Contemporary labour immigration into the UK has been underpinned by two structural positions: the uneven development within the capitalist system and an intensification of competition driving towards flexibility and precarity. Immigrant workers are overwhelmingly concentrated in secondary sectors of the labour market with low pay, long working hours and poor health and safety and closely associated with non-standard work and informal economy where unions are often not available. How these immigrant workers in highly exploitative industries respond to work-related exploitations poses a great challenge to traditional trade unionism. While community unionism has received increasing attention from researchers and practitioners, an institution-centric approach is dominated in the scholarship which tends to overemphasize the role of institutional entity, such as trade unions and NGOs, in shaping collective agency and consider it as the centrality to immigrant workers activism. In contrast to such union-centred research, this study adopts a social movement perspective to explore whether and how community organizing approach can empower immigrant workers and enhance union organizing when globalization compromises its validity. By conducting the multi-method (interviews, surveys, participant observations and videos) ethnographic studies in an immigrant domestic worker self-help group-Justice for Domestic Workers in London over a year and a post EU-enlargement Polish association and local Polish neighbourhood in South Somerset over five months, the research shows that gendered and cultural space rather than traditional industrial entities could offer a political context in which immigrant workers start recognising structural class exploitations and develop an agency and activism for changes. This suggests that the collective mobilizations of immigrant workers in informal and individualised sectors may require creative leaps of sociological imagination in nurturing such communities of coping, wherever they may be occurring - in social clubs, cafés or churches. Community, however, is not a naturally harmonious and unified group setting. The internal divisions and competitions within immigrant communities pose limits to how far ethnic cohesion can serve as a basis for collective mobilization of immigrant workers. The research points to the potential tensions between immigrant community organizations and trade unions to compete for membership and social influence in the coalition building. There is a risk that the institutional goals of immigrant community organizations, in terms of securing funding and expanding its organizational influence, may take precedence over substantive goals of support provision. The research also suggests that academics and practitioners need to rethink the criteria that define the success of worker organising. To win union recognition and achieve collective bargaining agreements in the workplace is a rare case in community organizing of immigrant workers. A distinction should be made between capacity-building from the perspective of workers and organizations involved in community organizing of immigrant workers. There might be a contradiction between organizational developments and grassroots empowerment. Instead of merely focusing on political outcomes as the existing research indicates, more attention should paid to outcomes in social and cultural arenas and how gains in one arena facilitate or hinder gains in another.

HIV/AIDS mainly is a health problem, which is accompanied by social and economic implications worldwide and is seen as a pandemic that negatively affects South Africa. The agricultural labour force, specifically the farm worker community, is also negatively affected by it. However, few research reports are available pertaining to this problem in this section of the population Based on the above, the researcher investigated the attitudes and level of knowledge of the farm worker community with regard to HIV/AIDS. During the investigation it was established that knowledge was lacking and a misperception regarding the HI virus prevailed in the farm worker community. A needs assessment was executed in order to establish what information the farm workers wish to receive and whether they would be willing to attend group assemblies. Initially, the farm workers were not familiar with the term 'group work', but once it was explained to them it was established that the farm workers did indeed feel a need for a group work programme. A prevention programme was compiled in accordance with the needs of the farm workers, which included giving information on HIV/AIDS as well as teaching them life skills. An attempt was made to compile the programme in a culture sensitive manner so that information could reach the farm workers at their level of functioning. The aim of the investigation was: To establish the attitudes, convictions and level of knowledge of black farm workers with regard to HIV/AIDS by means of a literature study and empirical investigation; and To compile an HIV/AIDS group work prevention programme based on a literature study and empirical research. In conclusion, it can be said that the research has proved that knowledge pertaining to the virus is lacking among the farm worker community and that it is essential to change their attitudes. Group work, as a method of social work, can be utilised with remarkable success to bring about positive changes regarding HIV/AIDS in this sector. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

HIV/AIDS mainly is a health problem, which is accompanied by social and economic implications worldwide and is seen as a pandemic that negatively affects South Africa. The agricultural labour force, specifically the farm worker community, is also negatively affected by it. However, few research reports are available pertaining to this problem in this section of the population Based on the above, the researcher investigated the attitudes and level of knowledge of the farm worker community with regard to HIV/AIDS. During the investigation it was established that knowledge was lacking and a misperception regarding the HI virus prevailed in the farm worker community. A needs assessment was executed in order to establish what information the farm workers wish to receive and whether they would be willing to attend group assemblies. Initially, the farm workers were not familiar with the term 'group work', but once it was explained to them it was established that the farm workers did indeed feel a need for a group work programme. A prevention programme was compiled in accordance with the needs of the farm workers, which included giving information on HIV/AIDS as well as teaching them life skills. An attempt was made to compile the programme in a culture sensitive manner so that information could reach the farm workers at their level of functioning. The aim of the investigation was: To establish the attitudes, convictions and level of knowledge of black farm workers with regard to HIV/AIDS by means of a literature study and empirical investigation; and To compile an HIV/AIDS group work prevention programme based on a literature study and empirical research. In conclusion, it can be said that the research has proved that knowledge pertaining to the virus is lacking among the farm worker community and that it is essential to change their attitudes. Group work, as a method of social work, can be utilised with remarkable success to bring about positive changes regarding HIV/AIDS in this sector. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

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Summaries in Afrikaans and English / Text in Afrikaans / Die Landelike Stigting poog om deur die proses van gemeenskapsontwikkeling die lewenstandaard en ontwikkelingspeil van die plaaswerkergemeenskap te verhoog. Binne hierdie proses word volwasse onderwys as belangrike instrument aangewend. Vervolgens is die probleem wat nagevors is die toepassing van volwasse onderwys deur die Landelike Stigting binne landelike ontwikkeling. Eerstens is ondersoek ingestel na die doelstellings en filosofiese orientasies van volwasse onderwys. Binne hierdie kognitiewe raamwerk het hierdie studie tweedens die bepaling van die Landelike Stigting se filosofie en doelstellings behels. Die Landelike Stigting se volwasse onderwysprogram toon duidelike ooreenkomste met radikale volwasse onderwysdenke. Die teoretiese onderbou van die program is vereenselwigbaar met kontemporere ontwikkelingsdenke wat mensgesentreerde, deelnemende en handhawingsontwikkeling beklemtoon en fokus op ontwikkeling as 'n leerproses. Met hul teoretiese uitgangspunte slaag die Landelike Stigting daarin om 'n volwasse onderwysprogram daar te stel wat nie-rassige, nieseksistiese en demokratiese leerbeginsels ondersteun. Hierdie uitgangspunte manifesteer egter tans nie in die praktyk nie. / The Rural Foundation strives to promote the living standard and level of development of the farm worker community through the process of community development. Adult education is an important instrument within this process. Consequently the problem researched is the application of adult education in rural development. Firstly, the objectives and philosophical orientations of adult education were explored. Following from this cognitive framework this study secondly determined the objectives and philosophy of the Rural Foundation. The adult education programme of the Rural Foundation closely corresponds to radical adult education thinking. The theoret i ca 1 substructure of the programme is comp at i b 1 e with contemporary deve 1 opment thought which emphasises people-centred, participatory and sustainable development and focuses on development as a learning process. With their theoretical premises, the Rural Foundation succeeds in establishing an adult education programme which supports non-racial, non-sexist and democratic learning principles. However, these premises do not manifest in practice. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Administration)

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / Text in Afrikaans / Die Landelike Stigting poog om deur die proses van gemeenskapsontwikkeling die lewenstandaard en ontwikkelingspeil van die plaaswerkergemeenskap te verhoog. Binne hierdie proses word volwasse onderwys as belangrike instrument aangewend. Vervolgens is die probleem wat nagevors is die toepassing van volwasse onderwys deur die Landelike Stigting binne landelike ontwikkeling. Eerstens is ondersoek ingestel na die doelstellings en filosofiese orientasies van volwasse onderwys. Binne hierdie kognitiewe raamwerk het hierdie studie tweedens die bepaling van die Landelike Stigting se filosofie en doelstellings behels. Die Landelike Stigting se volwasse onderwysprogram toon duidelike ooreenkomste met radikale volwasse onderwysdenke. Die teoretiese onderbou van die program is vereenselwigbaar met kontemporere ontwikkelingsdenke wat mensgesentreerde, deelnemende en handhawingsontwikkeling beklemtoon en fokus op ontwikkeling as 'n leerproses. Met hul teoretiese uitgangspunte slaag die Landelike Stigting daarin om 'n volwasse onderwysprogram daar te stel wat nie-rassige, nieseksistiese en demokratiese leerbeginsels ondersteun. Hierdie uitgangspunte manifesteer egter tans nie in die praktyk nie. / The Rural Foundation strives to promote the living standard and level of development of the farm worker community through the process of community development. Adult education is an important instrument within this process. Consequently the problem researched is the application of adult education in rural development. Firstly, the objectives and philosophical orientations of adult education were explored. Following from this cognitive framework this study secondly determined the objectives and philosophy of the Rural Foundation. The adult education programme of the Rural Foundation closely corresponds to radical adult education thinking. The theoret i ca 1 substructure of the programme is comp at i b 1 e with contemporary deve 1 opment thought which emphasises people-centred, participatory and sustainable development and focuses on development as a learning process. With their theoretical premises, the Rural Foundation succeeds in establishing an adult education programme which supports non-racial, non-sexist and democratic learning principles. However, these premises do not manifest in practice. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Administration)