Trade unions and work-life balance: changing times in France and the UK?

The mixed empirical findings to date have indicated that some, but not all, unions in industrialized countries are actively involved in campaigning and bargaining around work–life balance (WLB) issues, as part of a modernization agenda linked to feminization and to ‘positive flexibility’. This article seeks to identify factors that might encourage or inhibit trade unions from involvement in WLB issues, within a cross-national comparative perspective focusing on two countries (France and the UK) that have contrasting working time regimes and approaches to WLB. It draws on original research carried out in two sectors — insurance and social work — in these two countries. The article links the emergence of union WLB programmes and bargaining agendas to genderequality concerns within the union and to the gender composition of the sector, as well as to the working time regime, including the mode of action, partnership being a significant corollary of WLB campaigning in the UK. We find support for the modernization thesis in the UK, particularly in the public sector, but within severe constraints defined by employer initiative

Engendered housework. A cross-european analysis

Division of the housework within the couple is the topic of this paper. We are specifically interested if the gender is still salient in the sharing of the domestic works, and which is its relative importance when controlling for various factors such as education, income, spouses’ occupational status, the type of social policies within the respective society, its level of development etc. We focus our research on the European societies, exploiting the data of the European Quality of Life Survey 2003. We inspect the differences between societies and search for individual level and country level explanations of the time spent for housework. Multilevel analysis is employed to test the hypotheses depicted from the existing literature.housework ; gender roles ; Europe ; EQLS ; multilevel analysis

The Awareness of Computer-Mediated Communication\u27s Social Presence for Virtual High School Students

This research investigated the perception of social presence that students in a virtual high school have of using computer-mediated communication (CMC): email, discussion board, tutoring sessions, and asynchronous classroom activities. The research analyzed data for social presence based on gender, years of experience in a cyber school, and self-proficiency ratings on each form of CMC. The purpose of this study was to identify if high school students in a virtual community perceive email, discussion board, tutoring sessions and asynchronous classroom activities as enhancing their social presence within the virtual community. The findings of the study are: 1. Students perceived that email showed more social presence than the other forms of CMC and asynchronous classroom activities showed more social presence than discussion board and tutoring sessions. 2. There was no significant difference found between male and females social presence in any of the CMC studied. 3. Students who rate their own self proficiency as being above average or expert had higher social presence scores on email and asynchronous classroom activities than students who rate their proficiency average, below average or novice. 4. Students perceived that email showed more social interaction than discussion board, tutoring session and asynchronous classroom activities. Asynchronous classroom activities showed more social interaction than discussion board or tutoring sessions. 5. The number of years a student attends a cyber school has no relationship with the student\u27s perceived social presence in any form of CMC studied. Understanding students\u27 perception of social presence based on the use of CMC will enable cyber schools to use the appropriate form of CMC to help students develop their social skills

The Social Negotiation of Ambiguous In-Between Stigmatized Identities: Investigating Identity Processes in Multiracial and Bisexual People

To date, most bisexual and multiracial identity models in psychology capture a largely internal developmental process (Collins, 2000; Kich, 1992; Weinberg, Williams & Pryor, 1994). However, individuals learn to manage their socially stigmatized identities in social interactions (Goffman, 1963). While the demands to socially negotiate stigmatized identity affect all minority peoples, individuals with in-between ambiguous stigmatized identities, such as multiracial and bisexual people, must negotiate also being situated at the margins of their own reference groups (e.g. heterosexual and gay/lesbian). Using a comparative grounded theory approach, this study explored the question: How do experiences of socially negotiating an in-between ambiguous stigmatized identity influence one\u27s identity development? And the sub-question: What are the similarities and differences in these processes for multiracial and bisexual people? Ten self-identified biracial/multiracial Asian-White, heterosexual individuals and ten bisexual White individuals between the ages of 20 and 36 years participated in semi-structured interviews addressing the following areas of inquiry: (1) Contextualizing current identifications and establishing shared understandings, (2) Experiences of social negotiations, and (3) Effects of these experiences on identities. Issues regarding the rigor and credibility of the study (Morrow, 2005) were addressed through peer debriefing; inquiry auditing; and member check discussions. Analysis followed a constant comparative method (Creswell, 2007) and a multi-step process resulting in a theory describing three negotiation cycles and associated identity effects common to both kinds of identities (multiracial and bisexual), with additional identity specific (multiracial or bisexual) variations: the first cycle was Catalyzing Experiences, the second was Active Negotiations, and the third Emerging Sense of Agency through New Understandings, Perspectives, and Positive Experiences. Cycles were described by multiracial and bisexual participants as fluid, iterative, and interacting. The model developed in this study offers a way of understanding stigma management strategies and their relation to influencing identities and stigmatizing processes. This deeper understanding can help clinicians and community organizers create inclusive environments and develop interventions to assist multiracial and bisexual individuals develop skills to deal with social stigmatizing processes, resolve initial questions, and develop a greater sense of agency in identity choice and performance

The politics of the doorstep : female survival strategies and the legacy of the miners’ strike 1984–85.

This paper considers the legacy of continuing activism of women in the North East of England who organized in support of the 1984-85 miners' strike. It refers to the traditional responsibility of women in mining localities for the maintenance of neighbourhood and kin relations and using the example of a key activist in one ex-mining village, it argues that the values associated with 'mining community' remain relevant as a reference point for a self-conscious, politicized reshaping of local relationships in post-industrial conditions. The material basis for this self-conscious approach has shifted from the masculine sphere of mining work and its associated community institutions to the feminized sphere of location and neighbourhood

International Courts as Agents of Legal Change: Evidence from LGBT Rights in Europe

Do international court judgments influence the behavior of actors other than the parties to a dispute? Are international courts agents of policy change or do their judgments merely reflect evolving social and political trends? The authors develop a theory that specifies the conditions under which international courts can use their interpretive discretion to have system-wide effects. The authors examine the theory in the context of European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues by creating a new dataset that matches these rulings with laws in all Council of Europe (CoE) member states. The authors also collect data on LGBT policies unaffected by ECtHR judgments to control for the confounding effect of evolving trends in national policies. The authors find that ECtHR judgments against one country substantially increase the probability of national-level policy change across Europe. The marginal effects of the judgments are especially high where public acceptance of sexual minorities is low, but where national courts can rely on ECtHR precedents to invalidate domestic laws or where the government in power is not ideologically opposed to LGBT equality. The authors conclude by exploring the implications of our findings for other international courts

Performative ontologies. Sociomaterial approaches to researching adult education and lifelong learning

Sociomaterial approaches to researching education, such as those generated by actornetwork theory and complexity theory, have been growing in significance in recent years, both theoretically and methodologically. Such approaches are based upon a performative ontology rather than the more characteristic representational epistemology that informs much research. In this article, we outline certain aspects of sociomaterial sensibilities in researching education, and some of the uptakes on issues related to the education of adults. We further suggest some possibilities emerging for adult education and lifelong learning researchers from taking up such theories and methodologies. (DIPF/Orig.