Empirical Evidence on Occupation and Industry Specific Human Capital

This paper presents instrumental variables estimates of the effects of firm tenure, occupation specific work experience, industry specific work experience, and general work experience on wages using data from the 1979 Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. A key feature of the empirical work presented in this paper is that the returns to human capital are allowed to vary across occupations, in contrast to existing research which has constrained the parameters of the wage equation to be the same across occupations. The estimates indicate that both occupation and industry specific human capital are key determinants of wages, and the importance of various types of human capital varies widely across one-digit occupations. Human capital is primarily occupation specific in occupations such as craftsmen, where workers realize a 14% increase in wages after five years of occupation specific experience but do not realize wage gains from industry specific experience. In contrast, human capital is primarily industry specific in other occupations such as managerial employment where workers realize a 23% wage increase after five years of industry specific work experience. In other occupations, such as professional employment, both occupation and industry specific human capital are key determinants of wages

Frontline(s)

The challenge of theorising and analysing socio-political phenomena can feel overwhelming given today’s somewhat threatening realpolitik (9/11, US-led wars on Afghanistan, Iraq and now, perhaps, Syria) and the rapid pace with which (dis)information is received, digested and discarded. Through an act of ‘literary montage’ construction, and prefaced by some interpretation of my own, I offer this ‘exhibit’ as an attempt to highlight this sense of dislocation whilst simultaneously ‘building a picture’. A specific concern is to problematise the notion of ‘the frontline’. Given blatant military and economic imperialism by the US, underscored by the construction and fetishising of the rational subject under modernity and the social democratic state, I suggest that frontlines are located in any public or private space where the legitimacy of these interests and categories is questioned. Expressions of difference, including peace activism, thus become ‘proliferating illegitimacies’ and are policed as such. Against this context, the texts positioned here tell of growing realisation and fear of the coldness and instrumentalism at the heart of empire-building, of which both the horrific violence currently inflicted on Iraqi people, and the discounting and suppression of dissent to war worldwide, are part. For a global anti-capitalist/pro-justice movement that recognises trade in arms as a core constraint on human potential, reaching beyond this fear - retaining the hope of the ‘politics of possibility’ with which this ‘movement of movements’ has come to be identified – emerges as a latent and essential challenge

Cultivating Inclusive Learning Communities with Careful and Caring Conjunctions

This essay was originally the invited lecture I shared at ICCTE 2016. I arrived there, prepared to share about inclusive learning communities and our responsibilities to both model and teach our emerging educators to plan, teach, and assess diverse learners with inclusive and responsive practices. But just as I had to listen to the Sabbath whisper, I could not ignore the and whisper. So I ask that as you finish reading this essay and we go our separate ways, remember that we are embodied conjunctions. We are an important part of our language system that communicates so much about our culture. We may not get the amounts or forms of attention that we think education warrants and we may grow weary of all of our stakeholders telling us how to improve our practices. But we matter. Our voices can make a difference. You matter. Your voice will make a difference