Japan is a country strongly associated with strong, long-term relationships, whether they be located within kin- groups, local communities or large industrial enterprises. Yet Japan also has a long tradition of people who have been excluded from these relationships, whether voluntarily (hermits, mendicant monks, etc.) or compulsorily (outcasts etc.). This thesis deals with a contemporary category of people who operate largely outside the certainties of long-term relationships: day labourers. Whereas Japanese industry has become famous for 'life-time employment', my subjects often work under contracts for just one day. Most of them are also excluded from family and mainstream community life, living singly in doya-gai -- small urban districts with cheap hotels which resemble the American skid-row. These districts center on a casual labour market (yoseba), divided between a formal sector (public casual labour exchanges) and an informal sector (jobs negotiated on the street with recruiters often affiliated with yakuza gangs). Fieldwork (1993-5) was conducted mainly in Kotobuki, the Yokohama doya-gai, with brief field-trips to similar districts in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kitakyushu and Fukuoka. Most of my informants were Japanese nationals, though Koreans and Filipinos are also briefly discussed. The thesis describes the lives and attitudes of day labourers, and the social organization of the very distinctive districts which they inhabit. Based on participant observation, backed up by historical analysis and cross-cultural comparison, the thesis considers the role of these 'men of uncertainty' in a society which craves certainty. In economic terms, that role is to enable the construction and longshoring industries to adjust to fluctuating demand and changing weather conditions while maintaining a stable core workforce. But day labourers, like other stigmatized minorities, have a parallel cultural role, as an "internal other" in the formation of mainstream Japanese people's identity.

MA (Sociology) / Department of Sociology / See the attached abstract below

International studies of part-time employment have shown that most part-time workers are women, and specifically married women (Rosenfeld and Birkelund 1995; Caputo and Cianni 2001). The ability to work part-time enables women who have household commitments, such as caring for children, to maintain an attachment to the labour force and to preserve job skills while also undertaking household labour (Long and Jones 1981; Rosenfeld and Birkelund 1995). In many countries, therefore, the growth in part-time employment has constituted an important component of the increase in women’s work. However, part-time jobs are often considered to be poorly remunerated, offering little or no security, limited opportunities for career advancement and few (if any) benefits (Rosenfeld and Birkelund 1995; Rodgers 2004; Hirsch 2005; Bardasi and Gornick 2008). Although empirical research on South Africa’s labour markets has expanded significantly over the post-apartheid period, particularly with the introduction of nationally representative household surveys that capture individual employment data, little is known about the characteristics of South African part-time workers, or about the nature of the work these individuals perform. Using data from a selection of South Africa’s nationally representative household surveys, namely the October Household Surveys, the Labour Force Surveys and the Labour Force Survey Panel, this thesis aims to redress this lacuna. The thesis comprises four empirical chapters. The first chapter outlines the definition of part-time employment adopted throughout the study, and it presents gendered trends in part-time employment in South Africa from 1995 to 2006. The descriptive analysis shows that most part-time workers in South Africa are women, and further, that the growth in female part-time employment has been an important part of the feminisation of the labour force in South Africa. The second chapter compares part-time and full-time wage (salaried) employment. The main analytical question addressed in this chapter is whether women are penalised for working part-time. Although hourly wages in part-time employment are, on average, lower than in full-time employment, the study demonstrates that after controlling for differences in observable and unobservable characteristics, women in part-time employment receive a wage premium. The third chapter explores heterogeneity among part-time wage workers, distinguishing between women who choose to work part-time and women who report wanting to work longer hours. Key findings of this chapter are that a wage premium persists for women both in voluntary and in involuntary part-time work; but that involuntary part-time workers have a stronger labour force attachment than voluntary part-time workers. The fourth chapter uses the distinction between part-time and full-time employment to investigate changes in the gender wage gap in employment. The results show that the total gender gap in wages among part-time and full-time workers has fallen over the years, with the greatest reduction visible for those working part-time. The final chapter summarises the main findings of the thesis and it outlines avenues for further research on part-time employment in South Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009. / UKZN Economics department; Economic Research South Africa; UKZN Doctoral Scholarship Award

This thesis describes the casualisation of teachers' work (in Greater Durban) during the period of the democratic transition in South Africa. It provides evidence that contract teaching exists among men and women teachers employed in primary and secondary schools. These teachers are relegated to the secondary labour market with low income, poorer working conditions and lack of job security. It begins by adopting an electic theoretical approach, combining labour process and interactionist theories, to understand teachers' work. From this eclectic theoretical perspective, it is argued that contract teachers control and influence over their work is considerably eroded by the casualisation of the teaching labour process. However, unlike existing international studies, it is argued that casualisation of teaching in the Durban area serves not only as a deskilling process for most contract teachers but also as a re-skilling process for a few. Furthermore, this study shows that contract teaching has a gendered dimension. Not only because women teachers are mostly affected by casualisation of teaching but that it tends to relegate women to the primary school system where they teach young children. It is therefore argued that the casualisation of teaching extends women's mothering role into the classroom. The historical basis for casualisation of teaching, in South Africa, especially its gender dimension is a result of the 'Marriage Bar 'of 1912, the legacy of the Bantu Education system and the non-standardisation of teachers' qualifications until the 1980s, as well as the education policy flux during the period of political transition. Because contract teaching has existed over a long period, it has to be acknowledged as a sub-category of the national teaching corps. This means that the contribution of contract teachers towards the formation and transformation of the capacity to learn should not only be recognised and accordingly rewarded by education authorities but that casualisation of teaching should constitute an area for further academic research. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 1998.