Mobility Of Workers Research Articles

Conceptualizing practices of care in women’s lives. A domestic work case study in Ethiopia and Tanzania

Drawing from the lived experiences of female domestic workers in Ethiopia and Tanzania, this article illustrates different ways in which domestic work can be practiced and defined in both countries. It analyses women’s narratives in the present and past tense to explore different situations before and after they come into contact with an NGO that advocates for domestic workers’ rights. Since their childhood, the women interviewed have worked in various kin and non-kin households, and performed different types of domestic work (formal and informal, paid and unpaid, live-in and live-out). The asymmetrical and hierarchical relationships between employees and employers are ambiguous and often confused with kinship or distant kinship. These ambiguities come to the fore precisely when projects fostered by labour activists aim at the formalization of hired care work, that is, skilled employment made up of clearly defined tasks, regulated by written contracts, rights and responsibilities. In contexts where labor protections are poorly enforced, proposals to formalize domestic work can provide an essential reference point for the collective mobilization of women workers. At the same time, proposed solutions favoring the formalization of hired work might clash with local realities and not necessarily be perceived as appropriate by domestic workers.

Remembering Herbert Gutman's Work, Culture, and Society Fifty Years On

Remembering Herbert Gutman's <i>Work, Culture, and Society</i> Fifty Years On

Revisiting Dallas Smythe’s “cultural screening”: Maoist class politics and the technology revolution in socialist China

Dallas Smythe’s concept of “cultural screening” is often overlooked, despite its crucial importance for the politics of technology. Smythe posited that developing socialist countries should scrutinize technology imported from capitalist countries due to its potentially adverse ideological impacts. In this paper, I examine and develop this concept by analyzing the intricate dynamics of class politics characterizing socialist China’s technological development. This paper also contributes to Chinese science and technology studies (STS) by providing new insights and perspectives. Unlike Smythe, who did not explicitly focus on class, Maoism emphasizes the role of class politics in shaping technological development. According to Mao, the participation of the masses in technological development is a key manifestation of socialism, whereas technocratic and intellectual approaches reflect capitalism. Therefore, he understood the development of technology as a “line struggle” between socialist and capitalist roads and prompted the mass mobilization of workers to study Maoist philosophy to ensure the implementation of “proletarian politics in command.” The philosophy study movement aimed to reshape epistemological relationships between knowledge and practice, workers and technocrats, and labor and technology/machinery to mediate class politics in technological development in socialist China.

E008 I feel a bit happier about going on it now: exploring the information needs of people starting methotrexate

Abstract Background/Aims Methotrexate (MTX) is recommended as initial disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Rheumatology nurses provide information about benefits, risks and safety monitoring requirements for methotrexate during DMARD counselling, which may be provided in different formats. This study sought to explore the information needs and experiences of people with RA commencing MTX. Methods Seventy-six adults with RA referred for MTX DMARD counselling attending two rheumatology units in the West Midlands were invited to take part in qualitative semi-structured interviews (either by phone or video) before and after receiving information about MTX. Research partners with RA helped to develop interview topic guides. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results Nineteen participants, (11 male, 8 female, White British, age 45-76 years, disease duration 6 weeks - 35 years) took part in telephone (n17) or video (n2) interviews (duration 34-82 minutes). Three main themes were identified: information delivery, necessity of MTX and concerns about MTX. Information delivery: most participants received telephone DMARD counselling which was helpful for people with mobility issues or work commitments. However, most acknowledged a preference for, and the importance of face-to-face communication. Information tended to be provided in a generic manner, using a checklist, and could feel rushed. Written MTX leaflets were received but not used by all participants. Some participants felt well informed whilst others felt overwhelmed with information. Many had difficulty recalling important safety information. Unmet information needs about monitoring, prescribing and follow-up arrangements were frequently reported. Inconsistent information about MTX from different sources could increase concerns. Rheumatology helplines were valued as a direct route to information and care. Necessity of MTX: most participants wanted more information on why they should take MTX, how and when MTX would help them and how long they would be required to take MTX for. Some wanted to know about other drug treatment options. Concerns about MTX: all participants had concerns about the likelihood and severity of side-effects including mouth ulcers, nausea and hair loss. Worries about the use of MTX as a cancer treatment were frequently reported. Whilst concerns remained about MTX most participants accepted the risk of side-effects because of the need to improve their symptoms. Conclusion DMARD counselling was valued by people with RA when starting MTX but was not always responsive to information needs. Addressing individual concerns about the necessity for MTX, concerns about side-effects and prioritising essential safety information is recommended. Practical issues around obtaining supplies of MTX, monitoring, follow-up arrangements and a follow-up telephone call may help address unmet information needs for some. Disclosure S.J. Logan: None. S. Hider: None. J. Green: None. S. Ryan: None.

Review of “What Workers Say: Decades of Struggle and How to Make Real Opportunity Now”

There is a long tradition of writing that seeks to foreground the voices of subaltern agents, enriching the public’s understanding of how workers and other marginalized groups experience and respond to the world. Oral histories are premised on this effort; John Gwaltney’s Drylongso showcased the meanings that many African Americans share among themselves; Studs Terkel’s famous Working was so successful at capturing the everyday concerns of workers than it was made into a Broadway musical. Enter Roberta Iversen’s What Workers Say. The book’s premise is that policymakers would do well to understand the life horizons of workers in a broad array of occupations and industries, especially those in the burgeoning service sector, where those without a college education have enduring stagnating wages, eroding provisions for upward mobility, and an uphill battle to stay above the poverty line. The book’s empirical base comes from four different qualitative projects that Iversen conducted on the effects of workforce development, job training programs, and other policies designed to equip workers to cope with an ever more challenging labor market. These projects were conducted over the span of four decades in a number of US cities; here, they are knitted together in an effort to grasp the structural transformations that workers have had to endure over time. The outcome is a book whose presentation mimics the broader shift in the nation’s labor force, moving from manufacturing and clerical work to retail, health care, architecture, real estate, and other service occupations. The author presents excerpts from select individual workers, positioning their observations as reflections of broader historical trends. In a sense, the author has repurposed a series of snapshots and used them to generate a newsreel with which to convey a number of structural developments —the rise of precarious work, low and stagnating wages, cutbacks in public assistance, credential barriers impeding worker mobility, and long-term unemployment—that have become all too common features of our neoliberal economy.

Labor mobility of employees is one of the conditions for the functioning of labor relations

The article examines the legal regulation of labor mobility of workers in Ukraine as one of the conditions for the development and functioning of social and labor relations in today's conditions. It is noted that the labor market, as an integral part of the country's economic system, mirrors most of the political and socio-economic processes taking place in the state, and focuses on the most acute problems: high unemployment, increasing structural disparities in employment, uncontrolled outflow of labor force abroad , changes in the quality of the workforce and work motivation, a drop in the level of income of the population. These problems become a significant factor in the deepening of crisis phenomena, hold back structural changes, and their solution creates prerequisites for social and economic growth. In the conditions of martial law in Ukraine, the problem of labor mobility of workers, which forms the basis of ensuring the balance of the labor market, is an integral component of which territorial movements of the population in search of a new place of work are of particular importance. It is noted that today there is a global migratory mobility of the population and large migratory movements of labor resources mainly outside the country, which clearly reflects the situation that has developed in the country on the labor market. The reasons for the activation of labor mobility are: unemployment; inconsistency of employees' wages with their education and qualifications; lack of career growth; impossibility of professional development; competitiveness in the labor market; martial law in the country. It was concluded that in order to increase the level of employment in wartime and the period of economic recovery of the country, it is very important to ensure the mobility of the labor force, which will contribute to strengthening its adaptability, increasing competitiveness, as well as the efficiency of use. In order to preserve the labor force and minimize the process of its washing out of Ukraine, including the outflow of youth, workers with formed qualifications and professional skills, an important task is to create jobs at modernized, restored and newly created enterprises.

A Middle Model of Economic Development? Revisiting the Economic Geography of Middle-Wage Occupations in the United States

High-wage regions have frequently been models for economic development policy. However, these places have also been more likely to experience a “hollowing out” of the middle of the labor market, whereby college-educated residents experience high-wage growth, while residents without a college degree do not. This paper studies regions where—in contrast to hollowing out—the share of middle-wage jobs has grown since 1980. Its aim is to understand how—if at all—the characteristics of these regions could suggest a model of economic development that prioritizes opportunities for noncollege graduates. The authors find that regions with a growing share of middle-wage jobs have been associated with higher levels of upward mobility and wage growth for workers without a college degree. These places, such as Wausau, Wisconsin, and Manhattan, Kansas, are associated with higher local school performance and have experienced comparatively high growth in production jobs.

Gender, class and daily mobility in a global city

The gendered distribution of trips linked to the domestic sphere and to care work have been highlighted by a range of feminist geographers and sociologists since the 1980s. Yet, little research has shed light on how class relations intersect with this gendered mobility. The study on intersection of class and gender is particularly relevant in Global cities as places that concentrate both highly-skilled and low-skilled female workers, connected to intertwined migration flows. This paper will use the Domestic Mobility Work as a conceptual framework to highlight how in a ‘small global city’ – Brussels – highly qualified female workers and mothers manage their gendered spatial constraints, mostly by calling on the services of lower class women. Through semi-structured interviews with high-profile female workers with children, it shows that delegating mobility workload is crucial for them to fulfill their career and to maintain an ideal of gender equality within the couple. But the interviewees also shed light on the challenge delegating care work poses to their identity as mothers. They also show the gendered relevance of mobility services offered by care and educational institutions, set up exclusively for the benefit of employees in the international sector. The article calls for further research on the intersections of class, gender and migration in global cities.

Research on the Current Situation and Countermeasures of Tourism Employment in Lishui City under the All-region Tourism

With the release of optimized epidemic prevention and control policies in China, the tourism industry is experiencing a strong return. However, the post-epidemic tourism era has led to rapidly changing tourist demands, which have greatly increased the professional ability and quality requirements of tourism workers. Therefore, the post-epidemic tourism employment problem has become a concern for both the government and the industry. This paper analyzes the talent demand in the tourism industry in Lishui City under the background of all-regional tourism and makes suggestions. While the rapid development of tourism in Lishui City has brought about increased employment opportunities, the tourism labor market in Lishui still faces various challenges, such as a shortage of tourism management talents, low cultural quality of tourism workers, and lack of tourism professionals. In addition, employment quality has declined due to high worker mobility and personnel loss caused by COVID-19. To address these issues, this study proposes several measures: establishing the concept of all-round tourism, promoting high-quality development of tourism to create more jobs, improving the quality of tourism workers and services, adjusting the tourism employment system, and optimizing the employment structure of the tourism industry by adjusting its layout. This paper offers useful suggestions to address the challenges faced by the tourism industry in Lishui City in the post-epidemic era.

The lesser shades of labor coercion: The impact of seigneurial tenure in nineteenth-century Quebec

Can mild forms of labor coercion generate welfare effects as large as more extreme forms? Do these effects persist over time? To answer both questions, we use Quebec’s system of seigneurial tenure (in effect until 1854) that granted landlords market power in the establishment of factories, and restricted worker mobility. This created a mild form of labor coercion as landlords had incentives to reduce employment and wage rates. To measure these effects, we rely on the Constitutional Act of 1791 which stated that all new lands had to be settled under a different tenure system. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that seigneurial tenure significantly depressed wages. The effect on wages is as large, or larger than, causal estimates of significantly more coercive labor regimes. We also find that by 1871, seventeen years after the institution’s abolition, these effects had fully dissipated, suggesting that persistence is not an issue.

Remittances for marriage: quality of life changes among seasonal worker households in Timor-Leste

ABSTRACT The Australian Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) has offered opportunities for Timorese citizens to engage in farm labour and hospitality jobs in rural Australia for periods of six months. Savings and remittance from this work offers a powerful and self-directing development tool that could improve living standards for participating households. In this paper, we argue that remittances invested in social relationships through ceremonies and customary exchange are beneficial for building enhanced social and financial capital in Timorese society. Cash contributions to support household consumption, purchase domestic appliances, education costs of siblings, house construction, ceremony costs and bridewealth (barlake) demands, are all important aspects of contemporary social life in Timor-Leste that are sustained by labour migration remittances. Social networking is thus crucial for enabling access to better resources and opportunities in Timor-Leste and remittances that focus on social relationship maintenance are therefore highly significant. Potentially they provide the ability for some return workers to afford higher bridewealth demands and in the process facilitate social mobility for seasonal workers while advancing a broader quality of life.

How Much Should We Trust Estimates of Firm Effects and Worker Sorting?

Many studies use matched employer-employee data to estimate a statistical model of earnings determination with worker and firm fixed effects. Estimates based on this model have produced influential yet controversial conclusions. The objective of this paper is to assess the sensitivity of these conclusions to the biases that arise because of limited mobility of workers across firms. We use employer-employee data from the United States and several European countries while taking advantage of both fixed effects and random effects methods for bias correction. We find that limited mobility bias is severe and that bias correction is important.

Freedom of association and collective bargaining in the platform economy: A human rights‐based approach and an ever‐increasing mobilization of workers

This paper examines the exercise of the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining by platform workers. It focuses on several significant developments involving the collective organization of platform workers worldwide, and considers the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining as human rights. It contends that the shifting context of work has led to changes in modern workplaces, which, in turn, have generated a novel interest in the adoption of a human rights‐based approach towards labour protection. This approach considers that all workers are entitled to rights, such as the right to collective bargaining, which derive from international human rights instruments.

Hierarchical Bayes Measurement Error Small Area Model for Estimation of Disaggregated Level Workers Mobility Pattern in India

Hierarchical Bayes Measurement Error Small Area Model for Estimation of Disaggregated Level Workers Mobility Pattern in India

Numerical Analysis on Added Resistance of a Crew Boat with Variation of Wave Period

Crew boat is a type of vessels used for the mobility of offshore workers and logistical supply needed for the offshore platform. Crew boat KCT-1901 is categorized as a planning boat with hard chine body. KCT-1901 requires an added power when it is sailing through a seaway. The reason behind this is because when a ship sails through a seaway, the ships experienced a heave and pitch motion resulted in added resistance and hence added power. The goal of the investigation is to estimate added resistance and added power of the crew boat using computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method and tested in calm water and in waves with several Froude numbers (Fr) and wave periods. A method developed by Savitsky is used for verification at high-speed mode. The largest total resistance using CFD in calm water is 38.98 kN and using Savitsky method is 39.00 kN obtained at Fr 0.72. Both are in good agreement and the discrepancy is less than 0.1%. Comparative study was carried out against experimental test in a towing tank. The drag forces tested at Fr 0.12 and 0.24, between the two approaches, showed a discrepancy of about 4%. Further CFD test was conducted on wave pattern analysis, which demonstrated that as the Fr increases the becomes clearer and stronger and tests in waves condition at lower wave period showed that the transverse wave becomes more apparent. Therefore, overall can be said that the CFD simulation showed such a good agreement with empirical Savitsky method and experimental tank test.

Does Social Mobility Matter? The Kafala System and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Existing studies argue that anti-immigrant sentiment stems from threat perception. Yet, conventional theoretical approaches cannot fully explain hostility toward immigrants in the Middle East and North Africa, where low-skilled foreign workers occupy an inferior social and legal status vis-a-vis natives under the kafala system. Building on existing studies of immigration politics, we theorize how immigration policies can either facilitate or prevent the social mobility of foreign workers. Exploring immigration attitudes in 14 Middle East and North Africa countries using an original dataset that matches survey responses with host country-specific factors, we find that extreme rights-restricting immigration policies (such as the kafala system) encourage wealthier natives to be more hostile than their lower-class counterparts. Our study suggests that anti-immigrant sentiment is context-specific and influenced by local institutions.

The Role of Community Organisations in the Collective Mobilisation of Migrant Workers: The Importance of a ‘Community’-Oriented Perspective

In examining the collective mobilisation of migrant workers, scholars have explored the emergence of community organisations as alternative forms of worker representation. However, community unionism scholars tend to adopt a union-centric perspective, which leaves unexplored the complex nature of community organisations. We argue that it is important to adopt a ‘community’-oriented perspective. Such a perspective allows us to explore varied capacity for collective actions and different forms of identity framing across community organisations. We argue that these can affect the union–community relationship and organising outcomes. By comparing ethnographic case studies of the role of two community organisations vis-a-vis the collective mobilisation of migrant workers, we conclude that community organisations which focus on participatory internal relations, and which frame collective identities (including class) in an intersectional way, are more likely to have reciprocal relationships with trade unions and contribute to collective mobilisation.

Escaping from low-wage employment: The role of co-worker networks

Low-wage jobs are often regarded as dead-ends in the labour market careers of young people. Previous research focused on disentangling to what degree the association between a low-wage job at the start of working life and limited chances of transitioning to better-paid employment is causal or spurious. Less attention has been paid to the channels that may facilitate the upward wage mobility of low-wage workers. We focus on such mechanisms, and we scrutinize the impact of social ties to higher-educated co-workers. Due to knowledge spillovers, job referrals, as well as firm-level productivity gains, having higher-educated co-workers may improve an individual’s chances of transitioning to a better-paid job. We use linked employer-employee data from longitudinal Swedish registers and panel data models that incorporate measures of low-wage workers’ social ties to higher-educated co-workers. Our results confirm that having social ties to higher-educated co-workers increases individual chances of transitioning to better-paid employment.

Pakistan's COVID-19 Prevention and Control Response Using the World Health Organization's Guidelines for Epidemic Response Interventions.

Massive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) devastation was anticipated in Pakistan due to poor track record of responding to epidemics. However, by adopting effective and timely response measures under strong government leadership, Pakistan averted a significant number of infections. We present the government of Pakistan's efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, using the World Health Organization's guidelines for epidemic response intervention. The sequence of interventions is presented under the epidemic response stages, namely anticipation, early detection, containment-control, and mitigation.Key factors of Pakistan's response included decisive political leadership and implementation of a coordinated and evidence-informed strategy. Moreover, early control measures, mobilization of front-line health workers for contact tracing, public awareness campaigns, 'smart lockdowns', and massive vaccination drives are key strategies that helped flatten the curve. These interventions and lessons learnt can help countries and regions struggling with COVID-19 to develop successful strategies to flatten the curve and enhance disease response preparedness.

The interdependency of border bureaucracies and mobility intermediaries: a street-level view of migration infrastructuring

Building on the case of visa procedures, this article analyses the relationship between border bureaucracies and intermediaries understood as actors, organisations and knowledge that facilitate, shape, and enable human mobility. I take the street-level view to shed light on the interplay of multiple dimensions and logics, which affects how people are mobile. I argue that the analytical lens of interdependency between dimensions and logics that characterize bureaucracies and intermediaries makes sense of migration infrastructuring processes at the street-level. The case of visa policies and practices, which are characterized by the twofold objective of stemming and spurring mobility, is particularly apt to put forward that intermediaries’ socio-economic activities, which bridge borders, by facilitating, shaping, and sustaining mobility, respond not just to the policies and practices that build and reinforce borders but also to those soliciting certain kinds of mobility. The analysis builds on the comparison of ethnographic literature to put forward three empirical situations that exemplify the dynamics of interdependency: Local guides and experts who develop in response to the opacity of bureaucratic procedures and to the distance between visa applicants and state actors; The providers of pieces of documentation, whether counterfeit or ‘real-but-fake’, who respond to the impossibility of complying with bureaucratic requirements and to restrictive border regimes; Authorized administrative agencies, tour operators, travel agencies, and agencies that facilitate the supplying of specific kinds of workforce, who respond to the objective of soliciting the mobility of tourists, businessmen and workers. The street-level view of migration infrastructuring processes connects the micro-perspective of the trajectory of individuals to macro structures such as policies and drivers of international mobility. The investigation of the effectiveness of these actors and activities in obtaining visas, on which further research could systematically focus, shows that they might produce immobility as well. In a nutshell, (im)mobility also results from the interplay between border bureaucracies and mobility intermediaries.