Editorial: Federal developments

On 10 May 2011, Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan MP delivered the Federal Budget for the 2011–2012 financial year. The Budget contains a number of new initiatives, financial redistributions and reductions that relate to Australia's current regulatory framework governing the environment, climate change and renewable energy. These are set out below..

Psychology and the International Labor Organization: The role of psychology in the Decent Work Agenda

The initial development of both the International Labor Organisation (ILO) and the psychological study of working can be traced to a period nearly a century ago when the labor market was in the throes of major changes. Now that many regions of the world are once again facing dramatic and far-reaching transformations in the world of work, the authors believe that it is important to connect the ILO and the psychological study of work and careers to maximize efforts to enhance the quality, availability, and security of work for all citizens across the globe. In this brief paper, the authors discuss some of the ways that psychology can inform the ILO mission

Preparation for meaningful work and life: urban high school youth's reflections on work-based learning 1 year post-graduation

The challenges confronted by low-income high school students throughout school and across the transition to higher education and employment are well-documented in the US and many other nations. Adopting a positive youth development perspective (Lerner et al., 2005), this study reports findings from interviews with 18 low-income, racially and ethnically diverse graduates of an urban Catholic high school in the US. The interviews were designed to shed light on the post-high school experiences of urban high school graduates and to understand how students construct meaning about the value of school and work-based learning (WBL) in their preparation for meaningful work and life. The interviews highlight the perceived value of the academic and non-cognitive preparation students experienced through high school and WBL in relation to the challenges they encountered along the pathway to post-high school success and decent work. Overall, the findings suggest the potential of WBL for low-income youth in facilitating access to resources that build academic and psychological/non-cognitive assets, while also illustrating the role of structural and contextual factors in shaping post-high school transitions and access to meaningful work and life opportunities.Published versio

Editorial: From Meaning of Working to Meaningful Lives: The Challenges of Expanding Decent Work

This Research Topic explores issues that are central to the continued relevance of organizational and vocational psychology, and equally central to the well-being of individuals and communities. The cohering theme of this publication revolves around the question of how people can establish meaningful lives and meaningful work experiences in light of the many challenges that are reducing access to decent work. Another essential contextual factor that is explored in this volume is the Decent Work Agenda (International Labour Organization, 2008), which represents an initiative by the International Labour Organization. In this book, we hope to enrich the Decent Work Agenda by infusing the knowledge and perspectives of psychology into contemporary discourses about work, and well-being. Another inspiration for this project emerged from the UNESCO Chair in Lifelong guidance and counseling, recently established in Poland in 2013 under the leadership of Jean Guichard, which has focused on advancing research and policy advocacy about decent work. This new era calls for an innovative perspective in constructing decent work and decent lives: the passage from the paradigm of motivation to the paradigm of meaning, where the sustainability of the decent life project is anchored to a meaningful construction. During this period when work is changing so rapidly, leaving people yearning for a sense of connection and meaning, it’s fundamental to create a framework for an explicitly psychological analysis of decent work

Ensayos preliminares con sustancias de origen natural para su incorporación en pinturas antialgas

El crecimiento de microorganismos fototróficos que forman biopelículas sobre paredes exteriores pintadas de edificios puede causar decoloración y deterioro fisicoquímico del sustrato. Las Cyanophyta (algas verde-azules) y Chlorphyta (algas verdes) son los organismos fototróficos más abundantes que colonizan fachadas donde la humedad está presente. Producen manchas verdes, rojas y negras, dependiendo de las especies colonizadoras, que a su vez alteran la estética llegando al deterioro de la pintura. Una vez que estos organismos se establecen formando una biopelícula, contribuyen al establecimiento de otros organismos tales como líquenes, briófitos y plantas vasculares. El objetivo de este trabajo fue: a) identificar los taxones de organismos fototróficos que forman biopelículas sobre paredes pintadas de construcciones urbanas, y b) ensayar el efecto antialgas de productos naturales para ser incorporados en pinturas. Se tomaron muestras de paredes pintadas con signos de deterioro estético. Las biopelículas se desprendieron con bisturí estéril, y se colocaron en solución salina estéril para su traslado al laboratorio. Las biopelículas se cultivaron en caldo BG11 y agar BG11 bajo condiciones de luz, humedad y temperatura controladas: 16/8 (luz/oscuridad), atmósfera saturada de humedad y 25ºC. Los organismos fototróficos se identificaron taxonómicamente mediante el uso de microscopio óptico y bibliografía adecuada, las características de la biopelícula se observaron y analizaron con microscopio electrónico de barrido. El efecto antialgas se evaluó mediante la técnica de micro-atmósfera utilizando diferentes concentraciones de eugenol, guayacol, anisol y timol, compuestos de origen natural de reconocida acción antimicrobiana. Si bien estos compuestos son de origen vegetal, también se los puede obtener por síntesis química y son productos comercialmente disponibles en el mercado. A través de las observaciones en microscopio óptico se determinó la presencia de una biopelícula mixta, constituida por algas unicelulares, coloniales y algas filamentosas pertenecientes a las divisiones Cyanophyta, Chlorophyta y Streptophyta. El desarrollo de estas biopelículas afectó negativamente a la estética de la pared produciendo pátinas de color verdoso debido a la naturaleza de los organismos involucrados y a las condiciones ambientales. En cuanto a los compuestos ensayados se obtuvieron resultados positivos de inhibición de crecimiento de los organismos fototróficos con timol en todas las concentraciones empleadas, con guayacol en una concentración de 10 y 100 μmoles.$latex cm ^{-2}$ y eugenol 100 μmoles.$latex cm ^{- 2}$, los cuales serán empleados en la formulación de pinturas de exterior.Tópico 2: Patrimonio Arquitectónico, Ingenieril y Arqueológico (urbano, rural, industrial, religioso, funerario). Construcciones en Tierra. Intervenciones en construcciones con patologías estructurales (aplicación de refuerzos). Técnicas de limpieza y conservación. Sostenibilidad (iluminación, ventilación, acústica, climatización, etc.) Biodeterioro del Patrimonio y técnicas de intervención sobre distintos sustratos

Decent Work: A Psychological Perspective

This contribution, which serves as the lead article for the Research Section entitled From Meaning of Working to Meaningful Lives: The Challenges of Expanding Decent Work, explores current challenges in the development and operationalization of decent work. Based on an initiative from the International Labor Organization (ILO; 1999), decent work represents an aspirational statement about the quality of work that should be available to all people who seek to work around the globe. Within recent years, several critiques have been raised about decent work from various disciplines, highlighting concerns about a retreat from the social justice ethos that had initially defined the concept. In addition, other scholars have observed that decent work has not included a focus on the role of meaning and purpose at work. To address these concerns, we propose that a psychological perspective can help to revitalize the decent work agenda by infusing a more specific focus on individual experiences and by reconnecting decent work to its social justice origins. As an illustration of the advantages of a psychological perspective, we explore the rise of precarious work and also connect the decent work agenda to the Psychology-of-Working Framework and Theory (Blustein, 2006; Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, and Autin, in press)

Boomerangs over Lac Léman : Transnational Lobbying and Foreign Venue Shopping in WTO Dispute Settlement

In this article, we explore the conditions under which firms engage in transnational lobbying and foreign venue shopping in the framework of WTO dispute settlement. Classical World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement cases mostly originate in domestic firms instigating their public authorities to bring a complaint against foreign trade barriers incompatible with WTO law. In recent years, however, we have witnessed the rise of WTO cases in which firms get a foreign government to file a case against its own authorities. By analysing transnational lobbying by EU firms in the WTO footwear case filed by China against the EU, and by US firms in the WTO gambling case Antigua brought against the US, we highlight the increasing resemblance between trade disputes and investment disputes