Forms Of Collective Representation Research Articles

The funerary practices from the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age in the south-west of Romania and the relations with the south of Danube

The socio-anthropological approach to the funerary practices proves a tight connection between the religious beliefs and the funerary practices. However, it is hard to be evidenced only through the funerary discoveries most of the time. The study of the funerary space structure reveals several possibilities for interpretation, provided the necropolises are researched thoroughly. In the analysis made on the funerary practices, there are often used notions, such as that of a social person, understood as a variety of situations (age, social rank, gender etc.), or social energy consumed during the development of a funerary practice. In this manner only, hypotheses can be issued regarding the social structure if it considers that the funerary space can also be seen as a confirmation of the social identity. The funerary practices can “codify” information related both to the social structure and ideology, thus to the collective mentality of those communities. Different attempts have been made to sketch the religion of the prehistoric communities, using the funerary discoveries for this purpose. To the north of the Danube, in the south-western side of Romania, the funerary practices used to be characteristic for the end of the Bronze Age, which implied the cremation of the dead and the depositing of the remains into a pottery vessel that played the role of an urn. This was buried along with one or more adjacent vessels and sometimes clay statuettes. Among the archaeological discoveries available in the actual stage of the researches, the Gârla Mare type is evidenced, which belongs to the wider area of the incrusted ceramics groups situated on one side and another on the middle inferior course of the Danube. Most of them come from the necropolises of cremation in an urn, being known only a few discoveries of settlements. At the beginning of the Iron Age, a different funerary practice can be noticed, i.e., the building of tumuli and the depositing of the offerings in vessels, on the bottom of them. The disappearance of the plane necropolises, starting with the 12th century BCE and the appearance, in the same period, of the tumular constructions because of the richness or the quantity of the social energy invested in them suggest the appearance of new forms of collective representation, a change in the collective mentality. Furthermore, as a tendency to affirm the social identity, the funerary tumulus can be pointed out.

Disruption and re-regulation in work and employment: from organisational to institutional experimentation

This article proposes experimentation as a framework for understanding actor agency in the changing regulation of work and employment. This involves contrasting institutional change with organisational and institutional experimentation approaches in order to understand how, in the context of uncertainty, actors in the world of work experiment with new ways of organising and seek to institutionalise them into new understandings, norms and rules. The article describes the fault lines of disruption that are generating a vast range of experiments in the world of work. These fault lines invite resilient responses and the development of collective capabilities at two levels: first, organisational experimentation, where social actors seek to modify or renew their organisations, networks and alliances and reflect on, assess and learn from their experiments; second, institutional experimentation, where these responses are scaled up and institutionalised over time through more general understandings, norms and rules. A key challenge for comparative research and strategising is to find the appropriate institutional conditions that will facilitate and enable organisational experiments, whilst overcoming constraining institutional conditions. This challenge is illustrated through the examples of co-working and the development of new forms of collective representation.

Rethinking collective representation: introduction EN

This special issue of Transfer concerns the analytical frameworks we use to understand trade unions and their actions. Focusing on the conditions for union renewal, it explores key ideas that might stimulate our thinking about union revitalization and future forms of collective representation. The challenge to each set of authors is to put forward a conceptual framework that will help readers to rethink their own understanding and narratives about collective representation. These concepts include politics, power, legitimacy, democracy, individualism and collectivism, the framing of gender and womanhood, and climate change.

Faculty Salaries in Ontario: Compression, Inversion, and the Effects of Alternative Forms of Representation

The author estimates the incidence of salary compression and inversion, and the effects of different forms of collective representation (unions and special plans, with and without binding arbitration), for faculty at Ontario universities over the 1970–2004 period. The data show large decreases in the salary differential between full and associate professors and severe compression and inversion in age-salary profiles in the 2000s. Union representation had no effect on salaries compared to no formal representation. Special plans without binding arbitration led to lower salaries, while special plans with binding arbitration yielded higher salaries, but all of the estimated effects were small. Average salaries were lower the higher the proportion of female faculty in the 1970s, but this effect became statistically insignificant by the early 1990s. Finally, faculty salaries responded to the cost of living in the university's city, and were higher, on average, in universities with higher average research productivity.

Political Culturalism, Representation and the People's Action Party of Singapore

The PAP has been attempting, particularly since the early 1990s, to establish a ‘political culturalism’ that aims to produce individuals as ‘cultural citizens’, in contrast to ‘liberal citizens’ associated with the representative politics of liberal democracies. Cultural citizenship steers participation through ethnic or communitarian channels while at the same time restricting political contestation. Through this, the PAP has reinterpreted the meaning and responsibility of being elected and redefined the structures and meaning of political representation and participation. These redefined concepts are reflected in institutions such as the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) as well as race-based self-help organizations. At stake in the production of cultural citizens is the shaping of the boundaries and meaning of politics, with important implications for which sites of participation are tolerated, supported or obstructed. Cultural citizenship mobilizes political conflict along ethnic lines excluding other forms of conflict such as class-based forms of collective representation. This essay examines the type of representation that is being articulated and how it provides an ideological basis for non-liberal political institutions that opens up pathways of participation in different spheres of everyday life, except in the arena of political contestation.

Faculty Salaries and Alternative Forms of Representation

The effects of different forms of collective representation (unions and special plans with and without binding arbitration) on faculty salaries are estimated for Ontario universities, 1970-2004. Compared to status-less faculty associations, unions had virtually no effect while special plans without binding arbitration led to lower salaries. Special plans with binding arbitration yielded higher salaries. The data also show severe compression and inversion in the age-salary profiles in the 2000s and large decreases in the salary differentials between full and associate professors. Average salaries were lower the higher the proportions of women faculty in the 1970s, but the effect dissipated and even reversed itself by the end of the sample. Finally, faculty salaries responded to the cost of living in the university's city and faculty salaries were higher, on average, in universities with higher average research productivity.