Alternative employment and well-being: contract heterogeneity and differences among individuals

As you, I like those studies  which confirm my opinions, but I must confess that this paper, written by Claudia Bernhard-Oettel for the Stockholm University, has modified my opinion about the labour world. I am still convinced that a large number of people who are obliged to work with interim or temporary contracts would prefer to have a permanent one, but it is not all bad, at list for certain specific groups of people. So read the abstract below, read the concusions and jump to the full text if you are hooked.

Abstract

The increasing use of temporary and part-time employment in recent decades was initially expected to lead to negative effects for the individual. The empirical evidence, however, has been equivocal and the consequences are therefore still unclear. This thesis

The Emergence of Foresight Activities in Swedish Government Authorities

The interest of this paper resides for me in the fact that I thought that, among the Nordic countries, only Finland had foresight (or anticipation) activities. Clearly, it is my mistake, and it is interesting to note the differences between the 2 approaches. It would be interesting to organise a debate on this specific topic. So I welvome this article from Torbjörn Lundqvist prepared for the Swedish Institute for Future Studies.

Summary
The Emergence of Foresight Activities in Swedish Government Authorities This paper discusses and aims to explain the emergence of foresight activities in Swedish government authorities, including environmental scanning and analysis, futures studies and other activities trying to detect and analyse change in the surroundings of the organisation. To explain the growing importance of foresight activities

Talking about old age and health

An interesting dissertation from Jolanki Outi for Tampere University in Finland. again decides should have a look at this approach, which could inspire them to design adapted policies for old age, instead of trying to combat ageing as a disease.

Abstract

In this research the aim was to find out how old age and health are discussed by people who themselves are seen and treated as old. Its focus was to study these people’s talk about their experiences of old age and health. While I do not believe that other people’s experiences are directly available for us to discover, it is still important to analyse what kinds of elements are included in people’s talk about their experiences and in their self-identities. This information will help gain a deeper understanding of how “being old” and health are perceived by those people who may see themselves, and who are seen and treated by others, as ageing or old.