The Impunity Project of the Inter American Press Association: Final Summary Report 2003-2006

Evaluates the impact of the initiative's rapid response unit, which investigates attacks and provides legal assistance; advertising campaign to make cases visible; and training program to prevent future attacks. Includes case summaries

The effect of unemployment benefit II sanctions on reservation wages

"In 2005, benefit sanctions in Germany were tightened with the introduction of the new means-tested unemployment benefit II (UB II), codified in Social Code (SC) II. This study analyzes the effect of benefit sanctions on the reservation wage of sanctioned unemployment benefit II recipients. The behavioral effect of a benefit sanction is an empirically open question. According to job search theory, benefit sanctions directly reduce reservation wages. To explore this hypothesis, propensity score matching is adopted. The dataset used is a unique survey of UB II recipients in the first year of SC II. For the identification of the effect, the study relies on the rich individual data and the rather unsystematic sanctioning process in the starting months after the introduction of the SC II. The timing of the sanction is explicitly considered by estimating the effects for the first four quarters of UB II receipt in 2005. The main result is that there was no significant effect of sanctions on the reservation wages of sanctioned unemployment benefit II recipients. A side result is that sanctioned UB II recipients were not more likely to be employed at the time of their interview either. Both results are robust to various matching estimators, estimation specifications and to the timing of the UB II sanction." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Arbeitslosengeld II-Empfänger, Leistungsbezug, Sanktion - Auswirkungen, Einkommenserwartung, Verhaltensänderung, Erwerbsverhalten, Arbeitsplatzsuchtheorie

The politics of indian administration : a revisionist history of intrastate relations in mid-twentieth century British Columbia

This dissertation examines Native-newcomer relations during the “integrationist” era in Canadian Indian affairs: the two and a half decades after World War Two during which the federal government introduced policies designed to integrate Indians into mainstream Canadian social, political, economic, and administrative life. Particular focus is given to developments in British Columbia, where some of the most concerted steps towards integration took place. Growing public and political demands for institutional desegregation and the granting of rights of citizenry to Aboriginal people recast Indian affairs into a matter of unprecedented intergovernmental importance. Shifting between micro- and macro-historical perspectives, the following chapters consist of a series of comparative policy case studies. Individually, they examine the development, implementation, and effects of the four main areas of federal Indian integrationist planning after WWII: health, education, economic development, and welfare. Collectively, chapters demonstrate how integration was a mission essentially administrative in orientation: every policy undertaken in this period, whether directly or indirectly, sought to implicate the province and other federal line departments in Indian affairs. Not all attempts at “administrative integration,” however, were successful. While BC and the federal government reached joint agreements in the fields of education and health, other areas such as Indian economic development and welfare proved to be a source of significant intergovernmental conflict and impasse. Aboriginal people were important participants when it came to integrated health, education, and social welfare. Incorporating ethnohistorical insights and Aboriginal perspectives throughout, this dissertation documents how Aboriginal agency in this period—expressed in a range of innovative actions and words—included important combinatory aspects of compliance, resistance, and accommodation. Many individuals, for instance, demanded access to provincial services as within their rights as Aboriginal people and provincial voting and taxpaying citizens. While post-war integrationist policies varied widely in terms of their local perception and impact, Indian assimilation remained an elusive goal throughout this period. Advances in provincial devolution of Indian administration rarely resulted in the type of social and economic integration envisioned by federal officials. This study looks beyond unitary conceptions of “the state” towards questions of power and local agency. It engages Foucauldian and Weberian theories to show how a combination of intergovernmental politics, intrastate variables, and Aboriginal agency refashioned Native-newcomer relations in this period. Post-WWII administrative contexts served as theatres for the contestation of old, and formulation of new, power relationships. Developments in this era were to have a significant influence on Native-newcomer relations moving into the modern era

De-ossifying the Internet Transport Layer : A Survey and Future Perspectives

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions and comments.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Programmes in transition - between closure and start. Review of programme developments: Winter-Summer 2007

The past six months have seen a shift in emphasis from the 2000-2006 to the 2007-2013 programmes. Programme managers and other implementing organisations have not only been negotiating draft programmes for 2007-2013 with European Commission staff, but have also been undertaking a range of tasks to prepare for implementing these programmes. A number of initiatives have also occurred at EU level, which direct policymakers’ attention forward to the EU budget review of 2008-2009 and beyond. In addition, ongoing efforts have been needed to ensure that the remaining funds under the 2000-2006 programmes are effectively absorbed, and that all technical preparations for programme closure are underway

Interactive Food and Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children and Youth in the Digital Age

Looks at the practices of food and beverage industry marketers in reaching youth via digital videos, cell phones, interactive games and social networking sites. Recommends imposing governmental regulations on marketing to children and adolescents

Trade union responses to precarious employment in Germany

Since the mid-1980s Germany saw a continuing increase of precarious employment which now amounts to about one third of the total labour force. Considering the negative social side-effects of this development, the voices which call for a re-regulation of the labour market have become more prominent in recent years. The study analyses strategic responses of German trade unions to the increase of precarious employment. Hereby, it distinguishes between four different approaches: First, unions can demand and lobby for changes in legislation in order to limit, prevent or even forbid certain forms of precarious employment. Secondly, the unions can conclude collective agreements to improve the conditions of precarious employment and to limit its use at sectoral or company level. Thirdly, union can develop practical help and assistance to precarious workers and recruit them as union members. Finally, the unions can promote their own vision of good work as a counter model against precarious employment.After a general overview on the different union strategies the study presents details in four case-studies of how the unions act in the following areas: - low wages - temporary agency work - dependent self-employed workers - apprentices - The study is part of a European project Bargaining for Social Rights (BARSORI) which is financed by the European Commission (Agreement Ref. VS/2010/0811). -- Seit Mitte der 1980er Jahr hat er Anteil prekärere Beschäftigung in Deutschland kontinuierlich zugenommen und umfasst mittlerweile etwas ein Drittel aller Beschäftigungsverhältnisse. Angesichts der negativen sozialen und ökonomischen Folgen werden die Stimmen immer lauter, die für eine Re-Regulierung des Arbeitsmarktes eintreten.Die Studie analysiert die gewerkschaftlichen Antworten der Gewerkschaften gegenüber der zunehmenden Bedeutung prekärer Beschäftigung: dabei werden vier strategische Ansätze unterschieden: 1. Gesetzliche Änderungen, um bestimmte Formen prekärer Beschäftigung zu verhindern, zu begrenzen oder zu verbieten 2. Tarifverträge zur Begrenzung prekärer Beschäftigung und zur Verbesserung der Arbeitsbedingungen von prekär Beschäftigten 3. Organisierung von prekär Beschäftigten und die Entwicklung praktischer Hilfs- und Unterstützungsangebote 4. Die Entwicklung eines gewerkschaftlichen Leitbildes von Guter Arbeit als Gegenmodell zu prekärer BeschäftigungNach einem allgemeinen Überblick über die verschiedenen gewerkschaftlichen Strategien, enthält das Papier vier Fallstudien in den folgenden Bereichen: - Niedriglöhne - Leiharbeit - Abhängige Selbstständige - Auszubildende - Die Studie ist Teil eines europäischen Projektes Bargaining for Social Rights (BARSORI), das von der Europäischen Kommission finanziert wird (Ref. VS/2010/0811).

Modernization through large S&T projects: Assessing Russia’s Drive for Innovation-Led Development via Skolkovo Innovation Centre

‘Skolkovo’ innovation city near Moscow is Russia’s latest high-profile manifestation of a policy shift towards diversification and innovation based growth. This paper aims to understand the institutional, historical and comparative contexts at an early stage when implementation in Skolkovo has just begun. It also aims to analyse the opportunities and challenges offered by Skolkovo in a comparative perspective by using a framework that evaluates Skolkovo’s early developments in terms of the extent it can contribute to a Russian system of innovation. We aim to demonstrate the value of academic discourse in policy issues, arguably an indispensable input into the ex-ante evaluation of state modernization projects. Our argument is that Skolkovo is meant to be a de facto ‘mission oriented innovation eco-system’ which is quite a new type of challenge for Russia. We outline the broad systemic obstacles facing Skolkovo as well as the opportunities for its growth