Research

Featured Research

  

Green Building, Good Jobs, Safe Jobs: Social Justice Pathways to a Sustainable Los Angeles

Community Scholars – initiated in 1992 - is an innovative multidisciplinary program that recognizes the important role that community and labor leaders play in shaping community development policy in Los Angeles. The project culminates in a unique product designed by the scholars and students.

Green Jobs Report cover

  

Modelos de Produccion y Mercado de Trabajo de los Profesionistas en Mexico

 

Working paper by IRLE Research Affiliate, Enrique de la Garza Toledo of the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Itzapalapa.

 

 

 Scope of IRLE research work

Research Affiliates & Visiting Scholars

IRLE Research Affiliates form a community of scholars conducting research and dialogue on issues of work and employment. Though most are based at UCLA, the IRLE network extends nationally and globally. IRLE Visiting Scholars spend from a month to a year in residence at UCLA IRLE working on a research project and interacting with UCLA scholars and students. Please click on the above links to see who is contributing to academic successes of IRLE.

 

IRLE supported research

IRLE is committed to advancing the knowledge of the labor and employment issues. Grants provided and distributed by IRLE allow UCLA faculty and graduate students organize conferences, complete books, and carry out new and fascinating research. Please see below for more details on the most recent faculty and student grant awardes.

 

 

Current Research Projects

 

  • Strategy for improving the Employability of the Working Poor: Focused on the Upgrading of Job Skills In 2008 the worldwide economic downturn had accelerated the pace and increased the severity of labor market challenges that global economy now face. Most countries had struggled to reposition their labor force for the jobs of tomorrow through increasing the labor flexibility. There was no exception in case of South Korea. At the individual level higher skills implies more employment over the life-cycle, a lower risk of unemployment, high pay and better job quality. Without the job skills needed to survive in the new emerging economy, the working poor will soon become the unemployed poor. For these reasons, a more skills oriented profile of employment policy is needed after economic crisis. This project examines employment and training policy in the United States after  the global economic downturn. Special  interest will be paid to policy measures for improving work-related skills among the working poor, the disadvantaged workers in low-wage labor market. This project is led by IRLE visiting scholar, Young Sun Ra.

  • The Social Consequences of Remittances/Migration for Pakistan and Mexico. Like Mexico, remittances from overseas workers constitute an important source of earnings as well foreign currency for Pakistan. Overseas remittances, to Pakistan are likely to be around $ 11 billion in 2001-11 which would be almost half of Pakistan’s earnings from exports of goods and services. The beneficial effects of the remittances for the economy notwithstanding, these also generate some adverse social consequences. In Pakistan, typically it is only the male bread earner who migrates, leaving behind wife and children. This is true of both the external and internal migration and more so for the poorer households. The wife copes with the thin and thick of life without the husband and the kids grow up without parental care. The wives may even suffer psychological problems. All this is bound to generate some negative social consequences. McKenzie, for example, finds for Mexico that migration lowers the educational attainment of children of highly educated parents, which he feels is likely to be due to the combination of parental absence and lower future return to schooling for children who intend to migrate. This research is being conducting by IRLE visiitng scholar, Idrees Khawaja.

  • Union Strategic Research.This study, led by Sociology doctoral student Joshua Bloom and IRLE Director Chris Tilly, examines why strategic research has become more important for unions, and how such strategic research contributes to successful union strategies.

  • Experiences with Organizing Informal Workers. Led by Berkeley sociologist Peter Evans and IRLE Director Chris Tilly, this project compares approaches to informal worker organizing in Brazil, China, Mexico, South Africa, and the US, with particular attention to how unions have or have not gotten involved in such organizing.

  • The Retail Workforce.This study is part of a larger multinational effort examining the retail workforce in Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom as well as the United States, and comparing new developments in these countries. It is led by the IRLE Director, Chris Tilly and funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, the largest foundation entirely devoted to funding social science research.
  • Employment and Regional Development in the United States and Mexico. This research project, led by IRLE Director, Chris Tilly, compares the two countries, particularly from the perspective of employment, and attempts to create intellectual linkages among scholars and practitioners in the two countries.
  • California Family Leave Research Project With funding from the Sloan Foundation and the National Institute for Child Health and Development, the California Family Leave Research Project has conducted research on California's paid family leave program.


Database Projects

 

 

 

Please vist our Publications page to see the outcome of already completed research projects.