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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Work & labour
This book examines cooperation among rival partners in a Northeastern US corporate law firm. Members are portrayed as interdependent entrepreneurs who build social niches in their firm, and both cultivate and mitigate status competition among themselves. This behaviour generates informal social mechanisms that help a flat organization to govern itself. The resulting theory of the collegial organization generalizes its results to partnerships, larger multinational professional services firms, and collegial pockets in flattening bureaucracies.
This book is a comprehensive look at the results of a study, done under the auspices of Kent State University, that explored the attitudes, beliefs, and life orientation of 253 women between the ages of 25 and 45. Depending upon the amount of employment that the subjects' mothers had outside the home while the subjects were growing up, the adult subjects responded to questions of adjustment to life, overall sense of well-being, emotional stability, and sense of self-fulfillment. The overwhelming response was that women whose mothers had worked while they were growing up were more likely to suffer from depression, to feel less effective as parents, and to report less satisfaction with their parenting skills, careers, and life in general. Contrary to perceived notions of family adjustment to working mothers, day care, and women's liberation, this study forces us to respond to the warning signals issued by a generation of the daughters of working mothers. While Sugar's findings are clear and unambiguous, she provides ample information for the reader to explore other interpretations of the data and the cause and possible solutions.
A major force in American society, the work ethic has played a pivotal role in U.S. history, affecting cultural, social, and economic institutions. But what is the American work ethic? Not only has it changed from one era to another, but it varies with race, gender, and occupation. Considering such diverse groups as Colonial craftsmen, slaves, 19th century women, and 20th century factory workers, this book provides a history of the American work ethic from Colonial times to the present. Tracing both continuities and differences, the book is divided into sections on the Colonial era, the 19th century and the 20th century and includes chapters on both major occupational groups, such as farmers, factory workers, laborers, and gender, racial, and ethnic minorities. This approach, which covers all major groups in U.S. history, enables the reader to discern how the work ethic applied to different occupational and ethnic groups over time. The book subjects the work ethic to an analysis based on historical, sociological, economic, and anthropological perspectives and provides an analysis of current thinking about how the work ethic applied to various groups and classes in different historical periods.
The purpose of the book is to devise an alternative conceptual vocabulary for studying innovation by stressing the role of social, contextual and cultural perspectives. This vocabulary is drawn on a service and on sociological perspectives on innovation based on the ontological assumption that innovation is a value co-creation matter and that it takes place in a reality that is multiple, constructed and socially embedded. The aim is to tackle key issues such as social construction, service innovation, knowledge and learning processes, value (co) creation, innovating and innovation activities networking and collaborative innovation.
South Africa is a rapidly urbanising society. Over 60% of the population lives in urban areas and this will rise to more than 70% by 2030. However, it is also a society with a long history of labour migration, rural home-making and urban economic and residential insecurity. Thus, while the formal institutional systems of migrant labour and the hated pass laws were dismantled after apartheid, a large portion of the South African population remains double-rooted in the sense that they have an urban place of residence and access to a rural homestead to which they periodically return and often eventually retire. This reality, which continues to have profound impacts on social cohesion, family life, gender relations, household investment, settlement dynamic and political identity formation, is the main focus of this book. Migrant Labour after Apartheid focuses on internal migrants and migration, rather than cross border migration into South Africa. It cautions against a linear narrative of change and urban transition. The book is divided into two parts. The first half investigates urbanisation processes from the perspective of internal migration. Several of the chapters make use of recently available survey data collected in a national longitudinal study to describe patterns and trends in labour migration, the economic returns to migration, and the links between the migration of adults and the often-ignored migration of children. The last three chapters of this section shine a spotlight on conditions of migrant workers in destination areas by focusing on Marikana and mining on the platinum belt. The second half of the book explores the double rootedness of migrants through the lens of the rural hinterland from which migration often occurs. The chapters here focus on the Eastern Cape as a case study of a region from which (particularly longer-distance) labour migration has been very common. The contributions describe the limited opportunities for livelihood strategies in the countryside, which encourage outmigration, but also note the accelerated rates of household investment, especially in the built environment in the former homelands.
This book analyzes the effects of wives' employment on the economic status of families, using both descriptive and empirical research. The historical and socio-economic causes of change in the employment status of wives and husbands are detailed. The empirical studies respond to some basic questions about dual-earner families: How does having an employed wife influence family lifestyles? What effects do dual-earners have on the finances of their households and on the distribution of income? What policy changes are needed to recognize the economic importance of dual-earner families? In Working Wives and Dual-Earner Families, one-earner and dual-earner families are differentiated, with particular attention to the impact of wives' employment status (full-time or part-time) on household decision making. Among the most interesting research findings are: total family income or tax bracket and the cost of child care are among the critical determinants of dual-earner employment; married-couple families at the same level of income have very similar expenditure patterns regardless of whether the wife is employed; full-time working wives make the distribution of income less equal, but part-time working wives generate greater equality in the distribution of income; families with full-time working wives have higher income, but they do not save more or have greater financial assets than other families; families with part-time employed wives are similar to those with non-employed wives and differ from families with full-time employed wives. The authors conclude that the real incomes of dual-earner families will continue to grow, as one-earner real income remains the same or declines. Household planning and decision making will increasingly be predicated upon having two earners, which will be perceived as the norm. Dual-earner families, based on amenities, mobility, growing families, and demands for public goods, will drive private markets and public policy.
This book aims at presenting a conceptual apparatus and empirical analysis of the ways Nordic civil society is affected by social transformations by focusing on the Norwegian case. The Norwegian empirical focus allows identifying processes and factors of change that are relevant outside this context and enable us to understand, on a more general basis, the relationship between social transformations and transformations affecting the voluntary sector. This book will make an original contribution to the field of comparative civil society studies both by increasing the available knowledge on the Nordic civil society model and by analyzing the societal transformations affecting civil society over time.
Office, home, and the balance between them. When significant numbers of college-educated American women began, in the early twenty-first century, to leave paid work to become stay-at-home mothers, an emotionally charged national debate erupted. Karine Moe and Dianna Shandy, a professional economist and an anthropologist, respectively, decided to step back from the sometimes overheated rhetoric around the so-called mommy wars. They wondered what really inspired women to opt out, and they wanted to gauge the phenomenon's genuine repercussions. ""Glass Ceilings and 100-Hour Couples"" is the fruit of their investigation - a rigorous, accessible, and sympathetic reckoning with this hot-button issue in contemporary life. Drawing on hundreds of interviews from around the country, original survey research, and national labor force data, Moe and Shandy refocus the discussion of women who opt out from one where they are the object of scrutiny to one where their aspirations and struggles tell us about the far broader swath of American women who continue to juggle paid work and family. Moe and Shandy examine the many pressures that influence a woman's decision to resign, reduce, or reorient her career. These include the mismatch between child-care options and workplace demands, the fact that these women married men with demanding careers, the professionalization of stay-at-home motherhood, and broad failures in public policy. But Moe and Shandy are equally attentive to the resilience of women in the face of life decisions that might otherwise threaten their sense of self-worth. Moe and Shandy find, for instance, that women who have downsized their careers stress the value of social networks - of 'running with a pack of smart women' who've also chosen to emphasize motherhood over paid work.
This book looks at the routine taken-for-granted features of work as experienced by professional women in bureaucratic environments. It shows why these trivial features are not trivial, but add up to a good part of what all work is composed of. Finally, it considers why the women interviewed in this study encountered and experienced their professional careers in the ways they did. There are many books on the general subject of women at work and the sociology of work, but few deal with what the work consists of, how it is accomplished, what one needs to know to undertake it competently, and how it is experienced by the worker. This book deals with all these issues, and more, that are typically overlooked in the literature on women at work in particular and on work in general.
Gender often influences the type of occupation that individuals choose, as well as the way they work and the outcomes of that work. Home-based employment is no different. The proximity of these workers to their families' living activities provides an unique opportunity to study the effects of work-at-home on family interaction and the role that gender plays in this traditionally female-dominated situation. The chapters provide a range of gender considerations from the perspectives of the workers and the workers' families, with emphasis on either the workers, the family, or the work/business. The first chapter provides an overview of the subjects being covered and defines several of the concepts used. The range of viewpoints is extensive: Chapter 2 considers home-based employment from a global perspective, while Chapter 8 narrows the focus to one particular location and type of home-based worker. Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 7 examine in various ways the data from a 9-state study, basing their analyses in theoretical and conceptual frameworks related to gender. Chapter 6 explores the dilemma of parents who have to hire child care in order to complete their home-based work. Also included are recommendations for public policy considerations.
This book reinvigorates the debate about the origins and development of police culture within our changing social, economic and political landscape. An in-depth analysis and appreciation of the police socialisation, identity and culture literature is combined with a comprehensive four-year longitudinal study of new recruits to a police force in England. The result offers new insights into the development of, and influences upon, new police recruits who refer to themselves as a "new breed" of police officer. Adding significantly to the police culture literature, this original and empirically based research also provides valuable insights into the challenges of modern policing in an age of austerity. Scholars of policing and criminal justice, as well as police officers themselves will find this compelling reading.
Major political and economic shifts have marked the turn into the 21st century: the collapse of the Soviet bloc; the rise to prominence of ecological issues; social changes generated by globalization; and, most recently, one of the worst world financial crises ever. These developments compel us to examine the capitalist system with a critical eye and to reflect on the need for alternatives. The 150th anniversary of the birth of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA) (1864-2014) offers an important opportunity to compare present mainstream paradigms and the political platform developed by the IWA in order to better address our contemporary crisis?] and theorize solutions. This sourcebook introduces and contextualizes the most valuable notes and proceedings from these legendary meetings, and includes letters and commentary surrounding the events themselves, many appearing for the first time in English. The carefully compiled materials reach beyond Marx's writings through the history of the IWA to include the cooperative movement, trade union reformism, collectivism, and anarchism. In his introductions to these texts, acclaimed scholar Marcello Musto provides accessible critical evaluations and explanations. The text also highlights how certain themes--self-emancipation of the working class versus communist vanguardism and the taking of political power to achieve social ends versus oppressive Soviet-style state control--find sharp discontinuity between Marx's thought as a political leader of the IWA and the tradition of Soviet Marxism. Carefully selected and painstakingly translated, this volume is an invaluable resource for all those interested in the foundations of modern political and labor history.
This expertly prepared policy issues handbook surveys the changing workplace and the failures of America's public health and education systems to prepare the future work force to compete at home and abroad. Carl Stenberg and William Colman analyze the key issues; review a mass of information, ideas, and insights about policy options that are available; and assess their pros and cons. Students, teachers, administrators, policymakers, and concerned citizens will find a wealth of clearly presented data along with careful analyses of the major proposals for reform. Figures, tables, short summaries, appendices, bibliographical aids, and a full index make this one-volume landmark reference accessible to researchers and readers at different levels and for varied use.
Contributions to this volume review, in international perspective, the European social model of collective bargaining, minimum wages, employment rights, and social welfare support, which is seen as both cause and cure for joblessness and low-wage employment in Europe. They find that collective bargaining and minimum wages protect vulnerable workers, while wage flexibility is not economically effective in creating jobs for the low-skilled.
This volume describes and maps congregations of Christian confessions and denominations, as well as groups with Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, and various other spiritual faiths, in different European countries. Consisting of three parts, it presents concrete sociological studies addressing how established and not established, old and new congregations of various faiths create a new kind of religious diversity at the country level; how religious congregations are challenged and thrive in large cities; and how religious congregations change in the 21st century. The book enlightens by its descriptive analysis and the theoretical questions it raises concerning the religious transformations happening all over Europe. It addresses issues of religious diversity in the cities of Europe by presenting large studies conducted in cities such as Barcelona in Spain, and Aarhus in Denmark. By means of large-scale censuses taken in areas such as North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany and in countries like Switzerland and Italy, the book shows how the historically established churches restructure their congregations and activities. It clarifies for the new gatherers where and how a new diversity of religious congregations is in the process of being established. Finally, the book covers two important topical issues: pluralisation and secularisation. It provides new data on religious diversity, painting a new picture of secularisation: the impact and structural consequences of the long-term decrease of membership in the established churches.
This book presents the most recent theoretical insights and practical intervention methods to (re)build trust between management and organized employees in organizations. Offering a multidisciplinary perspective on trust and conflict management in organizations, the book draws from diverse fields such as organizational psychology, business, law, industrial relations and sociology. It examines the often encountered breaches of trust between management and organized workers, and the resulting destructive social conflicts, social actions, strikes or dramatic business decisions. Its focus is on trust and conflict management at the organizational level in an industrial relations context: that of employee representatives and management. The book introduces a new theoretical approach: the Tree of Trust, designed to analyse and mediate the interconnected levels of trust and distrust in industrial relations. It presents case studies and practical recommendations to build trust and constructive conflict management in the organizations, and illustrates these by means of experiences from different countries around the globe.
This volume explores the issues of convergence and divergence in alternative agrifood movements through a theoretical and empirical engagement of the topic by notable agrifood researchers from Europe, North America and South America. It probes the degree to which the numerous alternative agrifood movements that have emerged in recent years in response to the legitimation crisis of conventional agriculture have converged around a central alternative thesis or pursued divergent paths of development. Some alternative agrifood movements represent radical critiques of conventional agriculture that challenge the existing system while other movements engage in reformist and accommodative approaches that are viewed as complimentary. The book begins with chapters that enhance the theoretical discussions on the pathways and obstacles to convergence followed by empirical case studies on organics, food sovereignty, landless workers, alternative food systems, and food policy councils.
When Congress enacted Social Secuirty in 1935, with the age of retirement set at age 65, average life expectancy was 62 years. By the time Medicare was enacted 30 years later, life expectancy had risen to age 70. Since the enactment of Medicare, life expectancy has risen to age 76 today and may be expected to increase further in the decades to come. Clearly, the increase in post-retirement life expectancy has significant implications for the level of national expenditures attributable to an aging population. One of the approaches suggested as a solution to the so-called income transfer problem is to redefine old age, that is, to push retirement and its associated benefits off to a later age. This would effectively increase the size of the workforce, with older workers continuing to contribute their payroll taxes for an extended period of time. The critical question Sicker poses is, will there be enough appropriate employment opportunities for a growing number of older workers in the workforce of the future? The evidence for a positive response is far from clear or compelling. Sicker examines the prospective place of the aging worker in the employment environment of the 21st century in light of the restructuring of American business and the world of work in the final decades of the last century. In doing so, he raises serious concerns about the validity and utility of some of the neoclassical economic ideas and assumptions that have become part of the conventional wisdom of our time. Sicker contends that these dubious propositions have unwittingly contributed signficantly to the problem through their manifestation in public policy. However, the principal focus of his analysis is not on economic theory as such, but on the realities and uncertainties that an aging American workforce will face in the decades to come. This book is significant reading for scholars, researchers, and the general public interested in labor force and aging policy issues.
The practice of consultation between senior managers and employee representatives has a long history in British employment relations yet has often been overshadowed by discussions on collective bargaining. In the last few decades, the importance of consultation has been elevated by two main trends: the decline in trade union membership and the retreat from collective bargaining in the private sector on the one hand, with the result that consultation may be the only form of collective employee voice available; and the programme of legislative support for consultation by the European Union since the 1970s on the other. The book charts the meaning and development of consultation in the twentieth century and explores the justifications for the practice. It shows how EU intervention to promote consultation evolved and changed, paying particular attention to the adoption of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations, which became fully operational in enterprises with 50 or more employees in 2008. Analysing the half-hearted response to EU consultation initiatives by the social partners in Britain, it provides a critical assessment of successive UK governments' handling of the issue. Drawing on the authors' empirical research in twenty-five organizations, the book closely examines the take-up and impact of consultation regulations, and explores the processes involved in effective consultation. Consultation at Work looks at the dynamics of consultation and draws a contrast between 'active' consultation of the type envisaged by the EU, and more limited consultation used as a means of communication. Discussing the UK experience in comparative perspectives, it asks what has to happen for the take-up of consultation to improve and suggests the changes that should be made to the EU Directive and UK ICE Regulations.
Drawing on interviews with nurses, social workers, exotic dancers and hairdressers, this book explores the processes involved in producing and reproducing gendered and classed workers and occupations.
To fully grasp Marx's theory of the labor movement, Lapides supplies a deeper insight into the economic analysis underlying it. This book presents Marx's theory of wages and wage labor, previously scattered throughout his writings, in its entirety for the first time. The author places the theory in its historical context, locating the sources of Marx's wage theory, its intellectual antecedents, and the roots of later controversies, but the primary focus of the work is the actual development of Marx's theory in the words in which he expressed it. In order to reveal the true nature and rich texture of Marx's thought, the author has assembled Marx's own formulations, scattered throughout his numerous works and buried beneath mountains of commentary and criticism. The book provides a faithful record of the complete evolutionary progress of Marx's theory.
The author presents us with the first collection of facts on the cultural aspects of food and eating among the Southern Bantu. She demonstrates conclusively that this universally neglected subject can and must be treated in the science of human civilization. This analysis considerably enlarges and deepens our conception of early human organization, especially in its economic aspect.
"The Sociology of Education and Work" is a clear and engaging study
of the links between schooling and the workplace in modern society.
It explains, in accessible and lively prose, how these links have
developed over time, what broad social trends are transforming them
now, and offers some empirically-based projections about how these
relationships are likely to develop in the future. This book adopts
a distinctly sociological perspective on these issues, while
drawing on the disciplines of history, economics, demography, and
policy analysis. It builds equally on the sociology of education
and the sociology of work.
Using a series of concepts and models including meritocracy, credentialism, postindustrial society, and the permanently new economy, this book encourages students to think about these issues sociologically. To bring life into these concepts, case examples are included to show the ways in which school and work "come together" in contemporary society. This book has brought together a wide body of literature for students studying education and work throughout the curriculum.
This 18-volume collection contains titles originally published between 1932 and 1996. It examines the world of women and their relationship to work across a variety of professions, including those thought of as traditionally 'male'. The majority of titles are from a sociological perspective, but the set also includes those from the fields of economics, history and psychology. This collection will be a great resource for those interested in women's studies.
A major reason complex programs are so difficult to evaluate is that the assumptions that inspire them are poorly articulated. Stakeholders of such programs are often unclear about how the change process will unfold. Thus, it is so difficult to reasonably anticipate the early and midterm changes that need to happen in order for a longer-term goalto be reached. The lack of clarity about the "mini-steps" that must be taken to reach a long-term outcome not only makes the task of evaluating a complex initiative challenging, but reduces the likelihood that all of the important factors related to the long term goal will be addressed. Most of the resources that have attempted to address this dilemma have been popularized as theory of change or sometimes program theory approaches. Although these approaches emphasize and elaborate the sequence of changes/mini steps that lead to the long-term goal of interest and the connections between program activities and outcomes that occur at each step of the way, they do not do enough to clarify how program managers or evaluators should deal with assumptions. Assumptions, the glue that holds all the pieces together, remain abstract and far from applicable. In this book the author tackles this important assumptions theme head-on-covering a breadth of ground from the epistemology of development assumptions, to the art of making logical assumptions as well as recognizing, explicit zing and testing assumptions with in an elaborate program theory from program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. |
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