Employmentweb_low

the process oF Knowledge generation
The results of this two-pronged investigation are greater than the
sum of their parts. They have qualitatively different features. They
represent an amalgamation of approaches and their respective
insights, the combination of which is as close to a picture of reality as
we could possibly paint. A helpful analogy is to think of this process of
knowledge-generation as a gigantic photo-mosaic portrait made out
of many tiny pictures, which, when arranged properly, create the
general image of a face. Since obtaining all the pieces of the face in
detail (in our case, worldwide employment relations and conditions
related to health inequalities) is truly impossible, the essence of this
approach is to obtain at least the most appropriate pieces of
information to approximate its key features. In our view this approach
provides the most comprehensive understanding in order to identify
and suggest solutions to a number of important research and policy
needs: first, the need for a historical perspective on employment
relations, recognising the dynamic, conflict-ridden nature of the
political systems that influence people's employment; second, the
need to identify the political actors and government decisions crucial
to the development of labour market and welfare state policies
leading to specific employment dimensions; third, the need to make a
systematic assessment of employment-related policies and
interventions leading to health inequalities; fourth, the need to study
these conditions in different labour market situations; fifth, the need
to identify and analyse the different pathways, impacts, and
mechanisms leading from employment conditions to a variety of
health outcomes, including health inequalities; sixth, the need to take
into account all the axes of key social differences including social
class, ethnicity, race, gender, age, and migrant status to ensure that
information is sensitive to this range of crucial cross-cutting
inequalities; and seventh, the need to understand that some policies
and interventions may work in certain political contexts and for certain
groups of people and not for others. Therefore, it is important to
distinguish between potentially generalisable and conditionally
successful interventions and to find contextual features that turn
potential into successful outcomes; finally, the need to identify a
variety of sources of information as well as to allow the participation
of stakeholders in research.
Key strategies of a synthetic comprehensive participatory
approach
In order to create a clear theoretical framework and integrate the
information gathered from a variety of sources, we undertook a
number of tasks: clarification of the main concepts and developing the
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