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This chapter maps out and provides a rapid assessment of, the successes and shortcomings of key national interventions on youth employment in South Africa. It focuses on programmes intended for young people aged 15–34 years of age, considering the specific needs of 15–24 year olds as compared 25–34 year olds and the particular needs of young women, youth with different educational qualifications, youth from the rural areas, youth with disabilities as well as youth from varied socio-economic backgrounds and social issues. The conceptual framework underpinning this chapter informs the way in which the data has been categorised and analysed. The framework is underpinned by a core assumption, that, while unemployment is a national challenge in South Africa, there are particular challenges that specifically affect youth. This requires a youth employment strategy that addresses the needs of different cohorts of young people and specifically addresses the myriad of ways in which young people transition into the labour market. The chapter further proposes that we need to understand that enabling successful Labour Market Transitions necessitate a strategy that can overcome ‘failures’ with respect to both supply and demand as well as ‘failures’ of alignment between supply and demand.

This article is a marginally shortened version of Supplement No. 15 to Women in Europe. The European Community answers a series of 50 questions relating to women and employment.

This paper aims to present a discursive and evaluative analysis of Energy + Illawarra, an Australian Government Low Income Energy Efficiency Program (LIEEP) funded interdisciplinary social marketing energy efficiency programme. Energy + Illawarra was a community programme working with low-income older people in Australia and involving social marketers, human geographers and engineers. The paper aims to identify how ecological systems theory can inform social marketing, and what practicalities there may be in doing so. The paper also aims to assess whether a social marketing programme that draws on ecological systems theory can have a positive impact on people’s thermal comfort.

First, the paper uses critical discursive analysis to examine the use of various elements of a social marketing energy efficiency programme in relation to the different levels of ecological systems theory. Second, a longitudinal cohort survey study design is used to evaluate the programme’s influence on people’s perceptions of thermal comfort and satisfaction with thermal comfort in their homes.

The study found that ecological systems theory could be an effective framework for social marketing programmes. The evaluation study found that the intervention had a positive impact on participant’s perceptions of thermal comfort, satisfaction with thermal comfort and attitudes towards energy efficiency. However, the paper identifies some potential tensions in using ecological systems theory and suggests that issues of power, representation, agenda setting, the need for reflexive practice and consideration of unintended consequences are important considerations in social marketing programmes.

The work presented here suggests that multi-level social marketing programmes that draw on ecological systems theory can make a useful contribution to social change as demonstrated by the evaluation survey finding positive impacts on thermal comfort and attitudes of participants. However, issues of power, representation, agenda setting, the need for reflexive practice and consideration of unintended consequences should be considered in social marketing programmes.

Empirical findings on the link between work–life programmes and organisational performance have been inconsistent, demanding further investigation of contextual factors. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This study uses social exchange theory, strategic human resource (HR) management theory and stakeholder theory to examine the relationship between work–life programmes and organisational outcomes, using three performance measures: perceived organisational performance, financial performance and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It also investigates the moderating effect of HR systems on the work–life programmes–performance relationship. The hypotheses were tested in 192 organisations in Australia, using data from an HR manager survey and archival databases.

The findings support the hypotheses that work–life programmes are positively associated with all three measures of performance. The results partially support the moderating effect of HR systems on the relationship between work–life programmes and perceived organisational performance.

This study provides pioneering evidence for the moderating effect of HR system on the work–life programme–performance relationship. It also includes the rarely studied CSR as an outcome of work–life programmes.

The purpose of this paper is to consider women in rural villages of Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. What the author discovered is that some women are carving out a space through a complex, triple relation to the state. The state is distributor of social grants, a midwife of economic activity, and a technocratic system of governance and “service delivery.” The paper asks whether post-wage livelihoods are simply survivalists or have emancipatory potential.

The paper is based on research conducted in 2013-2015 in the rural villages of Keiskammahoek. The author spent time in the villages informally speaking to women and conducted 39 in-depth interviews.

The author found that the women are finding ways to engender non-capitalist relations in new and creative ways within their rural communities. The three sources of state activity (and power) – grants, economic projects, and governance – are engaged and used in different ways, but together create an interesting nexus of livelihoods and survival. What is interesting is the survivalist livelihoods – even if not representing an alternative mode of production – are allowing women a degree of independence, dignity, and self-determination.

The research has not been published and this argument has not been made before. The manuscript is a new approach to understanding post-wage livelihoods.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the dynamics of submitting arts-based research in a climate that is dominated, in the UK, by the social sciences.

It begins by taking a view on arts-based research, considering mainly Eisner and Dewey but exploring the possibilities of other forms such as baroque research. It goes on to look at some examples of arts-based research that has been carried out, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The authors conclude by saying that interdisciplinary research, while being encouraged by research councils, is also made more difficult by these same research councils’ funding structures.

The authors consider that this has an effect on defining what educational research is and could be. The authors argue that this is important not only in relation to the range of disciplinary perspectives that can be drawn upon within educational settings, for example, the need to engage with disciplines such as English, History, Philosophy, Music and Fine Art, but also in relation to methodological understandings of how research should be conducted within educational settings.

The research studies are arts based but with an original educational orientation.

The development of Research Management and Administration (RMA) in Europe is strongly connected with the development of the Science and Technology (S&T) policy of the European Union (EU). These policies were the result of a continuous debate between the member states and the European Commission and European Parliament.

Although there is no data on the early development of RMA, there are some publications on the history of the development of the S&T policy in Europe: the excellent publication ‘A History of European Union Research Policy’ by Luca Guzzetti (Guzzetti, 1995). Guzzetti’s book investigates the history of EU research policies from 1948 up to the preparation of the Fourth Framework Programme (FP) (1994–1998).

The RMA aspects are constructed mainly by oral history complemented with some written sources. The history shows a gradual development of the profession unevenly spread in time and European geography. This has mainly with the EU enlargement in the same period, when new member states were connected to the FP. The profession started with a few colleagues’ way back in the eighties of the last century as financial people were dealing with the first European financial reporting up to the present day where RMA is becoming a field of work attracting many new colleagues.

The purpose of this paper is to link theories on the meaning of work with the meanings participants in a public work scheme attribute to work, in a context of high national and local unemployment and precarious employment.

This study followed a qualitative strategy to allow participants to express their own meanings of work through a work-life history approach. Findings from eight interviews are substantiated by two focus groups and thematically analysed.

Analysis of the findings revealed a high correlation with Kaplan and Tausky’s typology of the meanings of work (1974). The implication of this grounded approach is that this study expands the typology from six to eight factors. In this manner, work in a public work scheme not only has meaning as an economic activity, a structured routine, intrinsic satisfaction, interpersonal experiences, social status and a morally correct activity, but is also gendered and an opportunity for training.

Apart from expanding Kaplan and Tausky’s typology on the meanings of work (1974), this study highlights the added-value of public work schemes, in that, by providing the unemployed with the opportunity to work, they also improve their quality of life in a number of aspects.