The Scots aren't niggards

Another good thing. I submitted a paper to the WES 2007 conference at Aberdeen University a few weeks ago. I got accepted. Already last week. But I now couldn’t keep it to myself any longer that I’m more than happy about this. BSA was work, but this conference will be fun. Just fun. I’ll present my work there and hope to get helpful feedback. What I’m going to present is this:

During the last twenty to thirty years, globalisation and neoliberalism fundamentally reconfigured relations between economy, society and state. Especially in the sphere of welfare, this has increased demands for complementary and alternative options to traditional governmental provisions. One possibility is the partial transfer of welfare responsibilities to corporations. Companies are a crucial component of society and influence many aspects. They can determine a nation’s as well as a person’s wealth. Corporate welfare, it will be argued, subsumes and defines such activities which enhance and secure the wellbeing of employees. Wellbeing will be understood in very broad terms. It comprehends psychological, socio-psychological, and physiological issues of an employee’s life. This broad definition, firstly, is possible as corporate welfare situates itself at the margins of economy, state and society. Secondly, corporate welfare concentrates on a smaller number of welfare recipients than states do and, hence, can provide different and more individualised benefits.
Various propositions with i.e. Corporate Social Responsibility, De-commodification or Transaction Costs have been made to explain economic, sometimes non-profit oriented, behaviour - but unsatisfactorily in their specific focus. In this presentation, a unifying concept of corporate welfare will be developed. Based on an empiric analysis of the British Workplace Employee Relations Survey 2004, it will be shown what corporate welfare could mean, what it can include, and what kind of measures could be taken to enhance the wellbeing of employees. It will be tried to give one possible answer the question of wellbeing in the 21st century.

Anyone who is interested in reading this just leave a comment and I’ll send it to you. And, I’m sorry about the niggard. I just mean that Scots aren’t so posh to invite someone from far-away England…. Schotten sind ueberhaupt nicht knausrig.