The research investigates the praxis of companies going collective in Italy. Since the 1950s, scholars have debated the whys and hows of labour-manged firms around the globe. Such a debate articulates around the central question of this research domain: Why are labour-manged firms rare compared to traditional, investor-owned companies? To offer possible explanations for such a scarcity, this research analyses mechanisms, rationales and resources underneath the emergence of worker takeovers, namely labour-managed firms. Empirical evidence on the emergence of labour-managed firms and, specifically, worker takeovers is limited. At the scholarly level, there is little evidence on the praxis of creating labour-manged firms and turning companies collective in the form of worker takeovers. Little is known about who leads and guides worker takeover operations, little is known about which resources are employed, which pieces of legislation are leveraged and who is co-opted in the governance of novel labour-manged firms. This research offers exploratory insights into the whys, hows, who and when of going collective in Italy. Specifically, it delves into the norms, steps, procedures, resources and stakeholders of takeover operations in the country. Via critical approaches and a mix of methodologies, this research aims at unfolding the functioning of takeover strategies, and the relationship of workers with institutional investors, banks and trade unions, among many different stakeholders.

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This thesis is focused on Aboriginal Education Workers (AEWs) who work with, support and care for Indigenous students in schools in South Australia. AEWs work in the ‘border zones’ (Giroux 2005) between the values of schools and the expectations of Indigenous communities. This thesis highlights how AEWs experience indirect discrimination in the workplace as a result of their complex racialised position. In particular, there is a general absence of recognition of AEWs’ caring role by non-Indigenous staff in schools. AEWs are not only marginalised in schools, but also at an institutional level. While AEWs’ working conditions have improved, the ‘redistribution’ (Fraser & Honneth 2003, p. 10) of better working conditions has not eliminated indirect discrimination in the workplace. Furthermore, there is little research regarding AEWs in Indigenous education. Thus at three levels, namely school, Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS) and academia, there is a cyclical pattern that perpetuates an absence of recognition of AEWs. This thesis uses whiteness theory (Frankenberg 1993) as a theoretical framework to examine this lack of recognition and the consequent low status of AEWs in schools. The thesis emerges from research, experience working as a teacher in a remote Aboriginal school with AEWs, and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 AEWs who are working in South Australian state schools. Standpoint theory (Collins 2004; Harding 2004) is used as both a method and methodology in order to understand and map AEWs’ position in schools. A common theme raised by all of the AEWs in the interviews is the absence of recognition of their work in schools by non-Indigenous staff and the consequent feeling of marginalisation in the workplace. In this thesis the site-specific contexts of the interviewees and the effects of whiteness are examined. The findings that emerged from the in-depth semi-structured interviews with AEWs were concerned with Indigenous ethics of care models. The narratives from the interviewees who were AEWs revealed how white ethics of care practices in schools de-legitimise Indigenous ethics of care. Furthermore, the discursive regimes that govern school policy and protocol often limit AEWs’ ability to respond effectively to Indigenous student needs. This thesis highlights the complexities and contradictions of AEWs who are working in the border zones. As a result, AEWs often feel caught between school expectations and community protocols. This thesis advocates equality of recognition of Indigenous ethics of care practices to address the indirect discrimination that AEWs experience. It concludes with a map for recognition of AEWs' care practices on an institutional level in relation to academia and DECS, and in schools in order to overturn the continual marginalisation of AEWs in South Australia. It argues for a values shift for non-Indigenous teachers and staff in schools and at the institutional levels in DECS and academia. In particular, this involves a values shift by non-Indigenous teachers, academics and policy makers towards an understanding of whiteness. Recommendations are provided in the concluding chapter that signpost possible moves towards equality of recognition of Indigenous ethics of care practices by non-Indigenous staff in schools.

The ageing of the population and the workforce has become a global phenomenon that has created concern about labour as well as skills shortages. Therefore the continuation of older workers in paid employment is regarded as beneficial to both the economy and to the older worker. The aim of this dissertation is to make an enquiry about what employers are doing to make themselves attractive to these older workers and how they are retaining the older workers already present in their organisations. The methodology has been to construct a review protocol through the formation of a review panel as well as the development of a detailed search strategy that included a transparent inclusion and exclusion criteria. The measurement for evaluating the quality of studies used in this systematic review is presented along with the strategy adopted to extract the data and synthesise the findings. The search results were quite limited due to the limited number of research studies conducted particularly for the first of the two research questions relating to the attraction of older workers into the organisation. However the studies that have been conducted thus far shows a level of connection between the methods that can be used to attract older workers and those identified as being used to retain older workers. Finally, gaps from the systematic review process are identified and further research areas suggested.

The study has investigated the loneliness facts influencing the foreign workers in Taiwan, and has discovered the relationship between loneliness and the mediating effects of social support by demographic variables. The target of the study were foreign workers who had came from Thailand, Vietname, and the Philippines. The questionnaires were collected by a hospital and there were 725 valid returns within 35.55% married samples and 64.45% single samples. Using hierarchical regression and path analysis to test the mediating effects of social support, the findings are: 1. work support and health care support were mediating effective for loneliness; 2. native country contact support have direct effects, but the most significant effect was by group support. Regarding the implementation of foreign worker management, it can enforce the already lacking work and health care support of the foreign workers might reduce the negative effect of loneliness, and thus improves the heart, mind and healthy of these workers.

1969, Peter Drucker defined the phrase ¡§knowledge Economy¡¨ as the use of knowledge to produce economic benefits. The concept that knowledge and education can be treated as business products to be exported for high value return or productive asset becomes reality in the past decades due to the driving forces such as globalization, innovations in information and network technology. November 2004, Halo2, a video game designed exclusively for Microsoft¡¦s Xbox, sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to $125 million US in its first 24 hours on store shelves, thus out-grossing the film Spider-Man 2 as highest grossing release in entertainment history. May 2002, Taiwan Government announced that they will nurture Taiwanese Digital Content industry into a profound force of economy. Among the major members in digital content industry, digital game industry is the one with the most potential. Game Development Talent in Taiwan is well known in pan-Asia region, with the ability to produce high quality games and leading role in Chinese entertainment business. The future for Taiwan game development talent is, without a doubt, bright. Knowledge workers have always been a popular subject of academic research. However, scholars in the past have treated the concept of knowledge worker as a single entity, rather than sets of different sub-group. The paper attempts to focus on the group of who participated in game development with a quantitative approach. The aim is to gain in-depth understanding about the lifestyle of game developers. Socialists¡¦ view of the world consisted of sets of ¡§fields¡¨ with rules to guide behavioral pattern of the people living in it. The behavioral pattern, as well as the tastes and opinions about most things in daily life, is referred as lifestyle. Game developers pay heavy attention on their professions, care less about dining as well as other aspects in daily life. The long working-hour is a major feature in game developers¡¦ lifestyle, and they enjoy such a way of life.

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Abstract The purpose of the study was to gain knowledge about how social workers perceive the underlying factors that may be behind clients’ need of social assistance for longer periods. A qualitative approach has been used and six telephone interviews with social workers from two different municipalities in Stockholm have been performed. The results show that the social workers’ views are that individuals are in need of social assistance because they are unemployed and because they can not speak Swedish, but it also depends on the client's relationship to the social worker and the municipality's employee turnover. The social services can help to prevent clients from being trapped in a long term need of social assistance, for example by clarifying the municipal rules and regulations, by developing and introducing new activities in the municipality and / or by reducing employee turnover and workload. Keywords: social worker, social assistance, unemployment / Sammanfattning Syftet med studien var att få kunskap om hur socialsekreterare ser på de faktorer som kan ligga bakom arbetsföra klienters behov av försörjningsstöd under längre perioder. Kvalitativ metod har använts och sex telefonintervjuer med socialsekreterare från två olika kommuner i Stockholm har genomförts. Informanternas bild är att individer är i behov av försörjningsstöd eftersom de är arbetslösa och på grund av bristande kunskap i svenska, men det kan även bero på klientens relation med socialsekreteraren och kommunens höga personalomsättning. Socialtjänsten kan hjälpa till med att förhindra att klienter fastnar i ett långvarigt behov av försörjningsstöd, exempelvis genom att förtydliga kommunens regler och riktlinjer, genom att utveckla och införa nya insatser i kommunen och/eller genom att minska personalomsättningen och arbetsbelastning. Nyckelord: social worker, social assistance, unemployment