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Over the last decades, the social sciences have become increasingly concerned with the role of the state and the politics of institutional restructuring. Within mainstream political science this has led to the development of a “state-centered” research program that emphasizes the autonomy of institutions. Marxist theory, however, has continued to adhere to a “society-centered” perspective, seeking to combine an ability to account for institutional change with the analysis of more structural social and economic forces. After some introductory comments that frame the problematic within which the paper is situated (Section 1), I discuss in Section 2 three of the most important recent Marxist attempts to construe the relation between socio-economic imperatives and political institutions. My argument is that Marxists’ attempts to relativize the autonomy of state institutions are too often still based on the postulation of an unexplained structural moment. This leaves them vulnerable to institutionalist claims concerning the autonomous nature of institutions. Section 3 proposes a different way of thinking the role of institutions in capitalist society. This approach breaks with a causalist, structuralist mode of explanation and relies on a more hermeneutic understanding of the role of institutions. I will shift the problematic to the relation between institutions and agency, arguing for a more pragmatist understanding of the role of institutions and an agency-based understanding of the formation of socio-economic imperatives. Section 4 concludes with some thoughts on the prospects held out, as well as the challenges faced, by the approach proposed in this paper.

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on beginning the principalship by identifying and illustrating key challenges that novice principals encounter in their first year for which they would benefit from improved preparation.

The paper is a synthesis of a decade of research focusing on the principal with the general aim of analysing ways in which principals can work more effectively within the realities of schools as highly complex organizations. Throughout this work, the narrative account has been used as the main approach for depicting principals' understandings of the contexts in which they find themselves and their interpretations of the experiences that confront them in their roles.

A range of findings generated from the research as a whole has been refined into the conceptualisation of four distinct but interrelated challenges facing novice principals in exercising their roles.

The paper proposes a conceptual framework that can be used as a heuristic tool for informing the preparation of principals, especially in the Australian context.

This paper aims to highlight what principals consider their most severe challenges in the first three years of appointment and the extent to which they believe they were adequately prepared to meet these challenges.

The paper reports on the initial Western Australian findings of a survey developed for Phase Three of the International Study of Principal Preparation (ISPP). The survey was designed as a common instrument across international contexts to investigate those aspects of principals' work perceived to be most challenging in the early years in the position and the extent to which principals believe they were prepared for these challenges. The survey was administered to 45 novice principals in Western Australia.

The preliminary results of the survey have yielded some insights that draw attention to what principals regard as their main challenges and the extent to which they felt prepared to deal with them.

The sample size is a little small for some of the analyses and results need to be treated with caution.

The insights derived from responses to the survey have clear implications for the efficacy of role preparation and development.

The paper helps to clarify those aspects of the work of novice primary principals which they find most problematic, relative to other aspects and the extent to which they felt prepared to deal with them.

Over recent years there have been massive changes in working life and workplaces. Across the 1990s there has been a marked increase in reports of work‐related psychological distress in the UK. This paper uses the results of the most recent Occupational Health Decennial supplement (Office for National Statistics (ONS) & Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 2007), based on nationally representative data sources on distress at work, working conditions, sickness absence and psychiatric morbidity to examine the reasons for the apparent increase in work‐related psychological distress.

This chapter examines the intricacies of researching the initial preparation of school principals. First, the case is made for the importance of researching this formative stage in a principal's career trajectory. Second, an alignment is described between theory, research, and practice for informing fruitful approaches to preparation for the principalship. Third, a framework is articulated comprising four focal points portraying the complexities of principals' work. It is suggested that this framework could be used as a heuristic tool for connecting with the realities of the principal's world and the professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are required to perform the role effectively.

Apprenticeship programmes are designed to provide young trainees with essential broad-based skills. Through apprenticeships, different sectors that are underpopulated can fill up their skills gaps. Apprenticeships are particularly useful to the construction sector which has a high ageing workforce and associated lower labour productivity. However, the completion rates of apprenticeship training programmes in the construction sector remain low in several countries across the globe. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to review the published research on apprenticeship training that is specifically focused on the construction sector, to determine the current status quo and suggest a direction for future research.

A systematic review approach was adopted. Based on a comprehensive search using SCOPUS databases, 33 relevant journal articles were identified and analysed.

It was found that monitoring and control is the most mentioned factor responsible for improvements in the completion rates of apprenticeship training. In contrast, the length of time required for going through the full training is the most common factor responsible for low completion rates. Three research gaps were identified, among which is the dearth of studies that has focused on apprentices training in developing countries.

The gaps identified in the current knowledge on apprenticeship training would serve as a justification for future investigations. However, the scope of the review is limited to papers published in academic journals and citable through SCOPUS.

The outcomes of the study provide researchers and other relevant stakeholders with a concise report on the findings of previous studies. It also provides insight into strategies for improving the completion rates of apprenticeship training in the construction sector.

A systematic evaluation of the extant literature draws on theoretical evidence and highlights the factors that are more likely to influence the outcomes of apprentice training for craftspeople in the construction sector.

Our chapter examines the ways national developments in Australia and New Zealand over the past two decades reflect distinctively antipodean understandings of educational leadership and management. Our interest is twofold. We are concerned about the extent to which these understandings are reflected in strategies designed to enhance the quality of school leadership. We are also concerned about the extent to which these strategies represent progress towards achieving ‘sustainable’ school leadership. We define sustainable leadership in terms of both building leadership capacity within the organisation and embedding lasting organisational change (Fink & Brayman, 2006; Hargreaves & Fink, 2006; Spillane, 2006). The concept used here implies both models of distributed or shared leadership and leadership succession.

Review essay on Stephen A. Resnick and Richard D. Wolff’s, Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSR. New York and London: Routledge. xiv + 353 pp. 2002. The overwhelming ideological dominance of neo-liberalism has led to the widespread acceptance of the most facile explanations of the collapse of the Soviet Union, whose demise supposedly demonstrates the validity of Adam Smith’s critique of political intervention in the functioning of the market. In this book Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff undertake the vitally important task of theorizing the rise and fall of the Soviet Union from a Marxist perspective. Resnick and Wolff follow the neo-liberals in seeing the Soviet Union as a form of capitalism administered by the state, but reject the neo-liberal critique of the inefficiency of state capitalism, celebrating the supposedly great economic achievements of the Soviet Union. The failure of the Soviet Union lay not in the dominance of the state, but in the failure to go beyond state capitalism to establish a communist society. Instead of building on the limited communist elements in soviet society, the Soviet Union was marked by the persistence of what Resnick and Wolff call the “ancient” and “feudal” class structures which ultimately proved its undoing, by undermining the state capitalist appropriation of the surplus and providing the cultural and political foundations for a return to private capitalist forms of surplus appropriation.

This paper proceeds from the basis that leadership can only be understood in context and by viewing it from the inside. In particular, it argues that the contextual complexity of small school leadership warrants attention from researchers, policy makers and system administrators and describes the nature of this complexity as depicted in the literature. It then reports a study being conducted in two states of Australia which examines the ways novice principals of small schools located in rural and remote areas make sense of, and deal with, the contextual complexity of their work. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of the study for promoting understanding of small school leadership and for developing authentic means of professional learning.

In the absence of slavery, worker and employer enter into an enforceable contractual agreement whereby the former is regularly paid by the latter. The systematic non‐payment of wages in Russia is the most tangible manifestation of the absence of the rule of law in that country and represents a potent obstacle to the development of effective trade unionism. However, the wage issue has to be set in the context of the wider malaise of non‐payment which exists, and for which central government must bear primary responsibility. This paper explores the dilemmas which this situation presents to the union movement and seeks to address the questions of what can and should the unions do about the situation? Because of the depth of the crisis inflicted on the economy by “shock therapy”, the answers are not to be found in the bankruptcy courts. While not abrogating their union functions, the trade unions must seek the satisfaction of realisable political demands.