Scenes from a mall: Retail training and the social exclusion of low-skilled workers

In this article we examine how post-industrial Britain and Denmark undertake vocational training for low-skilled retail workers. Specifically, we evaluate whether leaders in training skilled industrial workers are also doing the best job with low-skilled service workers. While Danish retail is increasingly becoming a haven for low-skilled workers, British workers are gaining in skills levels with the transition to services even in the retail sector. While some suggest that social democratic countries have sacrificed the political interests of low-skilled workers in order to protect core manufacturing workers, we find no evidence of this. Rather, the high expectations of vocational training in Denmark have forged barriers to the easy admission of low-skilled service workers, while the British system provides more entry points for vocational training at different levels. The structures of coordination that had narrowed the gap between white-collar and blue-collar manufacturing workers during the industrial age are creating new cleavages in the post-industrial economy.     

Urban policy-making: shortcomings in political technology

Abstract. The urban crisis has typically been explained as a conjuncture of severe problems in large urban areas. As such, these problems ought to be amenable to solutions by public authorities, yet the record has been unimpressive. If part of the reason is the intrinsic complexity of the issues, another factor appears to be the available political technology. This paper suggests that there are two types of shortcoming in that technology which play key roles. The first is the direction-setting mechanisms of government, which are essentially partial, static, and reactive, whereas the policy requirements of an urban society are holistic, dynamic and innovative. The former views efficiency as the objective of policy, yet the pursuit of efficiency within such a framework can lead to growing ineffectiveness or irrelevance. The second type of shortcoming is found in the evolving structure of the public sector. The growing importance of senior level governments, in part a logical consequence of the efficiency bias, has led to yet greater irrelevance. This is due to the growing distance from local preferences, and to the introverted process of goal setting within senior levels of government. Institutional reform is thus an essential precondition for the development of relevant urban policy. Sommaire. De façon typique, la crise urbaine a été expliquée comme étant la convergence de problèmes graves, dans les grandes régions urbaines. Si tel est le cas, les autorités publiques devraient pouvoir leur apporter des solutions et pourtant les résultats obtenus n'ont rien de spectaculaires. Cela est dû en partie à la complexité intrinsèque des problèmes, mais il semble que l'autre raison responsable de cet échec soit la technologie politique actuelle. L'auteur de cette communication pense qu'il y a deux types de faiblesses dus à cette technologie. Le premier concerne les mécanismes d'orientation gouvernementaux, qui sont essentiellement limités, statiques et réactifs alors que les impératifs des politiques gouvernant les sociétés urbaines sont globaux, dynamitiques et innovateurs. Avec le premier système, l'efficacité est l'objectif des politiques, mais la poursuite de l'efficacité dans un tel contexte peut entraîner une inefficacité croissante ou un manque de pertinence. Le second type de faiblesse se trouve dans l'évolution de la structure du secteur public. L'importance croissante des niveaux supérieurs du gouverne-ment, en partie conséquence logique de l'importance accordée à l'efficacité, a fait perdre encore de la pertinence. Cela vient de la manifestation de plus en plus lointaine des préférences locales et du processus inversé pour fixation des objectifs am niveaux supérieurs du gouvemement.     

Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania

Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania: underdevelopment and an uncaptured peasantry Goran Hyden London: Heinemann. 1980. 270pp. £7.50. £3.50 pb