Artificial intelligence will not necessarily create a super-intelligent "human robot"; however, it is very probable that intelligent robots and intelligent informats will bring about a form of super-globalization, in which money and goods are prioritized over people and democracy and where the widespread use of casual labour - that is, short-term contracts - will become the most common form of employment relationship. It is also very likely that artificial intelligence will bring about what is known as singularity. This term is used to describe a situation where intelligent robots, from a rational and logical perspective, are smarter than humans, i.e. the development of AI. This book explores the impact that these intelligent robots and intelligent informats will have on social and societal development. The author tackles the question of singularity from three distinct standpoints: technological singularity - the intelligence of machines compared to that of humans - which he argues will bring about a qualitatively new labour market; economic singularity - the consequences for work relationships, value creation and employment - which he asserts will promote full automation, result in precarious contracts with low salaries, and, in some countries, possibly lead to the introduction of a universal basic income; and social singularity - the consequences of technological and economic singularity for democratic processes, bureaucratic procedures for exercising authority and control, and the direction in which society will develop, in addition to the emergence of new social institutions - which Johannessen says will promote a transition from representative democracy to genuine democracy. The book will appeal to academics, researchers and students of economic sociology and political economy, as well as those focusing upon the emerging innovation economy. It will also find an audience among professionals and policymakers keen to understand the impact the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have on organizations, individuals and society at large.

This book examines how fiscal policy and management can promote gender equality in developing as well as developed countries. Providing an international look at gender budgeting, it draws on countries at different levels of development, with an emphasis on low-income developing countries. It introduces the reader to the main trends in gender equality, the key ideas and rationale of gender budgeting from a fiscal policy perspective and where gender budgeting fits into public financial management. It offers case studies and other empirical evidence from developing, emerging, and developed countries on what works in using fiscal policy and public financial management to narrow gender gaps in education, health care, access to infrastructure, and economic empowerment. It also provides policy recommendations appropriate to countries at different levels of development. The reader will gain an understanding of how fiscal policy and public financial management can contribute to gender equality and women's advancement. The book provides a well-grounded set of conclusions and policy recommendations, drawn from evaluation of the evidence. The focus is on low-income developing countries but is combined with a well-rounded look at developing countries, more generally, emerging markets, and developed countries as well. This book will be a valuable resource for economists and policy makers, particularly those in developing countries still grappling with large disparities between women and men. It will also prove useful to researchers and those who provide technical assistance and aid to countries on fiscal policies and tools for gender equality.

The emergence of new platform business models, notably the sharing economy, is impacting the economy in various ways, altering the structure of many industries, and raising a number of economic and political issues. This book investigates the widespread influence of the sharing economy on businesses and society, as well as examining its underpinning economic principles and development. This volume presents an exhaustive review of the existing knowledge on the sharing economy and addresses several major areas of concern for incumbent businesses. It also explains the business models for those who are interested in embarking on their own ventures and provides an excellent source for further research. It takes an in-depth look at controversial labour policies, such as using labour as self-employed contractors or using regulatory grey areas to expand in markets. It is highly multidisciplinary, establishing links between economics, finance, marketing and consumer behaviour. This contribution on the sharing economy will enable researchers and graduate and doctoral students to expand and improve their understanding of this topic and identify new research problems in all of these areas. The book will also appeal to policy makers, regional and local government decision makers, and those interested in labour markets transformation.

This book goes beyond traditional minimum wage research to investigate the interplay between different country and sectoral institutional settings and actors' strategies in the field of minimum wage policies. It asks which strategies and motives, namely free collective bargaining, fair pay and/or minimum income protection, are emphasised by social actors with respect to the regulation and adaptation of (statutory) minimum wages. Taking an actor-centered institutionalist approach, and employing cross-country comparative studies, sector studies and single country accounts of change, the book relates institutional and labour market settings, actors' strategies and power resources with policy and practice outcomes. Looking at the key pay equity indicators of low wage development and women's over-representation among the low paid, it illuminates our understandings about the importance of historical junctures, specific constellations of social actors, and sector- and country-specific actor strategies. Finally, it underlines the important role of social dialogue in shaping an effective minimum wage policy. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and policy-makers and practitioners in industrial relations, international human resource management, labour studies, labour market policy, inequality studies, trade union studies, European politics and political economy.

Drawing on Australian and comparative case studies, this volume reconceptualises non-metropolitan creative economies through the 'qualities of place'. This book examines the agricultural and gastronomic cultures surrounding 'native' foods, coastal sculpture festivals, universities and regional communities, wine in regional Australia and Canada, the creative systems of the Hunter Valley, musicians in 'outback' settings, Fab Labs as alternatives to clusters, cinema and the cultivation of 'authentic' landscapes, and tensions between the 'representational' and 'non-representational' in the cultural economies of the Blue Mountains. What emerges is a picture of rural and regional places as more than the 'other' of metropolitan creative cities. Place itself is shown to embody affordances, unique institutional structures and the invisible threads that 'hold communities together'. If, in the wake of the publication of Florida's Rise of the Creative Class, creative industries models tended to emphasize 'big cities' and the spatial-cum-cultural imaginaries of the 'Global North', recent research and policy discourses - especially, in the Australian context - have paid greater attention to 'small cities', rural and remote creativity. This collection will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners in creative industries, urban and regional studies, sociology, geography and cultural planning.

China witnessed an unprecedented economic boom in the past four decades but will soon see the end of "demographic dividend". With shrinking labor, improving the quality of human capital could be one way to maintain China's remarkable growth. The population in rural China accounts for 41% of the total population in China but the human capital development in rural China lags far behind the urban cities. This book selects four major reforms on education and health in rural China and evaluates the impact of these reforms on human capital development. Through rigorous econometric analysis, the book looks at factors of the rural-urban gap in human capital and the causal relationship between the reforms and the human capital development. This book will be a useful reference for developing economies which are facing similar issues in the labor market.

Despite the dramatic expansion of consumer culture from the beginning of the eighteenth century onwards and the developments in retailing, advertising and credit relationships in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there were a significant number of working families in Britain who were not fully free to consume as they chose. These employees were paid in truck, or in goods rather than currency. This book will explore and analyse the changing ways that truck and workplace deductions were experienced by different groups in British society, arguing that it was far more common than has previously been acknowledged. This analysis brings to light issues of class and gender; the discourse of free trade, popular politics and protest; the development of the trade union movement; and the use of the legal system as an instrument for bringing about social and legal change.

This short book examines the availability and adoption of new education technologies in higher education institutions in India. It provides a summary of the activities in which such technologies are being used and the catalytic factors for such adoptions. The book also evaluates the impact on skill development, and will be a useful reference for those who are interested to find out more about technology adoption and implementation in higher education, and what the challenges are through the learning experiences in these education institutions.

Through a series of studies, the overarching aim of this book is to investigate if and how the digitalization/digital transformation process affects various welfare services provided by the public sector, and the ensuing implications thereof. Ultimately, this book seeks to understand if it is conceivable for digital advancement to result in the creation of private/non-governmental alternatives to welfare services, possibly in a manner that transcends national boundaries. This study also investigates the possible ramifications of technological development for the public sector and the Western welfare society at large. This book takes its point of departure from the 2016 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report that targets specific public service areas in which government needs to adopt new strategies not to fall behind. Specifically, this report emphasizes the focus on digitalization of health care/social care, education, and protection services, including the use of assistive technologies referred to as "digital welfare." Hence, this book explores the factors potentially leading to whether state actors could be overrun by other non-governmental actors, disrupting the current status quo of welfare services. The book seeks to provide an innovative, enriching, and controversial take on society at large and how various aspects of the public sector can be, and are, affected by the ongoing digitalization process in a way that is not covered by extant literature on the market. This book takes its point of departure in Sweden given the fact that Sweden is one of the most digitalized countries in Europe, according to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), making it a pertinent research case. However, as digitalization transcends national borders, large parts of the subject matter take on an international angle. This includes cases from several other countries around Europe as well as the United States.

Throughout the last decade, the 'gig economy' has emerged as one of the most significant developments in the world of work. As a novel, hyper-flexible form of labour, gig work features a uniquely fragmented working arrangement wherein independent workers partner with digital platform organisations to provide a range of on-demand services to customers. Work in the Gig Economy: A Research Overview provides a concise overview to the key themes and debate that encompass the gig economy literature. It covers five core themes: an introduction to gig work; classification issues; the role of technology; the experiences of gig workers; and the future of gig work. As an emerging and diverse research field, contributions stem from an array of perspectives including psychology, sociology, human resource management, legal studies, and technology management. The chapters synthesise the most prominent insights into this emerging field, key thinking on the complex relationships and conditions found in gig work, and the most significant issues to be addressed as the gig economy continues to develop. A critical introduction for students, scholars and reflective professionals and policymakers, this book provides much needed direction through the rapidly growing and expansive body of research on work in the gig economy.

In this book, the author argues that a new form of capitalism is emerging at the threshold of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He asserts that we are in the midst of a transition from democratic capitalism to feudal capitalism and highlights how robotization and innovation is leading to a social crisis for the middle classes as economic inequality is on the rise. Johannessen outlines the three elements - Balkanization, the Great Illusion, and the plutocracy - which are referred to here as feudal structures. He describes, analyzes, and discusses these elements both individually and in interaction with each other, and asks: "What structures and processes are promoting and boosting feudal capitalism?" Additionally, the book serves to generate knowledge about how the middle class will develop in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It shows the various effects of robotization on the middle class, where middle class jobs are transformed, deconstructed, and re-constructed and new part-time jobs are created for the middle class. Given the interest in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the book will appeal to students of economic sociology and political economy as well as those in innovation and knowledge management courses focusing upon the emerging innovation economy. The topic will attract policymakers, and the accessible and engaging tone will also make the book of interest to the general public.

This book provides a set of proposals for how best to guarantee effective enforcement of labour rights worldwide. The linkage between labour standards and global trade has been recurrent for some 200 years. At a time when the world is struggling to find a way out of crisis and is striving for economic growth, more than ever there is a need for up-to-date research on how to protect and promote labour rights in the global economy. This book explores the history of the field and also provides an overview of emerging trends and opportunities. It discusses the most recent problems including: the effectiveness and the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the second century of its existence, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its potential relevance in the protection of labour rights, the effectiveness of the US and the EU Generalised System of Preferences, the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) instruments on labour rights, and labour provisions in the international trade agreements concluded by the US and the EU. The book argues, inter alia, that trade agreements seem to be a useful tool to help pave the way out of the crisis and that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) can be perceived as a model agreement and a symbol of a shift in perspective from long global supply chains to a focus on regional ones, local production, jobs and a rise in wages. The book will be essential reading for academics and students in the fields of human rights law, international labour law, industrial relations law, international sustainable development law, international economic law and international trade law. It will also be of interest to practitioners, non-government organisations (NGOs) and policy makers.

Walking around the commercial streets of New York, San Francisco, Milan, London, or Paris and looking at the succession of multinational chain stores' windows, you can easily forget what country you are in. However, if you hear the small talk among the employees, you hear very different stories. In New York, a 30-year-old woman is worried because she does not know if she will work enough hours to make a living the following week-whereas, in Milan, a mother of the same age knows she will work 20 hours a week but is concerned about whether her contract will be renewed at the end of the following month. Following three years of fieldwork, which included 100 in-depth interviews with front-line retail workers and unionists in New York City and Milan, Front-Line Workers in the Global Service Economy investigates both the lived experiences of salespersons in the "fast fashion" industry-a retail sector made of large chains of stores selling fashion garments at low prices-and the possibilities of collective action and structured forms of resistance to these global trends. In the face of economic globalization and vigorous managerial efforts to minimize labor costs and to standardize the retail experience, mass fashion workers' stories tell us how strong the pressure toward work devaluation in low-skilled service sectors can be, and how devastating its effects are on the workers themselves.

Modern attitudes to work are closely interwoven with the ways in which people think about the temporal organization of their lives. In this important book, the authors examine the relations between work and time and explore the possibilities of developing new and more flexible working patterns.

Drawing on interviews with employees who have chosen to reduce their working hours from 40 to between 20 and 30 per week, the authors identify two categories of workers: first, the "time conformists" who see nothing unusual in their shorter working time and tend to fill their extra free time with familiar activities; and second, the "time pioneers." "Time pioneers" are people who strive to realize their ideas of time both at work and in their everyday private lives and succeed in introducing more flexibility into their working time.

The authors argue that "time pioneers" display as much - if not more - motivation, willingness and commitment to their work than "time conformists." But in order to avoid becoming appropriated by the rigid working hours imposed by some employers - who may not be easily persuaded to depart from the prevailing cultural paradigm of the employment society - they develop their own ideas of how to organize their work.

"Time Pioneers "is a significant and topical contribution to debates about the role of work in modern society.

Written by distinguished Keynesian and Post-Keynesian economists from diverse national backgrounds, this book examines the economic growth and employment experiences of both large areas of the world and specific economies. Dealing with critical issues in macroeconomic theory and policy, this book puts current issues in a historical perspective. Emphasising developments during and after the Great Recession, and paying due attention to the impacts of austerity policies, chapters explain that high growth of aggregate demand is as essential as ever to achieving full employment and rising living standards. Organised into three distinct thematic parts, the book moves from discussing theoretical considerations, to aggregate demand and employment in the EU, Latin America and the developing world, to individual country studies including Canada, India and Japan. Economics students, particularly those interested in heterodox economics and macroeconomics, will find the accessible language and perspectives on a range of major regions helpful. This will also be a useful read for macroeconomic policy-makers looking for a more in-depth understanding of the importance of boosting aggregate demand. Contributors include: H. Bougrine, J.K. Galbraith, B.K. MacLean, J.W. Mason, L. Osberg, L.-P. Rochon, M. Sawyer, M. Seccareccia, S. Sen, J. Toporowski, M. Vernengo

This book explores the daily survival strategies of people within the context of failed states, flourishing informal economies, legal uncertainty, increased mobility, and globalization, where many people, who are forced by the circumstances to be innovative and transnational, have found their niches outside formal processes and structures. The book provides a thorough theoretical introduction to the link between labour mobility and informality and comprises convincing case studies from a wide range of post-socialist countries. Overall, it highlights the importance of trust, transnational networks, and digital technologies in settings where the rules governing economic and social activities of mobile workers are often unclear and flexible.

This book explores the daily survival strategies of people within the context of failed states, flourishing informal economies, legal uncertainty, increased mobility, and globalization, where many people, who are forced by the circumstances to be innovative and transnational, have found their niches outside formal processes and structures. The book provides a thorough theoretical introduction to the link between labour mobility and informality and comprises convincing case studies from a wide range of post-socialist countries. Overall, it highlights the importance of trust, transnational networks, and digital technologies in settings where the rules governing economic and social activities of mobile workers are often unclear and flexible.

Today’s economics offers us a far too narrow perspective on the role that paid work plays in our lives, as individuals and as a society. This book examines the urgent workplace challenges we’re facing today, from automation to AI and climate change, with an interdisciplinary and historical analysis that challenges and broadens the scope of existing economic literature. Exploring the current economic proposals to address these issues, it advocates for a more egalitarian and sustainable future that builds workers’ protections into the very fabric of our economic systems. This is a resounding call for greater economic social justice and equality at work and a valuable resource for social scientists from fields like heterodox economics, business and sociology.

The shipping industry is run by people and for people. Thus, the main element in shipping is the "human element" - the mariners at all levels. Since the human element aboard vessels - being in and coping with a very special environment - is the crucial point of every transport chain, it is important to take a closer look at maritime human resource management issues which are scarcely tackled in scientific literature. This book deals with topics such as the criminalization of seafarers, piracy as part of shipping companies' risk management, corporate social responsibility and human error in shipping.

This book offers a timely exploration of how climate change manifests in the global workplace. It draws together accounts of workers, their work, and the politics of resistance in order to enable us to better understand how the impacts of climate change are structured by the economic and social processes of labour. Focusing on nine empirically grounded cases of labour under climate change, this volume links the tools and methods of critical labour studies to key debates over climate change adaptation and mitigation in order to highlight the active nature of struggles in the climate-impacted workplace. Spanning cases including commercial agriculture in Turkey, labour unions in the UK, and brick kilns in Cambodia, this collection offers a novel lens on the changing climate, showing how both the impacts of climate change and adaptations to it emerge through the prism of working lives. Drawing together scholars from anthropology, political economy, geography, and development studies, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change adaptation, labour studies, and environmental justice. More generally, it will be of interest to anybody seeking to understand how the changing climate is changing the terms, conditions, and politics of the global workplace.

The Covid-19 pandemic has tragically exposed how today's welfare state cannot properly protect its citizens. Despite the valiant efforts of public sector workers, from under-resourced hospitals to a shortage of housing and affordable social care, the pandemic has shown how decades of neglect has caused hundreds to die. In this bold new book, leading policy analyst Ursula Huws shows how we can create a welfare state that is fair, affordable, and offers security for all. Huws focuses on some of the key issues of our time - the gig economy, universal, free healthcare, and social care, to criticize the current state of welfare provision. Drawing on a lifetime of research on these topics, she clearly explains why we need to radically rethink how it could change. With positivity and rigor, she proposes new and original policy ideas, including critical discussions of Universal Basic Income and new legislation for universal workers' rights. She also outlines a 'digital welfare state' for the 21st century. This would involve a repurposing of online platform technologies under public control to modernize and expand public services, and improve accessibility.

John R. Commons is one of the few reformers of the past century whose major works are still actively read, whose ideas are still debated, and whose principles are still applied to the analysis of contemporary problems. His life spanned the years of America's "Great Transformation," from a nation of shopkeepers, farmers, and small towns to one of giant corporations, landless laborers, and crowded cities. He became involved in almost every aspect of America's response to the damaging side effects of that transformation. A Worker's Economist begins with John Commons' childhood and education and continues through his life as a scholar, teacher, administrator, and reformer. Commons' list of accomplishments are great in number and overall effect. He worked on the staff of the first government commission to investigate the economic and social consequences of corporate mergers. He served as a public representative on the commission that investigated industrial violence and workplace relations. He was a participant observer in America's largest and most historic mineworkers' strike. He wrote and administered the nation's first constitutional worker compensation law. He developed principles of social reform and public administration that his students carried into the design and administration of the Social Security system as well as Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. John Dennis Chasse reviews Commons' major works, describes the people with whom he worked, and follows the fortunes of the unions that were intrinsic to his vision of "collective democracy." As a final testament to Commons' importance, Chasse considers his legacy as it endures in the work of his students and beyond.

The story of one of the leading trade unions in South Africa, the National Union of Mineworkers, and its role in the struggle against white minority rule.

Organise or Die? Democracy and Leadership in South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is the first in-depth study of one of the leading trade unions in the country. Founded in 1982, the trade union played a key role in the struggle against white minority rule, before turning into a central protagonist of the ruling Tripartite Alliance after apartheid. Deftly navigating through workerist, social movement and political terrains that shape the South African labour landscape, this book sheds light on the path that led to the unprecedented 2012 Marikana massacre, the dissolution of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) federation and to fractures within the African National Congress (ANC) itself.

Working with the notions of organisational agency and strategic bureaucratisation, Raphaël Botiveau shows how the founding leadership of NUM built their union's structures with a view to mirror those of the multinational mining companies NUM faced. Good leadership proved key to the union's success in recruiting and uniting mineworkers and NUM became an impressive school for union and political cadres, producing a number of South Africa's top post-apartheid leaders. An incisive analysis of leadership styles and strategies shows how the fragile balance between an increasingly distant leadership and an increasingly militant membership gradually broke down.

Botiveau provides a compelling narrative of NUM's powerful history and the legacy of its leadership. It will appeal to a broad readership - including journalists, students and social sciences scholars - interested in South Africa's contemporary politics and labour history.

Retirement is being `reconstructed', with the UK following the US path of abolishing mandatory retirement and increasing state pension ages. This timely book assesses prospects for work and retirement at age 65-plus in the UK and US. It is essential reading for researchers, students and practitioners interested in the late careers and the future of retirement.

The book traces the political history of the concept of social policy. Social policy" originated in Germany in the mid 19th century as a scholarly term that made a career in politics. The term became more prominent only after World War II. Kaufmann, the doyen of the sociology of social policy in Germany, argues that social policy" responds to the modern disjunction between "state" and "society" diagnosed by the German philosopher Hegel. Hegel's disciple Lorenz von Stein saw social policy as a means to pacify the capitalist class conflict. After World War II, social policy expanded in an unprecedented way, changing its character in the process. Social policy turned from class politics into a policy for the whole population, with new concepts - like "social security," "redistribution" and "quality of life" - and new overarching formulas, "social market economy" and "social state" (the German version of "welfare state"). Both formulas have remained indeterminate and contested, indicating the inherent openness of the idea of the "social.""