The role of universities in the promotion of worker protection: UCLA labor occupational health and safety program as a model for countries with developing economies

ABSTRACT

Protection of the workers’ health in countries with developing economies is increasingly important because of the adverse effects of globalization, along with changing industrial relations, the rise of precarious work and outsourcing, and the decline in unionization. In this study, I examine whether the institutes created by universities might serve as an interface between workers, academia, and state agencies, and provide assistance for both improving workplace conditions and enforcing occupational health and safety rules. I describe the history of one such effort: The Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Using a review of written sources along with participatory observation and interviews as methods, I found that the challenges faced by LOSH historically have important parallels in countries with developing economies today. Ultimately, university-based occupational health programs like LOSH need to be followed in other parts of the world and be supported by governments if the mission to reduce workplace injuries and diseases is going to be realized in the United States and in other countries.     

论劳动者的休息权及其法律保障

休息权是劳动者所享有的宪法权利,具有自由权和社会权的双重属性.当劳动者享有休息权时,国家负有尊重和不干预的义务;在劳动者的休息权受用人单位侵害时,国家负有保护的义务;发展劳动者休息和休养的设施,国家负有给付义务.保障劳动者的休息权,立法机关需要完善相关立法,劳动行政部门需要切实履行法定监管职责,司法解释的举证责任分配规...     

中原油田劳务派遣工劳动权益问题的调研与思考

劳务派遣作为一种新型的、特殊的劳动用工形式,近年来在我国得到迅速发展,成为某些企业用工主流方式.劳务派遣工的劳动权益维护也逐渐成为一项社会问题,对于这一问题的解决,需要各界人士献计献策,需要党和国家的政策支持和各级工会组织的紧密配合.     

The Africa-China relationship: challenges and opportunities

The dramatic growth in the relationship between Africa and China is one of the great stories of the twenty-first century, part of the profound transformations taking place in the global political economy. It has been greeted with excitement, consternation, and confusion. To its cheerleaders, it represents the enduring partnership between Africa and China, spawned by the historical affinities of struggles against Western imperialism and humanistic aspirations for development. To its critics, it is reminiscent of European colonisation a century earlier, in which Africa serves as a cheap source of raw materials, a lucrative export market for Chinese manufactured goods, and an outlet for its surplus capital. Rather than a development partner, some see China as Africa's biggest development competitor, whose explosive growth and insatiable quest for global markets threatens Africa's industrialisation and competitiveness. This paper examines the factors behind the development of Africa-China relations, especially its economic magnitude, and the challenges and opportunities it offers both regions.     

Local Government and Local Governance: 1944–2011

Abstract

Since the establishment of the tri-partite system of state education after the Second World War, the once simple relationships between central government and local government and the individual school have become increasingly complex. This article considers the key governance issues for schools and colleges in England and how they have been affected by the redistribution of power between central government and local government. The principal foci are the main legislative changes and the impact they have had on the respective powers and responsibilities of central government, local government and schools and colleges. The radical developments since the formation of the coalition government in May 2010 have accelerated the shift of power to central government from local government and by the end of the first term of the coalition the local authority will have little more than a vestigial role in the provision of secondary education and a diminishing role in primary and special education. As academy status becomes the norm (as it already is for secondary schools in some authorities) central government will be dealing directly with autonomous schools and academy chains. With more schools directly employing staff and with funding levels set nationally, the pattern and nature of public education will have been irrevocably changed.     

Neo-Islamism in the post-Arab Spring

The Arab Spring revealed the rise of Islamists and a wave of Islamic movements across the region. The Islamist agenda is debatable on issues regarding their commitment to democracy, pluralism and individual freedom. Central to this is understanding their evolving definition of Islamism and how the players view themselves. The article provides a brief background on which to describe and define the modern Islamist. The features of Islamist political parties are described. The article offers a definition of neo-Islamism that reflects its most modern trends, including these key characteristics: non-traditional religiosity, gradualism, Islam modernization, nationalism and pragmatic relations with the West.     

Trading in development: norms and institutions in the making/unmaking of European Union–African,Caribbean and Pacific trade and development cooperation

This paper offers a contribution to recent debates on European Union (EU) external trade and development policy, with a specific focus on the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries. The question asked is why the EU encountered such difficulties in the attempt to translate its normative preferences for freer trade and closer economic integration into a series of binding agreements? Drawing on both economic constructivist and historical institutionalist insights, it is argued that the case for reform initially rested on a strong convergence between institutions and ideas, enabling the EU to discursively present desired policy reforms as necessary to satisfy World Trade Organisation trade rules. However, in due course, the institutional dynamics behind the latter began to diverge from the EU's policy preferences and blunt its norm-based argument – thus creating the space for transnational coalitions to, first, question and, ultimately, undermine aspects the EU's trade and development prospectus for the ACP.     

Changing Images in Books for Young People

Literature for young people has changed greatly since Severzteeiztlz Suinrner and Fifreerz were published. Society has changed greatly, too, in the last few decades. Many modern books reflect society's involvement with drugs, sex, alcohol, and violence. Teenagers will read a great variety of stories and view different images of themselves and their times.     

Creating an Extrafamilial Living Environment

Abstract

As human actors, the staff members and children who inhabit a residential center do not just react to their physical and social environment. In many ways they can be said to enact or create it.     

Guidelines in Child and Youth Care Family Work

SUMMARY

There are many paths that can be taken with the families we encounter in our work. It is this richness in options that can make the child and youth care approach so powerful. However, amongst each potential path there are a number of common guideposts that serve as markers for our interactions with families. These guiding principles are described through the use of examples from a family in a program for teens who are parenting.