The staff group examines the impacts of socio-economic restructuring on firms, households and workers and their interactions at the level of localities. At the level of firms, it is important to understand the responses of firms to 'new competition' and to economic restructuring and globalisation. A distinction may be made here between a 'high road' and a 'low road' of industrialisation. The 'high road' denotes a process whereby firms succeed in adopting practices of new competition, engage in networking with other firms and develop new strategies of growth. The 'low road' designates a process whereby firms fail to respond to the challenges and survive by lowering costs through flexibilisation of labour and by reducing wages, including informalisation. In many countries there are growing numbers of self-employed, survival or micro-enterprises which are engaged in services and trade, and a large proportion is run by women. The staff group studies the impact of restructuring on the composition of types of enterprises and processes of industrialisation and examines how entrepreneurs and firms respond to restructuring and change in inter-firm relationships (collective action, co-operation and competition in sub- contracting).

Restructuring has differential effects on households. Employment and income security are reduced, and poverty is rising. But at the same time and in some selected places, restructuring generates new employment opportunities, e.g. for women (e.g. via export processing zones, feminisation of the labour force in manufacturing, decentralisation of production and an increase in subcontracting to households). The impacts of restructuring on livelihood are examined at household and intra-household levels. Livelihood strategies are mediated by intra-household power relations, the changing structure of production and reproduction and responses are gender differentiated. Responses of households i.e. livelihood strategies change but are constrained by the double burden of women in terms of production and reproduction. Depending on initial household and macro-conditions migration is one of the options, especially international migration. In daily and localised struggles of survival, new organisational strategies based on solidarity and collective action may be developed to enable women and households to gain new income and employment opportunities.

Restructuring fundamentally affects the organisation of work. Associated with 'new competition' and new technologies are teamwork, group-work, re-skilling, outsourcing and casualisation. These give further impetus to the multiplicity of identities within the labour force and to further gender differentiation. These processes present new challenges for collective action and the organisation of workers, both at the work place and beyond. At the meso-level, restructuring contributes to new forms of segmentation in labour markets. Crucial to new policies to cope with increasing flexibilisation in the labour market is the employability of workers, calling for a redefinition of worker's assets and of skill acquisition as well as organisational strategies on the part of workers to cope with flexibilisation.

The interactions between processes of restructuring of firms, households and labour are examined at the level of particular localities and regions. Localities as territories have accumulated certain basic conditions in terms of physical infrastructure, social institutions and economic overhead capital that permit firms, household and workers to cope with challenges of restructuring. These basic conditions vary between places as a result of spatial differences in resources, processes of urbanisation, migration and of impacts of globalisation. Restructuring creates new spatial divisions of labour, and these in turn affect the capacity of state and social groups to reproduce infrastructure, social institutions and economic overhead capital. Deliberate or de-facto decentralisation to markets and to communities let these basic conditions increasingly become a collective, rather than an exclusive state or public sector responsibility. At the level of locality, the neighbourhood economy, production and reproduction are integrated creating local identities. Localities become increasingly the level at which collective action by firms, by communities of households and by (organised) workers as well as coalitions between them vis-à-vis the (local and central) state gets organised. New patterns of local governance emerge in response to restructuring and become decisive in articulating collective needs, mediating conflicts, increasing or decreasing the possibilities of the representation of different interests and this in turn may positively or negatively affect the local institutional capacity for change.

Actors and action programs

In response to restructuring, interventions to raise production and productivity, to change the structures of social reproduction and to generate new opportunities for employment, income and livelihood are undertaken by multiple actors. Aside from the central state agencies there are local governments as well as collective action by firms, households or communities and of workers. The latter take the form of functional, sector- or area-based forms of association, such as business interest or producer associations (BIAs), community-based organisations (CBOs) and women groups. Eventually, trade unions, NGOs and other non-profit intermediaries are key stakeholders. Central to the policy orientation of HRLD is the study of the effectiveness of organisational, bargaining and negotiation strategies by which these actors succeed in networking and achieving convergence in their respective actions. The intervention areas on which HRLD concentrates may be considered as policy and program arenas, where results depend as much on substantive policy rationalisations as on organisational capabilities and negotiation.

Enterprise development

The policy rationale for interventions in the area of enterprise development is flexible specialisation and the challenges of 'new competition'. Upgrading of technology and industrial organisation within the firms, and the development of inter-firm industrial networks or clusters are instrumental to raise competitiveness. An important area concerns intra-firm upgrading of labour and labour relations (human resources management), especially approaches that are applicable to medium and small enterprises. An established intervention area may be described as local economic development, which concentrates on improving the basic conditions of competition, especially via a) infrastructure and b) economic overhead capital, especially, enterprise support systems (information & regulation, marketing & intermediation, technology, training). These interventions are primarily directed towards small and medium enterprises. Strengthening the neighbourhood economy, consisting of micro-enterprises and self-employed, requires both economic and social security approaches (see below). In these intervention areas, entrepreneurs and firms interact with business associations, public agencies, and local governments. Organisational strategies to raise the bargaining power of small producers and enterprises are central to HRLD's concern. Specific skills concern project planning and management for local development (includes complements for project appraisal, gender issues in project planning, project applications in local development, monitoring and evaluation of local development projects, management of projects).

Urban poverty alleviation

Processes of restructuring and globalisation are exclusive and often lead to with jobless growth. Restructuring generates affluence amidst growing immiseration and poverty. Central to HRLD's concern is to mitigate the negative effects of restructuring and to raise the capacity of the urban poor to improve their living conditions (habitat) and livelihood, and to reduce unemployment and income insecurity via programs of urban poverty alleviation. HRLD concentrates on three sub-areas, namely, a) (sectoral) social welfare interventions such as social funds and safety nets, health programmes, public works programmes; b) integrated programmes of human settlement improvement (habitat, facilities and services), and c) employment and income generation programs, such as community-based micro-credit, employment generation and enterprise support programmes (incl. training, credit, marketing). The number and type of actors has changed considerably over the years. Instead of engaging in direct public intervention programmes, governments are shifting towards facilitation and community enablement. NGOs are joined by community organisations (territorial, gender- or activity-based CBOs) and by development trusts, community development enterprises, social investors etc. Empowerment of communities with skills and methods to organise and engage (local) governments and other agents, needs to be complemented by community enablement by government, NGOs and other actors. This requires methods of participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation and organisation changes to incorporate community participation in government and NGO decision-making processes.

Human resource development and labour market interventions

The third intervention area has a dual concern: employability of workers, especially disadvantaged groups like women, youth and retrenched workers, and raising efficiency and effectiveness of HRD systems and institutions. Skills are transferred in many different ways, and the boundaries between state or public education and training, enterprise level, commercial, non-profit and non-formal skill training are rapidly changing. New and innovative strategies need to be designed that go beyond conventional human capital approaches. Human resource development strategies include education and training systems, policies and institutions, assessment of training needs, technological skill acquisition as well as special skills development programmes (e.g. entrepreneurial skills targeting woman and youth, etc.) Human resource planning in the public sector needs to be complemented by new approaches at sector and local levels that take into account the existence of and partnerships between multiple types of skill providers. Special attention is paid to the (potential) role of the private and non-profit NGO sector in the provision of skill development programmes.

Gender, restructuring, and new technologies

Although gender is a cross-cutting area and an integral part of the first four intervention areas, HRLD has a specific gender focus. The rationale derives from the gender bias in structural adjustment programs and the implications of market-oriented reforms for women's livelihoods, and access to and control over resources. Production and reproduction, waged and non-waged work are interlinked. Gender-differentiated access to technology and the labor process, as well as the implications of individual and household-based entitlements are crucial determinants in the process of economic restructuring in developing and transitional economies in the context of globalization. An important area is the inclusion of a reconceptualised notion of the household in development policies. The domestic economy is a site of power relations, contesting, bargaining, negotiation and resistance. In order to formulate not only gender-sensitive but also sustainable development alternatives this has to be taken into consideration. Reviews and analysis of human development indices, world employment trends and the formulation of alternative indices for assessing women's empowerment are important areas. Gender and technology is a key growth area which includes older issues of appropriate technology and access to training but also increasingly the implications of new technology on women's work and lives. Flexibility as a result of new technology has both potentials and problems if seen from a gendered perspective and is an area that requires new research and policy formulation. HRLD pays particular attention to the formulation of gender-sensitive policies that link the labour market with social policy issues. In addition, policies that facilitate representation of women's interests along with provision of and access to resources are seen as crucial for the empowerment of women. Specific policies and strategies that address these issues are developed and assessed in relation to the workplace, household and community. Micro-level interventions such as credit, meso-level policiea such as gender audits, and macro-level interventions such as reformulating international development policies from a gender perspective all form a core of HRLD concerns in the area of research and policy formulation.

Alternative development strategies

Present patterns of restructuring are for the most part crisis-driven rather than strategy inspired, mere responses to external and internal shocks. A critical assessment of these processes, interventions in international development policy and practices and alternatives in the area of production and reproduction at meso- and micro-levels need to be developed from the perspective of gendered, sustainable and human development frameworks. HRLD has traditionally been concerned with co-operatives and worker's self-management as alternatives for the organisation of production and collective action. Similarly, organisational strategies of small producers, especially of women, to address needs in areas of health, education, employment and income generation have been examined. Thirdly, community-based organisations play a role in strengthening the bargaining capacities of communities and increase their capacity to (co-)organise the provision of basic needs in housing, facilities, services, employment and income generation. The documentation and comparative analysis of these experiences and practices in order to extend their potential and replicate them in new settings continues to be a HRLD priority.