Axel van den Berg

External Flexibility in Sweden and Canada: A Three Industry Comparison

There is a substantial body of writing that identifies efficiency advantages from the provision of employment security, both within individual plants and at the level of the national economy. However, the business cycle persists in capitalist economies, so the question arises: how do managements deal with the fluctuations in the demand for labour which are associated with it? That is to say, what are management policies with respect to external flexibility? In North America, segmenting jobs into stable and unstable ones is thought to have provided a solution; in Scandinavia, until recently, full employment policies were thought to have eliminated the problem. In this paper, we compare the policies with respect to employment security adopted in a sample of plants in three industries in Canada and Sweden. Our evidence suggests that policies with respect to external flexibility are influenced by the character of demand for what is being produced, by the technology of production, and by the institutional structure within which firms operate. Our evidence also indicates to what degree employment security is, itself, insecure.

Did Chile’s traffic law reform push police enforcement? Understanding Chile’s traffic fatalities and injuries reduction

Background The objective of the current study is to determine to what extent the reduction of Chile’s traffic fatalities and injuries during 2000–2012 was related to the police traffic enforcement increment registered after the introduction of its 2005 traffic law reform. Methods A unique dataset with assembled information from public institutions and analyses based on ordinary least square and robust random effects models was carried out. Dependent variables were traffic fatality and severe injury rates per population and vehicle fleet. Independent variables were: (1) presence of new national traffic law; (2) police officers per population; (3) number of traffic tickets per police officer; and (4) interaction effect of number of traffic tickets per police officer with traffic law reform. Oil prices, alcohol consumption, proportion of male population 15–24 years old, unemployment, road infrastructure investment, years’ effects and regions’ effects represented control variables. Results Empirical estimates from instrumental variables suggest that the enactment of the traffic law reform in interaction with number of traffic tickets per police officer is significantly associated with a decrease of 8% in traffic fatalities and 7% in severe injuries. Piecewise regression model results for the 2007–2012 period suggest that police traffic enforcement reduced traffic fatalities by 59% and severe injuries by 37%. Conclusions Findings suggest that traffic law reforms in order to have an effect on both traffic fatality and injury rates reduction require changes in police enforcement practices. Last, this case also illustrates how the diffusion of successful road safety practices globally promoted by WHO and World Bank can be an important influence for enhancing national road safety practices.

Teaching art versus teaching taste: what art teachers can learn from looking at a cross-cultural evaluation of children's art

Abstract In this article we extend our work on the limitations of the Gardner and Winner U-curved artistic development hypothesis [Gardner, Howard, Winner, Ellen, 1982. First intimations of artistry. In: Strauss, S. (Ed.), U-shaped Development. Academic Press, New York, pp. 147–168]. In our previous work we have cast serious doubt on the supposed universal validity of that thesis by showing that non-Western judges do not necessarily assess the aesthetic merits of a given set of drawings in the same way as do the Western judges used in the research allegedly supporting the U-curve hypothesis. While we were able almost perfectly to replicate the characteristic U-curve using Western judges—with drawings made by very young children ranked almost as highly as those of mature artists—Chinese-educated judges assessing the same sample of drawings produced an upward-sloping curve in which the drawings of the youngest children ranked lowest. In this article we begin to explore the reasons behind this apparent inter-cultural difference in aesthetic judgement. On the basis of hints from a recent pilot study as well as from what is known about characteristic differences between Western and Chinese cultural standards, we hypothesize that the difference between the Western and Chinese judges’ evaluations in our earlier study might be due to differences in their appreciation of the degree of graphic skill displayed in the drawings they were asked to assess. Whereas Westerners with an art-education background are likely to be steeped in a Modernist aesthetic which values unspoilt originality above all else and which tends to downgrade technical skill, Chinese culture reputedly values skill and technique as necessary pre-conditions for artistic expression. In order to test this hypothesis we had independent judges score each drawing in the sample according to the relative amount of graphic skill it displayed. We then correlated the skill scores with the aesthetic evaluations of our initial Western and Chinese-educated judges. The results provide moderate support for our hypothesis. The Chinese-educated judges’ assessments are consistently more strongly correlated with level of graphic skill than those of the Western judges. While the Western judges did appear to appreciate skill as a part of the aesthetic value of a drawing, they did so only for the drawings produced by adolescent and adult artists. Their assessment of the work of non-artists did not appear to have anything to do with the skill level shown. The Chinese-educated judges, by contrast, seemed to hold skill in higher esteem than the Western judges and did so across all age/skill groups.

Labor Market Regimes and Patterns of Flexibility: A Sweden-Canada Comparison

tax expenditures, case by case, rather than merely adding them up at full value. I also wished Howard would have pushed further down the path of comparison to ascertain the degree to which America’s tax expenditures constitute a functional equivalent to European spending programs. Finally, tax expenditures differ from social expenditures in mores ways than their ambiguity. Social spending programs are mainly redistributive—not the case for many tax expenditures with social welfare purposes. All the same, Howard’s accomplishment is great. He has written what will surely become the official sourcebook to America’s hidden welfare state. It is difficult to imagine a better guide through the mysteries of the tax code. Howard cuts through the tangle of jargon and official documents with keen reasoning and lucid style. His employment of theories of and analogies to social policy is always resourceful. The Hidden Welfare State shows that scholars concerned with states’ efforts toward economic redistribution evade taxation only at their analytical peril.

Explaining Chile's traffic fatality and injury reduction for 2000-2012

Objectives: The objective of the current study is to determine the contribution of Chiles 2005 traffic law reform, police enforcement, and road investment infrastructure to the reduction of traffic fatalities and severe injuries from 2000 to 2012. Methods: Analyses based on structural equation models were carried out using a unique database merging aggregate administrative data from several Chilean public institutions. The sample was balanced (13 regions, over 13 years; N = 169). Dependent variables were rates of traffic fatality (total, drivers, passengers, and pedestrians), severe injuries, and total number of crashes per vehicle fleet. Independent variables were (1) traffic law reform, (2) police enforcement, and (3) road infrastructure investment. Oil prices, alcohol consumption, proportion of male population 15–24 years old, unemployment, years’ effects and regions’ effects, and lagged dependent variables were entered as control variables. Results: Empirical estimates from the structural equation models suggest that the enactment of the traffic law reform is significantly associated with a 7% reduction of pedestrian fatalities. This association is entirely mediated by the positive association the law had with increasing police enforcement and reducing alcohol consumption. In turn, police enforcement is significantly associated with a direct decrease in total fatalities, driver fatalities, passenger fatalities, and pedestrian fatalities by 17%, 18%, 8%, and 60%, respectively. Finally, road infrastructure investment is significantly associated with a direct reduction of 11% in pedestrian fatalities, and the number of total crashes significantly mediates the effect of road infrastructure investment on the reduction of severe injuries. Tests of sensitivity indicate these effects and their statistical significance did not vary substantively with alternative model specifications. Conclusions: Results suggest that traffic law reform, police enforcement, and road infrastructure investment have complex interwoven effects that can reduce both traffic fatalities and severe injuries. Though traffic reforms are ultimately designed to change road user behaviors at large, it is also important to acknowledge that legislative changes may require institutional changes—that is, intensification of police enforcement—and be supported by road infrastructure investment, in order to effectively decrease traffic fatalities and injuries. Furthermore, depending on how road safety measures are designed, coordinated, and implemented, their effects on different types of road users vary. The case of Chile illustrates how the diffusion of road safety practices globally promoted by the World Health Organization and World Bank, particularly in 2004, can be an important influence to enhance national road safety practices.

Flexicurity: What Can We Learn from the Scandinavian Experience?

This article criticises the multiplicity of meanings that have been attached to the term ‘flexicurity’ and the largely rhetorical, depoliticising uses to which it has been put by EU-level policy makers and analysts. It then proceeds to examine the two cases in which the underlying idea of flexicurity – that social protection and economic performance can be mutually reinforcing – has been most unambiguously pursued: the Swedish ‘Rehn-Meidner’ plan and the Danish ‘Golden Triangle’. This analysis suggests that a major factor in the relative success of these policies in these two Scandinavian countries has been the presence of ‘encompassing organisations’ (Olson 1982) on both sides of the bargaining table. The article ends with some considerations of the implications of this analysis for the much-discussed transferability of the Scandinavian experience to other national settings.This article criticises the multiplicity of meanings that have been attached to the term ‘flexicurity’ and the largely rhetorical, depoliticising uses to which it has been put by EU-level policy ma...

A Canadian Immigration Model for Europe? Labour Market Uncertainty and Migration Policy in Canada, Germany and Spain

Abstract This article addresses the claim, particularly popular in the 2000s and implicitly resting on a segmentation view of the labour market, that a flexible labour market-driven immigration policy (within the EU as well as from outside), often associated to a ‘Canadian model’, would respond to the economic needs of continental European countries. A comparative historical approach is applied, including analysis of historical series of unemployment and migration data and a qualitative analysis of secondary sources on Germany, Spain and Canada, selected as best representatives of different labour market and immigration regimes. The research asks to what extent, and how, immigration has been used as a ‘buffer’ for labour market uncertainty. Against ideas of a ‘Canadian’ model advertised in Europe (e.g. Germany), the historical and quantitative analysis shows that Canada itself has moved from short-term labour market-driven immigration policies to more long-term approaches. In fact, there has been a stronger labour market-migration link in Spain, but not without problems, The article is a small-N comparison of critical cases, that is most different labour market models. Major demographic and geographic differences exist between the three countries, which raises even more scepticism about the suitability of a Canadian model in Europe. The policy implications are centred on the detected paradox of labour market-driven immigration policies: in order to be sustainable, they need to have a long-term orientation and involve some degree of social integration policies. The article adds to comparative studies of migration policies through a stronger link to labour market analysis and in particular issues of uncertainty and segmentation.

From Primates to Parliaments

The dismal science has its optimists. Among them are Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis. Yet sociologists considering their collaborative oeuvre might be perplexed. They remain best known in sociology for their Schooling in Capitalist America, a devastating critique of our educational system that concludes with a sincere, detailed contemplation of how the ‘‘necessary and feasible’’ socialist revolution can be accomplished ([1976] 2011: 282). On the other hand, their most recent book, A Cooperative Species, is about human evolutionary history and how it has shaped our psychology. Sociologists are accustomed to arranging their intellectual deck chairs with ‘‘socialist revolution’’ on the left and ‘‘evolutionary psychology’’ on the right. Is this the same Bowles and Gintis? Have they forsaken their political ideals for the seductions of game theory and fieldwork accounts of huntergatherers? Regarding the revolution, Bowles and Gintis have recently said elsewhere that they remain ‘‘convinced of the attractiveness of [socialism] as a system, but are less sanguine about its feasibility’’ (2011: xi). If a socialist America is infeasible, why? While A Cooperative Species is not directed toward this question—to be clear, it is not specifically about socialism at all—it can nevertheless be read as ruling out one possibility. Human nature is not to blame. This position is contrary to the common argument that, however appealing radically egalitarian social change may seem in principle, people are too intrinsically selfish for it to work in practice. This is often presented as an unfortunate logical inevitability, as though socialism was the societal analogue of a perpetual motion machine. Nice guys finish last, and more importantly so do their genes, whenever they are in long-run competitive self-interested behavior. In this view, most of what is perceived as altruism is one or another form of mutualism—where helping others is also helping oneself. Altruism toward close relativeness, in which individual-level sacrifice is recast as gene-level selfishness, is the most prominent example. ‘‘Scratch an altruist, watch a hypocrite bleed,’’ famously wrote one early sociobiologist (Ghiselin 1974: 247). The implication is that any social arrangement predicated on substantial human prosociality is many millenia too late to be workable for our species. Bowles and Gintis dismissed this argument back in Schooling in Capitalist America, stating that ‘‘the antagonisms, insecurities, provincialisms, egotisms, competitiveness, greed, and chauvinism which we observe in U.S. society do not derive from innate biological needs or instincts or infirmities’’ (1976: 16). A Cooperative Species may be considered the capstone of considerable work which Bowles, Gintis, and others have done in the intervening years to substantiate this view. The book is an extremely detailed, exacting, and persuasive argument for the possibility that people can be genuinely nice. Or, at least, that ‘‘we are not purely selfish’’ (p. 3). You do not actually need evolutionary theory to show that people are not purely selfish. Indeed, one might say that evidence A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and its Evolution, by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011. 262pp.

Writers in Prison

39.95 cloth. ISBN: 9780691151250.

The end of the world as we know it : social science for the twenty-first century

Part 1 Themes: prison writing - margin and centre situating the subject the consolations of philosophy violent space. Part 2: Narratives: text/anti-text underground man/hollow man/time of the hero riven situations death row final solutions Part 3 Conclusion: inscribing the everyday.