First published in book form in 1981, this collection of essays originally written between 1955 and 1966 contains ground-breaking research and analysis on the study of wages and prices across seven centuries, with particular reference to builder's wage rates and the price of a bundle of the commodities on which these wages might be spent. These seminal contributions to the economics of labour and economic growth did much to fuel the debate surrounding the problems of inflation, stability and changes in the purchasing power of money upon the book's initial publication. These concerns are every bit as relevant in today's post credit-crunch society and this reissue will be welcomed by all students of economic history and labour economics.

Higher education is going through a turbulent period of change. Based on a research project coordinated by J DEGREESDurgen Enders at the University of Kassel in Germany, the book highlights the changes taking place in higher education and examines the working conditions of academic staff in fourteen European countries.

All countries in the study have seen changes regarding the actors and procedures relevant for the regulation of the employment relationships of academic staff. Academic staff are higher education's most important asset and most costly resource. Employment and working conditions of academic staff are, therefore, not only influenced by these developments but seen as an important tool for adaptation to the new circumstances higher education faces. Thus it is not only of interest to demonstrate and compare variations across and within countries, but also to analyze the outcomes of the changing academic environment on the academic labor market and the conditions of working life.

This volume is concerned with labor market developments in China from a comparative perspective on selected East and South Asian countries. It closely examines the changing structure of China's labor market in the context of the Lewisisan turning point in ecomomic development.

Unemployment is one of the most politically explosive issues in China and has gained further prominence as a result of the present global financial crisis. The novelty, urgency, and complexity of Chinese unemployment have compelled the government to experiment with policy initiatives that originate in the West, initiatives such as training programmes, career and psychological counselling, a web-based national labour-market information network, and labour-market insurance, and also other employment-related initiatives such as using community (shequ) organizations as the base for new mechanisms of governance and informal job generation. This book examines these initiatives which represent China's attempt to institutionalize, professionalize and humanize its approach to governance, drawing heavily on international norms and standards in employment regulation. Based on extensive original research including semi-structured interviews, the book argues that although the Chinese government is not a liberal democracy, it is increasingly using liberal techniques to govern. The book discusses the ways in which the government combines the new techniques with old campaign-style policy techniques, which not only makes the state's power visible, but also allows it to claim credit for managing unemployment.

This study seeks to critically examine the field and function of social stratification, with emphasis on Africana phenomena. Phrased another way, this edited volume attempts to study and focus on who gets what and why, with regard to resources and structural application of support. The John Henrik Clarke query is who made this arrangement of leadership in America. Moreover, serving as a reference, this study will assist researchers in contextualizing and thematically examining the structural and resource allocation of disparity exhibited toward Africana people. This manuscript of essays is the first its kind. This study incorporates an interdisciplinary scope to examine the concept of Africana Social Stratification in the subject areas of: history, political science, economics, Africana Studies, and social policy.

The text of "Wage-Labour and Capital" came from lectures Marx delivered to the German Workmen's Club of Brussels in 1847, a time of great political upheaval. The relationship between wage-labour to capital is a core concept in Marx's analysis of political economy. This book is an essential, a foundation to understanding the development of Marxist theory. "Price, Value and Profit" was written in 1885, The different parts in the title decomposes into the basic Marxist theory of the 'surplus value of labor' (one of the three essential building blocks of Marxism). These books, again, are the basic foundations to understanding the development of Marxist theory. As valid today as in the late 1800's. A Collector's Edition.

While recent studies have highlighted the phenomenon and risks of increased inequalities between the top and the bottom of society, little research has so far been carried out on trends relating to the median income range that generally represents the middle class. This volume examines the following questions: what are the main transformations in the world of work over the last 20 years in terms of the labour market, social dialogue and conditions of work, wages and incomes that may have affected the middle class? How has the middle class been shaped by the financial and economic crisis? What are the long-term trends for the middle class in Europe? This volume also investigates the potential risks and effects of the reshuffling, or even weakening, of the middle class. On the social side, it explores the ramifications of further retrenchment of the European Social Model, which to a great extent has traditionally been funded by the middle class. On the economic side, the book investigates whether this process - especially from the perspective of consumption and human capital - is endangering the long-term sustainability of the current economic model. While presenting evidence of a definite erosion of the middle class, this book assesses the specific situation in each individual EU Member State on the basis of detailed statistics and case studies of professional categories that traditionally represent the middle class. This book issues a timely warning about the latest trends and future of the middle class in Europe. On this basis, it presents policy considerations and options that will be useful to policy-makers for ensuring the future of the middle class in Europe. Scholars and researchers of European studies and social policy, especially from its sustainability perspective, will find the volume an invaluable reference. Contributors include: J.I. Anton, D. Anxo, T. Barbieri, G. Bosch, P. Courtioux, C. Erhel, K. Espenberg, A. Figueiredo, H. Figueiredo, S. Giakoumatos, P. Gonzalez, D. Grimshaw, T. Kalina, M. Karamessini, S. Kuypers, B. Maitre, N. Maitre, I. Marx, J. Masso, I. Mierina, R. Munoz-de-Bustillo Llorente, B. Nolan, A. Rafferty, W. Salverda, L.D. Santos, A. Simonazzi, I.G. Toth, D. Vaughan-Whitehead, R. Vazquez-Alvarez

In an age of intense economic competition and continual change, the ability to learn is a key factor in survival and prosperity. This book examines the changing interaction of the world economy, Britain 's prospects for prosperity, the connections between different kinds of work and the learning that support them. Focusing on specific areas where changed attitudes and ways of working are long overdue, the authors show the need for a better balance between formal provision in schools, colleges and within employment, and less tangible informal learning at home and in the workplace. These, in turn, open up issues of the curriculum (especially in the formative later years in schools and colleges), guidance for education and work and the qualifications structure.

Globalisation, Higher Education, the Labour Market and Inequality addresses the global transformation of higher education in relation to changes in the labour market. It focuses on the relative impact of elements of globalisation on social inequality, and provides insights into the ways in which these general forces of change are transformed into specific policies shaped by global forces and the various national values, institutional structures and politics of the specified societies. The book begins with a theoretical conceptualization for a comparative understanding of globalization, higher education, labour markets and inequality. This is followed by a range of mainstream accounts from an international selection of contributors of the ways in which national systems have responded to the forces of globalisation and the increasing demand for higher education graduates - in Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the UK. Finally, contributors explore more specific concerns such as the transition from higher education to the labour market in China and Sweden, the division of the 'knowledge' workers into traditional social groups in the US, and the role and salience of Doctoral programmes in South Africa in developing a knowledge economy. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education and Work.

This book provides rich and provocative comparative studies of South and Southeast Asian domestic workers who migrate to other parts of Asia. These studies range from Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore, to Yemen, Israel, Jordan, and the UAE. Conceptually and methodologically, this book challenges us to move beyond established regional divides and proposes new ways of mapping inter-Asian connections. The authors view migrant workers within a wider spatial context of intersecting groups and trajectories through time. Keenly attentive to the importance of migrants of diverse nationalities who have labored in multiple regions, this book examines intimate connections and distant divides in the social lives and politics of migrant workers across time and space. Collectively, the authors propose new themes, new comparative frameworks, and new methodologies for considering vastly different degrees of social support structures and political activism, and the varied meanings of citizenship and state responsibility in sending and receiving countries. They highlight the importance of formal institutions that shape and promote migratory labor, advocacy for workers, or curtail workers rights, as well as the social identities and cultural practices and beliefs that may be linked to new inter-ethnic social and political affiliations that traverse and also transform inter-Asian spaces and pathways to mobility. This book was published as a special issue of Critical Asian Studies.

First published in 1922, Hobson's study of the depression and resulting unemployment in the aftermath of the First World War is a far-sighted analysis which looks beyond the consequences of the war itself, at the root economic causes of the crisis. Dealing with issues such as the failure of consumption, trade fluctuations, the balance of spending and saving, and spiralling credit as factors which lay at the root of the depression, Hobson's study is a document of considerable economic, social and historical value, which still has much to teach the modern reader, whether interested layperson or student of economics.

Gender Ideologies and Military Labor Markets in the U.S. offers a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between changes in military gender ideologies and structural changes in U.S. military and society.

By investigating how social and military change have influenced gender ideologies, the author develops an approach that (re-)connects military gender ideologies to the social conditions of their production and distribution and explains their transformation as effects of changing social and political relations and conflicts. Examining the role of different groups of social actors, media debates on women 's military participation and gender ideologies inherent in depictions of military women, the author seeks to contextualise these ideologies are within structural change in the U.S. military and society, relating them to the gender-specific division of labour on civilian and military labor markets.

This work provides a deeper understanding of the nexus between military re-structuring processes, women 's military integration, and changes of gender ideologies in regard to war and the military, and will be of great interest to students and scholars of gender, security studies and American politics.

In Western Europe, the notion of social exclusion is rapidly diffusing in recent years. This book investigates the notion of social exclusion as a new way to approach social issues such as the 'new poverty' long-term-unemployment, precariousness, social polarization and disintegration. Particular attention is paid to both the global relevance of an approach in terms of social exclusion and its value compared to more conventional approaches in terms of poverty of deprivation. It is shown that social exclusion goes beyond these by explicitly embracing the relational as well as the distributional aspects of poverty and emphasizing processes. In this book, the authors explore the specific forms of social exclusion in the ongoing processes of globalization, deregulation, crisis of the welfare state, and rise of individualism.

The power of embodied ritual performance to constitute agency and transform subjectivity are increasingly the focus of major debates in the anthropology of Christianity and Islam. They are particularly relevant to understanding the way transnational women migrants from South and South East Asia, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, who migrate to Asia, Europe and the Middle East to work as carers and maids, re-imagine and recreate themselves in moral and ethical terms in the diaspora. This timely collection shows how women international migrants, stereotypically represented as a nation of servants', reclaim sacralised spaces of sociality in their migration destinations, and actively transform themselves from mere workers into pilgrims and tourists on cosmopolitan journeys. Such women struggle for dignity and respect by re-defining themselves in terms of an ethics of care and sacrifice. As co-worshippers they recreate community through fiestas, feasts, protests, and shared conviviality, while subverting established normativities of gender, marriage and conjugality; they renegotiate their moral selfhood through religious conversion and activism. For migrants the place of the church or mosque becomes a gateway to new intellectual and experiential horizons as well as a locus for religious worship and a haven of humanitarian assistance in a strange land. This book was published as a special issue of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Anthropology.

This book provides the most comprehensive history of German migration to North America for the period 1709 to 1920 than has been done before. Employing state-of-the-art methodological and statistical techniques, the book has two objectives. First he explores how the recruitment and shipping markets for immigrants were set up, determining what the voyage was like in terms of the health outcomes for the passengers, and identifying the characteristics of the immigrants in terms of family, age, and occupational compositions and educational attainments. Secondly he details how immigrant servitude worked, by identifying how important it was to passenger financing, how shippers profited from carrying immigrant servants, how the labor auction treated immigrant servants, and when and why this method of financing passage to America came to an end.

In an era of continued globalisation and economic-restructuring youth employment constitutes what many commentators regard as one of the key policy issues of our time. This important new book gives the first comprehensive overview of key concepts, theories and knowledge relating to youth employment in the Tourism sector. Specifically 'Youth Employment in Tourism and Hospitality' discusses rates of youth employment in tourism and hospitality, working conditions for youth and the role of youth employment in tourism in developing countries. It explores barriers to youth employment, from both supply and demand-side perspectives. It reviews the relationship between education, training and youth employment before looking at the education to work transition through the lenses of career decision-making and career development theories. It also discusses the role of tourism internships in early work socialisation, as well as graduate entrepreneurship in tourism. It is essential reading for those delivering and developing tourism programmes, and for students of tourism and hospitality. It also appeals to policy-makers and managers in the wide range of sectors that constitute tourism and hospitality and beyond as well as those in related fields such as education, human resources management and career guidance.

Asia has undergone rapid economic transformation over the past two decades. Despite its constant economic growth, the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and the resulting surge in unemployment highlighted the vulnerability of national systems that base development solely on economic growth.

This book fills a major research gap by exploring the nature, dynamics and functioning of Asian labour markets in eight major Asian economies, including Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Vietnam, India and Malaysia. It examines the type of labour markets that exist in Asia; how they have responded to globalisation; and how flexible they are to changing social and economic conditions. The book analyses how the current transformation has impacted on the key parties, such as employers, employees, trade unions, governments, organisations and society as a whole, and considers the likely future trends and developments in Asian labour markets.

First published in 1987, this Routledge Revival reissues the first systematic and integrated analysis of working time and employment, reaching to the core elements of a vital area of labour economics. It offers both a comprehensive analysis of the impact of workweek reductions on employment and hours as well as a thorough coverage of part-time employment, temporary lay-offs, short-time working, labour subsidies, social security funding, mandatory and early retirement and collective bargaining. This book provides the first comprehensive attempt to examine carefully the key economic issues involved in the general policy debate on working time and employment. This reissue will be of serious interest to advanced undergraduates, post-graduates and researchers in labour economics, and will also be relevant to the interests in labour microeconomics, macroeconomics, business economics and management studies.

This book provides a concise and accessible history of the relationship between the individual and capitalism in the United States. The text is devoted to tracking the historical development of important themes, whilst addressing key episodes in the progress of American capitalism within these, such as the Great Depression and New Deal. The book will introduce students to the key philosophical principles that have been the most influential in the history of free enterprise in the United States as well as exploring the ways in which these ideas have been popularly understood by Americans from the late eighteenth century to the present. Liberalism and Neoliberalism, entrepreneurialism, slavery and racial capitalism, and business and gender are all assessed. The material in this volume is complimented by a set of primary source documents that bring the subject to life. It will be of interest to students of American history, business and labor history.

Alexander Monto looks at how labor migration flows from Mexico to the United States are directed and structured, and what changes they bring in the sending and receiving communities. He places cyclical migration in the context of historical and economic developments in Mexico and the United States, and he concludes that the circulatory movement is an element in the well-established world economic system that has endured for a hundred years. Monto focuses on one Mexican town with high migrancy and on one of its migrants' main destinations, Salinas, California. He describes the network linking the two communities, which migrants use to maximize employment, minimize expenses, and return with the proceeds to Mexico, where they will be able to buy more. Monto finds that although macrosocial factors create the economic polarization that propels migration, the migrants are not merely pawns being pushed and pulled; instead, they use circulatory migration as one of several options selected according to their role in their domestic group and the group's particular needs. He concludes that this labor circulation is not a transitional phase bound to disappear when Mexico's workforce is converted to wage laborers, but a permanent, institutionalized component of Mexico's periphery-core relationship to the United States. In the next few years, predicts Monto, the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement, together with agricultural consolidation already underway in Mexico, will probably augment rather than reduce migration.

Labor and Politics in the U.S. Postal Service grew out of concern for the way a large public organization does its work. It reflects my effort to link experience working as a letter carrier and mail collector with subsequent years of study in the field of organizational sociology. The final product is an academic book that certainly reveals great distance from experience in the postal workplace, but I must confess that the book still presents more a view from the bottom than a view from the top of the post office. I hope this view proves beneficial. It turns out that studying the post office has become an ongoing project that has outlived several jobs, relationships, and hairlines. What originated as a historical study of the 1970 reorganization became an analysis of the causes and consequences of an ongoing process of re structuring and technological change in the post office. Fortunately for me, similar restructurings have recently occurred in organizations and industries across the nation and around the world. The competitive pressures, new technologies, and political and class-based conflicts dis cussed in this book are perhaps more relevant today than they were in the late 1970s when I began research on the post office."

This volume rests on three thematic pillars: the limits of conventional macroeconomics; the long-run agenda of structural transformation and the development of capabilities. Islam and Kucera highlight the tenuous links of conventional macroeconomics with core development concerns. The chapters of this book enunciate an empirical approach to track the various sources of structural transformation and nurture the thesis that investment in infrastructure leads to the inculcation of capabilities, broadly defined to include knowledge accumulation, dissemination and application. The editors reinterpret social protection from the perspective of inclusive development and structural transformation. The volume examines secular trends in the functional distribution of income and explores their possible macroeconomic consequences by developing a two-country macroeconomic model for open economies. It seeks to establish whether growing inequality in many countries combined with stagnant real incomes is one of the sources of the global and financial crisis of 2007-2009.

This book consists of four parts: I. Labour demand and supply, II. Productivity slowdown and innovative activity, III. Disequilibrium and business cycle analysis, and IV. Time series analysis of output and employment. It presents a fine selection of articles in the growing field ofthe empirical analysis of output and employment fluctuations with applications in a micro-econometric or a time-series framework. The time-series literature recently has emphasized the careful testing for stationarity and nonlinearity in the data, and the importance of cointegration theory. An essential part of the papers make use of parametric and non-parametric methods developed in this literature and mostly connect their results to the hysteresis discussion about the existence of fragile equilibria. A second set of macro approaches use the disequilibrium framework that has found so much interest in Europe in recent years. The other papers use newly developed methods for microdata, especially qualitative data or limited dependent variables to study microeconomic models of behaviour that explain labour market and output decisions.

This book has three purposes. First, to convince professional economists who study the behaviour of the economic system as a whole that they must re-examine some of the assumptions behind the reigning economic theories. Second, to explain to the general public why the currently fashionable economic policies cannot solve the problem of massive long term unemployment. Third, to show that if people's political engagement is revived there is hope for escaping from the economic morass and moral wasteland into which, ever since the 1970s, the fashionable policies have been leading us. To elucidate the theoretical problem the authors pass in review several recent structural developments and consider their effect on the economy. To encourage renewed public political engagement they draw attention to the risks involved in allowing things to drift on in the present direction. The avowed purpose of the book imposes the need to present it in a manner accessible at once to professional macroeconomists and to a wider public ofpeople concerned about today's malaise, politicians, sociologists or philosophers and others. This imposes the need not to encumber readers with the customary glut of academic references in the text, and to refer only to the best known and politically most influential theories and to authors who are also widely known to people who are not professional economists.