on its people, education, employment and demographics and to identify where investment could make more effective.

This essay examines the evolving relationship between NAASR and the AAR, paying special attention to how the borders between NAASR and the AAR have been established and how they are patrolled. It discusses the stakes of the territorial dispute between the two organizations: symbolic capital in the form of institutional and intellectual prestige; and economic capital in the form of employment as teachers and researchers in colleges, universities, and related institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an ongoing debate over whether the stability of working lives in Germany has declined in recent decades. In this piece, we contribute to the literature by arguing that subjective mobility perceptions, hence individuals' self-reported mobility desires and experiences, should receive more attention in the debate. While it is, for example, well known that German reunification affected worklife mobility of East Germans through high unemployment and firm mobility, little is known about subjective mobility desires, specifically in an East-West German comparative perspective. Using a retrospective cross-sectional data set from 2005, we therefore investigate East-West German differences in retrospective and future mobility desires and subjectively reported mobility experiences and expectations. We also examine if there is evidence for East-West German differences in voluntary versus involuntary employment mobility. Our findings indeed show that retrospectively reported desires for stable working lives are more prevalent among East Germans. In addition, we find suggestive evidence for elevated levels of undesired firm mobility and employment interruptions among East Germans born between 1945 and 1965, and for increases in undesired employment interruptions and firm mobility among younger West German but not East German men. These latter results serve as suggestive evidence for future hypothesis building only, since our data does not provide information on the desirability of specific mobility events but on cumulative experiences and retrospective mobility desires only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal regulation of child employment takes a particular focus, with concern surrounding children's right to protection from exploitative work. Using domestic work as a case study, this article demonstrates that there is little or no consideration of the possibility that children discovered in domestic work, are there as a result of their own autonomous decision to enter what they view as an employment arrangement. Instead, there is often an assumption that these children have been trafficked. A child's right to be heard under Article 12, UNCRC, and their right to protection from exploitative employment under Article 32, UNCRC, are relevant to this discussion, as are the decisions made for the child on the basis of their best interests under Article 3, UNCRC. An alternative approach is suggested which may help to empower children, enabling well-informed employment decisions to be made, rather than only ever treating them as passive victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a study of what purport to be the earliest opinions that Muslims expressed about the employment of non-Muslim administrators by an Islamic state. Matn-cumisnād analyses are performed on three early reports which claim that the caliph 'Umar b. al-Khattāb instituted a religious criterion for state employment. These constitute the only credible evidence that such a criterion might have been part of administrative policy in the pre-Marwānid period. They were also an important basis for later legal doctrines that forbade the state employment of non-Muslims. The matn-cum-isnād analyses are placed in juxtaposition to historical reports concerning the late Umayyad period, in order to advance the thesis that the reports are likely to have been put into circulation by proto-Sunnī Arab traditionists in second-/eighth-century Kufa in reaction to state policies, particularly those of the Umayyad governor Khālid al-Qasrī. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this article I explore employment practices and pathways of labor market incorporation of sub-Saharan African immigrants in Japan. Based on secondary information as well as 5 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo and its suburbs, I will first describe the history of migration from Africa to Japan and the current demographic characteristics of African immigrants in Japan. I will then continue to describe the employment practices of African immigrants to explore questions surrounding integration, incorporation, and the use of human and social capital in the Japanese context. My findings give a first indication of the mechanisms behind the diverse trajectories, especially highlighting the importance of entrepreneurship, transnational ties with the country of origin, and ties with Japanese nationals in facilitating labor market incorporation. Finally, attention is also given to the role of the Japanese state in facilitating or hindering opportunities for employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the lives of Arab women who worked as teachers in government schools in Palestine between 1920 and 1948. Through a prosopographic study of over 200 employment files of these women, I highlight certain variables as well as shared experiences. My findings show that Arab women teachers were a diverse group, hailing from all over Palestine, and from different religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. Teaching was considered a respectable job, as it did not require women to have contact with men, and it provided them with a significant income, which many teachers used to support family members or purchase property. Nonetheless, many women faced difficulties, and had to negotiate working in unfamiliar places, where they posed challenges to gender norms or had to succumb to social demands to marry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for a historical materialist approach, which exposes the condition of widespread routine poverty, unemployment and malnutrition in the world to be a modern worldhistorical product, the outcome of five centuries of global capitalist expansion under relations of imperialism. The bourgeoisie has, through its exploitation of its world-market, given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. All established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilised nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw materials, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. It creates wealth but also inequality. As a result of this globalisation, over 75 percent of the world population lives in underdevelopment, and extreme poverty has already reached 1.2 billion people in the third world. The revenue of the richest nations that in 1960 was 37 times larger then that of the poorest is now 82 times larger in 2002. The situation has such extremes that the assets of the three-wealthiest persons in the world amount to the GDP of the 48 poorest countries combined. The most affluent 5 per cent in the globe presently earn 114 times as much as the poorest 5 per cent. Even more mind-boggling, the 500 richest people currently own $1.54 trillion, which is more than the entire GDP of Africa. The central premise of this study is to analysis of the pattern of trade, development and inequality between the advanced industrial countries and the rest of the world. The growth of capitalism in nineteenth century Europe would have been possible to exploit of African and Asian markets and source of raw materials. In the new imperialism era, by the fact that Britain's predominant position in world markets was then beginning to be challenge by industrial rivals like the Americans. Both America and the European Union they have been possible to exploit of the Third World markets. This study is to evaluate to promote the local technological capacity co-operation among the south region for the development in the new era of globalisation. This co-operation is dealt with as agents for promoting industrial development in developing world, employment generation to locals, plus further export expansion from these regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much debate has surrounded the issue of revolving doors (RDs) between private and public employment Defenders of the practice argue that RDs enhance the performance of the firm Elite theorists dispute this claim and contend that RDs distort economic and political marketplaces An examination of the RDs of 3,815 officers of the top 200 U.S. firms reveals little support for the argument for improved performance In contrast, the market distortion view receives some support High-RD corporations cluster in concentrated markets, forge more connections with economic elites, and engage in monopolistic or monopsonistic practices They are also more involved in questionable political activities, especially bribery of foreign governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the characteristics and attitudes of a group of senior American managers employed in positions in large firms in Canada, in comparison to their native-born counterparts. In so doing, both the question of national differences between Canadians and Americans, and the question of the nature of the non-economic component of the foreign direct investment process as it has unfolded in Canada have been raised. Ambivalence towards American industry and culture has continued to the present time. Canadian industrialists, no less than ordinary citizens, report an ambivalent stance. On the one hand, Canadian prosperity is seen to depend in large measure on continued foreign investment, but on the other hand, non-economic influences are seen in a somewhat less favourable light. American managers in Canada would thus seem to occupy a delicate position. They could hardly fail to be aware of the antagonisms and resentments; yet must at the same time deliver the economic benefits which their firms are widely assumed to provide. Under these circumstances, at least superficial acculturation would seem to be a prudent course of action.

Political factors have been more important than the market in structuring Peru's small factory labor force. The result is a privileged proletarian elite facing a saturated labor market and a stagnant source of employment. Their reaction has therefore not been to make common cause with the mass or marginal urban workers or the peasants but to work through the system to hold on to their current position. Structurally this stagnation has resulted in a "premature" foreclosure of industrial employment opportunities for women, which, in turn, may help explain Peru's persistently high fertility. The extremely low turnover of Peru's factory workers is also clearly related to the absence of alternative opportunities and to their favored status. These blue collar workers are thus not only unlike their counterparts in currently developed countries, they are also not recapitulating Western development. They represent a new mixture of the latest machinery and social legislation with a political regime barely able to cope with even the current requirements of successful development.