2 results
ten - Changing contexts, enduring roles? Working parents in Portuguese public and private sector organisations
- Edited by Suzan Lewis, Middlesex University, Julia Brannen, University College London, Ann Nilsen, Universitetet i Bergen
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- Book:
- Work, Families and Organisations in Transition
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 16 July 2022
- Print publication:
- 22 July 2009, pp 149-166
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- Chapter
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Summary
This chapter discusses the two organisational case studies that took place in Portugal, one in the public sector and the other in a private company. It compares the two organisational contexts in terms of changes, their prevailing labour policies and practices and the way in which working parents with young children perceive their working and family lives. Before comparing the two organisational case studies, the chapter begins with a reference to the political, social and economic changes that Portuguese society has undergone in the last 40 years and the policies regulating labour, supporting the family and defining forms of childcare.
Portuguese pathways to modernity
The working parents who took part in the case studies were born in the 1970s, a decade marked by profound change. Up until and including the 1960s, Portugal was characterised by an agriculture-based economy, traditional cultural patterns and an authoritarian political system, including the exploitation of large colonies in Africa. In the 1970s, this system collapsed and a radical opening-up of all these spheres occurred.
In April 1974, a revolution brought democracy and Portugal experienced major structural changes. The Portuguese Constitution1 defined the new legal framework for the changes to be made in the country. Family law was changed and the concept of the male breadwinner was abolished. Both members of a couple now had the same rights and obligations and both parents were equally responsible for supporting and caring for their children. The Constitution also promoted equal access to education and work.
Inspired by the ambition of constructing a socialist regime, this led to the nationalisation of a significant number of companies. This process culminated in a democratic capitalist regime, in which different layers of modernity and tradition continue to coexist. Broadly speaking, we may describe these structural changes as the movement from a traditional social system towards modernity (da Costa and Machado, 2000). This has happened through a set of diffuse processes taking place in new phases of modernity, characterised by global networking, deregulated financial and labour markets, and new inequalities and risks (Boltanski and Chiappello, 1996; Castells, 1996; Esping-Andersen, 1996; Beck, 2000).
five - Buses and light rail: stalled en route?
- Edited by Iain Docherty, Jon Shaw
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- Book:
- Traffic Jam
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 21 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 27 October 2008, pp 97-116
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Summary
Better-quality public transport was heralded by incoming Labour ministers as the key to persuading some car users to switch modes for some journeys, thereby reducing car use and urban traffic congestion (DETR, 1997, 1998). As large-scale improvement was needed quickly, the main focus was on buses, which are the main mode of local public transport everywhere except in Central and Inner London. The image change sought was encapsulated in the title of the buses policy document From workhorse to thoroughbred (DETR, 1999), and Quality Partnerships (QPs) were seen as the way to produce better local bus services and reverse the 50-year decline in bus use. Voluntary cooperation between local authorities could give buses priority on the roads and in return private bus companies would invest in higher-quality buses. Light rail was considered to be expensive and unable to deliver improvements quickly but still viable where it was part of a coherent urban public transport strategy. Improved public transport was also a prerequisite for making restraint of car traffic acceptable. The 2000 Transport Act introduced the idea of Statutory Quality Partnerships (SQPs) to cover facilities and vehicle standards in a legally binding agreement, and also offered councils an option of partial reregulation in the form of Quality Contracts (QCs) if partnerships were not delivering patronage growth targets (Davison and Knowles, 2006). Quality Contracts would give exclusive access to designated routes but would not be approved by the government unless they were the only practicable way to meet local authority targets. Also in 2000, Transport 2010: The 10-year plan (DETR, 2000) introduced national targets for Britain of a 10% growth in local bus usage and a 100% growth in light rail usage by 2010/11; 25 new light rail schemes were also to be built. Whereas the concept of an integrated transport policy had been promulgated UK-wide in 1998, the governance landscape in relation to the formulation and delivery of transport policy objectives and targets was fundamentally changed by devolution in 1999/2000 (Chapter Two). This chapter demonstrates that these new governance arrangements have promoted differences in both bus and light rail policies and their outcomes in the constituent parts of the UK over the last few years.