The Political Economy of Work in the 21st Century PDF Download

Author: Martin Sicker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313011788
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
When Congress enacted Social Secuirty in 1935, with the age of retirement set at age 65, average life expectancy was 62 years. By the time Medicare was enacted 30 years later, life expectancy had risen to age 70. Since the enactment of Medicare, life expectancy has risen to age 76 today and may be expected to increase further in the decades to come. Clearly, the increase in post-retirement life expectancy has significant implications for the level of national expenditures attributable to an aging population. One of the approaches suggested as a solution to the so-called income transfer problem is to redefine old age, that is, to push retirement and its associated benefits off to a later age. This would effectively increase the size of the workforce, with older workers continuing to contribute their payroll taxes for an extended period of time. The critical question Sicker poses is, will there be enough appropriate employment opportunities for a growing number of older workers in the workforce of the future? The evidence for a positive response is far from clear or compelling. Sicker examines the prospective place of the aging worker in the employment environment of the 21st century in light of the restructuring of American business and the world of work in the final decades of the last century. In doing so, he raises serious concerns about the validity and utility of some of the neoclassical economic ideas and assumptions that have become part of the conventional wisdom of our time. Sicker contends that these dubious propositions have unwittingly contributed signficantly to the problem through their manifestation in public policy. However, the principal focus of his analysis is not on economic theory as such, but on the realities and uncertainties that an aging American workforce will face in the decades to come. This book is significant reading for scholars, researchers, and the general public interested in labor force and aging policy issues.

Author: David Spencer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134048483
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
This book offers a new and unique assessment of the theoretical analysis of work, challenging some common preconceptions and promoting an original approach to the field, contemplating its nature, development and its impact on human well-being.

Author: Valeria Pulignano
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9403518200
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
It cannot be denied that in recent decades, for many if not most people, work has become unstable and insecure, with serious risk and few benefits for workers. As this reality spills over into political and social life, it is crucial to interrogate the transformations affecting employment relations, shape research agendas, and influence the policies of national and international institutions. This single volume brings together thirty-nine scholars (both academics and experienced industrial relations actors) in the fields of employment relations and labour law in a forthright discussion of new approaches, theories, and methods aimed at ameliorating the world of work. Focusing on why and how work is changing, how collective actors deal with it, and the future of work from different disciplinary angles and at an international level, the contributors describe and analyse such issues and topics as the following: new forms of social protection and representation; differences in the power relations of workers and political dynamics; balancing protection of workers’ dignity and promotion of productivity; intersection of information technology and workplace regulation; how the gig economy undermines legal protections; role of professional and trade associations; workplace conflict management; lay judges in labour courts; undeclared work in the informal sector of the labour market; work incapacity and disability; (in)coherence of the work-related case law of the European Court of Justice; and business restructurings. Derived from a major conference held in Leuven in September 2018, the book offers an in-depth understanding of the changing world of work, its main transformations, and the challenges posed to classical employment relations theories and methods as well as to labour law. With its wide range of insights, analysis, and reflection, this unique contribution to the study of industrial relations offers an authoritative reference guide to scholars, policymakers, trade unions and business associations, human resources professionals, and practitioners who need to deal with the future of work challenges.

Author: Charles J. Whalen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317462645
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
This text provides an alternative to conventional economics, drawing on the neoclassical and non-neoclassical insights of Lester Thurow, Robert Heilbroner, Alice Amsden, Barry Bluestone and 11 other prominent economists from America and England. It is intended to provide productive analyses of several contemporary economic problems.

Author: Robert Albritton
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 0857286757
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
This volume brings together original and timely writings by internationally renowned scholars that reflect on the current trajectories of global capitalism and, in the light of these, consider likely, possible or desirable futures. It offers theory-informed writing that contextualizes empirical research on current world-historic events and trends with an eye towards realizing a future of human, social and economic betterment.

Author: Pauline Gardiner Barber
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415892228
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
'Migration in the 21st Century' focuses on global migration in its inter-regional, international, and transnational variants, drawing on ethnographies from across the globe to show that our understanding of migration is advanced when ethnography is theoretically engaged with the social consequences of 21st century global capitalism.

Author: Roy Smith
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317612744
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
Understanding of the theories that underpin international political economy (IPE), and their practical applications, is crucial to the study of international relations, politics, development and economics. This is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field, with an engaging and coherent foundation to the subject. It considers traditional and alternative approaches to IPE, and in doing so elucidates key concepts, assumptions and the intellectual and historical context in which they arose and developed. At all times, it makes clear their relevance to issues from trade, finance and government, to environment, technology, health, labour, security, migration, development and culture. The book encourages independent reflection and critical thinking through a range of in-text guiding features. In addition, each chapter presents theoretical analysis alongside contemporary issues, helping the reader to relate to the real world of IPE and to better understand how theory helps inform interpretation of it. New to this edition: comprehensively updated to include key coverage of the post-2015 framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, the financial crisis and international government responses - successful or otherwise - to recent challenges; fully updated data, reflective questions, recommended readings, concept and example boxes, and illustrations; new chapters on health, migration and labour; additional coverage of trade theories and key contemporary issues, such as national versus human security, economic versus human development and illegal networks in global trade.

Author: Anita Hammer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1352009773
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Part of the Critical Perspectives on Work and Employment series, this edited collection brings together contributions from leading international scholars to initiate an important dialogue between labour process analysis and scholarship on work in the Global South. This book characterises the forms of work and labour process that characterise globalising capitalism today and addresses core analytical concerns within Labour Process Theory and research on work in the South. It explores how a wide range of production relations in the Global South, ranging from formal to informal employment and self-employment, are embedded in wider social relations of gender, caste, religion and ethnicity, and are related to wider patterns of commodification and resistance. Drawing on cutting-edge research, the book's chapters consider a diverse range of working situations, covering migrant workers in the Middle East, commercial surrogacy work in India and cooperative garment workers in Argentina. In offering a novel reading of the political economy of work in the Global South and shedding light on lesser-considered fields of work and worker organization, this volume will provide new insights for making sense of the changing world of work for students, scholars, labour activists and practitioners alike.

Author: Andrew Calabrese
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1461700353
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Several of the most important and influential political economists of communication working today explore a rich mix of topics and issues that link work, policy studies, and research and theory about the public sphere to the heritage of political economy. Familiar but still exceedingly important topics in critical political economy studies are well represented here: market structures and media concentration, regulation and policy, technological impacts on particular media sectors, information poverty, and media access. The book also features new topics for political economy study, including racism in audience research, the value and need for feminist approaches to political economy studies, and the relationship between the discourse of media finance and the behavior of markets.

Author: Joel Beinin
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503614484
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
This book offers the first critical engagement with the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. Challenging conventional wisdom on the origins and contemporary dynamics of capitalism in the region, these cutting-edge essays demonstrate how critical political economy can illuminate both historical and contemporary dynamics of the region and contribute to wider political economy debates from the vantage point of the Middle East. Leading scholars, representing several disciplines, contribute both thematic and country-specific analyses. Their writings critically examine major issues in political economy—notably, the mutual constitution of states, markets, and classes; the co-constitution of class, race, gender, and other forms of identity; varying modes of capital accumulation and the legal, political, and cultural forms of their regulation; relations among local, national, and global forms of capital, class, and culture; technopolitics; the role of war in the constitution of states and classes; and practices and cultures of domination and resistance. Visit politicaleconomyproject.org for additional media and learning resources.