Career paths and mobility in the Swedish hospitality sector

ABSTRACT

How career paths are interpreted and conceptualised by hospitality workers and industry representatives remains underexplored in current literature. In this paper, we highlight and discuss sector-specific and contextual factors that influence the possibility of establishing a career within the Swedish hospitality sector. The paper uses interviews with hotel managers, who describe and discuss motivations and choices made throughout their own careers and interviews with young (former) seasonal hospitality workers who describe and reflect on their future plans and work-life experience. Additional data are derived through observations at national seminars and meetings for representatives from the Swedish tourism and hospitality industry, where issues of competence and careers were discussed. The findings indicate that the shaping of career paths within the hospitality sector is influenced by two normative and discursively produced ‘truths’ about career paths in the hospitality sector: the importance of internal knowledge transfer and the importance of high mobility. These narratives impose expectations on individuals to be mobile, to change jobs frequently and to work their way from the bottom-up within the industry, and are based on a presumption of a diversified and dense local hospitality labour market. However, since the conditions are different due to contextual, geographical features of labour market size and structure, attractiveness of places, etc., these expectations are difficult to fulfil in places other than in larger urban areas. These normative assumptions of what a successful hospitality career is also have consequences for the development of the hospitality sector as external influences of competence from other sectors and higher education are not seen as valuable, which makes the sector self-contained and not open to external, potentially innovative knowledge.     

Demolition of Chengzhongcun and social mobility of Migrant youth: a case study in Beijing

ABSTRACT

Since the late 1980s, millions of poor and low-income rural migrant workers migrating to Chinese metropolises with their children have congregated in chengzhongcun (villages in the city) for low-cost housing. Drawing on data from a 14-month participant observation in one chengzhongcun in Beijing, we critically explore the potential impact of urban expansion on social mobility of migrant youth. We argue that the uncertainty and chaos connected with looming demolition result in substandard schooling and business closures for migrant parents, leading to the stagnant mobility of migrant youth. Expanding the social hierarchy pyramids, we argue that eliminating chengzhongcun, a space that creates the possibility of climbing the social ladder, hampers the social mobility of migrant youth in the context of the rigid class structure in the late-socialist China. This research re-examines the goals of the demolition of chengzhongcun and advances our understanding by analyzing the prospects of disadvantaged migrant youth during and after the demolition process.     

The safe spaces ‘in-between’ – plays,performance and identity among young ‘second generation’ Somalis in London

ABSTRACT

The article elaborates on how young UK-born self-identifying Somalis use performance to create ‘liminal’ spaces that allow them to explore and express the often contradictory registers of self and belonging through play and the carnivalesque. The plays they write, practise and perform transform community places into ‘safe spaces’ that open and invite dialogue on the intergenerational conflicts they experience around identity and expected behaviour. Far from being fictions, in making visible the liminality in the daily lives, these young people communicate ‘the reality behind the role playing mask’ [Turner, Victor. 1982. From Ritual to Theatre – The Human Seriousness of Play. New York: PAJ, 155]. This research is based on 6 months ethnographic research with the Mustaqbal youth group based in London. It contributes to rethinking ‘safe space’ by illuminating how young people use the ‘stage’ to express elements of their lives they are otherwise unable to voice.     

The Global Economic Crisis and Unemployment in China

Two noted academic specialists on labor economics and population statistics of China examine the impacts of the global economic crisis of 2008-2009 on the job security of urban workers, and the ensuing repercussions for the Chinese society and economy. More specifically, they probe and determine the magnitude of urban unemployment in China in 2008 and 2009 as it appears to be reported in different segments of the country's immense labor market. A particular focus of the paper is on differences in unemployment among two groups of workers (those with urban hukou vis-à-vis rural migrant workers) with significantly different sets of rights and privileges, as well as levels of job security. The authors also provide an estimate of the urban unemployment rate in 2009 that differs from the official rate. They argue that measures toward further integration of rural and urban labor markets and reducing natural unemployment are ultimately more beneficial than short-term interventions to adjust cyclical joblessness stemming from the global economic crisis and recession.     

Chinese Engagement with Africa: The Case of Madagascar

Using field work in Madagascar as the foundation for a case study, two U.S.-based geographers examine the complex relations developing between many African nations and the Chinese government as well as ethnic Chinese citizens and guest-workers who live and work in Africa. The study investigates changes in the perceptions of Malagasy citizens of the Chinese presence and long-term effects of Chinese investments in Madagascar's economy. Although the Chinese living in Madagascar tend to be viewed as "cut from the same cloth," the study demonstrates that there is considerable differentiation depending on the length of residence, rates of intermarriage with Malagasy citizens, and feelings toward the recent "economic" immigrants and guest workers. The paper integrates archival data with interviews involving recent Chinese guest-workers living in Antananarivo in 2011 as well as results of a systematic survey of most active French-language "blogs" dedicated to Sino-Malagasy relations, with the goal of presenting a comprehensive account of past and present Chinese influences and behavior in Madagascar.     

‘English ain't English in the Australian workplace’: a narrative analysis of Korean migrant women's labour market experiences

Drawing upon human capital theory, this article examines the labour market experiences of Korean migrant women in Australia. Narrative analysis reveals that Korean migrant women experience post-entry barriers in the Australian labour market. These barriers are not only attributable to their English language skills but also to their cultural background and personal orientations' aspirations. This article finds that migrants whose language, cultural and personal orientation and academic qualifications are similar to those of the dominant culture tend to feel less disadvantaged in the labour market. The narrative analysis allows Korean migrant women to describe symbolically in their own words their labour market experiences and the decisions, factors and emotions that constitute their experiences. The findings reinforce an increasing call for incorporating the cultural and personal aspects of human capital (beyond linguistic proficiency) into an understanding of the post-entry labour market experiences of migrant workers in their adopted country.     

近代贵州工厂女工区域性特点探析

近代以来,随着贵州资本主义工商业的发展,在轻工业部门开始出现女工。贵州女工分布不均且工资不高,和全国女工相比既有共性,又有其独特的一面。贵州女工的发展对贵州社会产生了深远的影响,使贵州社会结构发生了深刻的变化,促进了城市经济的发展,使贵州妇女的社会地位发生了改变。     

Geography and the civil engineer

EUROPE

The Settlements and Roads of Scotland: a Study in Human Geography. By Grace Meiklejohn, M. A. Edinburgh : Oliver and Boyd, 1927. Price 12s. 6d.

The Faroe Islands. By G. H. Harris, M.A., Vicar of Acock's Green. Birmingham : Cornish Brothers Ltd., 1927. Price 4s. 6d. net.

Things seen in Norway. By S. C. Hammer, M.A., University of Oslo. London : Seeley, Service and Co. Ltd., 1927. Price 3s. 6d.

Cities of Sicily. By Edward Hutton. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1926. Price 10s. 6d. net

Franciscan Italy. By Harold Elsdale Goad. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1926. Price 15s.

ASIA

A Year among the Persians. By Edward Granville Browne. With a Memoir by Sir E. Denison Ross. Cambridge : University Press, 1926. Price 25s. net.

China and the Nations. By Wong Ching‐Wai. Translated and edited by I‐Sen Teng and John Nind Smith. London : Martin Hopkinson and Co. Ltd., 1927. Price 7s. 6d.

Ceylon: The Land of Eternal Charm. By Ali Foad Toubla. London : Hutchinson and Co., 1926. Price 21s.

Natural Man: A Record from Borneo. By Charles Hose, Hon. Sc.D. (Cantab.). London : Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1926. Price 30s.

East of Siam. By Harry A. Franck. London : T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1926. Price 16s.

A Griffin in China: Fact and Legend in the Everyday Life of the Great Republic, By Genevieve Wimsatt. New York and London : Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1927. Price 12s. 6d.

AFRICA

The Cliff Dwellers of Kenya. By J. A. Massam, District Commissioner, Kenya. London : Seeley, Service and Co. Ltd., 1927. Price 21s. net.

Denatured Africa. By Daniel W. Streeter. New York and London : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1926. Price 10s. 6d.

Out in the Blue. By Vivienne de Watteville, F.R.G.S. With a Preface by the Hon. William Ormsby‐Gore, M.P., P.O. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1927. Price 18s. net.

AMERICA

Brazil after a Century of Independence. By Herman G. James. London : Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1925. Price 17s. net.

The Land of Magellan. By W. S. Barclay, F.R.G.S. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1926. Price 12s. 6d. net.

AUSTRALASIA

Life and Laughter ‘midst the Cannibals. By Clifford W. Collinson, F.R.G.S. London : Hurst and Blackett Ltd., 1927. Price 18s.

GENERAL

The Pulse of Progress. By Ellsworth Huntington. New York and London : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926. Price 21s. net.

EDUCATIONAL

Adventures of Exploration. Book V. Australia and New Zealand. By Sir John Scott Keltie, LL.D., and Samuel Carter Gilmour, F.R.G.S. London: George Philip and Son Ltd. Price 2s. 3d.     

美国技术移民政策综述

论文从美国移民政策的历史沿革、机构设置、特点,尤其是以技术移民政策方面美国吸引外国人才的制度优势为着眼点,综合梳理了美国技术移民政策的相关研究成果,包括最新的调查报告及统计数据等。认为美国的移民政策始终基于国家利益和经济发展的需要,经历了自由开放、限制移民和高度选择三个阶段。美国虽然是世界上最大的移民接受国和技术人才引进国,但它的移民构成特点仍以家庭关系移民为主。它通过永久居留类职业签证、临时居留类职业签证、临时居留类的留学生和学者签证等三种签证类型吸引人才,并且建立了劳工证制度、配额制、担保制、优越的科研条件等多制度配合的吸纳人才体系。     

The “Corona Warriors”? Community health workers in the governance of India's COVID-19 response

India's nearly 1-million strong band of quasi-volunteer accredited social health activists (ASHAs) have been key actors in government efforts to control COVID-19. Utilizing a nationalist rhetoric of war, ASHAs were swiftly mobilized by the government in March 2020 as ‘COVID warriors’ engaged in tracking illness, disseminating information, and caring for quarantined individuals. The speed at which ASHAs were mobilized into mentally and physically grueling labor was all the more stunning given these minimally paid community health workers have long been seen to have low morale given their precarious, informalized work arrangements. Building on work examining the spatialities of global health governance alongside literature on geographic contingency, this paper explores the ways that nationalist COVID-19 war rhetoric promulgated from Delhi worked as a technology of health governance to propel ASHAs into certain forms of action, yet also opened up spaces of potentiality for them to reimagine their relationship to both the state and the communities they serve. In particular, in our analysis of in-depth telephone interviews with ASHA workers in the state of Himachal Pradesh, we find that their hailing as COVID warriors inspired patriotic calls to duty and legitimized their (long over-looked) roles as critical governance actors, yet also was subject to resistance and reworking due to a combination of institutional histories, local politics, as well as happenstantial everyday encounters of ASHA work. The precarious employment of ASHAs – in terms of basic remuneration as well as the great on-the-job risks that they have faced – underscores both the fragile nature of India's health governance system as well as possible political movements for its renewal. We conclude by calling for geographers to give greater attention to community health care workers as a key window into understanding the uneven ways in which health systems are made manifest on the ground, and their ability to respond to citizens' healthcare needs – both in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.