Working Lives Research Institute
London Metropolitan University
Aims and objectives
The world of work has changed and is changing. The Working Lives Research Institute is concerned centrally with how peoples’ lives are affected, both within and outside of work. Its focus covers several evolutions, nationally and at a comparative international level: employment practices and issues of work/life balance, the relationship of work and environmental protection, employment law, corporate ethics and governance, partnership and conflict at work, trade unions and social movements, the evolution of training and life-long learning, gender relations and issues of sexuality, health and ethics and nationality, race and ethnicity in employment.
We are building on the university’s investment in the TUC Library Collections to create a major London-based centre of creative and effective research on Working Lives, committed to social justice and equality, that will serve the interests of academic understanding, of policy-makers, managers, trade unionists and social movement organisations.
Our objectives are to:
• provide a flexible interdisciplinary research environment that co-ordinates and develops the university’s existing research strengths and resources.
• enhance the interaction between academics, policy-makers, managers, trade unionists and community activists in identifying and researching key issues concerning working lives.
• establish a high profile reputation as a London region, national and European ‘centre of excellence’ for working lives research and consultancy.
• disseminate the research findings widely through seminars, conferences and publications, including an associated independent journal.
• link the Working Lives Institute’s research focus with the provision of innovative PhD and educational programmes.
Funding of up to £100,000 a year to achieve these objectives has been assured by the university for the five years from 1 August 2002. Our aspirations, however, extend beyond this five-year period. We aim to try and establish a pole of sufficient weight and influence such as to be able to continue to play a campaigning research role in the struggle for social justice after July 2007. In part this will be possible through establishing the WLRI as the premier working lives research centre in London, recognised both academically and by the employment relations and trade union communities; in part it will be possible by building up a contingency fund of sufficient size to be able to continue to provide ongoing ‘soft’ funding support for the WLRI for a further five years.
Director
Professor Steve Jefferys
Working Lives Research Institute,
Stapleton House
Holloway Road, London N7 8HN
s.jefferys@londonmet.ac.uk
tel: 0207 607 2789 x 3150
0208 883 6822
Click to find articles featured in DIRT1
To date funding for two reports has come from the Esmee Fairburn Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
A key aim of the CEP and Working Lives Research Institute is to generate further funding at national and international level to help achieve the aims outlined above.CEP, Joint directors:
Nigel Morter, London Metropolitan University, Contact: N.Morter@unl.ac.uk; 01707 325629.
Alan Dalton, Working Lives Research Institute associate, eve@ajpdhazeco.demon.co.uk; 0207 485 2981. Editor DIRT magazine, editorial offices:
3 Montpelier Grove, London, NW5 2XD.
DIRT, the magazine that tells the truth about community pollution, is a publication of the Centre for Environmental Protection (CEP), part of the Working Lives Research Institute at the London Metropolitan University.
CEP Objectives
The Centre for Environmental Protection aims to provide a resource for
widening participation in the discourse of environmental protection. It
aims to develop the role and voice of neglected environmental stakeholders
in communities and arenas where they have been traditionally marginalised.
Specifically, within the mission statement of the London Metropolitan
University’s Working Lives Research Institute, the CEP will provide
research opportunities, training, education, technical and other information,
and advice for Trade Unionists, on the shop floor, nationally and internationally.
Helping
trade unionists to:
• assist in training programmes to encourage activity from members
and officers such as Trade Unions and Sustainable Development – Environmental
Education Programme for Trade Unionists and the Diploma in Trade Unions
and the Environment
• research impacts of the environment and low carbon economy on employment
and communities
• resolve issues relating to the "jobs versus environment' dilemma
through research into environmental job creation and green conversion
• establish a trade union and environment steering group (consisting
of trade unionists, academics and individuals)
Helping employees to:
• Develop learning programmes on Environmental Protection for people
at work to nationally recognised standards, both in HE and FE, or to national
vocational standards, including:
• Make representations about environmental performance and environmental
management systems
• Build skills and capacity
• Deal with community interests
• Develop roles promoting sustainable development.
Helping
Communities concerned about:
• Local pollution issues (be it a chemical plant, incinerator, landfill
or cement kiln)
• Making a democratic input into the planning process
• Making a rational argument to: the companies or organisations causing
pollution, the Environment Agency or Local Authorities
Environmental Health department, local Heath Authority and Health and
Safety executive
• Dealing with the press and media interest
• Representing a local community on a democratic basis
• Informing other communities about their successes or failures;
both within the UK and, more widely, Europe and the World ('act locally,
think internationally')
Co-ordinate with:
• Local groups and campaigns
• Current NGOs (e.g. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace)
• University groups carrying out similar work such as Dr Vyvyan Howard
at Liverpool University, the Public Services International Unit (PSIRU)
at the University of Greenwich, Cornell Center for the Environment and
the London
Environment Centre.
Produce reports and academic articles on:
• Key research issues linking sustainability, work and environmental
protection
• Reports arising from work with stakeholder groups (such as the
report based on surveys and interviews with around 50 such local groups
on their experiences and needs) will be produced for the members of the
local communities surveyed
• Encourage doctoral research into the relationships of work, environmental
protection and sustainable development.