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Workers' Democracy in China's Transition from State Socialism (East Asia: History, Politics, Sociology and Culture)
by Stephen E. PhilionThis fascinating book is among the first to examine state workers’ protests against privatization in China. Philion discusses how Chinese state enterprise workers have engaged a discourse of ‘workers democracy’ in the process of struggle with the new social relations of work that are engendered by privatization oriented policies in China today. By the 1990s, this discourse was being deployed by the state in an effort to minimize the social obligations of the Party and enterprise to state workers and to win the latter over to faith in markets. Philion reveals that Chinese workers have recently engaged this discourse in order to do something they never envisioned having to do: fight for what Chinese state socialism had always promised them as the ‘masters of the factory’, namely the right to a job and basic social security.
Workers' Dilemmas: Recruitment, Reliability and Repeated Exchange: An Analysis of Urban Social Networks and Labour Circulation (Routledge Library Editions: Women and Work)
by Margaret GriecoOriginally published in 1996, Workers’ Dilemmas analyses the management skills of those with least resources, the women of the urban poor, and finds that there is an abundance of evidence on the high levels of managerial competence within this group. It is information which has largely been hidden from history. This study of poor women’s involvement in the world of work corrects this missing record. For over a century (1850–1960s), women and children travelled from their urban homes in the East End of London to work in the hop picking fields of Kent and Hampshire. The scale of the annual migration and the complexity of neighbourhood and household organization it required to provide this volume of labour have escaped the literature. Drawing on a variety of historical records and on oral history, this book explores the high level of management and occupational skills possessed by the urban poor in their construction of household survival strategies. Above all this book highlights the key entrepreneurial role played by women in this labour market and the importance of the financial support provided by this regular seasonal labour for household survival. Workers’ Dilemmas provides a fresh look at how work patterns, family structure and community networks interrelate and in the process challenges accepted ideas in the wider fields of anthropology and the sociology of work.
Workers' Participation in Industry (Routledge Library Editions: Employee Ownership and Economic Democracy #7)
by Michael PooleFirst 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.
Workers, Power and Society: Power Resource Theory in Contemporary Capitalism (Routledge Research in Employment Relations)
by Jens Arnholtz Bjarke RefslundThe book addresses how power and power resources remain important analytically as well as empirically dimensions for analysing contemporary capitalism. It provides a theoretical framework for studying, understanding, and explaining changes in the world of work and how that leads to changes in contemporary capitalist societies. Changes in the world of work are closely related to increasing inequality, growing social unrest, and societal polarisation. Hence the book seeks to deepen our understanding of how developments in the sphere of work have implication far beyond the direct impact on workers. The book focuses on how workers and unions utilise their various power resources to off-set the power advantage of employers and capital in the sphere of labour politics, which have crucial linkages with both cultural life, politics, and the market. Although workers’ and unions’ power and influence have been declining almost universally across the world, the argument in the book is that they still hold power resources that can challenge and sometimes alter outcomes in another direction than what employers and capital wants. Hence the theory can help understand the possibilities that workers and unions still have and how these resources affect the outcomes of the labour-capital struggle. A core contribution of the book is that it develops theoretical propositions about power resource theory, provides clear definitions of the core concepts as well as apply the power resource theory to a range of new or emerging topic fields like global value chains, minimum wages, and migrant workers.
Workers Unions & State Ils 167 (International Library of Sociology)
by Graham WoottonFirst Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Workforce Readiness and the Future of Work (SIOP Organizational Frontiers Series)
by Fred Oswald Tara S. Behrend Lori FosterWorkforce readiness is an issue that is of great national and societal importance. For the United States and other countries to thrive in a globally interconnected environment of wide-ranging opportunities and threats, the need to develop and maintain a skilled and adaptable workforce is critical. National investments in job training and schools remain essential in stimulating businesses and employment agencies to collaborate productively with educators who provide both training and vocational guidance. Workforce Readiness and the Future of Work argues that the large-scale multifaceted efforts required to ensure a reliable and strong supply of talent and skill in the U.S. workforce should be addressed systematically, simultaneously, and systemically across disciplines of thought and levels of analysis. In a four-part framework, the authors cover the major areas of: education in the K-12, vocational, postsecondary, and STEM arenas; economic and labor market considerations; employment, organizations, and the world of work; laws, policies, and budgets at the federal, state, local, and military levels. With contributions from leading scholars, this volume informs high-priority workforce effectiveness issues of current and future concern and concrete research, practice, and policy directions to generate novel insights of a multilevel and system-wide nature.
The Workhouse: The People, the Places, the Life Behind Doors
by Simon Fowler&“A poignant account&” of the reality behind these famous Victorian institutions where the poor resided (The Independent). During the nineteenth century, the workhouse cast a shadow over the lives of the English poor. The destitute and the desperate sought refuge within its forbidding walls. And it was an ever-present threat if poor families failed to look after themselves properly. In this fully updated and revised edition of his bestselling book, Simon Fowler takes a fresh look at the institution that most of us are familiar with only from Dickens novels or films, and the people who sought help from it. He looks at how the system of the Poor Law of which the workhouse was a key part was organized, and the men and women who ran the workhouses or were employed to care for the inmates. But above all this is the moving story of the tens of thousands of children, men, women and the elderly who were forced to endure grim conditions to survive in an unfeeling world. &“Draws powerfully on letters from The National Archives ... brings out the horror, but it is fair-minded to those struggling to be humane within an inhumane system.&”—The Independent &“A good introduction.&”—The Guardian
Working Across Cultures: Study of Expatriate Nurses Working in Developing Countries in Primary Health Care (Routledge Revivals)
by Barbara A. ParfittPublished in 1998, this work aims to challenge not only those expatriates who work overseas as consultants or practitioners in aid programmes but also the agencies who support aid programmes from the West. It identifies the values that influence practice and questions the validity of the contribution that nurses overseas are able to make. The nurses use race, gender and knowledge as forms of power in order to "work effectively". Their role in supporting women for the promotion of better health in the developing countries is recognised. Yet the values which influence their practice can lead them to disable rather than enable the community they are seeking to help. An empowerment model is proposed with emphasis on the acknowledgement of racial heritage.
Working across Lines: Resisting Extreme Energy Extraction
by Corrie GrosseHow are communities uniting against fracking and tar sands to change our energy future? Working across Lines offers a detailed comparative analysis of climate justice coalitions in California and Idaho—two states with distinct fossil fuel histories, environmental contexts, and political cultures. Drawing on ethnographic evidence from 106 in-depth interviews and three years of participant observation, Corrie Grosse investigates the ways people build effective energy justice coalitions across differences in political views, race and ethnicity, age, and strategic preferences. This book argues for four practices that are critical for movement building: focusing on core values of justice, accountability, and integrity; identifying the roots of injustice; cultivating relationships among activists; and welcoming difference. In focusing on coalitions related to energy and climate justice, Grosse provides important models for bridging divides to reach common goals. These lessons are more relevant than ever.
Working Adolescents: Rethinking Education For and On the Job (Global Perspectives on Adolescence and Education #2)
by Mary Ann MaslakThis book offers a new approach to workforce education for youth. It provides meaningful and essential insight into educational systems and practices through cases of vocational and technical education in the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Italy, and the United States of America. The cases describe the history of the multi-faceted vocational systems and provide, in doing so, a springboard for this new work. A conceptual framework comprised of the cognitive, psychological, and social building blocks of individual development explains the multifaceted dimensions of youth that contribute to the policies and practices of traditional adolescent educational models. The framework extends that base by drawing on a multidisciplinary collection of research from both sociology and business to create a new transdisciplinary model for educational practice. It highlights the important but often under-studied relationship between educational institutions and workplaces. The book culminates in an original model, Community Works, which advances both formal and non-formal educational programming and curricula. The model details a practical program for youth, including roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders, and a curricular map, information on lesson planning, varieties of instructional strategies, and tools for assessment and evaluation for professionals.
Working at the Interface of Cultures: Eighteen Lives in Social Science (Psychology Revivals)
by Michael Harris BondBehind the mask of objective science lie the dynamics of what happens to scientists who go to live and work in another culture. Those who work and study in an alien culture often find themselves changed in ways that affect their scientific work. How does this challenge, stimulate, provoke, suggest and inspire advances and novelty in their theories, methods and instruments? Originally published in 1997, each of the essays in this title explores these issues through the experiences of a distinguished practitioner, describing the process of intellectual growth and development. Chosen for their extensive experience with people holding a different worldview, the authors have all achieved renown for their contributions to the social science of culture.
Working Childhoods
by Jane DysonWorking Childhoods draws upon research in the Indian Himalayas to provide a theoretically-informed account of children's lives in a remote part of the world. The book shows that children in their pre-teens and teens are lynchpins of the rural economy, spending hours each day herding cattle, collecting leaves, and juggling household tasks with schoolwork. Through documenting in painstaking detail children's stories, songs, friendships, fears and tribulations, the book offers a powerful account of youth agency and young people's rich relationship with the natural world. The 'environment' emerges not only as a crucial economic resource but also as a basis for developing gendered ideas of self. The book should be essential reading for anyone interested in better understanding childhood, youth, the environment, and development within and beyond India - including anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, development studies scholars, and South Asianists.
The Working Class and Its Culture
by Neil Larry ShumskyVolume 5 "THE WORKING CLASS AND ITS CULTURE’ of the American Cities; series. This collection brings together more than 200 scholarly articles pertaining to the history and development of urban life in the United States during the past two centuries. Volume 5 contains articles that are closely related but which concentrate specifically on the changing nature of work in American cities during the past two centuries. While they obviously concern the development of the industrial and post-industrial economies, they also recognize that economic transformations are intimately related to cultural change and that economic and cultural change are inseparable and must be considered together. At the same time, taken as a group, the articles reveal differences in experience between black and white Americans, men and women, and native and foreign-born Americans, necessitating that each of these groups be considered separately. The selections also investigate and illuminate questions about the relationships among these different groups and the kinds of actions they have taken to achieve their goals—political protests, boycotts, strikes, and so on.
Working-Class Boys and Educational Success: Teenage Identities, Masculinities and Urban Schooling (Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education)
by Nicola IngramThis book examines the complex relationship between working-class masculinities and educational success. Drawing on a small sample of young men attending either a selective grammar or a secondary school in the same urban area of Belfast, the author demonstrates that contrary to popular belief, some working-class boys are engaged with education, are motivated to succeed and have high aspirations. However, the structures of schooling in a society where working class-ness is seen as feckless, tasteless and cultureless make the processes of becoming successful more challenging than they need to be. This volume reveals the unique processes of reconciling success and identities for individual working-class boys, and the important role schools have to play in this negotiation. Highly relevant to those engaged in teacher training in socially unequal societies, this book will also appeal to practitioners, sociologists of education, scholars of social justice and Bourdieusian theorists.
Working Class Comm Ils 122 (International Library of Sociology)
by Brian JacksonFirst published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Working-Class Environmentalism: An Agenda for a Just and Fair Transition to Sustainability
by Karen BellThis book presents a timely perspective that puts working-class people at the forefront of achieving sustainability. Bell argues that environmentalism is a class issue, and confronts some current practice, policy and research that is preventing the attainment of sustainability and a healthy environment for all. She combines two of the biggest challenges facing humanity: that millions of people around the world still do not have their social and environmental needs met (including healthy food, clean water, affordable energy, clean air); and that the earth’s resources have been over-used or misused. Bell explores various solutions to these social and ecological crises and lays out an agenda for simultaneously achieving greater well-being, equality and sustainability. The result will be an invaluable resource for practitioners and policy-makers working to achieve environmental and social justice, as well as to students and scholars across social policy, sociology, human geography, and environmental studies.
Working Class Experiences of Social Inequalities in: Feelings of Class (Cities and Society)
by Lars MeierBased on qualitative research among industrial workers in a region that has undergone deindustrialisation and transformation to a service-based economy, this book examines the loss of status among former manual labourers. Focus lies on their emotional experiences, nostalgic memories, hauntings from the past and attachments to their former places of work, to transformed neighbourhoods, as well as to public space. Against this background the book explores the continued importance of class as workers attempt to manage the declining recognition of their skills and a loss of power in an "established-outsider figuration". A study of the transformation of everyday life and social positions wrought by changes in the social structure, in urban landscapes and in the "structures of feeling", this examination of the dynamic of social identity will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology and geography with interests in post-industrial societies, social inequality, class and social identity.
Working Class Female Students' Experiences of Higher Education: Identities, Choices and Emotions (Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education)
by Sam ShieldsThis book explores the experiences of working-class women undergraduates at three universities in the North of England. The author examines the women’s identities, choices and emotions in relation to higher education; and how they reframe their constrained university choices to maximise their chances of academic success. Highlighting differences in working-class women’s learner identities, caring commitments and quests for upwards social mobility, the book offers an understanding of working-class female student journeys and their mixture of compromise, uncertainty and hope. It will be of interest and value to scholars of working-class women students, widening participation, and sociologists of education.
Working Class Formation in Taiwan
by Ming Sho HoThis book offers a fresh look at Taiwan's state workers in from the postwar period to the present day and examines the rise and fall of labor insurgency in the past two decades. Challenging the conventional image of docile working class, it unearths a series of workers resistance, hidden and public, in a high authoritarian era.
The Working Class from Marx to Our Times (Marx, Engels, and Marxisms)
by Marcelo Badaró MattosThis book reviews Marx's contributions to the debate on the working class. The first part of the work presents the synthesis of the main contributions of Marx and Engels (and 20th century Marxist writers) to the understanding of social classes, the class struggle, and the working class. The remaining parts present exercises of dialogue between Marx's and Marxists’ discussions on the working class, presented in the first part, and empirical elements of class reality today, as well as debates in the social sciences and historiography on the same issues. The thesis defended in the book is simple: the "working class,” also called the "proletariat,” as it appears in the work of Karl Marx, had and has validity as an analytical category for the understanding of social life under capitalism. Nevertheless, Marx’s discussion on the issue is complex and the category “working class” in his approach is wider than many Marxists have presented it.
Working-class Heroes: Protecting Home, Community, and Nation in a Chicago Neighborhood
by Maria KefalasSociologist Maria Kefalas travels to one of Chicago's last remaining working-class "white" neighborhoods to consider the significance of home, community and nation a generation after Martin Luther King's supporters marched through the streets, demanding an end to segregation.
Working-Class Images of Society (Routledge Revivals)
by Bulmer MartinFirst published in 1975. How do men come to perceive and evaluate a world in which marked inequalities of class and status exist? This book considers the nature of class images and their underlying work and community structures. Beginning with the argument that the perception of society varies according to type of work and community milieux, it first considers the social imagery of working-class professions and their sources of variation, and then examines some of the methodological problems of the study of class imagery. The nature of proletarian traditionalism and radicalism in then contemporary Britain is discussed in conclusion. This title will be of interest to students of sociology.
The Working Class in Weimar Germany: A Psychological and Sociological Study
by Erich Fromm&“The analysis unveils a sociotypology of [the working class] on the eve of the Third Reich, its potential for resistance as well as seduction.&” —Political Psychology Building upon Fromm&’s 1929 lecture &“The Application of Psycho-Analysis to Sociology and Religious Knowledge,&” in which he outlined the basis for a rudimentary but far-reaching attempt at the integration of Freudian psychology with Marxist social theory, this study is an attempt to obtain evidence about the systemic connections between &“psychic make-up&” and social development. Originally an investigation of the social and psychological attitudes of two large groups in Weimar Germany, manual and white-collar workers, a questionnaire was developed to collect data about their opinions, lifestyles, and attitudes—from what books they read and their thoughts on women&’s work to their opinions about the German legal system and the actual distribution of power in the state.The Working Class in Weimar Germany can ultimately help us understand the establishment of fascism after 1933—that despite all the electoral successes of the Weimar Left, its members were not in the position, owning to their character structure, to prevent the victory of National Socialism.
The Working Class in Welfare Capitalism: Work, Unions and Politics in Sweden (Routledge Revivals)
by Walter KorpiFirst published in 1978, The Working Class in Welfare Capitalism looks at the position of the working class in the Swedish pattern of welfare capitalism and compares it with other capitalist industrial countries. Beginning with an analysis of class, class conflict, power and social change in classical and modern social theory, Professor Korpi discusses the development of the Swedish labour movement and its strategies of class conflict. He focuses on the situation of the worker at the workplace and in the community, on the functioning of the labour union, on industrial conflict, and on the political views and standpoints of the workers. He also examines political developments in Sweden and discusses the prospects for a development towards economic democracy. A challenging and comprehensive study of Swedish social democracy in action, carried out by a Swede within a comparative frame of reference, the book presents an analysis which is of central relevance to all capitalist societies, especially when mass communist parties in Europe appear to be moving towards reformistic socialism. This book will be of interest to students of sociology, social class, economy and history.
The Working Class Majority
by Michael ZweigIn this memoir of the Hudson River and of her family, Susan Fox Rogers writes from a fresh perspective: the seat of her kayak. Low in the water, she explores the bays and the larger estuary, riding the tides, marveling over sturgeons and eels, eagles and herons, and spotting the remains of the ice and cement industries. After years of dipping her paddle into the waters off the village of Tivoli, she came to know the rocks and tree limbs, currents and eddies, mansions and islands so well that she claimed that section of the river as her own: her reach. Woven into Rogers's intimate exploration of the river is the story of her life as a woman in the outdoors¿rock climbing and hiking as well as kayaking. Rogers writes of the Hudson River with skill and vivacity. Her strong sense of place informs her engagement with a waterway that lured the early Dutch settlers, entranced nineteenth-century painters, and has been marked by decades of pollution. The river and the communities along its banks become partners in Rogers's life and vivid characters in her memoir. Her travels on the river range from short excursions to the Saugerties Lighthouse to a days-long journey from Tivoli to Tarrytown and a circumnavigation of Manhattan Island, while in memory she ventures as far as the Indiana Dunes and the French Pyrenees. In a fluid, engaging voice, My Reach mixes the genres of memoir, outdoor adventure, natural and unnatural history. Rogers's interest in the flora and fauna of the river is as keen as her insight into the people who live and travel along the waterway. She integrates moments of description and environmental context with her own process of grieving the recent deaths of both parents. The result is a book that not only moves the reader but also informs and entertains.