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The experiences of working women are explored in Women, Work, and Place. Tied together by the conceptual theme "place matters," the essays emphasize the social, cultural, economic, historical, and geographical contexts in which women work, and the effect of specific conditions on women's experiences. Topics include the transformation of the work force in nineteenth-century Montreal (Bettina Bradbury), feminization of skill in the British garment industry (Allison Kaye), the relationship between work and family for Japanese immigrant women in Canada (Audrey Kobayashi), experiences of women during a labour dispute in Ontario (Joy Parr), contemporary restructuring of the labour force in the United States (Susan Christopherson) and in an urban context in Montreal (Damaris Rose and Paul Villeneuve), the effect of gentrification on women's work roles (Liz Bondi), inequality in the work force (Sylvia Gold), and theoretical issues involved in understanding women in the contemporary city (Linda Peake). An introductory essay provides a review of current issues. --Publisher's description

The public is concerned about whether the management careers of women are hindered by discrimination and whether women and men in management who try to balance career and family are penalized for doing so. In an attempt to address those questions, data from a 1989 survey of over 600 middle-level managers im a large Canadian corporation were analyzed to examine the characteristics of jobs held by career-family and career-primary men and women. Hypotheses were developed based on human capital theory, statistical discrimination theory, and gender role congruence theory. Examining career outcomes suggested that participation in household labor had a significantly more negative association with men's hierarchical level than with women's.

A study investigates the impact of an insurance premium experience rating mechanism that is designed to induce firms to reduce the incidence of workplace accidents and accident claims costs. Logit model analysis of survey-response data and case study information is used to analyze the impact of the introduction of workers' compensation insurance premium experience rating on employer behavior in Ontario, Canada. The main result is that the financial incentives provided by experience rating have induced employers to alter their behaviors and undertake strategies aimed at accident prevention (reducing accident frequency rates) and reducing workers' compensation claims cost.

A model of a critical union commitment dimension - willingness to work for the union - is proposed and tested. Given the decline in union density in most advanced industrial societies, unions all over face the need for increased member activism. Organization and social psychological theories, along with previous empirical research, are used to develop the conceptual model, measures, and predictions. These predictions are tested via a 2-stage regression model, using data from a large sample of Swedish professional union members. As predicted, both attitudinal commitment and subjective norms are critical influences on the individual's willingness to work on behalf of the union. These results suggest that future research on union participation should focus on the determinants of behavioral intentions given the high correlation between willingness to work for the union and actual participation.

The article reviews the books, "Histoire des idées sociologiques, Tome I : Des origines à Weber; Tome 2 : De Parsons aux contemporains," by Michel Lallement.

The article reviews the book, "Working Women of Collar City: Gender, Class, and Community in Tory, 1864-86," by Carole Turbin.

Recent studies of labour have clearly established that the capitalist state is very involved in the recruitment, relocation and retention of migrant labour forces. Most of the literature tends to analyze migrant labour within the broader social, political and economic context of expanding capitalism. Consequently, studies tend to focus on how the use of migrant labour is profitable to capitalism because it is cheap and easy to exploit. Such studies, however, neglect the ways in which the state actually intervenes in the labour market in order to facilitate the flow of migrant workers to places of employment. Therefore, this thesis explores the relationship between the migration of labour, the state and the reserve army of labour through an analysis of the Native migrant work force in the sugar beet industry in southern Alberta.

The article reviews the book, "La Culture inventée. Les stratégies culturelles aux 19e et 20e siècles," edited by Pierre Lanthier and Guido Rousseau.

This article uses a classical Marxist framework to study the consciousness and action of inside postal workers in Hamilton, Ontario during and after their participation in the 1987 strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). At the time of the strike the Hamilton Local of CUPW was 58 per cent women; the article includes a discussion of the impact of gender processes on women worker's consciousness and action. It also deals with three more general issues. First, through a discussion of conceptual issues and the presentation of a multi-level theoretical model, I offer advice on how to proceed with empirical research on strikes and class consciousness. Second, the "culture of solidarity" portrayal of strikers, as developed by Rick Fantasia, is criticized for presenting an over-integrated view of the participation and consciousness of strikers. I argue that one need not romanticize striking workers in order to be optimistic about the political role of the contemporary working class. This optimism must recognize that in a macro context of politico-economic stability, only a minority of a striking workforce can be expected to experience an expansion of generalized class consciousness. Third, I suggest that Marxist political action in the 1990s should concentrate on the development of generalized class consciousness, especially workers' positive sense of class unity, through the organization of local worker solidarity networks.

Cette étude fournit une synthèse des travaux effectués par des économistes sur le thème de la santé et de la sécurité du travail. Ces derniers ont surtout essayé d'évaluer les effets des différentes politiques adoptées par les gouvernements en tant au 'assureur et promoteur de la santé et sécurité au travail. Le texte tente également défaire le point sur la question de la substitution entre l'assurance-accident et l'assurance-chômage. À la lumière d'une comparaison internationale de la générosité de ces deux régimes d'assurance, des solutions de rechange sont proposées permettant de réduire l'incitation à la substitution.

The article reviews the book, "Entre voisins. La société paroissiale en milieu urbain: Saint-Pierre-Apôtre de Montréal, 1849-1930," by Lucia Ferretti.

L'objet de cet article est d'apporter des précisions sur les positions des dirigeants syndicaux locaux à l'égard des nouvelles formes d'organisation du travail. Les résultats de l'enquête par questionnaire auprès de dirigeants locaux de la FTQ, de la CSN et de la CSD démontrent que les positions varient selon la nature des nouvelles formes d'organisation du travail. De façon générale, les positions syndicales sont favorables et elles ont évolué en ce sens au cours des dernières années. La volonté de s'adapter à un environnement changeant, la position de la centrale syndicale et l'expérience passée sont les facteurs qui expliquent le mieux les variations des positions syndicales locales.

The article reviews the book, "Le Pouvoir et la Règle. Dynamiques de l'action organisée, " by Erhard Friedberg.

Brief obituary for Robert Kenney, who died in Toronto on Sept. 28, 1993 at age 88. A bibliophile with a longstanding commitment to Marxist philosophy, Kenney's collections of books, pamphlets, leaflets, and newspapers, as well as the personal papers of A.E. Smith, were donated to the the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. The Memorial University library has acquired 2,200 pamphlets in the English language representing an international spectrum of opinion include socialist, communist (the Canadian Communist Party is well-represented), trade unionist and anti-war. Saskatchewan labour collections assembled by the Saskatchewan provincial archives include union papers, strike files and secondary sources from the 1940s-1980s. The collection is named after Bob Hale, the former Canadian Labour Congress regional director for the Prairies. Takes note of forthcoming conferences and a newsletter on comparative industrial relations published at McMaster University.

The article reviews the book, "Mères et travailleuses. De l'exception à la règle," by Renée B. Dandurand and Francine Descarries.

The article reviews the book, "London in the Age of Industrialisation: Entrepreneurs, Labour Force and Living Conditions, 1700-1850," by L. D. Schwarz.

This essay attempts to explain why the Scots Canadians of Québec's upper St. Francis district protected the fugitive, Donald Morrison, against the full force of the law in 1888-89. It rejects the proposition that ethnic tensions were a major factor, arguing instead that Morrison conforms to Eric Hobsbawm's definition of a primitive rebel. With the railway undermining the local subsistence-oriented economy and encouraging families to migrate from the district, the Highland community was facing a survival crisis which it would ultimately lose. The Megantic Outlaw affair therefore represented a final defiant and largely symbolic stand on the part of a tightly-knit rural community succumbing to the forces of industrial capitalism.

Describes the collection of over 2,200 pamphlets as well as a number of books that was received from the University of Prince Edward Island Library in 1992, which in turn had been acquired as part of a purchase of the stock of the Blue Heron Bookstore in Toronto in 1970. The holdings include pamphlets by Tim Buck and other leading Canadian communists as well as a range of leftist literature from the US, UK, Soviet Union, and China. Other significant holdings of radical/left literature at the Queen Elizabeth II Library are also described. {Note: The pamphlet collection has since been digitized and may be searched at: https://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/radical]

The article reviews the book, "Profit Sharing : Does it Make a Difference?," by Douglas L. Kruse.