Discrimination, labour markets and the Labour Market Prospects of Older Workers: What Can a Legal Case Teach us?

As governments become increasingly concerned about the fiscal implications of the ageing population, labour market policies have sought to encourage mature workers to remain in the labour force. The ‘human capital’ discourses motivating these policies rest on the assumption that older workers armed with motivation and vocational skills will be able to return to fulfilling work. This paper uses the post-redundancy recruitment experiences of former Ansett Airlines flight attendants to develop a critique of these expectations. It suggests that policies to increase older workers’ labour market participation will not succeed while persistent socially constructed age- and gender- typing shape labour demand. The conclusion argues for policies sensitive to the institutional structures that shape employer preferences, the competitive rationality of discriminatory practices, and the irresolvable tension between workers’ human rights and employers’ property rights

Le Golan au cœur de la géopolitique d’Israël

Le plateau volcanique du Golan, dépourvu de toute ressource naturelle commercialisable et en principe situé hors des périples prophétiques, fut le théâtre de la plus grande bataille de chars depuis la seconde guerre mondiale, et le motif principal d’une alerte nucléaire entre superpuissances pendant la guerre froide. Sous souveraineté syrienne de 1945 à 1967, il fut annexé à deux reprises, fait unique, par Israël. Au sein de l’État juif, une large majorité de citoyens s’est toujours affirmée en défaveur de la restitution de cet « enfant chéri des Territoires »

Questions de géopolitique ou la géopolitique en question

La géopolitique n’est pas une science. En France, elle n’est même pas répertoriée au CNRS ou dans les commissions de spécialistes, et doit, depuis seulement quelques années, se contenter de figurer au registre « géographie » dans la spécialité « géographie géopolitique ». Frédéric Encel revient sur une discipline en quête de « légitimité » auprès des instances universitaires et de recherche.Geopolitics is not a science. In France, it doesn’t really exist nor in CNRS neither in research committees. Since only a few years, it had been registered as political geography. Frédéric Encel brings up again about a discipline which is seeking its legitimacy closer to university and research authorities

Privatisation, Welfare Services and Welfare

Interest in the subject of privatisation in Australia has increased markedly over recent years, although references to it have been made in the literature intermittently over a longer period. The original purpose of this bibliography was to record items dealing with the privatisation of welfare services. However, as work on collecting material for the entries proceeded, it became obvious that it is extremely difficult to separate privatisation of welfare services from the effects on welfare of the privatisation of enterprises not directly concerned with those services. Privatisation of enterprises such as the water supply and communication services, has direct or indirect effects on the well-being of the population. It introduces the question of 'community service obligations' (CSOs), or the non-commercial objectives of government business organisations, which are often lost when these organisations are privatised. This bibliography has therefore widened its scope to include works which refer to the effects on the well-being of the population of the privatisation of enterprises not directly in the welfare area. Another issue which has affected the choice of entries has been that of what constitutes privatisation. A number of works cited here are concerned with definition and with detailing the nature of the changes which are entailed in different forms of privatisation: deregulation, the introduction of user-pays practices, asset sales etc. Among these may be included an expanded role for the voluntary or non-profit sector in the provision of community and welfare services. These entries are found under the keyword 'Forms'

Unemployment in Australia: An Annotated Bibliography 1980-85

This is the second annotated bibliography about unemployment in Australia to be published by the Social Welfare Research Centre. The first appeared in 1984 and contained citations from the period 1978 to 1983. The compilation included only works actually sighted by us; inevitably not all published works were available at the time. This volume therefore overlaps with the previous one and covers the period 1980 to 1985. The search has been undertaken over a longer period and has been more thorough. Nevertheless, once again, some works have not been available to us and we regret their omission. The collection is drawn from a variety of academic disciplines - economics, psychology, education, sociology, criminology, law, social work, geography, engineering, public administration and industrial relations - and from a range of areas of activity such as universities and other research or educational institutions, government departments and agencies, the women's movement, trade unions, welfare and community service organisations, the church and private medical practice. The cross-reference system in this volume includes the entries in the earlier Compilation; ENCEL, Diana and GARDE, Pauline (1984), Unemployment in Australia: An Annotated Bibliography, 1978-83, SWRC Reports and Proceedings No.36

Tony Blair and John Howard: comparative predominance and 'Institution Stretch' in the UK and Australia

It has recently been argued that the UK premier enjoys a level of executive power unavailable to US presidents, but how does he or she compare to another prime minister operating within a broadly similar system? Commonalities of intra-executive influence and capacity exist under the premierships in the UK and Australia. Discrete institutional constraints and deviations are evident, but trends and similarities in resource capacity can be clearly identified. These include: the growth of the leaders' office; broadening and centralising of policy advice and media operations; and strengthening of the role and function of ministerial advisers. I contend that this amounts to 'institution stretch', with new structures, processes and practices becoming embedded in the political system by the incumbents. © 2007 The Author. Journal compilation © 2007 Political Studies Association

Older workers in Australia: the myths, the realities and the battle over workforce 'flexibility'

A decisive 2004 fourth term win for the Howard Government and control over the Senate provided the Australian government with a mandate to further deregulate the labour market in the name of ‘flexibility’. This conceptual paper uses a critical perspective to challenge the wisdom of neo-liberal market economics as the driving force behind the rapid expansion of non-traditional ‘flexible’ forms of work and argues that this kind of divestment strategy can produce negative long term consequences including under utilisation of labour and skill shortages stemming from a lack of investment in human capital. While an ageing workforce is set to intensify labour shortages long into the future, the Howard Government has adopted modest measures designed to counter age based discrimination and encourage workforce participation. However, participation rates among mature age workers in Australia have remained one of the lowest among OECD countries. This paper argues that the Government’s labour market deregulation policies are reducing the availability of jobs that provide sufficient working conditions and remuneration to make workforce participation attractive to many of those who are not working. The erosion of employment conditions associated with ‘flexible’ workforce reform can lead to underemployment and other employment outcomes that often fail to meet the needs of disadvantaged groups in the labour market. More recently, however, the Government has embarked on reforms that appear to provide genuine incentives aimed specifically at attracting workforce participation by older workers, but only for those aged 60 years and over