This topical and timely analysis of late career and retirement within nine European societies and the USA examines how social inequality structures have developed in an era of globalization and aging populations. For several decades, many European societies relied on pushing and luring older workers out of employment by using generous early retirement programs in order to relieve national labor markets in times of globalization. However, as this book argues, one of the major challenges facing European and Northern American societies today is their severe demographic aging, which in turn places pension systems under substantial pressure due to the rising imbalance between those claiming pensions and those contributing to the pension system. Indeed, it is observed herein that in the recent past, governments have tried to increase the labor market attachment of older employees by retrenching early retirement benefits. This study investigates how these developments have impacted on the situation of older workers and retirees in nine European societies and the USA. In particular, the book looks at how social inequalities in later life have developed in the light of recent pension reforms. This informative book will appeal to sociologists, demographers, political scientists and economists interested in many different aspects of research including: international comparative research, globalization, labor market, welfare state, social inequality and research on aging. Researchers in the field of retirement and globalization studies will also find this book helpful, as will academics in labor market research and comparative political studies.

In all Western societies women earn lower wages on average than men. The gender wage gap has existed for many years, although there have been some important changes over time. This volume of collected papers contains extensive research on progress made by women in the labor market, and the characteristics and causes of remaining gender inequalities. It also covers other dimensions of inequality and their interplay with gender, such as family formation, wellbeing, race, and immigrant status. The author was awarded the 2010 IZA Prize in Labor Economics for this research. Part I comprises an Introduction by the Editors. Part II probes and quantifies the explanations for the gender wage gap, including differential choices made in the labor market by men and women as well as labor market discrimination and employment segregation. It also delineates how the gender wage gap has decreased over time in the United States and suggests explanations for this narrowing of the gap and the more recent slowdown in wage convergence. Part III considers international differences in the gender wage gap and wage inequality and the relationship between the two. Part IV considers a variety of indicators of gender inequality and how they have changed over time in the United States, painting a picture of significant gains in women's relative status across a number of dimensions. It also considers the trends in female labor supply and what they indicate about changing gender roles in the United States and considers a successful intervention designed to increase the relative success of academic women. Part V focuses on inequality by race and immigrant status. It considers not only race difference in wages and the differential progress made by African-American women and men in reducing the race wage gap, but also race differences in wealth which are considerably larger than differences in wages. It also examines immigrant-native differences in the use of transfer payments, and the impact of gender roles in immigrant source countries on immigrant women's labor market assimilation in the U.S. labor market.

While the European Union has been hailed as a major political success in the last five decades, it continues to face numerous economic and social concerns. With enlargements and changing international environments the Union is confronted with new challenges. Problems have arisen from new global economic developments, such as outsourcing of productive activities and the international macroeconomic imbalances. These issues include unemployment problems, slow growth performance of many EU countries, the formulation of appropriate macroeconomic policies, policies towards enlargement of the Union to institutional design and structural policies for the EU.
The fourteen articles in this book are divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to labour market issues covering reforms from welfare systems to pay-setting and longer working hours. The second part considers European macroeconomic issues including the fiscal policy framework for the EU, growth performance of EU-15 economies and global imbalances and their effects on Europe. The third part of the book is focused at institutional issues, including the subsidiary principle, European education systems, coming problems in European pension systems, and the functioning of the financial system and competition policy in Europe. Written jointly by a group of well-known independent economic experts, this book offers an in-depth economic analysis that aims to discuss and suggest effective solutions to current concerns in European policy.

First Published in 1981, Ideology and Shop-Floor Industrial Relations is based on data obtained in observational research amongst managers, shop stewards and workers, examines the informal processes by which accommodations are or are not, reached by managers and workers. Since the publication of the Donovan Report industrial relations research has increasingly moved away from studies of formal procedures and institutions and focused more on informal custom and practice. In this book, the authors develop a theory of workplace rule making, and argue that it is in negotiations over such detailed and often minor daily industrial issues that the relationship between capital and labour is worked out. This book is a must read for scholars of industrial economics and management studies.

Through a collection of 13 chapters, Peggy Deamer examines the profession of architecture not as an abstraction, but as an assemblage of architectural workers. What forces prevent architects from empowering ourselves to be more relevant and better rewarded? How can these forces be set aside by new narratives, new organizations and new methods of production? How can we sit at the decision-making table to combat short-term real estate interests for longer-term social and ethical value? How can we pull architecture-its conceptualization, its pedagogy, and its enactment-into the 21st century without succumbing to its neoliberal paradigm? In addressing these controversial questions, Architecture and Labor brings contemporary discourses on creative labor to architecture, a discipline devoid of labor consciousness. This book addresses how, not just what, architects produce and focuses not on the past but on the present. It is sympathetic to the particularly intimate way that architects approach their design work while contextualizing that work historically, institutionally, economically, and ideologically. Architecture and Labor is sure to be a compelling read for pre-professional students, academics, and practitioners.

This book addresses the disparities that arise when measuring and modeling societal behavior and progress across the social sciences. It looks at why and how different disciplines and even researchers can use the same data and yet come to different conclusions about equality of opportunity, economic and social mobility, poverty and polarization, and conflict and segregation. Because societal behavior and progress exist only in the context of other key aspects, modeling becomes exponentially more complex as more of these aspects are factored into considerations. The content of this book transcends disciplinary boundaries, providing valuable information on measuring and modeling to economists, sociologists, and political scientists who are interested in data-based analysis of pressing social issues.

This study explores the evolution of the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) and its interaction with the French public sphere, between 1900 and 1920. Animated by revolutionary syndicalist discourse, the CGT supported federalist worker control of industry in fin-de-siecle France, and by World War I had developed a distinctively productivist discourse, emphasizing increased material output through efficient, expert direction of the economy. Kenneth Tucker examines the triumph of this productivism and instrumental rationality, in contrast with other visions of society and the future. He gives a Habermasian twist to the recent lingusitic turn in labour history, focusing on the role of competing bodies of knowledge in influencing the self-understanding and strategies of the CGT. He also goes further to situate the rise of productivism within the social and cultural context of the French Third Republic.

This open access Regional Reader proposes new ways of theorizing migration in Southern Africa by arguing that traditional western forms of theorizing do not adequately fit the South-South migration context. It explores the existing definitions of a 'migrant' with a view to conceptualise a definition which will speak to the complexities, envisioning a more inclusive Southern African region. The book investigates the various levels of migration moving from the local (rural to urban and urban to rural) to cross border migration; middle-class versus working-class migrant household livelihoods; livelihoods procurement versus wage earning; social capital (networks) and how they make meaning of their circumstances in a 'foreign' space. It also acknowledges the intertwined issues of gender and class as important in analyzing migration processes and the chapters feature both in varying dimensions. As such, the book provides a great resource for students, academics and policy makers.

In recent years, technological change, unemployment and industrial restructuring have highlighted training and the acquisition of skills as a policy issue. There is widespread concern that employees are insufficiently skilled, and it is recognized that this deficiency can have serious economic consequences. The situation is likely to become particularly urgent, as the dramatic increase in the share of temporary and part-time employment in the OECD leads to a decline in the incentives to train. This book, from the Centre for Economic Policy Research, provides a systematic account of the causes, consequences, and policy implications of failure in training provision and skills acquisition in the industrial world. It explains why the market mechanism leads people to under-invest in skills and examines the empirical outcome of these problems using a portfolio of examples for European countries.

Originally published in 1990, Urban Markets looks at how the informal sector of the economy should be encouraged to assist in the alleviation of problems of poverty and unemployment. Despite this rhetoric, few concrete, implementable ways have been developed. This book is concerned with one such potential strategy which the authors consider to be particularly effective: the creation of both built and open markets for very small retailers and wholesalers. Based on experience of observing such markets in several continents, the authors combine a discussion of the theoretical issues surrounding the creation of urban markets with practical hints of how to establish and run them.

In this book the author examines and ultimately rejects the conventional economic view that workers who have more dangerous jobs accept their risks voluntarily and are compensated through higher wages. In doing so, he attacks widely used techniques for assigning a monetary value to human life for cost-benefit analysis and other purposes. Arguments are drawn from the history of occupational safety and health, econometric analysis of wage and risk data, and formal models of the labour market. In place of the conventional view, Peter Dorman proposes a view based on new work in decision theory (thick rationality) and the theory of repeated games. These insights are combined with comparative policy analysis to support an approach to risk that promotes both regulatory effectiveness and democratic values. Despite its technical content, the book is written in highly accessible style, and is concerned with matters of general interest in the development of critical social science.

This detailed 1996 study contributes to an expanding field of interest: the social history of industrial employers. Using previously untapped primary sources, Organised Capital explores the emergence of employers' organisations in northern England and analyses their policies during the heyday of collective activity. Arthur McIvor evaluates the impact of trade unionism, state intervention, war, economic recession and changing product markets on these organisations, charting their role and patterns of growth. He challenges notions of a monolithic employer group and crude economic determinism, while also rejecting 'revisionist' accounts of weak and ineffective employers. Instead, he reaches a more balanced appraisal of these institutions' role in capital-labour relations and the pursuit of employers' class interests. This book will be of interest both to historians and to students of industrial relations.

This book examines theories of firm-level human capital investment with respect to topics in labor demand, macroeconomics (especially connected to unemployment), and firm-union bargaining. It covers a wide range of related policy issues, including the worksharing versus layoff debate, wage-tenure profiles, taxation and the choice between pure wages and profit sharing compensation, and the role of specific investment in the Japanese firm versus the traditional (United States) neoclassical firm.

In the field of 'climate change', no terrain goes uncontested. The terminological tug of war between activists and corporations, scientists and governments, has seen radical notions of 'sustainability' emptied of urgency and subordinated to the interests of capital. 'Just Transition' is the latest such battleground, and the conceptual keystone of the post-COP21 climate policy world. But what does it really mean? Just Transition emerged as a framework developed within the trade union movement to encompass a range of social interventions needed to secure workers' and frontline communities' jobs and livelihoods as economies shift to sustainable production. Just Transitions draws on a range of perspectives from the global North and South to interrogate the overlaps, synergies and tensions between various understandings of the Just Transition approach. As the concept is entering the mainstream, has it lost its radical edge, and if so, can it be recovered? Written by academics and activists from around the globe, this unique edited collection is the first book entirely devoted to Just Transition.

Originally published in 1989 this book gives an overview of the empirical work on new technology objectives, together with an analysis of management strategies for adoption at the corporate, technological and people levels. It also reviews previous work on the extent to which staff at different levels, and from different specialism, are involved in decision-making, as well as the adoption process more generally. The book looks at different approaches to analysing organizational contexts and provides a framework for studying the stages of the adoption process. The book includes case studies - two in financial services and two in engineering contexts.

Originally published in 1997, this book puts information management in the context of technology transfer, industrialization and national development. As well as showing the necessity for the efficient use of information resources, the book also examines the costs of poor information management in undermining negotiation, the preparation of contingencies and the ability to let go of 'dead projects'. The book includes case studies of two technology transfer projects in Kenya are included.

Originally published in 1992 this book charts the global restructuring of telecommunications industries away from the monopoly structures of the past towards increased competition, deregulation and privatization. The book's authors are international policy-makers and scholars, who examine the regulatory environment within a theoretical and historical context. The book looks at the roots of regulatory and legislative changes by discussing individually the countries at the forefront of the revolution: the UK, France, Germany, Japan and the United States. It examines the impact of new technology for consequences of change in trade and government policies.

Originally published in 1993, this book contains 4 studies on Asia: Bangladesh, India, South Korea and Sri Lanka. The studies reflect 4 different patterns of technological transformation. India, with its large populaiton has made considerable progress but its overall development has been slow until recently. At the other extreme, South Korea which had a very low per capita income in the 1950s registered a quantum leap in technological transformation within a short span of 30 years. The heritage of Bangladesh's past has constrained its progress in overcoming structural weaknesses but in comparison, Sri Lanka displays a very different pattern. The sources used draw upon research in development economics, economic history, technology and studies in general and country studies in particular.

New technology arguably provided the greatest challenge to industrial relations since the formation of unions. The problems raised led to a whole range of responses - from rejection of the new technology to acceptance fo the change with management and workers making new (and sometimes unheard of) agreements. This book, originally published in 1986 and based on extensive original research, examines the changes in industrial relations which the new technology of the 1980s caused, analysing the implications for the workforce and the reactions of the management and trade unions to the challenges.

Originally published in 1987 and taking a review of the theories and processes of industrial relocation as its starting point, this book examines the nature of organisational and technologcal changes in detail and concludes with a series of industry case studies drawn from areas throughout the world. The book examines the salient features and implications of the reorganisation of industries and industrial enterprises, reflecting their development or harnessing of technological changes - not least ot increase their bargaining power with, control over, or use of labour. Various chapters discuss policy-making and the role of the State posed by the speed, scale and character of the changes.

Published in 1984, this book reviews British industrial policy towards information technology within the context of the international trading system. It argues that the incoherence of British policy stems from the clash between its core liberal ideology and its centralised political system and that unless Britiain's traditional liberal ideology in trade policy was abandoned within this market, Britiain was set to become a mere technological dependency of America. It discusses how the British government needed to develop effective non-tariff barriers in the form of 'industrial policy' to minimise the political and economic costs of technological dependence.

Originally published in 1988 this book was the culmination of 7 years of research in micro-electronics by the Center for Science and Technology Policy in New York. It includes original comparative study of corporate strategy in American, Japanese, and European firms, as well as an account of the evolution of technical alliances. It provides a detailed examination of the global micro-electronics industry in all its aspects - technological, economic, strategic and institutional and goes beyond organizing and presenting the facts to offer new perspectives, analyses and opinions.

Originally published in 1967 and the result of extensive interviews and case studies, this book examines the implications of technical change. Although focussed on the early introduction of computers the kinds of problems discussed in this book are found in technical change more widely and the book therefore continues to have enduring relevance. The book is divided into three parts - an attitude survey of the administrative staff in departments affected by the introduction of computers, a study of the mechanisms of change and a second survey and re-examination of departmental organisation and work flow.