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INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR LABOUR STUDIES |
INS.B.XXXIX/2
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BOARD |
Geneva, November 1997 |
SECOND ITEM ON THE AGENDA
Report of the Director
Contents
I. Labour institutions and economic development programme
II. Labour institutions and new industrial organization programme
III. Educational and intersectoral programme
IV. Publications
Appendix: Publications issued by the Institute since November 1996 and forthcoming publications
1. The year 1997 has been a significant one for the Institute. It was a year of transition, marked by the concluding phases of two major projects and the identification of new policy issues. The Institute undertook the final phase of the projects on Social exclusion and on Global production systems and labour markets. The research findings of both have been drawn upon in preparing the Programme and Budget proposals for the Institute 1998-99.(1)
2. This Report provides an analytical and substantive summary of the year's developments rather than a purely descriptive narrative. In this connection, the Board's attention is invited to the following aspects of the Institute's activities in 1997.
- As the Institute's strategic function is to identify emerging labour policy issues for the ILO, its programmes necessarily have a rolling horizon. The activities carried out in 1997 illustrate this modus operandi of the Institute and the way it relates to the ILO. Thus 1997 saw the final phase of the project on Social exclusion, labour institutions and poverty. The project was launched in 1994 in collaboration with UNDP as a contribution to the World Summit on Social Development. Activities in 1997 concentrated on relating its findings to the future design of ILO programmes and policies. The life-cycle of the project is illustrative of the Institute's contribution to the ILO as a whole. Taking up a concept initially limited to industrialized economies, an attempt was made to universalize the notion and to place it in the context of the ILO's concerns with social institutions, social actors and poverty. This reformulation was presented to the international development community at the World Summit on Social Development and other meetings. In the final stage of the project, the relevance and utility of this approach was examined in the specific context of future ILO programmes. A similar evolution can be seen in the work on Global production systems and labour markets. This project originally arose out of the Institute's work on the labour market implications of the changing international organization of production. It proceeded through work on industrial districts; on lean production systems; and on the regionalization of production systems. Finally, in 1997, it was taken forward in terms of global production networks which were revealed to be fundamental determinants of labour market structures in a global economy. The outcome of this project will, in turn, provide a framework or paradigm for future ILO programmes in a variety of fields.
- As appropriate in the final stages of projects, activities in 1997 have been policy-oriented. They involved close collaboration with ILO departments, national governments and workers' and employers' organizations. The work on social exclusion aimed at providing a perspective for future ILO action. The project on global production systems was linked to future ILO work on export processing zones and labour markets in general. The final objective is to help map labour policy options for countries wishing to upgrade their participation in international markets, with optimum benefits for the number and quality of jobs.
- In the course of programme implementation in 1997, deliberate steps were taken to project ILO priorities and concerns in external meetings and debates. The Institute's work on social exclusion and on global commodity chains was brought to the attention of major universities and international organizations. It has also led to a growing recognition of the Institute's expertise by outside bodies. Thus, the Governments of Denmark and Sweden have approached the Institute for contributions in the areas of social inclusion and global production systems respectively.
- The year 1997 also witnessed growing interaction with ILO departments. The work on social exclusion was undertaken in close association with the Development Policies Department, the Employment Department and International Labour Standards Department. Institute staff were also invited by ILO departments to participate in missions to the field to assist governments in the design of anti-poverty programmes. The Institute's programme on global systems programmes involved the Industrial Relations and Labour Administration Department and the Employment and Training Department. In addition to the growing interaction between Institute and ILO programmes, Institute staff have often been called upon to assist ILO departments on an ad hoc basis in areas of their expertise.
- Programme implementation was marked by close collaboration with ILO constituents and workers' and employers' organizations. Their contribution was particularly valuable in drawing policy conclusions from research and in identifying areas for future activity.
- A new initiative was taken to hold an internship programme at the regional level in Africa. This could be the basis of similar action elsewhere in future if external resources and constituent demand are forthcoming.
I. Labour institutions and economic
development programme
3. In 1997 the programme concentrated on two activities: the project on Social exclusion, labour institutions and poverty was completed and its findings disseminated through meetings and publications; and Institute work on labour institutions as a whole was reviewed to prepare for a new programme on Labour and society, to begin next year.
Social exclusion, labour institutions and poverty
4. The project on social exclusion, originally conceived as a contribution to the World Summit on Social Development, entered its final phase. Its aim was to articulate an approach to development based on social inclusion which reflected the ILO's specific concern with institutional change, human rights and social justice. The project related the concept of social exclusion to the issues of poverty, employment and labour institutions. It explored the multiple dimensions of disadvantage; established the links between the livelihood, well-being and citizenship rights of people; and enlarged the basis for action against poverty and inequality.
5. The main activities undertaken in 1997 were the completion and publication of five case-studies and the proceedings of the Policy forum on social exclusion, held in New York in May 1996; and the preparation of a conference on the theme Overcoming social exclusion: The ILO contribution. Institute staff also participated in various international meetings to disseminate the findings of the project to a wide audience of practitioners and academics, and to the staff and constituents of the ILO, the UNDP and other international bodies.
International conference on overcoming social exclusion:
The ILO contribution
(Geneva, 20-21 May 1997)
6. Organized in collaboration with the relevant ILO departments and with the University of Sussex (United Kingdom), this conference brought together ILO staff, representatives of other international organizations, labour and business practitioners, and academics to review the research findings of the project on Patterns and causes of social exclusion. The aim of the conference was to assess the relevance of the concept for the design of future ILO policies and programmes and to identify the key elements of policies for social inclusion. The conference noted that the concept had political resonance, as it reflected the basic concerns of the time: income insecurity in the developed world, and unequal opportunity in the developing world. The findings on social exclusion were a useful complement to existing anti-poverty strategies, as they facilitated a multi-dimensional perception of disadvantage by linking human rights to material deprivation. It also focused attention on the role of social actors and institutions in processes of inclusion. Successful policies against impoverishment and marginalization required the actors and institutions involved to be actively associated with the design and implementation of anti-poverty programmes. Social inclusion was of particular relevance to the ILO, as it introduced a new measure of social justice; highlighted the importance of employment and human rights as pivotal determinants of deprivation; and promoted strategic partnerships between social actors in civil society. The concept also provided an operational frame of reference at several levels. At the macro level, it helped to focus attention on the impact of globalization on social cohesion, and highlighted the role of social actors. At the micro-economic level, it revealed links between work, family and community, and the importance of local contexts in creating inclusion or exclusion. At the sectoral level, it provided new guidelines for designing and monitoring a range of ILO programmes in such areas as gender, poverty, employment, participation, social security, child labour and normative activities. For the future, the conference suggested possible elements of a policy and research agenda for the ILO. This included the development of indicators of exclusion and inclusion; a review of experience in building strategic alliances within civil society; and research on the dynamics of institutional change relating to social actors and labour markets.
Participation in external meetings and other activities
7. International recognition of the Institute's competence in the field of social exclusion was reflected in a number of invitations to share information on research findings and to contribute to related activities elsewhere. The World Bank has recently requested the Institute to present its findings on social exclusion to its own staff. In March 1997, the Institute was invited to present an overview of its main findings at a EUROSTAT workshop held in Lisbon. A similar presentation was made at a research and policy workshop on poverty and social exclusion in the North and South organized by the Institute of Development Studies and the Poverty Research Unit of the University of Sussex. Presentations were also made at a meeting of the European Council in Strasbourg (April 1997); a symposium organized by CARITAS and the UNDP in Vigo, Spain (September 1997); and at a meeting on urban poverty held in Florence (September 1997) as follow-up on the Habitat II.
8. The programme also supported ILO activities by contributing to the formulation of projects related to social exclusion in the MERCOSUR region (March 1997); and through participation in an ILO/UNDP mission to Bulgaria to assist the Government with the design of anti-poverty programmes (September 1997).
Publications
9. The publications foreseen under the project on social exclusion were completed during the year and are listed in the appendix. They included the report of the Policy forum on social exclusion (New York, May 1996) which was published in the Research Series under the title Social exclusion and anti-poverty policy: A debate, and seven discussion papers. The report on the international conference on Overcoming social exclusion: The ILO response is under preparation.
Labour and society
10. Preparatory work began on a programme proposal on Labour and society for the next biennium. This included a review of the literature; the identification of key issues for further work; participation in external meetings relevant to the theme; and consultations with leading academics and practitioners in the field of labour. The outcome of this preparatory work is contained in the Programme and Budget proposals for 1998-99.
11. Meetings attended by staff members included: an OECD Conference on The new social policy agenda beyond 2000 (Paris, November 1996); the International Social Security Association Conference on Challenges, opportunities and new tasks for social security in adapting to new economic and social realities (Arhus, Denmark, November 1996), and the Pan-African Conference on Democratic participation of trade unions in Africa (Arusha, October 1997).
II. Labour institutions and new industrial
organization programme
12. In 1997, the programme examined the labour market implications of changing global production systems. Steps were also taken to lay the groundwork for a new work programme on Business and society, the results of which are reflected in the Programme and Budget proposals for 1998-99.
Global productions systems and labour markets
13. The objective of this project is to enhance Institute and ILO capacity to analyse labour market developments and policies in the light of the changing nature of the enterprise, and the emergence of global production networks.
14. Activities in 1997 were directed at identifying and applying new categories of analysis to traditional employment and labour issues. The hypothesis was that new policy frameworks were required at three levels: at the enterprise level, the firm had to be viewed less as a fixed unit than as a network; at the level of the industry, attention had to move away from the industry as traditionally defined, to a global commodity chain or sequence of value adding activities, which ranged from the processing of primary input to the final distribution of goods or services; at the policy level, the focus had to shift from policies at the national level to those at the regional and local levels.
15. Conceptual work in these three areas was complemented by empirical studies on the structure and dynamics of inter-firm linkages in global production networks and their impact on labour markets, particularly in export processing zones. Attention was given to the policy implications for firms, employers' and workers' organizations and policy-makers at the local level. Research focused on the textiles and garment commodity chain, as it is characterized by buyer-driven structures, where major retailers or brand name "manufacturers without factories" in industrialized countries orchestrate decentralized production networks, usually in developing countries. These structures are typical of many of the consumer goods that have accounted for the bulk of the growth of manufacturing exports from developing economies in the recent past.
International workshop on global production
systems and labour markets
(Geneva, 22-23 May 1997)
16. This workshop brought together academic experts, practitioners and ILO officials to discuss the project's research findings; evaluate the empirical evidence; and sharpen the implications for social policy. The active participation of ILO staff from the Industrial Relations and Labour Administration Department, the Employment and Training Department and other relevant departments working in this general area suggests that the findings of the programme and of the workshop will be reflected in future ILO activities.
17. The research and the discussions identified five major trends. First, it was noted that the pressure of intensified global competition was pushing firms to adopt new business strategies. Internal management systems were developing firm-specific core competence which facilitated growth. External relationships were managed through a mix of cooperative relations and market links. This involved the exchange of information and coordination of activities with key customers and first-tier suppliers, as well as the use of contingent workers and subcontracting. These changes in business strategy were leading to the emergence of networking organizations, where the traditional boundaries of the firm were increasingly blurred, and firms in core segments were emerging as dominant partners in the governance system of the network. Empirical investigation suggested that the new organizational structures permit firms to achieve a combination of qualitative flexibility based on human resource development, as well as quantitative flexibility based on adaptable labour cost. The implication for labour markets lay in the emergence of new patterns of segmentation, with growing discrepancies in wages and working conditions between workers in the core and peripheral segments of the networks, and in the weakening of the traditional mechanisms for social solidarity.
18. Secondly, the workshop highlighted patterns in international inter-firm linkages, and their implications for the quality and distribution of jobs across countries. Trends in the restructuring of buyer-driven chains suggest that concentration in retailing, and the adoption of lean, zero-inventory distribution systems is increasing in the major industrialized countries. Companies are investing heavily in electronic data interchange systems which make possible the automatic and continuous replenishment of stocks. Pressure from distributors for quick responses, quality and reliability is increasing the importance of geographical proximity and production logistics. This trend has important implications for the future location of production. While standardized items, less sensitive to changing consumer taste, and with a high value to weight ratio, would continue to be out-sourced to remote locations where unit productions costs were low, differentiated products and time-sensitive items would be produced closer to the final markets.
19. Thirdly, the trend towards the regionalization of buyer-driven structures was furthered by the promotion of regional integration. The trend towards regional production systems was already evident in the NAFTA region, where a significant proportion of outsourcing by the United States garment industry had shifted to Mexico in the wake of NAFTA. Taken together with direct investment in Mexico and the establishment of alliances with Mexican counterparts, this was leading to a regionally integrated textiles and garment complex. Mexico was developing a greater potential for local backward and forward linkages in export-oriented production, and for industrial upgrading. However, the process was not without pitfalls, including the marginalization of particular regions and groups of people, with obvious implications for employment and incomes. Similar trends were evident in other regions.
20. The fourth issue addressed was the tension between the global dynamics of production networks and the responses of firms and policy-makers at the local level. An explicit focus on the "micro-organizational" aspects of international production permitted the consideration of new policy perspectives to complement the more conventional "macroeconomic" approaches. In the current globalized economy macroeconomic, budgetary and other restraints increasingly inhibited the adoption of expansionary policies and traditional protectionist devices as the main instruments for the promotion of employment and growth. This was encouraging policy-makers to adopt new kinds of "soft" measures that enhanced the process of enterprise learning, upgraded the skills of the labour force, and created local environments favourable to continuous and innovative improvement. Governments and their agencies were increasingly adopting the role of facilitators, both of effective inter-firm networks and of networks between firms and support institutions. Business and workers' organizations were also active in developing industrial programmes to support the upgrading of local firms and the improvement of workers' conditions.
21. The final issue was that of corporate codes of conduct. It was noted that company codes were becoming common in buyer-driven chains, reflecting the sensitivity of large retailers and brand-name manufacturers to pressure from consumer and other groups. While these codes generally set out the basic standards to be respected by suppliers and subcontractors, their implementation remained problematic. However, preliminary indications suggest that such guidelines were motivating some suppliers in developing countries to improve labour standards for their workers with a view to maintaining stable relationships with core firms.
22. Preparations are currently under way for a second workshop to be held in Geneva in February 1998. Entitled Global production and local jobs: New perspectives on enterprise networks, employment, and policy options, the workshop will finalize the results of the project and identify new lines of inquiry for the Business and society programme to be undertaken in the next biennium. Selected papers and an analysis of the discussions of both workshops will be published in the next biennium.
Case-studies on export processing zones in Africa
23. As follow up on its previous work on export processing zones (EPZs) in southern Africa, the Institute was requested by the Industrial Relations and Labour Administration Department to undertake fieldwork on the prospects for the upgrading of textiles and garment production in the largest EPZs in the African region, notably in Mauritius, Madagascar, Morocco and Tunisia. Studies were carried out in consultation with the managers of EPZ authorities and firms, government officials, and representatives of employers' federations and trade unions. The objectives were to assess the implications of the restructuring of global production networks for local industries; and to identify supportive policies and institutions for the upgrading of the social and economic performance of the zones. The studies resulted in a contribution by the Institute to the ILO's Special action programme on labour and social issues relating to export processing zones.
24. Some common patterns were discernible in the four countries. In all of them incentives and new legislation had been introduced to attract investors and promote export-oriented activities. Most exporting firms received input and designs from their customers, principals or parent companies overseas, and only a few had developed indigenous capabilities. Backward linkages were very limited, since local fabric production was not up to world standards. In Madagascar, where the EPZ was in its infancy, activities were mainly at the lower end of garment production, and the lack of reliable infrastructure and of educated workers was a serious bottleneck hindering any further expansion. In Mauritius, Morocco and Tunisia, the capacity of firms to meet new market requirements was still limited in terms of efficiency, quality control and organizational innovation. A wide range of measures had been introduced in the three countries to improve training in marketing and production skills; the quality of production; and information on technological advance and market trends. The need to improve infrastructure, such as banking and finance, telecommunications and transport, was a shared concern.
25. Trends towards regionalization were emerging. Both Morocco and Tunisia had signed association agreements with the European Union, and Mauritius was playing a pivotal role in the establishment of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation, which included 14 countries from Africa, the Middle East, South-East Asia and Australia. Mauritius was also a member of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Large Mauritian firms were also developing their own regional networks; had relocated garment production to Madagascar; and were planning to invest in Mozambique, where a new special economic zone was to be created. The results of the fieldwork are being finalized for publication in the Discussion Paper series.
26. In the context of this project, a round table on Globalization, industrial upgrading and export processing zones was organized in May to allow academic experts and Institute and ILO officials working in this area to review the findings of the project and to exchange information on recent trends in EPZs. Participants at the 1997 International internship course on active labour policy development also participated in this activity.
Business and society
27. The relationship between business and society has grown in importance with the expanded role of business in national and global governance, and with the universal perception of business as the principal locomotive for growth. The resultant escalation of public expectations and demands for greater corporate involvement in a range of non-traditional areas creates new dilemmas for business. These call for innovative market strategies which reconcile competitive pressures with social transformation. A new Institute programme on Business and society is proposed for the next biennium to address these issues.
28. Preparatory work for this programme in 1997 concentrated on three activities: the creation of a Business and society network; the convening of a workshop to discuss the changing role of business in society; and collaboration with the Government of Denmark on a project on A new partnership for social cohesion.
Business and society network
29. In 1997 initial contacts were established with business executives; academic experts (Harvard Business School, INSEAD, Wharton Business School); business associations and foundations (Carnegie Council of Ethics and International Affairs, Conference Board, Prince of Wales Business Leaders' Forum, Sloan Foundation, World Business Academy); and international organizations (European Commission, UNIDO, World Bank), with a view to creating an international network.
30. The Institute participated in a number of international conferences to facilitate the establishment of contacts and potential partnerships. These included:
- the Annual Members' Meeting of the World Business Academy, Walking the talk: Practical implementation of new business paradigms, Basel, 9-10 May 1997;
- the Wharton Impact Conference on the Legal and ethical foundations of emerging economies: Problems and prescriptions, Philadelphia, 29-30 May 1997;
- the Conference Board's Working group on global business ethics principles, New York, 16 July 1997, which brought together more than 50 leading corporations, government agencies, universities and non-profit organizations.
International workshop on social transformation
and enterprise performance
(Geneva, 8-9 September 1997)
31. The purpose was to initiate a dialogue between academics, business practitioners, and policy-makers on the changing relationships between business and society, with a view to identifying the elements of a research agenda for the next biennium. Three sets of issues were identified: first, the need to review current thinking on corporate strategies; secondly, the implications for corporate strategy of social change, as reflected in consumer demand and public opinion; employee motivations; strategic enterprise relationships; public policies; and the institutional environment; and thirdly, the importance of examining foreign direct investment and social change in emerging markets with a view to identifying business strategies appropriate to future markets driven by social change and consumer sovereignty.
Collaboration with the Government of Denmark
concerning a project on a new partnership for social cohesion
32. The Institute is collaborating with the Government of Denmark on a project entitled A new partnership for social cohesion. The project's aim is to explore the potential for partnerships between business, governments and other groups for sustainable development and social cohesion. The project both complements the Institute's current work on social inclusion, and provides valuable insights for the proposed work on business and society. It brings together business leaders and several international agencies, including the European Commission, the World Bank, UNDP and UNIDO. The Institute has played an active role in the Working group of technical experts, as well as in an International think-tank for the project. A major international conference will be hosted by the Danish Government in Copenhagen in October 1997. At the time of writing, preparations are under way for a session at the conference on "Partnership building in Central and Eastern Europe" to be organized jointly by the Institute and UNIDO. A working paper on "Social exclusion and business initiatives in the economies in transition: The case of Russia" was prepared by a staff member as an input to the conference.
Other activities
33. Collaboration with the ILO is being pursued both in the context of the programmes and on an ad hoc basis. The Institute has continued to collaborate with the ILO in follow-up on the 1996 ILO Enterprise Forum. It has also provided tuition services for an ILO course on Labour rights, international labour standards and international trade.
34. Programme staff have participated in several external meetings to disseminate Institute research findings. The Director has been invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden to make a keynote address on global production systems and local labour markets at a high-level meeting in Stockholm in October 1997. Last December, a staff member participated in a symposium on Women in the informal sector organized in Delhi by the Asian Productivity Organization, and presented a paper entitled "Policy approaches to enhancing women's productivity in the informal sector". A presentation of the results of the work on global production systems was made at the Entretiens de la technologie, organized by the European Commission and the Ecole Centrale de Lille, France, in March 1997. At the invitation of the International Social Science Research Council, the Institute was represented at the first meeting of the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) on Globalization, local institutions and development in New York. The purpose of the meeting was to set up a new research agenda for future activities by the Council, which has close links with major foundations in the United States and elsewhere and is a major catalyst for the funding of research projects. The Institute's participation in this meeting served to build ILO concerns into an initiative that is likely to have a significant impact on the academic community.
III. Educational and intersectoral programme
35. Activities under this programme included courses, study visits, student internship and visiting scholar programmes, staff seminars, and public lectures, including the biennial ILO Social Policy Lectures.
Courses
36. The Institute worked with the ILO's Enterprise Department to organize a half-day seminar in April 1997 on the promotion of small and micro-enterprises in the context of the Cours de spécialisation en études de développement offered by the Graduate Institute of International Studies of the University of Geneva. Some 24 participants, mainly from French-speaking African countries, were given an overview of ILO's activities with regard to small and micro-enterprise development. The themes addressed were: concepts and practices of micro-entrepreneurship development; entrepreneurship for poverty alleviation; and the development of skills, competitivity and quality in small-scale enterprises.
37. The 32nd International internship course on active labour policy development was held in Geneva from 12 May to 3 June 1997. The aims of the internship courses are: to foster knowledge of the ILO, its programmes, and its tripartite means of action among future policy-makers; and to provide an international framework for the discussion and analysis of topical social policy issues. The course was conducted in English, and 20 fellowships were made available to officials from the ministries of labour and employers' and workers' organizations of Australia, Barbados, China, Croatia, Dominica, Egypt, Fiji, Ghana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Togo, Zimbabwe and Zambia. A special fellowship was arranged for the Ministry of Labour of Lesotho by the UNDP Office in Lesotho.
38. The 1997 course was designed to examine the impact of current economic trends on existing social institutions; and to identify policy responses by ILO constituents. Key elements of the changing global economic environment, such as trade liberalization, new investment patterns and global competition, were examined from the point of view of their impact on labour and their implications for social policy. In addition to the lecture/discussion format used in the past, simulation exercises, case-studies, participant panels and team projects were utilized to encourage greater interaction. Participants also attended various forums, round tables and staff seminars organized by the Institute during this period. A field visit to ASEA Brown Boveri gave them an opportunity to discuss global production networks, management strategies and human resources management and development policies with the senior management of an important multinational enterprise.
39. One new initiative is a Regional seminar on active labour policy development for French-speaking African countries, scheduled to take place in Abidjan from 1 to 12 December 1997. The course is being organized with the cooperation of the ILO's Regional Office for Africa and the ILO multidisciplinary teams based in Abidjan and Dakar. Issues to be discussed include the changing economic environment; labour markets and labour policies; employment promotion; and the new roles of the social actors. A special session will be devoted to the role and activities of the ILO in the region. It is expected that the course will contribute to the ILO's programme on capacity building for employment promotion and poverty eradication.
ILO Social Policy Lectures
40. At the time of writing, preparations are being finalized for the Third ILO Social Policy Lectures. These lectures are endowed by the ILO's Nobel Peace Prize and are held in the major universities of the world by rotation. The 1997 lectures will be held under the auspices of the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur from 15 to 18 December, and will be on the theme "Managing economic success: The social agenda". The lectures will be delivered by Dr. Funkoo Park, President of the Korea Labour Institute. Dr. Park is a leading authority on Asian labour and social policy, and has high-level policy experience in these fields. The lectures will culminate in a tripartite panel discussion on the management of economic success in Malaysia from the point of view of labour market policies, human resources development, and institutional frameworks for sound labour-management relations.
Study visits
41. Three study visits to the ILO were organized in 1997 at the request of the parties concerned. The Institute arranged a six-week programme of research and meetings on international standards for Dr. E. Araqi, of the Institute of Labour and Social Security in Teheran. A three-week study visit to ILO headquarters and to the International Training Centre, Turin, was organized in September for Mr. R.S. Antil, Executive Director of the Institute for Labour Development in Jaipur. Mr. Li Changuang of the Institute for International Labour Studies of China, spent six weeks at the Institute undertaking research on the impact of globalization and trade liberalization on employment.
Student interns
42. The student internship programme, begun on an experimental basis in 1995-96 with Bocconi University, Milan, has proved very successful, and was extended to other graduate students with an interest in labour issues. In addition to the seven students from Bocconi University, three students from McGill University (Montreal), the London School of Economics and the University of Amsterdam were accepted for short periods to work as research assistants on aspects of the Institute's programmes relevant to their own fields of interest. While introducing students to the activities of the Institute and the ILO, the internships also promote future academic work in areas of ILO concern, and contribute to the Institute's research and educational activities.
Visiting scholars
43. The five visiting scholars received at the Institute in 1997 were: Dr. Ethan Kapstein, Stassen Professor of International Peace at the University of Minnesota, who was conducting research on workers and the world economy; Dr. Zhu Ying, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, who was collecting information on the impact of foreign investment on labour relations in China; Ms. Gerda van Roosendaal, Amsterdam School for Social Science, working on the future of trade unions; Mr. Azam Chaudhry, Lahore School of Economics, working on globalization and business strategies; and Professor Jeffrey Hyman, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, researching unions' responses to the intensifying individualization of personnel strategies by international and domestic business.
Staff seminars
44. Two staff seminars were given in 1997 by visiting scholars. On 5 February Professor Ethan Kapstein addressed members of the staff of the Institute, ILO and UNCTAD, on the theme "Workers and the world economy". Professor Kapstein concluded that, with the viability of the welfare state being called into question, it was necessary to renegotiate a new social contract to address the concerns of the losers in the emerging global economy if globalization was to be politically viable in the long term. The second staff seminar was given by Dr. Zhu Ying on the impact of foreign investment on labour relations in China. He contended that the dramatic inflows of FDI had brought a variety of new labour-management relations practices to the Chinese labour scene, which were moving China's industrial relations system towards more institutionalized and participatory structures.
Public lectures
45. A public lecture on "Unions, markets and democracy" will be given in November by Mr. William Jordan, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
46. Fourteen publications, comprising special publications, the Research Series, Discussion Papers, Public Lectures and a volume of the Bibliography Series were published in 1997, and a further seven are in preparation. A list of publications and forthcoming titles is contained in the appendix.
Geneva, 14 October 1997.
Appendix
Publications issued by the Institute since November 1996
and forthcoming publications
Research Series
No. 110. Social exclusion and anti-poverty policy: A debate, by Charles Gore and Jose B. Figueiredo (eds.).
In preparation
Overcoming social exclusion: The ILO contribution. Report on a Conference at the ILO.
Global production systems and labour markets. Proceedings of a workshop.
Bibliography Series
No. 18. Les femmes dans les années 1980-95. Contraintes et potentialités. (Women in the 1980-95 period. Constraints and opportunities), by Maryse Gaudier.
Discussion Paper Series
No. 88. Les politiques de lutte contre l'exclusion sociale en Tunisie, by Mongi Bedoui and Gouia Ridha.
No. 89. L'exclusion sociale au Cameroun, by Samuel Inack Inack.
No. 90. Venezuela: Exclusion and integration -- A synthesis in the building?, by Vanessa Cartaya, Rodolfo Magallanes and Carlos Domínguez.
No. 91. Venezuela: Exclusión e integración. ¿Una síntesis en construccción?, by Vanessa Cartaya, Rodolfo Magallanes and Carlos Domínguez.
No. 92. Pobreza y patrones de exclusión social en México, by Sara Gordon.
No. 93. Poverty and social exclusion in Mexico, by Sara Gordon.
No. 94. Social exclusion in Brazil, by Paulo Singer.
No. 95. Development of core-periphery forms of organization: Some lessons from the New York garment industry, by Florence Palpacuer.
No. 96. Linking up with the global economy: A case study of the Bangalore software industry, by Asma Lateef.
In preparation
Recent developments in EPZs: The case of Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia and Madagascar, by Rajendra Paratian.
Proceedings of the International Workshop on Social Transformation and Enterprise Performance, by Aurelio Parisotto and Nicolai Rogovsky (eds.).
Other publications
Globalization and employment. Public lecture, by Jeffrey Sachs.
Regionalization and labour market interdependence in East and South-East Asia, by Duncan Campbell, Asma Lateef, Aurelio Parisotto and Anil Verma (eds.). London, Macmillan.
Social exclusion and anti-poverty strategies. Research project on the patterns and causes of social exclusion and the design of policies to promote integration: A synthesis of findings.
Other publications (cont.)
In preparation
ILO Social policy lectures. Trade and employment, by Robert Lawrence.
Women in the Arab world. Public lecture, by HRH Princess Basma bint Tallal.
Global competition and social values: A Japanese business perspective. Public lecture, by Jiro Nemoto.
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