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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Labour economics
This book examines the experiences of seasonal, migrant sugarcane workers in Brazil, analyzing the deep-seated inequalities pervasive in contemporary Brazil. Education, employment, income, health, and relative political power are forefront in this study of the living and working conditions of the transient population. Based on ten years of qualitative research dominated by in-depth interviews with migrant sugarcane workers, this project argues that the ills of the sugarcane industry are symptomatic of an overarching problem of unequal access to opportunities by all Brazilian citizens. The project is unique in its use of a single industry as an expression of the multifarious problems of socioeconomic, regional, and racial inequality. The author explores details of the labor migration experience with a central premise that the conditions are not a direct outcome of the industry, but rather a manifestation of fundamental inequalities rooted in Brazil's colonial history.
Ideological and cultural factors do not define or influence the way labor relations are conducted in China's workplace, as many suppose they do. Oakley shows that the impact of the global market has significantly altered the way labor relations are actually practiced in China, which follows what she calls a global market paradigm. Nevertheless, Maoism and Confucianism continue to influence labor relations in China, and the ideological and cultural remnants still to be found could affect China's relations with other nations for years to come. Instead of taking a macro-level, industrial-relations approach common to other studies of Chinese labor, Oakley provides an in-depth look at the problems emerging on the shop floor, in the wake of economic reform. She provides translations of actual case histories, each of which details the causes of disputes, the various methods that were found to resolve them, and their eventual outcomes. At a broader level of analysis, her book tends to support convergence theories, of which globalization is the latest, proving that there are other features in contemporary market labor relations that have emerged in China in direct response to the demands of global competition. The result is a superbly detailed examination of a topic too little covered and seldom well understood. Oakley begins by considering the features of market labor relations and the emergence of a globalization-friendly style, in both Western and Asian economics. She continues with an analysis of the ideological and cultural dimensions of the relationship between managers and managed. In the next three chapters, she discusses the causes, resolution methods, and labor dispute outcomes. In each case she refers to the evidence of market, Maoist, and Confucian influences. The conclusion she draws is that while Confucian ideas and traces of Maoism continue to have an impact on the development and resolution of labor disputes in post-reform China overall, Chinese labor relations conform to the demands of the global, not the provincial, marketplace.
This volume combines approaches from three disciplines - economics, sociology, and demography - and empirically analyzes the key aspects of the labor market and social demography processes in post-Soviet transitional societies while focusing on the gender perspective. Here, readers will find empirical studies on such countries as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The volume contributes to the literature by addressing the lack of academic empirical research on gender difference issues in the labor markets of post-Soviet countries as well as gender inequalities in fertility preferences, gender disparities among the youth and elderly, the gender pay gap, gender differences in employment, and female voices. The book brings together researchers of different disciplines from a variety of countries, distinguishing this project as international and interdisciplinary. The authors use the quantitative survey micro-data approach as well as the qualitative methods of interview data analysis to provide a comprehensive and detailed overview of the economic and social developments in the region regarding gender differences. The volume consists of three parts tackling the following topics: 1) gender differences and demography (family formation and fertility, youth and elderly employment); 2) gender differences and labor market (gender wage gap, motherhood wage penalty, gender differences among freelancers, and women in STEM science); and 3) gender differences, well-being, and gender equality attitudes (women's voices, women's collective actions, gender equality attitudes, and spending patterns of housewives).
This book discusses the question of how a regional economy can develop under the influence of an ageing and declining population, and how regional development policies can help make labor markets more resilient and more inclusive. As the greatest impacts of demographic change and policy and fiscal challenges can be observed at the local level, examples from European, North American and Asian regions are combined to present a comprehensive, global range of strategic solutions from different policy contexts. The book shows how institutions, organizations and communities can enhance their pathways for sustainable development through the intelligent management of their demographic transition, and offers a synthesis of valuable lessons and strategies.
This book is about labor income share, which measures the share of national income paid in wages. The global share of income going towards labor is declining, which suggests a more unequal distribution of income. This has sparked debates about fair distribution of personal incomes among academics and policymakers alike. This book joins the discussion by bringing together recent developments in theoretical and empirical research on labor income share and novel insights on the measurement of the labor income share. The aim of this book is to help design policies to reduce inequality and provide useful knowledge to academics, policymakers from government agencies, policy aides in research institutions and think tanks, and broader audiences from public and private organizations.
Because women are more likely to seek professional help, and because they are more likely to be the victims of abuse by people in positions of power, women who do seek professional assistance may end up being victims of sexual exploitation by the very people from whom they seek help. Unlike other problems which primarily affect women, such as rape and domestic violence, this issue has received little public attention and has had little success in building a social movement to combat it. Bohmer analyzes the social construction of this unique problem and the response it has received from individuals, groups, and various institutions, such as the law and the regulatory process. Bohmer explains why this problem has a different history from other problems facing primarily women, and why it has not had much success in stirring social movement for addressing the problem. Using other issues of feminist concern, Bohmer connects the problem of professional sexual exploitation to issues of gender and power and shows the ways in which women seeking help are punished for doing so. In addition, the available self-help groups and organizations are examined in light of their benefits and relative lack of success in combating the problem. The legal and regulatory systems in place are also discussed in terms of the ways in which society responds to new social problems as they receive public attention.
A basic income would be an income paid periodically and unconditionally to every man, woman and child as a fundamental right of citizenship and without reference to employment, marital and household status. It would be a means of ensuring the twin objectives of freedom and security for all. This work provides an introduction to the basic income debate, examining a range of arguments for and against, and so should be of interest to anybody concerned with the future direction of the welfare state.
A new set of major changes is reshaping the economy and creating challenges that are testing the mettle and talents of organizations and their employees. Unless organizations and their employees develop the requisite skills they need to cope with these challenges, many will become casualties of their own deficiencies. "Keys to Employee Success in Coming Decades" seeks to prepare employees for future success in an increasingly demanding and competitive global environment. Sims, Veres, and their contributors are careful to focus on what employees at different levels in the organization will need to do to be successful in the twenty-first century. Mastery of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors discussed by the contributors in this book will lead to enhanced employee performance as the new decade approaches. The requirements for new employees or the redesigned employees is quickly changing. The organizations of tomorrow will expect employees who understand the importance of success; who welcome change and accept it, master it, and deliberately cause it. They are also employees who are proactive innovators, who confront constraints and the limitations on actions that they impose, who take risks and who continue to develop themselves professionally, technically, and personally. Written clearly, concisely, and with a minimum of academic jargon, the book will be important reading for specialists in human resource management, training and development, and others with critical responsibilities throughout the organization.
In this follow-up to "Balls and Strikes: The Money Game in Professional Baseball" (Praeger, 1990), Jennings examines the state of professional baseball's labor relations during a nearly 25 year period, focusing on the background and the outcome of the 1994 baseball strike. Jennings concludes by suggesting ways to improve future labor relations in the sport. While the entire professional sports industry generates less revenue than sales of Fruit of the Loom underwear, a lengthy strike in professional baseball assures a national notoriety far beyond its economic impact. When the 1994 strike was underway, scores of members of Congress were involved in related investigations and legislation, while President Clinton invoked the public interest in his efforts to resolve the dispute.
This is a wide-ranging sourcebook filling a gap in the literature about employment policies and programs for older persons. The contributors represent the perspectives of the individual, the employer, and society-at-large. Their essays consider labor force characteristics; historical trends; key features of social security, pensions, and other retirement matters; age discrimination; economic, social, and political aspects related to employment and the elderly. A lengthy bibliography enhances the use of this major new reference tool for students, scholars, and practitioners in gerontology, social work, and business.
"Marc Bousquet's "How the University Works" should be required
reading for anyone with an interest in the future of higher
education, including administrators, faculty members, graduate
students, and--even more significantly--undergraduates and their
parents." ""How the University Works" is a serious wake-up call for the
entire profession, and, based on what I overheard at the [2007 MLA]
book fair, Bousquet is about to emerge as the Al Gore of higher
education." "Marc Bousquet is the most trenchant theorist of the current
academic labor situation, and How the University Works is the best
study of academic labor conditions in the U.S. since the 1970s. It
is thoroughly and creatively researched, theoretically bold, often
mercifully frank, and frequently poignant in its arguments and
findings." As much as we think we know about the modern university, very little has been said about what it's like to work there. Instead of the high-wage, high-profit world of knowledge work, most campus employees a including the vast majority of faculty a really work in the low-wage, low-profit sphere of the service economy. Tenure-track positions are at an all-time low, with adjuncts and graduate students teaching the majority of courses. This super-exploited corps of disposable workers commonly earn fewer than $16,000 annually, without benefits, teaching as many as eight classes per year. Even undergraduates are being exploited as a low-cost, disposable workforce. Marc Bousquet, a majorfigure in the academic labor movement,
exposes the seamy underbelly of higher education a a world where
faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates work long hours for
fast-food wages. Assessing the costs of higher educations
corporatization on faculty and students at every level, How the
University Works is urgent reading for anyone interested in the
fate of the university. ALSO OF INTEREST Author interview with Cary
Nelson Author Blog on "The Chronicle of Higher Education" Call to
Arms for Academic Labor--Review by "Inside Higher Ed" Author's Blog
View the Table of Contents
This volume presents current research on gender studies in the specific context of the knowledge economy. Featuring contributions from the 2017 Annual Ipazia, the Scientific Observatory for Gender Studies Workshop on Gender, this book investigates gender issues and female entrepreneurship from social, economic, corporate, organizational, and management perspectives, with particular emphasis on advancing the understanding of gender in business and economic research. The post-industrial knowledge economy is characterized by an emphasis on human capital as the real engine of sustainable growth and development. With women comprising an increasing share of the global workforce, gender studies play a central role in exploring and understanding the attitudes and skills of women in business and their impact on economic and social development. Gender inequality in public and private contexts is decreasing due to an increase of women in leadership roles in business, the expansion and diversity of females in education, and a larger presence of women in policymaking roles. Ipazia, the Scientific Observatory for Gender Studies, aims to define an updated framework of research, service and projects on women and gender relations to highlight the evolution of gender in business and economics. This volume features contributions on female-owned family business, gender diversity in organizations, gender capital, and immigration from the 2017 Ipazia workshop.
The chapters in this collection are based on qualitative fieldwork studies and collectively offer the reader a perspective on women, work, and gender relations that is at once multidisciplinary and feminist. Women's work in the household, agriculture, industry, and in the so-called informal sector is explored with a concern for the ways in which gender, class, and ethnicity are constructed by the larger socioeconomic structures in which women live. By taking concrete analyses of women's lives as their point of departure, the contributors to this volume strive to bridge the gap between socio-economic structure of the society and the actual circumstances in which women find themselves. In this way, readers and scholars alike are better able to untangle the complex dynamics of gender relations and to develop strategies for social change.
Flextime, telecommuting, compressed work week, job sharing, downshifting, and hot desking--these terms are infiltrating our vocabulary at an increasing rate, keeping pace with change in the workplace. Although there is a large body of literature on the changing nature of work and workplace flexibility, there is no handbook that synthesizes the research on all aspects of this topic. Pulling together the vast literature on this subject, Avery and Zabel explain the concept of flexible work, trace the origin and growth of this workplace trend, and review the research on a range of flexible work arrangements. Workplace flexibility is international in scope. Companies, both in the United States and abroad, have become increasingly interested in implementing flexible work arrangements. The authors include a chapter on companies in North America, Western Europe, and the United Kingdom that have been leaders in implementing flexible work arrangements. They identify areas ripe for additional research, suggest a broad array of resources, and discuss strategies for locating additional information, including relevant databases, Internet resources, organizations, and search terms. This is a valuable handbook for managers, researchers, and students working or studying in the areas of human resource management, industrial/organizational psychology, and the sociology of work.
This book explores endogenous institutional change and the global, cyclical, and power-based drivers that underpin it. A metatheoretical framework is presented to highlight the influence of path dependence, systemic cycle driven power relations, and institutional design on the development of labor institutions. The framework is applied to the USA, Germany, and China to provide a comparative economic perspective. Systemic Cycle and Institutional Change: Labor Markets in the USA, Germany and China aims to examine endogenous institutional change through analyzing the systemic cycle and bringing together global and national conceptions of capitalism. It is relevant to students and researchers interested in comparative economics, political economy, and labor economics.
Globalization, the return to a multi-party system of government, and the policies advocated by the IMF and the World Bank have led to near revolutionary labor relations in Ghana. As Panford shows, these new social and economic forces have unleashed new and even contradictory labor policies and practices which are having profound social, political, and economic consequences. Panford examines how the Ghana Constitution of 1992 led for the first time to new workers' rights, including the right to affiliate with any local, national, or international union. In response to globalization and policies advocated by the IMF and the World Bank, the Ghana government sought to resist worker demands for improved working and living conditions. The situation was worsened by the privatization of state-owned businesses and severe cuts in public employment. In this environment of tense labor relations, government hostility, and weak employment, Panford traces the ways workers are revitalizing unions and developing new sources of jobs and finances. These include relatively aggressive systematic organization of women, senior staff, and the informal/agricultural sector. One of the most important initiatives of the unions is the creation of a workers' trust to establish and finance worker-owned enterprises. The evidence presented by Panford indicates the failure of IMF and World Bank policies, and he calls for new and viable policy alternatives with emphasis on enhancing Ghana's global competitiveness and meeting genuine development needs. A thoughtful analysis that will be of interest to scholars and researchers involved with development and international economics, labor relations in the developing worldand the increased involvement of international financial institutions.
The first comprehensive account of women's participation in the Israeli labor force, Kraus's book analyzes the trends in the status of women in paid employment since the 1960s. Covering all aspects of labor force participation, she fully integrates, and tracks over time, the many facets of social stratification by gender in Israeli society. Though founded as an egalitarian society, Kraus's research clearly shows that traditional attitudes toward women in the Israeli workplace have prevailed over those more progressive. Consequently, the widely held impression that the status of women in Israel differs from that of their counterparts in other liberal democratic societies, is shown to be more myth than reality. Though focusing on Israel, comparisons are made with other modern industrial societies, adding to the evidence accumulating on the changing trends in the status of women in the labor force that will interest scholars and students concerned as to how gender intersects with matters of political economy. Furthermore, the unique spectrum of communities in Israel, ranging from traditional Muslim Arab-Palestinians, through Christian Arab-Palestinians and Jews of African American origin, through to the more modernized Jews of European-American origin, enables simultaneous examinations of the various stages of women's integration in the labor force.
Mass Unemployment and the State shows that domestic political arrangements - the character of party competition, the relationship between interest organizations and the state, and underlying assumptions about the purpose of political authority - have mattered greatly to the economic and labor market policies that European governments pursued in response to the problem of unemployment from the early 1970s to the 2000s. The book concentrates on four European countries: Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden. All these countries have been celebrated as employment "miracles," but for different reasons, and at different points in time. Low unemployment was the linchpin of political arrangements in West European states in the first decades after the Second World War. When mass unemployment became a threat once more in the 1970s, Austria and Sweden - where post-war political arrangements remained intact - responded more forcefully than Denmark and the Netherlands, where political arrangements were already changing. This set these four countries on different paths, with enduring (and sometimes unexpected) political, economic, and social consequences. Political arrangements mattered to economic policies in the 1970s and 1980s, and to labor market policies in the 1990s and 2000s.
Violence, deception, fraud and abuse have always been commonplace occurrences for migrants, not only in their final country of destination but also in their countries of origin and countries of transit. In today's world, the link between mobility and security issues is ever-increasing. Acknowledging this, how can we work to protect and improve migrants' rights? Is the protection for migrants offered by the EU sufficient as-is, or is a more integrated approach that requires greater cooperation from migrants' country of origin called for? What role can the private sector play in all of this? In this book, Borraccetti brings together contributions that analyse how migrant exploitation can be combatted. All essays focus on the protection and promotion of human rights and pay particular attention to the rights of children and other vulnerable people.
This open access book provides a glimpse into the Japanese management technique known as "Kaizen," and the ways it has been disseminated around the developing world. The novelty of this book is three-fold: it provides a contextualized view of the mechanisms of initiatives implementing Kaizen in developing countries; compared with productivity studies, it places the relationship between workers and managers at the center of inquiry, reflecting the intent of SDG8 concerning decent work and economic growth; and it provides an overview of the heterogeneity of Kaizen in terms of geography and firm size. This book explores how improving management techniques can support firms' productivity and quality. Given its wide range of case studies from across Africa, Asia and Latin America, this book will be of value to scholars, policymakers and advocates of sustainable development alike.
This book broadens the research on the underworld of precarious and not-represented workers, through a selection of original case studies from across the globe written by leading experts. The book unveils the working conditions affecting this vast labour force that is so important to capital accumulation in the global age. It also helps us to understand the forms and processes of organization that these groups of workers, almost on an everyday basis, put in place to improve their working conditions and lived experiences.
'All in all, the chapters of the volume provide insightful material 'about how different forms of precarious work are linked to speci?c institutional changes in the labour market and laws governing it but also how they are linked to each other'. . . Situated in the ?eld of Global Labour Studies, the volume goes beyond one of the most central weaknesses of the discipline: its optimistic bias. By systematically including cases in which trade failed or chose not to engage in the organization of precarious workers, the contributions pave the way to a deeper understanding of the challenges within this ?eld.' - British Journal of Industrial Relations With the renaissance of market politics on a global scale, precarious work has become pervasive. This edited collection explores the spread across a number of economic sectors and countries worldwide of work that is invariably insecure, dirty, low-paid, and often temporary and/or part-time. The first part of this cross-disciplinary book analyses the different forms of precarious work that have arisen over the past thirty years in both the Global North and South. These transformations are captured in ethnographically orientated chapters on sweatshops, day labour, homework, Chinese construction workers unpaid contract work, the introduction of insecure contracting into the Korean automotive industry, and the insecurity of Brazilian sugarcane cutters. The case studies all shed light upon how the nature of work and the workplace are changing under the pressures of neoliberal capitalism and what this means for workers. In the second part the editors and contributors then detail some of the ways in which precarious workers are seeking to improve their own situations through their efforts to counter the growth of precarity under neoliberal capitalism, efforts that involve collectively exploring forms of resistance to work restructuring and the failures of traditional trade unions to fully engage with precarious work's growth. Illustrating the impacts of the expansion of precarious work, this book will appeal to students, academics and those generally interested in the issues of the global economy, the reworking of labour markets, the impacts of neoliberal capitalism and ethnographies of the working poor in various parts of the world. Contributors include: L.L.M. Aguiar, M.J. Barreto, S. Chauvin, J. Cock, B. Garvey, M. Gillan, D. Hattatoglu, A. Herod, L. Huilin, K. Joynt, R. Lambert, P. Ngai, J. Tate, M. Thomas, E. Webster, A. Yun
An unprecedented number of children around the world are working today. This volume is a must-have, up-to-date survey for student research. In the 15 examined countries, poverty, lack of education, gender inequity, the demands of the global marketplace, and easy sex tourism are key factors contributing to the child labor crisis. Each chapter depicts the child labor scene in a particular country, along with detailed conditions, the history of the problem, the present state of child labor, political policies, and social aspects, and the ultimate outlook. Child labor is a complex social and political issue with a long and evolving history. The phenomenon of child labor, including prostitution, has been a focus of debate especially in the last two centuries and continues to generate fierce reactions. An unprecedented number of children around the world are working today. This volume is a must-have, up-to-date survey for student research. In the 15 examined countries, poverty, lack of education, gender inequity, the demands of the global marketplace, and easy sex tourism are key factors contributing to the child labor crisis. Each chapter depicts the child labor scene in a particular country, along with detailed conditions, the history of the problem, the present state of child labor, political policies and social aspects, and the ultimate outlook. The scope of the topic is wide, and basic definitions of what constitutes child and labor vary from country to country. International laws and conventions promoted by labor and human rights groups are establishing new norms to counteract harsh cultural and economic realities, but these and similar local laws are hard to enforce. These issues are explored, and vignettes from the children's point of view add a human-interest angle to the narrative. |
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