Decent work and informal employment: A survey of workers in Glen View, Harare

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.ILO_SurveyofWorkersinGlenViewHarare.pdf: 360 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Context matters : a multilevel analysis of patterns of mobility to non-poor neighborhoods for poor renter households.

The goal of this longitudinal, multilevel study was to develop a better understanding of poor renter households\u27 mobility patterns by identifying the relative importance of individual and contextual variables. Variability in neighborhood poverty rates (NPR) was analyzed for 1564 poor, renter households living in 179 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across the continental U.S. during the 1990s. Household heads were typically black (73%), middle age (mean=37 years) females (59%) who had 12 or fewer years of education (77%). Each household completed three to nine Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) surveys. Using geocodes, census data were linked with survey data to provide information about the NPR and metropolitan opportunity structure at each survey occasion. Multilevel modeling was used to analyze this hierarchically-structured data (measurement occasions nested within households nested within MSAs). While 58% of variability in outcomes was due to between-household differences, 15% was due to between-MSA differences (the remainder was between-measurement occasion variability). Each of the three blocks of predictors significantly improved the model: individual decisions (work, housing, fertility and marriage), personal characteristics (race, age, gender and education) and MSA characteristics (segregation, housing, labor market and area poverty conditions). Controlling for other predictors, race was the most important predictor, increasing a black household\u27s NPR by over ten points and interacting with several other predictors. Being black amplified the negative effect of having more children, weakened positive effects of increased income and a better MSA opportunity structure, and interacted with MSA segregation to the disadvantage of black households. Increased education lowered the NPR. Across income levels, the average white household lived in a non-poor neighborhood while the average black household had an NPR nearly twice as high. Living in public housing was associated with a 4.7 percentage point differential in NPR (compared to no assistance). Other forms of government-assisted housing also increased the NPR, but by less than one percentage point. Mobility lowered the NPR, as did becoming a homeowner. Individual choices made a difference, but characteristics individuals were born with amplified or diminished effects of their efforts. The NPR was further influenced by housing type, tenure and mobility. Most importantly, metropolitan context mattered

Strategic Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Divergent Paths of Uganda and Tanzania

Strategic culture is a concept accepted by scholars and practitioners, but with problematic applicability to states newly independent or emerging from conflict. The elements that comprise strategic culture in the developed world are not always present in emerging states. This research addresses the pertinency of strategic culture in Uganda and Tanzania, and then tests the operationalization of the concept using the case of participation in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The African Union and the international community expected Uganda and Tanzania to contribute troops to AMISON in 2007. In the event, Uganda did and Tanzania chose another path. This study shows that the actions of both states were consistent with their strategic cultures. The small-n comparative study describes strategic culture as a concept that influences national security decisions, but does not determine them. Strategic culture is operationalized through path dependence, in which the accumulation of decisions over time create constraints and restraints upon decision-makers. Modes of behavior by the national security apparatus become too difficult or expensive to change. The result is a repertoire, or “tool box”, of national security activity reflective of the state’s unique strategic culture. The sources of strategic culture are first considered to determine the applicability of the concept, which include explication of each states military history and experience, as well as resources, political systems, national security organization and geography, with a focus on ethnic geography. Those factors are then assessed against attributes derived from the definition of strategic culture to determine presence and level of maturity. Both states are found to possess an emerging strategic culture. How that influences the decision over AMISOM participation is then considered. The decision by Uganda is consistent with a strategic culture that favors military solutions for national security challenges. The decision by Tanzania to not contribute troops is also consistent with their strategic culture that offers a greater range of decision options, and does not favor military options

Why Does Dave Spend Ten Times More Time on Interaction with Industry than Paul? : Toward a Model of Social Capital Activation for Entrepreneurial Academics

This paper focuses on academics that are looking for entrepreneurial ways to pursue their teaching, research and commercialization interests, in particular by actively engaging in university-industry interactions. The paper aims to improve our knowledge of why some academics exploit their social networks with industry more actively than others. We develop a conceptual model that aims to explain a mechanism behind social capital activation, and to identify factors that are likely to have the highest predictive power. We theorize on how academic’s motivation, perceived social influence and perceived ability unite into readiness to activate social capital, and under what circumstances this readiness is likely to result in actual behavior. Specifically, the objective of this paper is to further develop the model constructs and to operationalize them into a set of measurable items. For each of the readiness constructs, we present a set of composite variables, as well as corresponding observable variables. We conclude with implications of our analysis for theory and practice, and set directions for future research