The challenge of reconciling working time demands and life transitions : a policy proposal

Labour markets, like all market institutions, exhibit structural and dynamic characteristics. Both the structural and dynamic characteristics of labour markets inevitably change and evolve over time in response to a host of exogenous and endogenous factors. In the case of the Australian labour market, structural changes are reflected in significant shifts in the industry and occupational composition of employment, the decline of full-time work and the concomitant rise in part-time and atypical forms of employment, demographic changes in the labour force, as well as changes in social and individual preferences. Dynamic shifts can be found in cyclical pattern of employment and wages growth, the growth in labour mobility, and transitions between various labour market states.
The starting point for this paper is that these structural and dynamic changes have given rise to an increase in the likelihood that individuals will experience a transition between various labour market states, and a greater diversity in the range of transitions they may experience over their working life. This acceleration in the rate of transition generates ‘transition costs’ for both employers and employees, as well the likelihood of mismatch between employer and employee working time preferences. As a consequence, existing labour market policy regimes, based on the traditional model of labour market participation over the life course may not provide adequate protection for most workers today.
Gunther Schmid (1998) and others have proposed institutional reforms which promote ‘transitional labour markets’. Transitional labour market institutions are those that allow individuals (and firms) to successfully adjust to critical events. While transitional labour market institutions may consist of traditional ‘active labour market policy’ mechanisms, Schmid and others have proposed a range of innovative policy responses which allow individuals (and firms) to adjust the intensity of their abour market participation over the life cycle. In this paper we use the general approach of advocated by the transitional labour market concept to do three things. First, we investigate the processes by which the nature of labour market transitions has changed over time. Second, we review the range of policy options available to government to smooth labour market dysfunctions associated with labour market transitions, with the objective of ensuring labour markets operate more efficiently and more equitably. Third, we focus on one possible way in which an existing labour market institution, Long Service Leave (LSL), could be reformed to make way for a more comprehensive transitional labour market institution in the form of a ‘working time bank’.

Young women with diabetes: using internet communication to create stability during life transitions

Aims and objectives. The aim of the current study was to explore and describe the strategies young women with Type 1 diabetes used to manage transitions in their lives. This paper will describe one aspect of the findings of how women with Type 1 diabetes used the Internet to interact with other people with diabetes and create stability in their lives.

Background. Individuals living with diabetes develop a range of different strategies to create stability in their lives and enhance their well-being. Changing social and emotional conditions during life transitions have a major impact on diabetes management. Although the literature indicates that strategies enabling the individuals to cope with transitions are important, they remain under-researched.

Design. Using grounded theory, interviews were conducted with 20 women with Type 1 diabetes. Constant comparative data analysis was used to analyse the data and develop an understanding of how young women with Type 1 diabetes used the Internet to create stability in their lives.

Findings. The findings revealed that the women valued their autonomy and being in control of when and to whom they reveal their diabetic status, especially during life transitions and at times of uncertainty. However, during these times they also required health and social information and interacting with other people. One of the women's main strategies in managing transitions was to use Internet chat lines as a way of obtaining information and communicating with others. This strategy gave women a sense of autonomy, enabled them to maintain their anonymity and interact with other people on their own terms.

Conclusions. Having meaningful personal interactions, social support and being able to connect with others were fundamental to the women's well being. Most importantly, preserving autonomy and anonymity during such interactions were integral to the way the women with Type 1 diabetes managed life transitions.

Relevance to clinical practice. Health professionals need to explore and incorporate Internet communication process or anonymous help lines into their practice as a way to assist people manage their diabetes.

Epithelial - mesenchymal and mesenchymal - epithelial transitions in carcinoma progression

Like a set of bookends, cellular, molecular, and genetic changes of the beginnings of life mirror those of one of the most common cause of death--metastatic cancer. Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important change in cell phenotype which allows the escape of epithelial cells from the structural constraints imposed by tissue architecture, and was first recognized by Elizabeth Hay in the early to mid 1980's to be a central process in early embryonic morphogenesis. Reversals of these changes, termed mesenchymal to epithelial transitions (METs), also occur and are important in tissue construction in normal development. Over the last decade, evidence has mounted for EMT as the means through which solid tissue epithelial cancers invade and metastasize. However, demonstrating this potentially rapid and transient process in vivo has proven difficult and data connecting the relevance of this process to tumor progression is still somewhat limited and controversial. Evidence for an important role of MET in the development of clinically overt metastases is starting to accumulate, and model systems have been developed. This review details recent advances in the knowledge of EMT as it occurs in breast development and carcinoma and prostate cancer progression, and highlights the role that MET plays in cancer metastasis. Finally, perspectives from a clinical and translational viewpoint are discussed.

Young women with type 1 diabetes' management of turning points and transitions

The authors used grounded theory to explore and develop a substantive theory to explain how 20 young women with type 1 diabetes managed their lives when facing turning points and undergoing transitions. The women experienced a basic social problem: being in the grip of blood glucose levels (BGLs), which consisted of three categories: (a) the impact of being susceptible to fluctuating BGLs, (b) the responses of other people to the individual woman’s diabetes, and (c) the impact of the individual women’s diabetes on other people’s lives. The women used a basic social process to overcome the basic social problem by creating stability, which involved using three interconnected subprocesses: forming meaningful
relationships, enhancing attentiveness to blood glucose levels, and putting things in perspective. Insights into the processes and strategies used by the women have important implications for provision of care and service delivery.

Democracy, global transitions, and education : using speculative fictions as thought experiments in anticipatory critical inquiry

The purpose of a thought experiment, as the term was used by quantum and relativity physicists in the early part of the twentieth century, was not prediction (as is the goal of classical experimental science), but more defensible representations of present 'realities'. Indeed, one of the best-known examples of a thought experiment ('Schrodinger's cat') demonstrates the impossibility of prediction at the quantum level. Speculative fictions, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the Star Wars saga, can be read as socio-technical thought experiments that can help us to apprehend and comprehend present 'realities' and uncertainties, and to anticipate and critique possible futures. In this paper I will demonstrate how two examples of popular speculative fictions, Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) and Ursula Le Guin's The Telling (2000), can be read as thought experiments that describe problematic aspects of contemporary social and cultural transformations. I will argue that critical and deconstructive readings of these novels can help us to produce anticipatory critiques of possible ways in which democratic institutions are being transformed by globalisation. I will conclude by considering the implications of such anticipatory critiques for generating questions, problems and issues in educational inquiry and for choosing appropriate methodologies for investigating them.

Having a baby and being in school : researching pregnant and parenting young people and their educational transitions

This paper reports on the 2002 pilot phase (in a provincial city) of a continuing study of pregnant and parenting young people and their movements in and out of school (and other educational) settings. It presents an overview of methodological approaches employed and dilemmas encountered, data collected and readings of that data, and an indication of how issues identified from the pilot study have informed the directions and emphases of an expanded investigation for 2003 and beyond. The paper draws on specific cases to identify how young people negotiate their way in and out of school during this phase of their lives. It offers an insight into how young people see themselves ''becoming somebody'' in and around other identity work they engage in while pregnant and parenting at school. The research provides knowledge about the intersection between the institutional and individual complexities of leaving and staying-on at school, including an account of the academic and social reasons for leaving or returning to school and school responses to student pregnancy and parenting.

Appraisal of random and systematic land cover transitions for regional water balance and revegetation strategies

This study describes the use of landscape transition analysis as a means for effective basin management. Land cover transitions from 1995 to 2002 were analyzed using a cross-tabulation matrix for an important economic zone in south-west Victoria, Australia. Specifically, the matrix was used to determine whether the transitions were random or systematic. Random landscape transitions occur when a land cover replaces other land covers in proportion to their availability. Systematic landscape transitions occur when there are deviations from random patterns, and land use types ‘target’ other land use types for replacement. The analysis was conducted with 11 land cover categories and showed that dryland pastures have been systematically losing area to dryland crops and blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) plantations. Dryland crops have systematically expanded in the north-east of the catchment, an area where increasing in-stream salinization has occurred concurrently with this transition. The systematic expansion of the blue gum plantations has been predominantly in the south-west of the catchment and has the potential to reduce stream flows and groundwater recharge in an already water-stressed region, as blue gums use more water than the dryland pastures they are replacing. All other transitions were largely random. These findings have implications for land use planning in the study area for regional water balance and revegetation strategies. Landscape transition analysis is a cost-effective means of contributing to the management of water resources at a regional scale, and is highly recommended for future basin planning.

The mother-daughter guilt dynamic : effects of type 1 diabetes during life transitions

Aim. The aim of the study was to explore and describe the strategies young women with type 1 diabetes used to manage life transitions. The paper describes one aspect of how guilt dynamic often operates between mothers and daughters and how the women managed the guilt dynamic to create stability in their lives.
Background. When a child is diagnosed with diabetes, major transitional changes occur in the relationships between the mother and her child. The changes affect the psychological and social aspects of their lives and have a major impact on how young women manage their diabetes. A guilt dynamic between mothers and young women with diabetes emerged as a major theme in a larger study that investigated how young women with diabetes managed life transitions. Although the literature indicates that mothers of chronically ill children experience guilt feelings towards their children, little research was identified that addressed the emotional dynamics between mothers and daughters with diabetes.
Design. Using grounded theory method, interviews were conducted with 20 women with type 1 diabetes and five mothers during 2002 and 2003. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyse the data and develop an in-depth understanding of the experience of living with diabetes during life transitions.
Findings. The findings revealed that guilt feelings created a two-way dependency between mothers and their daughters with diabetes. The two-way dependency involved feelings of being a burden to each other, difficulty balancing responsibilities for diabetes management, difficulty relinquishing emotional and social dependency especially during life transitions. In addition, these issues were rarely discussed openly with each other or with health professionals. The findings provide additional information about the human experience of the mother–daughter relationship and the effect on coping with diabetes in the context of life transitions.
Conclusions. Understanding the impact diabetes has on the emotional and social well being of both women with type 1 diabetes and their mothers is critical in planning appropriate support for both groups. Most importantly, it is critical to understand the guilt dynamic that operates during young women with diabetes' life transitions when the daughters' dependency on their mother's control and responsibility for diabetes management undergo changes resulting in emotional responses, especially guilt feelings.
Relevance to clinical practice. Health professionals need to understand the emotional and social impact of the guilt dynamics between young women with type 1 diabetes and their mothers. Adequate and appropriate support can minimize the guilt feelings and enhance stability and quality of life for both mothers and their daughters, especially during major life transitions, such as motherhood.

Transitions : experiences of women with type 1 diabetes : Turning points and transitions as experienced by young women with type 1 diabetes in Australia

The relationship among psychosocial stress, coping and metabolic control has a key effect on diabetes clinical outcomes and mental health. Life transitions are peak times of major change within personal and social contexts, which add stress affecting on peoples? problem solving. The thesis describes young women with Type 1 diabetes? perspectives of the problems encountered and how they managed them when they faced turning points and made life transitions. The study identified the women?s health concerns and factors that enhanced or hindered their ability to manage turning points and transitions. A substantive theory that comprised a problem of ?being in the grip of blood glucose levels? (BGLs) and a process termed ?creating stability? to manage life transitions was developed. The state of being in the grip of BGLs was associated with the impact of fluctuating BGLs; responses of other people to the womens? diabetes and the impact of diabetes on other people?s lives. The women managed these problems by engaging in social and psychological strategies helping them to stabilised their lives and feel more in control during life transitions.

Turning points and transitions : experiences of young women with Type 1 diabetes

This research explores young women with Type 1 diabetes' perspectives of the problems and how they manage them when facing turning points and making life transitions. The study presents a substantive theory of how the women tried to minimise the grip of blood glucose levels felt during transitions by creating stability in their lives.