Centre for Work + Life events
Each year various presentations, workshops, seminars and events are conducted by researchers within the CWL and international visiting scholars. Such events provide unique opportunities to keep abreast of current research and progress within the various fields.
Forthcoming events
Women in Zimbabwe and the work–life interface: western concept, African women – a marriage of (in)convenience?
Dr Virginia Mapedzahama
Friday 25 July 2008, 3.30–4.30pm
Centre for Work + Life, Building A, level 2, Magill Campus (via Lorne Ave,
near bookshop)
The increased workforce participation of women while maintaining traditional (unpaid) caring roles is a global phenomenon that has led to growing interest in the interface of paid work and family. Much of the research into work–family linkages has, however, been undertaken predominantly in the affluent countries of the west, and has been based primarily on studies conducted with white (oftentimes middle-class) workers. It remains a neglected subject of research in the less developed world, particularly in the African context. Despite the plethora of research on African women’s working lives, little is known about how mothers in the 'failing economies' of Africa experience and make individual paid work and family 'choices' and negotiations in the face of constraining socioeconomic and cultural circumstances. This paper addresses this gap in research by analysing how mothers in an economy in crisis in Zimbabwe experience and negotiate the two 'worlds' of paid work and family. The analyses in this paper will affirm the complex nature of the work and family interface for women in Zimbabwe and, in so doing, not only challenge the common (mis)conception that paid work and family linkages are unproblematic for them but also illustrate the relevance of such research. Specifically, this paper is based on the analysis of interviews with women in Harare (Zimbabwe) who engage in informal sector trade to supplement income from formal sector paid work (what I have termed multiple economic activities for survival [MEAS]), to illustrate that the difficult socioeconomic situation in a failing economy in Zimbabwe introduces new challenges for working mothers that impact on their work–life realities. By demonstrating that the women negotiate the boundaries between paid work and family in ways that are challenging and difficult, the paper concludes that work and family linkages are as much an issue for women in Zimbabwe as they are for women in the west where significant research into women's work–family linkages has been undertaken; what differs is the 'magnitude of burden'.
Virginia Mapedzahama has recently completed her doctoral studies at the University of South Australia, and has been employed as a lecturer in Sociology in the School of International Studies. She has recently joined the Hawke Research Institute of Sustainable Societies as a Research Assistant in the Research Centre for Gender Studies. Her research interests are African feminisms, black feminisms, African women diaspora, women and work, and work–life interaction.
Drinks and nibbles provided
RSVP by 24 July to Jen Manning on 8302 4175 or
jen.manning@unisa.edu.au
Bittersweet: being young in an older person's world
Mark Cully, General Manager, National Centre for Vocational Education Research
Friday 22 August 2008, 4–5 pm
Centre for Work + Life, Building A, level 2, Magill Campus (via Lorne Ave,
near bookshop)
A decade ago youth unemployment loomed large in the national consciousness, but the policy and popular focus is now at the opposite end of the age spectrum, on older workers. I argue that this change in the national consciousness is misplaced. While there is sound evidence that the position of young people in the labour market has improved since the early 1990s, it remains weak relative to both prime age and older workers – and has, if anything, worsened relative to older workers. Moreover, there are emerging vulnerabilities for young people. The flow of young people into high-skilled full-time jobs appears to be occurring at a lower rate than for older age groups, despite the very substantial growth in high-skilled jobs over the period and despite the higher educational attainment of young people. The presentation will conclude with some conjectures that might form the basis of a future research program.
Mark is General Manager at the National Centre for Vocational Education Research where he oversees a national program of government-funded research aimed at improving policy and practice in Australia's vocational education and training sector. Prior to joining the centre in 2003, Mark was a Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director at the National Institute of Labour Studies. Between 1995 and 1999 he headed up research and evaluation on employment relations for the UK government, where he ran the 1998 Workplace Employment Relations Survey, the results of which were published as Britain at work (Routledge, 1999).
Mark has a Masters degree in Industrial Relations from Warwick University and an Honours degree in Economics from Adelaide University. He has published two books and many articles on employment, work, and education and training, and is an occasional contributor to literary magazines. He was Chair of the world-renowned Adelaide Festival of Ideas from 2004 to 2007.
Drink and nibbles provided.
RSVP by 21 August: Jen Manning, ph 8302 4175
2008 past events
Work well or marry well: gender regime under Chinese market reform
Xu Jie (Cindy). Presented by the Research Centre for Gender Studies and the Centre for Work + Life, 23 May, Magill Campus. By analysing what is behind a Chinese popular saying 'marry well rather than work well', this presentation explored changes to the gender regime in China. Women are not benefiting from market reform as much as men and many achievements of the socialist women's movement have been lost. Women's attitudes to paid and unpaid work and their choices for marriage are not determined by their own will. Prevailing norms and values and institutions interact to affect their decisions. When more and more Chinese woman agree to marry well rather than work well, this signals an urgent issue regarding gender equality.
Xu Jie's PowerPoint presentation (420 kb)
Xu Jie (Cindy) is Associate Professor in Economics at the Northeast Forestry University (NEFU) in China and is currently a visiting scholar with the Research Centre for Gender Studies. While at UniSA, Jie is researching women and equity following market reform in China.
Occupational citizenship in the global transformation
Prof Guy Standing, University of Bath and Monash University. 2 May, Centre for Work + Life, Magill Campus. Most of us have some view of what constitutes social justice, and most of us believe in the equality of something, be it income, wealth or opportunity. My own work has been dedicated to the principle that there is a claim right, or republican right, to equal basic security, and that social and economic policies should be oriented to the progressive realisation of basic economic security for everybody. Without such basic security, one cannot have full freedom. I have argued since the beginning of the 1980s that more flexible labour markets have multiplied forms of social and economic insecurity. Traditional forms of social security and fiscal subsidies do not offer a route out of that impasse. This is why a group of us, economists, philosophers, sociologists and others, formed a network in 1986 called BIEN, which became the Basic Income Earth Network, a non-governmental organisation that promotes a citizenship income for all. Globalisation and what I call the 'global transformation' are primary areas of interest, with the drift to a market society generating unsustainable inequalities and insecurities. The 'labourist' models promoted by social democrats in the twentieth century have broken down while the 'free market' paradigm is bereft of answers to the worsening insecurities and inequalities. The answer, I believe, is a strategy for the progressive realisation of economic rights built around occupational citizenship.
Hear Guy Standing's presentation (audio streaming – you need Windows Media Player)
Dr Guy Standing is Professor of Economic Security at the University of Bath, Professor of Labour Economics at Monash University and Associate Director of Monash's Work and Employment Rights Research Centre. From 1999 until March 2006, he was Director of the ILO's Socio-Economic Security Programme. He is currently working on a book on occupations, linked to the global transformation of work and labour and is also Principal Investigator for a three-year research project, funded by the Australian Research Council, examining the restructuring of labour markets in China and India.
Work–life harmony: productivity and peace
Jeff Hill, School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Utah. 4 April, Centre for Work + Life, Magill Campus. Balance has been the dominant work–life research metaphor. It assumes conflict between work and personal/family domains as they compete for the scare resource of time. Jeff Hill proposes that harmony is a better metaphor because it focuses on how work and personal/family life can facilitate one another with attendant positive outcomes for individuals, families and businesses. In this presentation he described his work–life harmony conceptual model. He then described the Singapore National Study of Work–Life Harmony, the development of the Singapore National Measure of Work–Life Harmony, and findings from the study emphasising the relationship between work–life harmony and personal, family and business outcomes.
Jeff Hill's PowerPoint presentation (880 kb)
E. Jeffrey Hill is an associate professor at Brigham Young University in the School of Family Life. He received an MBA in organisational behaviour from the Marriott School of Management and a PhD in family and human development from Utah State University. His research examines finding harmony between paid work and personal/family life. He teaches in the School of Family Life as well as a work and family class in the Marriott School of Management. Before coming to BYU, Dr Hill was a work and family subject matter expert at IBM, where he pioneered many flexible work options. He has published more than 40 scholarly articles and book chapters related to work–life harmony. Jeff and his wife Tammy both lost their first spouses and are blending a family that now includes 12 children and 7 grandchildren.
Theorising migration and home-based care in western welfare states
Prof Fiona Williams, Professor of Social Policy, University of Leeds. 15 February, City West Campus. There is increased employment of migrant women in domestic and care work in private households. Drawing on the methods and findings from a qualitative empirical research project that takes as its context the intersections between child care and migration policies and practices in thee European countries, Fiona developed the theoretical and normative frames for understanding this phenomenon, moving from meso- to micro- and on to macro-level. Fiona ended by arguing for a normative analysis based on global justice and the ethics of care.
Fiona Williams co-directs the
Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities
(CIRCLE) at the University of Leeds. She has written widely on gender,
'race' and ethnicity in social policy, and is currently researching the
employment of migrant workers in home-based care in Europe. Her teaching and
research interests focus on the place of care in contemporary society,
including the changing nature of family lives and personal relationships,
and the development of a political ethic of care.
2007 events
Whose security? Women,
war and
meeting needs
Prof Elisabeth Porter, Friday 26 October. This seminar examined four things. First, it provided background on why consideration of women's security is linked to work and life issues. Second, it outlined the global momentum that led to the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on 'Women, Peace and Security'. Third, it outlined remaining challenges, particularly women's absence or marginalisation from official peace processes, negotiating tables and decision-making opportunities. Fourth, it offered some positive examples of how 1325 is making a difference in increasing the representation of women. The general argument was that gender equality, gender justice and women's rights are central to the reconstruction of countries emerging from conflict and insecurity. The seminar built on Lis's newly published book, Peacebuilding: women in international perspective (Routledge, London & New York, 2007).
Low pay in a prosperous land
Dr Helen Masterman-Smith, Friday 12 October. This presentation outlined the findings of a three-year study into how low pay affects the recipients, those who live with them, and the communities in which they live. Helen's PowerPoint presentation (1.36 MB)
Coalition unionism: a comparative analysis of long-term coalitions in three countries
Amanda Tattersall, University of Sydney and Working NSW, Friday 5 October. Whether in Unions@Work or the US Union Cities program, coalitions have been held up as one feature of a union renewal agenda. Yet the question of how and when coalitions are likely to deliver social change or transform unions receives limited attention. This presentation reviewed long-term coalitions in Canada, the United States and Australia, for the purpose of identifying common elements of coalitions and common measures for understanding how coalitions can enhance the ability of unions to influence decision makers, shift the political climate, sustain relationships with other organisations and enhance their internal capacity by increasing the engagement and participation of their members. Amanda Tattersall is both an academic and an organiser. She has completed a PhD on coalition unionism at the University of Sydney and published academic articles on this area. She is also a union and community organiser, and now the executive director of Working NSW, a new coalitions centre established by Unions NSW.
Our Work ... Our Lives 2007
National Conference on Women and Industrial Relations, 20–21 September 2007
Proudly presented by South Australian Working Women's Centre and the
University of South Australia
For more information:
http://jackiethompsoninclusive.com.au/conferences/ncowair.php
Leading and
managing university research centres: lessons learned from US
experience
Prof Margaret Hallock, Wednesday 19 September 2007. What good are university research centres? How can progressives launch research and policy that can make a difference? We discussed issues such as the structure of centres, strategy, dealing with the university as an institution, and external supports than can help. The presenter has experience in leading two centres at the University of Oregon, one of which she founded and still co-directs.
Margaret Hallock's PowerPoint presentation (141 kb)
Researching teachers' work
Assoc Prof Robert Hattam, Friday 17 August 2007
What should the next federal government do about work and family in Australia? Policy ideas for a changing workforce
Prof Barbara Pocock, Friday 3 August 2007. In the year of a federal election this presentation reflected on what a new government might do over a three-year period to advance work and family issues.
Work–family policy and work–family conflict in the Malaysian private sector: a preliminary study
Zaiton Hassan, Friday 22 June 2007. Zaiton Hassan is a PhD student at the Centre for Applied Psychological Research, School of Psychology, UniSA. Her research topic is socio-cultural influences on work–life balance and its impact on work and life satisfaction among Malaysian employees.
Learning not to be a nosey 'white': researching union relations with Aboriginal workers
Jude Elton, Friday 15 June 2007
'Building community': physical and social infrastructure in the master planned community
Dr Pip Williams, Friday 18 May 2007. This presentation discussed the physical and social infrastructure that needs to exist for community to evolve in a new development, and in particular how physical and social infrastructures facilitate or impede the positive interaction of work, home and community. In November 2007 Pip Williams gave an updated version of this presentation to the State of Australian Cities Conference: '"Building community": physical and social infrastructure in the master planned community – preliminary findings from the Work, Home and Communities Project' (PowerPoint 1.82 MB).
2006 events
Democratic citizenship and working life
A seminar on Friday 10 November 2006 with Georgina Murray, author of the forthcoming book Capitalist networks and social power in Australia and New Zealand. She argued there is an urgent need to redefine citizenship in ways that are worker-friendly and cater for gender and class differences. Drawing on human rights tenets, she investigated the challenges of forging this inclusive democratic notion of citizenship alongside a market economy and the dominance of economic liberalism.
Diverging life courses and enduring gendered regimes of work and life in Japan
Assoc Prof Hideki Nakazato, Department of Sociology, Konan University, Japan, Friday 3 November 2006. Hideki Nakazato provided an overview of the problems experienced in balancing work and life in Japan, such as changes in women's experiences in work, marriage and childrearing and long work hours of fathers with small children and their difficulties in participating in the care of children. His seminar was entitled Diverging life courses and enduring gendered regimes of work and life in Japan (PDF 712 kb).
Lakeside living: understanding community in new masterplanned estates
Presented by Dr Geoffrey Woolcock, School of Social Work and Applied Human Sciences, University of Queensland on Friday 20 October 2006 at Magill Campus. The presentation focused on one of the University of Queensland's largest social science ARC Linkage grants 'Building Social Capital in New Masterplanned Communities' (2003–2006) which produced many significant findings and implications for future development in the fastest population growth area of Australia. Working closely in conjunction with leading property developers Delfin Lend Lease (DLL), the study focused on the emergence of the masterplanned community Springfield Lakes in the western corridor between Brisbane and Ipswich. The project examined what it means to 'build social capital' and how social scientists and developers might work together more effectively to build sustainable communities. Geoff Woolcock is a social researcher at the University of Queensland School of Social Work & Applied Human Sciences and has 15 years community-based research experience nationally and internationally, in housing, youth and health sectors, particularly HIV/AIDS prevention and education.
Clare Burton Memorial Lectures 2006
Jobs, care and justice: a fair work regime for
Australia
In 1998 Dr Clare Burton, widely respected
academic and consultant in gender equity, passed away. To commemorate her
life and work, ATN WEXDEV – a career development program designed for senior
women in five major Australian universities – hosts an annual memorial
lecture. The 2006 Clare Burton lecturer was Prof Barbara
Pocock, Director of the Centre for Work + Life. The lecture was entitled
Jobs, care and justice: a fair
work regime for Australia (PDF 435kb)
Australia – a rich country – is experimenting in radical ways with industrial laws and care regimes. Inequality in the labour market is widening, as some Australians do well out of a changing labour market whilst many other workers and their children are not so lucky. The labour market is a place of interdependence. The well-paid rely upon the low-paid. The producers need the reproducers. This lecture explored how, in this environment, fairer and more sustainable work and care outcomes can be secured – for Australian women, men and children.
Brave new workplace
Prof David Peetz, Head of the Department of Industrial Relations, Griffith University, spoke on his latest book, Brave new workplace on 18 August 2006 at Magill Campus. Employers and government are pushing for every employee to have an individual contract. David Peetz peels away the claims and counterclaims to explain who benefits and who loses in the brave new world of work. David is a leading authority on workplace changes and the WorkChoices legislation.
Work–life balance tensions in the United States and Australia
Peter Berg, Associate Professor, School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Michigan State University, presented this seminar on Friday 16 June 2006 at Magill Campus. Peter Berg discussed his findings on the changing workplace, greater working hours, and the rise of dual-earner couples, which have made work–life balance a key issue among the US workforce. He also discussed various initiatives from organisations and government to address work–life tension. He discussed the similarities and differences for Australian workers.
Notes from Peter Berg's seminar
(Word 36 kb)