Equal opportunity in the workplace is thought to be the direct legacy of the civil rights and feminist movements and the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yet, as Frank Dobbin demonstrates, corporate personnel experts--not Congress or the courts--were the ones who determined what equal opportunity meant in practice, designing changes in how employers hire, promote, and fire workers, and ultimately defining what discrimination is, and is not, in the American imagination. Dobbin shows how Congress and the courts merely endorsed programs devised by corporate personnel. He traces how the first measures were adopted by military contractors worried that the Kennedy administration would cancel their contracts if they didn't take "affirmative action" to end discrimination. These measures built on existing personnel programs, many designed to prevent bias against unionists. Dobbin follows the changes in the law as personnel experts invented one wave after another of equal opportunity programs. He examines how corporate personnel formalized hiring and promotion practices in the 1970s to eradicate bias by managers; how in the 1980s they answered Ronald Reagan's threat to end affirmative action by recasting their efforts as diversity-management programs; and how the growing presence of women in the newly named human resources profession has contributed to a focus on sexual harassment and work/life issues. Inventing Equal Opportunity reveals how the personnel profession devised--and ultimately transformed--our understanding of discrimination.

Jean-Loup Amselle explores the issue of multiculturalism by delving into the history of France's confrontation with ethnic difference. Amselle analyzes France's relationship to Egypt, Algeria, and Senegal to show how ideas about difference and assimilation played out in French colonial policies and how these same tensions continue to be problematic as France grapples with cultural pluralism.Amselle's book has timely and wide-ranging implications. Arguing against the "liberal communitarian state" as it exists in the United States, Amselle contends that an overemphasis on difference can lead to what he calls "affirmative exclusion"--the flip side of affirmative action. The recognition of a multiplicity of ethnic groups in France, he asserts, creates an environment that fosters racism. "Despite an outward appearance of generosity, supporters of French-style multiculturalism, by promoting 'affirmative action, ' run the risk of creating as many difficulties as there are 'target groups, ' which they have helped identify and hence produce."Calling on theories of racial difference devised by early anthropologists--most notably, Louis Faidherbe--and on the work of political philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Amselle makes historical and sociological sense of the debates over multiculturalism and the violence they engender. Toward a French Multiculturalism proposes directions for the future.

Promotes theory and research in the area of occupational stress, health and well being, and brings together and showcases the work of some of the best researchers and theorists who contribute to this area. This collection gives a critical assessment of knowledge, and major gaps in knowledge, on occupational stress and well being.

Connections is an accessible guide to the promise and the pitfalls of this latest phase of the computer revolution.

"'Gender Matters' is a manual aimed to assist educators and youth leaders work on issues of gender and gender-based violence with young people. This publication presents theoretical information, methods and resources for education and training activities, along with concrete exercises that users can put into practice in their daily work. Violence is a serious issue which directly affects the lives of many young people. It often results in lasting damage to their well-being and integrity, putting even their lives at risk. Gender-based violence, including violence against women, remains a key human rights challenge in contemporary Europe and in the world. Working with young people on human rights education is one way of preventing gender-based violence from occurring. By raising awareness on why and how it manifests and exploring its impact on people and in society, gender-based violence will no longer go undetected. Gender really does matter, to women, to men, to young people - to all of us. This manual serves to explore these human rights issues and act upon them."--Book jacket.