Maid in China is the first systematic, book-length investigation of internal rural migration in post-Mao China focused on the day-to-day production and consumption of popular media. Taking the rural maid in the urban home as its point of departure, the book weaves together three years of engaged ethnographic research in Beijing and Shanghai with critical analyses of a diverse array of popular media, and follows three lines of inquiry: media and cultural production, consumption practices, and everyday politics. It unravels some of the myriad ways in which the subaltern figure of the domestic worker comes to be inscribed with the cultural politics of boundaries that entrench a host of inequalities--between rich and poor, male and female, rural and urban. Wanning Sun explores a number of paradoxes that the domestic worker lives out on a daily basis: her ubiquitous invisibility, her enduring transience, and her status as an intimate stranger. Collectively, these paradoxes afford her a unique window onto the spaces and practices of the modern Chinese city.This intimate stranger's epistemological status makes her an unauthorized yet authoritative witness of urban residents' social lives, offering a revealing lens through which to examine both the formation of new social relations in post-reform urban China, and the new social uses of space--both domestic and public--engendered by these relations.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. Women more often than men take care of their ageing relatives together with their own children or grandchildren. These Sandwich Generation (SG) women constitute an expanding vulnerable group on the labour market at higher risk of discrimination, work-family conflict, burnout, and withdrawal from the labour market and unemployment. Working Women in the Sandwich Generation helps present a clearer view of how to support this group both now and in the future. Beginning with a presentation of quantitative and qualitative research that sheds light on the SG situation in Poland, Finland and Flanders, this volume provides insights into various components from the SG life domains such as personal development and learning, connection to the labour market, coping strategies, resources, and energy drainers. In the second part the book provides tools for SG women, their supervisors, educators, and coaches to help manage challenging situations and improving wellbeing at work. Working Women in the Sandwich Generation then introduces the results of international comparative research the purpose of which was to identify and characterise the SG in five European countries before concluding with recommendations for supervisors and policy makers in supporting SG women.

This title was first published in 2001: Examining the future of the welfare state in four globalizing economies - Sweden, UK, Japan and US - this book presents a detailed analysis of the ways in which social and economic aspects of these welfare states have altered under growing market-first ideology and economic globalization. The book will be essential reading for all those interested in the present and future of the welfare state, both through its theoretical perspectives and because of the thorough attention paid to the health of society today.

The notion of capital has enjoyed a rich career in the social sciences, its use across a range of subjects and in diverse academic and professional contexts having served to establish its conceptual status as 'given'. With particular attention to human and social capital - including cultural capital - this book traces the roots of this theoretical and conceptual trend to economics, revealing the proliferation of various forms of capital to be based upon an encroachment of the conceptual apparatus of economics into other social sciences. Offering an in-depth, critical analysis of the concepts of human and social capital, as well as their surrounding theories, Anti-Capital: Human, Social and Cultural proposes an alternative theoretical framework, whilst better explaining the realities that they mask in economic terms. A rigorous exploration of the most popular forms of 'capital' in the contemporary social sciences, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of sociology, political and social theory, demography and economics.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. The motivations of migrants for travelling to Europe vary, and the quality of the processes involved in their settlement and contribution to social and economic development are inextricably linked to their prospects of finding and sustaining good-quality work. This book explores the labour market integration of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers across seven European countries: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. Using empirical data from the Horizon2020 SIRIUS Project, it investigates how legal, political, social and personal circumstances combine to determine the work trajectory for migrants who choose Europe as their home.

Domestic and care work in private households is now the largest employment sector for migrant women. This book sheds light on these households through its focus on the interpersonal relationships between Latin American a oeundocumented migranta domestic workers and employers in Austria, Germany, Spain and the UK. The personal experiences of these women form the basis for GutiA(c)rrez-RodrA-gueza (TM)s decolonial analysis of the feminization of labor in private households and cultural analysis of domestic work as affective labor. This book will be a necessary voice in the debates on citizenship, cosmopolitanism, and migrant workersa (TM) rights.

This title was first published in 2001. This book is the result of an international study by leading economists and sociologists from across Europe and North America. The response of the new social economy (primarily voluntary and co-operative sectors) to social exclusion and employability in the context of crises of unemployment and the welfare state is of wide international concern. This book looks specifically at the growth of enterprises and initiatives whose primary aim is the integration of unemployed and disadvantaged people into work. A common framework has been used in each of the country studies, thus allowing an interesting international comparative perspective to be developed. There is considerable interest in how the third sector is changing internationally in response to rapidly changing work and welfare systems. By distilling international experience this book makes an important contribution to debates about new ways of addressing the central issues of unemployment and social exclusion of disadvantaged people in society.

First published in 1998, this book explores the physical and technological changes which occurred in the growing bureaucracies of big-business and of government as well as in the small and mid-size business of the city. The study of these changes provides a context within which to set the complementary experiences of the men and women who chose to seek a living in the wide array of constantly changing office jobs.

The application of probability and statistics to an ever-widening number of life-decisions serves to reproduce, reinforce, and widen disparities in the quality of life that different groups of people can enjoy. As a critical technology assessment, the ways in which bad luck early in life increase the probability that hardship and loss will accumulate across the life course are illustrated. Analysis shows the ways in which individual decisions, informed by statistical models, shape the opportunities people face in both market and non-market environments. Ultimately, this book challenges the actuarial logic and instrumental rationalism that drives public policy and emphasizes the role that the mass media play in justifying its expanded use. Although its arguments and examples take as their primary emphasis the ways in which these decision systems affect the life chances of African-Americans, the findings are also applicable to a broad range of groups burdened by discrimination.

This book disputes the traditional argument that the equal inheritance system hinders the growth of Chinese family business, approaching this not only in terms of economic capital, but also in terms of human capital such as education and leadership, and social networks.

Zheng argues that most of the family business patriarchs only focus on the passing on economic capital, but give little attention to human capital and social capital when the come to the stage to transfer control to the next level. It further elaborates that the equal inheritance system itself isn't the destructive force that weakens family business competitiveness, but can assist economic development by generating dynamism and capital.

Based on extensive primary research, the work discusses how equal division encourages sibling comparison, analysing how such comparisons initially generate stress and anxiety but will ultimately galvanize competition, benefiting the business. The author also assesses how family division can offer initial economic human and social capitals that can motivate siblings to start their own businesses and be free from the subjugation sometimes associated with a family firm. Through the evaluation of these issues the book argues that the equal inheritance system can be regarded as the origin of the self-employment mentality, which not only fosters the growth of Chinese family business by plays crucial role in promoting economic development.

Providing a valuable contribution to the field, this work will be of great interest to all scholars of Chinese and Asian business.

In this groundbreaking study, Linda Cusworth explores the impact of parental employment or unemployment on the educational and emotional well-being of their children. Using theoretical apparatus from Bourdieu and data from the youth survey of the British Household Panel Study, the research in this book analyzes the impact of parental employment on those born between 1978 and 1990. This study is unique in going beyond the educational achievement and later patterns of employment of the young people studied to look at the whole of children's lives, including their attitudes and aspirations, relationships and emotional well-being. The changed norms of maternal employment and the substantial increase in lone parenthood over the last few decades make this an especially important study both for academics in social and public policy and sociology, and for policy makers.

The second of two volumes bringing together researchers from an array of disciplines including sociology, organization theory, strategy, and organizational behaviour, Entrepreneurialism and Society: Consequences and Meanings addresses the question of how entrepreneurship has transformed from an organizing activity into an ideology that is changing society. The authors investigate how the transformed meanings of entrepreneurship are causal in new social phenomenon such as organizational misconduct and driving inequality, but also how it may offer a promise to resolve those issues. Examining into the role of organizations in society, Entrepreneurialism and Society invigorates academic research by developing new perspectives on how entrepreneurs and their organizations shape our social world.

This volume looks at the living and working conditions of street vendors in different cities of the world. It examines the legal guidelines regarding control of public space and the rights of the working poor to earn their livelihood, and the civic authorities' constant regulation of this space.

Published in 1999, this is a collection of recent research results by acknowledged researchers in the field of enterprise transformation and industrial development in Central and Eastern Europe.

This book aims to provide the reader with an insight into the relevance of a section of the economy, which is often referred to as the 'social and solidarity economy' (SSE); and highlight some of the current issues in the field, how they are being addressed and some of their future implications. Using case studies from around the world, this book 'Social and Solidarity Economy: The World's Economy With a Social Face' provides an up-to-date account of the strengths and weaknesses of these initiatives across four continents including issues that have not been researched sufficiently before (e.g. circular economy, social propaganda and its dangers, social enterprise as a panacea for NGOs in developing countries, and 'new' social movements). There is growing interest in SSE initiatives among policymakers, foundations, researchers and academic institutions around the world. Despite this interest, SSE related research remains scarce. There are concerned that SSE initiatives, which contribute significantly to their local communities' development, need to be more widely disseminated amongst the general public. The Social and Solidarity Economy: The World's Economy With a Social Face will help promote the ground-breaking work being done by organisations and individuals but which remain undocumented and help to raise awareness of such initiatives as well as contribute to academia with a critical approach to the sector covering issues that have not been covered much before, such as the circular economy and the dangers of social propaganda. Aimed at researchers, academics and policy makers in the fields of Social Enterprise, CSR, Tourism, International Economics as well as supporting disciplines 'Social and Solidarity Economy: The World's Economy With a Social Face' looks to establish and help define the field.

How Speech Acting and the Struggle of Narratives Generate Organization seeks to shed understanding on how speaking or speech-acting affects how we are organized and how we influence each other and wield power. It is suggested that speaking is a major clue to organization and to the creation of new organizations. The task is to describe how speech-acting organizes. This book takes findings in the project's philosophy of collective intentions - its philosophy of society - into the field of empirical study of organization and politics. The book investigates the relation between knowledge and politics, between describing the world and changing it, between cognitive - sensing - and volitional - wilful - processes and goes on to describe how speech-acting organizes, reorganizes - and destroys organizations. It looks at persons and groups as speech-actors. It investigates how speech-acting can spur movements in organizations from routines to learning to innovations and back How Speech Acting and the Struggle of Narratives Generate Organization develops a model of how speech-acting generates new organization - or social innovations. Empirical studies of some economic, political and ideological organizations are mined for model development. Speech-acting occurs in the context of institutions, with capital producing firms and nation states at present as the most ubiquitous. But speech-acting has an element of freedom that makes some of its results unpredictable and difficult to control. Aimed at academics, researchers and students in the field of Organizational Studies How Speech Acting and the Struggle of Narratives Generate Organization examines a new contribution and direction in the field.

Critical Social Theory and the End of Work examines the development and sociological significance of the idea that work is being eliminated through the use of advanced production technology. Granter's engagement with the work of key American and European figures such as Marx, Marcuse, Gorz, Habermas and Negri, focuses his arguments for the abolition of labour as a response to the current socio-historical changes affecting our work ethic and consumer ideology. By combining history of ideas with social theory, this book considers how the 'end of work' thesis has developed and has been critically implemented in the analysis of modern society. This book will appeal to scholars of sociology, history of ideas, social and cultural theory as well as those working in the fields of critical management and sociology of work.

Drawing on ethnographic data gathered from fieldwork spanning a 15-year period, this book offers new insights into understanding the lives and experiences of women managers in Japan. Based on empirical case studies, it explores the ways in which professional women in Tokyo creatively mobilize their friendships as a strategic site for mitigating the disappointments in their working lives, and conceptualizing new understandings of independence and equality. It analyses their use of language, time, space and money to negotiate new identities in an increasingly flexible work environment. In examining the challenges and opportunities faced by these corporate workers, this book also extends anthropological debates about the changing meaning and importance of work for women, as well as their relationship with money and separation from the realm of domesticity. As a study of women's lives in and out of the workplace in Japan, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese studies, Japanese culture and society, anthropology, sociology, gender and women's studies.

Published in 1998. This text focuses on "three-job" (two paid and one unpaid housework job) families. It investigates the way in which partners experience and handle the contradictions in the daily running of the household - contradictions which result from the conflicting features within and between society and the family. An equal division of household labour remains at the heart of these contradictions as women take on the responsibility of running the family home in addition to paid employment.

Organization takes place in a tangled world, intermeshed by changing markets, products, standards, technologies, institutions and social groups. Coming to grips with the complexity and fluidity of organization and management is a persistent problem for scholars and practitioners alike, which is why process issues have received renewed interest in recent years. This book, aimed at scholars and higher level students, frames some of these issues in novel and instructive ways. Process views have existed since before the early Greek philosophers and have made decisive marks in all sciences. Alfred North Whitehead's classic work is a landmark in process philosophy, and his thinking provides renewed impetus to social scientists in search of an expanded framework of process thinking. Theorists such as Niklas Luhmann, Bruno Latour, Karl Weick and James March have contributed significantly towards a process view of organization. In this book, central aspects of their thinking are interpreted and discussed with the help of a broader canvas of process thinking provided by Whitehead. The comparisons do not only allow for interesting connections to be made between the theorists, but they also enable understanding to be made of the thinking behind their respective works. From the analysis, ideas are suggested for a framework for process-based organizational analysis. Advanced students and academics in sociology, organization studies and management studies will find this book useful in its discussion of such subjects as organization theory, process philosophy and process studies.

This volume takes a fresh and innovative approach to the history of ideas of work, concerning perceptions, attitudes, cultures and representations of work throughout Antiquity and the medieval and early modern periods. Focusing on developments in Europe, the contributors approach the subject from a variety of angles, considering aspects of work as described in literature, visual culture, and as perceived in economic theory. As well as external views of workers the volume also looks at the meaning of work for the self-perception of various social groups, including labourers, artisans, merchants, and noblemen, and the effects of this on their self-esteem and social identity. Taking a broad chronological approach to the subject provides readers with a cutting-edge overview of research into the varying attitudes to work and its place in pre-industrial society.

Bringing together for the first time sexual and industrial labour as the means to understand gender, work and class in modern Japan and Korea, this book shows that a key feature of the industrialisation of these countries was the associated development of a modern sex labour industry. Tying industrial and sexual labour together, the book opens up a range of key questions: In what economy do we place the labour of the former "comfort women"? Why have sex workers not been part of the labour movements of Korea and Japan? Why is it difficult to be "working-class" and "feminine"? What sort of labour hierarchies operate in hostess clubs? How do financial crises translate into gender crises? This book explores how sexuality is inscribed in working-class identities and traces the ways in which sexual and labour relations have shaped the cultures of contemporary Japan and Korea. It addresses important historical episodes such as the Japanese colonial industrialisation of Korea, wartime labour mobilisation, women engaged in forced sex work for the Japanese army throughout the Asian continent, and issues of ethnicity and sex in the contemporary workplace. The case studies provide specific examples of the way gender and work have operated across a variety of contexts, including Korean shipyard unions, Japanese hostess clubs, and the autobiographical literature of Korean factory girls. Overall, this book provides a compelling account of the entanglement of sexual and industrial labour throughout the twentieth century, and shows clearly how ideas about gender have contributed in fundamental ways to conceptions of class and worker identities.

Providing detailed insights into working life, McCabe, a well known author in the fields of organization studies, labour process theory and critical management studies offers a distinctive approach to innovation in the work place. In this ethnography of a major US bank he argues that many innovations associated with the 'new' corporation seem to reproduce many of the conditions that we associate with the industrial age such as hierarchy, the division of labour, task specialization and command and control approaches to management. Through exploring strategy, technology, teamwork and culture change programmes in a contemporary organization, McCabe demonstrates the debilitating consequences of these interventions. This book explores a range of questions, including: Do employees who are treated as machines become machines? How do they cope with work that regards them as less than human? Do managers dream of electric staff? What are the consequences of such thinking and are there alternative ways to organize work in the twenty- first Century? Accessible to numerous levels: undergraduate, MA and MBA, this book is an excellent resource for those studying business and management, organization studies, sociology of work, employee relations, psychology of work and strategy.

This book is the first of four books based on a series of symposia funded by COST, which is an intergovernmental framework for the promotion of European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research. It draws on both historical and contemporary European case-studies to offer a sophisticated account of the relationship between gender and well-being. The authors focus on key discussions of the changing conceptions of well-being from early twentieth century calculations of the relationship between income and the cost-of-living, to more recent critiques from feminist writers. Their fascinating answers allow them to significantly challenge the issue with the idea that well-being is not only associated with income or opulence but also relates to more abstract concepts including capabilities, freedom, and agency of different women and men and will be of considerable interest to economic and social historians, sociologists of health, gender, sexuality and economists.