First published in 1997, this volume responds to a world in the midst of a telecommunications revolution. What this means is that societies throughout the world are now provided with new opportunities to solve nagging problems. One problem which is the focus of this book is the continual pockets of poverty that exist in countries around the world. In this regard, welfare reform has been slow in coming as nations struggle for allocating limited resources for meeting the needs of all citizens within its boundaries. This book describes a welfare model that is quite innovative, imaginative, but also practical. It can be readily implemented in any country in the world, although the example used in this book is that of one country. The welfare reform model suggested here is all about freedom, opportunity and equity. At its conclusion, it challenges the reader to take welfare reform to the next level.

Published in 1999, Working Europe: Reshaping European employment systems offers a fresh analysis of recent changes in labour markets and the restructuring of welfare states. The analyzes presented in the articles not only focus on labour market changes, but take up the important issues of: * How labour markets have been regulated and directed * How the various social security systems offered by the welfare state are related to the questions of labour markets and employment systems * How efficient labour market policies are in reducing unemployment * How employment is locally created and initiated * How the gender system is related to employment systems. This book is the first to offer a full picture of the restructuring of the employment systems and the complex relationship between employment, the welfare state and concepts of work.

First published in 1998, this volume represents the outcome of a seminar as part of the continuing efforts of the Convocation of the University of Dar es Salam to maintain a dialogue with the Government of Tanzania on its socio-economic problems. Its aim was to underscore heightened public concern on the continued deterioration of social services in Tanzania following the onset of the economic crisis, to examine the effect of structural adjustment policies and measures on health, education, water, food, security, housing and social welfare services and to make specific recommendations on how to improve the delivery and sustainability of social services. This volume reproduces, as far as is practicable, the full proceedings of that important forum, whose issues remain relevant today. Recent reforms in the country, including privatization, graded user fees and decentralized management of social services by local communities have been substantially influenced by what the seminar recommended. While a section of society has welcomed these reforms as the only realistic way to achieve sustainability, reduce donor dependence, and prevent further deterioration of social services, there are still voices which object to the measures. Key questions raised in the book concern citizens' rights to social services, the regulatory role of government, democratic participation and partnerships between government, NGOs and private providers of social services. It will serve as a reference point for a fresh review of the social services crisis in the 1990's and the basis for devising more appropriate and sustainable strategies for the 21st Century.

First published in 1999, this volume responds to a large and growing interest among health policy and research circles on the use of purchasing alliances to leverage change in health care. This book gives detailed and useful specifics on how a leading alliance has fared in California, the most competitive health care market in the United States. Although it is generally accepted that large organizations are more effective purchasers of health insurance, little work has been done to carefully examine the reasons that underlie that phenomenon. Yet, creating interventions and designing potential solutions requires a thorough understanding of the issues. The econometric analysis adds to the limited literature on the influence of premium on choice behaviour for employees of small firms, and introduces an analysis of choice behaviour in a purchasing cooperative setting. The political section of this book presents a much more detailed historical account and analysis of California's small group market reforms, the most significant health-related legislation in the state in the prior decade, than has been previously available. The conclusions are becoming particularly relevant, both in California and elsewhere, as the issues of reform of the individual market for health insurance comes to the forefront.

Labour Relations in Practice deals with the core labour and employment relations matters regularly encountered by labour relations and human resource officers, managers, union representatives, bargaining council functionaries and those in advisory services. Now in its fourth edition, it contains, inter alia, actual cases heard by the CCMA as well as the Labour Court legislation update to the end of 2022.

The topics covered include the following:

• The employment relation - a brief introduction
• The roles, rights and obligations of the various stakeholders in organisations
• The role of the State in the labour relationship and the legislation by which it attempts to regulate this relationship
• The role of collectives, such as trade unions and employer organisations, and the rights granted to them
• Legal requirements for fair recruitment practices
• Employment contracts
• The various Acts that affect labour practices, including affirmative action and skills development
• Conducting negotiations and dealing with employee grievances and discipline at the workplace, dispute settlement and fair dismissal practice
• The way forward in the employment relationship
• The text contains numerous practical examples, illustrative problems, actual court cases and scenarios

The legislative requirements and codes of good practice are explained in simple, accessible language. Examples of relevant policies are provided, and each chapter ends with a useful summary of the main learning points.

Employees, organizations and society alike should grow the virtual workplace, the authors argue, as the multiple, tangible benefits of telework for each of these three stakeholders largely outweigh the costs. To help stakeholders benefit from the virtual workplace they analyze four key issues: telework adoption, implementation, tracking and impacts. The authors develop the comprehensive EOS framework to examine both the interaction among employees, organizations and society, and the linkages among telework impacts, tracking, implementation and adoption.Unique features of the book include an integrative framework for increasing telework adoption; practical tips - specific to each stakeholder - on how best to implement and measure telework; and an analysis of original survey data exploring the virtual workplace adoption decision. Readership for this book includes academic experts on telecommuting, policymakers involved in transportation, human resource or environmental policies, and managers and employees considering telework.

Published in 1998, this book looks at unemployment in Ireland, the country's most serious social and economic problem. It is the major contributor to poverty, exclusion and social decay. This book contributes to the growing debate on the unemployment problem in Ireland. It is the first academic collection of papers on this issue and contains contributions from some of Ireland's most respected economists. It offers alternative views of the Irish labour market, with these views shedding light on many aspects of the unemployment problem, including exchange rates influences, aggregate demand analysis, labour market policies and the historical perspective. Since this book assesses the problem of unemployment from different perspectives, it should widen the discussion of this most serious issue.

First published in 1998, this volume examines the performance of labour markets against the background of different economic and institutional settings in Western and Eastern Europe. The book gives a clear picture of the mosaic of impressive transformations presently taking place in Western and Eastern European labour markets and provides access to information which was previously either widely dispersed or non-existent. The book gives detailed information about how countries and regions deal with transformations described. The substantive country-wide and regional diversity that is discussed allows the reader to understand the role of labour and institutions in the development of countries and regions. The book is written by labour market and regional experts from the various countries concerned.

Atmospheric Pollution and Environmental Change is an introduction to the major pollutants currently arousing concern and a description how scientists monitor the composition of the atmosphere and assess emissions. Approaching atmospheric change in the context of its effects on the natural environment, people and the global climate system, Atmospheric Pollution and Environmental Change examines:
- Atmospheric pollution at global, continental and local scales
- The development of policy at national and international levels
- The major computer modelling approaches which help us to understand and forecast the behaviour of pollutants and their impacts
- The success (or otherwise) of policies designed to reduce air pollution and the prospects for the future.
With extensive references to useful web sites and further reading, Atmospheric Pollution and Environmental Change will be of great benefit to senior undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Based on a collection of labor contracts and other documents, this book examines the legal, economic and social relations of labor as they developed in the commercial enterprises of Tokugawa Japan. The urban focus is Kyoto, the cultural capital and smallest of the three great cities of the Tokugawa period, but the data comes from a wider region of commercial and castle towns and rural villages in central Japan.
Tokugawa businesses were family firms, but the system differed from that found in European cities at this time, and differences in family practice also resulted in a different organization adapted to business needs. This semi-public family environment also lent itself to conflict as outsiders were incorporated into family space, hierarchies and affairs. Conflict and its resolution is a topic of special interest in this study. Problems such as embezzling, stealing and absconding, and the mechanisms developed to address these problems in the paternalistic environment of family firms are portrayed through letters and other documents of accusation, investigation, apology, reconciliation and punishment. Numerous translated excerpts of documents written by and for workers and employers bring the voice of the people to life and in this analysis of labor relations.

Globalisation and Women in the Japanese Workforce contributes to the debate about the impact of globalisation upon women. It examines the effect of restructuring upon women's employment in Japan and describes the actions women are taking individually and collectively to campaign for change in their working environment and the laws and practices regulating it.

Living wage campaigns are frequently presented as a quest for economic justice by the labor movement. Often missed, however, is that the living wage is very much a political issue at the local level, and that the typical living wage campaign needs to be understood within the context of urban theory. In this in-depth study Oren M. Levin-Waldman explains what factors led to the adoption of living wage laws in four cities: Los Angeles, Detroit, Baltimore, and New Orleans. Analyzing each of these cases through the disciplinary lens of political science, the author shows that the movements were the results of policy failures at the local level. This scholarly approach shows clearly that the successful movements grew out of the failures of local policymakers to adequately address changes in the urban economic base and growing income inequality.

Living wage campaigns are frequently presented as a quest for economic justice by the labor movement. Often missed, however, is that the living wage is very much a political issue at the local level, and that the typical living wage cam2paign, needs to be understood within the context of urban body. In this in-depth Oren M. Levin-Waldman explains what factors led to the adoption of living wage laws in four cities: Los Angeles, Detroit, Baltimore, and New Orleans. Analyzing each of these cases through the disciplinary lens of political science, the author shows that the movements were the results of policy failures at the local level. This scholarly approach shows clearly that the successful movements grew out of the failure of local policymakers to adequately address changes in the urban economic base and growing income inequality.

The book argues that an increasing corporatisation of agriculture in India that is enabled by its neoliberal State, in the name of 'development', is contributing towards deepening of inequality in the rural India.It says that Contract Farming (CF) acts as a conduit that enables the coming together of myriad production relations (mercantile, finance, productive) to sell agri-commodities to the capitalist peasant. It is an accumulation strategy that brings together various factions of domestic and foreign capital together. It shows that CF as an accumulation strategy is enabled by an active interventionist state and this neoliberal Indian state mediates the relation between the agri-capital and Indian peasantry. The book further analyzes contract farming as a part of the totality of the capitalist mode of production in context of developing countries with a large agrarian base--- asking three fundamental questions - what is CF, how and why is it done and what are the implications of it.

Globalization, demographic changes, increasing numbers of women in the labour market: all of these changes have resulted in working time arrangements which often look vastly different than they did several decades ago. These changes have significant ramifications both economically and sociologically. This volume examines the changing nature of working time in industrialized countries. It analyzes many aspects of this intriguing sphere including: recent trends in working time legislation working time trends in specific enterprises the work-life balance With its insightful contributions into labour and the work-related arena, this volume will greatly interest those researchers and academics working on labour economics, employment issues and more specifically working time. The policy ramifications that this book uncovers mean that it will also be a useful reference for policy-makers.

Given the transformations taking place in many parts of Southeast Asia, the question of labor remains as pertinent today as it ever has been. Labor issues are central to the social tensions marking the transformations taking place in both rural and urban areas, and underscore the myriad ways people have responded to economic and political crisis. In seeking to understand the multiple and specific dimensions of labor across a range of time-frames (colonial and contemporary), economic sectors, labor processes and community contexts. In seeking to provoke debate, the book reveals the variety of experiences evident in countries and regions marked by capitalist and (post) socialist regulatory frameworks, and contrasting labor regimes, histories and cultures. The contributions show the importance of critically examining both the complex nature of global-local links and the particular ways economic processes are around the themes of labor regimes, labor processes, labor mobility and labor communities, the essays show how economic development is not only shaped by market forces but is also interlocked in systems of meaning.

Since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, it has become clear that the issues associated with welfare are now inextricably woven into the problems of low-wage work. In this volume leading commentators on the labor scene analyze poverty and welfare reform within a context of low-wage work and the contours of the labor market that welfare recipients are entering. Given the new welfare reform regime of time limits and work requirements, problems of welfare cannot be separated from problems of work, politics, organizing, and other questions of social and economic policy. Although there have been many volumes on welfare reform, the unique contribution of this work is that it brings labor into the discussio and creates a bridge between the domains of labor and welfare.

During the late nineteenth century, many Jewish workers and intellectuals considered their integration into the general labour movement as a good way to counter the double disadvantage they suffered in society as Jews and workers. Whilst in Amsterdam this process encountered few obstacles, it was more problematical in London and Paris. Through a detailed examination of the collaborative efforts of Jewish labour in these three cities, Jewish Workers and the Labour Movement reveals the multi-layered and unique position of Jewish workers in the labour market. It shows how various factors such as economic change, political upheaval, state intervention and anti-Semitism all affected the pace of integration, and draws conclusions that highlight the similarities as well as the differences between the efforts of Jewish workers to improve their lot in France, Britain and Holland.

This title was first published in 2002: By exploring Marxian value theory and its relevance to present issues of economic analysis, such as the circuit of social capital, the quantity theory of money, instability and economic crises, and economic exploitation and its ideological disguise, this volume investigates the conceptual links between Marxian and Classical Political Economy. The book poses and discusses questions that have yet to be tackled thoroughly in the English-language Marxian literature, such as Marx's theoretical inconsistencies and the role of Engels as editor and "interpreter" of Marx's writings. In doing so, this excellent text provides a much-needed contemporary re-evaluation of the work of one of the world's most enduring writers.

Time is not money! If anything, it is MORE important than money. The time we have to care for one another, especially for our children and our elderly, is more precious to us than anything else in the world. Yet we have more experience accounting for money than we do for time.
In this volume, leading experts in analysis of time use from across the globe explore the interface between time use and family policy. They show how social institutions limit the choices that individuals can make about how to divide their time between paid and unpaid work. They challenge conventional surveys that offer simplistic measure of time spent in childcare or elder care. They summarize empirical evidence concerning trends in time devoted to the care of family members and debate ways of assigning a monetary value to this time.
This important book is well researched, well thought through, and well written. It will be highly regarded amongst those interested in the sociology and economics of the family, as well as those with a general interest in gender studies.

The time we have to care for one another, especially for our children and our elderly, is more precious to us than anything else in the world. Yet we have more experience accounting for money than we do for time. In this volume, leading experts in analysis of time use from across the globe explore the interface between time use and family policy. The contributors:

* show how social institutions limit the choices that individuals can make about how to divide their time between paid and unpaid work
* challenge conventional surveys that offer simplistic measures of time spent in childcare or elder care
* summarize empirical evidence concerning trends in time devoted to the care of family members
* debate ways of assigning a monetary value to this time.

This informative and enlightening book is well researched, well thought through and well written. An important read for students of feminist economics, sociology and gender studies, the contributors here argue that time is not money, in fact time is more important than money.

Living wage activism has spanned time and space, reaching across decades and national boundaries. Conditions generating living wage movements early in the twentieth century have resurfaced in the twenty-first century, only on a global scale: 'sweated' labour, macroeconomic instability, and job insecurity.
Upon reviewing the empirical evidence, the book's contributors make strong cases both for and against living wage activism. The effective blend of historical, contemporary, and global perspectives provides opportunities for teachers, scholars, and activists to evaluate how we can address low pay at the organizational and macroeconomic levels.

Arguably, two of the most important national experiences with policies of positive discrimination in favor of historically disadvantaged ethnic or caste minority groups are the cases of 'Affirmative Action' in the United States and 'Reservation Policies' in India. This essential new book examines the consequences of affirmative action in both countries using a clear cost-benefit analysis. All those with an interest in affirmative action will appreciate the book's lucidity, use of evidence and policy implications.

Sex differences abound in labor markets. In the United States three differences in particular have attracted the most attention: the earnings gap, occupational segregation, and the greater responsibility of women for child care and housework, and consequential lower participation in the labor market.
This volume brings together David Neumark's work of the past fifteen years: in it he tries to understand and analyze the relative importance of family economic decision-making and sex discrimination in generating sex differences in labor markets. Neumark's research covers three main levels of inquiry. The first studies non-discriminatory sources of sex differences in labor markets; the second grapples with the problem of sex discrimination; while the third evaluates policies to combat and reduce sex differences in labor markets.

Since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, it has become clear that the issues associated with welfare are now inextricably woven into the problems of low-wage work. This volume analyzes poverty and welfare reform within a context of low-wage work and the contours of the labor market that welfare recipients are entering. Given the new welfare regime of time limits and work requirements, problems of welfare cannot be separated from problems of work, politics, organizing, and other questions of social and economic policy. Although there have been many volumes on welfare reform, the unique contribution of this volume is that it brings labor into the discussion and creates a bridge between the domains of labor and welfare.