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This monograph contains abstracts from the 2005 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, 6‐7th September 2005

Globalisation is generally defined as the “denationalisation of clusters of political, economic, and social activities” that destabilize the ability of the sovereign State to control activities on its territory, due to the rising need to find solutions for universal problems, like the pollution of the environment, on an international level. Globalisation is a complex, forceful legal and social process that take place within an integrated whole with out regard to geographical boundaries. Globalisation thus differs from international activities, which arise between and among States, and it differs from multinational activities that occur in more than one nation‐State. This does not mean that countries are not involved in the sociolegal dynamics that those transboundary process trigger. In a sense, the movements triggered by global processes promote greater economic interdependence among countries. Globalisation can be traced back to the depression preceding World War II and globalisation at that time included spreading of the capitalist economic system as a means of getting access to extended markets. The first step was to create sufficient export surplus to maintain full employment in the capitalist world and secondly establishing a globalized economy where the planet would be united in peace and wealth. The idea of interdependence among quite separate and distinct countries is a very important part of talks on globalisation and a significant side of today’s global political economy.

This article deconstructs the hagiography surrounding British mental health policy and provides a critical analysis of the ‘New Labour’ Government reforms of the Mental Health Act 1983 grounded in Foucauldian insights. Smart (1985) suggests that a Foucauldian perspective deconstructs “common sense assumptions” that lie at the heart of policies formulated by the State. A cogent discussion grounded in Foucault’s work can illustrate how surveillance and discourses of power impact on the positioning of service users as objects of control, domination and subordination.

The purpose of this paper is to broaden the inclusion of patent searching in information literacy instruction by extending it from chemistry and engineering into the life sciences.

Two case studies, one undergraduate and one graduate, from two Canadian universities described the addition of patent searching to information literacy instruction in genetics and biotechnology.

Results indicate that the integration of patents into information literacy sessions at the undergraduate and graduate levels not only enhance students' information literacy skills, but also help students learn more about the disciplines of genetics and biotechnology.

The results of this paper have practical and pedagogical implications for librarians teaching students how to use patents as a primary source of scientific information in the life sciences and may provide useful information for any librarians who wish to introduce students to patents.

While most of the literature about the integration of patent searching in information literacy instruction focuses on chemistry and engineering, this paper shows how integral patent information is to the life sciences, and how familiarity with patent searching can enhance student understanding of the scientific information environment.