Sociology: work and labour Books

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Book SynopsisThis Element provides an innovative angle for understanding organizational social networks, engaging in empirical network research, and nurturing further theoretical development on the role of social interactions and connectedness in modern organizations.Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Distinctiveness of social network research; 3. Theoretical developments; 4. Social network research methods; 5. Current debates; 6. Future research; 7. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisIn Community Development in an Uncertain World, Jim Ife draws on the principles of social justice, ecological responsibility and post-Enlightenment and Indigenous perspectives to advance new holistic approaches to community development. The book explores the concept of community development on a local and international scale in the context of globalisation and postcolonial theory. Students will gain the essential skills and practical understanding required to navigate the existing managerial environment and cultivate new community practices. This new edition incorporates current research into community development and includes important new work on ''alternative visions'' for a sustainable and just future. It introduces the foundational theories of community development and explains their importance in shaping solutions to uniquely modern issues. Readers are encouraged to critically engage with the material through the accompanying discussion questions. Written in an accessible, engaging style, this text is an essential resource for students and professionals in the human services.Table of Contents1. Crisis, transition and community; 2. Alternatives and transitions; 3. Foundations of community development: ecological and social justice perspectives; 4. Foundations of community development: post-Enlightenment and Indigenous perspectives; 5. A vision for community development; 6. Change from below; 7. The process of community development; 8. The global and the local; 9. Colonialism, colonialist practice and working internationally; 10. Community development: social, economic and political; 11. Community development: cultural, environmental, spiritual, personal and survival; 12. Principles of community development and their application to practice; 13. Roles and skills 1: facilitative and educational; 14. Roles and skills 2: representational and technical; 15. The organisational context; 16. Practice issues.

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Book SynopsisLooking beyond the shiny surface of Potsdamer Platz, a designer micro-city within Berlin''s city center, this book goes behind-the-scenes with the cleaners who pick up cigarette butts from sidewalks, scrape chewing gum from marble floors, wipe coffee stains from office desks and scrub public toilets, long before white-collar workers, consumers and tourists enter the complex. It follows Costas''s journey to a large yet hidden, four-level deep corporate underworld below Potsdamer Platz. There, Costas discovers how cleaners'' attitudes to work are much less straightforward than the public perceptions of cleaning as degrading work would suggest. Cleaners turn to their work for dignity yet find it elusive. The book explores how these cleaners'' dramas of dignity unfold in interactions with co-workers, management, clients and the public. The book will appeal to students and academics in the fields of organisational theory, organisational behavior, organisation studies, sociology, social anthTrade Review'This book prompts the reader to think of dirt afresh and to enter the world of those who, invisibly, keep our urban spaces clean: the armies of cleaners engaged in an endless battle with filth in shopping malls, office blacks and department stores. Dirt is not an ordinary adversary to these low-paid but not low-skill workers. It can be the source of stigma but also a badge of honour, a Tantalus-like goal out of reach but also a guarantor of a workplace autonomy. Far from draining meaning from their lives, dirt becomes a fountain of meaning. With this book, Costas joins the distinguished company of urban ethnographers whose work liberates their subjects from stifling assumptions and meaningless banalities and lets their stories be heard as they deserve.' Yiannis Gabriel, Visiting Professor at Lund University, Emeritus Professor at University of Bath'Jana Costas' book is a much needed and excellent account of everyday working lives in the continuous re-making of the city of Berlin. Costas writes with nuance and attention to detail about cleaning as a process involving much more than simply cleaning – perceptions of work, dirt, and dignity.' Christina Garsten, Professor of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University'Dramas of Dignity is an eminently readable ethnography of the distinctly down and dirty occupational and organizational world of cleaners in prominent mega-complex located in the heart of Berlin. Theirs is ostensibly unskilled service work of the unrecognized, unrewarded and often distained sort, and yet the practitioners of the trade manage to squeeze a surprising degree of self-esteem and worth from their labours. Working as an apprentice alongside a mostly migrant cast of night-time cleaners - some of whom are rendered in close, personal and indeed memorable terms - Jana Costas describes the idiosyncratic, largely independent and unsupervised ways they go about their work and manage to meet the demanding, sometimes harsh, expectations of the typically unseen clients of the cleaning organization. This is lucid, disciplined and highly respectful treatment of the hidden but essential work of cleaners.' John Van Maanen, Author of Tales of the FieldTable of Contents1. The corporate micro-city Potsdamer Platz: Cleaners' presence from below; 2. Characters from the corporate underworld: Alex, Ali, Luisa, and Marcel; 3. From feces to flowers: The sweat, shame, disgust, pride and fun of working with dirt; 4. Separate in the same boat: Others and allies among cleaners; 5. When worlds collide: Cleaners at work in the upperworld; 6. 'Back to the dark side': Cleaners' tactics against surveillance; 7. Leaving the minus area behind; Postscript; Bibliography; Appendix; Index.

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Book SynopsisHow does social spending relate to economic growth and which countries have got this right and wrong? Peter H. Lindert provides a compelling global guide to public education, health care, pensions, and welfare provision, and links them to inequality and fiscal redistribution.Trade Review'It's hard to think of anyone who has had such a profound effect on the way we think about political economy. This remarkable book gives us all more to chew over. Peter Lindert continues to set the agenda.' James A. Robinson, co-author of Why Nations Fail'Surprise! There are free lunches. But they may be running out soon. Learn why they exist and threats on the horizon to the many benefits of generous social spending from Peter Lindert's informative and readable book.' Claudia Goldin, co-author of The Race between Education and Technology'Why do we have government-financed social spending? Why did it emerge rather late in human history? What has it accomplished? These are some of the fundamental questions that Peter Lindert asks in his monumental Making Social Spending Work. Lindert's study of education, health care, old-age spending around the world could not have been more timely: these issues are again at the forefront of the political agenda.' Branko Milanovic, author of Capitalism, Alone'A must read for anyone interested in promoting just and sustainable growth. With pristine clarity, Lindert explains why social spending has risen everywhere. Using history and solid empirical evidence he debunks myths about negative effects and proposes new policies to facilitate inclusive growth and design a new social contract.' Nora Lustig, editor of Commitment to Equity Handbook'A magisterial examination of the historical, economic and political forces shaping the Welfare State, from its incipient beginnings in Fifteenth Century Europe to the rise of conditional cash transfers in Latin America in the 1990s. A must-read for anyone interested in rethinking the role of the State after the pandemic.' Francisco H. G. Ferreira, co-author of Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle ClassTable of ContentsList of Figures; List of Tables; Part I. Overview: 1. Enduring Issues; 2. Findings and Lessons; Part II. The Long Rise, and its Causes: 3. Why Poor Relief Arrived So Late; 4. The Dawn of Mass Schooling before 1914; 5. Public Education since 1914; 6. More, but Different, Social Spending in Rich Countries since 1914; 7. Is the Rest of the World Following a Different Path?; Part III. What Effects?: 8. Effects on Growth, Jobs, and Life; 9. Why No Net Loss of GDP or Work?; 10. Do the Rich Pay the Poor for All This?; Part IV. Confronting Threats: 11. Do Immigration Tensions Fray the Safety Nets?; 12. Pensions and the Curse of Long Life; 13. Approaches to Public Pension Reform; 14. Borrowing Social-Spending Lessons; Appendix A. Sources and Notes for Chapters 3 and 4; Appendix B. Sources and Notes for Chapter 10; Appendix C. Chapter 12's Pension Accounting – Equations and Forecasts; Acknowledgements; Notes; References; Index.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive examination of the contemporary mineworkers’ movement in South Africa, in a vivid ethnographic narrativeTrade Review'Opens a window on the struggles of South Africa miners to overcome not only the opposition of the plutocratic mineowners, but also the opposition of the entrenched union establishment created in an earlier era of upheaval.' -- Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York Graduate Center'Highlights the crucial role of ordinary workers in changing history. It is a richly textured portrayal of the lives and activities of the grassroots worker leaders who organised the historic platinum strikes in South Africa. It is a path-breaking history of the labour movement and a scholarly tribute to the agency of the slain Marikana miners and their comrades' -- Trevor Ngwane, South African socialist and anti-apartheid activist'The book provides what is currently missing - a detailed and sympathetic history, from within the ranks of the unions and workers committees and in the words of the strikers themselves' -- Leo Zeilig, editor of Class Struggle and Resistance in Africa (2008)'This book provides a fascinating and unique account of a set of pivotal events in recent South African history, as well as insight that is both locally and comparatively profound' -- Dunbar Moodie, Professor of Sociology, Wits University'An incisive yet empathetic account' -- African Studies Quarterly'Exceptionally extraordinary' -- CLR JournalTable of ContentsGlossary of South African Organisations List of Acronyms and Abbreviations List of Leaders Timeline of Key Events Acknowledgements Maps 1. Introduction 2. The Spark Underground 3. The Spirit of Marikana is Born 4. Amplats Carries the Torch 5. The Rise of the AMCU and the Demise of Worker Committees 6. Insurgent Trade Unionism and the Great Strike of 2014 Postscript Appendices Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA radical geography of the representation of impoverished communities in BritainTrade Review'Poverty is such a strong word and is not used as much as it needs to be. I am very grateful that this book does not shy away from those difficult words and also those difficult conversations about poverty in Britain today' -- Lisa Mckenzie, author of Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain'Forensically maps the 'Othering' of poor people, charting the stigmatisation, exoticisation, spatial marginalisation and even aestheticisation of their neighbourhoods' -- Alison Garnham, Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group'Stephen Crossley has become one of the leading critical voices in the debate on poverty and inequality in the UK, and this remarkable and elegant book is a superb illustration of why his voice is so important' -- Tom Slater, Reader in Urban Geography, University of EdinburghTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Series Preface 1. Introduction: The Spaces of Others 2. Swamps and Slums: Exoticising the Poor 3. Tales of Two Cities 4. Neighbourhood Effects or Westminster Effects? 5. Streetwise? 6. The Heroic Simplification of the Household 7. Piles of Pringles and Crack: Behind Closed Doors 8. Less Public, More Private: The Shifting Spaces of the State 9. Studying Up Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe Global South is the epicentre of workers’ struggles todayTrade Review'In these depressing times, when the neoliberal consensus has acquired an aura of inevitability akin to the Laws of Physics, it is a breath of fresh air to read serious scholarship that challenges this consensus' -- Norman Finkelstein'The rising anti-imperialist struggles in both the underdeveloped and developed countries are signalling the resurgence of the world proletarian-socialist revolution. Immanuel Ness makes a just call for forging a global workers' movement by reinvigorating and further developing the trade union movement, the workers' parties and political movements to fight for the rights and interests of the working class and the rest of the suffering people' -- Professor Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson Emeritus of the International League of Peoples' Struggle, Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines and Co-Founder of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines'Important' -- Richard Wolff, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst'Timely and relevant. The theoretical framing around political organisation of the working class for social transformation is much-needed. Its energetic, provocative scholarship with insightful case studies from across the South makes it essential reading for academics and activists alike' -- Anita Hammer, Senior Lecturer of Organisational Studies and Human Resources, University of Essex'A valuable book that addresses the necessity of revolutionary organization in times of socialist ideological resurgence. Essential reading to anyone wishing to understand the proletarianization of the Global South. Its in-depth examination of modern forms of imperialist exploitation and revolts contribute to comprehending areas rarely covered by mainstream social science' -- Ali Kadri, National University of Singapore'A rich combination of theoretical insights and valuable case-studies from the Global South - a much-needed reminder that the agenda of social transformation requires a strong and sustained political intervention to turn protests into a powerful movement' -- Prabhat Patnaik, Jawaharlal Nehru University'Challenges the prevailing racializing perception of the Southern worker held in the North as powerless and without agency. 'Organizing Insurgency' is a must read for an understanding of imperialism, which has normalized a lack of awareness of the sustaining role of the southern agricultural and industrial workers in global capitalism' -- Himani Bannerji, York UniversityTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables List of Abbreviations Series Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: Forging a New Global Workers’ Movement 1 PART I - THEORIES AND CONCEPTS OF LABOUR IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH 1. The Labour Atlas: The Southern Working Class Holding Up the World 2. Workers’ Movements in the South: Inequality, Poverty, and Enduring Relevance of Rural Proletariat and Informal Sector Workers PART II - CASE STUDIES: RURAL AND INFORMAL LABOUR STRUGGLES 3. Primitive Steel Manufacturing for the Global Consumer Market: Capital, Super-exploitation, and Surplus Value in Wazirpur, India 4. The Enduring System of Global Agricultural Commodity Production and First World Commodity Extraction: The Case of Mindanao, the Philippines 5. Global Capitalism: Corporate Restructuring, Labour Brokering, and Working-class Mobilization in South Africa 6. Conclusion: Labour Struggles and Political Organization Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWork-Life Advantage analyses how employer-provision of family-friendly' working arrangements - designed to help workers better reconcile work, home and family - can also enhance firms' capacities for learning and innovation, in pursuit of long-term competitive advantage and socially inclusive growth. Brings together major debates in labour geography, feminist geography, and regional learning in novel ways, through a focus on the shifting boundaries between work, home, and family Addresses a major gap in the scholarly research surrounding the narrow business case' for work-life balance by developing a more socially progressive, workerist dual agenda' Challenges and disrupts masculinist assumptions of the ideal worker and the associated labour market marginalization of workers with significant home and family commitments Based on 10 years of research with over 300 IT workers and 150 IT firms in the UK and Ireland, with important insights Trade ReviewWork–life advantage: sustainingregional learning and innovationAl JamesOxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017ISBN: 978-1-118-94483-7 (paperback)248 pp. Price: $39.95ISBN: 978-1-118-94484-4 (hardback)248 pp. Price: $94.95This fascinating book offers a well-groundedand clearly stated argument that work–lifebalance is a crucial element in the mix offactors that sustain regional learning andinnovation, making a significant contributionto the literature that has burgeoned on thistopic in recent decades. In the process, itdevelops a profound critique of the literatureon regional development as largely genderblindand overly focused on production networksto the neglect of processes of socialreproduction.The book is based on extensive researcharound Dublin, Ireland and Cambridge,UK—including surveys of 150 employers,over 60 interviews with IT professionals andadditional interviews with informants fromunions, development agencies and other organisationsbefore the crisis of 2008; supplementedby online surveys with IT workers inlate 2008 and 2010. While the data weregathered during a particular era of financialboom and bust, they do not appear dated—atleast partly because the IT sector suffered lessthan many others and more generally becauseissues of gendering and work–life balance in IThave been persistent across a variety of technologyand other business cycles.This research is presented in three coreempirical chapters. The first of these presentsthe core work processes in IT and the work–life conflict they create, maintaining a commendablefocus on how the dynamic intersectionof work practices and gendered meaningsof work create varying challenges at differenttimes. The second empirical chapter focusesmore closely on policies and practices designedto reduce work–life conflict within firms.Nicely weaving together statistical and interviewdata, the chapter assesses the ‘mutualgains’ for firms and workers of various initiatives,finding that practices that workers particularlyvalue (e.g. working from home,reduced hours) also provide benefits to firmsof more diverse workforces, less fatigue andincreased productivity.Perhaps, the most distinctive contributionof the book is in the final empirical chapterthat extends this analysis to inter-firm relationsand regional processes. Part of theanalysis consists of a critique of the dominantunderstandings of ‘zero drag’ regional labourmobility as a vehicle of learning and innovation.However, James put his data to gooduse to go further and document how the searchfor work–life balance is a major motivatingfactor in labour mobility and how that mobilityis most constrained for the women workerswho are in greatest need of its potentialbenefits. Again, firms and regional economiesas well as workers would benefit from worklifefriendly mobility.This is an excellent book. It is clearlywritten and engaging with a commendablemix of empirical rigour and detail, passion forthe issues at hand and a commitment to theimportance of tackling them based on carefulresearch. The focus on ‘mutual gains’ provesto be very useful because James examines thedynamics of actual and potential gains indetail rather than just relying on the phrase asa slogan. The book goes well beyond the pointthat there are quite generalised benefits forfirms to outline the various benefits and thedifferent conditions under which they arise—as well as some potential benefits that are onlyrarely realised.The book also opens up a range of questionsthat it doesn’t quite answer. While thefocus on work–life balance is an advantage, inthat it provides clear links to organisationalchoices and policy relevant issues, a moresustained reconstruction of regional learningtheories at the end of the book would havefurther augmented the findings. The implicationsof the analysis for this literature could The Author(s) (2019). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.comJournal of Economic Geography 19 (2019) pp. 539–540 doi:10.1093/jeg/lbz005Advance Access Published on 26 February 2019Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article-abstract/19/2/539/5365501 by University of Sheffield user on 07 June 2019be taken even further. To what extent areinter-personal networks between partner companies,for example, drivers of an ‘always on’culture?More attention could also have been paid tothe occupational and organisational difference inthe workers’ settings, disaggregating the categoriesof ‘worker’ and ‘firm’. While the distinctfocus on intra- and inter-firm processes yieldedrich insights, this raised the question of how firmsinteracted with their broader regional environmentand how this shaped work–life balance.The enduring puzzle of unrealised mutual gainsremains—if there are gains to be made by firms(of which they are somewhat aware), then whydon’t they act to take advantage of them?Critically, perhaps the solutions as well as someof the problems lie at the regional level. If manyworkers are partly motivated by the search forwork work–life balance friendly employers butemployers are still not responding in largenumbers to these ‘market signals’, then collectiveaction at the regional level will be critical. Despitethe rhetorical commitment to limitless growth,ICT firms may be willing to sacrifice a degree ofgrowth to forego disruption of gendered practices.While the book touches on these issues,there is much more to be said (as James notes).James ends the book on a number ofpotential extensions of this work, rightlyrecognising some limits of an exclusivelyregional focus. Some extensions refine thefocus on production and labour networksthrough a greater focus on inter-firm networksbeyond the region—particularly because thesedynamic regions are as global as they are local.How do these inter-regional ties shape firmcapacities within regions and how do work–lifebalance practices diffuse across these transnationalorganisational networks? Another setof extensions beyond the regional focus, alsonoted by James, are in the direction ofcomparative analysis of different regions andanalysis of how they are shaped by theirpolitical and institutional environments. Thebook touches on the comparative differencesbetween Ireland and the UK without fullyanalysing them.This is an informative and insightful book.For those interested in gendering of economiclife, this book will be a welcome addition totheir stock of knowledge, adding the region tothe list of deeply profoundly gendered economicinstitutions. For those whose focus is onregional development but who have paid littleattention to gender, this is a must read.Sea´n O´ RiainDepartment of Sociology, National Universityof Ireland Maynoothsean.oriain@mu.ie540 . Book ReviewsDownloaded from https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article-abstract/19/2/539/5365501 by University of Sheffield user on 07 June 2019Table of ContentsList of Figures viii List of Tables ix Series Editor’s Preface xi Preface and Acknowledgements xii List of Abbreviations xv 1 Inclusive Regional Learning? 1 2 Recentering Regional Learning: Beyond Masculinist Geographies of Regional Advantage 16 3 Work]Life Balance and its Uncertain ‘Business Case’ 38 4 Researching Labour Geographies of Work-Life and Learning in Ireland and the UK 67 5 Juggling Work, Home and Family in the Knowledge Economy 86 6 Overcoming Work-Life Conflict and the Gendered Limits to Learning and Innovation? 117 7 Work-Life Balance, Cross-Firm Worker Mobility and Gendered Knowledge Spillovers 145 8 Conclusions: Gendered Regional Learning and Work-Life Advantage 176 References 197 Index 000

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Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive guide to anthropological studies of complex organizations details how organizational theory and research in business has adopted anthropology s key concept of culture, inspiring new insights into organizational dynamics and development.Trade Review“Douglas Caulkins and Ann Jordan’s Companion represents an important framing of knowledge about organizations that combines insights from anthropology and organizational studies. Scholars in both disciplines should take note: Organizational anthropology has come of age!.” (Expofairs.com, 11 November 2014)Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors viii Abstracts xiv Expanding the Field of Organizational Anthropology for the Twenty-first Century 1 Ann T. Jordan and D. Douglas Caulkins Part I Critique and Theory 25 1. The Organization of Anthropology and Higher Education in the United States 27 Davydd J. Greenwood 2. The Changing Rhetoric of Corporate Culture 56 Allen W. Batteau 3. New Institutional Approaches to Formal Organizations 74 Marietta L. Baba, Jeanette Blomberg, Christine LaBond, and Inez Adams 4. Entrepreneurship Studies 98 Peter Rosa and D. Douglas Caulkins 5. Neurological Model of Organizational Culture 122 Tomoko Hamada Connolly Part II Methods and Analysis 147 6. Social Networks and Organizations 149 Brandon Ofem, Theresa M. Floyd, and Stephen P. Borgatti 7. A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understand Global Networked Organizations 167 Julia C. Gluesing 8. Measuring Organizational Dynamics 193 Gerald Mars 9. Semiotics of Organizations 204 Joseph D. Hankins 10. An Ethnography of Numbers 219 Daniel Neyland 11. Managing Conflict on Organizational Partnerships 236 Elizabeth K. Briody Part III Organizational Processes 257 12. Working on Work Organizations 259 Charles N. Darrah and Alicia Dornadic 13. Organizational Innovation Is a Participative Process 275 Morten Levin 14. Communities of Practice 289 Susan Squires and Michael L. Van De Vanter 15. Organizational Networks and Social Capital 311 Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen and Christian Waldstrøm 16. American Labor Unions as Organizations 328 Paul Durrenberger and Suzan Erem 17. Virtual Organizations 346 Christina Wasson 18. Sustaining Social Sector Organizations 362 Joan A. Tucker and D. Douglas Caulkins Part IV Globalization, Development, and Modernization 379 19. The Contemporary World of Finance 381 Allen W. Batteau 20. Globalization, Modernization, and Complex Organizations 399 Ann T. Jordan 21. Chinese Business Ventures into China 418 Heidi Dahles and Juliette Koning 22. Corporate Social Responsibility: Interaction between Market and Community 438 Bengi Ertuna 23. NGOs and Community Development: Assessing the Contributions from Sen’s Perspective of Freedom 455 J. Montgomery Roper 24. Why Are Indigenous Organizations Declining in Latin America? 471 Carmen Martínez Novo 25. Australian Indigenous Organizations 493 Sarah E. Holcombe and Patrick Sullivan 26. Organization of Schooling in Three Countries 519 Edmund T. Hamann, Saloshna Vandeyar, and Juan Sánchez García Index 538

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Book SynopsisIn July 2014 the Belgian newspaper Le Soir claimed that France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland and the United States may lose between 43 and 50 per cent of their jobs within ten to fifteen years. Across the world, integrated automation, one key result of the so-called ‘data economy’, is leading to a drastic reduction in employment in all areas - from the legal profession to truck driving, from medicine to stevedoring. In this first volume of a new series, the leading cultural theorist Bernard Stiegler advocates a radical solution to the crisis posed by automation and consumer capitalism more generally. He calls for a decoupling of the concept of ‘labour’ (meaningful, intellectual participation) from ‘employment’ (dehumanizing, banal work), with the ultimate aim of eradicating ‘employment’ altogether. By doing so, new and alternative economic models will arise, where individuals are no longer simply mined for labour, but also actively produce what they consume. Building substantially on his existing theories and engaging with a wide range of figures - from Deleuze and Foucault to Bill Gates and Alan Greenspan - Automatic Society will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences and humanities, as well as anyone concerned with the central question of the future of work.Trade Review"As Stiegler shows in this important work, there is a glaring and dangerous absence of critical thinking about automation and its effects on political and economic life. His argument is profoundly important: we must interrogate the production and maintenance of automatisms in contemporary life in order to prepare the way for what he calls a dis-automatization of society. Stiegler’s vision for the future calls for the foundation of a new human order in the midst of the Anthropocene, against the entropic violence of capitalism in its current algorithmic guise." - David Bates, UC Berkeley "At once a bracing critique of algorithmic governmentality, with its accompanying specter of mass unemployment as automated labor displaces humans, and a hopeful call for reversing the ecological devastation of the Anthropocene, Stiegler lays out a blueprint for catalyzing our entry into what he calls the Neganthropocene, an era where knowledge trumps information and human well-being comes before capitalist profits. This provocative book will be of interest to anyone worried about where we are headed and eager to embrace a more positive future." - N. Katherine Hayles, Duke UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: Functional Stupidity, Entropy and Negentropy in the Anthropocene1 The Industry of Traces and Automatized Artificial Crowds2 States of Shock, States of Fact, States of Law3 The Destruction of the Faculty of Dreaming4 Outpaced by the Automatic Generation of Protentions5 Within the Electronic Leviathan in Fact and in Law6 On Available Time for the Coming Generation7 Energies and Potentials in the Twenty-First Century8 Over and Above the MarketConclusion: Noetic Pollination and the NeganthropoceneNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisFrom Research and Reference Book News. . . 'In the new introduction to the award-winning 1999 edition, a Canadian scholar notes that while research on underemployment has increased since then, preoccupation with statistics still emphasizes limited dimensions of the problem of under-utilization of capabilities. Drawing on survey and case study research in advanced economies, Livingstone (U. of Toronto) analyzes various theories (e.g., human capital) as limited in explaining the education-jobs gap. He does support a general conflict theory identifying the highest underemployment with the least powerful social groups.' Trade Review 'A rigorous, beautifully crafted, and stunningly successful shredding of the human capital enterprise. This splendidly executed investigation offers us a timely picture of human capital theory as the social sciences own Titanic.' (Ivar Berg, University of Pennsylvania) 'One of the most important books of the decade. This book breathes new life into the much overlooked relationship between education and economic reform.' (Henry A. Giroux, Pennsylvania State University) 'Livingstone's book is an incisive critique of economic and educational orthodoxy, and a powerful new analysis of the connections among school, learning, and work. An important new study by one of the best educational sociologists in the world.' (R. W. Connell, University of Sydney) 'In contrast to the dismal future of continuing and growing underemployment promised by the dominant social policy elite, the author offers a refreshing alternative of economic democracy that is economically viable, socially just, and politically worth struggling for.' (Raj Pannu, University of Alberta) 'A superb book notable for its effective synthesis of quantitative, qualitative, historical, and theoretical approaches. Livingstone explores an issue of vital importance: the growing disjunction between education and paid work in advanced industrial economies.' (Beverley H. Burris, University of New Mexico) Table of ContentsIntroduction: Mapping the Forest of Underemployment Introduction to the 1999 Edition: Reversing the Education-Jobs Optic Chapter 1. The Knowledge Society: Pyramids and Icebergs of Learning Chapter 2. The Many Faces of Underemployment Chapter 3. Voices from the Gap: Underemployment and Lifelong Learning Chapter 4. Debunking the "Knowledge Economy": The Limits of Capital Theory Chapter 5. Examining the Gap: Social Struggles over Knowledge and Work Chapter 6. Bridging the Gap: Prospects for Work Reorganization in Advanced Capitalism Chapter 7. Endnotes Glossary of Acronyms Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWho blows the bugle at the Kentucky Derby? Who dusts the dinosaur bones at the Smithsonian? Who sniffs dog breath for a living? Who measures the breasts of real models? ODD JOBS introduces you to the real people who perform these truly peculiar jobs. In 65 intimate portraits, photo essayist Nancy Rica Schiff captures the personalities and occupations of these oddball professionals, providing a short profile of each. A 20-year photography veteran, Schiff has spent the better half of that time discovering the behind-the-scenes people who do what others can''t (or won''t) do. No one can say that America isn''t the home of the free, the brave, and the quirky, who will do almost anything to make an honest buck.• Profiles 65 of the most unique jobs in America.• Jobs include duck walker, coin polisher, doll doctor, and artificial inseminator.

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Book SynopsisThis account of the formation of United Auto Workers' Union shows how the gains workers made were not easy or inevitable, but required strategic and tactical sophistication as well as concerted action. An oral history is included.Table of ContentsPart 1 Lost history - Sol Dollinger: Toledo Auto-Lite strike of 1934; 1935 Chevrolet transmission strike; Homer Martin elected president; factional warfare in the U.A.W.; U.A.W. Twenty-point program; U.A.W. targets Ford Motor; equality of sacrifice; anti-union forces ambush U.A.W. Local 212; mafia and Briggs linked by Senator Estis Kefauver hearings; Reuther slams door on union democracy, 1947-1948; good housekeeping seal of approval; who led the 1937 sitdown strikes in Flint? Part 2 Striking Flint - an oral history of Genora (Johnson) Dollinger by Susan Rosenthal: conditions before the strike; preparing for battle; sit down! women comer forward; the women's emergency brigade; breaking the stalemate; a blow against racism; the sweet fruit of victory; fighting racism; organizing the unemployed; personality speaking; class struggle during the war; the employers strike back; back to the future.

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Book SynopsisBooklist Editors’ Choice “Best Books of 2019” An intimate portrait of the joys and hardships of rural life, as one man searches for community, equality, and tradition in Appalachia Charles D. Thompson, Jr. was born in southwestern Virginia into an extended family of small farmers. Yet as he came of age he witnessed the demise of every farm in his family. Over the course of his own life of farming, rural education, organizing, and activism, the stories of his home place have been his constant inspiration, helping him identify with the losses of others and to fight against injustices. In Going Over Home, Thompson shares revelations and reflections, from cattle auctions with his grandfather to community gardens in the coal camps of eastern Kentucky, racial disparities of white and Black landownership in the South to recent work with migrant farm workers from Latin America. In this heartfelt first-person narrative, Thompson unpacks our country’s agricultural myths and addresses the history of racism and wealth inequality and how they have come to bear on our nation’s rural places and their people.Trade ReviewBooklist, Starred Review— "This book deserves a place next to the writings of Wendell Berry, Henry David Thoreau, and Michael Pollan."“This book isn’t just the story of one person’s lifelong fight for justice for family farmers and rural communities. Going Over Home is a call that inspires the reader to stand shoulder to shoulder with family farmers in their daily struggle. It puts into words why all of us at Farm Aid believe in family farmers and rural America, and why their survival matters to all of us—no matter where we live.”—Willie Nelson, president, Farm Aid“Going Over Home bears eloquent witness to Charlie Thompson’s path toward a homegrown revolution of the heart, first illuminated by listening to many voices, then achieved by acting in solidarity with those who struggle for equality and inclusion along the wailing walls that America is building between itself and its own heart. Thompson’s exemplary memoir confronts our separate and unequal pasts and gives us a heartfelt but clear-eyed narrative of American agricultural life and a bridge toward wholeness in a broken time.”—Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, codirector of the Poor People’s Campaign; coauthor of The Third Reconstruction“Told through moving stories of kinship and solidarity, Going Over Home brings much needed dimension and heart to our conversations about rural life and shows the strength of our bonds when love of place is animated by justice.”—Elizabeth Catte, author of What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia“Charles D. Thompson, Jr.’s memoir isn’t just a personal snapshot of some of the most important North American agrarian movements and thinkers. It’s the history of a grateful rural educator’s education written with a deep mix of generosity, curiosity, and wit, and it deserves to be read widely.”—Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved

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Book SynopsisIn the 1980s, somewhere in Austin, Helton was young, married, and jobless. After a few strung-out years trying to make it as a writer, he was caught in a cycle of drunken, coked-up nights, crashing on friends’ couches and looking for money in the morning. Succumbing to the daunting reality of what it means to support both himself and a troubled marriage, he became a housepainter. He sold pumpkins on the side of the road, delivered firewood, ran a crew of illegal immigrants hauling railroad ties across the empty plains of Kansas, and then he painted even more. Despair is transformed into resilience as Helton insightfully narrates his wayward years, enduring hateful employers and mind-numbing manual labor. Along the way, the people toiling beneath the saccharine veneer of wealth that was the Reagan years are brought to vivid life: the ambitious and the lazy, the potheads and the racists, as well as Vietnam vets too shaken to hold a paintbrush and deadbeat fathers straining to pay child support. With intoxicating, blasé-faire sentiment, Helton shows that everyone—from the beauties at the rodeo to the lowest laborers—is tethered by a common desire to just pay the bills and balm the loneliness. A raw and moving account, Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions captures a microcosm of left-behind America that straddles a dangerous line between ruin and redemption.Trade Review"Helton writes with an honest, gritty, straightforward style about ugly things and somehow manages to make them beautiful…A great book." -- Terry Zwigoff"Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions is Helton at his best, as he recalls trudging through the lower depths working a myriad of menial jobs. With an abundance of humor, sharp observation, and a terrific ear for dialogue, he makes the bleak and tragic subject matter something to be savored." -- Terry Zwigoff, director of Crumb, Ghost World, Bad Santa, and Art School Confidential"Both funny and sad, this book illuminates the hard work and unrelenting tenacity of people who scratch a living with manual labor." -- Jan Reid, author of Sins of the Younger Sons"Somewhere between literary tinctures reminiscent of Charles Bukowski and Harvey Pekar, Helton conjures an intoxicating voice that mines mordant memories of abject and downtrodden moments to reveal hilarious, gobsmacking, and often haunting, epiphanies. When it doesn’t break your heart, this book might bust your gut from laughing." -- John Philip Santos"J. R. Helton is my favorite contemporary American writer. He has a gift for writing well in plain language, and he can’t seem to help but write with total honesty. I eagerly devoured Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions, as I do all his writing. Everything he puts down on paper ought to be printed and disseminated to the reading public." -- R. Crumb"I can’t help but fall for the way the rough and the poetic combine…Helton’s language will eat you up. His characters are wonderful and they are awful. They are so human, just like the rest of us." -- Erika T. Wurth, author of Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend and Buckskin Cocaine"These pages contain a cutting, insightful, and addictively readable slice of sociological rabble-rousing—a literary feat that takes a rare talent to pull off. Luckily for us, J. R. Helton has that talent in spades. He fires on all cylinders, speaking truth after truth, and taking no prisoners." -- Tony O'Neill

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Book SynopsisBy the end of the nineteenth century, the general Western conception of work had been reduced to simply gainful employment. But this limited perspective contrasted sharply with the personal experience of most people in the world-whether in colonies, developing countries or in the industrializing world. Moreover, from a feminist perspective, reducing work and the production of value to remunerated employment has never been convincing.Andrea Komlosy argues in this important intervention that, when we examine it closely, work changes its meanings according to different historical and regional contexts. Globalizing labour history from the thirteenth to the twenty-first centuries, she sheds light on the complex coexistence of multiple forms of labour (paid/unpaid, free/ unfree, with various forms of legal regulation and social protection and so on) on the local and the world levels. Combining this global approach with a gender perspective opens our eyes to the varieties of work and labour and their combination in households and commodity chains across the planet-processes that enable capital accumulation not only by extracting surplus value from wage-labour, but also through other forms of value transfer, realized by tapping into households' subsistence production, informal occupation and makeshift employment. As the debate about work and its supposed disappearance intensifies, Komlosy's book provides a crucial shift in the angle of vision.Trade ReviewAs Andrea Komlosy argues in Work: The Last 1,000 Years, our conception of what constitutes work has changed markedly over time. The professor of social history at the University of Vienna writes that our commonly accepted definitions are too narrow, too European, too male and too modern -- John Thornhill * Financial Times *Komlosy's book is deeply researched, lucid and persuasive. -- Joe Moran * Times Literary Supplement *Komlosy's analysis is a helpful reminder that our familiar understanding of work is narrow and historically exceptional. The hierarchy we have established in the industrialized West, placing permanent, full-time, legally contracted wage work at the top of a pyramid of social good, is deeply flawed-denigrating not only those millions who work outside its confines, but also devaluing and neglecting the kinds of nonwork activities that enrich and give meaning to human lives. By showing that "work" may exist without wages, a boss or a workplace outside the home, Komlosy's analysis allows us to think more broadly about what we value, and whether we want to continue to separate work and life. -- Joanna Scutts * In These Times *Andrea Komlosy has written an important book on the global history of work during the past 800 years. Looking at particular moments (1250, 1500, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2010), she charts how understandings of work and work practices have shifted-from household focused subsistence labor to the widespread commodification of labor in various forms. Her two most important contributions are that she thinks about labor on a global scale, thus overcoming a deep Eurocentric bias in much of the labor history as it exists, and that she brings feminist conversations on labor into an analysis of virtually all aspects of labor history. Her book is unique, I am not aware of any other such volume. -- Sven BeckertThis is a book teeming with insights, from the contempt for manual labour in ancient Greece to the historical tendency for all kinds of subsistence tasks to be "housewife-ized" into unpaid domestic labour. -- Barbara Kiser * Nature *Written in well-defined thematic sections that give the reader a thorough understanding of how labour as well as labour profiles have changed over the ages. * Down To Earth *The theoretical and historical scope of the book is impressive. * Insight Turkey *In Work, Komlosy, an economic and social history professor at the University of Vienna in Austria, provides a sweeping overview of how ideas and definitions about work have evolved over the last 1,000 years, calling out the very limited conception of work offered by traditional labor studies and Marxist perspectives.Komlosy's book is ambitious in its brevity: she condenses a millennium of global history into just 225 pages, justifying her far-reaching geographic and historical scope as necessary for avoiding the Eurocentric and patriarchal biases in traditional conceptions of work. -- Lauren Kaori Gurley * Indypendent *Capturing this churn [in both work itself and our ideas about it] is the difficult task that historian Andrea Komlosy attempts in her new book Work: The Last 1,000 Years..Komlosy attempts the monumental task of writing a large-scale global history of labor adequate to the growing instability in how we define and participate in work. -- Gabriel Winant * The Nation *A fascinating book -- Laurie Taylor * Thinking Allowed *

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Book SynopsisSilicon Valley titans, politicians, techno-futurists and social critics have united in arguing that we are living on the cusp of an era of rapid technological automation, heralding the end of work as we know it. But does the much-discussed 'rise of the robots' really explain the jobs crisis that awaits us on the other side of the coronavirus? In Automation and the Future of Work, Aaron Benanav uncovers the structural economic trends that will shape our working lives far into the future. What social movements, he asks, are required to propel us into post-scarcity, if technological innovation alone can't deliver it? In response to calls for a universal basic income that would maintain a growing army of redundant workers, he offers a counter-proposal.Trade ReviewAaron Benanav demolishes the popular myths around automation -- Ben Tarnoff, editor of Logic magazineA powerful and persuasive explanation of why capitalism can't create jobs or generate incomes for a majority of humanity. -- Mike Davis, author of Set the Night on FireAn excellent, insightful account of the contours of our present labor crisis. Benanav articulately makes the case for a post-scarcity future. -- Robert Skidelsky, biographer of John Maynard KeynesA highly quantitative analysis of the nature of contemporary unemployment flowers into something quite different and unexpected: a qualitative argument for the invention of new collective capacities in a world where work is no longer central to social life. -- Kristin Ross, author of Communal LuxuryA rare book that manages to soberly assess the contemporary landscape while keeping a clear eye on our utopian horizons. This is an important intervention into current discussions around technology and work - and a must-read for anyone who believes capitalist decay is not the only future. * Nick Srnicek, author of Platform Capitalism *Benanav dissects and disproves the idea that automation is eradicating work ... We don't need to wait for robots to do all the work; we can collectively decide what we need, then plan the economy to achieve it. -- Paris Marx * Passage *Thought-provoking ... packs quite a punch of macroeconomics and practical philosophy. -- International Policy DigestHe can write movingly and do so on a global scale -- Patrick McGinty * Pittsburgh Post Gazette *The two parts of Benanav's book-analytic and utopian-correspond to the two halves of the Marxian project: to both interpret the world, and change it -- Lola Seaton * New Statesman *Compelling reading. A rising star among the intelligentsia of the left * Dublin Review of Books *A powerful critique ... [Benanav] carefully chart[s] how our economic system is unable to deliver further social progress and ... set[s] out a believable vision of a non-capitalist future. -- Alexis Moraitis * ROAR *Crucial ... Automation and the Future of Work is impressively multifaceted for such a short text ... an excellent book. -- Mack Penner * Labour / Le Travail *Automation and the Future of Work gathers significant cold water to pour on automation's fever dreams. -- Amelia Horgan * Radical Philosophy *Important ... an eye-opening perspective for a convincing and encouraging political project -- Görkem Giray * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisFrom Broadway and Wall Street to the farthest reaches of New York's fabled subway system, and with numerous stops in between, this publication celebrates the occupational skills, crafts, knowledge, and traditions that have made New York legendary. Based on extensive interviews undertaken by Smithsonian Institution folklorists and researchers to document urban culture in the five boroughs at the turn of the millennium, Lox, Stocks, and Backstage Broadway introduces readers to a remarkable cast of artisans, workers, laborers, and artists - talented individuals whose jobs create, maintain, and nurture the very heart of Gotham. The book profiles workers from a wide variety of social and ethnic backgrounds, men and women who are eloquent in recounting their own stories, knowledgeable in relating the history of their beloved city, and avid about explaining the skills and challenges involved in practicing their chosen occupations. Their wisdom, humor, and humanity reflect the best of New York.

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Book SynopsisWorking women everywhere face discrimination. Inequality and lack of inclusion is reinforced through regulation, policy, behaviours and attitudes. Although there has been progress in some countries, gender equality at work has yet to be achieved by any nation.This in-depth study examines the challenges faced by working women, their families and communities in ten countries throughout Asia and the Pacific: Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Pakistan and the Philippines. Informed by the work of senior academics, policy-makers and community group representatives, and with a foreword by Elizabeth Broderick AO, independent expert, for the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls, United Nations Human Rights Council, working women's experiences are described and analysed within a framework of four themes: demography, globalisation, technological development and sustainability.Drawing on this wide range of qualitative and quantitative evidence, the authors set out recommendations for co-ordinated and context-sensitive responses specific to each country to improve the working lives of women and girls.

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Book Synopsis

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