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Evidence on the relationship between technical innovation and nonmanual skills and work organization in the UK is drawn from 5 case studies covering a range of production and service environments and workplace size. In each case study, 3 months of intensive research was conducted between April 1983 and November 1986. Return visits were made 2 years after the detailed research to assess changes in the workplace. In none of the cases could the introduction of new technologies simply equate technical innovation with deskilling and enhanced managerial control. There was a tendency for overall skill polarization to occur rather than straightforward deskilling. It was found that technological change has been more favorable for technical than for clerical occupational groups. In telecommunications and metals research, the introduction of new technology led to a concentration of skills for technical workers that were primarily computer-related. The most important change in maintenance technicians' work was in the way that faults were diagnosed and repaired.

The article reviews the book, "Le travail en mutation," edited by Colette Bernier, with the collaboration of Catherine Teiger.

The article reviews the book, "The Practice Of Labour Relations," 3rd edition, by David A. and Paul Bergman.

Examines trade unionism and working class politics in Great Britain since the Second World War with implications for Canada. Discusses national developments and local workplace experience with emphasis on the Labour government of Harold Wilson in the period after the Donovan Commission of 1968, that saw openness to pluralist approaches to industrial relations. Explores union and class consciousness, bureaucratization, sectionalism, and the current state of unions in the aftermath of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government. Also considers the position of white collar workers, women, and black workers. Concludes that the British and Canadian labour movements are in a similar situation, with both remaining in a defensive, reactive mode unless there is a much broader movement toward syndicalist/workers' control of production and services.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, racism, in the form of white supremacy, shaped relations between whites and Chinese British Columbians. In resisting and accommodating to white supremacy, the Chinese were active participants, along with the members of the dominant society, in shaping these relations. White supremacy was consequently a dynamic system, one whose many parts were continually in flux, and whose central constructs—notions of "race" and British Columbia as "a White Man's province"—were largely political in nature. The thesis argues that white supremacy, as both ideology and organization, was deeply imbedded in British Columbia society. Exclusion based on "race" was incorporated into government institutions as they were remade at Confederation in an effort to enhance the power of white male property-owners. By the early twentieth century, ideological constructs of "the Chinaman" and "the Oriental" were used as foils in the creation of identities as "whites" and as "Canadians." The official public school curriculum transmitted these notions, while schools themselves organized supremacy in practice by imposing racial segregation on many Chinese students. In reaction, the Chinese created their own institutions and ideologies. While these institutions often had continuities with the culture of South China, the place of origin of most B.C. Chinese, they were primarily adaptations to the conditions of British Columbia, including the realities of racism. Chinese language schools played an especially important role in helping to create a Chinese merchant public separate from the dominant society. This public was at once the consequence of exclusion and the greatest community resource in resisting white supremacy. The study concludes by questioning the workability of contemporary anti-racist strategies which treat racism as a marginal phenomenon, or as merely a set of mistaken ideas. Instead, it suggests that such strategies must recognize that racism is one of the major structures of Canadian society.

The article reviews the book, "Yours for the Union: Class and Community Struggles in South African," by Baruch Hirson.

The article reviews the book, "E.P. Thompson: Critical Perspectives," edited by Harvey J. Kaye and Keith McClelland.

The article reviews the book, "Origins of Protective Labor Legislation for Women, 1905-1925," by Susan Lehrer.

The article reviews the book, "The Rise of Industrial Unionism in Canada: A History of the CIO," by Don Taylor and Bradley Dow.

The article reviews the book, "A Secretary and a Cook: Challenging Women's Wages in the Courts of the United States And Britain," by Steven L. Willborn.

The article reviews the book, "The Reconquest of Montreal: Language Policy and Social Change in a Bilingual City,"by Marc V. Levine.

Panel data obtained from Canada's Labour Market Activity Survey are used to estimate union effects on wages, wage dispersion, and pension coverage. The selectivity corrected estimate of the union-nonunion wage differential is in the 13.1%-15.5% range, which is consistent with other selectivity corrected estimates for Canada but most notably those by Grant, Swidinsky, and Vanderkamp (1987). The estimated union effect on wage dispersion is less pronounced: The standard deviation of 1n wages falls by .02 (or by roughly 5%) when workers become unionized. However, the union effect on the probability of pension coverage is considerably greater. Selectivity corrected estimates indicate that a worker employed in a union job is 22%-25% more likely to have pension coverage than if the individual is employed in a nonunion job.

The article reviews the book, "Revolution, A Sociological Interpretation," by Michael S. Kimmel.

The article reviews the book, " Un nouvel ordre des choses : la pauvreté, le crime, l'État au Québec, de la fin du XVlIIe siècle à 1840," by Jean-Marie Fecteau.

The article pays homage to the life and work of Gérard Dion, who for decades played a pivotal role in the department of industrial relations at Laval University as well as its journal, Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations. A Catholic priest, Dion, who also held degrees in sociology and theology, wrote extensively on labour and industrial relations, and was involved at a number of levels in Quebec society. He was the recipient of honours and awards, including the Order of Canada. A photo of Dion is included.

Offers a tribute to Forsey's life and work – scholar, labour and political activist, and media commentator.

The article reviews two books: "Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives and Domestic Servants in the United States, 1920-1945," by Phyllis Palmer, and "Few Choices: Women, Work and Family," by Ann Duffy, Nancy Mandell and Norene Pupo.

Urban telegraph offices in the early twentieth century employed both women and men as telegraph operators. The fact that both sexes worked together in this skilled occupation makes telegraphy an interesting case for the study of links between gender and skill. Through an examination of the labour process and the telegraph operators' craft culture, this paper describes how the connection between masculinity and skill was established. It is suggested that, while Morse operating provided conditions in which that link was questioned, technological change during World War I helped create a more exaggerated gender division of labour and a newly-defined, fortified link between masculinity and ability.

The article reviews the book, "Women and Industrialization: Gender at Work in 19th-Century England," by Judy Lown.

The article reviews the book, "Green Cities: Ecologically Sound Approaches to Urban Space," edited by by David Gordon.