This book examines unemployment insurance policy through a survey, taking stock of the theoretical work in the field of labor economics. It closely follows and assesses developments in the modelling of optimal unemployment insurance (UI) policies, beginning with the initial analytical findings produced in the second half of the 1970s. A main part of the survey is devoted to the two basic strands of analysis about, respectively, the optimal level of UI benefits and the optimal time profile of UI policy. The book has two different objectives. The first is to provide an essential summary of the individual models, with the intention of underscoring how a number of specific messages for the policy-maker can be derived from analytical constructions. It further emphasizes and comments on what the models deliver to UI policy-makers. The second objective is to stress the importance and extension of open questions in the field of the theoretical approach to the unemployment insurance issue. The survey discusses the multiplicity of heterogeneities of the labor world in particular as relevant for UI issues on the one side, and on the other hand, the independence of the two basic choices of UI policy, its meaning and its limits, and the possible forms of complementarity between these choices. The book is a must-read for researchers, students, and policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the field of labor economics in general, as well as unemployment insurance policies in particular.

This volume: * includes on-the-ground studies from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal; * examines the unequal impact of remittances on local economies in South Asia; * factors in how migration as a phenomenon negotiates with gender, environment and even healthcare; * Will be indispensable for scholars and researchers of economics, development studies, migration and diaspora studies, gender studies, labour studies and sociology * will also be useful to policymakers and government institutions working in the area.

This book explores various forms of highly skilled mobility in the European Union, assessing the potential for this movement to contribute to individual and societal development. In doing so, the authors illustrate some of the issues arising from the opening up of Europe's borders, and exposing its education systems and labour markets to international competition. While acknowledging the potentially positive aspects of mobility, they also reveal many of the negative consequences arising from flaws in mobility governance and inequalities in access to opportunities, arguing that when the management of mobility goes 'wrong', we are left with a heightened level of precariousness and the reproduction of social inequality. This discussion will be of interest to those working within Europe's mobility infrastructure, as well as policymakers in the mobility field and students and scholars from across the social sciences.

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 1982 Diversity and Decomposition in the Labour Market, is an edited collection addressing the contemporary sociology of the labour market. The collection focuses on the categorisation of the diverse dualities that might be thought to characterise certain labour markets. The collection addresses many economic sectors, and there is a distinct focus on labour market analyses developed within neo-classical and radical economics in the USA. The analyses maintain that the labour market is in some sense dualistic.

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.

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.

Originally published in 1995 this volume examines and analyzes the factors that have made the township-village enterprise (TVE) such a driver of growth in the Chinese economy in recent years. The book analyzes the background of the TVE and discusses regional differences in TVE efficiency as well as examining the apparent contradiction of the success of the TVE despite the lack of well-defined property rights. Issues of rural-rural and rural-urban migration phenomena are discussed and the differences discussed between the Chinese economy and those of other developing nations.

This book brings together up-to-date findings on the regional dimensions of European labour markets. It provides a conceptual and empirical study of the interactions between the European economy and its regions, paying particular attention to the issue of the transition of Central and Eastern European countries to a market economy. The topics analysed include: the structure of the shocks affecting employment (regional, industrial, national), the relationships between labour market efficiency and the regional distribution of unemployment, wage flexibility in EU member countries or in their regions and the role of active labour market policies in affecting the regional distribution of employment and unemployment.

This book examines the structural changes in the labour market in North-East India. Going beyond the conventional study of tea and agricultural sectors, it focuses on the nature, pattern and structure of work and employment in the region as well as documents emerging shifts in the labour force towards farm to non-farm dynamics. The chapters explore historical developments in employment patterns, labour market policies, issues of gender and social-religious dimensions, as well as point to growing forms of casual, informal and contractual labour across sectors. Through large-scale data and detailed case studies on unfree labour in plantations and those employed in crafts, handloom and the manufacturing industry, the book provides insights into labour and employment in the region. It also delves into the temporal and spatial dimensions of non-farm employment and its relationship with rural income distribution and labour mobility. By bringing interdisciplinary perspectives from scholars working on North-East India, this work fills a major gap in the political economy of the labour market in the region. The volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of development studies, North-East India studies, labour studies, economics, sociology and political science as well to those involved with governance and policymaking.

This monograph narrates the decade-long struggle of workers, unions, and management in transforming one of the largest ailing family-owned jute businesses in India, into a sustainable worker-owned and governed cooperative. It focuses on the variation in the three groups' involvement in the transformation. It begins with the employees' struggles in taking over the business, deserted by its owners, to save their jobs. The study analyzes the tensions between the three groups in creating and maintaining democratic governance that would sustain the initial leap in employee participation in the transformation. The analysis reveals contradictions at multiple levels, starting with the unexpected outcome of information sharing with workers: increased information sharing by management resulting in decreased employee involvement. The study explains this paradox by showing that for workers, information has a symbolic nature and information sharing is a signal of their trustworthiness in the assessment of those who are privy to the information. This means involvement is contingent upon the feeling that the information that workers consider crucial is being shared with them. However, what workers consider crucial, and thus a symbol of trust, changes over time as the nature and breadth of their involvement evolves. Thus, worker expectation as well as management and union expectation of information sharing evolves. However, the evolution has the potential to create a mismatch between the two expectations that might lead to contradictions in employee involvement. While for management, information sharing is an instrument in eliciting involvement, and thus management's expectation of information sharing goes through an instrumental loop, for employees, information sharing is a matter of trust, and thus their expectation of information sharing goes through an institutional trust-based loop. To sustain high employee involvement, the organization should ideally institutionalize the trust-based loop and avoid engaging with the instrumental loop. The author proposes a collaborative approach to organizational transformation that will help deal with the contradictions more effectively, sustaining employee involvement in the transformation. The author also discusses the implications of these propositions for academic scholarship and organizational practices and situates them in the ongoing attempts to reform Industrial Disputes Act in India.

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.

In The Subjective Dimension of Human Work: The Conversion of the Acting Person According to Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II and Bernard Lonergan, Deborah Savage explores the proper framework for understanding the human person in the act of self-transcendence and for apprehending the role that human work may play in living a Christian life. Through a comparative analysis of the anthropological theories of Wojtyla and Lonergan, Savage seeks to establish the philosophical and theological foundations of how one becomes «more of a human being» through the work that he or she does and how to grasp the process of conversion that is made possible through work. This book is suitable for graduate level courses in the neo-Thomist tradition, especially those analyzing the relevance of that tradition to modern-day problems.

During the last decade, many European countries introduced extensive reforms to the way that income protection and activation programmes for the unemployed are implemented and delivered. This book analyzes and compares these reforms in nine European countries, focusing on the reforms programmes themselves, as well as on their effects.

Originally published in 1978 Urbanization and Labour Markets is a useful companion for those studying in geography, economics or development studies. The book provides a simple guide to the subject of labour in cities in underdeveloped countries. It also set out the major controversies relating to urban labour markets in developing countries and focuses in detail to work which goes on outside large-scale firms. Migration and population growth is considered in some detail and proposals for different ways of seeing the 'informal' sector are discussed. This book will be of use to undergraduates in the areas of geography, economics and development studies.

Originally published in 1985, New Nationalisms in the Developed West is a collection of interdisciplinary and insightful essays on modern nationalist movements. The book argues that these movements have challenged the power of Western nation-states not from without, but from within their frontiers. The book's focus remains predominately on Western societies and the nationalist movements of nations against states. The essays in this book are detailed and innovative and analyse nationalism through theory, methodology and empirical evidence. The book's use of research methods deepens the comparative explanation of nationalist movements, and advances understanding of Western nationalisms as social movements and examples of social change in the developed world. This book will appeal to social scientists, in political science and sociology.

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.

Solidarity Road tells the story of Jan Theron’s involvement in the Food and Canning Workers Union (FCWU) during apartheid South Africa. Part memoir, part history this fascinating tale will reveal what working conditions were like in the 1970’s. It outlines the very beginnings of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

Theron states, ‘Solidarity in a trade union does not simply mean standing by your members, or by organised workers. It means solidarity with your class. At the time, in 1976, the working class was fragmented. Working for a trade union was part of a project to unite a fragmented class, and to give it a voice. This was the historical project to which a number of people from a certain intellectual background were drawn. This would be our contribution to the struggle: what we did to end apartheid. It was a struggle for democracy, but democracy did not just mean everyone getting to vote every so often in national elections. People also had to eat.

The most obvious way in which the working class was then fragmented was in terms of race. The Union put its commitment to solidarity into practice by uniting workers of different races in factories manufacturing food. To do so it had to overcome divisions among workers created by the ways in which government had structured employment, in terms of the law, which the bosses were able to exploit. Nowadays ‘bosses’ seems like a dated term, yet this is the term workers used to refer to the people for whom they actually worked. It is also no less important today than it was then to differentiate between those who control the factories and mines and those who operate at their behest.

The Master of Seventh Avenue is the definitive biography of David Dubinsky (1892-1982), one of the most controversial and influential labor leaders in 20th-century America. A "character" in the truest sense of the word, Dubinsky was both revered and reviled, but never dull, conformist, or bound by convention. A Jewish labor radical, Dubinsky fled czarist Poland in 1910 and began his career as a garment worker and union agitator in New York City. He quickly rose through the ranks of the International Ladies' Garment Workers'Union (ILGWU) and became its president in 1932. Dubinsky led the ILGWU for thirty-four years, where he championed "social unionism," which offered workers benefits ranging from health care to housing. Moving beyond the realm of the ILGWU, Dubinsky also played a leading role in the American Federation of Labor (AFL), particularly during World War II. A staunch anti-communist, Dubinsky worked tirelessly to rid the American labor movement of communists and fellow-travelers. Robert D. Parmet also chronicles Dubinsky's influential role in local, national, and international politics. An extraordinary personality whose life and times present a fascinating lens into the American labor movement, Dubinsky leaps off the pages of this meticulously researched and vividly detailed biography.

The 19th century witnessed an explosion of writing about unproductivity, with the exploits of various idlers, loafers, and "gentlemen of refinement" capturing the imagination o fa country that was deeply ambivalent about its work ethic. Idle Threats documents this American obsession with unproductivity and its potentials, while offering an explanation of the profound significance of idle practices for literary and cultural production. While this fascination with unproductivity memorably defined literary characters from Rip Van Winkle to Bartleby to George Hurstwood, it also reverberated deeply through the entire culture, both as a seductive ideal and as a potentially corrosive threat to upright, industrious American men. Drawing on an impressive array of archival material and multifaceted literary and cultural sources, Idle Threats connects the question of unproductivity to other discourses concerning manhood, the value of art, the allure of the frontier, the usefulness of knowledge, the meaning of individuality, and the experience of time, space, and history. Andrew Lyndon Knighton offers a new way of thinking about the largely unacknowledged "productivity of the unproductive," revealing the incalculable and sometimes surprising ways in which American modernity transformed the relationship between subjects and that which is most intimate to them: their own activity.

There was once a time when 'work' was inextricably linked to survival and self-preservation; where the farmer ploughed the land so their family could eat. But the sun has long since set on this idyllic tableau, and what was once an integral part of life has slowly morphed into a painful and meaningless ritual, colonising almost every part of our lives - endless and inescapable. In The Mythology of Work, Peter Fleming examines how neoliberal society uses the ritual of work (and the threat of its denial) to maintain the late capitalist class order. As our society is transformed into a factory that never sleeps, work becomes a universal reference point for everything else, devoid of any moral or political worth. Blending critical theory with recent accounts of job related suicides, office-induced paranoia, fear of relaxation, managerial sadism and cynical corporate social responsibility campaigns, Fleming paints a bleak picture of neoliberal capitalism in which the economic and emotional dysfunctions of a society of wage slaves greatly outweigh its professed benefits.

When this book was first published in 1967, it was one of the first pieces of research to systematically examine the manpower problems associated with rapidly changing technology. It discusses issues such as technological change and unemployment, changes in the structure of employment, the mobility of labour, occupational structure and adjustment, hours of work, and labour-management relations. Its findings suggest that structural unemployment and redundancy are only two of a host of difficulties accompanying technical progress. Although the book originated in Sweden its relevance is clear to other Western european countries and researchers and policy-makers in the USA.