The Ethical Agendas of Employment Agencies Towards Migrant Workers in the UK: Deciphering the Codes

This article examines the connections between employment agencies, ethics and migrant workers. The article identifies three approaches adopted by agencies towards ethics and migrant workers, namely, ‘business case’, ‘minimal compliance’ and ‘social justice’ approaches. Through case studies of three agencies in the UK, the article explores the potential and limitations of each of these approaches for meeting the needs of migrant workers. The article points to the limitations of both the business case and ‘minimal compliance’ approaches, stemming from tensions between the attempt to put in place ethical approaches towards the employment of migrant workers and the imperatives of the competitive strategies being pursued by agencies. The article points to the potential for social enterprise agencies to effectively meet the needs of migrants. These agencies can focus on more than just the first transition of migrants into the labour market; can formalize transitions within the labour market and link people to jobs that are more appropriate to their skills and experience, as a means of preventing the perpetuation of skill underutilisation.     

A look into the nature of complex systems and beyond "Stonehenge" economics: coping with complexity or ignoring it in applied economics?

Real-world economic systems are complex in general but can be approximated by the "open systems" approach. Economic systems are very likely to possess the basic and advanced emergent properties (e.g., self-organized criticality, fractals, attractors) of general complex systems. The theory of "self-organized criticality" is proposed as a major source of dynamic equilibria and complexity in economic systems. This is exemplified in an analysis for self-organized criticality of Danish agricultural subsectors, indicated by power law distributions of the monetary production value for the time period from 1963 to 1999. Major conclusions from the empirical part are: (1) The sectors under investigation are obviously self-organizing and thus very likely to show a range of complex properties. (2) The characteristics of the power law distributions that were measured might contain further information about the state or graduation of self-organization in the sector. Varying empirical results for different agricultural sectors turned out to be consistent with the theory of self-organized criticality. (3) Fully self-organizing sectors might be economically the most efficient. Finally, empirical implications of the results are discussed. Complexity theory should be considered as a valuable supplement to the existing analytical toolbox.     

A MIXED INTEGER LINEAR PROGRAMMING EVALUATION OF SALINITY AND WATERLOGGING CONTROL OPTIONS IN THE MURRAY-DARLING BASIN OF AUSTRALIA

Pollution of the River Murray by salt imposes costs on domestic and industrial users in Adelaide and to irrigators on the River Murray. Salt enters the Murray-Darling system through saline ground water aquifers and from irrigation and drainage of saline land. Irrigation and drainage generate benefits from improved agricultural productivity and impose costs through increased salt loads to the Murray-Darling system. The salinity of the River Murray can be reduced by pumping highly saline ground water into evaporation basins before it enters the River Murray. This paper presents a mixed integer linear programming model which is used to determine the mix of ground water interception schemes and land improvement schemes that minimises the net present value (over a time horizon of 30 years) of total Murray-Darling Basin costs due to salinity and waterlogging. By varying a target salinity level, the mix of works that yields various salinity targets in the River Murray at minimum cost is obtained. The sensitivity of the optimal solution to prescribed changes in costs and benefits of projects and to a longer planning horizon is examined.     

Book Reviews

Jonathan R. Pincus (1996), Class, Power and Agrarian Change: Land and Labour in Rural West Java, Studies on the Economics of East and Southeast Asia, Macmillan, Hampshire, pp. xii + 248.

Pierre van der Eng (1996), Agricultural Growth in Indonesia' Productivity Change and Policy Impact since 1880, Macmillan and St Martin's Press, London and New York, pp. xii + 375. £50.00

Mari E. Pangestu and Yuri Sato (eds) (1997), Waves of Change in Indonesia's Manufacturing Industry, Institute of Developing Economies, Tokyo, pp xiv + 225.

Peter van Diermen (1997), Small Business in Indonesia, Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. xvn + 234. Cloth: £37.50

Jonathan Rigg (1997), Southeast Asia: The Human Landscape of Modernization and Development, Routledge, London, pp. xxv + 326.

HaI Hill, Indonesia's Industrial Transformation, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, and Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp xix + 403.     

Inequality in healthcare R&D outcomes: a model of process disruption

ABSTRACT

The developing world has substantively different healthcare research and development (R&D) needs than the developed world. In this paper it is argued that healthcare inequality is primarily an outcome of the incentives of an innovation system that privileges wealthy markets. Given the difficulties inherent in challenging these incentive structures, it might be the R&D process itself (rather than its incentive structures) that, if disrupted, may ultimately improve access to R&D outcomes for poor populations. The objective of this paper is to spur novel thinking about the problem of healthcare inequality by developing a provocative conceptual model of healthcare R&D process disruption, based on the application of novel technologies to the research process itself, to radically lower the costs of R&D. The model developed here suggests that healthcare inequality might ultimately be mitigated by substantial reductions in time and cost in the biomedical R&D process made possible by novel technologies.     

Book Reviews

David Glover and Timothy Jessup (eds) (1999), Indonesia's Fires and Haze: The Cost of Catastrophe, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, and International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, pp. xviii + 149. Cloth: S$59.90; US$36.00; Paper: S$28.90; US$17.00.

Jeffrey A. Winters (1996), Power in Motion: Capital Mobility and the Indonesian State, Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY, pp. xvi + 241. Cloth: US$36.90; A$54.25.

Donald K. Emmerson (ed.) (1999), Indonesia Beyond Suharto: Polity, Economy, Society, Transition, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk NY and London, published in cooperation with The Asia Society, pp. xxviii + 395. Cloth: US$69.95; Paper: US$26.95. Not available in Australia and Southeast Asia.

Tulus Tahi Hamonangan Tambunan (2000), Development of Small-scale Industries during the New Order Government in Indonesia, Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. 218. Cloth: £37.50.

C.H. Kwan, Donna Vandenbrink and Chia Slow Yue (eds) (1998), Coping with Capital Flows in East Asia, Nomura Research Institute, Tokyo, and Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, pp. xiii + 319. Cloth: S$78.90; US$49.90; Paper: S$49.90; US$32.90.

International Labour Organisation (1999), Indonesia: Strategies for Employment-Led Recovery and Reconstruction, Jakarta, pp. 404.     

The European Timeshare Consumer in the Twenty‐First Century

This paper outlines the results of the most recent pan‐European survey of timeshare and its owners. The paper begins by placing timeshare in context of the European leisure sector and outlining previous research on timeshare. It then goes on to examine the results of a major survey of timeshare owners and the industry. The results unveil the profile of timeshare owners in Europe, their purchasing behaviour and their future intentions; it also looks into the satisfaction of the timeshare experience. The survey demonstrates that timeshare represents a significant sector of the European accommodation market a d that in general, consumers have a high satisfaction rate with their use of timeshare. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global Event Management: a critique

Within the professional Event Management literature considerable claims have been made for Event Management. Investment in the area and student enrolments has risen dramatically. In some circles, Event Management is portrayed as challenging Leisure Studies and even undermining it. However, if one examines the professional literature, one quickly finds that it is overwhelmingly uncritical and self-congratulatory. The relationship between Events, manipulation, corruption and social control has not been rigorously examined. This paper distinguishes the main types of Global Event (Single Issue and Cyclical). It attempts a balanced account of the claims made by Event Management. It examines data from Live Aid, the FIFA World Cup and the Sydney Olympics to test the claims against practice. It also includes two longer examinations of Global Event Management, namely the Sydney Mardi Gras and the Live 8 (2005) concert. The paper concludes that Event Management is based in principles from neo-liberalism and communitarianism. This produces an attitude to Events and leisure which is Reformist. This perspective is contrasted with the critical tradition in Leisure Studies which supports a more radical perspective on leisure.     

The Monasteries of Putuoshan,China: Sites of Secular or Religious Tourism?

The article reports an analysis derived from a sample of 640 respondents visiting the Buddhist site of Putuoshan that is sacred to the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokitesvara. Drawing on literature and observation over a 12-month period, the article adopts a fourfold designation of visitors: Xiankes, Sushi, Sightseers, and Cultural/Heritage Visitors. Three scales are developed and exploratory factor analysis supports distinctions between the clusters with reference to motives, activities and beliefs, and the categorization is supported by logistic regression analysis. The findings are discussed in the context of destination management with reference to two considerations—namely: (a) sites of religious importance often possess secular as well as religious significance; and (b) the numbers of tourists appear to be growing, thereby raising concerns of future negative tourism impacts.     

Understanding US Traveler Behavior to Asian Countries: A Secondary Analysis Approach

Over the last few decades, US travelers have taken an increasing number of trips to Asian countries. Considering the strong growth of the Asian tourism market and the consistent growth in numbers of US travelers to Asian countries, an examination of these travelers to identify meaningful market segments can benefit Asian destination marketers in developing better marketing strategies. This study aims to conduct a distinctive analysis for segmenting the US travelers to Asia market through empirical examination. The study data set, obtained from a Travel Activity and Motivation Survey, identified three lucrative segments: ProTravelers, Safety Conscious Travelers and Traditionalists. The study presents the distinctive characteristics of the three segments and discusses managerial recommendations.