The thesis "Analysis of the influence of demographic development on employment and employment policy of elderly people in the Czech republic" focuses on the specific position of elderly people in the labour market. In the event of redundancy, they tend to be under threat of long- term unemployment more often and to a greater extent than other groups in the labour market. The thesis describes in detail the current state of employment of elderly people in the Czech Republic and the European Union with respect to demographic trends, which - in addition to other consequences - also have a strong impact on the labour market. The aim of the thesis is to determine the main obstacles preventing greater involvement of elderly people in the labour market in the Czech Republic, and the direction employment policy should take in order to achieve greater efficiency. The basic hypothesis of the thesis is the idea that the implementation of an active employment policy in the Czech Republic is not effective enough in solving the unemployment issues of the elderly. Using four theoretical frameworks, the main deficiencies of the currently implemented employment policy with respect to elderly people and the causes thereof are identified. Theoretical foundations are also applied in discussing possible solutions to the...

Examensarbetets syfte var att belysa och bidra till kunskaper om hur elva kommuner i en delregion förhåller sig till nya förutsättningar med en förändrad nationell arbetsmarknadspolitik efter Arbetsförmedlingens reformering 2019. Arbetet bidrar till att ge insikter kring kommunernas strategier för organisering och samverkan, samt konsekvenser för kommunala aktiviteter för deltagarna. Empirin är inhämtad med kvalitativ metod genom att djupintervjua elva kommunala chefer, med ansvar inom arbetsmarknadsområdet i sin kommun, på en strategisk eller strategisk/operativ nivå. Arbetsförmedlingens reformering har till exempel inneburit nedstängning av många lokala kontor och att insatser som tidigare ofta utfördes av kommunerna på uppdrag av Arbetsförmedlingen nu utförs av fristående aktörer. Som en följd av de statliga förändringarna har det påverkat den lokala arbetsmarknadspolitiken som kommunerna utför, med anpassning av kommunernas organisationer och vilka aktiviteter som kan erbjudas deltagarna i målgruppen. Arbetsförmedlingens reformering innebar till en början omfattande konsekvenser för den lokala samverkan och individsamverkan, vilket har fått en betydelse för utförandet av arbetsmarknadspolitiken i praktiken för kommunerna och kommunernas invånare. Examensarbetets teoretiska referensram beskriver att Arbetsförmedlingen har svårigheter i att kunna erbjuda flera av målgrupperna tillräckliga insatser, vanligen de deltagare som står längst ifrån arbetsmarknaden till exempel ungdomar, utrikesfödda och långtidsarbetslösa, grupper som ofta kan ha ett kommunalt ekonomiskt bistånd. Det medför att det kan finnas förväntningar att kommunerna ska utföra insatser för de som står längst ifrån arbetsmarknaden. Målgruppen utgör ofta en kostnad för kommuner och även om arbetsmarknadspolitiken i grunden är ett statligt ansvar agerar kommunerna med insatser för att reducera de egna kostnaderna för ekonomiskt bistånd. Det empiriska materialet i examensarbetet har analyserats tematiskt. För att synliggöra strukturen kontra individernas handlingars betydelse för förändringsprocesserna har analysen utgått från Giddens Struktureringsteori. Slutsatserna är att kommunerna har påverkats med omfattande anpassningar efter Arbetsförmedlingens reformering. Det har krävts olika individuella lokala strategiska beslut för att anpassa organiseringen, ofta med nedskärningar, och samverkan till de nya förutsättningarna. Kommunerna har även valt olika strategier vid anpassning av de aktiviteter som erbjuds olika grupper av deltagare och vilka målgrupper som kommunerna erbjuder aktiviteter. / The aim of the thesis was to shed light and contribute to knowledge about how eleven municipalities in a region are responding to new conditions with a changed national labour market policy after the reform of the Swedish Public Employment Service in 2019. The work contributes to insights into the municipalities' strategies for organization and cooperation, as well as consequences for municipal activities for participants. The empirical data was collected using qualitative method by conducting in-depth interviews with eleven municipal managers, responsible for the labour market area in their municipality, at a strategic or strategic/operational level. For example, the reform of the Swedish Public Employment Service has resulted in the closure of many local offices and that services that were previously often carried out by the municipalities on behalf of the Public Employment Service are now carried out by independent actors. As a result of the government changes, it has affected the local labour market policy that the municipalities carry out, with adaptation of the municipalities' organizations and which activities can be offered to the participants in the target group. The reform of the employment agency initially had extensive consequences for local and individual collaboration, which has been important for the implementation of labour market policy in practice for the municipalities and their residents. The thesis' theoretical framework describes that the Public Employment Service has difficulties in being able to offer several of the target groups sufficient activities, usually the participants who are the furthest from the labour market, such as young people, foreign-born and the long-term unemployed, groups that often can receive municipal economic support. This means that there may be expectations that the municipalities will carry out activities for those who are furthest from the labour market. The target groups represent a cost for the municipalities and even if labour market policy is fundamentally a state responsibility, the municipalities act with activities to reduce their own costs for economic support. The empirical material in the thesis has been analysed thematically. To make visible the structure versus the significance of individuals' actions for the change processes, the analysis has been based on Gidden's Structuration Theory. The conclusions are that the municipalities have been affected by extensive adaptations after the reform of the Swedish Public Employment Service. Various individual local strategic decisions have been required to adapt the organization, often with cuts, and collaboration to the new conditions. The municipalities have also chosen different strategies when adapting the activities offered to different groups of participants and which target groups the municipalities offer activities to.

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of unemployment on the mental well-being of the South African working age population. The implication of exploring this relationship is to indicate the importance of good mental health among persons who are not employed. The present study also aimed atinvestigating the role that government can play in mitigating the impact of unemployment on mental health. This part of the research assessed the effectiveness of government’s social security system. The current study employs a mixed research design whereby both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis are used. The relationship between unemployment, mental well-being and government intervention is investigated using a cohort group in which the mental health of persons not employed, aged between 15 and 64 years, are followed over the period, 2004 to 2008. The results are presented using two types of data. First, secondary data from Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey (GHS) were used to measure the impact of unemployment on mental health and to ascertain the impact of government social assistance on affected individuals’ mental well-being. Secondly, in order to explore individual perceptions around government intervention, the research employed a qualitative phenomenological design. This involved conducting semi-structured personal interviews with four unemployed women residing in Gauteng. The results showed that incidences of self-reported mental health illnesses were most likely to be found among individuals who were not employed as compared to those that were employed. This finding proved to be consistent using both descriptive and multivariate statistics which included predictive models. In terms of government intervention, positive mental well-being was shown to be positively related to access of social welfare services (in the form of social grants). This finding was true for all the years of reporting (i.e., 2004 to 2008). In conclusion, although unemployment was found to have a negative impact of mental well-being, government intervention was shown to positively mitigate this impact, thereby giving hope to an otherwise hopeless situation. Unemployment and its impact on mental well-beingalso proved to be a complex subject, requiring multidisciplinary intervening strategies to solving it. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

The purpose of this diploma thesis is to describe the influence of the European Union and especially the European employment strategy on the active employment policy in the Czech Republic. The thesis follows the development of the employment policy in both European Union and the Czech Republic. One part of the thesis is devoted to the pre-accession period and the other is concerned with the period after the Czech Republic has become a valid member of the EU. There were applied two theoretical concepts in the analysis of the European Union's influence on the Czech employment policy: social network theory and the concept of policy transfer. There are pointed out the changes that happened in both periods. The motivation of both parties to accept and implement the changes and to influence or to be influenced is described. The aim of this thesis is to prove that the Czech Republic has been influenced and to show the aspects of the influence: where, why and by whom.

This thesis investigates Zigenarundersökningen [the Gypsy study] – a socio-medical study of Swedish Roma conducted in 1962-1965. The Study was financed by the National Labour Market Board, which sought scientific information on every adult Roma citizen in order to plan for targeted authority interventions. The socio-medical team used a number of different medical and social techniques, drawing together different kinds of data – from the molecular to the social level – and adding “objective” records from public institutions, which resulted in the creation of detailed and voluminous individual case files. On the basis of these files, the public health specialist John Takman in charge of the socio-medical examinations formulated a professional opinion on each individual and family. During the execution of the study, new scientific and social questions were articulated, resulting in that the originally limited investigation concerning only a smaller group of Roma citizens evolved into a comprehensive research project covering all people identified as Swedish Roma. In this thesis, this expansion is analysed using methodological tools from Science and Technology Studies that focus on the reflexivity between the goals of scientific actors, and the social conditions and problematisations that surround them. In this way, science and policy mutually influence each other in situated practices, which also involves the drawing of scientific boundaries that serve to establish epistemic authority.   Departing from Engin F. Isin’s theory on social citizenship, and its alterities, as constituted in contingent and contextualised social practices, and from Franca Iacovetta’s study of Canadian gatekeepers’ work in cold-war Canada, the thesis investigates how the, with time, increasing and more comprehensive activities of experts and professionals created new dimensions of citizenship. Against this background, the thesis draws the conclusion that the scientific-political examinations of problematised citizenship and citizens in Sweden in the 1960’s, while defining deviance, also defined normality. This implies, furthermore, that scientific measurements and classifications of alterity contributed to constituting those measuring and classifying – the experts and professionals – as virtuous citizens, in accordance with contemporary norms of professionalism and expertise, while the Roma were continually constructed as problematic citizens. Hence, scientific-political activities concerning Swedish Roma in the 1960’s created new spaces of social citizenship, where the contents of both normality and deviance were nuanced and (re)defined.

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of unemployment on the mental well-being of the South African working age population. The implication of exploring this relationship is to indicate the importance of good mental health among persons who are not employed. The present study also aimed atinvestigating the role that government can play in mitigating the impact of unemployment on mental health. This part of the research assessed the effectiveness of government’s social security system. The current study employs a mixed research design whereby both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis are used. The relationship between unemployment, mental well-being and government intervention is investigated using a cohort group in which the mental health of persons not employed, aged between 15 and 64 years, are followed over the period, 2004 to 2008. The results are presented using two types of data. First, secondary data from Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey (GHS) were used to measure the impact of unemployment on mental health and to ascertain the impact of government social assistance on affected individuals’ mental well-being. Secondly, in order to explore individual perceptions around government intervention, the research employed a qualitative phenomenological design. This involved conducting semi-structured personal interviews with four unemployed women residing in Gauteng. The results showed that incidences of self-reported mental health illnesses were most likely to be found among individuals who were not employed as compared to those that were employed. This finding proved to be consistent using both descriptive and multivariate statistics which included predictive models. In terms of government intervention, positive mental well-being was shown to be positively related to access of social welfare services (in the form of social grants). This finding was true for all the years of reporting (i.e., 2004 to 2008). In conclusion, although unemployment was found to have a negative impact of mental well-being, government intervention was shown to positively mitigate this impact, thereby giving hope to an otherwise hopeless situation. Unemployment and its impact on mental well-beingalso proved to be a complex subject, requiring multidisciplinary intervening strategies to solving it. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Presented thesis deals with theme of protected employment of people with disabilities as one of the posssible ways of their integration into mainstream society. Unemployment, potential negative impacts of work in protected conditions and the risk of social exclusion are in this thesis presented as a social problem, in the solution of which are to some extent involved participants of all three sectors - the state as well as organizations of private profit- and non-profit sector. The theoretical part describes the current system of employment support for people with disabilities in our country and its effectiveness, and analyses the potential impact on lives of this group of citizens. The thesis also includes research conducted within protected workrooms, operated by the civic sector organizations and business companies. Its main objective is to determine whether and how the examined employers contribute to development of skills, vocational qualification and motivation of the disabled citizens for a possible moving into the open labor market and the mainstream society.