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Previous studies have largely interrogated the challenges of workforce casualisation in Nigeria with sparse attention to the reactions of the trade unions to this work arrangement. The paper, therefore, explores the survival strategies of trade union to employment casualisation in the Nigerian beverage sector. It explores the narratives of trade union relevance amidst increased informalisation, and the efficacy of its strategies. The Marxist conflict theory was employed as a theoretical leaning to understand labour unions' position in contending with management exploitations in the workplace. A total of 12 trade union officials were selected for interviews through purposive and convenient sampling. The study found a diminishing trade union relevance with the increasing spate of informalisation, while the collective bargaining strategy of the union was hardly utilised in addressing employment casualisation, although education and (re)training programmes show a positive outlook. The study takes the position for a review of the Nigerian labour laws, specifically the Trade Union Act of 2005 as amended, as no provisions in this legislation give recognition to casual employment, an act that is further hampering trade unions' strategic effort in ensuring a decent workplace for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term neijuan (in English 'involution') has captured feelings of perpetual competition and anxiety among university students in China preparing for their post‐graduation careers. In this article, we develop a neo‐Weberian reading of neijuan to construct a framework using positional conflict theory and the concept of 'possible selves'. We investigated how final‐year university students from three social class factions—rural, urban non‐elite and urban elite—envisage, plan and strategise for their future careers. We draw on in‐depth interviews (n = 100) and a post‐graduation survey (n = 97) with students at two public universities, one elite and one lower‐tier, in a metropolitan city in Guangdong province. The findings underscore marked differences in the nature and clarity of students' envisaged future selves along the lines of social advantage and disadvantage. We demonstrate how social class is deeply connected to the scale of the competition—national or global—that students perceive themselves to be implicated in. In doing so, we draw attention to social class differences in expressions of and capacities to realise what we term 'globally orientated possible selves', which involved escaping both the sense of entrapment and the prospect of failure evinced by neijuan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social science researchers tend to express left‐liberal political attitudes. The ideological skew might influence research evaluations, but empirical evidence is limited. We conducted a survey experiment where Norwegian researchers evaluated fictitious research on majority–minority relations. Within this field, social contact and conflict theories emphasize different aspects of majority–minority relations, where the former has a left‐liberal leaning in its assumptions and implications. We randomized the conclusion of the research they evaluated so that the research supported one of the two perspectives. Although the research designs are the same, those receiving the social contact conclusion evaluate the quality and relevance of the design more favorably. We do not find similar differences in evaluations of a study on a nonpoliticized topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effects of refugee resettlement on the trust and attitudes of individuals in host populations. We exploit an exogenous resettlement shock in rural Australia and combine data from a lab‐in‐the‐field experiment with repeated cross‐sectional survey data to test the predictions of three prominent theories about inter‐group contact: contact theory, conflict theory and constrict theory. Surprisingly, our aggregate results reject all of the theories. A split‐sample analysis reveals strong gender effects: females who have experienced contact with resettled refugees are more trusting of refugees generally and also hold significantly more favourable attitudes towards refugee resettlement than males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]