This thesis is concerned with the changing relationship between political parties and civil society, focusing on the turn to community organising by the British Labour Party in the aftermath of its 2010 General Election defeat. It documents the model of community organising developed by Movement for Change (M4C), the application of this model within the Labour Party, and the impact of this model on the Labour Party's relationship to civil society. This thesis finds its theoretical home in debates about the role of political parties in modern democracy, the ability of parties to represent the myriad interests of civil society, and the extent to which parties with strong linkages to place-based forms of civil society associations are capable of bridging the divide between society and the state. Additionally, this thesis contextualises the Labour Party's turn to community organising within a history of the party's relationship to civil society from the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century, focusing on the ideas of Eduard Bernstein, Anthony Crosland and those associated with Blue Labour. Empirical material within the thesis was collected during a twelve-month period of participant observation within M4C between September 2012 and September 2013. This provided data on M4C's community organising projects in Southampton and Cardiff. Through the development of these cases the thesis considers the potential for creating a collaborative space beyond the institutional boundaries of the party in which actors from the party and civil society deliberate on issues of common concern, development campaign strategies together, and take action to affect change. The examination of this space allows this thesis to argue that the organisational capacity of a political party is enhanced when it forms strong links to civil society associations engaged in a tradition of place-based political organising, as well as offering a means by which political parties can evolve in response to external challenges they are likely to face in the future.

Bangladesh is often perceived as disordered, characterised by the absence of law abiding systems of governance, and with the poor left to rely on corrupt and dysfunctional relationships. This thesis tells a different story. Examining the lives of people living in the open and most basic slums ethnographically in Dhaka city reveals that people have complex dependencies on ‘intermediaries’ or ‘brokers’ to access resources. Rather than see these relationships as dysfunctional, the core argument developed is that they are inherently part of how social order is maintained in Bangladeshi society. If order is understood as contingent on actors throughout society establishing a dominant capability for violence and accruing resources on this basis, then intermediation can be seen as a prominent means by which both of these ends are achieved. These relationships are thus intertwined with how violence is organised and controlled. A young man who grew up at a bazar described how people need to live in the shade of others, and this metaphor is used to portray this phenomenon. This thesis argues that intermediation in Dhaka has changed significantly over the past decade, with the mastan gangs once identified as powerful in radical decline, replaced by wings of the ruling political party. At the lowest levels of urban society, a complex web of intermediaries exists, including labour leaders, political leaders, their followers and informers. Some people attempt to rise in this order by mobilising as factions and demonstrating their capability for violence, but more generally people employ tactics and strategies for avoiding, negotiating and even exiting these relationships. Negotiating these relationships and one’s place in this order is conceptualised here as the politics of intermediation.

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O ponto de partida para o desenvolvimento deste estudo é a existência de segmentação na produção aqui entendida como contínua diferenciação de atividades produtivas – de formas de organizar a produção e o trabalho, de processos produtivos e de trabalhos e de atributos requeridos para exerce-lo – e com este pano de fundo conceitua-se o termo Setor Informal e desenvolve-se o quadro metodológico que irá originar um conjunto de elementos empíricos sobre os trabalhadores no Município de São Paulo em 1980. O Setor Informal é aqui associado com as formas de organizar a produção, que não tem como motor o trabalho assalariado, ou seja, considera-se Setor Informal como o conjunto de produtores que, de posse dos meios de trabalho, desenvolvem suas atividades baseadas na própria força de trabalho. O quadro metodológico, por sua vez, foi desenvolvido com a finalidade de refletir espectros de formas dos indivíduos participarem da produção – proprietários, assalariados e trabalhadores por conta própria - , qualificados por aspectos referentes: requisitos para o trabalho – idade, sexo e escolaridade –, condições de trabalho – vínculo jurídico, qualificação, horas trabalhadas e tempo de permanência no posto de trabalho ou atividade – e níveis de renda. Decorre da análise empreendida, dos elementos empíricos coletados, bem como dos testes hipotéticos aplicados, que não se pode afirmar serem os trabalhadores informais, sob a conceituação aqui adotada, proporcionalmente a massa de trabalhadores que detêm os mais baixos requisitos e as piores condições de trabalho e níveis de rena no Município de São Paulo. Propostas de políticas de emprego e renda específicas para o Setor Informal não são priorizadas por este estudo, visto esse Setor ocupar espaço econômico intersticial e subordinado aos movimentos das firmas capitalistas. Além do que, no caso do Município de São Paulo em 1980, a maioria dos trabalhadores é assalariada e compõe parcela significativa dos que exercem o trabalho em condições e níveis de renda precários. Agrade-se à Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) e à Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas (FIPE), cujo apoio financeiro possibilitou a elaboração desta pesquisa. Agradece-se também aos Profs. Drs. José Tiacci Kirsten – Coordenador do Projeto FINEP/IPE, Roberto Brás Matos Macedo – Orientador do trabalho de doutoramento, José Paulo Z. Chahad., Carlos Antonio Luque, Ana Maria Bianchi, Ivo Torres e Maria Elisete Licursi pelas leituras e discussões realizadas durante as etapas preliminares deste estudo. / The starting point for the development of this study is the existence of segmentation in the production, understood herein as a continuous fashion of differentiation in productive activities. With this background define the term Informal Sector and develop a methodological picture that will result in a set of empirical elements about the workers in São Paulo in 1980. The Informal Sector is herein related to the ways of organizing the production that do not have, as its drive, the work payed on the basis of wages. Therefore, the Informal Sector is considered as a set of producers that by possessing the means of work develop their activities in their own labour force. The methodological picture, was developed with the purpose of reflecting a spectrum of ways of individual participation in the production – owners, wage workers and independent workers – desegregated by specific work requirements – age, sex and education -, conditions – legal ties, qualification, hours worked and duration in the position in his job or activity – and income levels. Considering the empirical elements gathered and the hypothesis tested, one can not state that the independent workers – or the Informal Workers, under the definition adopted herein constitute the mass of workmen who are the unqualified and have the worst working conditions and income levels in São Paulo. Proposal concerning job policies and income policies which are specific for the Informal Sector are not emphasizes in this study due to the fact the refereed sector occupies and interstitial economic space and depends on the movements of capitalistic enterprises. We should also note that in the case of São Paulo in 1980, the majority of workmen work on a wage payment basis and make us a significant part of those who perform their works under precarious conditions and low income level.

O ponto de partida para o desenvolvimento deste estudo é a existência de segmentação na produção aqui entendida como contínua diferenciação de atividades produtivas – de formas de organizar a produção e o trabalho, de processos produtivos e de trabalhos e de atributos requeridos para exerce-lo – e com este pano de fundo conceitua-se o termo Setor Informal e desenvolve-se o quadro metodológico que irá originar um conjunto de elementos empíricos sobre os trabalhadores no Município de São Paulo em 1980. O Setor Informal é aqui associado com as formas de organizar a produção, que não tem como motor o trabalho assalariado, ou seja, considera-se Setor Informal como o conjunto de produtores que, de posse dos meios de trabalho, desenvolvem suas atividades baseadas na própria força de trabalho. O quadro metodológico, por sua vez, foi desenvolvido com a finalidade de refletir espectros de formas dos indivíduos participarem da produção – proprietários, assalariados e trabalhadores por conta própria - , qualificados por aspectos referentes: requisitos para o trabalho – idade, sexo e escolaridade –, condições de trabalho – vínculo jurídico, qualificação, horas trabalhadas e tempo de permanência no posto de trabalho ou atividade – e níveis de renda. Decorre da análise empreendida, dos elementos empíricos coletados, bem como dos testes hipotéticos aplicados, que não se pode afirmar serem os trabalhadores informais, sob a conceituação aqui adotada, proporcionalmente a massa de trabalhadores que detêm os mais baixos requisitos e as piores condições de trabalho e níveis de rena no Município de São Paulo. Propostas de políticas de emprego e renda específicas para o Setor Informal não são priorizadas por este estudo, visto esse Setor ocupar espaço econômico intersticial e subordinado aos movimentos das firmas capitalistas. Além do que, no caso do Município de São Paulo em 1980, a maioria dos trabalhadores é assalariada e compõe parcela significativa dos que exercem o trabalho em condições e níveis de renda precários. Agrade-se à Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) e à Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas (FIPE), cujo apoio financeiro possibilitou a elaboração desta pesquisa. Agradece-se também aos Profs. Drs. José Tiacci Kirsten – Coordenador do Projeto FINEP/IPE, Roberto Brás Matos Macedo – Orientador do trabalho de doutoramento, José Paulo Z. Chahad., Carlos Antonio Luque, Ana Maria Bianchi, Ivo Torres e Maria Elisete Licursi pelas leituras e discussões realizadas durante as etapas preliminares deste estudo. / The starting point for the development of this study is the existence of segmentation in the production, understood herein as a continuous fashion of differentiation in productive activities. With this background define the term Informal Sector and develop a methodological picture that will result in a set of empirical elements about the workers in São Paulo in 1980. The Informal Sector is herein related to the ways of organizing the production that do not have, as its drive, the work payed on the basis of wages. Therefore, the Informal Sector is considered as a set of producers that by possessing the means of work develop their activities in their own labour force. The methodological picture, was developed with the purpose of reflecting a spectrum of ways of individual participation in the production – owners, wage workers and independent workers – desegregated by specific work requirements – age, sex and education -, conditions – legal ties, qualification, hours worked and duration in the position in his job or activity – and income levels. Considering the empirical elements gathered and the hypothesis tested, one can not state that the independent workers – or the Informal Workers, under the definition adopted herein constitute the mass of workmen who are the unqualified and have the worst working conditions and income levels in São Paulo. Proposal concerning job policies and income policies which are specific for the Informal Sector are not emphasizes in this study due to the fact the refereed sector occupies and interstitial economic space and depends on the movements of capitalistic enterprises. We should also note that in the case of São Paulo in 1980, the majority of workmen work on a wage payment basis and make us a significant part of those who perform their works under precarious conditions and low income level.

This master’s thesis deals with problem of unemployment in the district of Opava. It includes analysis of usage instruments of active employment politics and analysis of unemployment structure in relation to age, education, sex or unemployment length. This work also contains proposed solutions for reduction of the unemployment rate in district of Opava.

This diploma thesis focuses on the issue of unemployment in Olomouc district for the period 2007 – 2011. Unemployed people are analyzed from the different points of view (gender, education, lenght of unemployement). This thesis also offers possible solutions and steps which should lead to decrease of the number of unemployed people in Olomouc district.