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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Work & labour
This book questions the belief that patronage explains poor governance and weak organizations. Its focus is on high-level political appointees in the Philippines, but its implications for development processes and policy are far-reaching. Patronage stimulates the emergence of democracy and welfare, and constitutes formal organizations. So intimately connected is it with the health of democracy and effective organizations that attempts to eradicate patronage only harm social, organizational and democratic life. In developed societies this has meant a growing Puritanism interspersed with bouts of corruption and moral panic; and, as they seek to maintain effective organizations and vibrant democracies, a mounting desire to project their own anxieties and imperfections onto developing countries.
Focusing on Italy, this book discusses how women negotiate sexuality and social status in a Western sexscape constituted by multifaceted articulations of women's sexuality, commodities and modernity. Drawing from ethnographic research, this book brings together the narratives of Italian and migrant women pole dancing for leisure, women pole and lap dancing for work, as well as women selling sex. By tracing commonalities in women's processes of subjectivation and othering across the non/sex working women divide, the book foregrounds the intersecting structures of oppression under which women negotiate selfhood.
This book examines the possibilities, practices and consequences of digital disruption and networked economies in education policy. As traditional notions of learning and labour are abstracted by networked technologies, young people are exposed to new forms of governance and intervention. Tracing key education policy shifts from the turn of the millennium to the present day, this book explores notions of value, aspiration, and equity in the context of the rise of the networked economies and the 'end of work'. It argues that a policy focus on preparing young people for the future - a future that will be dominated by networked technologies - informs both what counts as 'success', and reorganises young people's orientation in the present in new commodified forms. In an era where the costs of higher education are rapidly increasing despite their relative decline in value, this book will resonate with scholars in youth and educational studies, as well as those with an interest in emerging forms of labour and work.
This book examines the precision farming revolution in Somerset, England. It reveals the reasons why local farmers invested in autonomous systems and traces the outcomes of adoption. It describes the local and global drivers of the fourth industrial revolution, from world population growth, climatic and ecological crises, profit driven farming and government agri-tech grants, to the Space Race era. A new cultural method of intelligence, ideas and thinking, new organisational and control powers, was precisely what precision farming offered farmers and off-farm firms, who were able to remotely monitor and control natural environments and aspects of on-farm activities. As a result of local farmers opting into precision farming systems the power dynamics of industrial agriculture were reorganised and this book will offer readers an understanding of how and why.
An Economic Philosophy of Production, Work and Consumption presents a new transhistorical framework of defining production, work and consumption. It shows that they all share the common feature of intentional physical transformation of something external to the agent, at some point in time. The book opens with a discussion of various theoretical traditions within economics, spanning mainstream and heterodox perspectives, and problems with production definitions in use today. Next, the author outlines various definitions in a more formal manner and provides a discussion on measurement and the production boundary. Unproductive work is redefined as socially reproductive, i.e. such that would not be performed on a Robinson Crusoe Island. Finally, the volume applies the new conceptual framework to various historical cases and discusses the future of production, work and consumption. This essential volume will be of interest to scholars of economic philosophy and methodology, the history of economic thought, economic history and national accounting. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
This book analyses the question of the right to the city, informal economies and the non-western shape of neoliberal governance in India through a new analytic: the right to sell. The book examines why and how states attempt to curb, control, and eliminate markets of urban informal street vendors. Focusing on Kolkata, the author provides a theoretical explanation of this puzzle by distilling and analysing the inherent tensions among the constitutive elements of neoliberal governance, namely, growth imperative, market activism, and corporatization, and demonstrates its implications for the formal/informal boundaries of the economy. A useful addition to the existing literatures on the right to the city, informal economies, and the shapes that neoliberalism takes in the non-west, the book provides a non-western counter to accounts of neoliberalism and will be of interest to academics working in the fields of South Asian Studies, Urban Studies, and Political Economy.
This book explores social productivity in work teams on production sites, with an eye toward human welfare. It focuses especially on "sympathy management" by the use of multivariate analysis in a worldwide social survey. Manufacturing production sites have many work teams, and their activities support productivity. Productivity, however, is evaluated only by the production system. Therefore, the social system's sympathy evaluation as teamwork in the work team is completely disregarded by management activity. Management recognizes this social system and must upgrade teamwork as a social system from tacit to explicit knowledge as an appraisal system. Thus, this new paradigm significantly contributes to industrial society beyond conventional management. The work team's social system functions in a production system and affects team productivity. Therefore, it must take a bird's-eye view of social productivity as an overall strategy. Social productivity has two appraisal criteria, the social system's sympathy and the production system's productivity. Increasing explicit knowledge of sympathy as teamwork requires the perspective of human-social science. Social productivity has been verified through global deployment by social research and case studies and contributes to humankind's welfare on sustainable development goals and ISO56000, an innovation management system. Social productivity can also decrease opportunity loss based on ignoring the social system of the work team.
This original analysis of modern Greece's political culture attempts to present a "total social fact"-a coherent and complex representation of Greek socio-political culture-to identify the cultural causes of Greece's recent disastrous economic crisis. Using a culturalist frame inspired by the Yale Strong Program, Marangudakis argues that the core cultural orientations of Greece have determined its politics-Greek secular culture flows out of the religion of Eastern Orthodoxy with its mysticism, icons, and general "ortherworldly-nesses." This theoretical discussion, bringing together Eisenstadt, Michael Mann, Banfield, and Taylor, is complemented by an innovative use of survey data, processed by political scientist and statistician Theodore Chadjipadelis. The carefully deployed quantitative data demonstrate that the culture previously described is actually shared by people living in Greece today. In his sweeping conclusion to this thorough cultural analysis, Marangudakis reflects on the prospects of Greek cultural recovery through the construction of a non-populist civil religion.
Important and broadening study of the way Africans engaged with missions, not as beneficiaries of humanitarian philanthropy, but as workers. The important role missions played as places of work has been underexplored, yet missionaries were some of the earliest Europeans who tried to control African labour. African mission workers' roles were not just religious and educational, as they were actively involved, not always voluntarily, in building and domestic work. Focusing on the Anglican Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) in Tanganyika and Zanzibar in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Michelle Liebst shows how missionaries both supported and undermined the livelihood trajectories of Africans. Revealing the changing nature of relations over time between missionaries - who referred to themselves as "workers" - and the African mission workers, including teachers and priests - whom missionaries referred to as "helpers" - reflected broader political transformations, and this innovative study of missions' role in society adds a critical dimension to our understanding of their function and socio-economic impact and the history of Christianity in Africa.
Crisis Management Strategy, first published in 1993, is an excellent introduction to the theory and practice of crisis management in modern enterprises. Simon Booth examines the conventional approaches followed by many firms in the face of change and crisis. He warns of the dangers of theories which oversimplify the causes of crisis and their possible solutions, and which overlook the individual nature of each firm and its environment. Instead, a dynamic new vision of crisis management is offered, which takes into account different kinds of crisis demanding diverse solutions. The key role of leadership is also evaluated in relation to both internally and externally generated crises. Drawing on case studies of leading firms facing crisis solutions in a variety of environments, this truly international volume will provide valuable insight into the experience of crisis, risk and uncertainty. This title will be of interest to students of business.
This edited collection explores building construction as an inspiring, yet often overlooked, place to develop new knowledge about the development of human societies. Eschewing dominant engineering and management perspectives on construction, the book is purposefully broad in its scope, both empirically and theoretically, as reflecting the rich underexplored potential of studies of building construction to inform a wide span of intellectual debates across the social science and humanities. The seven chapters encompass contributions to theories of: spatiotemporal organization with wildlife on building sites; institutional change with building ruins; home with Mexican self-help housing; place with a suburban housing development; socio-materiality with the adaptation of a university library; migrant labour with the Parisian postwar construction boom; and gender with a female site manager in Sweden. This book seeks to develop a new critical sub-area for construction studies that focuses on the actual processes and practices of 'constructing'. Bringing together diverse members of construction research communities working in a variety of contexts, it develops empirical engagements with building work to challenge its marginalization, relative to architectural studies, to provoke novel understandings of human history, geography and sociology.
This book explores the history and global expansion of AB Volvo, one of the hundred largest corporations in the world, through the experiences of its workers in Sweden, Mexico, South Africa, and India. It investigates how neo-liberalisation has transformed the company into a promoter of lean production, at the expense of the workers' needs.
This book explores all aspects of the sharing economy, pursuing a multidisciplinary approach encompassing Service Design, Spatial Design, Sociology, Economics, Law, and Transport and Operations Research. The book develops a unified vision of sharing services, and pinpoints the most important new challenges. The first, more theoretical part covers general topics from the perspectives of experts in the respective disciplines. Among the subjects addressed are the role of the user in co-design and co-production; impacts of sharing services on cities, communities, and private spaces; individual rewarding and social outcomes; regulatory issues; and the scope for improving the efficiency of design, management, and analysis of sharing services. In turn, the second part of the book presents a selection of case studies of specific sharing services, in which many of the concepts described in the first part are put into practice. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of sharing services and of the hidden problems that may arise. Key factors responsible for the success (or failure) of sharing services are identified by analyzing some of the best (and worst) practices. Given its breadth of coverage, the book offers a valuable guide for researchers and for all stakeholders in the sharing economy, including startup founders and local administrators.
This book explores how the changing nature of work intersects with and influences young people's views on their future. As an increasingly precarious service sector overtakes traditional industrial work, vocational education and training (VET) is held up as a panacea for poverty alleviation, youth unemployment and economic growth. However, the views of young people in VET themselves concerning their own work and aspirations have largely been ignored. Based on interviews and focus groups conducted with over 250 young people in VET in Romania, this book examines the types of subjectivities that are generated in the processes by which they try to make sense of future and the meanings of work. In doing so, the author identifies three ideological layers that frame their views: arguing that while the young people interviewed hold 'conventional' aspirations for stability and predictability; they were visibly influenced by neoliberal beliefs in agency, experimentation and short termism. Ultimately, a layer of low expectations crystallises unvoiced concerns over a troubling future. In highlighting young people's voices, this pioneering book calls for a recalibration of the emphasis on VET in Romania. It will appeal to students and scholars of youth studies, the sociology of work, vocational education and training and European studies.
This book illustrates and explains the consequences of neoliberal reform on rural economies. Based on an ethnographic case study of coastal fisheries in Iceland, it poses the following questions: How are rural fishers navigating liberal capitalism? And how are new markets, property-rights and digital technologies transforming rural economies? By drawing on an extensive body of literature on economic sociology and science and technology studies, the book offers a novel understanding of the role of market-based reform for rural development.
This book provides a broad survey of Chinese rural households, examining ongoing changes in Chinese society and economy through the lens of the situation of rural families in China. Based on data from Zhejiang University's China Rural Household Panel Survey (CRHPS) in 2015 on rural households, which analyses all aspects of grass-roots rural households in China, this volume offers a scientific analysis of social development in rural China, exploring notably the basic structure, employment situation, income and expenditure, social security, and education situation of Chinese rural households, as well as the governance and public services of rural communities.
This book addresses growing tensions in Northeast Asia, notably between North Korea and China. Focusing on China's economic participation in North Korea's minerals and fishery industries, the author explores the role of China's sub-state and non-state actors in implementing China's foreign economic policy towards North Korea. The book discusses these actors' impact on the regional order in Northeast Asia, particularly in the Korean Peninsula. The project also provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of China's cultural and economic activities in North Korea as implemented by both the historically traditional actors in Jilin and Liaoning provinces in Northeast China, and new actors from coastal areas (Shandong and Zhejiang provinces) and inland provinces (Chongqing and Henan) to Zhejiang province. It argues that in the era of economic decentralisation, Chinese sub-state and non-state actors can independently deal with most of their economic affairs without the need for permission from the central government in Beijing. A key read for scholars and students interested in Asian history, politics and economics, and specifically the East Asian situation, this text offers an in-depth analysis of recent activity concerning the Sino-DPRK economic relationship.
This book explores two major contemporary changes in the workplace: the impact of computerization on skills and the organization of production; and the role of quality circles in the 'democratization' of the workplace and the reorganization of bureaucratic decision-making. It is concerned with the labour processes which experience deskilling, reskilling and shifts in the lines of demarcation between occupations. Participation in quality circles raises issues of conflict rather than labour-management cooperation and management's attempt to undermine collective bargaining agreements.
aDebunks popular myths that portray the profession as glamorous,
exotic, and sexually freeing by taking readers through a typical
journey; with interviews and profiles of flight attendants.a aIn Working the Skies, Whitelegg takes the interviews and study
of a multitude of flight attendants and creates a readable,
enjoyable tale of the perils and possibilities flight attendants
face.a aBut mythological astewsa--young women living a life of sex,
drugs and never-ending voyage--is a far cry from the well
documented realities presented in Whiteleggas new book. . . . Using
a series of interviews and focus groups with flight attendants of
all ages, Whitelegg charts the arc of a profession barely seven
decades old.a aA balanced inquiry into the lives of these long-overlooked
professionals...Sharing a wealth of interesting, entertaining, and
dramatic anecdotes...Rich enough to satisfy the most curious
reader.a aWhile also providing some history, Whitelegg mostly takes a
contemporary look at the lives of flight attendants, drawn from
interviews with over 60 current and former flight attendants and
other airline workers. . . . Whitelegg's observations and use of
candid, day-in-the-life snapshots are interesting.a aA fascinating study that draws on the voices of flight
attendants to poignantly reveal the changing nature of this 24/7
occupation. After reading this important book, one will find it
difficult to observe flight attendants without concern for the
vulnerability of their careers and for the complex ways they juggle
space and time along with work and family. A greatread.a "A well-written and thorough treatment of the occupational
demands and biography of the flight attendant. Working the Skies
describes both how the work shapes the personal lives of those in
the profession, as well as how work can be 'chosen' in an effort to
craft a particular kind of life. The book also illustrates how the
process of globalization has moved the profession 'backwards' in
terms of working conditions and compensation-challenges faced by
workers in numerous other professions." Get ready for takeoff. The life of the flight attendant, a.k.a., stewardess, was supposedly once one of glamour, exotic travel and sexual freedom, as recently depicted in such films as "Catch Me If You Can" and "View From the Top," The nostalgia for the beautiful, carefree and ever helpful stewardess perhaps reveals a yearning for simpler times, but nonetheless does not square with the difficult, demanding and sometimes dangerous job of today's flight attendants. Based on interviews with over sixty flight attendants, both female and male labor leaders, and and drawing upon his observations while flying across the country and overseas, Drew Whitelegg reveals a much more complicated profession, one that in many ways is the quintessential job of the modern age where life moves at record speeds and all that is solid seems up in the air. Containing lively portraits of flight attendants, both current and retired, this book is the first to show the intimate, illuminating, funny, and sometimes dangerous behind-the-scenes storiesof daily life for the flight attendant. Going behind the curtain, Whitelegg ventures into first-class, coach, the cabin, and life on call for these men and women who spend week in and week out in foreign cities, sleeping in hotel rooms miles from home. Working the Skies also elucidates the contemporary work and labor issues that confront the modern worker: the demands of full-time work and parenthood; the downsizing of corporate America and the resulting labor lockouts; decreasing wages and hours worked; job insecurity; and the emotional toll of a high stress job. Given the events of 9/11, flight attendants now have an especially poignant set of stressful concerns to manage, both for their own safety as well as for those they serve, the passengers. Flight attendants, originally registered nurses charged with attending to passengers' medical needs, now find themselves wearing the hats of therapist, security guard and undercover agent. This last set of tasks pushing some, as Whitelegg shows, out of the business altogether.
This book explores welfare politics, unemployment, and interventions in relation to the labour market from a critical psychological perspective. Using critical fieldwork and theory, the author explores the administration of the unemployed, and the drive to increase labour market participation through strategies of activation. There is a strong and coherent conceptual and theoretical framing for this work, with a critical perspective (essentially, question everything) taking centre stage. It will give an overall coherence in addressing the topic. The theoretical framing is cogent and, in combination with the critical perspective, works well for integrating the material and delivering a fresh approach to this topic. Psychology, Punitive Activation and Welfare will appeal to students engaging with critical psychology, unemployment or policy, by providing a distinct application of theoretical and methodological tools to think differently about the relationship between labour market non/participation, human misery, psychology, and frontline enactment of policy and research.
This book presents emerging work in the co-evolving fields of design-led systemics, referred to as systemic design to distinguish it from the engineering and hard science epistemologies of system design or systems engineering. There are significant societal forces and organizational demands impelling the requirement for "better means of change" through integrated design practices of systems and services. Here we call on advanced design to lead programs of strategic scale and higher complexity (e.g., social policy, healthcare, education, urbanization) while adapting systems thinking methods, creatively pushing the boundaries beyond the popular modes of systems dynamics and soft systems. Systemic design is distinguished by its scale, social complexity and integration - it is concerned with higher-order systems that that entail multiple subsystems. By integrating systems thinking and its methods, systemic design brings human-centred design to complex, multi-stakeholder service systems. As designers engage with ever more complex problem areas, it is necessary to draw on a basis other than individual creativity and contemporary "design thinking" methods. Systems theories can co-evolve with a new school of design theory to resolve informed action on today's highly resilient complex problems and can deal effectively with demanding, contested and high-stakes challenges.
This book provides empirically driven discussions and investigations in the relevance of Actor Network Theory (ANT) and its theoretical concepts. As our civilization evolves from a human to a technologically driven society, new socio-technical network of actors - in society, industry and government are emerging by the day. These networks of actors collaborate to produce contemporary goods and services; handle production processes; manage risks; develop social and commercial networks; develop policies; manage complexities; and create a new way of life. This book provides unique conceptual tools needed to analyze such processes, highlighting the effectiveness of ANT in fostering collaborations between governments, organizations and society.
This open access book contributes to research on the ascendance of neoliberalism in Canada through the vantage point of professional fundraising in the 1990s and 2000s. Fifty high-ranking fundraisers from across Canada were interviewed through 2008 and 2009 about changes they had witnessed since starting their careers. Fundraising as an occupation was burgeoning in this period in response to the devolution of state responsibility across the major domains of nonprofit activity: education, health care, social services, the arts, recreation, overseas humanitarian activities, and environmental protection. Welfare state retrenchment left the nonprofit and voluntary sector competing for private sources of funding with the help of these newly hired expert staff. As fundraisers worked to instill a culture of philanthropy, while targeting the ultra-rich and advocating for tax-favourable treatment of major gifts, they became both products and promoters of the neoliberal political and cultural reconstruction of Canadian society. This is an open access book.
It is increasingly apparent that capitalism cannot stave off the truly frightening ecological disasters that threaten the future of life on earth. Is it an accident that the strongest and most capitalist economic force in the world, the US, is also that force that is most prone to the denial of the enormous dangers of global warming? While capitalism is a global force, it is not supported by the majority of the world, and much more thought and action is needed to integrate and globalize movements against oppression, injustice and ecological destruction. While changes at a local level are important and more feasible in our current world, ultimately changes at a global level may have greater long-term importance, and we need to greatly expand theorizations and mobilizations in this direction now. Robert Albritton proposes 'practical utopias' as a process of thinking by which short-term changes tend in the direction of desirable changes in the long term.
Countries throughout the world have passed regulations that promise protection for workers and the environment, but violations of these policies are more common than compliance. All too often, limitations of state capacity and political will intertwine, hindering enforcement. Why do states enforce regulations in some places, and in some industries, but not in others? In Politicized Enforcement in Argentina, Amengual develops a framework for analyzing enforcement in middle-income and developing countries, showing how informal linkages between state officials and groups within society allow officials to gain the operational resources and political support necessary for enforcement. This analysis builds on state-society approaches in comparative politics, but in contrast to theories that emphasize state autonomy, it focuses on key differences in the way states are porous to political influence. |
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