No / Sustainability is a triad including techno-economic efficiency, compatibility with the “Planetary Boundaries”, and equity - enabling a decent quality of life for all. Circular Economy models often focus only on closing material flows in order to increase economic activity or market share. This overlooks the equity dimension. Here we focus on the Performance Economy, which extends the Circular Economy in ways that can enhance equity. The Performance Economy model concentrates on making best use of stocks in the economy, including labour which is a renewable resource. Extending product life through re-use, remanufacturing and reprocessing and shifting from non-renewable inputs (including energy) to renewable inputs (including labour) can improve resource efficiency and increase the supply of rewarding employment. The Performance Economy requires changes in business practices more than technological innovation, including a different view of the functions of value chains, and can be promoted by different approaches to taxation.

This thesis explores the notion of the employer in English employment law. It seeks to develop a functional reconceptualisation of that notion in the hope of overcoming the theoretical and practical problems resulting from the tensions inherent in the current approach. The first part of the thesis analyses the notion of the employer as counterparty to the contract of employment. Two conflicting strands emerge: the employer is simultaneously identified as a single party to a bilateral contract (the unitary strand) and defined through the exercise of a range of employer functions (the multi-functional strand). As a result of this tension, full employment law coverage is restricted to a narrow paradigm scenario where a single legal entity exercises all employer functions. Modern economic developments, from the rise of employment agencies and service companies to corporate groups and Private Equity investors, have however increasingly led to the joint exercise of such functions across multiple entities. The second part illustrates the practical implications of these developments: regulatory obligations are placed on inappropriate entities, and workers may even find themselves without recourse to any employment law protection. An additional chapter compares this situation with the notion of the employer in German law, where a sophisticated apparatus has been developed in order to address the particular challenges of employment in multi-entity scenarios, in particular in corporate groups. On the basis of these observations the final part of the thesis then proposes a reconceptualised notion. The employer is defined as the entity, or combination of entities, exercising functions regulated in a particular domain of employment law. Each of the two strands of the current notion is addressed in turn to demonstrate how this more openly multi-functional approach addresses the rigidities of the current notion without abandoning an underlying unitary conceptualisation. It is hoped that the resulting notion of the employer will be able to place employment law obligations on the entity, or combination of entities, exercising the relevant employer functions, regardless of the formal legal organisation of the enterprise in question.

The thesis "Administration of labour policy in the relation to people with disabilities in the Czech Republic" presents the actual usage of labour policy instruments in supporting employment of people with disabilities in practice. It analyses limitations of the handicapped which are caused by physical and mental disabilities, their right to work and labour policy instruments providing employment support to people with disabilities and practical usage of these instruments based on the statistical information in the theoretical part. Research is focused on finding out whether and in which aspects do the needs of people with disabilities while looking for a job and the needs of employers coinside with the support provided by labour offices in Benešov and Česká Lípa districts."

Arbeit umfasst all jene Tätigkeiten, die zum gesellschaftlichen Fortbestand beitragen. Dazu gehört die produktive Arbeit, die gesellschaftlich relevante Güter und Dienstleistungen herstellt ebenso wie die reproduktive Arbeit, die sogenannte Care-Arbeit, die auf den Erhalt des menschlichen Lebens und der Arbeitskraft ausgerichtet ist. In der feministisch orientierten Erforschung von Arbeit wird die Relation zwischen den (Re-)Produktionsverhältnissen und den Geschlechterverhältnissen analysiert.