This thesis examines how employability and the employable as a discursive subject was constructed through a Swedish labor market policy measure called “datortek”. The datortek was a form of combined computer lab and activity center that was set up in collaboration between local governance and the National market labour board. People who were registered as unemployed could be sent to the local datortek to learn how to use a computer. In this way, they would be made employable in the new, knowledge based society and Sweden would be well on its way to become a leading nation in the field of IT-technology and expertise. At least, that was the idea. In the 1990’s there was a shift in Swedish, as well as european, labour policy discourse. The politically defined problem of “unemployment” changed towards being an issue of the individual’s ability to make oneself “employable”. On a large extent, employability depends on certain individual properties, such as “flexibility”, “entrepreneurship” and being “active”. Earlier research have mainly focused on employability as a policy concept. In this view, employability is seen as something that is enforced through public policy onto the workers. This study is taking a somewhat different approach. Here, employability will be seen as a concept that takes form in a process of negotiation and articulation. A process that takes place in the interpersonal meeting, in the intercept between man and machine, in formal documents as well as through the design of the datortek itself. Thus, the datortek can serve as a study object that allow us to investigate how employability was articulated. It is this articulation, the process of becoming-employable through the datortek, which is at the heart of this study. The thesis shows that the datortek functioned as a simulated work place where the participants were made to stage and perform “teamwork” and learn “social competence”. The computer was given the role of an instrument for bringing out certain feelings amongst the participants. This emotive discipline can be understood as a way to achieve “emotional competence”. The thesis also shows a different way on how a concept such as employability can be studied. By looking into the very practical aspects of the datortek, the abstract idea of employability is made comprehensible. This gives us, not only deepened knowledge of the notion of modern labor, but also a better understanding of how ideology is (re)produced.

This study analyzes the impact of the political changes on labor unions in Egypt in the period from 1960 to 1967. In 1960-1961 Egypt became a socialist country with one political party, the Arab Socialist Union. As a result of that development in the political arena, a wave of socialist laws were introduced by the government, affecting not only the labor unions' traditional functions, but also the industrial relations system in general. The study came to the following conclusions. 1. The role of the labor unions in the industrial relations system and especially in formulating the socialist laws was minimized in Egypt in the 1960-1967 period. 2. From an economic point of view, the socialist laws in the 1960-1967 period had restrained economic development process by reducing savings, not supplying the economy with skilled productive workers, causing inflation, and the wage structure did not work as an incentive system to stimulate productivity. 3. The socialist laws did not achieve any of their expected objectives partly because no one except the government was involved in these laws' formulation and implementation. 4. Except for the small increase in wages, the average worker did not achieve any tangible benefits that could improve his economic and social status. 5. The existence of political control over labor unions and over the industrial relations system will continue and persist as long as labor unions do not have effective leadership and as long as there is no political opposition to the government.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

No description available.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

[Truncated abstract] The Asian Financial Crisis was a wake-up call to the South Korean economy that a change to its economic structure was needed. Prior to the Crisis, South Korea enjoyed healthy economic growth and low unemployment. With the onset of the Crisis, Korea experienced severe recession. Unemployment levels soared and turnover in the labour market became commonplace. The Korean government enacted a series of policies and succeeded in combating unemployment in the short-term. To the present time, unemployment levels have been lowered, albeit with job instability and insecurity. A more effective longer-term solution is needed to increase the resilience of this NIE. The role of inter-sector labour mobility as a policy tool to combat unemployment using the relevant determinants of mobility has not been explored in Korea (Asia), although it has been debated at length in the West since the 1980s. Part of the reason for this lies in the lack of longitudinal data to facilitate appropriate research. Recently, such data have been made available by the Korean Labour Institute (KLI). This thesis extends research into the labour mobility-unemployment relationship to South Korea. The priority is to establish whether a mobility-unemployment relationship exists in Korea, and to obtain a thorough understanding of the factors affecting sectoral mobility in this country in order to facilitate the crafting of potential tools for addressing the unemployment problem. The thesis is organised into two parts. ... The main finding is that whilst the monetary variables and worker/industry characteristics impact male and female mobility differently, sectoral unemployment and sectoral shock affect male and female mobility similarly. The thesis is summarised and some policy measures provided in the sypnosis. It is argued that the 'new' mobility-unemployment phenomenon appears to have emerged in Korea after the Crisis, whereas it had been a feature of Western economies in much earlier time periods. Traditional monetary and fiscal policies are inadequate when it comes to combating unemployment in the presence of this mobility-unemployment phenomenon. A combination of macro-policies, given the relevance of the ADH, and micro-policies, given the validity of the SSH, is required. The multi-dimensional nature of mobility implies that the micro policies to control or reduce mobility rates using the relevant variables (to alleviate unemployment) should cover measures related to monetary wages, labour market groups and sector performance. The sypnosis notes a dearth of Asian studies on sectoral mobility, possibly due to the lack of longitudinal data. The collection of quality longitudinal data for other Asian countries, so that research along the lines conducted in the thesis could be undertaken for other NIEs, was seen as being of vital importance. With such data, the standard of research on Asian economies can be at par with that of the Western countries, and the apparently considerable potential benefits of microeconomic policies via sectoral mobility for Asia could be realised.

Chapter One: The provisions of the Glen Grey Act of 1894 are summarised. The memoirs of contemporaries are discussed and the historical literature on the Act from 1913 to the present is surveyed. The likelihood of the land tenure provisions of the Act forcing the people of Glen Grey (or the people of other districts that came under the operation of the Act) to seek employment is noted. It is evident that there is an increasing emphasis in the literature on labour concerns rather than on the disenfranchising effects and local government provisions of the Act. It is often assumed that the labour force generated by the Act was meant for the Transvaal gold mines. Chapter Two: The relevance of the labour needs of the Indwe collieries is investigated. These mines lay adjacent to Glen Grey and might have been expected to draw their labour thence if the Act had been effective. Rhodes, the author of the Act and prime minister of the Cape, had bought shares in the collieries for De Beers shortly before the Act was passed, which made a possible connection more intriguing. No causal link between De Beers' interests and the Act could be demonstrated; nor do the collieries seem to have employed many people from Glen Grey. Chapter Three: Examines the Cape colonists' complaints about shortage of labour from 1807 to the eve of the Glen Grey Act, and investigates various official measures to promote the labour supply. The Glen Grey Act was not the first labour measure passed at the Cape, and it seems likely, therefore, that the labour needs of the Cape, rather than the Transvaal, were uppermost in the minds of those responsible for the Act. Chapter Four examines Rhodes's political position in the 1890s and shows him to be increasingly dependent on the parliamentary support of the Afrikaner Bond to stay in office. Since the Bond was an agricultural interest group it seems likely that labour for Cape farms, rather than Transvaal gold mines, was what the Act was supposed to provide. With that Rhodes could readily agree, since he wanted to promote the agricultural development of the Cape. However, the Bond wanted to be able to buy land in Glen Grey (and other district in which the Act was proclaimed). Rhodes wanted to keep such districts as 'reservoirs of labour' so he could not give the Bond all of what they wanted, i.e. Glen Grey titles to be alienable. His manoeuvring to keep the Bond supporting the Bill while not making the land readily salable is described. (In the end the land was alienable with the consent of the government -- consent that a Rhodes ministry would not give, but that another might.) Rhodes's desire to obtain the administration of Bechuanaland for his Chartered Company, and his need therefore to reassure the Colonial Office and humanitarian opinion that he could be trusted to rule over blacks, are pointed out as other possible motivations for the Act, which Rhodes tried hard to present as an enlightened piece of legislation. The course of the Act through the Cape parliament, and the opposition of Cape liberals to the Act, is described. Chapter Five: The mentalité of the Cape colonists as regards race, liquor, land tenure and other political issues is described. Chapter Six: The reaction to the Act of Cape blacks and sympathetic whites, British humanitarians and the Colonial Office is described. The contemporary concern with reserving land for blacks is noted, as well as concern over the morality of economically coerced labour. This is in contrast to the modern concentration on labour almost to the exclusion of other issues in regard to the Glen Grey Act. The unsuccessful efforts of Cape blacks and British humanitarians to have the imperial government veto the Act are described. Rhodes's influence over the Colonial Office is described.

M.A. (Politics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

In this thesis I conduct a comparative analysis of the influence of socioeconomic actors, business and labor, on public policy in Germany and the United States, specifically public policy that has an impact on economic inequality. The objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of how institutional constructs may determine the level of influence by different socioeconomic actors on public policy. In particular, I examine the link between institutional design and economic inequality, specifically the relative influence of business interests in varying types of capitalist economies and democratic systems, and assess those facets of institutional design that may facilitate the channeling of business influence in policy making. I explore institutional changes in the German political and economic system beginning in the late 1980s to determine whether these changes have altered the policy making process over time, and analyze similarities with institutional changes that have taken place in the United States beginning in the late 1970s to present. Further, I examine whether shifts in institutional design indicate that the German system is transitioning towards a more liberal model similar to that of the United States, and consider what effects this may have on the level of economic inequality in Germany. To conduct my analysis I use the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework; based on the IAD framework I create a conceptual map of the channels by which socioeconomic actors are involved in the policy making process. I evaluate the policy-making process in both formal and informal policy arenas. The policy areas analyzed include corporate governance, industrial relations, and tax, welfare and minimum wage policy during the selected time periods. The analysis shows that the institutional designs that produced the selected policies benefit business interests and may contribute towards economic inequality. The larger goal is to develop research that will build a theoretical foundation to help us identify how these systems may be improved to produce a more equitable allocation of economic resources.