Work, Employment & Society recent issues

Medicalization of unemployment: individualizing social issues as personal problems in the Swedish welfare state

Holmqvist, M. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

This article reports qualitative data on how the Swedish Public Employment Service classifies unemployed individuals as ‘occupationally disabled’ in order to transfer them to various labour market programmes.The article draws on a framework of medicalization, arguing that the individualization of the social issue of unemployment into a personal trouble of disability is a neglected yet important phenomenon that has interesting implications for theory and policy. By classifying some people as disabled in order to explain their unemployment, medicalization can be seen as an important yet so far neglected mechanism in understanding how this individualizing enterprise comes about. It is concluded that by medicalizing unemployment, the target for society’s intervention to fight the spectre of unemployment is primarily individuals’ personal troubles rather than any social issues.

The consequences of caring: skills, regulation and reward among early years workers

Findlay, P., Findlay, J., Stewart, R. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

The persistence of gendered pay inequality raises questions as to what sustains it. Recent contributions highlight the role of low skills visibility and valuation in pay inequality in predominantly female occupations. This artical examines the skills and rewards of early years workers, the organizational processes through which their skills are measured and rewarded and the institutional and organizational influences on grading and pay systems.The article does so at an important juncture when the importance and regulation of the ‘early years’ sector has increased significantly and following pay equality initiatives. It concludes that while the application of more systematic forms of skill and job measurement has improved the relative rewards of nursery nurses, gendered constructions of their caring skills contaminate evaluation of their educational role such that undervaluation of their work persists. This finding raises implications for other work that incorporates caring skills.

Public sector trade unionism in the UK: strategic challenges in the face of colonization

Edwards, G. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

This article explores the potential contribution of Habermas’s social theory to debates on union decline and renewal in the UK public sector. It employs data relating to 2004—5 research on the National Union of Teachers (NUT) to suggest that two of Habermas’s concepts are particularly valuable when considering strategies to increase membership activity. The concept of ‘communicative action’ is useful for highlighting the importance of spaces for collective discussion among members, while the concept of ‘colonization’ allows an appreciation of the ways in which these ‘communicative spaces’ are being increasingly eroded in the course of public sector restructuring. In this context, NUT strategies for renewing membership activity involve opening up alternative communicative spaces for members in schools, the union, and online.

Networks of aestheticization: the architecture, artefacts and embodiment of hairdressing salons

Chugh, S., Hancock, P. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

The aesthetic dimension of interactive service work is increasingly significant. This is reflected in the attention paid to it within both industrial sociology and organization studies. Such research has however tended to focus either on the aesthetic aspects of the labour process of service workers or, alternatively, on the material environments within which such labour takes place. This article draws on data derived from a case study investigation of two hairdressing salons in the UK. It extends our understanding of the aesthetics of such service encounters through an analysis of the inter-relationships between the human and non-human elements present in such workspaces. Incorporating elements of actor-network theory, it examines the aestheticization processes that emerge from, among other things those networks of architecture and design, non-human artefacts, and embodiment and aesthetic labour, that constitute the servicescapes of the salons in question.

'Switch on': sensory work in the infantry

Hockey, J. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

There has been little sociological research on work at the sensory level and the result is a largely missing foundational link in the chain of analysis connecting the phenomenological practices of doing work with theories about work. As a first step towards remedying this lacuna the article portrays the sensory work of movement, seeing, hearing, smelling and touching manifested by the occupation of infantryman.

'Technical, but not very....': constructing gendered identities in IT-related employment

Guerrier, Y., Evans, C., Glover, J., Wilson, C. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Changes in the nature of skilled roles in the IT sector were predicted to create new opportunities for women, yet the proportion of women in this sector is falling.This article presents findings from interviews with senior managers in organizations that are attempting to change this situation.There was little evidence from these respondents of a radical reappraisal of the cultural assumptions about jobs and considerable evidence that gendered identities at work were being constructed in traditional ways drawing on women’s perceived ‘soft skills’.‘Hybrid’ roles combining technical and traditionally female skills were seen as the way forward. These were presented as a new way for women to work in a male dominated environment without compromising their gendered identity. The article confirms and develops, in an IT context, the challenges inherent in changing gendered occupational roles and we conclude that traditional expectations and contexts persist.

Leaders of men: women 'managing' in construction

Watts, J. H. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Although women’s experience of working in management has been studied extensively, the particular challenges they face in this role within male-dominated professions merits further attention.This article draws on research into the career experiences of women civil engineers in the UK to critically discuss the possibilities for women to pursue a management pathway within construction. A feminist theoretical framework has been used to analyse data from 31 in-depth interviews with women working in both the consulting and contracting parts of the industry. The study highlights cultural issues of visibility and the presenteeism ethos of the sector as well as the material constraints of construction sites. Women are taking up senior management posts but only in very few numbers.Their success depends on assuming ‘male’ norms and in these roles they straddle a marginal territory that is bordered by exclusion and resistance.

In critical defence of 'emotional labour': refuting Bolton's critique of Hochschild's concept

Brook, P. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Sharon Bolton’s comprehensive critique of Hochschild’s concept of ‘emotional labour’ is flawed by her misinterpretation of its primary form as an aspect of labour power. Consequently, she erroneously argues that emotional labour is commodified only when transformed into commercial service work. However, emotion workers experience commodification of their labour power as wage-labour, irrespective of the nature of their product. Bolton also argues that Hochschild’s notion of workers undergoing a ‘transmutation of feelings’ renders them ‘crippled actors’ in the grip of management control. Hochschild, however, theorizes transmutation as a contradictory and unstable condition albeit in an under-developed form. While Bolton correctly argues for a theory of emotion work that captures the complexity and contradictory nature of the emotional workplace, it is not necessary to reject the emotional labour concept. Rather, it needs to be more fully theorized and integrated within Labour Process Analysis.

Getting to the heart of the emotional labour process: a reply to Brook

Bolton, S. C. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

In an article published in this volume of WES Paul Brook suggests the need to strongly defend Hochschild’s emotional labour concept, as it is claimed that I threaten it with extinction with the development of a new typology of emotion management in the workplace.This article seeks to reply to Brook’s core concerns and deal with issues of substance about the phenomena Brook and I are both interested in. Mainly this paper considers how we conceptualize emotional labour and work, and how might that fit into labour process analysis? In response to the misgivings of Brook, the discussion will reveal why and how there is a need to develop analytically the idea of emotional labour, that the typology introduced in Emotion Management in the Workplace (Bolton, 2005a) offers a nuanced explanatory framework; and that labour process analysis is its theoretical home.

WERS the validity? a critique of the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey of employees

Timming, A. R. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

The Workplace Employment Relations Survey series is a tremendously useful source of data for industrial relations researchers. But, like all large-scale secondary datasets, it has a number of structural design problems. These have not been articulated previously in much depth. Looking at the 2004 instalment of the series, this article aims to offer a critical appraisal of the survey of employees. The structure of the questionnaire and the validity of the items are critiqued. Recommendations are offered for the next edition of the Workplace Employment Relations Survey.

Joint Review: Alison Pullen, Nic Beech, and David Sims Exploring Identity: concepts and Methods Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, {pound}26.99 pbk, (ISBN: 9781403989833) 368 pp. Lin Lerpold, Davide Ravasi, Johan van Rekom and Guillaume Soenen (eds) Organizational Identity in Practice Oxford: Routledge, 2007, {pound}85.00 hbk, {pound}27.99 pbk, (ISBN: 978041539840) 4264 pp

Murray, W. C. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Book Review: Carol Wolkowitz Bodies at Work London: SAGE Publications, 2006, {pound}70.00 hbk, {pound}21.99 pbk, (ISBN: 9780761960645), ix + 224 pp

Purcell, K. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Book Review: Naila Kabeer Mainstreaming gender in social protection for the informal economy London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2008, (ISBN: 978--0-85092--840--2), xviii + 411 pp

Castello, L. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Book Review: Dennis Briscoe, Randall Schuler and Lisbeth Claus International Human Resource Management: policies and Practices for Multinational Enterprises, 3rd Edition London: Routledge, 2008, {pound}29.99 pbk (ISBN: 9780415773515), xix + 397 pp

Gotcheva, N. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Book Reviews: Joseph S. Lee (ed.) The Labour Market and Economic Development of Taiwan Cheltenham: Elgar, 2007, {pound}69.95 hbk, (ISBN: 9781847203427) xxiii + 329 pp

Wei Huang, — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Book Review: Gerry Mooney and Alex Law (eds) New Labour/hard labour? Restructuring and resistance inside the welfare industry The Policy Press, Bristol, 2007, {pound}22.99 pbk, 312 pp. ISBN: 978-1861348333

Stewart, P. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Book Review: Gary Daniels and John McIlroy (eds) Trade Unions in a Neoliberal World: British Trade Unions under New Labour Oxford: Routledge, 2009, {pound}75.00 hbk (ISBN: 9780415426633), xix + 380 pp

Darlington, R. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Book Review: Craig Phelan (ed.) Trade Union Revitalization: Trends and Prospects in 34 Countries Bern: Peter Lang, 2007, {pound}50.00 pbk (ISBN: 9783039110094), 582 pp

Prowse, P. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Book Review: Carl Rhodes and Robert Westwood Critical Representations of Work and Organization in Popular Culture Oxford: Routledge, 2008, {pound}70 hbk (ISBN: 9780415359894), viii + 236 pp

Tai, H.-H. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Books Received

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:11:47 PDT

Trade unions learning representatives: progressing partnership?

Cassell, C., Lee, B. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

The statutory rights given to trade union learning representatives (ULRs) to facilitate and organize learning in the workplace has led to the creation of a new specialized union lay official role. This article investigates how the ULR initiative is facilitating the development of learning partnerships in the workplace. Empirical data is provided from a qualitative study that draws on interviews with full-time trade union officials from a range of unions. It is argued that although the ULR initiative provides opportunities for unions to promote the ideal of learning partnerships within the workplace, rights to learning remain a contested terrain between many employers and unions.

Partnership agreement adoption and survival in the British private and public sectors

Bacon, N., Samuel, P. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

This article assesses the adoption and survival of labour-management partnership agreements in Britain. In contrast to predictions that British employers will avoid partnership agreements, significantly more agreements have been signed than expected with 248 partnership agreements signed between 1990 and 2007. Partnership agreements covered almost ten percent of all British employees in 2007 and one-third of public sector employees. The majority of agreements are now in the public sector as part of government plans to reform the delivery of public services and in the devolved health services of Scotland and Wales as part of the potentially distinctive social democratic approach adopted by the devolved Governments. In contrast to predictions that, once signed, partnership agreements are unlikely to survive, four-fifths (80 percent) of all agreements survived to the close of 2007. Public sector agreements appear particularly robust.

The actuary as fallen hero: on the reform of a profession

Collins, D., Dewing, I., Russell, P. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

This article investigates reform of the actuarial profession following the establishment of the UK Financial Services Authority and as a result of the problems emerging at the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Perceptions on changes to the role of life actuaries are explored using interviews with senior actuaries and accountants. The study complements the few existing academic analyses of actuaries and yet challenges these analyses inasmuch as it locates actuarial work within a broader sociological frame. Thus, the article views the actuarial profession not as a simple collection of traits but as a dynamic socio-historical project that reflects and projects professional knowledge claims.The article concludes that the imposed reforms have rescued the actuarial profession from its failure to reform itself, at least in the short term. The main price to be paid is that regulation of the actuarial profession is firmly locked into the regulatory structures of the accountancy profession.

Professional competition and modernizing the clinical workforce in the NHS

Currie, G., Finn, R., Martin, G. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Located within a debate about changing organizational forms and new workforce roles this article provides an analysis of policy attempts to modernize the healthcare workforce. Theoretically, the article draws upon sociology of professions literature to focus upon competition within and between professions that impacts upon new roles in the NHS for doctors, designed to combine specialist and generalist knowledge and cross organizational and professional boundaries. The article highlights that attempts by policy-makers to reconfigure the clinical workforce may be constrained due to attempts at occupational closure by more powerful professional groups and by associated concerns about professional identities.

WorkChoices, ImageChoices and the marketing of new industrial relations legislation

Bailey, J., Townsend, K., Luck, E. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

This article takes a critical discourse approach to one aspect of the Australian WorkChoices industrial relations legislation: the government's major advertisement published in national newspapers in late 2005 and released simultaneously as a 16-page booklet.This strategic move was the initial stage of one of the largest `information' campaigns ever mounted by an Australian government, costing more than $AUD137 million. This article analyse the semiotic (visual and graphic) elements of the advertisement to uncover what these elements contribute to the message, particularly through their construction of both an image of the legislation and a portrayal of the Australian worker.We argue for the need to fuse approaches from critical discourse studies and social semiotics to deepen understanding of industrial relations phenomena such as the `hard sell' to win the hearts and minds of citizens regarding unpopular new legislation.

Entrepreneurship and institution-building in the case of childminding

Greener, I. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

This article considers institution-building by 'childminder organizers' who rearranged local childminding services away from state-imposed, market-based relationships into localized co-operative arrangements instead. It explores how, through the introduction and enforcement of unified pay and conditions and of a childminding brokering system, institutions for establishing norms of practice were established. It shows how childminder organizers deployed social capital to reform local childminding institutions, even though they appeared to have little from their introduction, and how the new institutions structured relationships between childminders within them.

The knowledge economy and the restructuring of employment: the case of consultants

Donnelly, R. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Knowledge workers are said to be the vanguard of a new era in work and employment, with some even claiming that these workers have been freed from the constraints of organizational employment (Pink, 2001; Reed, 1996). However, many knowledge workers operate as employees and emerging research suggests that the interplay between these workers and organizations generates strong competing tensions. This article proposes that these conflicts lead to a hybridization of the employment relationship.The findings from this case study of a large consultancy firm suggest that these tensions along with organizational context, the form of knowledge work, the seniority of the individual and the level and nature of client influence play an important role in shaping the degree and balance of this hybridization in contemporary bureaucracies.

The vulnerable worker in Britain and problems at work

Pollert, A., Charlwood, A. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

This article investigates the experience of low paid workers without union representation. It reports on the findings of a recent survey of 501 low paid, non-unionized workers who experienced problems at work. The results demonstrate that problems at work are widespread and, despite a strong propensity to take action to try to resolve them, most workers failed to achieve satisfactory resolutions. In the light of these results, we argue that the current UK Government definition of vulnerability is too narrow because our results suggest that a large proportion of low paid, unrepresented workers are at risk of being denied their employment rights. Therefore we question the ability of the UK's current system of predominantly non-unionized employment relations to deliver employment rights effectively and fairly.

The outsourcing of social care in Britain: what does it mean for voluntary sector workers?

Cunningham, I., James, P. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

While recent decades have witnessed a growth in the outsourcing of public services in Britain, the post-1997 UK Labour governments have sought to put in place mechanisms aimed at encouraging long-term collaborative contracting relationships marked by less reliance on cost-based competition. This article explores empirically how far these mechanisms have achieved their aims and thereby acted to protect the employment conditions of staff, and links this exploration to debates concerning the employment implications of organizational reforms within public sectors internationally. It concludes that in terms of bringing income security to the voluntary sector and stability to employment terms and conditions these efforts have been unsuccessful, and consequently casts doubts on more optimistic interpretations of the employment effects of organizational restructuring in the British public sector.

Joint Review: Ulrike Muehlberger Dependent Self-Employment: Workers on the Border between Employment and Self-Employment Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007, {pound}55.00 hbk, xi + 217 pp., 9780230515499. Stella Vettori The Employment Contract and the Changed World of Work Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007, {pound}99.95 hbk, ix + 210 pp., 9780754647546

Walby, K. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Book Review: Patrick McGovern, Stephen Hill, Colin Mills and Michael White Market, Class and Employment Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, $45 pbk, 978 0 19 921338 2, xii + 331pp

Tai, H.-H. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Book Review: Chris Baldry, Peter Bain, Phil Taylor, Jeff Hyman, Dora Scholarios, Abigail Marks, Aileen Watson, Kay Gilbert, Gregor Gall and Dirk Bunzel The Meaning of Work in the New Economy Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, price not stated hbk (ISBN: 9781403934079) 277 pp

Grugulis, I. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Book Review: Sangheon Lee, Deirdre McCann and Jon C. Messenger Working Time Around the World: Trends in Working Hours, Laws and Policies in a Global Comparative Perspective. London and New York: Routledge, 2007, {pound}70.00 hbk (ISBN: 978--0-415--43937--4), xvii + 240 pp

Muckenhuber, J. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Book Review: Gay W. Seidman Beyond the Boycott: Labor Rights, Human Rights, and Transnational Activism New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007, $26.00 hbk (ISBN: 0871547619) xvi + 176 pp

Bartram, D. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Book Review: K. Bronfenbrenner (ed.) Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital through Cross-Border Campaigns. New York: Cornell University Press, 2007, {pound}30.50 hbk, {pound}11.50 pbk (ISBN: 9780801473913), 280 pp

Webster, E. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Book Review: K. Dale and Gibson Burrell The Spaces of Organization and the Organization of Space: Power Identity and Materiality at Work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, {pound}28.99 pbk (ISBN: 0230572685), xvi + 328 pp

Hancock, P. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Book Review: D. Muzio, S. Ackroyd, and J.F. Chanlat (eds) Redirections in the Study of Expert Labour Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007, {pound}55.00 hbk (ISBN: 9781403998705), 272 pp

Hurrell, Scott. A. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Book Review: J. Bennett, B. Crewe and A. Wahidin (eds) Understanding Prison Staff Devon: Willan Publishing, 2008, no price stated hbk, $44.95 pbk (ISBN: 9781843922742), 384 pp

Lumsden, K. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Book Review: Geoffrey Wood and Chris Brewster (eds) Industrial Relations in Africa Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, {pound}60.00 hbk (ISBN: 023001366X), xiii + 264 pp

Rostis, A. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

Books Received

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:39:50 PDT

On the front line

Taylor, P., Warhurst, C., Thompson, P., Scholarios, D. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Career plans and aspirations of recent black and minority ethnic business graduates

Kirton, G. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

While existing data now provides a fairly detailed picture of the state of the graduate labour market, less is known about the career aspirations of graduates, how and why they make the decisions they do. Based on qualitative interviews with black and minority ethnic business graduates, the article investigates the subjective dimensions of the early formation of careers.This approach opens the way for exploring the influence of `race'/ethnicity and to do so, the article employs Jenkins' (2004) sociological framework for conceptualizing identity focusing on how identity works in everyday life through three distinct `orders' — the individual, interaction and institutional. The article argues that career plans and aspirations, while not simply reflective of or determined by `race'/ethnicity, are formulated in the light of self-concepts of ethnicity that interact dialectically with awareness of a racialized, discriminatory labour market.

Lack of sleep, work and the long hours culture: evidence from the UK Time Use Survey

Chatzitheochari, S., Arber, S. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Sleep is functional for individual and societal well-being, with partial sleep deprivation associated with adverse health and safety consequences. Surprisingly, sleep is absent from work—life balance debates and has remained largely under-researched by sociologists. This article examines the relationship of insufficient sleep duration with occupational circumstances and family responsibilities, providing a contribution to the examination of the health consequences of working patterns in the UK. We analyse time use data from 2000, focusing on a sub-sample of workers aged 20—60 years (n = 2882). Nested logistic regression modelling is used to identify the segments of the working population getting a short sleep duration that if sustained may have negative health outcomes. An inverse relationship between working hours and sleep duration is found, which is stronger for men than women. Shift work and social class are also significant predictors of short sleep for men.

Stuck in the middle with who? The class identity of knowledge workers

Marks, A., Baldry, C. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

The coming of the information age has been associated with widespread social transformation and new, or dissolved, class structures. Central to this claim is the emergence of `knowledge workers' including information technology professionals. While previous discussion has focused on the paradox faced by IT workers as both professionals and employees, this article, using empirical data from five software organizations in Scotland, examines their perceptions of class structure and their own class position. It finds that participants clearly retained varying class models of society but expressed conflict between their own self-rated class identity and that which they awarded to their occupation and profession.

Social reproduction as unregulated work

McGrath, S., DeFilippis, J. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

In this article, two cases of paid social reproductive labour performed in the home in New York City are examined: subsidized child care and paid domestic work. Particular attention is paid to the organization of the industries and the experiences of employees in those worksites. It is demonstrated that there continues to be a persistent and wilful exclusion of this work from regulation, as well as systematic violations of those regulations which do govern the work, constituting what the authors term `unregulated work'. It should be noted that the workers paid by the government are not exempt from this finding, but fit very clearly into this larger pattern.This illustrates the problems which arise from the process of transforming domestic spaces, and communities more broadly, into spaces of wage labour in American cities. It further serves as a powerful re-assertion of the denial of the value of`women's work'.

When the working day is through: the end of work as identity?

Doherty, M. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

This article seeks to present a counter-case to the `end of work thesis' advocated by writers such as Beck et al. It argues that work remains a significant locus of personal identity and that the depiction by these writers of endemic insecurity in the workplace is inaccurate and lacks empirical basis. The article draws upon case study data to illustrate how, across a range of workplaces, work remains an importance source of identity, meaning and social affiliation.

Identity work and the `unemployed' worker: age, disability and the lived experience of the older unemployed

Riach, K., Loretto, W. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

This article seeks to explore how older individuals negotiate and manage their self-identity in relation to work while situated without paid employment. After reviewing the current positions of the older unemployed in the UK, noting the substantial overlap between age and disability, we turn our attention to conceptualizing the lived experiences of individuals through exploring `identity work' as a means of understanding a non-working work identity. Based upon focus group interviews, our empirical analysis focuses on key dimensions of participants' identity practice and how they sought to manage the following social processes: imposed identities; crafting working identities; and contesting unfavourable working identities.The conclusion contextualizes the findings against a backdrop of increasing individualistic discourses underpinning approaches to employability, closes with the policy implications arising from this study, and makes suggestions for future research agendas.

Vital conjunctures, shifting horizons: high-skilled female immigrants looking for work

Liversage, A. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Focusing on the underdeveloped field of high-skilled female migration, this article relies on life story interviews with high-skilled women immigrating for reasons other than work.The article conceptualizes migration as a`vital conjuncture', a critical life period in which both different futures and different identities are at stake, and shows how some women — mostly with skills from the natural sciences — were able to retain former professional identities. Other women, facing the threat of becoming `just housewives', found work in the higher-skilled sectors of the labour market in different ways: through re-educating themselves; by becoming `cultural brokers' for other immigrants; or by returning to their home country. Women unable to follow through on one of these four options lost claims to being high-skilled. The analysis contributes to our understanding of both high-skilled female migration and the centrality of identity in constraining or enabling movement within social structures.

The rhetoric of the `good worker' versus the realities of employers' use and the experiences of migrant workers

MacKenzie, R., Forde, C. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

The article examines the attitudes and strategies of a UK based employer as they developed their use of migrant labour in the latest manifestation of a strategy that targeted groups of vulnerable workers with lower labour market power. Management's celebration of the `good worker', based on the stereotyping of the perceived attributes of immigrant employees, resonated with the `business case' and `resource based view' debates within the human resource management literature.Yet terms and conditions of employment remained wedded to the bottom of the labour market. The article integrates analysis of the attitudes of employers with the views, experiences and aspirations of migrant workers. Micro level processes are also located in a wider analytical framework, incorporating the broader socio-economic context and key moments of regulatory intervention.

Before the disaster: health, safety and working conditions at a plastics factory

Taylor, P., Connelly, L. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

On 11 May 2004, nine workers were killed and forty injured in an explosion which devastated the Grovepark Mills plant in Glasgow of ICL Plastics Ltd.This was the worst health and safety incident in Scotland since Piper Alpha in 1988 and the most serious on the Scottish mainland since the 1960s.The narrative presented is that of Laurence Connelly, a production worker with 14 years' service, who left the company only weeks before the disaster. Generated over a series of interviews as part of an independent study of the incident, Laurence's testimony depicts a seriously flawed health and safety regime that left workers exposed to a range of hazards, and recallsTheo Nichols' characterisation of such workplaces as constituting `potentially injurious structure[s] of vulnerability'. It raises questions about the efficacy of regulatory bodies including the UK's Health and Safety Executive and how such workplaces and whistleblowers within them are treated.

Intermediate occupations and the conceptual and empirical limitations of the hourglass economy thesis

Anderson, P. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

It is suggested that an hourglass-shaped occupational structure is emerging in the UK, with the polarization of jobs at top and bottom of the occupational hierarchy. Despite the implicit suggestion that jobs in the middle appear to be disappearing, somewhat paradoxically, there are ever-increasing reports of problems with recruitment and skill across intermediate occupations.This article attempts to address the paradox and propose better ways of conceptualizing what is happening to intermediate occupations within recent structural transformations. It is argued that while the hourglass economy thesis, or a variation of it, best describes recent occupational transformations, it is limited conceptually and empirically. More specifically, it neglects important dimensions of change within intermediate occupations — dimensions that may well provide a more fruitful foundation from which to explore the nature of and developments within these jobs and their broader repercussions.

Review Essay: Reconfiguring gender in late modernity

Roger, M. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Joint Reviews: Low-skilled workers in America: have we shredded their `safety net'?

Gjesfjeld, C. D. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Book Review: Christine von Oertzen The Pleasure of a Surplus Income: Part-time Work, Gender Politics and Social Change in West Germany, 1955--1969 (Translated by Selwyn, P.) Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2007, {pound}50 hbk, (ISBN 1845451791), xi + 238 pp

Schroder, A. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Book Review: Ruth Woodfield What Women Want From Work: Gender and Occupational Choice in the 21st Century Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2007, {pound}50 hbk (ISBN: 9780230549227), ix + 250 pp

Child, S. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Book Review: Ruth Simpson and Patricia Lewis Voice, Visibility and the Gendering of Organizations Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, {pound}26.99 pbk, (ISBN: 1403990573), 112 pp

Antcliff, V. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Book Review: Paul du Gay Organizing Identity: Persons and Organizations `After Theory' London: Sage, 2007, {pound}21.99 pbk (ISBN: 9781412900126), x + 193 pp

Costas, J. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Book Review: Carolyn L. Hsu Creating Market Socialism: How Ordinary People are Shaping Class and Status in China London: Duke University Press, 2007, pbk (ISBN: 9780822340362), 240 pp

Nolan, J. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Book Review: David Denemark, Gabrielle Meagher, Shaun Wilson, Mark Western and Timothy. Philips (eds) Australian Social Attitudes 2: Citizenship, Work and Aspirations Sydney: UNSW Press, University of New South Wales, 2007, {pound}37.50 pbk, (ISBN: 9780868408613), 320 pp

Bednarek, A. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Books Received

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Erratum

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:05:25 PDT

Knowledge and the discourse of labour process transformation: nurses and the case of NHS Direct for England

Smith, C., Valsecchi, R., Mueller, F., Gabe, J. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

This article draws on fieldwork conducted with nurses in two sites of NHS Direct, the English tele-nursing service.Theoretically it has two objectives. Firstly to examine a group of professional workers in order to show how the discourse of work transformation associated with the call centre paradigm interacts in a non-mass, non-commercial public sector setting where workers remain attached to their occupational identity and institutional community which mediate call centre values and rationalities. In relation to this objective, the article shows how call centre values inform NHS Direct but do not produce the same outcomes as in commercial settings. Secondly, the article establishes that nurses, as knowledgeable actors, can control, manipulate and create knowledge, without having their autonomy subordinated to the clinical software they are required to use.The article contributes to the labour process approach of call centre working and debates on knowledge management in the workplace.

`Doing things right', or `doing the right things'? Call centre migrations and dimensions of knowledge

van den Broek, D. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

The nature of call centre `logics' and their predominance in routine commercial areas of the economy underscored much of the early research into call centre operations. Recent regulatory, structural and technological developments in advanced economies underscored subsequent migrations of call centres from the private to the public sector (Glucksman, 2004;Taylor and Bain, 2007). Further call centre migrations have also occurred into more skilled occupations in the public sector. Drawing on published and unpublished research on in-bound call centres operating in social work and nursing in the UK and Australia, this discussion analyses the dual migration of call centres from routine commercial operations to professional public sector services.The following discussion recognizes the viability of cost efficient and customer service dualities, however, given shifts into more complex areas of service delivery, pre-existing norms of professional practice became another important driver of call centre labour processes.

The next division of labour: work skills in Australian and Indian call centres

Russell, B., Thite, M. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

Using a comparative work force survey of Australian and Indian call centre workers, the question of whether the outsourcing of info-service work portends a new division of labour is addressed. Evidence is presented that the work conducted in both Australian and Indian call centres is semi-skilled in nature. Work in India is managed more tightly but also offers greater variety, while in terms of required skills call centre employment is comparable to that which is conducted `in-house' in Australia.The differences that exist are mainly to be found in the labour forces that perform the work. Labour force profiles in business process outsourcing give rise to contradictions that are specific to the Indian context.

Have stethoscope, will travel: contingent employment among physician health care providers in the United States

Alonzo, A. A., Simon, A. B. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

The goal of this study was to describe locum tenens physicians in the context of contingent, nonstandard employment in the US. The target population for this study was 1662 physicians who accepted at least one locum tenens assignment. Response rate for the 50-item questionnaire was 47 percent. One third of respondents considered a locum tenens practice pattern permanent. Female physicians were younger and disproportionately represented in primary care specialism; 64 percent used locum income as sole source of support and were motivated by a need for flexible scheduling. Male locum physicians were older, weighted toward the sub-specialisms and motivated to practice part-time. Overall, locum physicians were satisfied with contingent work. Shifts towards part-time employment among women and a desire for flexibility are changing the nature of physician employment. Locum physicians, as`gold collar' contingent workers are very different from contingent workers in manufacturing and service sectors of the economy.

Preference or constraint? Part-time workers' transitions in Denmark, France and the United Kingdom

Gash, V. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

This article investigates whether women work part-time through preference or constraint and argues that different countries provide different opportunities for preference attainment. It argues that women with family responsibilities are unlikely to have their working preferences met without national policies supportive of maternal employment. Using event history analysis the article tracks part-time workers' transitions to both full-time employment and to labour market drop-out.The article compares the outcome of workers in the UK, a country with little support for maternal employment, relative to Denmark and France, two countries with a long history of facilitating workers' engagement in both paid employment and family life. It finds evidence of part-time constraint in the UK relative to the other two countries.

Idealism and the applied relevance of research on employee participation

Beirne, M. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

Academic research on employee participation has lost some of the radicalism and commitment to progressive practice that was evident through much of the 20th century, becoming more detached and coldly evaluative. While idealistic concerns are still apparent in the regular condemnation of inauthentic participation, the focus of scholarly activity is largely restricted to analysis and explanation, without following through to an explicit logic of practice. Recalling how value commitments influenced the work of earlier generations of theorist practitioners, this article aims to reinvigorate debate about role definitions and the scope of academic contributions. By engaging with recent, though rare, examples of practically focused output in the traditions of socio-technical systems thinking and critical management studies, it argues for a grounded idealism that anchors applied research to local rather than `top driven' insights and priorities.

Role redesign in the National Health Service: the effects on midwives' work and professional boundaries

Prowse, J., Prowse, P. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

This article examines the effects of role redesign on the work and professional boundaries of midwives employed in the National Health Service. It outlines midwives' views and experiences of attempts to change their skills and professional boundaries and, using the concept of closure, considers the implications for the midwifery profession. The findings show that role redesign is changing midwives' work and that the traditional emotional, social and caring skills associated with a midwife are being undermined by the growth in technical work. Importantly, midwives' attempts to use closure have met with limited success and aspects of their work which they enjoy are being delegated to maternity support workers, while midwives' roles expand to include work traditionally performed by doctors. Midwives' concerns about the implications of work redesign for maternity care and their professional boundaries reflect the uncertainty surrounding the profession about the future role and skills of a midwife.

Too much pressure? Retailer power and occupational health and safety in the food processing industry

Lloyd, C., James, S. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

This article examines the impact of supply chain pressures on the UK food processing industry and the implications for occupational health and safety. Based upon case studies in three meat processing plants, the research found that although the number of accidents is declining, little progress has been made in dealing with the widespread ill-health problems associated with largely repetitive and, in some cases, heavy work regimes. Supermarkets play a contradictory role in that they provide incentives to improve health and safety while at the same time their price and delivery demands have a detrimental impact. Despite these intense supply chain pressures, there is some room for `manoeuvrability' in that both employers and workplace trade unions can make a difference to health and safety outcomes.

The nightmare of temporary work: a comment on Fevre

Conley, H. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

"Clawing back time": expansive working time and implications for work--life outcomes in Australian workers

Williams, P., Pocock, B., Skinner, N. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

Joint Review: R.W. Kolba Corporate Retirement Security: Social and Ethical Issues Oxford: Blackwell, 2007, {pound}40.00 hbk (ISBN: 978--1405150--484), 201 pp. H. Pemberton, P. Thane and N.Whiteside Britain's Pensions Crisis: History and Policy Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, {pound}14.99 pbk (ISBN: 978--0197263--853), 280 pp

Grady, J. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

Book Review: Jean-Pierre Durand The Invisible Chain: Constraints and Opportunities in the New World of Employment Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, {pound}55.00 hbk (ISBN: 9--780230--013636), 256 pp

Wolkowitz, C. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

Book Review: Charles N. Darrah, James M. Freeman and J.A. English-Lueck Busier than ever! Why American Families Can't Slow Down Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007, no price stated hbk, $19.95 pbk, (ISBN: 978--0--8047--5492--7), 288 pp

Cuzzocrea, V. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

Book Review: Drew Whitelegg Working the Skies: The Fast-Paced, Disorienting World of the Flight Attendant New York: NewYork University Press, 2007, $70 hbk, $20 pbk (ISBN: 978--0--8147--9408--1), xi + 290 pp

Hodson, R. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

Book Review: P. Pangsapa Textures of Struggle: The Emergence of Resistance among Garment Workers in Thailand. New York: Cornell University Press, 2007, {pound}27.95 hbk, {pound}9.50 pbk (ISBN: 978--0--8014--7376--0), 232 pp

Atzeni, M. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

Book Review: Pierre Cahuc and Andre Zylberberg The Natural Survival of Work: Job Creation and Job Destruction in a Growing Economy Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006, {pound}17.95 hbk, (ISBN: 0--262--03357--7) 165 pp

Watts, J. H. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST

Books received

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:09:45 PST