Femmes et microfinance : espoirs et désillusions de l'expérience indienne

National audienc

Governance von Arbeit im deutschen Erwerbssystem: Alte, neue oder keine Normalitäten?

Seit dem Ende der Industriegesellschaft lastet auf Unternehmen, Arbeitsmärkten, Sozialversicherungssystemen, Arbeits- und Beschäftigungsbedingungen in Deutschland ein anhaltend starker Veränderungsdruck; sie werden in hohem Tempo reformiert, modernisiert und 'umgebaut'. Die Organisation von Arbeit wird verstärkt an die Erfordernisse der Märkte angepasst, neue Segmente prekärer Beschäftigung entstehen, aber gleichzeitig wachsen in vielen Bereichen auch die Handlungsspielräume und die Ansprüche der ArbeitnehmerInnen. Der Beitrag analysiert den Wandel insbesondere unter dem Gesichtspunkt von institutionellen Reformprozessen und den darauf bezogenen Reaktionen gesellschaftlicher Akteure. In Anlehnung an institutionentheoretische Konzepte werden für das deutsche Erwerbssystem vor allem unzureichende institutionelle Anpassungen an gesellschaftlichen Wandel (Drift) und Anlagerungen 'neuer' an bestehende Institutionen (Layering) diagnostiziert; gemeinsam fügen sich diese Muster in eine Dynamik der Dezentralisierung von Regulierungs- und Entscheidungskompetenzen. Die reflexiven Reaktionen kollektiver und individueller Akteure wirken sich in Prozessen der Einkapselung traditioneller Beschäftigungsmuster, der Re-Organisation von Machtkonstellationen oder der Kompensation zusätzlicher Belastungen aus. Die sozialen Konsequenzen folgen einer Logik der bipolaren Heterogenisierung, d.h. neben dem fortbestehenden, aber schrumpfenden Kern der Erwerbsbevölkerung, dessen Lebenszusammenhänge weiterhin durch Normalarbeitsverhältnis, Normalfamilie und Normalbiographie bestimmt sind, entwickelt sich eine wachsende Divergenz von einerseits privilegierten, andererseits prekarisierten Lebensverhältnissen. Die Verteilung auf diese verschiedenen Segmente scheint dabei vor allem vom Bildungsstatus und der Familienform abzuhängen.Since the end of the industrial era, a pressure to change weighs heavily on companies, labour markets, social systems, working and employment conditions. The German system of labour organization and regulation experiences a lasting sequence of rapid reforms and modernisations. Labour organization becomes increasingly adopted to the requirements of labour markets, and new segments of precarious employment emerge. At the same time, the scope of action and the claims of many employees are expanding. These processes are examined under the aspect of institutional change and resulting reactions of different actors. Firstly, the dynamics of the german labour system are characterized by either insufficient adjustment to societal changes or by appending some new elements to traditional institutions. Both of these processes blend in to the decentralisation of competences and liability for decision making and regulation. Secondly, reflexive reactions of collective and individual actors result in encapsulation of segments of traditional employment, in an ongoing reconfiguration of power relations or in a compensation of additional risks and burdens. The social consequences of these changes in the labour system, thirdly, generate a tendency towards a bipolar heterogeneity: Beyond the persisting, but shrinking, segment of groups with employment patterns characterized by 'traditional normality', the labour system brings about an increasing divergence of privileged on the one hand and precarious living conditions on the other hand. The allocation of individuals to these segments by the mechanisms of the labour system seems to depend mainly on the educational status and the family constellation

Wives’ part-time employment and marital stability in Great Britain, West Germany and the United States

Many hail wives’ part-time employment as a work—family balance strategy, but theories offer competing predictions as to the effects of wives’ employment on relationship stability. We use panel data to test these competing hypotheses among recent cohorts of first-married couples in Great Britain, West Germany 1 and the United States. We find effects of wives’ employment on marital stability var y across the countries. In West Germany with its high-quality part-time employment, couples where the wife works part time are significantly more stable. In the more liberal British and US labour markets, neither wives’ part- nor full-time employment significantly alters divorce risk. In the United States, however, mothers working part time have significantly lower divorce risk. West German and British husbands’ unemployment proves more detrimental to marital stability than wives’ employment. These results highlight the importance of the socioeconomic context in structuring the optimal employment participation of both partners

Trade unions and the challenge of fostering solidarities in an era of financialisation

This articles re-examines evidence that trade unions in the UK have struggled to renew themselves despite considerable investment of time and effort. It argues that financialisation in the realms of capital accumulation, organisational decision making and everyday life has introduced new barriers to building the solidarities within and between groups of workers that would be necessary to develop a stronger response to the catastrophic effects on labour of financialisation in general, and the financial crisis specifically. The crisis highlighted the weaknesses of trade unions as institutions of economic and industrial democracy, but has also given some opportunities to establish narratives of solidarity in spaces and platforms created within a financialised context

Pension systems compared : a polarised perspective, a diverse reality

Production of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004Globalisation and international competition have a spillover effect on the reforms of pension systems that imposes a similar pattern of dismantling, hardening access to pensions, reducing expenditure and retrenchment in said reforms. The comparative analysis of four countries with different pension systems: two liberal (United Kingdom and Chile) and another two with contributory-proportional systems (Spain and Argentina) serves to determine the details of the reform processes, which discursively seem to have a shared pattern recommended by the international financial and economic institutions. But the reality of the four case studies shows considerable differences in the implementation of the pension reform policies. The reforms depend on the societal context, institutions, history, the role of unions, the government in power, demographic factors and economic perspectives, among other matters. Many countries need to sustain pension systems because they are associated with many pensioners' political vote. Therefore, the spillover effect of globalisation and the convergence in certain uniform patterns of reforms is far from reality in the four countries, and as such, the measures adopted are specific for each country

Unemployment benefits : discursive convergence, distant realities

Production of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004Unemployment protection systems have certain characteristics in common in Argentina, Uruguay, Spain and Italy: they are compulsory and contributory-proportional, although in Uruguay, it also has a capitalisation supplement. Despite the similarities, they work differently because the context of informal employment chiefly, and unemployment, low salaries and precariousness differ greatly. Consequently, the unemployment protection coverage rate varies. Theories of the Active Welfare State, the Investor State and the reforms of unemployment protection systems have led to a certain modernising language being adopted in these countries: activation, employability, conditionality, lifelong learning, flexibility, which are, among others, words shared with Europe. However, the meanings of these words differ according to the institutional context of each country. In Latin America the welfare state is low institutionalised even almost non-existent, while in Europe it is a diverse institution. Despite this, the four countries share an upward trend in benefit policies, in accordance with the increase in poverty risk

Impact of Forest Seral Stage on use of Ant Communities for Rapid Assessment of Terrestrial Ecosystem Health

Bioassessment evaluates ecosystem health by using the responses of a community of organisms that integrate all aspects of the ecosystem. A variety of bioassessment methods have been applied to aquatic ecosystems; however, terrestrial methods are less advanced. The objective of this study was to examine baseline differences in ant communities at different seral stages from clear cut to mature pine plantation as a precursor to developing a broader terrestrial bioassessment protocol. Comparative sampling was conducted at nine sites having four seral stages: clearcut, 5 year recovery, 15 year recovery, and mature stands. Soil and vegetation data were also collected at each site. Ants were identified to genus. Analysis of the ant data indicated that ants respond strongly to habitat changes that accompany ecological succession in managed pine forests, and both individual genera and ant community structure can be used as indicators of successional change. Ants exhibited relatively high diversity in both early and mature seral stages. High ant diversity in mature seral stages was likely related to conditions on the forest floor favoring litter dwelling and cold climate specialists. While ants may be very useful in identifying environmental stress in managed pine forests, adjustments must be made for seral stage when comparing impacted and unimpacted forests