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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Labour economics
The first comprehensive and authoritative history of work and labour in Africa; a key text for all working on African Studies and Labour History worldwide. Co-published with the International Labour Organization on the centenary of its founding in 1919, the General Labour History of Africa is a landmark in the study of labour history. It brings, for the first time, an African perspective within a global context to the study of labour and labour relations. The volume analyses key developments in the 20th century, such as the emergence of free wage labour; the transformation in labour relations; the role of capital and employers; labour agency and movements; the growing diversity of formal and informal or precarious labour; the meaning of work; and the impact of gender and age on the workplace. The contributors - eminent historians, anthropologists and social scientists from Africa, Europe and the United States - examine African labour in the context of labour and social issues worldwide: mobility and colonial and postcolonial migration, child and forced labour, security, the growth of entrepreneurial labour, the informal sector and self-employment, and the impact of trade unionism, welfare and state relations. The book discusses key sectors such as mining, agriculture, industry, transport, domestic work, and sport, tourism and entertainment, as well as the international dimension and the history and impact of the International Labour Organization itself. This authoritative and comprehensive work will be aninvaluable resource for historians of labour, social relations and African history. In association with the ILO Regional Office for Africa Stefano Bellucci is senior researcher at the International Instituteof Social History, Amsterdam, and lecturer in African History and Economy at Leiden University, the Netherlands; Andreas Eckert is Director of the International Research Centre for Work and the Human Life Cycle in Global History and professor of African history at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
This book contributes to the understanding of the process of globalization in South Asia by focusing on labour and employment issues.Information about labour and employment in South Asia can serve the interests of a wide audience, due to the increasing importance of the region. Most of the chapters are based on primary data collected from the authors' own field surveys. It presents a critical re-examination of the legal, regulatory and institutional framework of ongoing labour reforms.There are numerous labour and employment issues facing South Asia in this era of growth. With critical examination of ongoing labour reforms, and using extensive field surveys, this book will be of interest to all seeking an analysis of labour economics, labour laws, economic growth and globalization in South Asia.
The inspiring story of worker centers that are cropping up across the country and leading the fight for today's workers For over 60 million people, work in America has been a story of declining wages, insecurity, and unsafe conditions, especially amid the coronavirus epidemic. This new and troubling reality has galvanized media and policymakers, but all the while a different and little-known story of rebirth and struggle has percolated just below the surface. On the Job is the first account of a new kind of labor movement, one that is happening locally, quietly, and among our country's most vulnerable-but essential-workers. Noted public health expert Celeste Monforton and award-winning journalist Jane M. Von Bergen crisscrossed the country, speaking with workers of all backgrounds and uncovering the stories of hundreds of new, worker-led organizations (often simply called worker centers) that have successfully achieved higher wages, safer working conditions and on-the-job dignity for their members. On the Job describes ordinary people finding their voice and challenging power: from housekeepers in Chicago and Houston; to poultry workers in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Springdale, Arkansas; and construction workers across the state of Texas. An inspiring book for dark times, On the Job reveals that labor activism is actually alive and growing-and holds the key to a different future for all working people.
1. The text explores highly complex topics with simple, non mathematical approach for managers rather than economists. 2. The editions have always been well-received in US market and the newest edition has been updated with behavioural economics, case studies on Amazon, Spotify, Uber, TikTok, England National Health Service and other topical businesses. 3. Includes case studies, discussion questions and examples to illustrate the principles. 4. The book will be updated with bigger font and come in color.
Debate surrounding the employability of graduates has been around for many decades, and interest in this area has grown particularly since the start of this century. Tackling this relevant area of scholarship, this book uses an innovative approach to analyse the relationship between the university and the labour market from different perspectives, taking into account both sociological and economic theories. Key areas explored include work transition, graduate employability, and the effects of public interventions/initiatives which are aimed at matching the competences of graduates to labour market needs. The chapters summarise several years of author original research, including study on the employability of graduates in Poland more specifically, and the effects of their public interventions to increase graduate employment and facilitate entry into the workforce (e.g. Commissioned Fields of Study, Competences Development Programme). More generally, university - labour market relations are analysed from three perspectives: micro (understood as individual characteristics shaping educational and occupational choices and decisions), and meso and macro (e.g. features of the education system and such as the strength of the signal sent by HE diplomas; the macroeconomic situation and the condition of the labour market and the state of debate on general and employability competences and its implications). The conclusions made are pertinent given ongoing debates around graduate mismatch in the labour market, as well as the questioning of tuition fees and the role of the university in society more broadly. The interdisciplinary nature of this book makes it of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of sociology, economy, public policy, and also to practitioners designing educational interventions themselves.
The labor market in Islam is governed by the Islamic laws of fairness, justice, and reward that is equivalent to the job done. Most of the literature in the field discusses the normative aspect of the labor market, whereas few attempts can be seen to address more positive aspects. There is a need for new theoretical and empirical models for the Islamic labor market, which should differ from established approaches. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the nature, scope, and dimensions of the labor market in an Islamic context, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. It presents and discusses labor economics and then compares the similarities and differences between conventional and Islamic views of the labor market, explaining where they meet, and critically justifying why they differ, under the umbrella of Shari'ah. The book raises pertinent issues, which it analyzes from both standpoints and widens the discourse to include norms, morality, and related institutions such as social security and welfare. A unique feature of the book is that it examines labor economics practices among a specific group of countries, and studies the labor conditions within these countries, where the majority of the population follow the teachings of Islam in their daily lives. The book proposes practical strategies for the development of new models for the Islamic labor market which are compatible with the modern world. The book will enable academics and practitioners of Islamic economics to make economic sense of Shari'ah compliance and human resource development.
The title investigates rural labor mobility in China since 2003, an important phenomenon in the process of Chinese economic transition, influential in economic growth at the macro level and individual wellbeing at the micro level. Based on empirical analysis, the study identifies and evaluates the characteristics, driving forces and impact of the migration and mobility of the rural labor force. The following factors are considered to impact rural workers' mobility decisions and are thoroughly discussed in each chapter: (1) convergence in the level of regional income, (2) industrial structure and the age structure of the workforce, (3) the household registration system, (4) the income gap, (5) the issue of children that are left behind, (6) the health status of rural migrant workers and (7) their social networks. Drawing on new research methods, the final chapter reassesses the impact of rural parents' migration to the city and the overall wellbeing of their children left behind at home, challenging the well-accepted view that there is a negative correlation between the two. The book will appeal to scholars and students interested in labor economics, Chinese economy, sociology, demography, migrant population and especially labor mobility in China.
Who steals jobs? Who owns jobs? Focusing on the competitive labour market, this book scrutinises the narratives created around immigration and automation. The authors explore how the advances in AI and demands for constant flow of immigrant workers eradicate political and working rights, fuelling fears over job theft and ownership. Shedding light on the multiple ways in which employment is used as an instrument of neoliberal governance, this revealing book sparks new debate on the role of automation and migration policies. It is an invaluable resource for academics and practitioners working in the areas of immigration and labour, capitalism and social exclusion, and economic models and political governance.
'Revolutionises our understanding of the carceral state' - Fidelis Chebe, Director of Migrant Action During 2019-20 in England and Wales, over 17 million hours of labour were carried out by more than 12,500 people incarcerated in prisons, while many people in immigration removal centres also worked. In many cases, such workers constitute a sub-waged, captive workforce who are discarded by the state when done with. Work and the Carceral State examines these forms of work as part of a broader exploration of the relationship between criminalisation, criminal justice, immigration policy and labour, tracing their lineage through the histories of transportation and banishment, of houses of correction and prisons, to the contemporary production of work. Criminalisation has been used to enforce work and to discipline labour throughout the history of England and Wales. This book demands that we recognise the carceral state as operating at the frontier of labour control in the 21st century.
Organized labor is about the collective efforts of employees to improve their economic, social, and political position. It can be studied from many different points of view historical, economic, sociological, or legal but it is fundamentally about the struggle for human rights and social justice. As a rule, organized labor has tried to make the world a fairer place. Even though it has only ever covered a minority of employees in most countries, its effects on their political, economic, and social systems have been generally positive. History shows that when organized labor is repressed, the whole society suffers and is made less just. The Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor looks at the history of organized labor to see where it came from and where it has been. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, a glossary of terms, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on most countries, international as well as national labor organizations, major labor unions, leaders, and other aspects of organized labor such as changes in the composition of its membership. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about organized labor."
This comprehensive four-volume collection of previously published papers sets out to examine the most important issues in the study of unemployment; its causes, consequences and policies designed to tackle the problem. The books present a wide range of different perspectives on the causes of unemployment including classical/neoclassical, radical, Keynesian and new Keynesian; the role of structural and technological change; the impact of international trade; political business cycles; the influence of institutions; empirical issues on unemployment differentials, including youth, immigrant and indigenous unemployment; economic and social costs/benefits of unemployment; and policies which have been, or could be, implemented to alleviate the problems of unemployment. The Economics of Unemployment will be an essential reference source for students, professional economists and policymakers concerned with the problem of unemployment.
In this fourth book by the authors' about public affairs in Delaware, the state's strategies to maintain a business-friendly environment are examined, especially by awarding grants and loans to grow businesses and jobs. The book addresses the nation's 2008-2014 Great Recession that was very severe in Delaware. Among the large Delaware employers that disappeared were Chrysler, General Motors, and Avon. Meanwhile, DuPont cut many jobs, while MBNA's sale to Bank of America also caused many job losses. This small state's efforts to deal with this overwhelming crisis are analyzed. Accordingly, the book is timely regarding politics and policy choices involving jobs, competition with other states, and a host of other problems. Among the features analyzed are: the state's transition from a passive to a proactive management approach, in-depth analyses of certain prominent companies awarded state funding to create jobs, as well as a broader spectrum of firms receiving similar kinds of subsidies to create or retain employment , along with the permeation of politics involving variously the media, political parties, special interests, government, business leaders, citizen groups. The authors conclude, what lessons they have learned from their study.
Most workers are conditioned to view themselves as one-dimensional in relation to their company—as a salesperson, or an engineer, or a manager. But imagine the possibilities if everyone in your organization started thinking and acting like entrepreneurs—like owners of the business. Imagine if your employees shared the same beliefs, both in their abilities and in the purpose of your business, and focused all their energies on making that business successful—knowing that they, in turn, would become successful as well. That is the power of an ownership culture, and this book will show you how to mobilize human intellect and ingenuity for competitive advantage. Act Like an Owner is an action guide to building a culture of employee ownership within an organization. Authors Blonchek and O'Neill present their business model, "Act Like an Owner," which grew out of their experience building information technology service businesses. This model is a roadmap for applying today's most important management practices in a competitive, rapidly changing environment. The authors use this approach as part of their consulting practice, and are the first to detail how to implement such a program company-wide. Act Like an Owner introduces the internal franchise framework that can be used for unlocking the entrepreneurial spirit in your organization. From this book, you'll learn how to define your company's operating model—the way you choose to do business—and then extend the model to your employees. The authors then explain how to link employee behaviors to each element of business performance. They demonstrate how to focus your entire organization on a business goal while addressing employees' individual needs for opportunity and growth. You'll learn how to attract and hire people with a positive, entrepreneurial attitude who can create an environment that establishes the values and behaviors you need. At the heart of the internal franchise is the ownership culture, a corporate culture built on principles and values that compel everyone in your organization to think and act like an owner of the business. The authors describe the impact of an ownership culture on an organization, illustrating how you can build equity in that culture and make it part of your company's brand identity. They explore the power of such a culture to create an environment of shared values and goals. You'll learn the formula for creating an ownership culture and putting it to work in your organization, and you'll hear the perspectives of senior executives at companies currently adopting the "Act Like an Owner" program, including those at Aspen Systems, CACI, STAC, PSINet, and ConSonics. In addition, the authors apply the ownership culture model to one of the most pressing problems facing business today: attracting and retaining skilled workers. Filled with examples, anecdotes, and techniques, Act Like an Owner will motivate anyone trying to build a successful business that starts with people. "What a wonderful book. The only way organizations will be able to compete in the future is if their people act like owners and they create an ownership culture. A must read for the 21st century." —Ken Blanchard, coauthor, The One Minute Manager. "A terrific addition to any library. Marty O'Neill and Robert Blonchek have crafted an elegantly simple and uniquely powerful approach to enhancing the performance of any organization—large or small. I wholeheartedly recommend it." —Douglas R. Conant, President, U.S. Foods Group, Nabisco. "The new workplace demands that businesses find effective ways to release the power of people. Blonchek and O'Neill's 'Internal Franchise' idea turns the franchise concept inside out and provides a roadmap for ownership and empowerment in any organization." —Alan Randolph, coauthor, Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute. "Act Like an Owner gives you a treasure map to unlocking the fortunes that lie throughout an organization." —Bill Toler, President, Campbell Sales Company. "An insightful look at the elements of an ownership culture and how to put them to work in your company in order to attract, retain and motivate talented people." —J. Robert Beyster, Founder, Chairman and CEO, SAIC. "Act Like an Owner gives you the tools you need to develop and empower your employees to think and act like entrepreneurs." —Andrew C. Taylor, President and CEO, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and 1997 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner.
The chapters in this volume study transnational social relationships and cross-border connections between 'ordinary' people that arise from the increasingly large-scale mobilities and migrations between Thailand and 'the West'. While Thai and Western people's social relationships are usually studied as personal stories within a cross-border marriage migration perspective, this book considers it necessary to see them as more than marriage migration. Even though a focus on the 'personal life stories' of marriage migrants provides valuable insights, it can also mask consideration of the structural context of socially embedded cross- border connections and exchanges, as well as state restrictions, that, first, make people's decisions to move a possibility in the first place, and second, shape a migrant's post- migration life- trajectory and experiences, relative to others in their origin and settlement societies. The chapters on Thai women who marry and move with older Western men, Western men and women who move to Thailand to retire or for leisure, and Thai rural families transformed by mobilities and migration, try to draw out their gendered experiences of transnational living. The individual choices that shaped these lives, and the surprising prevalence of lives like these in Thailand and abroad, needs to be understood within context as an outcome of the specific globalisation processes that have shaped Thailand through transnational links to other parts of the world over the last decades. Globalisation and penetration by foreign capital, cultures, and people through mass tourism is key to this explanatory backstory as well as the internal rural/ urban cleavages that drive Thailand's economic development. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
This book helps in pushing forward a Kaleckian research agenda that is even more urgent given the 2007-2009 financial crisis and the current post-COVID recovery. Michal Kalecki was a leading heterodox economist, whose influence in the field perhaps even surpasses that of Keynes. Kalecki's insights are even more relevant today, and scholars are encouraged to apply his conclusions to ensure the sustainability of our economic systems. This edited volume, honouring the work of Michal Kalecki, includes chapters contributed by celebrated Kaleckian economists. In honour of the 50th anniversary of his demise, the Review of Political Economy (ROPE) and Edward Lipinski Foundation hosted a conference in September 2020 to celebrate his contribution to heterodox economics and his lasting legacy. These chapters, honouring the work of Michal Kalecki, span a panoply of topics and include a personal note from one of his former students and friend, and cover topics such as Kalecki's relationship with the Cantabrigians, labour economics, fiscal policy, income distribution, gender, finance, debt, and democracy. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Review of Political Economy.
Since the mid 1990s, the focus of European employment and social policy has shifted from protection to promotion. This book provides a timely analysis of this new form of governance, and the new forms of policy delivery and audit which accompany it. The limitations of the current approach became particularly apparent during the financial crisis of 2008, and it has now reached a turning point. The book offers a new coherent European reform agenda that views easing transitions in employment and promoting the development of individual and collective capabilities as cornerstones. The contributing authors focus on vocational training, life course policies, reflexive labor law and social insurance, from theoretical, empirical and practical perspectives. Transforming European Employment Policy will be of great benefit to policy makers as well as those researching or studying European law, labor law, industrial relations, political science, social policy or international business. Contributors: P. Auer, J.-M. Bonvin, C. Crouch, S. Deakin, C. Didry, B. Gazier, P. Kaps, R. Rogowski, R. Salais, G. Schmid, H. Schutz, N. Whiteside, P. Wotschack, B. Zimmermann
This book argues that economists need to reengage with societal issues, such as justice and fairness in distribution, that inevitably arise when discussing the basic economic problem of unlimited human wants and finite resources. Approaching the problem through a history of economic thought, Johnson reexamines Adam Smith's contributions to show how they reach beyond neoclassical models that are too simplistic to reflect the growing interdependencies of market economies. He breaks down supposedly value-free neoclassical postulates to expose normative assumptions about economics and justice, demonstrating, for example, that the concept of market equilibrium is problematic because need-based behavior can produce involuntary unemployment even when a competitive labor market achieves equilibrium.
The promotion of social protection in Sub-Saharan Africa happens in a context where informal labour markets constitute the norm, and where most workers live uncertain livelihoods with very limited access to official social protection. The dominant social protection agenda and the associated literature come with an almost exclusive focus on donor and state programmes even if their coverage is limited to small parts of the populations - and in no way stands measure to the needs. In these circumstances, people depend on other means of protection and cushioning against risks and vulnerabilities including different forms of collective self-organizing providing alternative forms of social protection. These informal, bottom-up forms of social protection are at a nascent stage of social protection discussions and little is known about the extent or models of these informal mechanisms. This book seeks to fill this gap by focusing on three important sectors of informal work, namely: transport, construction, and micro-trade in Kenya and Tanzania. It explores how the global social protection agenda interacts with informal contexts and how it fits with the actual realities of the informal workers. Consequently, the authors examine and compare the social protection models conceptualized and implemented 'from above' by the public authorities in Tanzania and Kenya with social protection mechanisms 'from below' by the informal workers own collective associations. The book will be of interest to academics in International Development Studies, Political Economy, and African Studies, as well as development practitioners and policy communities.
Originally published in 1979, the purpose of this book is to introduce a theory of the distribution of national income between wages, profits and other categories of income. The relation between this branch of distribution theory and other areas of economics is explained in the Introduction. The first six chapters are designed to introduce distribution theory to students of intermediate economic principles. The reader should be familiar with the basic analysis of supply, demand and market equilibrium, and with the use of indifference curves to represent a consumer's preferences. The remaining seven chapters discuss developments of the theory introduced in the first six.
An overview of many currently topical issues around food and agriculture, with particular emphasis on their implications for development. These include Nobel Laureate Robert Fogel's discussion of nutritional standards and the implications of new theories of evolution in assessing the extent of malnutrition. Historical analysis informs contemporary surveys, including Yair Mundlak's comparison of the postwar record of 130 countries in agricultural technology and outputs. The important implications of labour markets, income distributions and the impact of welfare states on these issues are considered by a number of papers. The contributors include many leading academics from North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Israel.
This is the first comparative study of the background, development, laws, structure, and impact of teacher unionism in nations around the world. This ground-breaking analysis offers an international perspective on the world's most populous profession--teaching--and its halting but powerful efforts to form unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to win a decent living for its millions of members. Teachers, union leaders, policymakers, and all who are interested in the issues surrounding education as a profession, the operation of schools, the role of government in education, and the complexities of labor relations in education should make this book must reading. An introduction provides an overview of labor relations in education world-wide, and then separate chapters by experts on education and labor relations in fifteen different countries analyze current policies and problems in places as diverse as China, Greece, Hungary, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden, Great Britain, and the United States. Specific country studies and the overall conclusion at the end of the book point to past trends and future possible reforms. This unique study emphasizes the importance of unions in national affairs and describes the relationships between governments and the labor movement. A bibliographic essay completes the work.
China is historically famous for its high demographic dividend and its huge working population, and this has driven tremendous economic growth over the past few decades. However, that population has begun to shrink and the Lewis turning point whereby surplus rural population has been absorbed into manufacturing is also approaching, leading to great change in the Chinese labor market. Will this negatively affect China's economic growth? Can the "Middle-Income Trap" be avoided? What reforms should be made on the labor supply side? This book tackles these key questions. This book is a collection of 14 papers presenting the author's observations, analysis, and opinions of China's long-term economic development from the demographic perspective, while analysing real economic problems from the past and including policy recommendations. It provides a critical reference for scholars and students interested in Chinese economic development and demographic perspectives on economic development.
This book describes the experience of joblessness and unemployment in contemporary Poland. It does so by combining qualitative and quantitative data from a special project conducted in Poland after the Great Recession and the long-term Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN) to describe the lives of the jobless: women and men currently out of work, the recently re-employed, and housewives. The book uses a class and inequality perspective to investigate how these women and men became jobless, how they look for and find employment, their household and social activities, and their political participation. It contextualizes these experiences with a description of Poland's economy, labor market and employment policies after the fall of Communism and builds on the active interviewing and social constructionist approaches to explore the complex interviewer-respondent relationship. |
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