The male bread-winner was once the dominant role model in middle- and upper-class families worldwide. Increasingly, however, rising costs of living plus the desire to work have drawn women into wage employment. This is especially so among those with higher education and keen to build careers for themselves. The experiences of women in different parts of Asia are no exception. Although many of them now work, this has not taken them away from their role as mothers nor lessened their familial responsibilities. The essays in this book examine how larger structural, economic, historical and social/cultural forces impact on Asian women in their everyday life as mothers and workers.

This book provides a critical overview of the myriad literatures on "work," viewed not only as a product of the marketplace but also as a social and political construct. Drawing on theoretical and empirical contributions from sociology, history, economics, and organizational studies, the book brings together perspectives that too often remain balkanized, using each to explore the nature of work today. Outlining the fundamental principles that unite social science thinking about work, Vallas offers an original discussion of the major theoretical perspectives that inform workplace analysis, including Marxist, interactionist, feminist, and institutionalist schools of thought. Chapters are devoted to the labor process, to workplace flexibility, to gender and racial inequalities at work, and to the link between globalization and the structure of work and authority today. Major topics include the relation between work and identity; the relation between workplace culture and managerial control; and the performance of emotional labor within service occupations. This concise book will be invaluable to students as it explores a range of insights to make sense of pressing issues that drive the social scientific study of work, such as the social closure processes that exclude women and minorities from the most highly valued jobs, the role of social networks in accounting for disparities in the distribution of job rewards, and the struggle for global regimes that might regulate work in an era when neo-liberalism has reigned supreme.

This text concentrates on exploring the changing relationship between the state and working women in Taiwan by incorporating social, economic, political and ideological factors into the historical analysis. It traces the history of state policies on women's employment, the impact of family and gender ideology on women's employment, women's roles in capitalist development, and the influence of women's movements on policy-making in Taiwan. Finally, it analyzes the Taiwanese welfare regime in a gender-critical way.

In the decades following World War II, factories in many countries not only provided secure employment and a range of economic entitlements, but also recognized workers as legitimate stakeholders, enabling them to claim rights to participate in decision making and hold factory leaders accountable. In recent decades, as employment has become more precarious, these attributes of industrial citizenship have been eroded and workers have increasingly been reduced to hired hands. As Joel Andreas shows in Disenfranchised, no country has experienced these changes as dramatically as China. Drawing on a decade of field research, including interviews with both factory workers and managers, Andreas traces the changing political status of workers inside Chinese factories from 1949 to the present, carefully analyzing how much power they have actually had to shape their working conditions.

Media attention is often focused on the very richest, the 1%, and their capacity to influence politics and shape society. But they are not the only ones who drive politics, the public conversation and much of the private sector. The focus of this book is on the larger group between the 1% and the 10%. These are the managers and professionals of our media, business, the third sector, political parties and academia and are just as influential. However, many would not recognise themselves as high earners at all. In fact, earning around £60,000 a year in Britain places you in the top 10% of income earners. Maybe you’re surprised you fall into this category, or are not as far off as you thought. Despite this group’s relative advantage and comfort, these high earners don’t always feel politically empowered. They worry about their income and are anxious about the future. Most of them are more likely to move down the income ladder than up it. Drawing attention to this powerful section of society, this book explains why, even if you are relatively near the top, it is in your interest that inequality is reduced, and how you can make that happen.

This research-to-practice text explores how coaching can support thriving in the workplace. It focuses on positive psychology coaching in the workplace in relation to: the convergence with organisational psychology and coaching psychology, professional and ethical practices, resilience and wellbeing, team and systemic approaches, leadership, tools of intervention, convergence of clinical interventions and virtuousness, and the future of thriving workplaces. The chapter contributions represent a truly international scholarship and bring together complementary perspectives from the fields of positive psychology, coaching psychology, organisational psychology, organisational scholarship, neuroscience, education and philosophy. Written in a scholarly but accessible style, this text is of interest to a wide readership, including academics, professionals and postgraduate students of positive psychology, organisational psychology, counselling and coaching psychology, human resource management, mental health, health and social welfare. "Smith, Boniwell and Green have brought together an outstanding collection of thought leaders from the field of positive psychology coaching to craft an in-depth exploration of the contribution positive psychology can make to delivering transformation change through coaching conversations. A fascinating read, full of evidence and insight". Jonathan Passmore Professor of Coaching & Behavioural Change Director Henley Centre for Coaching, Henley Business School

The primary purpose of Issues in Career Development is to provide a broad look at the field of career development including career counseling, career guidance, career education, and general career development programming, and to examine some of the field's major themes, approaches, and assumptions. We will examine both knowledge from the past as well as what the future might bring. We will bring together a variety of experts/authors from the area of interest and try to provide readers with a framework for action based on the best available research information. The concept of career development is in a period of dramatic transition resulting from equally dramatic changes in the labor market and the socio-cultural environment. Work has a different meaning today than it had one hundred, fifty, or even ten years ago. Career is now much more tightly interwoven with life, and lifestyle. In that context, career development can only be understood when viewed as a part of the broader concept of human development. Past research clearly indicates that interventions can and do have a significant impact on a variety of career development areas (e.g. job satisfaction, worker productivity), however, there are significant questions that are yet to be answered, and given the changing career/work landscape, significant questions that are not yet known. Particular areas of interest for the future relate to the changing nature of the labor market, gender and minority group issues, socio-economic trends, etc. Historically, much of the research on career development has assumed that psychological factors play the major role in a person's career choices. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the environment plays a much bigger role than previously assumed. This monograph series will examine these and other relevant issues in the years to come.

This open access book explores the historical, cultural and philosophical contexts that have made anti-poverty the core of Chinese society since Liberation in 1949, and why poverty alleviation measures evolved from the simplistic aid of the 1950s to Xi Jinping's precision poverty alleviation and its goal of eliminating absolute poverty by 2020. The book also addresses the implications of China's experience for other developing nations tackling not only poverty but such issues as pandemics, rampant urbanization and desertification exacerbated by global warming. The first of three parts draws upon interviews of rural and urban Chinese from diverse backgrounds and local and national leaders. These interviews, conducted in even the remotest areas of the country, offer candid insights into the challenges that have forced China to continually evolve its programs to resolve even the most intractable cases of poverty. The second part explores the historic, cultural and philosophical roots of old China's meritocratic government and how its ancient Chinese ethics have led to modern Chinese socialism's stance that "poverty amidst plenty is immoral". Dr. Huang Chengwei, one of China's foremost anti-poverty experts, explains the challenges faced at each stage as China's anti-poverty measures evolved over 70 years to emphasize "enablement" over "aid" and to foster bottom-up initiative and entrepreneurialism, culminating in Xi Jinping's precision poverty alleviation. The book also addresses why national economic development alone cannot reduce poverty; poverty alleviation programs must be people-centered, with measurable and accountable practices that reach even to household level, which China has done with its "First Secretary" program. The third part explores the potential for adopting China's practices in other nations, including the potential for replicating China's successes in developing countries through such measures as the Belt and Road Initiative. This book also addresses prevalent misperceptions about China's growing global presence and why other developing nations must address historic, systemic causes of poverty and inequity before they can undertake sustainable poverty alleviation measures of their own.

Based on ethnographic work in a Moldovan winemaking village, Wine Is Our Bread shows how workers in a prestigious winery have experienced the country's recent entry into the globalized wine market and how their productive activities at home and in the winery contribute to the value of commercial terroir wines. Drawing on theories of globalization, economic anthropology and political economy, the book contributes to understanding how crises and inequalities in capitalism lead to the 'creative destruction' of local products, their accelerated standardization and the increased exploitation of labour.

With economies and organizations undergoing change, understanding the nature of work and its significance to people presents a critical intellectual challenge with strong implications for policy and practice. Debates surrounding meanings and relevance of work in its contemporary setting have been hampered by a shortage of solid research findings. By drawing on a substantial body of evidence, this book challenges recent assumptions about work and raises the issues of work and employment onto broader policy and management agendas.

This book is a cultural critique of labor and globalization that considers whether one can represent the other. The cultural representation of labor is a challenge in how globalization is understood. Workers may be everywhere in the world but cultural correlatives are problematic. By elaborating cultural theory and practice this book examines why this might be so. If globalization unites workers via production and capital flows, it often writes over traditional or progressive forms of unity. Worlds of work have expanded in the last half century, yet labor has receded within cultural discourse. By considering critical and historical concepts in the workers' inquiry, the subject, and value, and provocative projects in cultural representation itself, this study expands our lexicon of labor to understand more fully what "workers of the world" means under globalization. As such the book offers broad appeal to students and teachers of Global and Cultural Studies and will interest all those who take seriously how the worker is articulated at a global scale.

Based on two unique survey studies of elites in Norway, this book examines whether elite attitudes towards central national issues have changed in the wake of international and national events and developments since 2000. The chapters examine elite integration and relations between elites and citizens in Norway as a means to discuss the continued viability of the Nordic welfare state model. This insight into how elites relate to central issues in Norwegian society and how they look upon citizens' political interest and competence in general, will be of interest to academics within sociology and political science, as well as journalists and commentators and policy makers.

This book presents a new intellectual history of neoliberalism through the exploration of the sovereign consumer. Invented by neoliberal thinkers in the interwar period, this figure has been crucial to the construction and legimitization of neoliberal ideology and politics. Analysis of the sovereign consumer across time and space demonstrates how neoliberals have linked the figure both to the idea of democracy as a method of choice, and also to a re-invention of the market as the democratic forum par excellence. Moreover, Olsen contemplates how the sovereign consumer has served to marketize politics and functioned as a major driver in a wide-ranging transformation in political thinking, subjecting traditional political values to the narrow pursuit of economic growth. A politically timely project, The Sovereign Consumer will have a wide appeal in academic circles, especially for those interested in consumer and welfare studies, and in political, economic and cultural thought in the twentieth century.

This book contributes to the ongoing discussion around so-called precarious or venture work, as the proportion of those employed by start-ups and thinly-capitalized firms continues to grow. Filling a gap in literature, the author explores the relationship between venture co-workers and examines how they cope with economic uncertainty, moving away from the previous focus on entrepreneurs and investors. Presenting empirical data from several life science start-ups in Sweden, this book illustrates the impact of institutional and regulatory changes in the finance industry, and demonstrates how these effects can ultimately reshape the meaning of employment.

Organization theories have given only brief attention to the role of professionals in the workplace. When mentioned, it is posited that major differences exist between professionals and nonprofessionals owing their loyalties more to their discipline/profession than to the organization for which they work. For this reason professionals are thought to be a breed apart who must be treated differently by administrators. Guy, basing her conclusions on studies conducted at two hospitals, shows that these assumptions are not completely true. She finds that the urgency of the task at hand determines priorities much more than does professional identification. She also found that many professionals within an organization had as much in common with staff from other disciplines as they had with professional colleagues. These findings have important ramifications for managers, program planners and researchers in organizational behavior.

Crisis in the Professions: The New Dark Age presents a wide, panoramic view into the state of modern professional work in the United States. Struggling labor markets, growing inequalities, and increasing amounts of cultural and political mistrust are but a few major changes undermining the people seen as essential in society and needed to compete in a globalized, highly-skilled world. The authors explore this profound dilemma through a variety of methods, each one allowing them to identify significant areas of change and concern. They address macro-level social, political, and economic forces at the root of these changes and pair these explanations with illustrative vignettes of young, would-be professionals to paint a comprehensive, albeit complicated picture of professional work in the 21st century. Amid a backdrop of increasing globalization, technological advance, and cultural devaluation of expertise, the authors point attention to the mounting implications these shifts have for new generations of professionals and consider alternative models to address signs of precarity and instability within the professions. With piercing insight and compelling evidence, Crisis in the Professions probes deeply enough to stimulate scholars and researchers invested in the sociological study of work and provides a valuable, versatile read for advanced students in these areas as well.

The world of non-work obligations - defined as disagreeable activities that are neither work nor leisure - is a territory of social life that has largely been ignored by scholars of work and leisure alike. The exception to this rule is Robert A. Stebbins, who over the years has written extensively on the significance of non-work obligations and the mundane and often disagreeable tasks that we are all compelled to face in our daily lives. In this new book, Stebbins brings together years of writing and research on this topic to forcefully argue that the current research interest in work-life balance can no longer afford to ignore the effects that non-work obligation has on it. He contends that, whether we like it or not, non-work obligations bear heavily on both our work and leisure. Having to deal with disagreeable tasks and objectionable people on a daily basis, without the support of any outside agency, can seriously undermine our well-being, and it is only through recourse to voluntary simplicity that we can hope to limit the harmful impact of non-work obligations. Written both as a guide to happy living and as a powerful rejoinder to conventional orthodoxy in the fields of leisure and work studies, the book is essential reading for both the general reader and scholars of leisure, consumer, work and happiness studies.

Equips readers with research-based information on leader failure and success Provides an alternative to overly optimistic books on leadership explores six factors that cause leaders to fail and provides examples and approaches to avoid

This book investigates the life trajectories of Generation X and Y Australians through the 1990s and 2000s. The book defies popular characterizations of members of the 'precarious generations' as greedy, narcissistic and self-obsessed, revealing instead that many of the members of these generations struggle to reach the standard of living enjoyed by their parents, value learning highly and are increasingly concerned about the environment and the legacy current generations are leaving for their children and remain optimistic in the face of considerable challenges. Drawing on data from the Life Patterns longitudinal study of Australian youth (an internationally recognized study), the book tells the story of members of these 'precarious generations'. It examines significant dimensions of young people's lives across time, comparing how domains such as health and well-being, education, work and relationships intersect to produce the complex outcomes that characterize the lives of members of each of these generations. It also explores the strategies these generations use to make their lives and the ways in which they remain resilient. While the book is based on Australian data, the analysis draws on and contributes to the international literature on young people and social change.

Organizations Evolving offers a unique theoretical framework for understanding organizational emergence, persistence, change, and decline. Synthesizing and integrating six paradigmatic approaches to organization theory, this updated and revised third edition presents an evolutionary view that provides a unified understanding of modern organizations and organization theory. Key features of the third edition include: A sophisticated analytic comparison of six major approaches to understanding modern organizations and their evolution An interdisciplinary focus, drawing extensively from sociology, social psychology, economics, history, management and entrepreneurship research Supplementary materials from academic journals and the popular press, and multi-media resources in an online companion Extensive case examples that illustrate key evolutionary processes Study questions designed for extended and reflective learning. Offering key insights and critical learning opportunities, this book is crucial reading for classes covering macro-organizational behaviour and the sociology of organizations. Students of management studies and entrepreneurship, particularly those with a focus on organization theory, will also benefit from its interdisciplinary approach.

Lobbying is an integral part of the political reality of the European Union and a highly competitive and dynamic field of interest groups. This book takes a systematic look at lobbyists in order to broaden our understanding of the staff entrusted with the responsibility of influencing European politics. Who are the European lobbyists? What are their professional backgrounds, career patterns, practices and beliefs? The study uses a sociological framework to explore the professionalisation and professionalism of the field across national proveniences, policy fields and interest groups, and develops a systematic analysis that considers three different dimensions: occupational patterns, shared knowledge and common convictions . Based on original research that combines in-depth interviews with survey data, European Lobbying demonstrates that European lobbying is a firmly established and highly professionalised metier. In an organisational field characterised by growth, pluralisation and increasing competition, the professional staff contributes to the homogenisation of European lobbying and the marginalisation of other, non-professionalised forms of interest representation. It will therefore appeal to scholars and students of sociology and politics with interest in European studies, EU politics and the sociology of the professions.

This edited book emerges from the observation that the current literatures on migration in China are constrained by a series of shortfalls, including a relative topical homogeneity centred on domestic labour migration; relatively narrowly conceived and institutionalist conceptions of migration and migrants, without adequate attention paid to the identities, agencies and everyday experiences of migrants; and finally a lack of engagement with theoretical models and paradigms in the broad discipline of migration studies. Assembling eight fine-grained research works engaging with a broad variety of migratory trajectories and experiences, this book addresses these shortfalls by: (1) investigating diverse forms of domestic and transnational migration in and to China; (2) problematising, rethinking and innovating well-established analytical tools and categories to move beyond their epistemological fixity and highlight their socially and dynamically constructed nature; and (3) underscoring the centrality of identity, subjectivity and everyday experiences, rather than mechanical causality between institutions and migration outcomes, to theoretical understandings of migration in China. It will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of Sociology, Politics, Human Geography, Social Work and Urban Studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

This volume presents a comprehensive overview of methodological issues and empirical methods of practice-oriented research. It examines questions regarding the scope and boundaries of practice-oriented approaches and practice theory. It discusses the potential advantages and disadvantages of the diversity resulting from the use of these approaches, as well as method and methodology-related issues. The specific questions explored in this volume are: What consequences are linked to the application of a praxeological perspective in empirical research when it comes to the choice of methods? Is there such a thing as an ideal path to follow in praxeological empirical research? What relationship is there between qualitative and quantitative approaches? What differentiates practice-based social research from other perspectives and approaches such as discourse analysis or hermeneutics? The contributions in this book discuss these questions either from a methodological point of view or from a reflective perspective on empirical research practices.

This book brings together the theory and practice of managing public trust. It examines the current state of public trust, including a comprehensive global overview of both the research and practical applications of managing public trust by presenting research from seven countries (Brazil, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Taiwan, Turkey) from three continents. The book is divided into five parts, covering the meaning of trust, types, dimension and the role of trust in management; the organizational challenges in relation to public trust; the impact of social media on the development of public trust; the dynamics of public trust in business; and public trust in different cultural contexts.

The Humanities, the Social Sciences and the University is an intellectual history of research in the humanities and social sciences. It scrutinizes the priorities, values, objectives and publishing agendas of the modern university in order to assess the institutional pressures on research in such major disciplines as literature, history, sociology and economics. It argues that all these disciplines are currently experiencing a deep malaise - though to different degrees - due to loss of faith in the Enlightenment project, which entailed the pursuit of knowledge through reason. Extreme skepticism, promoted since the 1970s by French Theory, which regards knowledge as an instrument of power, is a major factor in this disorientation. Overall, the book concludes that though universities have grown stronger, wealthier and more powerful in the last century, the quality and seriousness of the research they typically produce is weaker, intellectually less important and the institution is in danger of losing its way. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, education and intellectual history with interests in higher education policy and academic life.