The Containment of Labour Unrest in the Post Socialist China

Due to its transition from the socialist mode of production to the capitalist mode, workers in China have been exposed to the exploitative class relations that they hardly experienced before. The working class is now assuming a subordinate position in the relations of production while the capitalist class remains in the dominant position. As a consequence, workers’ protests are constantly emerging and class conflicts are exacerbating in the contemporary China. I have set out to study in this paper how the party-state in China contains labour unrest through the All China Federation of Trade Unions (the ACFTU), which I argue is a state apparatus that performs the ideological, political and economic functions in different situations. There has been an ongoing academic debate on if the ACFTU is defending workers’ interests. Some scholars have expressed optimism while some have taken a dim view. Drawing on Poulantzas’ theory of capitalist state, I hope to make contribution to this debate by demonstrating that the ACFTU is under some circumstances serving the short term interests of workers as individuals, but not the economic and political interests of workers as a class. Instead of organizing workers to overcome the effects of isolation or forming a class for itself, the ACFTU attempts to contain labour unrest and reproduce their subordination in the relations of production.

Reciprocal and wage labour in rural Ecuador. A quantitative analysis

This paper analyses the determinants for rural Ecuadorian households to participate in community works, to exchange labour, and to use paid labour. The results show that participation in community work is more common among indigenous peoples who are more committed with community and live in areas with relatively high population densities. Exchange labour agreements are more common among indigenous households settled in areas where industrial agriculture has not penetrated yet. Instead, paid labour is used by small and educated households which have access to credit.

The allometry of non-employment. What can compositional data analysis tell us about labour market performance across the UK's regions?

The low levels of unemployment recorded in the UK in recent years are widely cited as evidence of the country’s improved economic performance, and the apparent convergence of unemployment rates across the country’s regions used to suggest that the longstanding divide in living standards between the relatively prosperous ‘south’ and the more depressed ‘north’ has been substantially narrowed. Dissenters from these conclusions have drawn attention to the greatly increased extent of non-employment (around a quarter of the UK’s working age population are not in employment) and the marked regional dimension in its distribution across the country. Amongst these dissenters it is generally agreed that non-employment is concentrated amongst older males previously employed in the now very much smaller ‘heavy’ industries (e.g. coal, steel, shipbuilding). This paper uses the tools of compositiona l data analysis to provide a much richer picture of non-employment and one which challenges the conventional analysis wisdom about UK labour market performance as well as the dissenters view of the nature of the problem. It is shown that, associated with the striking ‘north/south’ divide in nonemployment rates, there is a statistically significant relationship between the size of the non-employment rate and the composition of non-employment. Specifically, it is shown that the share of unemployment in non-employment is negatively correlated with the overall non-employment rate: in regions where the non-employment rate is high the share of unemployment is relatively low. So the unemployment rate is not a very reliable indicator of regional disparities in labour market performance. Even more importantly from a policy viewpoint, a significant positive relationship is found between the size of the non-employment rate and the share of those not employed through reason of sickness or disability and it seems (contrary to the dissenters) that this connection is just as strong for women as it is for men

Student self-assessment a feedback seeking strategy through competence evaluation

There is a body of literature that suggests that student self-assessment is a main goal in higher education (Boud et al., 1995; Tan, 2008); moreover new forms of work organization require a high level of skills and competences. The efforts to deal with competence gaps could be developed at many levels, such as employers, educational institutions, individuals and public agents. Employers could put into practice competence development programs to moderate these gaps. Educational institutions can restructure the curriculum to support students in attaining the competences that are essential in the labour market. Individuals themselves may deploy their resources (time and money) in general or specific competence training. Further, government agencies could fund competence promotion programs. Such challenges for education drive change in learning curricula and method, to properly include the competences required for developing global workers who can move beyond basic competence, to enhanced flexibility and adaptability. In performance assessment methods, there is a shift from the traditional exam-based assessments to more innovative task assessment, which considers performance in multiple different tasks carry out by students. ICTs make it technologically feasible to carry out a complete and complex selfassessment of competences, which provides immediate results to students or other recipients. In the case of students, the evaluation of competences is relevant as developing competences is part - if not all - of the objectives of education. Therefore, it is an important element of the quality of educational organizations (e.g., universities), and of their organizational success. Further, educational organizations may put special emphasis on some differentiating competences, which can be a means of positioning and differentiation from competitors. Competence assessment is an instrument to make students conscious of their strengths and weaknesses, leading to higher motivation to develop their own learning career

Creative Commons en el movimiento de acceso abierto

El uso de las licencias Creative Commons es muy amplio, puede darse respecto de cualquiera de las obras protegidas por el derecho de autor y por tanto ser aplicado por artistas, escritores, científicos, profesores, estudiantes, oficinistas, etc. Sin embargo, el ejercicio de análisis y comparación que proponemos respecto al uso de licencias Creative Commons es para un escenario más cerrado que pueda atender a los intereses propios del sector al que va dirigida esta publicación en particular, es decir, al objeto de trabajo de las Editoriales Universitarias en América Latina, a las publicaciones académicas. Por tanto, este documento se ocupará concretamente del uso de las licencias Creative Commons[1] en las publicaciones académicas en línea, mirándolas desde la óptica del acceso abierto (Labastida i Juan; Iglesias, 2006) y pensándolas desde la filosofía que las perfila, su penetración, las oportunidades que generan, las ventajas que hacen evidentes, e incluso los retos y desventajas que afrontan.

Part 1 - talk on using Creative Commons and opensource software to make Open Content (what is creative commons ?, what is open content ?)

This is the first part of a 2 part video from my talk in May 2008 on open source content creation.

Part 2 - talk on using Creative Commons and opensource software to make Open Content. (Making of Doljer)

This is the second part of a 2 part video from my talk in May 2008 on open source content creation. Here I am talking about the Making of Doljer

Creative Commons network

My profile page on creative commons network

Estrategias para la internacionalización de la industria cinematográfica en Colombia

El cine es una de las actividades de entretenimiento o hobbies preferidos a nivel mundial, por lo que grandes empresas se han formando alrededor de este con el objetivo primordial de proveer todo los aspectos necesarios para crear y producir cine de calidad, que llame cada vez más la atención del público. Un ejemplo de esto es Hollywood, el clúster cinematográfico de Estados Unidos que se considera uno de los más importantes del mundo, en donde cada una de las películas producidas cuenta con los recursos necesarios tanto financieros, tecnológicos y laborales, para generar cine de buena calidad, garantizando así la mayoría de las veces éxito de taquilla, el cual les permite recuperar muy fácil la inversión. Sin embargo, con la globalización el mundo se ha convertido en un libro abierto, lo que implica poder conocer y ver las culturas de otros países, encontrando que las películas son un medio que facilita esta interacción, en las cuales se expone la cultura del país, sus costumbres, su arquitectura, su personalidad y su idioma, aspectos que hoy en día constituyen las industrias creativas o culturales, las cuales poseen un gran porcentajes de de crecimiento sobretodo en los países en vías de desarrollo. Para el caso de Colombia, vemos como a partir del año 2003 con la implementación de la ley de cine 814, nuestra producción empezó a florecer con películas como el Rey, Rosario Tijeras, la historia del Baúl Rosa, Te busco, Mi abuelo, mi papa y yo, entre otras. Películas que en un inicio presentaron una demanda alta, debido al furor y al apoyo nacional brindado. No obstante, demanda que cayó rápidamente debido a las historia repetitivas basadas en guerra sumándole la mala calidad de estas producciones, que fueron castigadas por los cinéfilos. Lo anterior, muestra como la falta de capacitación en todos los eslabones de la cadena productiva del cine, el difícil acceso a recursos financieros y el retraso en materia tecnología, son los mayores obstáculos para nuestro cine, obstáculos que no nos han detenido pero si atrasado, ya que vemos ejemplos como la Película María llena eres de gracia, dirigida por Joshua Marston, estrenada en el 2005, la cual se llevo varios premios internacionales y una nominación al óscar a mejor actriz. Trabajar en estos tres pilares y buscar cooperación internacional permitirá que el cine colombiano conquiste los mercado internacional y a la vez ir constituyendo las bases para crear un clúster latinoamericano de cine.

Creative Commons and 21st Century Distribution

Slides for a Level 3 Digital Practice and Theory lecture on using CC, promoting your work and ways to get it out there, some demonstration on the economic value of sharing.

Open Source & Creative Commons

Talk given for Filmelab April 2008

Creative Commons Quiz/Lecture notes/Lecture slides(group 22)

The resource set of info2009 coursework 2 is produced by group22. it contains: 1. poster 2. internet link of a set of multiple questions 3. a pdf file of a set of multiple questions 4. reference list 5. lecture slides 6. lecture notes ps: Edward Payne (ejp1x07@ecs.soton.ac.uk) has not contributed to any part of the activities.

Labour market, international trade, and unemployment in a less developed country

This paper constructs a trade general equilibrium model for a less developed country with three sectors. One is the informal and un-tradable sector characterized by áexible wages, while the other two sectors are tradable, export and import sectors. The model imposes a binding minimum wage over the unskilled labour and e¢ cient wage distortions on the skilled labour. Comparative statics is driven to analyze the e§ects on the labour market as consequence of opening the economy, raising the minimum wage and the introduction of an augmenting productivity in the export sector.

7 by 7 ways to be creative with geography.

Actividades que se proponen a los alumnos para aumentar su capacidad de hacer preguntas y desarrollar varias habilidades en el contexto de respuestas creativas de geografía.

The creative teaching and learning resource book.

Es un recurso integral pues presenta técnicas de enseñanza eficaces que pueden utilizar los profesores de todas las materias en las lecciones diarias de su clase pero, también, incluye experiencias para un aprendizaje efectivo que involucra a los estudiantes y aumenta su motivación. Todas estas estrategias de enseñanza y aprendizaje son prácticas y se han probado con éxito en las aulas. Una sección especial se ocupa del desarrollo a nivel personal y profesional de los docentes para mejorar sus habilidades de enseñanza.