SKILLS,THE GENDER WAGE GAP,AND CITIES

This paper links gender wage gaps with the urban wage premium. First, the study documents gender wage gaps are narrower in larger U.S. metropolitan areas in 2000 and 2010. Skill agglomerations are then considered to explain this. Specifically, if men and women employ heterogeneous skills, and these skills have differential productivities across city sizes, agglomerative forces may differentially reward men and women. Occupational data show that women are concentrated in jobs relatively more intensive in interactive and cognitive skills, while men are comparatively in physical skill‐intensive jobs. Decomposing the gender wage gap shows that explanatory factors (education, skills, and location) predict women would outearn men. Instead, agglomerative skill returns account for majority of the gap. These estimates suggest that even as women employ skills rewarded in agglomeration economies, they benefit less from agglomerations than men, resulting in the observed gap.     

Revisiting the Skills Agenda: A Complicated Geography

This paper revisits the skills agenda and suggests that in light of shifts from supply-side to demand-led provision within the UK higher education sector, there is a need to think more critically about the role and place of skills within university curricula. It suggests that if universities are to respond effectively to sector changes, then the increasing focus on embedding employability and skill development within curricula needs to be accompanied by consideration of how skills are understood, negotiated and given meaning at the curricula level. Consequently, this paper assesses how ‘place’ affects our understandings of skills; it moves on to address the relationship between skills and the development of student personality, before concluding with an exploration of the performance of skills, which questions what we actually mean when we talk about skills.     

Structural Unemployment in the Western Balkans: Challenges for Skills Anticipation and Matching Policies

Rapid economic restructuring has led to the emergence of serious skill gaps in many transition economies. Such changes have been especially pronounced in the countries of the Western Balkans due to the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and the subsequent reorientation of previous patterns of economic activity. Structural unemployment has increased to high levels, yet the education and training systems have failed to adapt to the needs for new skills in service sectors and sectors subject to global technological change. This article investigates the use of various skills anticipation methods to inform education and training policy in the region. It argues that the information on skill gaps gathered through these methods are not being used effectively to address skill mismatch, and that existing supply-led matching policies have failed to meet the challenge of high levels of structural unemployment. An alternative demand-led approach is identified, which relies on more decentralized methods to place effective power and influence in the hands of users, whether employers, employees, job-seekers or discouraged workers. It is suggested that this would provide a more appropriate model for the improvement of workforce skills in the Western Balkan countries.     

“That type of thing does give you a boost”: Control,Self‐valorisation,and Autonomist Worker Copings in Call Centres

There are growing concerns over current and future incarnations of routine work, based on the rise of technology and its perceived impact on skill requirements in the labour market. Drawing on Autonomist Marxist (AM) literature, the following article demonstrates how and why workers are likely to play a role in maintaining meaningful forms of work. Complimenting labour process research, which focuses on the role of worker “resistance” in the workplace, we develop a more nuanced perspective on worker agency and the human potential to create meaning through self‐governance in even the most unlikely service work encounters. Taking resilience and reworking agencies as subtle forms of “self‐valorisation”, we show how different spaces of routine work are mobilised for reproducing human connections and values in ways which act in opposition to management’s control and the evolution of unpleasant work environments.     

AGGLOMERATION,URBAN WAGE PREMIUMS,AND COLLEGE MAJORS

The aim of this paper is to examine the manner and extent to which worker skill type affects agglomeration economies that contribute to productivity in cities. I use college majors to proxy for skill types among workers with a bachelor's degree. Workers with college training in information‐oriented and technical fields (e.g., STEM areas such as engineering, physical sciences, and economics) are associated with economically important within‐field agglomeration economies and also generate sizeable spillovers for workers in other fields. In contrast, within‐field and across‐field spillovers for workers with college training in the arts and humanities are much smaller and often nonexistent. While previous research suggests proximity to college‐educated workers enhances productivity, these findings suggest that not all college‐educated workers are alike. Instead, positive spillover effects appear to derive mostly from proximity to workers with college training in information‐oriented and technical fields.     

Landscape interpretation with augmented reality and maps to improve spatial orientation skill

Landscape interpretation is needed for navigating and determining an orientation: with traditional cartography, interpreting 3D topographic information from 2D landform representations to get self-location requires spatial orientation skill. Augmented reality technology allows a new way to interact with 3D landscape representation and thereby facilitate the orientation of oneself in respect to the environment to determine goal location. This paper analyses if AR spatial landform improves the learner’s spatial orientation skill measured with the perspective taking/spatial orientation test by paired sampled t-tests. A workshop was conducted with 123 university students (63 treatment group, 60 control group) in which students had to identify locations and routes based on the interpretation of the relief, represented by AR. Results of the workshop showed an improvement in spatial orientation skill of 20.14 degrees average gain in the treatment group. Students who were not subject to the workshop (control group) did not improve their spatial orientation skill. The possibility of using free AR three-dimensional applications and exploit the potential of tablets and smart phones, which are widespread today, makes it possible to design and implement strategies for the development of spatial skills in formal teaching in the scope of Geography in higher education.     

MIGRATION,SKILL FORMATION,AND THE WAGE STRUCTURE*

ABSTRACT We analyze the impacts of migration and of labor market integration on the distribution of skills and the wage structure in both the short and the long run. To do so, we develop a framework where workers have heterogeneous skills and where in‐migration expands the range of available skills in the economy. In the short run, this expansion leads to productivity gains, which may more than offset the negative endowment effects of a larger labor supply so that all workers may be better off. In the long run, in‐migration impacts wages further by altering the workers' incentives to acquire skills, thereby affecting the wage structure indirectly by changing the economy's skill composition. Since the short and the long‐run effects of in‐migration on wages may differ, compositional changes may be an important element to take into consideration. A numerical illustration calibrated on U.S. data suggests that the immigration of skilled workers negatively affects the incentives for domestic skill formation, thereby suggesting that endowment effects dominate externalities. We finally extend the model to cope with the simultaneous impacts that migration and skill formation have on the host and the source region, and we show that more migration increases wage disparities and the skill gap across regions.     

传授、规训与共享:非正规旅游经营者的群体学习与知识流动

不同于精英阶层获取知识的正式教育模式，以非正规群体为代表的社会基层群体更多依靠非正式教育渠道实现知识技能的学习。本文将广州电视塔周边的非正规旅游摄影经营者作为研究对象，在个体访谈和非参与式观察的基础上采用质性研究方法探究其知识技能学习与管理的过程。研究发现非正规旅游经营群体的知识学习表现出明显的集体行为特征，知识在群体组织网络中高度依靠关系导向实现流动共享，并且在群体内部形成了“核心-次核心-边缘”的等级体系，知识的流动又被作为维护等级权威的规训管理手段反作用于群体组织。此外，群体通过知识技能的标准化来增强集体的共享互惠效果，形成非正规旅游经营群体“自下而上”的群体学习与知识流动的有力保障。     

DESTRUCTION AND REALLOCATION OF SKILLS FOLLOWING LARGE COMPANY CLOSURES

This paper analyzes what happens to redundant skills and workers when large companies close down and whether their skills are destroyed or reallocated. The analysis is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative data of the closure of four companies. Getting a job in a skill‐related industry or moving to a spinoff firm leads to skill reallocation. Thus, the result depends on regional idiosyncrasies such as industry structure and urbanization. If local policy makers and the owners exert a coordinated effort, it is possible to create success stories of less skill destruction in urban as well as peripheral regions.     

Does the Structure of an Urban System Affect Income Disparities?

In this paper I analyze the impact of basic training and specialized training on the distribution of skill, income disparity, social welfare, and on the structure of a decentralized specialized city system. This is done in a spatial general-equilibrium model of a closed economy producing a single consumption good. The economy is populated with a continuum of unskilled labor with potential heterogeneous ability. The only consumption good can be produced by specialized technology or by general technology. Specialized technology requires specialized training that enables each worker to transform his potential ability into productivity. General technology requires basic training that enables all workers, independent of their potential ability, to produce the good at a constant marginal product. In this framework I show that such an equilibrium exists uniquely and is efficient. Then I characterize the conditions that lead to a different distribution of skills, a different system of cities, and generate income disparity endogenously. Thus, the paper presents a link among income disparities, social welfare, and the structure of an urban system that is new to this literature.     

南昌航空大学课外活动网球俱乐部创建的初步研究

本文以体育专业网球专项学生为主体,创建课外网球俱乐部,使喜欢网球的在校生在课外活动中技术有指导性的提高,体育专业的学生在做教练的过程中,专业知识和技能得到了发挥和展示。在创建过程中不仅为体育专业学生的未来发展培养创新精神和实践能力,也为体育专业的发展提供一些可借鉴的经验。在掌握课外活动网球俱乐部创建的步骤及开展优势的同时,也为高校体育项目俱乐部的创建及开展提供参考性得意见。     

WORKER OWNERSHIP AND PUBLIC POLICY

This article examines the development of expanding support for worker ownership in the United States. The authors provide a brief review of the various types of legislation, both at the state and federal levels, drafted on worker ownership. They also provide a discussion of the problems in establishing and maintaining a worker-owned firm such as worker access to the idea of worker ownership, time to evaluate, discuss, and learn about the proposal, and judge if it is applicable to their situation. Other problems include training workers for new skills, such as management, and improving productivity. Finally, the authors present various requirements for implementation of wide-scale workers ownership. The requirements include consulting groups which can help workers design, establish, and evolve participation in worker-owned firms, the development of worker ownership programs in all unions to identify ownership opportunities, and the development of federations of worker-owned firms to identify common problems, work to loosen credit sources and even evolve their own banks for capital.     

A Methodology for Estimating Returns to Skills for Canadian Provinces and U.S. States

Differences in both regional skill prices and skill mix can explain interregional variations in wage distributions. We control for interregional differences in skill mix that permit us to compute key parameters of regional wage distributions including regional returns to skills. In addition to setting forth the methods in detail, we also present estimates for 48 U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces. For both males and females, we find that regional mean wages (with controls for skills mix) in the U.S. and Canada are similar, but that the returns to skills are systematically higher in the U.S.     

Women,skills and divisions of labour in the Scottish electronics industry

This paper describes the skill and gender structure of the Scottish electronics industry. Scottish electronics had proportionally fewer high‐skill employees and more female employees than British electronics. Female electronics workers in Scotland experienced greater occupational segregation than did females in Britain. Across the various electronics subsectors, the level of skills and the degree of feminization varied widely. Scottish electronics subsectors were not segregated into overlapping skill and gender divisions of labour. With few exceptions, increasing relative feminization of Scottish electronics subsectors was related to employment expansion; decreasing relative feminization to employment decline.     

SKILL POLARIZATION IN LOCAL LABOR MARKETS UNDER SHARE‐ALTERING TECHNICAL CHANGE

This paper considers the “share‐altering” technical change hypothesis in a spatial general equilibrium model where individuals have different levels of skills. Building on a simple Cobb‐Douglas production function, our model shows that the implementation of skill‐biased technologies requires a sufficient proportion of highly educated individuals. Moreover, when technical progress disproportionately replaces middle‐skill jobs, the local distribution of skills will exhibit “fat‐tails,” where the proportion of both highly skilled and low‐skilled workers increases. These and several other predictions of the model are consistent with recent existing evidence, and avoid some major criticism against the “canonical” CES framework.     

历史层累视角下的地方形成机制探讨——以北京东高村镇为例

在工业空间的演替过程中,地方是如何形成的?这是地理学探究的问题。本文结合多琳·梅西地方历史层累理论,以北京平谷东高村镇为例,采用访谈方法,调查当地不同时期和同时期内各种动力对该镇地方性的影响。结论表明:资本作用和提琴技艺传承的能动性是决定东高村镇是否保持地方性的关键。本文认为:第一,一个地方历史层累的过程可以视为资本在当地的积累过程。第二,经济层与文化层的互动,以及多元主体的进入,使得原本不构成地方性的制琴技艺,试图转化成为地方性知识传承创新系统。第三,地方还由层内不同行动者与资本结构的博弈产生,一旦行动者无法突破资本结构的束缚,将导致地方性削弱。     

Spaces of Labor Activism, Mexican‐American Women and the Farm Worker Movement in South Texas Since 1966

This paper studies the farm worker unionization experience and the historical development of Mexican‐American women's activism in South Texas to elaborate more precisely the relationship among socio‐spatial practices, political activism and labor's geography. Drawing upon archival documents and interviews, the paper describes how Mexican‐American farm workers used public space for political activity; however, radical unionization efforts also domesticized other spaces for women's activities. The paper chronicles how Mexican‐American women in South Texas transformed the farm worker center from a "domesticated space" into one of empowerment. In short, women in the union made the farm worker center into a space that challenged both the class‐based structure of larger South Texas society and masculinist practices within the larger farm worker movement. The analysis advances the imperative to better understand how workers "make space" to ensure their own survival. The paper advances the study of labor geography by arguing that working class mobilization reconstitutes dynamic social geographies within laboring communities themselves. In arguing this point, the paper illustrates the limitations of activism based solely on the use of public space and argues for more attention to the significance of other socio‐political spaces for labor mobilization.     

Spatial skill concentration agglomeration economies

Using the Brazilian census and administrative panel data, the present paper provides evidence that the spatial concentration of analytical skills generates positive wage externalities for all workers in the local labor market. We rely on shift‐share instrumental variables to overcome the endogeneity of skill concentrations. The observed externality is independent from the classical market size economies. The estimates are robust to geography, institutions and workers' sorting on unobservable abilities.     

Teaching Geography to Non-traditional Students: Inducting,nurturing and retaining them

The Department of Environmental and Biological Studies at Liverpool Hope University College recruits an above-average number of students who could be classified as 'non-traditional'. Many are mature and many have gained entry to higher education via routes other than A level. In addition, and increasingly, many have selected or been allocated to the first-year geography modules with little or no experience of geography education. These students undertake a carefully structured programme of small-group teaching, designed to induct and train them in the practices of higher education and through which they are introduced to key geographical concepts. This paper highlights some of the issues arising from teaching non-traditional students and identifies as case studies elements of the programme, which support the development of students' skills and geographical understanding.     

浅谈小学德育工作的切入点

从点滴抓起,从培养小学生良好的行为习惯抓起,无疑是学校德育工作的切入点。要把握好这个切入点去卓有成效地开展学校的德育工作,必须着眼于学生健康人格的塑造,必须着力于学生言谈举止的规范。营造出一个良好的育人环境,为学生的今后健康成长与全面发展奠定坚实的基础,这是我们小学教育工作者的使命所在。