Mutuality and competition: Female landless labour and wage rates in Tamil Nadu

The factors determining rural wage rates have remained problematic in writings on agrarian structure in rural India. First, a striking segmentation of the rural labour market has been widely noted so that different wage rates exist even for contiguous villages. Secondly, it has been argued that the ‘stickiness downwards’ of wage rates, particularly the rigidity downwards of daily money wages, is very marked and is not susceptible to explanation in terms of conventional economic theories. A useful approach by Rudra to these two problems is examined here and it is suggested that the striking contrasts that emerge between his model (based on Bengali data) and the Tamil model presented here show that it is essential to incorporate a micro‐level anthropological approach in order to understand rural wage rate determinants. There can be no pan‐Indian model: only through micro‐level approaches can researchers understand the importance of complex socio‐cultural contexts to the ways in which wage rates are formed and changed.     

HOPE VI: A Promising Vintage?

Public housing policies in distressed communities if they are to succeed, must be based on much more realistic assumptions than they are now. We look at HOPE VI, a public housing policy that not only changes the physical environment, but also social services, job training, work opportunities, transportation, child care and other support services. HOPE VI goes a long way to improving public housing policies for distressed communities.     

Globaler Wettbewerb und Unsicherheiten beim Einstieg in den Arbeitsmarkt

Hintergrund des Beitrages ist die Beobachtung, dass sich durch zunehmenden globalen Wettbewerb die Beschäftigungsstrategien von Firmen verändern und prekäre Beschäftigung und Arbeitslosigkeit für immer mehr Erwerbstätige wahrscheinlich werden. Dabei ist aber anzunehmen, dass die konkreten Formen prekärer Beschäftigung und die differenzielle Betroffenheit bestimmter Beschäftigtengruppen vom nationalen institutionellen Kontext abhängen. Ziel des Artikels ist es, zum einen die Abhängigkeit vom institutionellen Kontext zu skizzieren und zum anderen empirisch zu untersuchen, in welchem Ausmaß bestimmte Personengruppen beim Einstieg in den Arbeitsmarkt im Deutschland der 80er und 90er Jahre von prekärer Beschäftigung und Arbeitslosigkeit betroffen sind. Es wird analysiert, inwieweit das Risiko befristeter Verträge und Arbeitslosigkeit nach Bildung, Ausbildung, Klassenlage, Geschlecht, ethnischer Herkunft und Region (Ostdeutschland vs. Westdeutschland) ungleich verteilt ist. Es zeigt sich, dass sowohl hoch wie niedrig qualifizierte Gruppen überproportional von befristeten Arbeitsverträgen betroffen sind; befristete Beschäftigung erhöht das Risiko von Arbeitslosigkeit, schließlich variiert das Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiko deutlich nach Bildungsabschluss, Klassenlage, Region und ethnischer Herkunft.     

Transitions through Out-of-Keeping Acts

Within a negotiation, when an act by one party is out-of-keeping with the previous moves and underlying logic of the interaction, the act and those that follow hold the potential for creating a transition to a new logic of interaction. In this paper, we investigate the presence and role of seven distinct types of transitions resulting from out-of-keeping acts across ten complex legal negotiations. The data reveal that a critical feature differentiating across the types is the abruptness/gradualness of the transition. We explore the combination of relational, informational, and procedural acts comprising the transitions and find that all three components are present across transitions, but in different proportions and orders. Understanding the role of out-of-keeping acts in negotiations facilitates a more complete picture of the microprocesses involved in the creation of critical moments in negotiations.     

Representative Government and Network Governance – In Need of 'Co-governance': Lessons from Local Decision Making on Public Schools in Denmark

The article argues for the importance of reconciling the institutions of representative government and network governance by means of a combined structure of 'co-governance', and the need for elected politicians in a role as co-governing guardians of democracy in network governance. Based on an examination of two different cases of interactive governance within the field of school reform at the local level in Denmark, some lessons are drawn as to an appropriate new role for elected politicians in a structure of co-governance.