6.4 Empirical analysis Three key hypotheses have been the focus of empirical evaluation of the segmented labour market theory. First, that the labour market can be represented as comprising at least two well-defined and self-contained segments. Second, that the labour market behaviour of workers and firms in each segment requires a different set of behavioural hypotheses. Finally, that there is limited mobility between the segments reflecting institutional and social barriers in the labour market rather than a lack
6.2 Dual labour market theory According to this theory, the labour market is composed of self-contained sub-markets or segments. Segmentation economists argue that ignoring the different identities of these segments and the constraints they place on the workers makes it impossible to understand the nature of labour market disadvantage. Basically, the dual approach hypothesises that a dichotomy has developed over time between a high-wage primary segment and a low-wage secondary segment. Working conditions in the primary se
3.3 Other disadvantaged groups Information on other disadvantaged groups, such as older workers or people with disabilities, is even harder to come by. The problems faced by older workers in the labour market have become an increasing cause for concern in recent years. The nature of the disadvantage faced by older workers is, however, much harder to uncover and the evidence is often anecdotal. One trend that has become evident during the past three decades is the difficulty older workers have in obtaining any work and, in
3.1 Gender-based disadvantage The post-war period has seen a significant increase in the participation of women in the labour market, with women now making up around 45 per cent of the UK workforce. Although women still undertake the major share of family responsibilities and domestic activities, an increasing number of women are entering the labour market. This increase is evident in many countries and has been associated with an improvement in the relative earnings of women. This trend towards greater equality is eviden
Further reading Berger and Luckmann (1967) is a classic text in the development of the social constructionist perspective within the sociological tradition. Burr (1995) offers a very thorough review of the social constructionist perspective, clearly outlining the methods of discourse analysis. Although the book draws significantly on debates within social psychology, it is of wide relevance to the social sciences more generally.
2.1 Common sense and social problems This concern with social construction may seem troubling or even a distraction from the real business of studying social problems. However, it is built on one of the starting points of the social scientific approach, namely that in order to study society we must distance ourselves from what we already know about it. We need to become ‘strangers’ in a world that is familiar. The defining characteristic of a ‘stranger’ is that she or he does not know those things which we take for grant
1.1 What is ‘social’ about a social problem? In the late twentieth century a list of current social problems in the UK might include poverty, homelessness, child abuse, disaffected young people and non-attendance at school, school discipline, the treatment of vulnerable people in institutional care, vandalism, road rage, lone parenting and divorce. This brief list was drawn up from news items on television and radio and in newspapers in the month that this unit was being written. As you read this unit, some of these may still be issues,
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Design thinking
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4.3 Character code functions Many programming languages provide two functions associated with the character codes (see Table 2). We shall call these functions ASC and CHR. ASC takes a character as input, and returns the integer giving the ASCII code of the input character. CHR returns the character whose ASCII code is the input integ
4.1 Functions A function is a process that, when given an input of a specified type, yields a unique output. This is a key idea in providing a precise, mathematical, description of processes in computing. To describe a particular function, we first give the set from which the input will be drawn and the set from which the output is drawn. This information is called the signature of the function. An example will make this clearer. Author(s):
Objectives for Section 3
After studying this section you should be able to do the following.
Recognise and use the terminology: disjoint union; power set (of a set); representation (of a data abstraction). Use and interpret the notation: Â
X
3.2 Combining data structures In Section 2, we introduced the notation SeqOfX for the set of all sequences whose members come from the set X. In Section 2, we looked only at sequences whose members were of one of the primitive forms of data (integers, characters or Booleans). We can have sequences whose members are themselves data with a more complicated form. For example, suppose that Jo is working at the till T1 and is replaced by Jessica. We might represent this handover by the 3-tuple (Jo, T1, Jes
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4.2.2 ATM layer The primary functions of the ATM layer are associated with the routing and switching of ATM cells. Because ATM cells are packets, the switches are packet switches and the switching operation can be called forwarding, but by convention, because the ATM layer provides a connection-oriented service, the term ‘forwarding’ is generally not used. The path cells take and the resources allocated to them depend on their service category. This is determined when a virtual connection is
4.2.1 ATM physical layer The ATM physical layer is divided into two sub-layers: the transmission convergence sub-layer and the physical medium sub-layer. Functions of the transmission convergence sub-layer include generating and receiving cells, and generating and verifying the cyclic redundancy check in the header error control field. For correct interpretation of ATM cells it is important to identify the beginning of a cell. In theory, if ATM cells are transmitted as a continuous stream of bits,
3.5 Internet protocol (IP) At the time of writing (2002), two versions of IP are available: versions 4 and 6. In this section I shall describe version 4, which is abbreviated to IPv4, as it is the more widely available version. Version 6 may eventually replace version 4 because it has some additional features that may prove essential for multiservice networks. IPv4 is the main TCP/IP protocol in the internetwork layer of the TCP/IP reference model. It supports a connectionless service between hosts in an interne
