Interest in unions and associations in a knowledge-base economy: Canadian evidence

oai:justlabour.journals.yorku.ca:article/1This study analyzes the results of a 2010 national survey of Canadian non-managerial employees' membership and interest in worker organizations. This is the first general survey to include associations as well as unions. Profiles of membership and interest in unions and associations are presented, then demographic, organizational and attitudinal factors related to interest in joining these worker organizations are examined. The findings suggest that, in spite of some recent decline in union density, most Canadian non-managerial workers who are interested in collective representation are members of at least one of these organizations. The strongest interest in joining is expressed by those who are highly educated, poorly paid and feel underemployed-even if allowed some workplace "voice". The limited prior focus on unions needs to be expanded to attend to both unions and associations as worker-controlled vehicles of representation, particularly to identify strategic alliances with the growing numbers of professional employees.

Union Influence on Worker Education and Training in Canada in Tough Times

This research has focused on re-analyzing data from previous large-scale Canadian surveys that include information on education and training activities and union status, as well as other demographic and organizational factors, most prominently the 1993 and 1997 Adult Education and Training Surveys. In contrast to some recent studies, we find that union status has had consistent positive individual-level effects in Canada on participation in adult education courses and employer-sponsored courses in general, and especially for women union members. In addition, our analysis of data from the 1998 national survey on informal learning finds that in this much more extensive form of learning, unionized workers are significantly more likely than non-unionized workers to participate in more directly empowering forms of knowledge including learning about workers’ rights and political issues

Public Support for University Funding: Trends and Determinants in Ontario, 1980-1990

This paper examines trends in public support for government funding of universities over the past decade, identifies significant social factors related to attitudes on university funding during this period, and briefly discusses possible future tendencies in public support for university funding. Growing public support for increased university funding in Ontario is documented. A variety of types of potential influences is assessed, including societal context, socio-economic status, demographic and political orientation factors. Age, educational attainment, and community size, as well as support for general government spending, are found to have significant individual-level effects on support for university funding. Multi-variate analyses suggest a growing isolation of older, less formally educated and rural people as opponents of increased university funding. The implications of these patterns in the context of an aging but increasingly educated population are then considered.Cet article examine les tendances du soutien public à l'égard des subventions gouvernementales accordées aux universités au cours des dix dernières années, identifie d'importants facteurs sociaux qui sont liés aux attitudes vis-à-vis l'attribution des fonds aux universités durant cette période, et discute brièvement des tendances éventuelles d'évolution du soutien public à l'égard des subventions accordées aux universités. On montre qu'il existe un soutienpopulaire croissant en faveur de l'augmentation des subventions accordées aux universités en Ontario. On évalue divers types d'influences possibles, y compris le contexte sociétal, le situation socio-économique, et les facteurs associés à l'orientation démographique et politique. L'âge, la scolarisation, la taille de la communauté dans laquelle on vit. ainsi que l'appui accordé aux dépenses publiques de façon générale semblent avoir des effets significatifs sur le niveau de soutien accordé au financement universitaire. Des analyses multi-variées suggèrent que les personnes plus âgés, moins scolarisées et vivant en milieux ruraux s'opposent davantage à l'augmentation des fonds accordés aux universités. On conclut en examinant les implications de ces constats dans le contexte d'une population vieillissante et de plus en plus scolarisée

The beginnings of geography teaching and research in the University of Glasgow: the impact of J.W. Gregory

J.W. Gregory arrived in Glasgow from Melbourne in 1904 to take up the post of foundation Professor of Geology in the University of Glasgow. Soon after his arrival in Glasgow he began to push for the setting up of teaching in Geography in Glasgow, which came to pass in 1909 with the appointment of a Lecturer in Geography. This lecturer was based in the Department of Geology in the University's East Quad. Gregory's active promotion of Geography in the University was matched by his extensive writing in the area, in textbooks, journal articles and popular books. His prodigious output across a wide range of subject areas is variably accepted today, with much of his geomorphological work being judged as misguided to varying degrees. His 'social science' publications - in the areas of race, migration, colonisation and economic development of Africa and Australia - espouse a viewpoint that is unacceptable in the twenty-first century. Nonetheless, that viewpoint sits squarely within the social and economic traditions of Gregory's era, and he was clearly a key 'Establishment' figure in natural and social sciences research in the first half of the twentieth century. The establishment of Geography in the University of Glasgow remains enduring testimony of J.W. Gregory's energy, dedication and foresight

X-ray Phase-Resolved Spectroscopy of PSRs B0531+21, B1509-58, and B0540-69 with RXTE

The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer ({\sl RXTE}) has made hundreds of observations on three famous young pulsars (PSRs) B0531+21 (Crab), B1509-58, and B0540-69. Using the archive {\sl RXTE} data, we have studied the phase-resolved spectral properties of these pulsars in details. The variation of the X-ray spectrum with phase of PSR B0531+21 is confirmed here much more precisely and more details are revealed than the previous studies: the spectrum softens from the beginning of the first pulse, turns to harden right at the pulse peak and becomes the hardest at the bottom of the bridge, softens gradually until the second peak, and then softens rapidly. Different from the previous studies, we found that the spectrum of PSR B1509-58 is significantly harder in the center of the pulse, which is also in contrast to that of PSR B0531+21. The variation of the X-ray spectrum of PSR B0540-69 seems similar to that of PSR B1509-58, but with a lower significance. Using the about 10 years of data span, we also studied the real time evolution of the spectra of these pulsars, and no significant evolution has been detected. We have discussed about the constraints of these results on theoretical models of pulsar X-ray emission.Comment: 42 pages, 24 figure

A lake's life is not its own

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62504/1/408149a0.pd

A Census Of Highly Symmetric Combinatorial Designs

As a consequence of the classification of the finite simple groups, it has been possible in recent years to characterize Steiner t-designs, that is t-(v,k,1) designs, mainly for t = 2, admitting groups of automorphisms with sufficiently strong symmetry properties. However, despite the finite simple group classification, for Steiner t-designs with t > 2 most of these characterizations have remained longstanding challenging problems. Especially, the determination of all flag-transitive Steiner t-designs with 2 < t < 7 is of particular interest and has been open for about 40 years (cf. [11, p. 147] and [12, p. 273], but presumably dating back to 1965). The present paper continues the author's work [20, 21, 22] of classifying all flag-transitive Steiner 3-designs and 4-designs. We give a complete classification of all flag-transitive Steiner 5-designs and prove furthermore that there are no non-trivial flag-transitive Steiner 6-designs. Both results rely on the classification of the finite 3-homogeneous permutation groups. Moreover, we survey some of the most general results on highly symmetric Steiner t-designs.Comment: 26 pages; to appear in: "Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics