scholarly journals Depoliticizing the Firm: Revisiting Employability as a Strategy and a Narrative for High-Skilled and Skilled Workers in an Eastern European City

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-76
Author(s):  
Norbert Petrovici ◽  
Neda Deneva-Faje

Abstract Our main aim is to unpack the notion of employability as a narrative and as a strategy by contextualising it in an Eastern European setting and by scrutinizing how it is defined and experienced by two different categories of employees: high-skilled and skilled workers. We look at the case of Cluj, a mid-size Romanian town fast developing into an IT hub and a centre of reindustrialization. Drawing on qualitative interviews with employees in the IT and HR sectors, and in medium-sized factories, we argue that personal development and gaining expertise are a successful employability strategy for the highskilled, but make the skilled workers more vulnerable and at risk of becoming redundant. We argue that the employability discourse draws new lines of divisions between employees. By shifting the lens away from the organization and towards the individual worker’s responsibility, the employability discourse depoliticizes the relationship between the employee and the employer.

2020 ◽  
pp. 175-181
Author(s):  
Екатерина Сергеевна Фоминых

Рассматривается проблема функционирования личности в условиях современной неопределенности и изменчивости. В центре настоящего исследования – взаимосвязь толерантности к неопределенности и психологических границ личности в юности. Рассмотрены понятия «толерантность» и «интолерантность» к неопределенности, психологические границы, обоснована взаимосвязь между рассматриваемыми конструктами. Проведено эмпирическое исследование специфики взаимосвязи толерантности к неопределенности и функций психологических границ молодежи. В ходе эксперимента использовались методики: «Новый опросник толерантности-интолерантности к неопределенности» (Т. В. Корниловой), «Методика диагностики психологических границ личности» (Т. С. Леви). Экспериментальное исследование позволило выявить преобладание интолерантности к неопределенности (в том числе межличностной интолерантности к неопределенности) и несформированность психологической границы в период юности. Установлена взаимосвязь между следующими показателями: невпускающей, сдерживающей функциями психологических границ и межличностной интолерантностью к неопределенности; интолерантностью к неопределенности и сочетанием высоких значений по невпускающей, сдерживающей и низких значений по проницаемой, нейтральной, вбирающей функциями психологических границ. Результаты исследования указывают на негибкость, неадаптивность, жесткость, непроницаемость и закрытость психологических границ молодежи, трудности обмена информацией и энергией между внешним и внутренним пространством, восприятие неопределенности как угрозы, избегание ситуаций противоречивости и изменчивости, уход от контактов. Выявленные особенности способствуют наращиванию стагнирующих тенденций, виктимизации, препятствуют личностному развитию и росту. Полученные результаты могут быть использованы для построения программ психолого-педагогического сопровождения молодежи в вопросах активизации их внутренних психологических ресурсов, необходимых для эффективного функционирования в условиях непрерывных вызовов повседневной реальности. The article deals with the problem of personality functioning in the conditions of modern uncertainty and variability. This research focuses on the relationship between tolerance to uncertainty and psychological boundaries of personality in youth. The concepts of tolerance and intolerance to uncertainty, psychological boundaries are considered; the relationship between the considered constructs is substantiated. An empirical study of the specifics of the relationship between tolerance to uncertainty and the functions of psychological boundaries of young people is conducted. During the experiment, the following methods were used:» New questionnaire of tolerance-intolerance to uncertainty «(T. V. Kornilova),» Method of diagnostics of psychological borders of personality « (T. S. Levi). The experimental study revealed the predominance of tolerance to uncertainty (including interpersonal tolerance to uncertainty) and the lack of formation of the psychological border in the period of youth. The relationship between the following indicators is established: non-admitting, restraining functions of psychological boundaries and interpersonal tolerance to uncertainty; tolerance to uncertainty and a combination of high values for non-admitting, restraining and low values for permeable, neutral, absorbing functions of psychological boundaries. The results of the study indicate inflexibility, maladaptivity, rigidity, impenetrability and closeness of psychological boundaries of young people, difficulties in exchanging information and energy between the external and internal space, perception of uncertainty as a threat, avoiding situations of inconsistency and variability, and avoiding contacts. The identified features contribute to the growth of stagnating trends, victimization, and hinder personal development and growth. The results obtained can be used to build programs for psychological and pedagogical support of young people in terms of activating their internal psychological resources necessary for effective functioning in the conditions of continuous challenges of everyday reality.


Author(s):  
Sylwester Kozak

<p>Theoretical background: The relationship between the size of banks and their efficiency has become an important subject for academics and policy makers in the recent decades. However, the outcomes of these studies are relatively divergent concerning the direction of this dependence.</p><p>Purpose of the article: The goal of this study is to assess how the size of banks affects their efficiency in the CEE countries in the years 2005–2017. Additionally, the relationship between the market concentration and banks efficiency is checked.</p><p>Research methods: The research covers 108 banks operating in eleven CEE countries. The efficiency scores are achieved through the SFA method and regressed with the individual bank characteristics and macroeconomic and sectoral variables.</p><p>Main findings: The results show that growing bank’s size and market share positively affect its efficiency. Additionally, higher concentration of the banking market has a similar effect. Higher inflation and GDP per capita decrease bank profit efficiency which can indicate that banks achieve the highest efficiency gains in less prosperous countries, however, in the low inflation environment. Additionally, banks’ efficiency is boosted with the growing development of the banking sector and increasing lending to the economy. Fast-growing banks tend to be more efficient, probably due to the positive effect of the fiancial leverage on profits.</p>


Author(s):  
Michael C. Ewers ◽  
Ryan Dicce

This chapter examines the relationship between highly skilled international migration and urban–regional development. We describe how this mobility–urbanization nexus is conditioned by the various scalar actors. The locational preference-seeking of high-skilled workers gives insight into the individual determinants of migration. Meanwhile, the hiring and recruitment practices of local and international firms further conditions these outcomes. As the ultimate regulator of economic activity and labour mobility, the state further alters the context in which firms and labour operate. Together, these three actors create multiscalar processes operating at local, national, and global levels to determine who goes where and why in the global economy.


Vestnik RFFI ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 128-136
Author(s):  
Yury P. Zinchenko ◽  
Ludmila A. Shaigerova ◽  
Alexandra G. Dolgikh ◽  
Olga A. Saveleva ◽  
Olga V. Vakhantseva

The article constitutes an overview of the methods used in foreign issues to study the impact of bilingualism on the cognitive and personal development of the individual, including innovative technologies. The results and limitations of the methods used are considered. Their wide variety and originality are noted and at the same time inconsistency, heterogeneity and ambiguity of the results obtained on their basis are demonstrated. The urgency of the development of a complex methodological paradigm requires to take into account the socio-cultural context, in which the relationship of bilingualism with the cognitive and personal development of the individual is studied. It is concluded that the use of the developed methods and technologies from the standpoint of cultural-historical approach, overcoming the postulate of immediacy and the consideration of the individual as a subject of activity will contribute to the explanation of conflicting results obtained on the basis of the same methods in different socio-cultural contexts and in different situations of ethnolinguistic interaction, which will improve the reliability and representativeness of research.


Author(s):  
Brynne D. Ovalle ◽  
Rahul Chakraborty

This article has two purposes: (a) to examine the relationship between intercultural power relations and the widespread practice of accent discrimination and (b) to underscore the ramifications of accent discrimination both for the individual and for global society as a whole. First, authors review social theory regarding language and group identity construction, and then go on to integrate more current studies linking accent bias to sociocultural variables. Authors discuss three examples of intercultural accent discrimination in order to illustrate how this link manifests itself in the broader context of international relations (i.e., how accent discrimination is generated in situations of unequal power) and, using a review of current research, assess the consequences of accent discrimination for the individual. Finally, the article highlights the impact that linguistic discrimination is having on linguistic diversity globally, partially using data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partially by offering a potential context for interpreting the emergence of practices that seek to reduce or modify speaker accents.


Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meshan Lehmann ◽  
Matthew R. Hilimire ◽  
Lawrence H. Yang ◽  
Bruce G. Link ◽  
Jordan E. DeVylder

Abstract. Background: Self-esteem is a major contributor to risk for repeated suicide attempts. Prior research has shown that awareness of stigma is associated with reduced self-esteem among people with mental illness. No prior studies have examined the association between self-esteem and stereotype awareness among individuals with past suicide attempts. Aims: To understand the relationship between stereotype awareness and self-esteem among young adults who have and have not attempted suicide. Method: Computerized surveys were administered to college students (N = 637). Linear regression analyses were used to test associations between self-esteem and stereotype awareness, attempt history, and their interaction. Results: There was a significant stereotype awareness by attempt interaction (β = –.74, p = .006) in the regression analysis. The interaction was explained by a stronger negative association between stereotype awareness and self-esteem among individuals with past suicide attempts (β = –.50, p = .013) compared with those without attempts (β = –.09, p = .037). Conclusion: Stigma is associated with lower self-esteem within this high-functioning sample of young adults with histories of suicide attempts. Alleviating the impact of stigma at the individual (clinical) or community (public health) levels may improve self-esteem among this high-risk population, which could potentially influence subsequent suicide risk.


2019 ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Н. В. Фрадкіна

The purpose and tasks of the work are to analyze the contemporary Ukrainian mass culture in terms of its value and humanistic components, as well as the importance of cultural studies and Ukrainian studies in educational disciplines for the formation of a holistic worldview of modern youth.Analysis of research and publications. Scientists repeatedly turned to the problems of the role of spirituality in the formation of society and its culture. This problem is highlighted in the publications by O. Losev, V. Lytvyn, D. Likhachev, S. Avierintsev, M. Zakovych, I. Stepanenko and E. Kostyshyn.Experts see the main negative impact of mass culture on the quality approach, which determines mass culture through the market, because mass culture, from our point of view, is everything that is sold and used in mass demand.One of the most interesting studies on this issue was the work by the representatives of Frankfurt School M. Horkheimer and T. Adorno «Dialectics of Enlightenment» (1947), devoted to a detailed analysis of mass culture. Propaganda at all socio-cultural levels in the form is similar in both totalitarian and democratic countries. It is connected, according to the authors, with the direction of European enlightenment. The tendency to unify people is a manifestation of the influence of mass culture, from cinema to pop. Mass culture is a phenomenon whose existence is associated with commerce (accumulation in any form – this is the main feature of education), in general, the fact that it exists in this form is related to the direction of the history of civilization.Modern mass culture, with its externally attractive and easily assimilated ideas and symbols, appealing to the trends of modern fashion, becomes a standard of prestigious consumption, does not require intense reflection, allows you to relax, distract, not teach, but entertains, preaches hedonism as the main spiritual value. And as a consequence, there are socio-cultural risks: an active rejection of other people, which leads to the formation of indifference; cruelty as a character trait; increase of violent and mercenary crime; increase in the number of alcohol and drug addicts; anti-patriotism; indifference to the values of the family and as a result of social orphanhood and prostitution.Conclusions, perspectives of research. Thus, we can conclude that modern Ukrainian education is predominantly formed by the values of mass culture. Namely, according to the «Dialectic» by Horkheimer and Adorno, «semi-enlightenment becomes an objective spirit» of our modern society.It is concluded that only high-quality education can create the opposite of the onset of mass culture and the destruction of spirituality in our society. It is proved that only by realizing the importance of cultivating disciplines in the educational process and the spiritual upbringing of the nation, through educational reforms, humanitarian knowledge will gradually return to student audiences.Formation of youth occurs under the influence of social environment, culture, education and self-education. The optimal combination of these factors determines both the process of socialization itself and how successful it will be. In this context, one can see the leading role of education and upbringing. It turns out that the main task of modern education is to spread its influence on the development of spiritual culture of the individual, which eventually becomes a solid foundation for the formation of the individual. Such a subject requires both philosophical and humanitarian approaches in further integrated interdisciplinary research, since the availability of such research will provide the theoretical foundation for truly modern educational and personal development.


Author(s):  
Emma Simone

Virginia Woolf and Being-in-the-world: A Heideggerian Study explores Woolf’s treatment of the relationship between self and world from a phenomenological-existential perspective. This study presents a timely and compelling interpretation of Virginia Woolf’s textual treatment of the relationship between self and world from the perspective of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Drawing on Woolf’s novels, essays, reviews, letters, diary entries, short stories, and memoirs, the book explores the political and the ontological, as the individual’s connection to the world comes to be defined by an involvement and engagement that is always already situated within a particular physical, societal, and historical context. Emma Simone argues that at the heart of what it means to be an individual making his or her way in the world, the perspectives of Woolf and Heidegger are founded upon certain shared concerns, including the sustained critique of Cartesian dualism, particularly the resultant binary oppositions of subject and object, and self and Other; the understanding that the individual is a temporal being; an emphasis upon intersubjective relations insofar as Being-in-the-world is defined by Being-with-Others; and a consistent emphasis upon average everydayness as both determinative and representative of the individual’s relationship to and with the world.


Moreana ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (Number 209) (1) ◽  
pp. 79-93
Author(s):  
Marie-Claire Phélippeau

This paper shows how solidarity is one of the founding principles in Thomas More's Utopia (1516). In the fictional republic of Utopia described in Book II, solidarity has a political and a moral function. The principle is at the center of the communal organization of Utopian society, exemplified in a number of practices such as the sharing of farm work, the management of surplus crops, or the democratic elections of the governor and the priests. Not only does solidarity benefit the individual Utopian, but it is a prerequisite to ensure the prosperity of the island of Utopia and its moral preeminence over its neighboring countries. However, a limit to this principle is drawn when the republic of Utopia faces specific social difficulties, and also deals with the rest of the world. In order for the principle of solidarity to function perfectly, it is necessary to apply it exclusively within the island or the republic would be at risk. War is not out of the question then, and compassion does not apply to all human beings. This conception of solidarity, summed up as “Utopia first!,” could be dubbed a Machiavellian strategy, devised to ensure the durability of the republic. We will show how some of the recommendations of Realpolitik made by Machiavelli in The Prince (1532) correspond to the Utopian policy enforced to protect their commonwealth.


2016 ◽  
pp. 45-49
Author(s):  
P.N. Veropotvelyan ◽  
◽  
I.S. Tsehmistrenko ◽  
N.P. Veropotvelyan ◽  
N.S. Rusak ◽  
...  

Was to conduct a systematic review of data on the relationship between polymorphisms genes of detoxification system and development of preeclampsia (РЕ). Рresents the main genes of detoxification system (GSTPI, GSTМI, GSTТI, GРХI, ЕРНХI, SOD-2, SOD-3, CYPIAL, MTHЕR, MTR) and their functions. Of interest is the possibility of calculating the individual risk of PE based on the results about the presence of a combination of different polymorphisms in the genotype of the female. Question about early diagnosis of РЕ remains controversial and not fully understood. It is necessary to conduct further in-depth, extended study of this problem. Key words: preeclampsia, oxidative stress, genes of the detoxification system.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document