Hawke Research Institute
PowerPoint Presentation (475 kb)
Associate Professor Donna Baines, Associate Professor of Social Work and Labour Studies McMaster University, Canada, Wednesday 19th August,
PowerPoint Presentation (331kb) Conference Paper (180kb)
Professor Ewart Keep, Deputy Director of The Centre on Skills, Knowledge
and Organisational Performance, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff
University
Monday 17th August,
PowerPoint presentation (649 kb) Monograph (169kb)
Professor Eileen Appelbaum, School of Management and Labor Relations, Director, Center for Women and Work, Rutgers University, USA, 12 August. Media Release: Work/life balance: What Aussies can learn from the US,
Jointly presented by the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, the Centre for Work + Life and the School of Management
Paper (pdf 187kb)
A lecture by visiting international scholar Prof Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Brown University. 3 June, City West Campus
This lecture described the work culture in Philippine hostess clubs in Tokyo, which solely employ Filipina migrants. It drew on 56 interviews with Filipina migrant hostesses and participant observation gathered while Professor Parreñas worked as a hostess for three months in a Philippine hostess club. In this lecture she countered the one-dimensional portrayal of hostesses as victims forced into prostitution in the recent US Trafficking in Persons Reports and described the culture of work, or more accurately the cultures of flirtation, at hostess clubs. Professor Parreñas revisited and challenged the universal solution to trafficking that is enforced by the US government of the 3 Rs (rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration).
Rhacel Salazar Parreñas is Professor of American Civilization and Sociology at Brown University. She previously taught at the University of California, Davis and University of Wisconsin, Madison. Professor Parreñas is known for her work on women's labour and migration. She is the author of numerous essays and the books Servants of globalization: women, migration and domestic work and Children of global migration: transnational families and gendered woes. Her latest book, The force of domesticity (NYU Press, 2008), considers how processes of globalisation simultaneously reinforce and challenge traditional gender norms. It illustrates how 'forces of domesticity' underlie the labour and migration of women, thereby stunting their advancements in globalisation. She is currently completing a book on the labour and migration of Filipina hostesses in Tokyo's nightlife industry.
PowerPoint
presentation (3.75 MB)
A forum jointly presented by the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, the Centre for Work + Life and the Australia Institute. 6 April, City West
The fight against climate change is being conducted on many fronts by governments around the world, but the amount we work and the amount we spend are not among those. Many Australians work long hours, take few holidays and spend lots of money. This event considered the potential to reduce our impact on the environment simply by rebalancing our work and family lives. Working four-day weeks and taking six weeks leave each year not only means more time for our lives, but less money spent on stuff.
Speakers:
Dr Richard Denniss, the Australia Institute
Professor Barbara Pocock, Director, Centre for Work + Life, Hawke Research
Institute
Audio files are available on the
Hawke Centre site.
Jointly presented by the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, the Centre for Work + Life and the School of Management. 17 March, City West.
Two major government inquiries are examining issues fundamental to women's equality in the workforce. The Productivity Commission Inquiry into Paid Parental Leave was due to report by the end of February 2009. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations is conducting an inquiry into pay equity and female participation in the workforce. Four expert speakers offered perspectives to inform our understanding of the underlying issues – from the implications for business and the community of a paid maternity leave system, through to pay equity insights. Visiting US Professor Margaret Hallock added to the picture with an overview of the women and work policy environment under President Obama and in the context of the GFC. Expert panel members discussed key concerns associated with these two inquiries.
Chair: Professor Carol Kulik, Research Professor, Human Resource Management, School of Management, UniSA
Speakers:
Audio files and PowerPoint presentations are available on the
Hawke Centre site.
Professor Margaret Hallock, University of Oregon. Presented by the School of Management and Centre for Work + Life. 17 March, City West
What contribution can social science research centres make? How can researchers undertake research and policy that makes a difference? This seminar examined issues such as the structure of centres, strategy, dealing with the university as an institution and external supports that can help.
PProfessor Margaret Hallock has experience in leading two centres at
the University of Oregon (UO), one of which she founded and co-directs.
She is an economist who has been active in economic and labour policy in
Oregon since 1974. As the founding director of the Wayne Morse Center
for Law and Politics, she has been coordinating the Wayne Morse Chair
since 1988 when she was director of the UO's Labor Education and
Research Center. She also was a member of the faculty in the department
of economics at the UO. Professor Hallock has extensive experience in
labour relations and state policy matters. She was the chief economist
for the Oregon Public Employees Union, Service Employees International
Union 503. Appointed to chair the state's Pay Equity Task Force, she led
the successful pay equity campaign for state employees in the 1980s. She
has published papers on tax reform, labour unions, women and the
economy, and workforce education and training.
Professor Hideki Nakazato, Konan University, Kobe, Japan. 13 March, Magill Campus
In many countries including Australia and Japan, there has been growing concern about the challenges of balancing (or harmonising) paid work and life outside of work, including family life and parenting. It has been suggested that these concerns are often related to low fertility. Although the recent total fertility rate in Australia is much higher than in lower fertility countries such as Japan, avoiding further fertility decline remains an important priority for the political agenda of both countries. Despite the prevalence of discussions linking work–life issues with fertility, there is little statistical evidence of a causal relationship. In this presentation Professor Nakazato examined the effect of the allocation of paid and unpaid work between partners on the birth of a second child, an event that has the potential to add substantially to the challenges of achieving work–family harmony or balance. He used panel data from waves 1 to 6 of the HILDA (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia) survey for this analysis. Event history analysis was conducted to make the best use of the longitudinal data within a limited observation period.
Hideki Nakazato is a professor of sociology at Konan University in Kobe, Japan. He has been doing research on historical demography and the history of the family in Japan for the past 15 years. Recently, he has been focusing more on current family issues, especially in relation to work. He also contributes to public debate in Japan through his participation in various university and community committees concerned with the promotion of gender equality. While he was in South Australia as a visiting fellow at the Centre for Work + Life in 2006–2007, he investigated how we try to balance our life with work, family and community and examined the different approaches people use. He has started comparative analyses using HILDA data and its equivalent in Japan.
PowerPoint
presentation (1.65 MB)
Bibliography and tables (PDF
328 kb)
Associate Professor Chris Provis, School of Management, University of South Australia. 27 February, Magill Campus
This paper initially raised some questions about how 'work' is to be defined. After considering some difficulties, Chris noted the significance of the definition for a number of areas, ranging from law and economics to sociology and religion. He then suggested that 'work' may be a concept that clusters together various different elements, and that a single correct account will probably not be agreed on because of the role the idea plays in debate. In conclusion, he suggested setting aside the idea of work for purposes of theory and policy development, aiming to stimulate discussion of how we might do without the idea of work for those purposes.
Chris Provis is an Associate Professor in the School of Management at the University of South Australia. He has taught courses ranging from academic philosophy to industrial relations practice since 1990. His present interests lie especially in areas of business ethics. He was a member of the working party formed by the three South Australian universities to establish the collaborative Ethics Centre of South Australia, and is now a member of the Centre's Research and Education Committee.
Chris Provis's
PowerPoint presentation (178 kb)
Kim Windsor, 17 February 2009, Magill Campus
There is growing recognition among training policy developers that increasing the number of qualifications does not neatly translate into increased productivity or better, more rewarding jobs. In responding to the shortcomings of supplying graduates in the absence of understanding if and how skills are effectively used in the workplace, recent research and policy settings emphasise the need for holistic 'workforce development' responses.
Experience in translating these policy objectives into practice on the ground is limited. This presentation draws on the work of the national Skill Ecosystem program. The program sponsored projects in most states at both regional and industry cluster levels. The key condition was that projects needed to be supported by a breadth of stakeholders with an interest and capacity to tackle the dual issues of skill demand and skill supply. They are expected to wrestle with the often messy way that economic, business, workforce development and industrial agendas intersect in order to understand how, why and when skills are developed and applied. The experience of these projects can add to our understanding of the conditions under which skills can deliver on the promise of better outcomes for business and for individuals. This session will review key lessons and consider the potential for a skills ecosystem approach to improve vocational education and training outcomes and skills utilisation in Australia.
Kim Windsor has over 20 years experience working with industry in the areas of work design, workforce development and reward and recognition. Her work spans manufacturing, community and service industries and combines research and policy development with practical application and facilitation of change within workplaces. Kim has had a longstanding interest in the intersection of work, learning and recognition and has more recently been looking at the role of public policy and programs in stimulating positive outcomes from both a business and employee perspective. She has recently played a key role in the evolution of the national skill ecosystem model and has worked with state governments in NSW and Queensland in implementing this model through skill formation policy and programs.
