These two articles explore the arguments for and against the liberalization of natural monopolies in general and the privatization of the telecommunications industry in particular. The discussion covers the reasons for and consequences of deregulation of telecommunications in the United States, United Kingdom, and other Western European countries.…

Education and training are seen as a panacea for the problems of deskilling and mass unemployment. The lack of an overarching policy suggests a need for a discourse accepting paid work as an important area for lifelong learning, but also recognizing the learning needs of people largely excluded from paid work. (SK)

This paper explores the origins, differences, and similarities of community-based rehabilitation, which developed in southern countries, and independent living, which developed in northern countries, for persons with disabilities. Although both approaches share a broad definition of rehabilitation and values emphasizing community and consumer…

Reviews Sweden's national development strategy that strives for full employment. Discusses the implications of job training in internal labor markets for the Rehn-Meidner model of economic stabilization. (SK)

Discusses demographic trends affecting all Western countries that have an impact on the symbolic and social role of the family. Considers the effects of women's increased labor force participation on the timing of childbirths and women's likeliness to accept or seek divorce. Also considers the role of grandparents in child care, and explores…

Examined relationship between aggregate measures of family structure and homicide victimization rates of infants and children in 17 developed nations since 1965. Results indicated infant homicide rates were higher where rates of births to teenage mothers were higher; child homicide rates were higher where illegitimacy rates, births to teenage…

Reviews the literature on effective schools research in developed nations, including the effects on student achievement of expenditures, school leadership, student characteristics, instructional practices, and staff development. Compares differences in research results between developed and developing nations. Discusses implications for…

Examines pressures on extant definitions of fatherhood from economic globalization. Maintains that men at both ends of the social scale have found it difficult fulfilling the traditional breadwinner role. Notes many in developed countries see the growing incidence of "fatherless families" as a major crisis. Concludes it is important to…

Globalization and individualization have radically changed both the economic system and the personal life world in industrial or postindustrial nation-states. To survive hypercompetition and volatile consumer choice, learning organizations and a workforce engaged in lifelong learning are needed. Constructing "the good life" has become an…

It is widely believed and lamented that U.S. students perform poorly on international comparisons of academic achievement. For example, Edward Silver reports that U.S. seventh- and eighth-grade students performed poorly on the mathematics section of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 1995) and that this indicates "a…

Public administration has always been under constant review. Such reviews were mostly parochial, incremental, initiated or driven by low-key staff and often ended as fads. From the end of the 1970s to the 1990s, however, governments around the world were engaged in widespread and sustained reforms of their public administration. These reforms were…

The rapid growth and modernization of economies in developing countries like Botswana creates new and unmet demands for certain kinds of educated and skilled labour. The expansion of secondary and tertiary school systems has also created a problem of unemployed school leavers. The growth of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs),…

It is widely acknowledged that there are problems with school science in many developed countries of the world. Such problems manifest themselves in a progressive decline in pupil enthusiasm for school science across the secondary age range and by the fact that fewer students are choosing to study the physical sciences at higher levels and as…

This paper sets out to examine the impacts of schooling and health knowledge on the level of obesity in Taiwan. The results obtained from a sample of Taiwanese females support the hypothesis of Grossman that schooling has a direct positive effect on health by reducing the likelihood of a person being obese. The awareness of obesity-disease…

In this chapter we set out a series of progressive egalitarian policy principles and proposals that constitute a democratic Marxist and ecosocialist manifesto for schooling and teacher education for economic and social justice. This is based on a democratic Marxist theoretical framework (1) and on a structuralist neo-Marxist analysis (2). We also…