Working leisure: entertaining guests in gated tourist resorts

In the contemporary tourism sector, entertainment is a particular type of service that is increasingly provided by specialised categories of tourist and leisure workers, such as (adventure) sport instructors, tour guides or reps, or ‘pub crawling’ cicerones. However, little attention has been paid so far to the complex intermingling between work and leisure that sustains the routine ‘working leisure’ practices of this ‘entertainment staff’. By building upon the Foucauldian concept of biopower and Hardt’s notion of affective labour, this article examines how entertainment is routinely generated as a service by tourist entertainers in an enclosed tourist resort in Italy. In particular, an in-depth qualitative analysis, combined with an account of a personal experience, was used to structurally frame tourist entertainers’ daily ‘playful working’ practices into three interrelated and functionally complementary dimensions: regimentation, hostessing and experiential rewards. The findings show that entertainment, and hence a successful tourist experience, is effectively (re)generated only when ‘working (through) leisure’ practices both constrain and gratify the workers. This result corroborates the ambivalence of entertainment as biopolitical affective labour that is a subjugating but also a liberating practice.     

关于利用最小颗粒度数据编制集团公司年度运输生产计划的研究

铁路局集团公司的年度运输生产计划是承上启下的关键计划,既要完成国铁集团布置的指导重点任务,又要充分调动现场职工的积极性,全面完成作为企业主体的经营任务。随着信息化的发展和大数据的应用,现场最小颗粒度的数据采集与反馈已经能够支撑计划的编制基础。利用最小颗粒度的数据编制和下达反馈运输生产计划,能够从计划的准确性、管理的精细化、经营结果的实时性和提高效率效益方面起到积极作用,全面提高集团公司的管理经营水平。     

股份合作制企业中劳动权与股东权的冲突初探

文章针对地勘单位股份合作制企业中产生的劳动权与股东权的冲突,分析了劳动权与股东权的关系,认为股东权与劳动权是可以分离的.提出解决这种冲突的对策.     

论通货紧缩的基本原因

本文结合我国改革开放的实际情况,从理论到实践,分析了通货紧缩概念和现象,探讨了通货紧缩和劳动生产率的关系,揭示了通货紧缩的基本原因。     

香港制造业升级的障碍分析

本文探讨了近年香港制造业升级困难的两个主要原因:大陆的无限廉价劳动力的利用和自由放任的经济政策。由此给出建议:适当的政府干预必不可少。     

The pattern and causes of economic growth in India

This paper presents the broad macro parameters of the growthof the Indian economy since the nation's independence and across-country evaluation of where India stands, drawing outthe patterns discernible in these aggregative statistics. Thepaper gives an overview of the on-going debate on the componentsof the Indian growth and the relative importance of the differentpolicies in the 1980s and 1990s. It contributes to this debateby identifying the landmark years, and analysing the politicsbehind some of the economics. The paper also analyses the factorsbehind the changes in India's savings rate and the relationbetween growth and development, on the one hand, and the natureof labour market regulation, on the other.     

The reallocation of workers and jobs in Russian industry

Gross job and worker flows in Russian industry are studied using panel data from a survey of 530 firms selected through national probability sampling. The data permit examination of several crucial measurement issues, including the timing and definition of employment and the role of reorganizations, and they contain rich information on firm characteristics. We find that new and reorganized firms display larger flows than unreorganized enterprises. Product market dispersion and managerial and dispersed outsider ownership are associated with greater worker churning, and unionization and concentrated outsider ownership with less. There is little evidence that the average firm's employment adjustments have become more responsive to adjustment costs during the transition, but private ownership and product market competition appear to increase responsiveness. JEL Classifications: E24, J23, J63, P23, P31.     

Investments and Changing Labour Productivity in Timber Floating:

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the change in labour productivity of timber floating on tributaries of northern Swedish rivers between 1930 and 1960. During this time, timber-floating operations were still relatively widespread but were put under economic pressure due to rapidly increasing labour costs and decreasing timber dimensions. This study examines various factors that could conceivably explain these changes in labour productivity in timber floating on the tributaries of the Ume and Vindel rivers. The results show that during the 1950s a partial phase-out of timber floating on the tributaries had a very small effect on labour productivity. Thus the combination of investment in the existing floatways and changes in the volumes of timber is the factor which best explains differences in labour productivity among different tributaries. Timber floating on the tributaries was influenced by annual variations in natural conditions, but since the relationship between investment costs and changes in labour productivity is significant, it still seems reasonable to draw the conclusion that investment in existing floatways resulted in increasing labour productivity during the examined period. These findings also contribute to the discussion of rationality and expectations as an explanation for investments in existing technologies, particularly in this type of transport system.     

Spatial effects of open borders on the Czech labour market1

Using data from the Czech Microcensus, I investigate differences in the regional impact of open borders on different skill groups in the Czech labour market. According to my results, there are no indications of disproportionate shifts in the skill structure of employment in the districts neighbouring western Germany and Austria compared to non‐border districts. However, regarding spatial wage gaps, I find evidence that from 1996 until 2002 the workers in the border region with the lowest degree of skills have a positive wage differential compared to their counterparts in the non‐border region, while all other skill groups in the border region have negative values.