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1 – 5 of 5Karl von Holdt and Edward Webster
Is labour's decline permanent, or is it merely a temporary weakening, as Beverley Silver suggests in her recent book, as the labour movement is unmade and remade in different…
Abstract
Purpose
Is labour's decline permanent, or is it merely a temporary weakening, as Beverley Silver suggests in her recent book, as the labour movement is unmade and remade in different locations and at different times? The article aims to examine this question in South Africa, one of the newly industrialised countries of the 1960s and 1970s, now largely bypassed by new manufacturing investment destined for countries such as India and China.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper concentrates, through six case studies, on the growing non‐core and peripheral zones of work and examines the impact of the restructuring on labour.
Findings
The evidence presented is ambiguous. While there have been significant innovative union organising experiments, it may be that the structural weakening of labour has been too great and that the new sources of power are too limited, to permit effective reorientation.
Practical implications
It is concluded that significant progress will only be made if there is a concerted effort to commit resources and above all to develop new associational strategies that recognise the potential for symbolic power as an alternative to the erosion of structural power of workers and the unions that represent them. Unless such a shift is made the crisis of labour movements internationally may be better understood as a permanent crisis than the temporary one Silver suggests.
Originality/value
The paper identities the potential for new strategies to develop and sustain associational and symbolic power that might compensate for weakened structural power and facilitate a remaking of the labour movement under new conditions.
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Keywords
This paper aims to highlight the value of research contributions that have focused on making visible the knowledge of those historically excluded from formal knowledge-making. It…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight the value of research contributions that have focused on making visible the knowledge of those historically excluded from formal knowledge-making. It identifies key bodies of theory that have grounded these analyses, and questions whether we can fully do justice to this project if we continue to rely on established “canons” of social science theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The article reviews research contributions to Researching Work and Learning conferences over the past decade, aimed at identifying those who have been invisible as makers of knowledge. It then considers a body of critique that our dominant epistemologies within the social sciences are rooted in unequal global and local power relations.
Findings
In the literature on workplace learning, a few theoretical paradigms forged in the global north seem to predominate. The article concludes that we need to re-centre our sources of knowledge-making to what Homi Bhabha has called an “ex-centric” site, if we are to develop more inclusive theorizations of work and learning, and more socially just ways of working and learning in the future.
Originality/value
The article invites researchers to reflect critically on their use of theory, and to be more proactive in developing theories with an angle of vision outside of the geo-political centre, so as to better understand the diversity of work and learning globally.
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Keywords
This introduction aims to review the present state of research on employment relations in Africa, and provide an overview of subsequent papers.
Abstract
Purpose
This introduction aims to review the present state of research on employment relations in Africa, and provide an overview of subsequent papers.
Design/methodology/approach
The article provides a brief review on the journal issue.
Findings
Despite considerable diversity across the continent, a number of common issues and themes emerge. These would include the sharp divide between formal and informal work, the problems faced by unions in organizing in contexts where formal employment is shrinking, and the often negative effects of liberalization. What all the articles in this special issue point to is that the prospects of enhancing the quality of working life, and imparting greater fairness to the implementation of the employment contract is contingent on both national institution building – allowing for the nurturing of complementarities conducive to the expansion, entrenchment and development of higher value added production paradigms – and fairer terms, more equitable relations with the developed world.
Practical implications
Understanding of the practice of employment relations in Africa can be greatly advanced through collaborative initiatives aimed at developing the capacity of emerging scholars and ensuring that the work of more mature scholars of employment based at African universities receives the exposure it deserves.
Originality/value
The article introduces the papers in the issue.
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Keywords
On 2 January, 1984 the American Library Association will inaugurate Alanet, a new electronic mail and information service. Subscriptions will be available to all ALA organisation…
ASIS Annual Meeting. The 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science was held from 2–6 October 1983, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in Crystal City, Virginia…
Abstract
ASIS Annual Meeting. The 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science was held from 2–6 October 1983, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in Crystal City, Virginia, just the other side of the Potomac River from Washington, DC.