The Work‐Life Balance: Geographical Perspectives on Lifestyle,Leisure, Stuff and the FuturePresidential Address to the Institute of Australian Geographers’ Conference,Hobart, July 20081

The work‐life balance is a pressing social issue in Australia but one on which geographers have been relatively silent. Predictions of ‘a leisure society’ have not been fulfilled. Instead, work has come to dominate life in Australia and in many other advanced western societies. The reasons for this are explored. Materialism is at the heart of the work‐life imbalance. There is, however, evidence of a changing work ethic and the emergence of leisure‐orientated lifestyles, albeit with ‘leisure’ interpreted as ‘freedom to’ undertake gratifying activity rather than simply ‘freedom from’ obligatory commitments. Despite the supposed homogenising influence of globalisation and the internet, place will become increasingly important in a leisure‐orientated lifestyle‐led future.     

In the front line: women,work and new spaces of labour politics in Poland

Pessimistic accounts of women's lives in post-communist Poland view women as powerless and passive victims of the transformation process. In contrast, this article argues that while political change and the restructuring of the economy have closed down some spaces of articulation and organisation, others have opened up. The article focuses on the way in which women in their spheres of work are shaping and actively resisting change through new organisations and individual and collective actions, which are in some ways a break with the past, but in other ways build on previous forms of activity. The work draws on qualitative research conducted over the last decade across Poland. This has coupled extensive interviews with women workers, national and regional trade union leaders, activists and feminists in a number of major Polish cities with reviews of Polish media and policy. We examine the economic and ideological context in which these new articulations are taking place, against the background of Poland's post-war communism and the rise of opposition movements. We look at the neoliberal restructuring of the economy and the implications for women within the labour market and in their domestic lives. In particular, we examine initiatives from below in workplace organisation, by focusing on new unions and new actions in the public sector, and the beginnings of organisation in the new areas of the economy such as supermarkets. Finally, we look at how women are articulating their interests beyond formal workplaces. We conclude that we should be optimistic about these new spaces of activism. While some are well established, others are embryonic but provide a strong foundation on which women can increase their participation in spaces that promote their varied interests.     

发挥媒体对建设社会主义核心价值体系的促进作用

建设社会主义核心价值体系,新闻媒体担负着重要责任。新闻媒体及其工作者要加深对社会主义核心价值体系的理解,准确把握其丰富内涵和基本要求,把社会主义核心价值体系的要求贯穿到宣传报道之中,在建设社会主义核心价值体系中发挥积极作用。     

COORDINATING EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE NETHERLANDS: A HOLISTIC QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF ICT‐RELATED AND OTHER WORK‐LIFE BALANCE STRATEGIES

Due to women's increased participation in the labour force, more and more family‐households are now juggling paid labour and care‐giving in space and time and do so in many different ways. Much research and policy about how households try to establish a satisfactory work‐life balance singles out particular coping strategies, such as telecommuting or the mobilizing of informal help by relatives or friends. While insightful, foregrounding single strategies may oversimplify the complex reality of everyday life, in which people often skilfully weave together multiple coping strategies. As well, advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have further diversified the arsenal of possible coping strategies, but the academic literature has yet to verify whether ICT usage complements or substitutes the adoption of other coping strategies. Adopting a holistic quantitative approach this study assesses which combinations of coping strategies prevail and which role ICTs play in this regard among one‐ and dual‐earner households in the Utrecht–Amersfoort–Hilversum area of the Netherlands. We also examine systematic variations in strategy combination by socio‐demographics, ICT possession, affordability and skills, social network factors, employment and commute factors, spatial factors, lifestyle orientation and other factors. We identify several distinct combinations of strategies and find that ICT‐related strategies are frequently adopted by highly educated employed parents in the Netherlands attempting to achieve a satisfying work‐life balance and tend to complement other types of strategies. Which combinations of strategies have been adopted depends most strongly on the presence of young children, but also on employment factors and characteristics of the environment surrounding the dwelling and main workplace.     

Rural children’s role in buffering household poverty through ganyu (piecework) in Zambia

In Zambia, the ways in which social change intersects with rural livelihoods to increase children’s workload and commodify their labour are poorly understood. In this article, changing patterns of rural children’s work are seen as necessitated by their evolving household roles and contributions in an increasingly rural cash-based economy. Drawing on child-focused qualitative research in rural Lundazi district in Zambia, it is explored how children use a traditional labour practice called ‘ganyu’ (piecework) to ameliorate poverty. The infiltration of the cash-based economy, amplified by the Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes, a predominantly adult-centred traditional informal socio-economic levelling mechanism of ganyu, and its evolution into more cash-oriented transactions increasingly involving children are discussed. Although ganyu has largely been seen as characterized by exploitative labour relations, the empirical findings from this research indicate the complex ways in which the practice is empowering children and their families. The resources accrued through ganyu are vital for both personal and household well-being. The findings of this study have important implications to rethink not only contentious issues of child labour but also dominant narratives of childhood that fail to take into account children’s lived experiences as situated in local, social, economic, and cultural contexts.     

Embodied bicycle commuters in a car world

As an initiative to increase cycling, bike to work (BTW) events emphasize a pragmatic approach in which people learn through sensory experience. Pragmatism contends that the lived experience of the commuter within fluid geographies of social and physical conditions informs commuting knowledge and behavior. I researched how bicyclists participate in the 2012 BTW event in Lake Tahoe (USA) and how these experiences facilitate the process of becoming bicycle commuters. My study included participant observations, interviews, video observations, and route mapping. I analyzed this data with thematic and narrative analyses. I find that the BTW event illuminates bicycling, a normally invisible practice in a car world, and creates temporary bicycle-friendly spaces that provide the embodied experience and knowledge of bicycle commuting within context. Through this lived experience, participants can break free from unconscious car-based patterns and become embodied bicycle commuters who engage in active renegotiations of their commuting practices.     

安徽省图书馆藏《正德三年进士登科录》的修复

2013年初,为配合古籍数字化,安徽省图书馆开始修复馆藏《正德三年进士登科录》。通过分析破损现状、查找相关资料、咨询修复专家、制订修复方案、选配纸张、清洗书页、修补书页、书皮及托纸、修整书页、装订书册、残片修复与函套制作、完善修复记录,经精心修复,修复质量合格、效果满意。论文着重探讨了"古籍修复需要讲究依据"、灵活运用"修旧如旧"原则、保留修复资料等相关问题。此修复研究可为行业修复此类古籍提供相关借鉴。     

一个外国人心目中的陈云

1935年遵义会议后,陈云帮助中共与共产国际保持着良好关系。在延安,他建立起 一套人事制度,培养了党内的一批青年知识分子。在东北,第二次世界大战后他在小城市和农村建 立了共产党的根据地,对赢得东北的军事胜利发挥了重大作用。1949-1952年,他主持恢复了国 民经济秩序。1953-1957年,他成功地制定和执行了第一个五年计划,从事建设和工业发展。尽 管他作了努力,但仍未能阻止"大跃进",但是当毛泽东给他施展才能的机会时,他使国家从严重 的政策错误中恢复过来。1978年后,他的谨慎与专长使改革置于坚实的基础之上,他致力于平反 干部的冤假错案从而有助于改革开放的成功。陈云受到很多党员的爱戴,这不仅是因为他的巨大成 就,而且是因为他对国家和党的鞠躬尽瘁的精神和无限忠诚,对其他党员的真诚和爱护以及他朴素 谦逊的生活作风。     

基于员工满意度的饭店软实力比较研究——以宁波本土饭店K和外资饭店H为例

本研究选取宁波本土饭店K和外资饭店H作为研究对象,采用问卷方法构建饭店员工满意度指标,以员工满意度作为衡量饭店软实力的切入点,将本土饭店K与外资饭店H的软实力进行了定量化的比较研究。研究表明,尽管本土饭店K的员工满意度高于外资饭店H,但在员工素质和长期发展等方面仍存在较大差距。本文还对员工学历、工资、职位等与员工满意度的关系进行了讨论。     

Queerly situated? Exploring negotiations of trans queer subjectivities at work and within community spaces in the UK

While traditional perspectives on transgender from some strands of feminism and within medical/psychoanalytical discourse have argued that transgender people conform to and reproduce gender stereotypes, queer theory has celebrated transgender as a site that highlights the social and cultural construction of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ and, moreover, as a symbol of transgressive gender possibility. Both of these readings ignore the complexities of lived trans experiences and identifications. By evaluating a queer reading of trans through recent empirical research into transgender identities, I suggest that while trans identifications certainly queer binary models of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’, such transgressions are materially, culturally, socially and spatially contingent. The article draws on empirical research to explore the ways in which access to queer subjectivities is constrained by, and negotiated alongside, the locales of the workplace and community spaces.