Sociology: work and labour Books

Book SynopsisThis collection examines the work of the Italian economist and social theorist Vilfredo Pareto, highlighting the extraordinary scope of his thought, which covers a vast range of academic disciplines. The volume underlines the enduring and contemporary relevance of Pareto''s ideas on a bewildering variety of topics; while illuminating his attempt to unite different disciplines, such as history and sociology, in his quest for a ''holistic'' understanding of society. Bringing together the world''s leading experts on Pareto, this collection will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of sociology and social psychology, monetary theory and risk analysis, philosophy and intellectual history, and political science and rhetoric.Trade Review'Pareto's contributions to economics, sociology and political science are well known to specialists in these different fields, but the relations between them as part of a more general theory of social science is far less appreciated. By exploring how his work crossed these disciplinary boundaries, this collection of chapters moves us towards a fuller and better understanding of the writings of this key figure.' Richard Bellamy, University College, London, UK 'I would urge prospective students of Pareto - which this book might well cause to increase - to begin their study with Giorgio Baruchello’s chapter on Pareto’s rhetoric, there being nothing else like it in English. Pareto was a great polemicist, and until his special use of language is appreciated, the full weight of his achievement cannot be comprehended or enjoyed to the extent it should be. American scholars will find refreshingly instructive the chapters by their countrymen, François Neilsen (on stratification research), Charles Power (on social systems), and John Higley (elite cycles), since so little reference is made to Pareto nowadays in sociology. Given the high quality of their work, and that of others in this densely constructed book, this avoidance of Pareto’s obvious genius seems increasingly irresponsible...' Contemporary SociologyTable of ContentsContents: Introduction, Joseph V. Femia and Alasdair J. Marshall; Pareto and the elite, John Scott; Talents and obstacles: Pareto's morphological schema and contemporary social stratification research, François Nielsen; The role of sticking points in Pareto's theory of social systems, Charles Powers; Pareto, Machiavelli and the critique of ideal political theory, Joseph V. Femia; The idea of a sociology of risk and uncertainty: insight from Pareto, Alasdair J. Marshall and Marco Guidi; Pareto's theory of elite cycles: a reconsideration and application, John Higley and Jan Pakulski; Pareto, Mill and the cognitive explanation of collective beliefs: unnoticed 'middle-range theories' in the Trattato, Alban Bouvier; Pareto's rhetoric, Giorgio Baruchello; Pareto's manuscript on money and the real economy, Michael McLure; Index.

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Book SynopsisThere is a general consensus that deep-seated changes are reshaping the way production and work are organized, the way employees, employers and their representatives deal with each other, and the way governments seek to shape society. In this work a group of leading scholars take stock of the evidence and implications of the new workplace. Drawing on examples from a variety of national contexts, they seek to characterize the nature of contemporary workplace change, and assess its implications for the organization of work for workers, for employment relations and for public policy.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Assessing the Prospects for the High Performance Workplace, Anthony Giles, Gregor Murray, Jacques Bélanger; Chapter 1 Towards a New Production Model: Potentialities, Tensions and Contradictions, Jacques Bélanger, Anthony Giles, Gregor Murray; Chapter 2 New Forms ff Work Organization in the Workplace: Transformative, Exploitative, or Limited and Controlled?, Paul Edwards, John Geary, Keith Sisson; Chapter 3 The Impact of New Forms of Work Organization on Workers, Eileen Appelbaum; Chapter 4 Workplace Innovation and the Role of Institutions, Paul R. Bélanger, Paul-André Lapointe, Benoît Lévesque; Chapter 5 North American Labour Policy Under a Transformed Economic and Workplace Environment, Richard P. Chaykowski, Morley Gunderson;

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsGlossary. Section 1, Introduction and theoretical framework: Mary Davis, Introduction; Mary Davis, The Making of the English Working Class re- visited: Labour History and Marxist Theory. Section 2, Women & Work: Sian Moore, Gender & Class Consciousness in Industrialisation- the Bradford Woollen Industry; Katrina Honeyman, Sweat and sweating- Women Workers and Trade Unions in the Leeds Clothing Trade 1880-1980; Sheila Blackburn, 'The Inspector Can Check a Workroom is Insanitary by Means of His Own Eyes and Nose'- Re-Thinking the Sweatshop in Victorian and Edwardian Britain; Linda Clarke & Christine Wall, Skilled versus Qualified Labour; Skilled Versus Qualified Labour- the Exclusion of Women from the Construction Industry; Caroline Bressey, Black women and Work in England 1880 - 1920; Louise Raw, Striking a Light- Bryant & May Revisited; Catherine Hunt, The Fragility of the Union- the work of the National Federation of Women Workers in the Regions of Britain 1906-1914; Section 3, Women and Politics: Sheila Rowbotham, Alice Wheeldon Revisited; Annemarie Hughes, Socialist Women in the Inter-War Years.

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Book SynopsisMillions of people across the globe face a precarious existence because of Covid-19, climate change, and the greatest wealth inequality in a century. In Britain, the pandemic has revealed critical failings in the social safety net, especially the damage to the National Health Service caused by years of underfunding and creeping privatisation.Table of ContentsContents: Introduction; Orthodox Socialism; The changing political status of organised labour; Labour in power; Bevan and the crisis of orthodox socialism; Harold Wilson in office and the rise of a Labour new left; New Labour's 'modernisation' project; Jeremy Corbyn and the resurgence of the socialist ideal; Appendix: Labour members speak.

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Book SynopsisDespite decades of greater awareness of gender at work in Western countries, gender inequality in the executive suites is alive and well. The Face of the Firm highlights new critical perspectives on the relationship between hegemonic masculine cultures, gender embodiment and gender disparities in corporate organizations. Using multiple methodologies including over 100 interviews, mainly with British female and male executives in the UK who worked for some of the most prestigious American and British multinational advertising agencies and computer companies, the book makes important connections between the empirical data and contemporary sexism in the UK and US. The book refocuses the debate of executive work, organizational spaces and gender inequality on gendered bodies at work. It also demonstrates that gendered and sexualized relations among executives often construct the production process. The book makes a contribution to masculinity, gender and work scholarship aTrade Review"Michele Gregory's The Face of the Firm is a detailed study of what was happening in the late 1980s in advertising and computing industries. But it is also much more in charting continuities with and differences from business today, including how the two industries, then distinct and largely separate, have now become so closely intertwined. It is a 'must read' not only for those committed to the critical analysis of gender, diversity and organizations, but also those concerned with HRM, ICTs, and technology more generally."Jeff Hearn, Örebro University, Sweden; University of Huddersfield, UK; author of Men of the World"In this compelling book, Professor Gregory considers the role of hegemonic masculinity in creating and proscribing gendered roles, work, and experiences in advertising and computing industries in the United Kingdom and the United States. The rich, multi-method study documents disparities between beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of corporate men and women as they work and live. Relevant to countless other industries, organizations, and settings, this book provides eye-opening evidence of the continued need to pursue gender equality and inclusion." Myrtle Bell, University of Texas at ArlingtonTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1: Corporate Masculine Embodiment and Mechanisms of Inequality at WorkChapter 2: Gendered Structures and Masculine Cultures in Advertising and ComputingChapter 3: Homogeneity: In His ImageChapter 4: Homosociability: Make Way for the Men’s RoomChapter 5: A League Of Their Own: A Minor League with Major PotentialChapter 6: Heterosexuality: Mad Men British StyleChapter 7: Conclusion: New Businesses, Old Habits and Challenges to EqualityAppendices:Appendix A: MethodologyAppendix B: The Interview ScheduleAppendix C: Computer Personnel DataAppendix D: Questionnaire ResultsAppendix E: Advertising Department and Gender DataReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisArtists have worked from home for many reasons, including care duties, financial or political constraints, or availability and proximity to others.From the home studios' of Charles and Ray Eames, to the different photographic representations of Robert Rauschenberg's studio, this book explores the home as a distinct site of artistic practice, and the traditions and developments of the home studio as concept and space throughout the 20th and into the 21st century.Using examples from across Europe and the Anglophone world between the mid-20th century and the present, each chapter considers the different circumstances for working at home, the impact on the creative lives of the artists, their identities as artists and on the work itself, and how, sometimes, these were projected and promoted through photographs and the media. Key themes include the gendered and performative aspects of women practising at home', collaborative studio communities of the 1970s 90s incTrade ReviewThis original and multifaceted book interweaves artists’ interviews with contributions from art historians, design historians and architects. Surveying the domestic and creative functions of the studio alongside its performative role, it makes a compelling case for the enduring cultural significance of these extraordinary places. * Louise Campbell, Emeritus Professor, History of Art, Warwick University, UK *Insightful and timely, with a wealth of fascinating case studies and approaches, this book offers crucial new perspectives on the competing pressures of the domestic and the professional, and the myriad ways in which artists have negotiated, resisted or embraced them. * Clare O’Dowd, Research Curator, the Henry Moore Institute, UK *Demystifies the trope of the artist’s studio as a mythical (and separate) space of creativity, helping to expand and enrich its modern definition. Accessibly written and hugely informative, it will be of interest to researchers, artists, art students, architects, designers and cultural theorists. * Gill Perry, Emeritus Professor of Art History, The Open University, UK *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction, Imogen Racz (Independent Scholar, UK) and Jill Journeaux (Coventry University, UK) Part One: The Studio at Home: Designing and Projecting the Creative Life 1. Blurring Boundaries between Life and Work: The Home Studios, Homes and Design/Film/ Multi-Media Workshop of Charles and Ray Eames, 1941 to 1978, Pat Kirkham (Kingston University, UK) 2. Interview, Imogen Racz and Liz Harrison 3. An Atomisation of the Home: Towards a Compound Dwelling Interior, Nicholas Lee (The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark) 4. Interview, Paula Chambers and Imogen Racz 5. Interview, Zahrah Al Ghamdi and Imogen Racz 6. Robert Rauschenberg’s Studio through the Lens of Two Photographers, Adi Meyerovitch (Yale University, USA) 7. Interview, Graham Chorlton and Jill Journeaux Part Two: Women, Home, Studio 8. Working from Home: Portuguese women artists during Estado Novo, Maria Luisa Coelho (University of Oxford, UK) 9. Interview, Gerda Roper (Teesside University, UK) and Imogen Racz 10. Making Memory Material: Clutter and the Home Studios of Margaret Olley and Mirka Mora, Cassandra Joore-Short (Melbourne University, Australia) 11. Interview, Carole Griffiths (Bradford College, UK) and Jill Journeaux Part Three: Live-work Communities from the 1970s to 1990s 12. Abandoned and Appropriated Homes: The live-work spaces of artists in East London, Imogen Racz (Independent Scholar, UK) and Heidi Saarinen (Coventry University, UK) 13. Mikey Cuddihy Reflections 14. Housewatch: Cinematic architecture for the Pedestrian, David Martin (Independent Scholar) 15. Interview, George Saxon and Imogen Racz Part Four: Staying Home During COVID-19 16. Sailing to my Nearest Neighbours for Lockdown Cocktails: Reflections on the Politics of Home and Homemaking during a Pandemic, Maria Photiou (University of Derby, UK) and Lia Lapithi (Independent artist) 17. Interview, Fran Cottell (Camberwell College of Arts, UK) and Imogen Racz 18. Artists at Home and Away: Mobile Bodies, Distance and Proximity, Gudrun Filipska (Arts Territory Exchange) 19. Interview, Angie Walton (Liverpool John Moores University, UK), Sarah Black (Liverpool Hope University, UK) and Imogen Racz 20. Studio. Object. Home: Place Setting, Jill Journeaux (Coventry University, UK) 21. Interview, Sreejata Roy and Jill Journeaux 22. Interview, Anastasia Starikova and Jill Journeaux Index

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Book SynopsisThroughout the 20th century Scottish miners resisted deindustrialisation through collective action and by leading the campaign for Home Rule. This book shows that coal miners occupy a central position in Scotland's economic, social and political history.

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Book SynopsisThis book argues that in order to understand dibao (China's minimum livelihood guarantee) we need to look at how the programme emerged and how it has developed in the years since.

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Book SynopsisAs remote working becomes the norm rather than the exception for many office workers around the globe, The Nowhere Office proposes a radical new way of thinking about work both now and in the future. Offering a strategic and practical guide to negotiating this pivotal moment in the history of work, The Nowhere Office addresses the problems which beset work - the endemic stagnant productivity and crisis of stress which predate the pandemic - and the new challenges of remote working, repurposing offices for more creative interaction, managing WFH teams and satisfying the demand for more purposeful work with greater work/life balance. Drawing on history, cutting-edge research and extensive interviews Julia Hobsbawm argues persuasively that now is the time to develop something better, more meaningful, and, crucially, more workable.Trade ReviewJulia Hobsbawm is brilliant at seeing tomorrow's ideas today -- Jo Lo Dico, Financial TimesEvery manager or leader who is wondering what to do next about their offices and people needs to read The Nowhere Office -- Ben Page, Global CEO of IpsosWorking or not working defines who we are. Where we work and how we work really matters. Yet there is so little public debate about any of this. That is why Julia Hobsbawm's The Nowhere Office is an important book. If you are one of the millions who can't decide whether working-from-home is a pandemic silver lining or just another disaster, this book is for you. -- Robert PestonWork is being revolutionised before your eyes. Anyone who wants to understand what is going on-workers deciding how much time to spend in the office, managers wondering how to manage a blended workforce, CEOs worrying that their headquarters is becoming a white elephant - could do no better than to read The Nowhere Office, a tour de force of insight, clarity and, something sadly lacking in debates on this subject, common sense -- Adrian Wooldridge, global business columnist, Bloomberg OpinionA masterfully even-handed and sensible appraisal of the future of work . . . a priceless injection of nuanced thinking and practical suggestions -- Rory SutherlandWe need big bold thinkers like Julia Hobsbawm right now more than ever -- Polly Mackenzie, Chief Executive, DemosA masterwork. It describes the changing patterns of work and our ambivalence about losing so many of the old certainties whilst trying to embrace change. Important and enduring -- William Eccleshare, Chairman and CEO, Clear ChannelJulia Hobsbawm brings a unique perspective to the debate about the future world of work - that of someone who is able to look back and look forward at the same time. Her observations and suggestions should be read by everyone who employs, or plans to employ, others -- Professor Heather McGregor, CBE FRSE PFHEA, Executive Dean, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt UniversityWhere else are you going to find such enlightening insights into the future of work? -- James Bell VP Pew Research CentreHer thinking demands and inspires huge change -- Good BusinessJulia Hobsbawm's book The Nowhere Office brilliantly captures the zeitgeist issue of our times - how and where we work -- Ayesha Hazarika, writer and broadcaster, Times RadioConcise and highly readable -- Forbes

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Book SynopsisAs remote working becomes the norm rather than the exception for many office workers around the globe, The Nowhere Office proposes a radical new way of thinking about work both now and in the future. Offering a strategic and practical guide to negotiating this pivotal moment in the history of work, The Nowhere Office addresses the problems which beset work - the endemic stagnant productivity and crisis of stress which predate the pandemic - and the new challenges of remote working, repurposing offices for more creative interaction, managing WFH teams and satisfying the demand for more purposeful work with greater work/life balance. Drawing on history, cutting-edge research and extensive interviews Julia Hobsbawm argues persuasively that now is the time to develop something better, more meaningful, and, crucially, more workable.Trade ReviewJulia Hobsbawm is brilliant at seeing tomorrow's ideas today -- Jo Lo Dico, Financial TimesEvery manager or leader who is wondering what to do next about their offices and people needs to read The Nowhere Office -- Ben Page, Global CEO of IpsosWorking or not working defines who we are. Where we work and how we work really matters. Yet there is so little public debate about any of this. That is why Julia Hobsbawm's The Nowhere Office is an important book. If you are one of the millions who can't decide whether working-from-home is a pandemic silver lining or just another disaster, this book is for you. -- Robert PestonWork is being revolutionised before your eyes. Anyone who wants to understand what is going on-workers deciding how much time to spend in the office, managers wondering how to manage a blended workforce, CEOs worrying that their headquarters is becoming a white elephant - could do no better than to read The Nowhere Office, a tour de force of insight, clarity and, something sadly lacking in debates on this subject, common sense -- Adrian Wooldridge, global business columnist, Bloomberg OpinionA masterfully even-handed and sensible appraisal of the future of work . . . a priceless injection of nuanced thinking and practical suggestions -- Rory SutherlandWe need big bold thinkers like Julia Hobsbawm right now more than ever -- Polly Mackenzie, Chief Executive, DemosA masterwork. It describes the changing patterns of work and our ambivalence about losing so many of the old certainties whilst trying to embrace change. Important and enduring -- William Eccleshare, Chairman and CEO, Clear ChannelJulia Hobsbawm brings a unique perspective to the debate about the future world of work - that of someone who is able to look back and look forward at the same time. Her observations and suggestions should be read by everyone who employs, or plans to employ, others -- Professor Heather McGregor, CBE FRSE PFHEA, Executive Dean, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt UniversityWhere else are you going to find such enlightening insights into the future of work? -- James Bell VP Pew Research CentreHer thinking demands and inspires huge change -- Good BusinessJulia Hobsbawm's book The Nowhere Office brilliantly captures the zeitgeist issue of our times - how and where we work -- Ayesha Hazarika, writer and broadcaster, Times RadioConcise and highly readable -- Forbes

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Book SynopsisAmericans are overworked. After declining for a century through hard-fought labor movement victories, average annual work hours increased approximately 8 percent for all working adults from 1979 to 2016. In Worked Over, sociologist Jamie McCallum reveals how the battle over time on the job has been central to conflicts over capitalism from the beginning, how overwork is at the heart of the inequities and injustices in America's economy today, and why workers must fight to take control of the time they spend working.From Amazon warehouses to Silicon Valley campuses, from late night Uber deliveries to later night strip clubs, from factories in Ohio to retail floors everywhere, McCallum explains how the contemporary American workplace exploits workers' time and constrains their lives. Whether it's the manager's stopwatch, the scheduling algorithm's dispassionate authority, or our own internal clock that pushes us because we're afraid of falling behind or losing our jobs, ordinary people have lost much say over when and how much we work. Work, more than anything else, dictates when we sleep, eat, raise our kids, and live the rest of our lives. Popular discussions of overwork tend to focus on striving professionals, but as McCallum demonstrates, it's the hours of low-wage workers have increased the most, and it's their working lives that remain the most precarious and unpredictable in a service-oriented, on-demand economy. What's needed is not individual solutions but collective struggle. Throughout Worked Over, McCallum offers inspiring stories of how the battle to win back control of time has been renewed today by those most vulnerable to the capitalist society's electronic whip.Combining the rigor of a scholar, the storytelling of a journalist, and the vision of an activist, McCallum shows that winning shorter hours will require a radical break from our current political and economic system. Worked Over is an inside look at why our lives became tethered to work -- and how we might regain a greater say over our work time and build a more just society in the process.

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Book SynopsisGirl Friday: A job title used in 1970s workplaces for a junior administration assistant or receptionist. Common synonyms include junior office chick, shit-kicker, donkey worker, general dogsbody or gofer (go for this, go for that). Girl Friday: An Extraordinarily Ordinary Working Life is the hilarious and moving memoir about women at work, pay inequality and the alienating nature of the 21st century workforce. This is a story about resilience and reinvention, and it is also a story about how we are not human resources, we are human beings. Kristine was 15 when she lied to get a junior office job as a Girl Friday in 1975 – she took the job because she thought she only had to go to work on Fridays. She went on to experience the full gamut of working life, from joblessness, self-employment, mind-numbing office roles, toxic workplaces and out-of-control workloads. Miraculously, Kristine clocked up forty years of admin work, and then in her fifties she became unemployable and ready to tell all. Wisecracking, frank and completely relatable, Kristine Philipp’s Girl Fridayoffers stirring insights into the personal and political contexts of working women’s lives, the lengths older women must go to keep a job, the trials of walking the poverty line in later life and the power of friendships and camaraderie in the workplace.

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Book SynopsisCanadian labour history and working-class struggles are brought to life in this anthology of nine short comics, each one accompanied by an informative preface. Each comic showcases the inspiring efforts and determination of working people who banded together with others to fight to change the world.

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Book SynopsisThe NHS is stretched to its limits. Yet doctors are writing 10 million sick-notes a year for people they cannot 'fix', while patients with treatable diseases queue for appointments. This is Britain's grave error: our hyper-medicalised society has falsely equated illness with unfitness to work—mistaking a social problem for a medical one. Dr Adrian Massey argues compellingly that we should leave doctors out of it and seek tailored, contractual, employer–employee solutions, but obstacles block this path: over-complex employment law; an outdated benefits system overburdening doctors and traumatising the vulnerable; and a workplace culture that is too inflexible to keep sick employees in work. 'Sick-Note Britain' is a blistering condemnation of a sham system that works for nobody, and an urgent call to rethink how we manage sickness—for the sake of our economy, our wellbeing, and our health service.Trade Review‘A furious polemic . . . heady and optimistic.’'A provocative book that challenges the subjective ways we approach willingness or capability to work. This will be an uncomfortable read for many, but raises important questions that need to be addressed in the modern technological era.' -- Lord David Blunkett'Detailed, convincing and controversial. Massey does not mince his words: the British approach to determining whether one suffers work incapacity is counterproductive. An argument that merits careful consideration across the resource-advantaged world.' -- Nortin M. Hadler, Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Microbiology/Immunology at the University of North Carolina'[This book] will stimulate and enlighten any reader. … Employers, politicians, employees, GPs, occupational health advisors and probably Joe public would do well to read this!' -- Personnel Today‘A most insightful read which provides a thought-provoking appreciation of the subject matter. …especially relevant in the current day practice of medicine.’ -- Journal of Occupational Medicine‘This thought-provoking polemic is both erudite and wickedly entertaining.’ -- British Journal of General Practice

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Book SynopsisThough largely invisible in histories of the First World War, over 550,000 men in the ranks of the Indian army were non-combatants. From the porters, stevedores and construction workers in the Coolie Corps to those who maintained supply lines and removed the wounded from the battlefield, Radhika Singha recovers the story of this unacknowledged service. The labour regimes built on the backs of these ‘coolies’ sustained the military infrastructure of empire; their deployment in interregional arenas bent to the demands of global war. Viewed as racially subordinate and subject to 'non-martial' caste designations, they fought back against their status, using the warring powers’ need for manpower as leverage to challenge traditional service hierarchies and wage differentials. 'The Coolie's Great War' views that global conflict through the lens of Indian labour, constructing a distinct geography of the war--from tribal settlements and colonial jails, beyond India's frontiers, to the battlefronts of France and Mesopotamia.Trade Review'The Coolie’s Great War is a tough read; not only because of its subject matter but also because of the extensive research and details pulsating through its pages. Bloated with archival accounts and evidence, the book does a commendable service in honouring the ones whose blood, sweat, and tears slid into the unknown.' -- The Daily Star

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Book SynopsisThirteen months after Trump allegedly captured the allegiance of "the white working class," a strike wave-the first in over four decades-rocked the United States. Inspired by the wildcat victory in West Virginia, teachers in Oklahoma, Arizona, and across the country walked off their jobs and shut down their schools to demand better pay for educators, more funding for students, and an end to years of austerity.Confounding all expectations, these working-class rebellions erupted in regions with Republican electorates, weak unions, and bans on public sector strikes. By mobilizing to take their destinies into their own hands, red state school workers posed a clear alternative to politics-as-usual. And with similar actions now gaining steam in Los Angeles, Oakland, Denver, and Virginia, there is no sign that this upsurge will be short-lived. Red State Revolt is a compelling analysis of the emergence and development of this historic strike wave, with an eye to extracting its main strategic lessons for educators, labor organizers, and radicals across the country. A former high school teacher and longtime activist, Eric Blanc embedded himself into the rank-and-file leaderships of the walkouts, where he was given access to internal organizing meetings and secret Facebook groups inaccessible to most journalists. The result is one of the richest portraits of the labor movement to date, a story populated with the voices of school workers who are winning the fight for the soul of public education-and redrawing the political map of the country at large.Trade ReviewComprehensive and excellent -- Diane Ravitch, a historian of education, an education policy analyst, and a research professor at New York University. She is the author of Reign of ErrorIf you've not been reading Eric Blanc's reporting on the teacher strikes, you've been missing out. Far and away the smartest writing out there on the topic. -- Corey Robin, author of the Reactionary Mindhas anyone in American labor history ever covered a strike wave so closely? Has a labor writer ever been on the scene of so many different upsurges in so many geographically far-flight places in such a short amount of time? Has anyone ever covered these conflicts in a way that both captures the incredible sense of possibility that these strikes have put on the table while also remaining sober about what the strikers have achieved and failed to achieve, with both a bird's-eye view as an observer and a commitment to hearing from workers in their own words? Eric's work on these strikes has been superb. -- Micah Uetricht, author of Strike for AmericaBefore 2018, strikes had become so rare in this country that hardly anyone knew what they were. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, they began. Not in left-wing cities but in the reddest of red states. Not of white men in factories but of teachers, many of them women, many of them of color. Eric Blanc spent months with the strikers, talking to them on picket lines, listening to them in meetings, sharing with them on Facebook threads, and more. Like Orwell in Barcelona, he's given us a first-hand report from the front lines, making sense of the most improbable political story of an improbable decade. This is exhilarating reading about a movement that will be shaping politics for decades to come. -- Corey Robin, The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald TrumpEric Blanc has written the best on-the-ground description and explanation of the red state teachers' revolt. He was there and he understands that what happened is historic. The brave teachers who walked out in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and other red states started a powerful trend. They give hope that the reactionary politics of the past forty years may be reversed by working people who realize that 'enough is enough.' Blanc's enthralling description of their struggles is a chronicle that should be widely read. -- Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School SystemRead this book to understand the many important lessons educators so powerfully taught about what it will take to rebuild a working-class movement, defeat Trumpism, and take on the billionaires. -- Jane McAlevey, No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded AgeEric Blanc's compelling new book, "Red State Revolt", is a thoroughly researched and eloquently written story of one of the most powerful social movements of our time. His incisive reporting shows how teachers, through labor organizing and strategic strikes, are protecting and strengthening public education, the great equalizing force of any democratic society. -- Amy Goodman, Host & Executive Producer, Democracy Now!Read Eric Blanc's book! -- Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA[T]here could be real potential in a national campaign around basic needs like public education. For thinking through how to go about building that movement-how to connect struggles by the workers who provide such public goods to the communities that depend upon them, and above all how to deploy the power of our best weapon, the strike-Red State Revolt is indispensable. -- Samir Sonti * New Labor Forum 2019, Vol. 28(3) 107–119 *

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Book SynopsisOh, Men, with Sisters dear! Oh, Men, with Mothers and Wives! It is not linen you re wearing out, But human creatures lives! Stitch stitch stitch, In poverty, hunger and dirt, Sewing at once, with a double thread, A Shroud as well as a Shirt. --from The Song of the Shirt by Thomas Hood (1843) Labour in Bangladesh flows like its rivers -- in excess of what is required. Often, both take a huge toll. Labour that costs $1.66 an hour in China and 52 cents in India can be had for a song in Bangladesh -- 18 cents. It is mostly women and children working in fragile, flammable buildings who bring in 70 per cent of the country s foreign exchange. Bangladesh today does not clothe the nakedness of the world, but provides it with limitless cheap garments -- through Primark, Walmart, Benetton, Gap. In elegiac prose, Jeremy Seabrook dwells upon the disproportionate sacrifices demanded by the manufacture of such throwaway items as baseball caps. He shows us how Bengal and Lancashire offer mirror images of impoverishment and affluence. In the eighteenth century, the people of Bengal were dispossessed of ancient skills and the workers of Lancashire forced into labour settlements.In a ghostly replay of traffic in the other direction, the decline of the British textile industry coincided with Bangladesh becoming one of the world s major clothing exporters. With capital becoming more protean than ever, it wouldn t be long before the global imperium readies to shift its sites of exploitation in its nomadic cultivation of profit.Trade Review'Few writers are at once as lyrical or as precise about the living conditions of peasants and indigents. Seabrook's clear-eyed accounts of the immiseration as well as the dreams of young Bangladeshis are informed by extended conversations with scholars and activists, as well as historical research. ... What makes The Song of the Shirt especially important is its historical consciousness. ... Seabrook draws out the social, economic and imaginative parallels that connected, across decades and continents, Europe's and Asia s poor. ... Seabrook has established himself as perhaps Britain's finest anatomist of class, deindustrialisation, migration and the spiritual consequences of neoliberalism. The Song of the Shirt may well be his masterpiece.' * The Guardian *'Stitches together history, folklore and hundreds of encounters with individual Bangladeshis to give a thorough picture of the structural injustices that have led to the present situation.' * The New Statesman *'The sweat and blood of Bangladeshi garment workers is woven into the very fabric of our daily lives. Seabrook, as he always has, delivers a brilliantly written jeremiad with an urgent moral message.' * Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums *'At once illuminating, deeply absorbing, and sobering, this is an ode to the rags of humanity the labourers, young and old who sometimes perish in order to create our fashionably casual clothes. It's written by one who has long been intimate with this part of the world and its anonymous dwellers, and who has responded always with passion and eloquence.' * Amit Chaudhuri, author of Calcutta: Two Years in the City *

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Book SynopsisUnique stories and insights into business, life and culture in modern-day China.

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Book SynopsisWho were the women who fought back at Grunwick and Gate Gourmet? Striking Women gives a voice to the women involved as they discuss their lives, their work and their trade unions. Striking Women is centred on two industrial disputes, the famous Grunwick strike (1976-78) and the Gate Gourmet dispute that erupted in 2005. Focusing on these two events, the book explores the nature of South Asian women’s contribution to the struggles for workers’ rights in the UK labour market. The authors examine histories of migration and settlement of two different groups of women of South Asian origin, and how this history, their gendered, classed and racialised inclusion in the labour market, the context of industrial relations in the UK in the two periods and the nature of the trade union movement shaped the trajectories and the outcomes of the two disputes. This is the first account based on the voices of the women involved. Drawing on life/work history interviews with thirty-two women who participated in the two disputes, as well as interviews with trade union officials, archival material and employment tribunal proceedings, the authors explore the motivations, experiences and implications of these events for their political and social identities.Table of Contents1. Striking women from Grunwick to Gate Gourmet 2. Beyond the stereotypes: South Asian women workers 3. Histories of migration and settlement in the UK 4. Everyday accounts of resilience, struggle and resistance in a gendered and racialised labour market 5. `We are the lions, Mr Manager’: The Grunwick dispute 6. `You have to fight for your right … no one gives it to you on a plate’: The Gate Gourmet dispute 7. Minority women and unionisation in a changing economy – where are we now? Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisChapter 1: “Raising Class Consciousness,” Gino Canella.- Chapter 1: “Raising Class Consciousness,” Gino Canella.- Chapter 3: “1960s Detroit Revolutionary Union Movements and Using Newsletters to Organize,” Todd Wolfson and Chris Robé.- Chapter 4: “Making the News and The Wapping Dispute,” Sam Kemp and Amil Mohanan.- Chapter 5: “Union-Owned Newspapers and Trade Union Power,” Torsten Geelan.- Chapter 6: “Platforming Media Work,” Tai Neilson.- Chapter 7: “Digital Communicative Media Unionism,” Errol Salamon.- Chapter 8: “Workplace Bulletins and Digital Technology,” Lydia Hughes and Jamie Woodcock.- Chapter 9: “The Protest Paradigm, Labor News, and Geopolitics,” Jinao Li, Carl Zhou, Linyi Gao, Yingqi Huang and Yan Zhang.- Chapter 10: “Education, Unions, and Digital Disruption,” Holger Pötzsch.- Chapter 11: “A Digital Strike? Social Media Organizing in the 2018 Teachers’ Revolt,” Eric Blanc.- Chapter 12: “At Uber: Conditions, Opportunities and Obstacles in Building Worker Solidarity,” Dragana Mrvos.- Chapter 13: “Digital Labor-Sphere: Delivery Workers Resistance in Turkey,” Mehmet Kayin, Ilker Kafali and Ugur Baloglu.

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Book SynopsisWhat are the grand dynamics that drive the history of economies? The laws of supply & demand, most economists would argue. For the history of European banking, this book offers an alternative explanation: Rather than market forces, the coincidence and coalitions of charismatic ideas and powerful interests is what shaped banking in Europe! In “Ideas, Interests and the Development of the European Banking Systems”, Florian Brugger traced decisive moments in the history of the European Banking Sector: from the time of the Italian City-States to the post World War I period, he shows how coalitions of ideas and interests built the tracks along which the European Banking Sector developed. Inspired by Max Weber he argues that economic organizations and institutions, like the Banking Sector, are embedded into three fundamental orders: the economic, the cultural and the political order. Enforced and institutionalized by vested interests, ideas of the cultural order legitimate and empower interests of the economic and political order. What is more, decisive moments were frequently characterized by coalitions of ideas and interests between parties that in normal times had nothing in common or were even confronting each other in a hostile way. Table of ContentsIntroduction.- Ideas, interests, institutions and banking revolutions.- Italian financial capitalism: The birth of modern banking.- Absolutism, mercantilism and banking revolutions.- The development of the European banking sector as we know it.- Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisA pre-election interview with an influential politician from the perspective of a dozen discourse scholars

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Book SynopsisThis book focuses on the subjectivities of stock market investors to explore tensions within the Chinese state’s engagement in contemporary financial capitalism. It adopts a genealogical method to investigate how the production of foreign-trained financial experts (haigui) and informal experts (sanhu) points to paradoxes in China’s efforts to cultivate financial expertise. Chinese financialisation relates to the state’s project of financialising human capital in reaction to a contractualised labour market and the vanishing welfare state. Through ethnographic inquiry, Dal Maso shows the Chinese stock markets are crucial to the new redistributive regime where wage labour risks losing its primacy. Here, one can observe how the relationship between money and wages in China is being reworked and witness the development of a new economic order in which the state’s legitimacy becomes increasingly dependent on its capacity to jiushi–to rescue the market in times of crisis.Table of Contents1. Introduction.- 2. The Chinese Genealogy of Financial Expertise.- 3. Fostering Chinese Talents Abroad: The Paradox of the Returnees (Haigui).- 4. Circuit of Expertise.- 5. Shanghai: The Returning City.- 6. The Financialisation Rush.- 7. The Precarious Ecology of Chinese Financial Expertise.

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Book SynopsisRace, ethnicity and gender played an important role in the complex relationship between export agriculture, labour and state power in Chiapas during the regime of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1914). This case study of tropical plantation development and a major regional study of modern Mexico analyses the politics of state-building and the history of land tenure and rural labour in the state of Chiapas in the period leading up to the outbreak of Revolution in 1910.The book also contributes to the growing history of indigenous peoples in Latin America, examining the changing relationship between Indian groups and non-Indian governments and economic interests in Chiapas during the nineteenth century. In so doing, it addresses questions of tradition, modernity, national state-building, globalisation and the development of capitalism in Latin America. The book argues that colonial caste identities and relations were no impediments to modernisation. Instead, they were modified by liberalism, reinterTable of ContentsPART I: THE COLONIAL PERIOD AND THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE; PART 2: POLITICS, RACE AND STATE BUILDING, 1876-1914; PART 3: LABOUR, EXPORT DEVELOPMENT AND LANDED POWER, 1876-1914

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Book SynopsisToday 4.7 million Americans have been unemployed for more than six months. In France more than ten percent of the working population is without work. And in Greece and Spain, that number approaches thirty percent. The author delves beneath these staggering numbers to explore the world of job searching and unemployment across class and nation.Trade Review"In Job-Search Games, Ofer Sharone develops a cogent, timely, and compelling account of why American employees blame themselves for their failure to secure employment and why their Israeli counterparts engage in system blame instead. Sharone moves the discussion well beyond global generalizations about the role of culture to make an important contribution to the literature of joblessness." (Steven Vallas, author of Work: A Critique)"

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Book SynopsisThe growth of industrialism, the rise of professionalism and the decline of slavery led to debates in 19th-century America about the concept of work. This book examines the literary view of this debate, arguing that many writers felt an affinity between the mental labour of writing and manual work.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive analysis of the world of open air marketplaces of West Africa. Clark studies the market women of Kumasi, Ghana, in order to understand the key social forces that generate, maintain, and continually reshape shifting market dynamics.

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Book SynopsisMichael Goldfield challenges standard explanations for union decline, arguing that the major causes are to be found in the changing relations between classes. Goldfield combines innovative use of National Labor Relations Board certification election data, which serve as an accurate measure of new union growth in the private sector, with a sophisticated analysis of the standard explanations of union decline. By understanding the decline of U.S. labor unions, he maintains, it is possible to begin to understand the conditions necessary for their future rebirth and resurgence.

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Book SynopsisArtisan has recently become a buzzword in the developed world, used for items like cheese, wine, and baskets, as corporations succeed at branding their cheap, mass-produced products with the popular appeal of small-batch, handmade goods. The unforgiving realities of the artisan economy, however, never left the global south, and anthropologists have worried over the fate of these craftspeople as global capitalism has again remade their cultural and economic territory. Yet artisans are proving to be surprisingly vital players in contemporary capitalism, as they interlock innovation and tradition to create effective new forms of entrepreneurship. Based on seven years of extensive research in Colombia and Ecuador, veteran ethnographers Jason Antrosio and Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld's Fast, Easy, and In Cash explores how small-scale production and global capitalism are not directly opposed, but are rather essential partners in economic development. Antrosio and Colloredo-Mansfeld demonstrate h

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Book SynopsisThis work explores differing historical patterns in the adoption of the three major models of organizational management: scientific management; human relations; and structural analysis. The author takes a fresh look at how managers have used these models in four countries during the 20th century.Table of ContentsFigures and Tables Preface and Acknowledgments 1: The Comparative Study of Organizational Paradigms 2: The United States: Economic Transformations, Labor Problems, and Organizational Innovations 3: Germany: Modernism, Traditionalism, and Bureaucracy 4: Spain: Eclecticism, Human Relations, and Managerial Authoritarianism in a Less-Developed Country 5: Great Britain: Industrial Retardation, Religious-Humanist Ideals, and the Rise of Social Science 6: Comparing Patterns of Adoption 7: A Historical and Comparative Perspective on Homo Hierarchicus Appendix A: Content Analysis of Journal Articles Appendix B: Comparative Statistics Appendix C: The Adoption of Scientific Management and Human Relations Techniques in the United States Appendix D: A Systematic Comparison of Conditions and Outcomes of Adoption Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book includes an excellent analysis of the material and demographic foundations of patriarchal society, which will force historians to reevaluate the profitability of the estate economy and the standard of living among Russian serfs....This is an important book which should be read by anyone interested in peasant studies and servile systems of production.

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Book SynopsisThe fact that WEP workers are denied the legal status of employees and make far less money and enjoy fewer rights than do city workers has sparked fierce opposition. This book focuses on changes in the language and organization of the political coalitions on both sides of the debate.Trade Review"Brimming with novel analyses and methodological strategies, Free Labor presents both a compelling analysis of the rise of workfare as a neoliberal policy project and a finegrained examination of the travails and partial successes of anti-WEP coalitions." - Marc Steinberg, author of Fighting Words"

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Book SynopsisAn interdisciplinary analysis that draws from interviews, official documents, and media reports to pursue different directions in the study of the cultural and cognitive aspects of political activism. This work aims to instigate a dialogue among students of culture, labor and social movements, welfare policy, and urban political economy.Trade Review"Brimming with novel analyses and methodological strategies, Free Labor presents both a compelling analysis of the rise of workfare as a neoliberal policy project and a fine-grained examination of the travails and partial successes of anti-WEP coalitions." - Marc Steinberg, author of Fighting Words"

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Book SynopsisNearly every job application asks it: have you ever been convicted of a crime? For the hundreds of thousands of young men leaving American prisons each year, their answer to that question may determine whether they can find work. This book offers a glimpse into the tremendous difficulties facing ex-offenders in the job market.Trade Review"Using scholarly research, field research in Milwaukee, and graphics, [Pager] shows that ex-offenders, white or black, stand a very poor chance of getting a legitimate job.... Both informative and convincing." - Library Journal "Marked is that rare book: a penetrating text that rings with moral concern couched in vivid prose - and one of the most useful sociological studies in years." - Michael Eric Dyson "How do you tell when a democracy is dead? When concentration camps spring up and everyone shivers in fear? Or is it when concentration camps spring up and no one shivers in fear because everyone knows they're not for 'people like us.'... Devah Pager uses a simple technique to show how mass incarceration has undone the small amount of racial progress achieved in the 1960s and '70s." - Nation"

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Book SynopsisNearly every job application asks it: have you ever been convicted of a crime? For the hundreds of thousands of young men leaving American prisons each year, their answer to that question may determine whether they can find work. This book offers a glimpse into the tremendous difficulties facing ex-offenders in the job market.Trade Review"Using scholarly research, field research in Milwaukee, and graphics, [Pager] shows that ex-offenders, white or black, stand a very poor chance of getting a legitimate job.... Both informative and convincing." - Library Journal "Marked is that rare book: a penetrating text that rings with moral concern couched in vivid prose - and one of the most useful sociological studies in years." - Michael Eric Dyson "How do you tell when a democracy is dead? When concentration camps spring up and everyone shivers in fear? Or is it when concentration camps spring up and no one shivers in fear because everyone knows they're not for 'people like us.'... Devah Pager uses a simple technique to show how mass incarceration has undone the small amount of racial progress achieved in the 1960s and '70s." - Nation"

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Book SynopsisExplores the world of American Black professional women in a society that denied them full professional status. Shaw shows how, in spite of this, African-American families, communities and schools worked to encourage the self-confidence, individual initiative and social responsibility of girls.

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Book SynopsisUltimately, Shershow joins other contemporary thinkers in envisioning a community of unworking, grounded neither in ideals of production and progress, nor in an ethic of liberal generosity, but simply in our fundamental being-in-common.

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Book SynopsisA startling discoverythat job market success after college is largely randomforces a reappraisal of education, opportunity, and the American dream. As a gateway to economic opportunity, a college degree is viewed by many as America's great equalizer. And it's true: wealthier, more connected, and seemingly better-qualified students earn exactly the same pay as their less privileged peers. Yet, the reasons why may have little to do with bootstraps or self-improvementit might just be dumb luck. That's what sociologist Jessi Streib proposes in The Accidental Equalizer, a conclusion she reaches after interviewing dozens of hiring agents and job-seeking graduates. Streib finds that luck shapes the hiring process from start to finish in a way that limits class privilege in the job market. Employers hide information about how to get ahead and force students to guess which jobs pay the most and how best to obtain them. Without clear routes to success, graduates from all class backgrounds Trade Review"Based on hundreds of interviews with business school graduates and the employers that subsequently hired them, Streib’s book ultimately argues that college is not, in itself, the great equalizer; the impossible-to-navigate job market is." * Inside Higher Education *“[Streib] examines an important segment of the labor market that gets relatively little attention: entry-level positions for midtier jobs . . . Far too much energy and ink are spent on who gets the most elite jobs, who goes to the most elite schools and how terribly unfair the whole process is. Little of that conversation describes the reality for most Americans. The role of the good-but-not-elite college affects far more people and gives us much more insight into the state of economic mobility than Ivy League statistics.” * Wall Street Journal *“One of the biggest myths out there is that the job market, unlike other spheres of life, rewards merit. But it largely rewards luck. Most employers in large mid-tier markets are not seeking excellence. They just want reliable people who can do the job. And that is, in many ways, a good thing, argues sociologist Jessi Streib.” * Los Angeles Review of Books *“That working-class students from state universities do just as well in the job market as better-off students is a remarkable outcome. Even more surprising is that the equalization is actually driven by hiring practices that are so opaque that the graduates are basically flipping coins trying to get hired. Streib’s findings are enormously important for the 80% of all college students who attend those universities and the rocky start it gives their career.” -- Peter Cappelli, author of 'Will College Pay Off?: A Guide to the Most Important Financial Decision You’ll Ever Make'“Do children born into rich families always make more money than their less privileged counterparts? No! Streib shows that the market for college graduates is a booming-buzzing confusion of idiosyncratic standards, misinformation, and rushed decision-making—all of which undermine the iron law that ‘class matters.’ A striking demonstration that illicit advantage can be countered, provided that one’s willing to infuse the market with lots of noise, luck, and chaos.” -- David B. Grusky, coeditor of 'Inequality in the 21st Century: A Reader'“We now know that a college education can limit inequalities related to class origin, but very few scholars have tried to explain why. Streib’s engaging, provocative account seeks to answer this question. Rare is the book that challenges well-established beliefs shared by academics and policymakers. This one delivers.” -- Jake Rosenfeld, author of 'You’re Paid What You’re Worth: And Other Myths of the Modern Economy'Table of ContentsOne: Introducing the Luckocracy Part I: Forming the Luckocracy Two: Hidden Information on Jobs and Pay Three: Hidden Information on Class-Neutral Hiring Criteria Part II: Playing the Game Four: Preparing for the Luckocracy Five: Searching for Jobs Part III: The Consequences and Continuation of the Luckocracy Six: The Consequences of the Luckocracy Seven: The Luckocracy, Redux Eight: Should We Keep America’s Best Equalizing System? Acknowledgments Appendix A: Theoretical Contribution Appendix B: Data and Methods Appendix C: Interview Guides and Questionnaires Notes References Index

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