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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Work & labour
This edited collection provides a series of accounts of workers' local experiences that reflect the ubiquity of work's digitalisation. Precarious gig economy workers ride bikes and drive taxis in China and Britain; call centre workers in India experience invasive tracking; warehouse workers discover that hidden data has been used for layoffs; and academic researchers see their labour obscured by a 'data foam' that does not benefit them. These cases are couched in historical accounts of identity and selfhood experiments seen in the Hawthorne experiments and the lineage of automation. This book will appeal to scholars in the Sociology of Work and Digital Labour Studies and anyone interested in learning about monitoring and surveillance, automation, the gig economy and the quantified self in the workplace.
EURAM's Book of the Year in 2020, Hierarchy takes readers on a journey which traverses how this idea has evolved, is understood in various disciplines, and is applied in practice. Referring a wide range of sources, the book provides an inspirational introduction to understanding what is perhaps the key idea in business and management. As a fundamental organizational principle, hierarchy is everywhere. Perhaps because of its ubiquity, the significance of hierarchy has become under-analyzed in view of the growing strains on society imposed by organizational inequality. This book analyzes the advantages and disadvantages that hierarchy brings as a form of organization, providing an accessible overview of this fundamental idea within both business and society. This concise book provides a useful overview of existing research, for both students and scholars of business.
In Latino Professionals in America, Maria Chavez combines rich qualitative interviews, auto-ethnographic accounts, and policy analysis to explore the converging oppressions that make it difficult for Latinos to become professionals and to envision themselves as successful in those professions. Recounting her own story, Chavez interviews 31 Latino professionals from across the nation in a variety of occupations and careers, contextualizing their experiences amid family struggles and ongoing racism in the United States. She addresses gender inequality within the Latino community, arguing that by defending, rationalizing, or ignoring patriarchy within the Latino community perpetuates systems of oppression-especially for women; gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals; and others at the intersections. The experiences of these Latino professionals and the author's analysis provide a blueprint for what works-one, both pragmatic and hopeful, that uses real lives to illustrate how a combination of public policies, people, and perseverance increases the presence of America's fastest-growing demographic group in the professional class.
In Latino Professionals in America, Maria Chavez combines rich qualitative interviews, auto-ethnographic accounts, and policy analysis to explore the converging oppressions that make it difficult for Latinos to become professionals and to envision themselves as successful in those professions. Recounting her own story, Chavez interviews 31 Latino professionals from across the nation in a variety of occupations and careers, contextualizing their experiences amid family struggles and ongoing racism in the United States. She addresses gender inequality within the Latino community, arguing that by defending, rationalizing, or ignoring patriarchy within the Latino community perpetuates systems of oppression-especially for women; gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals; and others at the intersections. The experiences of these Latino professionals and the author's analysis provide a blueprint for what works-one, both pragmatic and hopeful, that uses real lives to illustrate how a combination of public policies, people, and perseverance increases the presence of America's fastest-growing demographic group in the professional class.
Within contemporary culture, 'leadership' is seen in ways that appeal to celebrated societal values and norms. As a result, it is becoming difficult to use the language of leadership without at the same time assuming its essentially positive, intrinsically affirmative nature. Within organizations, routinely referring to bosses as 'leaders' has, therefore, become both a symptom and a cause of a deep, largely unexamined new conceptual architecture. This architecture underpins how we think about authority and power at work. Capitalism, and its turbo-charged offspring neo-liberalism, have effectively captured 'leader' and 'leadership' to serve their own purposes. In other words, organizational leadership today is so often a particular kind of insidious conservativism dressed up in radical adjectives. This book makes visible the work that the language of leadership does in perpetuating fictions that are useful for bosses of work organizations. We do this so that we - and anyone who shares similar discomforts - can make a start in unravelling the fiction. We contend that even if our views are contrary to the vast and powerful leadership industry, our basic arguments rest on things that are plain and evident for all to see. Critical Perspectives on Leadership: The Language of Corporate Power will be key reading for students, academics and practitioners in the disciplines of Leadership, Organizational Studies, Critical Management Studies, Sociology and the related disciplines.
Politics is an aspect of everyday life within organizations, and is a force that inhibits individual and collective behaviour. If not fully understood, it can impede organizational change and development. In order to minimise the political aspects of organizational dynamics there is a need to understand the extent to which organizational culture brings about politicised conformance and how individuals shape their behaviour through self-interest to conform-sense-giving and sense-making nexus-thus moderating the degree of change initiatives. The Politics of Organizational Change explores the relationship between self-interest, power, politics and managing organizational change from a theoretical perspective. It encourages the fundamental questioning of the relationship between self-interest, power and control inherent within organizational change, and discusses the attendant implications for managing change. It will be of value to those who require a text that goes beyond set patterns of coverage found in textbooks dealing with managing change.
This book explores the 'backstage' of transnational legal practice by illuminating the routines and habits that are crucial to the field, yet rarely studied. Through innovative discussion of practices often considered trivial, the book encourages readers to conceptualise the 'backstage' as emblematic of transnational legal practice. Expanding the focus of transnational legal scholarship, the book explores the seemingly mundane procedures which are often taken for granted, despite being widely recognized as part of what it means to 'do transnational law'. Adopting various methodologies and approaches, each chapter focuses on one specific practice: for example, mooting exercises for law students, international travel, transnational time, the social media activities of lawyers and legal scholars, and the networking at the ICC's annual Assembly of States Parties. In and of themselves, these chapters each provide unique insights into what happens before the curtain rises and after it falls on the familiar 'outputs' of transnational law. It does more, however, than provide a range of different practices: it takes the next step in theorizing on the importance of the marginal and the everyday for what we 'know' to be 'the law' and what the international legal field looks like. Furthermore, by interrogating undiscussed academic practices, it provides students with a candid view on the perils and promises of transnational legal scholarship, inviting them to join the discussion and to practice their discipline in a more reflexive way. Written in an accessible format, containing a readable collection of personal and recognizable accounts of transnational legal practice, the book provides an everyday insight into transnational law. It will therefore appeal to international legal scholars, alongside any reader with an interest in transnational law.
This widely acclaimed book, first published in 1974, was a classic from its first day in print. Written in a direct, inviting way by Harry Braverman, whose years as an industrial worker gave him rich personal insight into work, Labor and Monopoly Capital overturned the reigning ideologies of academic sociology. This new edition features an introduction by John Bellamy Foster that sets the work in historical and theoretical context, as well as two rare articles by Braverman, "The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century" (1975) and "Two Comments" (1976), that add much to our understanding of the book.
Originally published in 1990. Why has the pattern of ownership in British industry changed so dramatically in recent years? This high-level and wide-ranging discussion on the developments of the industrial scene in Britain investigates why such changes have occurred, and explores their impact on management and work relations. The contributors consider whether this trend will continue, arguing that these changes will have far-reaching consequences for both western and eastern political economies in the twenty-first century. This title will be of interest to students of business, economics and management.
In this title, first published in 1987, the author discusses the economic and industrial circumstances in Britain under which profit-sharing and co-partnership came into being. He explores the merits and drawbacks of the system as both advocates and opponents saw them, the motivations of employers in introducing profit-sharing schemes, and the implementing of such notable schemes as that of Lever Brothers, a multinational corporation based in Britain. The author also assesses the role of profit-sharing and co-partnership in the development of modern management practices and industrial relations.
First published in 1975, Workers' Participation in Industry provides a fresh perspective on a highly significant issue. Its principal argument is that developments in workers' participation and control cannot be satisfactorily understood except by reference to broader questions concerning the exercise of power in industry and in society at large. The book's approach is sociological and explanatory, and it is written for the general reader as well as for students and specialists on both sides of industry.
This title, originally published in 1986, explores the political and economic conditions of the 1980s, and reflects the world-wide interest in industrial democracy. Each chapter analyses the main adaptations in policy, theory and experimentation that have occurred in industrial democracy in the 1980s. In particular, the role of managers is examined in depth and detail, since these personnel have been responsible for a number of recent initiatives. The themes covered are vital for all those seeking new directions in the reform of modern industrial relations in the late 1980s and into the 1990s.
This work, originally published in 1989, examines a highly important phenomenon: the growth of profit-sharing and share-ownership schemes for employees within the company. The Origins of Economic Democracy traces the origins and developments of such schemes internationally, and presents an explanatory framework for understanding their emergence. Both legislation and economic conditions play key roles in determining the popularity of such schemes for companies and their employees. The subject of profit-sharing is of vital importance to companies endeavouring to improve their financial performance while increasing the degree of job satisfaction and organizational loyalty of staff members.
This book, first published in 1973, sets out the reason why workers' control is the necessary alternative to the present system. It describes the struggle of the workers through their organizations to achieve a greater control over their lives; and it discusses the practical steps which need to be taken to achieve complete workers' control. Practicality is the keynote of this book, which starts from the reality of the 1970's and progresses towards the essence of socialism - workers' control.
The book, first published in 1983, examined whether the Yugoslavs' extensive implementation of their principle of self-management by small work units was costly in terms of economic efficiency. Were they atomizing their firms into inefficiently small fragments? Was the system of worker self-management appropriate only for small firms? Can a modern industrial enterprise of efficient scale, indeed very large scale, by run that way? In order to answer these questions, the author applies to large firms in former Yugoslavia the transactions cost analysis developed by the economist Oliver Williamson.
The object of this study, originally published in 1972, consists in developing, against the background of Yugoslav theory and practice, a general theory of the behaviour of economic productive units (the enterprises), managed by those who work therein (the workers or producers) whose reward for work in their share in the group's net income. This title will be of interest to students of employee ownership and economic democracy.
This title, originally published in 1925, provides a scientific exploration of some of the forms of co-operative organisation which had attained considerable development in other countries, but were little known to English students of the movement. This account of the co-operative movement in Italy will be of interest to students of economic democracy and economic history.
Originally published in 1978. The present study had grown out of the deliberations of wage policy at the 1971 Congress of LO, the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions. For many years the LO had pursued a policy of solidarity in wage policy - a policy which sought to relate pay to the nature of the work which an employee carried out, and not to the capacity or ability of the employer to pay. Several issues related to this policy are explored. This study was extremely controversial when first published in Sweden, and will therefore be of great interest to students of economic history and democracy.
This study, first published in 1997, examines the relationship between the style of management used and the level of productivity, measured in terms of the organization's financial stability. Other variables examined include the age of the top level managers, their educational level, the size and age of the organization, and the organization's physical parameters. By determining whether or not productivity is affected by the use of a participative style of management, the author is laying the groundwork for making companies more competitive.
This book mainly analyzes the major issues at all phases of the transition of urban-rural relation, as well as measures adopted by the transition launcher in face of such issues, including not only the system and policy design of the national and local government, but the countermeasures of basic-level units at urban and rural areas and the people. Through reference of the social structure and social behavior, it proposes "opportunity structures", "interactive mechanism" and "behavior strategies" for different periods, which to some degree promotes the transition of urban-rural relation and brings in new, more complicated issues for the development. It is under the impact of such new and existing issues that big problem follows when the urban-rural relation steps onto a new stage, showing several paths and practices different from the general urbanization and modernization theories.
This book captures a range of important developments that have occurred in Information Systems over the last forty years, with a particular focus on India and the developing world. Over this time, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Information Systems (IS) have come to play a critical role in supporting, complementing and automating managerial decisions, shaping and transforming industries, and contributing to deep societal and economic change. This volume examines a range of topics for those interested in the adoption and use of these technologies across varied situations. It combines empirical studies on the application and impact of IS with commentaries, debates and insights on the transformative role that IT and the IT industry have played, and continue to play, within India as well as globally. The book draws attention to issues and challenges that organizations grapple with in tech-enabled environments, and provides insights on the role of automation and computational techniques. It explores the global impact of the technology revolution on economic growth and development, electronic globalization, and the wider opportunities and challenges of a hi-tech world. The chapters cover various themes such as e-government in India, internet-based distribution systems, internet banking, and use of collaborative IT tools and functions to support virtual teams in the software industry and the business process outsourcing industry. Other chapters focus on methodological advances, such as systems thinking which finds applications in organizational decision-making, and the use of fuzzy logic. This volume will interest professionals and scholars of information technology and information systems, computer studies, IT systems, economics, and business and management studies.
The subject of women as skilled workers in the eighteenth century is central to our understanding of the history of work and technology in the preindustrial age. While recent scholarship has dispelled the notion that women did not enter the workforce until the Industrial Revolution, debate continues as to the extent to which women actually participated in skilled work in the preceding decades. This book draws upon substantial archival research in Rouen, Lyon, and Paris to show that while the vast majority of working women in eighteenth-century France labored at unskilled, low-paying jobs, it was not at all unusual for women to be actively engaged in economic activities as workers, managers, and merchants. Some even developed vertically integrated wholesale and retail businesses, while others became indispensable to manufacturers through their technical skill. In fact, Hafter documents how certain women guild masters were able to exploit the legal system to achieve considerable economic independence, power, wealth, and legal parity with male masters. She also shows how gender politics complicated the day-to-day experience of these working women.
The Midwest experienced an upheaval over labor rights beginning in the winter of 2011. For most commentators, the fallout in the Midwest and unions' weak showing in the 2016 presidential election a few years later was just more evidence of labor's emaciated state. In Heartland Blues, Marc Dixon provides a new perspective on union decline by revisiting the labor movement at its historical peak in the late 1950s. Drawing on social movement theories and archival materials, he analyzes campaigns over key labor policies as they were waged in the heavily unionized states of Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin-the very same states at the center of more recent battles over labor rights. He shows how many of the key ingredients necessary for less powerful groups to succeed, including effective organization and influential political allies, were not a given for labor at the time, but instead varied in important ways across the industrial heartland. Thus, the labor movement's social and political isolation and their limited responses to employer mobilization became a death knell in the ensuing decades, as unions sought organizational and legislative remedies to industrial decline and the rising anti-union tide. Showing how labor rights have been challenged in significant ways in the industrial Midwest in the 1950s, Heartland Blues both identifies enduring problems for labor and forces scholars to look beyond size when seeking clues to labor's failures and successes.
Originally published in 1976. This study deals with crime as social history in Germany and France during the nineteenth century. It establishes the broad statistical patterns of crime over the century so that the crime phenomenon can be analysed in the light of the other main trends of economic and social life. One basic concern is the relationship between crime and economic condition. The second main issue is to establish whether specifically rural and urban patterns of crime can be isolated. The third main concern is to establish whether any relationship existed between patterns of delinquency and the social upheaval which accompanied industrialisation and urbanisation. These three main issues continue as important questions in considering modern day crime. Nineteenth century Germany and France provide an excellent context in which to examine them because of the substantial urbanisation and industrialisation which occurred between 1830 and 1914. As well as providing an important contribution to the history of nineteenth century society this book also indicates important lessons for the contemporary world.
In recent years, a critically oriented sub-stream of research on Muslim consumers and businesses has begun to emerge. This scholarship, located both within and outside the marketing field, adopts a socio-culturally situated approach to Islam and investigates the complex and multifaceted intersections between Islam and markets. This book seeks to reflect various unheard and emerging critical voices from within the Muslim world, and provide a series of critical insights on how, if and why Islam matters to marketing theory and practice. It questions the existing assumptions and polarising discussions which underpin the portrayal of Islam as the 'other' of Modernity, while acknowledging that Muslims themselves are partially responsible for creating stereotyped representations of Islam and 'the Muslim'. This wide-ranging and insightful collection will advance emerging critical perspectives, and provide new insights that will influence the generation and application of knowledge in the context of Muslim societies. It will open up fresh conversations for scholars in marketing as well as the broader humanities and social sciences. |
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