Sorry for cross-posting. Maybe some of you will be interested in the
following:

Invitation for Proposals for Research in Salzburg: Main Focus Dealing
with Unemployment

The international research center for social and ethical questions (ifz)
in Salzburg will be focusing on the theme "dealing with unemployment"
from April to June 2010. We are inviting three researchers and scholars
to join us in exploring this topic. We are looking for researchers who
will creatively address issues of unemployment and write a publishable
article related to dealing with unemployment during their stay in
Salzburg. The center's working languages are German and English.
For further information visit http://www.ifz-salzburg.at/?p=1898

---

Call for Papers: Resilience and Unemployment (Salzburg, May 18-21 2010)

We invite you to participate in the inter-disciplinary conference on
"Resilience and Unemployment" that will be hosted by the Center for
Ethics and Poverty Research (University of Salzburg) and the Salzburg
Ethics Initiative.
It is the fourth year that the Center for Ethics and Poverty Research
and the ifz – International Research Centre will be organizing an
international gathering of around 30 young scholars. They will exchange
new ideas, discuss good practices, and develop creative suggestions and
concrete recommendations. We will meet in groups organized around
topical clusters, and we will have plenary sessions of experts invited
to stimulate discussion. We will meet with academics and practitioners
working in this area, and there will be opportunities to get to know
colleagues from other countries and diverse disciplines.
The conference will be organized as an exchange of creative ideas rather
than the reading of papers. In this context, we are requesting that you
develop alternatives to traditional academic papers, and present
creative ideas in response to the given questions within one of the
three clusters. Your presentation can be about a current or historical
“good practice” or “best example” based on your experience or academic
expertise. It can be a provocative new idea, a concrete suggestion, or
it can be one single point you would like to make.
Cluster 1: Micro-level: The resilient unemployed
The most recent wave of resilience research is “characterized by a focus
on multilevel analysis and the dynamics of adaptation and change.
Resilience is defined as a broad systems construct, referring to the
capacity of dynamic systems to withstand or recover from significant
disturbances” (Ann S. Masten, Development and Psychopathology, Vol. 19,
2007). One of these observable dynamic systems is the human individual.
Although driven jointly by internal and external factors, we want to
focus discussion on the individual, eclipsing external factors as much
as possible. Successful ways of handling difficult situations have
formed the ground of resilience-research for the last decades, some of
them with promising results. (Imminent) Unemployment is a specifically
critical situation and bears multitudinous ways of reaction. At the
Salzburger Anstösse 2010 we will address questions concerning people in
this particular situation:
1. What personal qualities predict resilience among unemployed people?
2. What difference does it make if subgroups such as youth, 45+, asylum
seekers, and
gender are considered?
3. How could resilient qualities be strengthened even before the crisis
occurs? What therapeutic- and training programs might help? Where can
motivational forces come from? How might these promote resilience?
Cluster 2: Meso-level: Resilient Enterprise
The term ‘resilience’ – mostly used on an individual or personal level –
can also be applied to a formal, structural, organizational, and thus to
a business level. Yossi Sheffi demonstrates this in his book The
Resilient Enterprise where two aspects can be distinguished: lowering a
business’s vulnerability (anticipatory resilience) and increasing a
business’s ability to bounce back after a crisis (crisis management
resilience) such as natural disasters, economic crises, terrorist
activities, or financial scandals. This can mainly be achieved by
building in redundancy and flexibility.
Within this cluster we want to focus on the following questions:
1.	What is the role of corporate culture in resilience? What is the
‘‘right’’ corporate culture to create a resilient enterprise? Which
values/value systems are crucial within a business philosophy to become
resilient? How can these values be implemented and realized?
2.	How are leadership skills connected to resilient supply chain
management? What leadership styles support business resilience? How is
individual resilience connected to business resilience?
3.	Can a resilient enterprise be socially responsible? In what way is
the co-determination right of the works council connected to a
business’s resilience? How important is the structure of employment
relationships (e.g. temporary work) on a business’s resilience?
Cluster 3: Macro-level: Political framework for a resilient society
The term “resilience” can also be applied to society as a whole. Mass
unemployment can be understood as a societal crisis, as it leads to
poverty of large number of people or affects special social groups that
are confronted with social exclusion as a consequence. Dynamics and
decisions during crisises are difficult for the individual to
understand. Human beings, who are affected by unemployment, feel
powerless in the face of macro-level developments that they cannot
control. With respect to the topic “resilience and unemployment” we
would like to draw attention to the dimensions that the individual is
able to control, or at least to those that can be influenced within the
local and regional living environment.
Within this cluster we are going to focus on the following questions:
1.	What kind of political measures in general (strategies,
activities...) would be useful to support the resilience of unemployed?
Is it possible to single out good-practice-models in Europe concerning
measures to support or enhance the resilience of unemployed people?
2.	How is it possible to combine bottom-up or informal strategies with
already established unemployment policy frameworks (e.g. “active labour
market policies”) and institutions? What kinds of policy advice can be
formulated in the light of empirical cases/findings/evaluations?
3.	In social welfare states, unemployment benefit is linked with certain
terms and conditions, e.g. with the mobility of labour. What kind of
conditions would strengthen
the resilience of the unemployed and labour forces?

500 word abstracts (papers, work-in-progress or reports) should be
submitted by 15th January 2010. They should be in Word, RTF, or
OpenDocument formats. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, you
are invited to register (fee: 50 Euro) until 15th February 2010. We will
organize the incoming ideas and prepare a document that you will receive
by the end of March 2010. On the basis of this document we will have our
intensive exchange in Salzburg in May 2010. A full draft paper should be
submitted after the conference by 1st July 2010. The proceedings of the
conference will be published.

We would be happy if you could warm up to this new conference format. We
expect the workshop with its unique format to be an exciting and
stimulating experience for all people involved. The topic of
“unemployment” has sadly gained new prominence with the recent
international financial crisis. Also here in Salzburg, people suffer
from the consequences, as there have been job losses. That is why we are
interested in solutions rather than problems, and will attempt to
organize the transfer of knowledge to society, politics, and the
economy. This is the main challenge we face, and why we need creative
and fresh minds.

We are happy to have you in Salzburg, and will organize your stay and
carry the costs for board and lodging. We will also organize a cultural
program around the workshop to make your visit more enjoyable
If you have any questions, please contact the coordinator of the
conference, Dr. Nadja Lobner, at: [log in to unmask] She will
be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
We are looking forward to welcoming you in Salzburg.

With best wishes,
Prof. DDDr. Clemens Sedmak Director
Prof. Dr. Otto Neumaier Vice-Director
Dr. Nadja Lobner Coordinator
Center for Ethics and Poverty Research University of Salzburg





-- 
Mag. Dr. Gottfried Schweiger

Internationales Forschungszentrum für soziale und ethische Fragen

Moenchsberg 2a
A-5020 Salzburg
Austria

Tel.: +43 669 170 730 92
Fax: +43 662 8044 2533
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

www.ifz-salzburg.at