Labour internationalism and the public sector: The case of the Public Services International

This paper sets out the need to conceptualise labour internationalism in the public sector, given its distinct political character and orientation. Our analysis adds to a literature on labour internationalism that hitherto has mainly depicted strategies of unions in private sector industries. To better understand the reasons for upscaling trade union efforts in a sector where the main employer remains the institutional apparatus of the nation-state, we have interviewed office bearers in the most important global union federation organising across different public services – Public Services International (PSI) – asking them to explain their political and strategic considerations. We find that the distinct role of the nation state as an employer, the public character of work and specific relations between public sector workers and the users of services, are all determinants in shaping labour transnationalism in the public sector. This in turn leads to a greater emphasis on alliances with social movements and oppositional campaigns, representing a radical global political unionism. Neoliberal austerity and privatisation measures have reinforced the importance of such political relationships and power, but also challenged their organisational foundations. However, alliance-building is not PSI's sole strategy. We find that office bearers at the transnational level combines three strategic rationales through orientations that we have labelled the political-institutional, the movement-popular and the industrial-corporate. We also suggest that employing these sensitising concepts can bolster the scholarly treatment of understanding labour internationalism and its strategy repertoires more generally.     

Film production incentives,employment transformation and domestic expenditure in South Africa: visualizing subsidy effectiveness

In 2004 the South African Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) introduced a Film and Television Production Rebate Programme. In order to qualify for the rebate, certain criteria have to be met including success in job creation and skills development within the industry, alongside a particular focus on the percentage of ‘historically disadvantaged individuals’ employed. This study sets out the issues associated with evaluating success in meeting these various criteria and is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study to apply multi-criteria visualization techniques to inform the evaluation of public subsidy effectiveness. The ‘PROMETHEE’ method is applied and apart from presenting project performance in a visually intuitive manner, the approach helps to clarify patterns of relative success, show where policy objectives are competing, and to identify project exemplars for more efficiently guiding future public support in the sector.     

Exploring subject positions and multiple temporalities through an Iranian migrant mother's family photograph albums

In this article, I draw on a research study of one Iranian migrant mother's generation of selves through her material configuration of her personal photograph albums and through our verbal reading of her photographs. The research engages in a visual-material feminist ethnographic approach, and is informed by the work of Gillian Rose and the understanding that family photographs are a means by which women negotiate subject positions. In this article, I discuss an unexpected finding of my research, the significance of multiple temporalities in a migrant mother's production of selves. The photo album practices of the participant mother of this study, ‘Parvin’, depart from the common social convention of mothers arranging their photograph albums to chart family growth following the model of milestones occurring over linear developmental time. Parvin does not limit herself to linear developmental time, but rather she mixes up photographs in her post-migration family albums to generate multiple temporalities woven together by an enveloping ‘mixed’ time. Drawing on both Julia Kristeva and Homi Bhaba's theories of temporality and the subject, I suggest that Parvin produces subject positions for self and family through a continual interweaving of a multitude of pasts into the present and through a subsuming of milestones within cyclical family time. Further, I suggest that through her generation of multiple temporalities, Parvin produces the subject position of ‘accommodating mother’. Finally, I highlight the potential afforded by considering the temporal and the spatial together in studies of migrant identity.     

Dividing Societies: The Socio‐Political Spatial Implications of Restructuring in Australia

This paper reviews trends over the last two to three decades in the socio‐economic divisions in Australia, focusing on their spatial dimensions. It provides empirical evidence that our society is dividing on multiple dimensions – including shifts in industry and occupational structure, income distribution, the incidence of poverty. And it demonstrates that the differentiations across space in socio‐economic phenomena also have complex multiple dimensions, which are explained inadequately by a ‘city/bush’ dichotomy popularly espoused by politicians and reported in the media. Processes of globalisation, economic restructuring and employment shifts, and changing patterns of population movement are combining to create stark differentials between places both within the major cities as well as in regional Australia. As demonstrated by the recent One Nation phenomenon, voter backlash is strong, and it too has specific spatial characteristics.     

关于澳门历史的几个问题

目前历史学界在澳门历史的分期、定位和葡占澳门的特点等问题上存在一些不同的意见。作者在本文中依据历史事实,对上述问题提出了自己的看法。     

Father and Ford revisited: gender, class and employment change in the new millennium

In the last decade in Britain the combination of women's continued entry into the labour market and the restructuring of welfare provision has exacerbated the growing demands on individuals and households in their allocation of time between productive and reproductive labour and the contradictions between the two spheres, as well as time and income inequalities between the rich and the poor. Since the election of the new Labour government in 1997, the concept of work/life balance, as well as a range of other policies to address these divisions have been introduced. This paper addresses the nature of the changes in the last decade, through the perspective of gender and class divisions and critically assesses key debates about the changing nature of working life as well as current policy provisions to support the increasing individualization of employment.     

中国城市规模分布类型及其形成机制研究

本文应用位序-规模模型分析了全国及26个省域单元城市规模分布特征,并将其分为8种分布类型,提出了城市数量、经济规模、工业化水平是推动城市规模分布类型演进的最活跃因素。     

魏晋南朝时期的秩级

自官品出现之初,秩级和官品便不对应,终魏晋南朝之世一直如此,并且秩级逐步简化,到陈时仅剩8个秩级。魏晋南朝时期,秩级与官品是并行不悖的两个系列,秩级来源于先秦的稍食和月俸,与职务的繁简、职责的轻重相联系,具有职位分等的色彩,叙定同一系统内的职位等级;官品来源于汉代的朝位制度,具有品位分等的色彩,叙定官员身份地位的高下,规定官员所享有的权利或特权。二者相互结合,共同叙定同一部门内职位和官员身份的高低。魏晋南朝官员的俸禄与具体的职位相联系,既与秩级和官品有关,也与职类有关,没有一个皆准的规律。     

基于地铁刷卡数据的城市通勤与就业中心吸引范围研究

地理时空大数据为通勤行为和城市空间结构研究带来了新的机遇。基于一周地铁刷卡数据,采用出行链（trip-chain）数据模型对用户一天的出行进行描述,建立通勤识别规则,识别出上海市域的职住空间和通勤格局。上海市域平均通勤时间为35 分钟,通勤主流向是向心流,说明上海市域依旧表现出强单中心结构。市域就业单中心与居住郊区化并存,中心城区多核心就业已经形成。在此基础上进一步分析中心城区13 个就业（次）中心的吸引范围、模式以及在整个市域的影响力,讨论多中心发展对职住平衡与通勤消减的意义。结果表明：多中心发展有利于城市通勤的合理分配,虽然次中心的平均通勤时间不一定减少,但是就业（次）中心已经表现出对邻近地区的通勤吸引和对主中心的通勤分流。