This article draws on data generated in semi-structured interviews to describe changes in social capital in the form of social networks across two generations of male school leavers. The article achieves this by comparing and contrasting the school-to-work transitions of eleven poorly qualified males, who left school in the late 1990s, to the transitions made by their fathers in the years between 1955 and 1980. The data show that the value of the social networks available to today's school leavers has declined in comparison to the value of the networks that were available to their fathers. It is argued that the decline in the value of social networks has contributed to risk and uncertainty in school-to-work transitions.

In the intense debate around questions related to labour market flexibility one of the contested issues has been the relationship between temporary work and unemployment. Temporary work has here been regarded either as a precursor to recurrent unemployment, or as an entry port to stable employment. Little is however known about actual mobility patterns, including whether or not temporary employment can act as a stepping stone out of unemployment. Using a sample of initially unemployed, this is here examined through an analysis of the relationship between temporary employment during a one-year observation period and employment and unemployment during a subsequent twelve-month long follow-up period. The results evince the great overall vulnerability of the unemployed, but also that the permanent and temporary jobs obtained by unemployed differ relatively little in the employment security they offer. This suggests that the type of employment contract is of minor importance for the long-term employment prospects of the unemployed. This holds for women as well as for men, contradicting some earlier conjectures about gender specific mobility patterns.

This study investigates the impact of economic restructuring on the labour force participation of subordinate minority men. Taking Israel as a case study, we review the trends of labour force participation of Arab men over the last two decades and compare their levels of participation with those of Jewish men. We also examine the main variables, which cause their withdrawal from the labour market. The data for the study was drawn from the labour force surveys that the Central Bureau of Statistics carries out on regular basis. The unique panel structure of these surveys enabled us to analyse the dynamics and shifts in the process of withdrawal. Results of the analysis indicate that age, education, class and unemployment at any given point in time are the variables that increase the likelihood of Arab men's dropout from the labour market. These variables effect the withdrawal of Jewish men from the labour market differently. The differences in the determinants of labour force withdrawal by Arab and Jewish men reflect the segmented nature of the Israeli labour market. These results are employed to evaluate the impact of restructuring on labour market's segmentation.

The scoring of occupational categories has a long history. After reviewing the historical background, we develop and discuss the properties of two new Australian scales based on current theorising in stratification research. The first is based on the operation of the labour market and scores occupations to reflect their central role in converting educational credentials into market income. The second is based on patterns of social interaction and scores occupations to reflect the choices that people make in marriage markets. While these two scales are not theoretically or empirically equivalent, they are closely related and provide equally valid, but alternative, ways of measuring the underlying stratification order of modern societies.

Recent debates surrounding the future of work and non-standard forms of employment have, especially in the United States, used the film industry as an exemplar and signifier of future industrial change. Much research conducted in the film industry implicitly or explicitly draws on the flexible specialisation framework to understand industrial organisation and labour market operation. It is the contention of this paper, however, that the dual labour market analysis associated with flexible specialisation explanations is too simplistic, failing to reflect the range of factors affecting labour market organisation and operation. The resulting static and atomised analysis is, as such, ill-equipped to conceptualise the complex patterns of organisation and movement evident in the highly uncertain context of film making. Furthermore, the operation and organisation of the labour market cannot be understood independently of the management of labour within the labour process. Production company management set the context and targets of work (in terms of work scheduling, pay, and conditions) and departmental heads retain method autonomy and control the recruitment and performance of ‘their’ group members. However, this is the case within a context in which people need to continually re-secure work and maintain positions within groups and contacts. Therefore, a seeming lack of control over tasks at the point of production is reinforced by the use of labour market mechanisms and influences their form.

Belgian policy-makers are coming to regard the Netherlands as a ‘model’. Belgian observers commenting on the ‘Dutch miracle’ frequently refer to the greater flexibility of the deployment of labour. The share taken by temporary employment is indeed much lower in Belgium. The OECD links this ‘shortfall’ to an excess of protective regulations (Belgosclerosis). In this paper we critically evaluate the theoretical arguments cited for relaxing the right of dismissal and the use of flexible forms of employment. On the basis of this theoretical exercise, we compare the Belgian and Dutch policies on dismissal protection, prevention of dismissal and temporary employment. We examine whether differences in institutional embedding lead to differences in the way in which companies seek to achieve flexibility. The main conclusion is that the institutional frameworks of Belgium and the Netherlands have been built up along different lines. Dutch legislation encourages contractual flexibility. Belgian legislation focuses more on temporal flexibility. A competition for the greatest flexibility has little point given these observations. It is not a question of ‘more’ or ‘less’, but of ‘different’ flexibility. The wider significance of the comparison is that it clearly demonstrates that the compromise between flexibility and stability (and job security) can be forged in different ways.

Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS) are networks for exchanging goods and services using a local currency. They are seen by some as providing an ‘alternative’ way of negotiating changing and complex livelihoods. Current literature on LETS and work understands participation as a response to dissatisfaction around work and as a strategy for re-valuing work. In this paper we draw initially on new quantitative data to understand who engages in LETS work and find that trading is small-scale and limited to a particular group of people. The data also suggest that contrary to previous research exchanges on LETS sometimes transform and sometimes reinforce existing work relations. To illuminate these complexities we draw on in-depth interviews with Stroud and Brixton LETS members. First, we highlight the multiple ways in which their relations to work connect with their motivations for joining LETS. Second, we examine how these motivations are translated into practice by looking at how prices for LETS work are negotiated. This illustrates that the way power interweaves during these negotiations is multiple and dynamic. Finally, we suggest that for LETS trading to be more equal, the different capacities that people have to negotiate needs to be considered.

Many studies have examined the household division of labour from a gender perspective, but comparatively few have considered age and the intergenerational distribution of household work. Using empirical evidence from my ethnographic study of rural households in Bolivia, I argue that whilst adult household labour is highly determined by gender roles, children's unpaid household work often cuts across gender stereotypes and does not merely mirror the adult division of labour. Furthermore, this paper argues that it is not sufficient to include only an intergenerational and gender analysis of household divisions of labour but that other intragenerational issues also need to be considered. Drawing on both children's and adults' perspectives, this paper discusses the nature of generation-specific tasks not only by gender but also by age, birth order and sibling composition. Whilst the paper is based on a case study of a rural community in a low-income country, it highlights the importance of the sibling order which has frequently been overlooked or ignored in household divisions of labour throughout the world. The findings show that the allocation of household labour in rural Bolivia is worked out according to generation, age, gender, birth order and sibling composition.

This article argues that in the current context of rising unemployment and growing exclusion from the traditional locus of social cohesion and income distribution, a new approach to social policy and employment is required. The scope of informal employment strategies to tackle social exclusion needs to be examined. One such initiative, which has been attracting increasing attention from policy-makers, is the Local Exchange Trading Scheme (LETS) local grassroots community currency which operates as a cashless trading network for members. LETS have been growing throughout the UK in recent years. Findings are presented from a case study of a LETS scheme. LETS was found to be successful at delivering new informal employment opportunities to socially excluded groups, boosting their income, and providing a forum for social interaction and community-building. However, there is scope for much greater participation. LETS's small size restricts its usefulness in the labour market for informal employment, and current state policy towards benefit recipients working on LETS is an obstacle. Possibilities for mainstream incorporation into welfare strategies are limited by the informal, non-commercial and deeply personal value regime enacted within LETS. Yet professionalisation would threaten this nascent socially embedded economic geography. State support for LETS, while highly desirable, should not be considered an unproblematic advocacy issue.

The paper describes the current employment patterns of men and women in local government in Scotland, Wales and England, and examines the gender relations of work during a period of restructuring which is challenging the professionalised welfare bureaucracy and replacing it with a managerialised state informed by market principles. Men are declining as a percentage of employees, alongside decreasing numbers of full-time jobs and increasing part-time and temporary contracts, suggesting some decrease in the relative desirability of public service employment. Nevertheless the challenges to traditional conceptions of paternalistic, bureaucratic welfare have facilitated women's increasing access to professional and managerial grades, but men have continued to dominate most positions of power and authority. The continuing gender divisions of labour, and women's perceptions of a sharper axis of gender conflict surrounding the period of reorganisation into single tier authorities in Scotland and Wales, suggest that it is not simply a matter of time until a rational, functional state eradicates remaining inequalities between the sexes. Neither however can a radical feminist perspective, which treats the state as bound to reproduce women's subordination, account for the degree of progressive change. Instead it is argued that there is genuine indeterminacy in the restructuring process, which, given women's representation and participation, seems likely to disrupt further the legacy of patriarchal relations informing the trajectory of state bureaucracies.

Labour market analysis conventionally distinguishes amongst employees according to whether their contract of employment is ‘permanent’ or ‘temporary’. The permanent contract of employment, best understood as a contract for an indefinite term, is the central form. It has served as the crucial pivot in the development of ‘industrial citizenship’ during much of the twentieth century. Most advanced capitalist societies, apart from isolated exceptions such as the United States, have followed a parallel historical course, whereby permanent employment – in particular in its full-time form – was installed both as the dominant form of employment and as the standard entry-point for access to a comprehensive set of industrial rights and benefits, including minimum wages and standardised working-time arrangements (Streeck 1992).

Ethnic minority business activity has often been presented as a vehicle for ‘upward mobility’ for owners and workers alike. Much attention has focused upon the owners themselves. The co-ethnic labour that such employers usually rely upon has often been treated as unproblematic. This paper aims to illuminate the experiences of workers in ethnic minority owned restaurants. In particular, the widely held view that working in a co-ethnic firm serves as an ‘apprenticeship’ for eventual self-employment is explored.

Rather than co-ethnic ties, workers' labour market experiences highlight the importance of the ‘opportunity structure’ in shaping employment choices. The evidence of the current research suggests that the goal of self-employment was not widely held; and although many workers did move around to acquire better paid work, this was not part of a strategic route to becoming a restaurateur. Some workers did cherish such ambitions, but were inhibited by major obstacles. These included intense competition, high start-up costs, and a lack of ‘know-how’. The labour market and social context of the firm often militated against the hazardous proposition of self-employment.

There is a growing literature on employment in call centres, much of which suggests that they are characterised by high levels of work intensification and surveillance. Recently, a debate has emerged about the nature of surveillance in such workplaces and the level and character of employee resistance (Bain and Taylor 2000; Fernie and Metcalf 1998; Mulholland 1999) with some, such as Bain and Taylor, claiming that the argument is characterised by a paucity of empirical evidence. Against this background, this paper reports on the results of an observational study of call centre work. In what follows we describe the ways in which managers, supervisors and call centre operatives oriented to the monitoring and surveillance capabilities of call centre technology, to the complex social context in which it was embedded and to a range of negotiated definitions of the nature and purposes of the centre's operations. We make no claims here that the call centre reported on is typical of all such centres. Nor do we seek directly to enter the debate about whether call centre surveillance is panoptic in character or about the extent and character of resistance. Nevertheless, it will become apparent that our findings do have relevance for these debates.

Over the last three decades, modern capitalist economies have experienced significant changes in the structure of industry, the nature of production and the organisation of work. There has been a decline in traditional industries such as manufacturing, construction and mining and a growth in social, personal, financial and commercial services, as well as a stabilisation or decline in public employment (Ebbinghaus and Visser 1999:141–2). Technological changes have transformed production in modern economies by expanding the possibilities for flexible and decentralised production techniques. There has been an associated increase in the role of knowledge and the importance of product and process innovation. A set of strategies for managing the workforce has emerged in response to perceived changes in the structure of industry and the organisation of production including ‘reengineering’ and ‘de-layering’, which are thought to reflect the increased need for worker participation and autonomy in the new production regime.

This paper addresses two related issues: the effect of the ‘regulatory shock’ of the National Minimum Wage on small firms and the consequent effects on the commonly observed practice of ‘informality’. It draws on a survey of such firms but primarily uses case study evidence from five firms to examine the processes at work. Detailed case studies of such firms remain rare, and they tend to analyse a largely unchanging world. We show how patterns of informality change over time. The regulatory shock had varying effects, as some firms moved up-market and others were pressed to the edges of the legitimate market and in some cases out of business altogether. In the firms moving up-market, informality was redefined into a more disciplined and formalised approach, while those going down-market relied even more heavily on family and other ties to survive. The NMW led to some improved wages, though there was also evasion, and it has sharpened the divide between the legitimate and illicit areas of business.

S. Aronowitz, From the Ashes of the Old: American Labor and America's Future, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998, $25.00, 246 pp.

K. Bronfenbrenner, S. Friedman, R. Hurd, R. Oswald and R. Seeber (eds.), Organizing To Win: New Research on Union Strategies, Ithaca: ILR Press, 1998, $19.95 xii+370 pp.

Jo-Ann Mort (ed.) Not Your Father's Union Movement: Inside the AFL-CIO, London: Verso, 1998, £13.00, paper xii+237 pp.

B. Nissen, (ed.) Unions and Workplace Regorganization, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997, paper $22.95, 240 pp.

B. Nissen (ed.), Which Direction for Organized Labor? Essays on Organizing, Outreach, and Internal Transformations, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999, paper, $28.95, 260 pp.

R. M. Tillman and M. S. Cummings (eds.) The Transformation of US Unions: Voices, Visions and Strategies from the Grassroots, 1999, Boulder: Rienner, 1998, paper $22.50 vi+296 pp.

For much of the postwar period, the American trade union movement provided a largely negative model of organisation and strategy to British trade union activists. The practice of business unionism ceded workplace control to employers; the unions were frequently anti-democratic, anti-communist and repressive of any internal dissent; and these latter policies were replicated in relations with trade unions internationally, where the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO) was widely regarded as an extension of American foreign policy.

There is now a large literature documenting the significance of paid domestic work as a sector of employment for women (Gregson and Lowe 1994; England and Steill 1997). In this article I focus on the ways in which gender hierarchies intersect with those of caste in the organisation of paid domestic work in a village on the outskirts of Delhi, India. The article has two broad aims. First, I seek to examine some of the ways in which paid domestic work is organised in India and highlight the social stratification that is central to the organisation of such work. I focus on part-time paid domestic work in which the tasks performed and the organisation of labour have specific spatial dimensions and are based on the caste division of labour. Part-time paid domestic workers usually live in their own households and visit the employer's house once or twice a day to perform the tasks for which they are paid. They often work in more than one house. Thus, part-time implies that the domestic worker's labour and time are not exclusively available to one employer, unlike the case of full-time domestic workers. Secondly, the article explores some aspects of the gendered re-negotiation of these tasks following urbanisation.

The UK government presented the introduction of the National Minimum Wage in April 1999 as an attempt to limit the extent and degree of exploitation in the labour market. In its evidence for the Low Pay Commission's second report, the government expressed the hope that the new regulations would prevent employers from competing on the basis of ‘poverty wages’ while signalling to employees that ‘work pays’ (Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 1999: 6). Homeworking is frequently associated with low pay and homeworkers were explicitly identified as being among those who stood to gain most from a minimum wage (Low Pay Commission 1998). The Low Pay Commission estimated that a third of all homeworkers would experience financial benefits as a result of the new legislation.

Frank Coffield (ed.), 1: Learning at Work, Bristol: Policy Press, 1998, paper £13.99, v+69 pp.

Frank Coffield (ed.), 2: Why's the Beer always Stronger up North?: Studies in Lifelong Learning in Europe, Bristol: Policy Press, 1999, paper £13.99, v+81 pp.

Frank Coffield (ed.) 3: Speaking Truth to Power: Research and Policy on Lifelong Learning, Bristol: Policy Press, 1999, paper £13.99, v+85 pp.

Frank Coffield (ed.) 4: The Necessity of Informal Learning, Bristol: Policy Press, 2000, paper £13.99, v+80 pp.

These four linked volumes are the first co-ordinated output from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Research Programme, ‘The Learning Society: Knowledge and Skills for Employment’, directed by Frank Coffield. It was officially described thus:

‘The Programme is a response to the growing national consensus that the UK needs to transform radically its thinking and practice in relation to education and training if it is to survive as a major economic power with a high quality of life, political freedom and social justice for all its citizens.

The aim of the Programme is to examine the nature of what has been called a learning society and to explore the ways in which it can contribute to the development of knowledge and skills for employment and other areas of adult life. The Programme focuses on post-compulsory education, training and continuing education in a wide variety of contexts, both formal and informal’ (Cited in the introduction to all 4 volumes)