Keynote Speakers

Gunilla Härnsten

Gunilla Härnsten, PhD, is since 2003 professor of Education at Linneaus University in Växjö, Sweden. She has earlier been active at Lund University where she did her PhD about radical teacher organisations and at Uppsala University where most of her work with trade union cooperation took place. There she also developed and deepened the participatory and critical perspectives in research circles and democratic knowledge processes. Her focus now is on adult education and gender, exploring the relationships between critical researchers and society´s marginalized and exploited people. She is the author of The Research Circle - Building Knowledge on Equal Terms.

A love relation with obstacles: Action oriented research with workers and trade unions

by Gunilla Härnsten, PhD, Professor Linnaeus University, Sweden

Abstract

My intention in this speech is to explore why, especially in today’s world, it is both urgent and challenging to do participatory action research with people lower down in the hierarchy in work and society.

I will start with situating my focus on Sweden and my own experiences using some historical elements in order to make it understandable and useful for an international audience and a broader, general context.  Sweden has until rather recently been a country with a fairly high degree of public welfare. This however, has also made it more difficult to see through the ideological sludge that conceals the underlying conditions, not least in working life. It has influenced the view of university researchers as well as workers, and not least the top leaders of trade unions. The other side of the coin however is that there also exist a deep tradition of cooperation between people in order to solve genuine problems of mutual concern.

From an exploration of some fairly successful examples I will draw conclusions and elaborate what is necessary today in order to provide substantial knowledge for more radical change. In this way, we can enlighten myths, find new ways to use the well grounded experiences of workers together with challenging knowledge from research and build the base for collective action in order to make fundamental changes in the world.

Maki Hiratsuka

Maki Hiratsuka is a Professor in Faculty of Social Sciences, Hosei University in Japan. With a background in pedagogy, she has widely researched education policies and joined a number of research projects including YCSJ, which is a first longitudinal youth cohort study in Japan. Her current interests are the transformation of youth transition system from school to work, social support policies and practices for diadvantaged young people and the collaboration between schools and other social education settings, for example youth works. In particular, she has valued to develop the rapport and partnership between researchers and practitioners on her research.

The transformation of youth transitions in Japan: double-sided ‘Freeters’

by Maki Hiratsuka

Abstract

Firstly, the presentation introduces a double dramatic change of workplaces and working lives among Japanese youth from 1990s. The first one is an emergence of ‘alternative’ working places, for example, Non Profit Organization, Workers Collectives and so on. Workers there are usually low paid and have insecure conditions. The other one is wide spread of precarious working lives in existing companies, for example, temporary workers, agent workers, short-term workers and so on. Under such circumstances, a particular word ‘Freeters (Free Arbeiters)’ was produced and became a trendy word, which means young people who are working as some kinds of non-regular workers.

Secondly, specific Japanese social structure surrounding young people would be explained, that is one which is likely to exclude non-regular workers because of social security systems, wage systems, vocational education and training systems and feature of trade unions.

Thirdly, the presentation focuses on a young people who used to be a ‘Hikikomori (social withdrawl)’ and now is working for a Non-Profit-Organization with not a secure conditions after quitting other manufacturing company where he was a regular worker. Why and how he was excluded from society, and has participate in it again, these questions are explored.

Margrit Eichler

Margrit Eichler, PhD Duke University, is Professor Emerita of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto. Her over 200 publications deal with feminist sociology, environmental issues, family policy and lifelong learning. She is an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada and the European Academy of Sciences, and a former President of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women and the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association from which she received an Outstanding Contributions Award. Brock University awarded her an honorary doctorate.

The Other Half – or More! – of the Story: Lifelong Learning through Unpaid Household Work

by Margrit Eichler

Abstract

Livelong learning theory aims to deal with learning that is lifelong and lifewide (Garrick, 1996, Livingstone, 2008), but in fact, one of the major aspects of life and learning – namely unpaid household work - is usually ignored to the degree that it is invisible.  This paper will explore the reasons for this invisibility, including the definition of work, who performs the work, the nature of the work and the nature of the learning. A particular difficulty in studying the learning is that the work tends to be invisible even for those who perform it. It thus requires bring to the level of consciousness actions and skills which are usually taken for granted and therefore ignored, but which in fact are learned and absolutely crucial in many life situations.

In an empirical study (Eichler et al. 2010) we critically examined how people define work and what is learned through unpaid household labour. Since learning tends to take place when people have to adjust to new situations (Jarvis, 2006) we focused on people who had undergone a major life change within the past 5 years. We found not only that an extraordinary amount of learning had occurred through the unpaid household work that people performed in times of change, but that much of this learning had a direct impact on the paid labour force. Lifelong learning theory ignores unpaid household work at its peril.

Wu Jiang

Wu Jiang, PhD, is a professor of College of Public Administration in Jilin University. He is the President of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He enjoys Government Special Allowance awarded by the State Council of China. His interests wildly cover areas of public administration, leadership science and HR management. He has published more than 60 papers and 20 books mainly focused on public crisis management, e-governance and civil service management, and has successfully led more than 20 national and international research projects, such as the World Bank Project in 2007, a Key Project funded by National Social Science in 2010, a Projecet funded by Nation Key Technology R&D Program in 2010, a Special Fund for Regional Cooperation in Asia in 2008.

Human Resources Development in China: Present and Future

by Wu Jiang

Abstract

Since reform and opening up, China has implemented the policy of “respecting labor, knowledge, talent and creation” in the development of human resources, the situation of which has been greatly improved and developed. The first part of the article analyzes the basic conditions of human resources in China and sums up the four major characteristics: first, the number and size of human resources are constantly expanding; second, the quality of human resources is constantly improving; third, the structure of human resources and employment layout continue to optimize; fourth, the human resources become increasingly internationalized.

The second part of the article analyzes the problems and challenges of human resources development in China. The development of human resources in China is faced with acute structural imbalance, lack of high-level innovation talents, and weak capacity of talents in innovation and entrepreneurship, among other outstanding issues. The human resources development in China is facing a series of challenges, for example, evident contradictions of the pressure of human resources supply and demand in total and structural contradictions, new requirements of change in macroeconomic environment on the development of human resources, and the mismatch between human resources market conditions and development, and so on.

The third part of the article analyzes the future development goal and key indicators of human resources development in China and introduces action plans and major projects concerning human resources development in the “12th five-year” period of Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People's Republic of China.

References

Eichler, Margrit et al. More Than it Seems. Household Work and Lifelong Learning. Toronto: Women’s Press, 2010.

Garrick. J. “Informal Learning: Some Underlying Philosophies”, CJSA/RCEEA, 10 (1), 21-46.

Jarvis, Peter. Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Human Learning. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Livingstone, David W. “General Perspectives on lifelong Learning and Work, Section Introduction”, in D.W. Livingstone, Kiran marchandani and Petr H. Sawchuk (eds.) The future of liflong Learnng and worl Cilritical Perpectives. Roterdam/Paipei, Sense Publ. 2008, pp. 11-13.