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This book examines labor market policy and institutional reforms and their impact on outcomes in the Chinese labor market, utilizing both institutional and empirical study perspectives. It furnishes readers with academic evidence essential for comprehending the transformation of labor policies and institutions within the Chinese context—an emerging market economy housing one of the largest workforces globally. The main content of this book is divided into two parts: (i) Social institutions and labor market policies, encompassing topics such as trade unions and union wage premiums, minimum wage regulations and wage distributions, labor contracts, employment security and the high education expansion policy. (ii) Wage and employment institutions in the workplace, including areas such as seniority wages, mandatory retirement systems, the wage-experience profile, the dual labor market phenomenon, discrimination against women and minority ethnic workers, work hours, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, and the influences of Communist Party of China membership on managerial promotions. This book presents academic evidence on these issues, grounded in institutional transition background, economic theories, and empirical studies. It draws upon various Chinese nationwide representative survey datasets. This book is highly recommended for readers interested in institutional transitions, seeking up-to-date and in-depth empirical studies on the associations between labor policies/institutions and labor market outcomes. It particularly appeals to those with an interest in the Chinese economy, labor policymakers, scholars with a background in econometric analysis, and managers in companies.

This book explores the adverse economic effects of discriminatory language against LGBTQ+ people. The case studies under investigation are represented by the French and the Italian language, both boasting vast arrays of slurs employed to denote negatively the members of the LGBTQ+ community. Looking at the relative frequencies of slurs over time, the analysis proposed measures the extent of linguistic discrimination. Subsequently, the book identifies the negative impact of discrimination on economic performance in France and Italy in the long run. Slurs impose a psychological cost on the members of the LGBTQ+ community, who become as a result less productive in the workplace. Ultimately, slurs affect overall economic performance and reduce economic growth at the national level. This book stresses the role of inefficiencies associated with discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals in various spheres of life, with a particular focus on their economic consequences. Discriminatory language thus emerges not only as a negative phenomenon per se, but also as an obstacle to economic growth. This work draws elements from different disciplines and the results it obtains may prove appealing to scholars of economics, linguistics and gender studies, as well as to policymakers seeking to overcome social exclusion while stimulating economic performance.

In den vergangenen drei Jahrzehnten sind die Anteile befristeter Beschäftigungsverhältnisse bei jungen Erwachsenen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und in anderen spätkapitalistischen Gesellschaften deutlich angestiegen. Eingebettet in fortdauernde Trends einer Verringerung wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Sicherungsstandards hat diese Entwicklung dazu beigetragen, dass sich Übergänge in stabile berufliche Karrieren und planbare private Zukunftsgestaltungen diversifizieren und verzögern. In der vorliegenden Studie wird eine soziologische Erklärung der Auswirkungen befristeter Beschäftigung auf private und partnerschaftliche Zukunftsgestaltungen von jungen Erwachsenen theoriegeleitet ausgearbeitet und empirisch überprüft. Da mit der Ausweitung befristeter Beschäftigung das klassische männliche Ernährermodell in Begründungsnot gerät, so die zentrale These, werden Neuaushandlungen von Geschlechterrollenarrangements in jungen Partnerschaften erforderlich. Nicht allein sozioökonomische Risiken imKontext befristeter Beschäftigung, auch die sich wandelnden geschlechter- und erwerbsbezogenen Rollenerwartungen wirken sich verzögernd auf private und partnerschaftliche Zukunftsgestaltungen aus.Die Studie richtet sich an Forschende, Lehrende und Studierende der Soziologie, Politikwissenschaft, Psychologie und in benachbarten sozialwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen. Ebenso adressiert sie methodisch versierte Praktiker•

Die Geschlechtersegregation am Arbeitsmarkt und die sich dadurch ergebenden Unterschiede zwischen Frauen und Männer in Hinblick auf Tätigkeitsfelder, Positionen, Stundenausmaß, Einkommen, Aufstiegschancen usw. sind in der sozial- und wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Forschung vielfach beleuchtet worden. Die vorliegende Studie befasst sich nun schwerpunktmäßig mit möglichen Geschlechterunterschieden beim beruflichen Wiedereinstieg.

The anthology presents the social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the field of work and gainful employment from a multidisciplinary perspective of social and economic sciences. Specifically, it deals with the analysis of changes in work processes and relations in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Different facets of the discussion are taken up, and the topic of'work, precarity and COVID-19'is discussed along a wide range of diversity categories (age, gender, disability, social origin, ethnicity, religion, etc.) and their intersections (intersectionality). At the same time, the focus is on discussing alternative models and ways of dealing with the current crisis that (re)establish social justice and inclusion through work.The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.

From famously humble origins, Amazon has grown to become one of the most successful businesses in history. In its effort to provide its trademark fast and convenient'Prime'delivery, the company built a vast worldwide network of fulfillment centers and warehouses. Unsustainable looks inside the company's warehouses to reveal that the rise of Amazon is only made possible by the exploitation of workers'labor and communities'resources. Juliann Emmons Allison and Ellen Reese expose the real-world repercussions of these pernicious strategies through a chilling case study of the socioeconomic and environmental harms associated with the largely unchecked growth of warehousing in Inland Southern California, one of the nation's largest logistics hubs, where Amazon is the largest private-sector employer. Tracing the rise of grassroots resistance to the warehouse industry by workers and communities across this region, the country, and the globe, Unsustainable provides fresh insight into one of the most important and far-reaching struggles of our time.

In diesem Buch wird der aktuelle Zustand der österreichischen Sozialpartnerschaft und ihrer Kontextbedingungen aus verschiedenen disziplinären Perspektiven (Soziologie, Politikwissenschaft,Rechtswissenschaft und Wirtschaftswissenschaft) in ausgewählten Bereichen beschrieben und diskutiert. Im Fokus stehen die Antworten sozialpartnerschaftlicher Akteure auf aktuelle gesellschaftliche, politische, rechtliche und wirtschaftliche Herausforderungen, wie etwa Digitalisierung, Transnationalisierung von Wertschöpfungsketten, ökologische Transformation, neue Formen der Beschäftigung, Arbeitsmigration und die Neuordnung der politischen Kräfteverhältnisse.

Der Sammelband stellt aus multidisziplinärer Perspektive der Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften gesellschaftliche Folgen der COVID-19 Pandemie im Bereich Arbeit und Erwerbsarbeit dar. Konkret geht es um die Analyse der Veränderung von Arbeitsprozessen und -verhältnissen im Zuge der COVID-19 Pandemie. Es werden unterschiedliche Facetten der Diskussion aufgegriffen, und entlang verschiedenster Diversitätskategorien (Alter, Geschlecht, Behinderung, soziale Herkunft, Ethnie, Religion etc.) und ihren Überschneidungen (Intersektionalität) wird das Thema'Arbeit, Prekariat und COVID-19'diskutiert. Gleichzeitig liegt der Fokus darauf, alternative Modelle und Wege im Umgang mit der aktuellen Krise zu diskutieren, die soziale Gerechtigkeit und Inklusion durch Arbeit (wieder)herstellen.

In malls across the United States, clothing retail workers navigate low wages and unpredictable schedules. Despite these problems, they devote time and money to mirror the sleek mannequins stylishly adorned with the latest merchandise. Bringing workers'voices to the fore, sociologists Joya Misra and Kyla Walters demonstrate how employers reproduce gendered and racist'beauty'standards by regulating workers'size and look. Interactions with customers, coworkers, and managers further reinforce racial hierarchies. New surveillance technologies also lead to ineffective corporate decision-making based on flawed data. By focusing on the interaction of race, gender, and surveillance, Walking Mannequins sheds important new light on the dynamics of retail work in the twenty-first century.

“This is the book to throw at your human resources director—not literally, of course—when any attempt is being made to bamboozle you about how decisions on pay have been made…It is a closely argued, thoroughly researched treatise on how we got here and how pay could be both fairer and more effective as a reward.”—Stefan Stern, Financial World“A flat-out revelation of a book by one of the nation's top scholars of the labor market…required reading for anyone who cares about the future of work in America.”—Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America“Jake Rosenfeld pulls back the curtain on the multifaceted cultural, institutional, and market forces at play in wage-setting. This timely book illuminates the power dynamics and often arbitrary forces that have contributed to the egregious inequality in the U.S. labor market—and then lays out a clear blueprint for progressive change.”—Thea Lee, President of the Economic Policy InstituteJob performance and where you work play a role in determining pay, but judgments of productivity and value are highly subjective. What makes a lawyer more valuable than a teacher? How do you measure the output of a police officer, a professor, or a reporter? Why, in the past few decades, did CEOs suddenly become hundreds of times more valuable than their employees? The answers lie not in objective criteria but in battles over interests and ideals.Four dynamics are paramount: power, inertia, mimicry, and demands for equity. Power struggles legitimize pay for particular jobs, and organizational inertia makes that pay seem natural. Mimicry encourages employers to do what their peers are doing. And workers are on the lookout for practices that seem unfair. Jake Rosenfeld shows us how these dynamics play out in real-world settings, drawing on cutting-edge economics and original survey data, with an eye for compelling stories and revealing details.You're Paid What You're Worth gets to the heart of that most basic of social questions: Who gets what and why?

Die anhaltende Transformation des Sozialstaats ist mit einer Bedeutungszunahme tarifvertraglicher Regulierung von sozialer Sicherung verbunden. Der Band bietet erstmals einen umfassenden Überblick über den Stand und die Entwicklung tariflicher Sozialpolitik. Als Bestandsaufnahme enthält er umfangreiche und die zeitliche Entwicklung nachzeichnende Darstellungen für die Alterssicherungs-, Arbeitsmarkt-, Gesundheits- und Familienpolitik in verschiedenen Branchen. Die Untersuchung fragt zudem nach den grundsätzlichen Wahrnehmungen, Einschätzungen und Bewertungen der Tarifvertragsparteien hinsichtlich der Verlagerung sozialpolitischer Verantwortung auf das System der industriellen Beziehungen. Neben Branchen und sozialpolitischen Feldern vergleicht die Studie auch Institutionensysteme. Obwohl mit Deutschland und Österreich zwei institutionell sehr ähnliche Distributionsregimes gegenübergestellt werden, finden sich erhebliche Unterschiede zwischen den beiden Ländern sowohl in Hinblick auf den Vertariflichungsgrad als auch auf die Sichtweisen von Arbeitgeberverbänden und Gewerkschaften. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich: Die Möglichkeiten der Tarifpolitik, eine den Interessen der Beschäftigten angemessene soziale Sicherung zu organisieren, hängen ab von den Rahmungen des Gesetzgebers: Auch bei zunehmend vertariflichter sozialer Sicherheit bleibt der Sozialstaat in sozialpolitischer Verantwortung.

Das vorliegende Buch erklärt mithilfe des Konzepts der emotionalen Qualität einer Politikidee, weshalb die deutsche Bevölkerung die Rente mit 67 stärker ablehnte als andere, ebenso einschneidende Rentenreformen. Dafür werden zunächst die Geschichte des Reformvorhabens (der Politikidee) rekonstruiert, die Umstände der Verabschiedung des Reformgesetzes analysiert und dessen Abstraktionsgrad bestimmt. Den Mittelpunkt des Arguments bildet die diskurslinguistische Mehr-Ebenen-Analyse der Topoi in den Rechtfertigungen der Regierung für ihr Reformhandeln. Der Autor kommt zu dem Schluss, dass die von Politik und Bevölkerung in Deutschland althergebrachte Ablehnung des späteren Ruhestands nicht mehr kurzfristig durch eine Post-Entscheidungskommunikation der Regierung aufzubrechen war.

This book analyses social conflict among fishers in Indonesia by implementing class theory, thus adopting a new approach to analysing fishers'conflicts in Indonesia. In using this approach, the book enables a comprehensive understanding of the nature of fishers'social conflicts. It demonstrates that the primary cause triggering conflict among fishers in Indonesia is not exploitation, but domination. This domination causes injustice in terms of access among fishers, which in turn threatens their livelihood. The author unpacks the influence of political parties, and how macro-economic conditions and public policy have become contextual variables of these class conflicts in the fisheries community. The book presents the unique characteristics of class conflicts among fishers compared to class conflicts in industrial sectors, underpinned by Marxist theory. This book will be relevant to fisheries policy-makers in Indonesia and abroad, researchers and students in anthropology, sociology, and development economics, as well as community and rural development specialists and conservationists.

This book provides international and transdisciplinary perspectives on Hyperprecarity and Social Structural Transformations in European Societies, USA and Russia enforced through other special transformation processes such as digitalisation, migration and demographic change. It has been observed that precarity and social insecurity do not refer any longer only to certain groups of the society such as unemployed people or to those ones who are ‘traditionally'more in need of social benefit etc. but it accompanies and affects greater parts of the society, particularly those sections of the middleclass who conceive their social identity merely via their work ethics. Consequentially new forms of social exclusion are being producing taxing the traditional social cohesion in European societies due to the demand of new forms of flexibility and mobility from the working people. This process can be termed with the notion'Hyperprecarisation'.This book contains contributions from scientists all over Europe, Russia and the USA, who are members of the SUPI network “Social Uncertainty, Prequarity, Inequality”.PD Dr. Rolf Hepp teaches at the Institut for Soziologie at the FU Berlin and coordinates the S.U.P.I.-Network.Dr. David Kergel teaches at Universität Siegen, Medienwissenschaftliches Seminar.Dr. Robert Riesinger, (Prof. a.D., FH Joanneum Graz) is author and researcher for sociology in Steyerberg.

A provocative, far-reaching account of how the middle class got stuck with the bill for globalisation, and how, even before the coronavirus, the blowback — from Brexit to Trump to populist Europe — was going to change the developed world. Real wages have not risen much for decades. Union membership has collapsed. Full-time employment is beginning to look like a quaint idea from the distant past. Falling tariffs, low interest rates, global deregulation, and tax policies that benefit the rich have all had the same effect: the erosion of the middle class. Bestselling author Jeff Rubin argues that all this was foreseeable back when major Western countries started to believe their own propaganda about free trade, and especially when they allowed China to exploit weaknesses in the trading system they devised. The result, growing global inequality, is a problem of our own making. And solving it won't be easy if we draw on the same ideas about capital and labour, right and left, that led us to this cliff. Articulating a vision that, remarkably, dovetails with the ideas of both Naomi Klein and Donald Trump, The Expendables is an exhilaratingly fresh perspective that is at once humane and irascible, fearless and rigorous, and, most importantly, timely.

This book describes the experience of joblessness and unemployment in contemporary Poland. It does so by combining qualitative and quantitative data from a special project conducted in Poland after the Great Recession and the long-term Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN) to describe the lives of the jobless: women and men currently out of work, the recently re-employed, and housewives. The book uses a class and inequality perspective to investigate how these women and men became jobless, how they look for and find employment, their household and social activities, and their political participation. It contextualizes these experiences with a description of Poland's economy, labor market and employment policies after the fall of Communism and builds on the active interviewing and social constructionist approaches to explore the complex interviewer-respondent relationship.

This comparative study examines the processes of development and the configurations of export industries in northern Morocco and on the northern border of Mexico. As the contributors explore the similar characteristics of these two borders, they also examine how the global economy circulates around “places of production”—sites advantageous to the development of export industries. Focusing on transnational firms and the working conditions, settlement processes, and migratory flows they engender, this volume considers if a convergence toward a global culture is inevitable in places of production, or if local resistance emerges in response to the impact of the global.

This book addresses women's changing role in and contributions to the Indian labour market. It explores how feminist theories and frameworks have changed over time and gradually been supplanted by new ones. The book explores the structural shift in women's employment from farm to non-farm jobs in services and industries, both theoretically and empirically. Further, it examines the steady rise of women in high skilled or ‘new economy'sectors like information and communication technology, electronics and telecom; and in low skilled work such as domestic work, particularly in urban areas. It also scrutinizes how emerging sectors of the economy are experimenting with new forms of employment by changing the temporal (part-time work, flexible hours), spatial (location of work) and contractual (temporary contracts) dimensions. Beyond analysing the above-mentioned aspects, the book discusses perennial challenges such as patriarchy, socio-cultural norms and gender-based labour market inequalities across occupations as a ‘glass ceiling'or ‘sticky floor'. One of the book's most important contributions is inclusion of detailed labour market statistics for women, with long-term trends and patterns, as well as comparisons with other countries and regions. In closing, the book highlights women's participation in economic and non-economic activities and related quantification issues, i.e. the invisibility of women's work, which remains a highly contentious aspect. Given its content, the book offers a valuable asset for a broad readership including academics, NGOs, and policymakers. “The subject of low work participation rates for women has been of concern to economists, gender specialists and policy makers for decades. This book makes an important contribution in understanding the role of women in development and identifies some new policy directions that could be initiated to facilitate greater employment of women.” - Rohini Nayyar, Former Principal Adviser, Yojana Aayog, Government of India “This book is timely and extremely relevant to the academic and policy debates in India. Given the puzzle of low and declining female labour force participation, it is critical to focus on where women work, beyond a supply-side perspective. In addition, efforts are needed to better measure women's work, which is typically underreported. In both these dimensions, this book makes an important contribution, which will be valuable for both academics and policymakers.”- Sher Verick, Employment Policy and Analysis Programme (EPAP) of the International Training Centre (ITC), International Labour Organization “This book critically examines both theoretically and empirically the dynamics of changes in women's participation in and contribution to the fast-transforming Indian labour market. The aspects covered include the essential issue of how the new forms of employment are impacting temporal, spatial and contractual dimensions. An excellent and compulsory read for academicians and policy-makers involved in gender as well as labour economics.” - Ritu Dewan, Former President, Indian Association for Women's Studies; Former Director & Professor, Dept. of Economics, University of Mumbai “The book is a required addition to the exiting literature on women's work and employment for its comprehensive and distinctive approach. It is a unique blend of macro and micro level perspectives and issues capturing statistics.”

The culmination of the extensive and often ground-breaking work of the ILO's Women at Work Centenary Initiative, this report highlights key gender gaps and obstacles to decent work for women. It explores the structural barriers, including unpaid care work, that shape the nature and extent of women's engagement in paid employment, and examines how laws, policies and practices in certain countries have addressed them. The report, which is closely aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, also outlines pathways to future gender equality.

Ohne Solidarität, Vergemeinschaftung und Sozialintegration ist der Wohlfahrtsstaat nicht überlebensfähig. Trotzdem bleiben die drei Elemente als grundlegende Konzepte der Sozialstaatsdebatte meist unterbeleuchtet. Expertinnen und Experten aus Sozial- und Politikwissenschaften untersuchen die sozialintegrative Dimension der Wohlfahrtsstaatlichkeit. Aus der Perspektive der Vergemeinschaftung behandeln sie die aktuelle wohlfahrtsstaatliche Theoriedebatte, analysieren Formen von Solidarität und setzen sich mit den spezifischen Problemlagen des modernen Wohlfahrtsstaates auseinander. Angesichts der Krisenhaftigkeit des Kernbereichs Arbeit interessiert insbesondere sein Reformvermögen. Präsentiert werden empirisch orientierte Beiträge zu Familie, Nachbarschaft und Solidarverbänden sowie theoretisch ausgerichtete Beiträge zu aktuellen Problemlagen wie der Arbeit 4.0. Ferner werden Lösungsansätze in Form von „realutopischen“ Perspektiven und Optionen diskutiert.

This ethnography analyses labour relations within the export-oriented cut flower industry at Lake Naivasha in Kenya. Though this agro-industry has attracted critical attention from journalists and non-governmental organizations, this book is the first comprehensive, social scientific analysis of the industry's labour arrangements and production processes. Gerda Kuiper here interprets the work on the farms as ‘agro-industrial labour': a labour system characterized by high levels of discipline and a strict rhythm of work, due to the demands posed by a highly perishable agricultural product. This framework enables the author to draw on insights from a wide range of anthropological and sociological studies on (agro-)industrial wage labour around the globe. This mixed-methods approach, deployed alongside rich ethnographic detail, allows the author to center the flower farm workers in her analysis.

Twenty-First Century Inequality & Capitalism: Piketty, Marx and Beyond is a collection that begins with economist Thomas Piketty's 2014 book. Most chapters critique Piketty from the perspective of critical theory, global political economy or public sociology, drawing on the work of Karl Marx or the Marxist tradition. The emphasis focuses on elements that are under-theorized or omitted entirely from the economists'analysis. This includes the importance of considering class and labor dynamics, the recent rise of finance capitalism, insights from feminism, demography, and conflict studies, the Frankfurt School, the world market and the world-system, the rise of a transnational capitalist class, the coming environmental catastrophe, etc. Our goal is to fully understand and suggest action to address today's capitalist inequality crisis.Contributors are: Robert J. Antonio, J.I. (Hans) Bakker, Roslyn Wallach Bologh, Alessandro Bonanno, Christopher Chase-Dunn, Harry F. Dahms, Eoin Flaherty, Daniel Krier, Basak Kus, Lauren Langman, Dana Marie Louie, Peter Marcuse, Sandor Nagy, Charles Reitz, William I. Robinson, Saskia Sassen, David A. Smith, David N. Smith, Tony Smith, Michael Thompson, Sylvia Walby, Erik Olin Wright.

The book presents a critical framework for assessing whether organisational practice and function reinforces unseen potential differences amongst individuals in the workplace. It offers a comprehensive understanding and awareness of managerial and organisational practices that perpetuate social exclusion and discrimination towards individuals in the workplace. The book draws together themes of non-declared medical or physical conditions, voluntary and involuntary disclosure of difference, dietary requirements, lifestyle, organisational engagement and cognitive bias. As a result, the book provides a unique blend of scholarly and professional research, and brings those who have been affected by social stigmas and discrimination in the workplace to the fore. Hidden Inequalities in the Workplace also offers practical and strategic insights for practitioners, students and policy-makers, and delves the strategic nature of policy intervention and thought-provoking dialogue

Andrea Hense entwickelt ein theoretisches Modell zur sozialen Erklärung subjektiver Ungleichheitswahrnehmungen, das eine theoriegeleitete Hypothesengenerierung anleitet und empirisch prüfbar ist. Ihr PFH-Modell kombiniert Lindenbergs Theorie sozialer Produktionsfunktionen mit Bourdieus Feld- und Habitustheorie und ergänzt ressourcenorientierte Ansätze mit einer relationalen und zeitlichen Analyseperspektive. Die Autorin wendet das Modell zur Analyse sozialer Einflussfaktoren selbst wahrgenommener Beschäftigungs- und Einkommensprekarität an und zeigt, wie es zur Hypothesengenerierung eingesetzt werden kann.

This book explores how structures of social inequality are linked to the social connections that people hold. The authors focus upon occupational inequalities where they see, for example, that the typical friendship patterns of people from one occupation are often very different to those of people from another. Social Inequalities and Occupational Stratification leverages empirical data about differences in social connections to chart structures of social distance and social inequality. Several of its chapters provide coverage of the long-standing Cambridge Social Interaction and Stratification scale (CAMSIS) project and its approach to analysing social interaction patterns in terms of a single dimension related to social inequality.

Die Beiträge des Bandes zeigen und diskutieren das Potenzial einer mikrosoziologischen, prozessorientierten – qualitativen – Ungleichheitsforschung. Sie spüren Praktiken sozialer Besser- und Schlechterstellung in den Bereichen Bildung, Arbeit, soziale Beziehungen und Migration auf. Mit der interpretativen, handlungstheoretischen oder praxissoziologischen Perspektive machen sie das „Doing Inequality“, die Gemachtheit und die Vollzugswirklichkeit sozialer Ungleichheit sowie die Rolle von Akteuren bei der Herstellung, der Reproduktion und dem Wandel von sozialen Ungleichheiten zentral. Soziale Ungleichheiten ergeben sich aus der regelmäßig ungleichen Verteilung „wertvoller Güter“ einer Gesellschaft. Doch wie werden diese zugeteilt, angeeignet oder vorenthalten?

Yasmina Banaszczuk untersucht die Bedeutung persönlicher Kontakte für den Berufseinstieg von Akademikerinnen und Akademikern, die neben Tipps zu offenen Stellen vor allem Unterstützung und Austausch bieten. Sie zeigt, dass die persönlichen Netzwerke je nach sozialer Herkunft in Größe und Intensität variieren: Studierte Berufseinsteigende aus akademischer Herkunft können auf mehr Kontakte zurückgreifen als traditionelle Arbeiterkinder. Vorbereitend und prägend ist neben der Familie vor allem die Studienzeit. In der Nutzung ihrer Netzwerke zeigen sich ebenfalls deutliche Unterschiede, die neben der sozialen Herkunft auch aufs Geschlecht zurückgeführt werden können: Bei Männern überlappen private und berufliche Netzwerke, anders als bei Frauen.

This book critically explores ways of thinking about the city and its relevance for the profession of social work. It provides a colourful illustration of practice drawing on examples of social work responses to a range of issues emerging from the unprecedented scale, density and pace of change in cities. The associated challenges posed for social work include: the increased segregation of the poor, the crisis of affordable housing, homelessness, gentrification, ageing, displacement as a result of migrations, and the breakdown of social support and care. Drawing on multiple disciplines, this groundbreaking work shows that these familiar features of the twenty-first century can be counteracted by the positive aspects of the city: its innovation, creativity and serendipity. It has a redistributive, caring and cohesive potential. The city can provide new opportunities and resources for social work to influence, to collaborate, to foster participation and involvement, and to extend its social justice mandate. The book shows that the city represents a critical arena in terms of the future of social work intervention and social work identity. In doing so, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of social work, social policy, community work and urban studies.

There are fewer people living in extreme poverty in the world today than 30 years ago. While that is an achievement, continuing progress for poor people is far from assured. Inequalities in access to key resources threaten to stall growth and poverty reduction in many places. The world's poorest have made only a small absolute gain over those 30 years. Progress has been slow against relative poverty as judged by the standards of the country and time one lives in, and a great many people in the world's emerging middle class remain vulnerable to falling back into poverty. The Economics of Poverty reviews critically past and present debates on poverty, spanning both rich and poor countries. The book provides an accessible new synthesis of current economic thinking on key questions: How is poverty measured? How much poverty is there? Why does poverty exist, and is it inevitable? What can be done to reduce poverty? Can it even be eliminated? The book does not assume that readers know economics already. Those new to the subject get a lot of help along the way in understanding its concepts and methods. Economics lives through its relevance to real world problems, and here the problem of poverty is both the central focus and a vehicle for learning.

To a backdrop of ageing societies, pension crises and labour market reforms, this book investigates how the policy shift from early retirement to active ageing has affected individual retirement behaviour. Focusing on eleven European countries, the United States and Japan, it brings together leading international experts to analyze recent changes in pension systems. Their findings demonstrate that there has been a fundamental transition in pension policies and a steep increase in older workers'retirement ages and employment rates. Yet changes in retirement behavior are not evenly distributed across all societal strata. This raises the serious concern that an overall rise in the retirement age will be accompanied by the re-emergence of social inequality in the transition from work to retirement. This innovative edited collection will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, economics, political science, human resources management, gerontology and social policy, and also to policy-makers and professionals dealing with older workers.

In Western Europe, the notion of social exclusion is rapidly diffusing in recent years. This book investigates the notion of social exclusion as a new way to approach social issues such as the'new poverty'long-term-unemployment, precariousness, social polarization and disintegration. Particular attention is paid to both the global relevance of an approach in terms of social exclusion and its value compared to more conventional approaches in terms of poverty of deprivation. It is shown that social exclusion goes beyond these by explicitly embracing the relational as well as the distributional aspects of poverty and emphasizing processes. In this book, the authors explore the specific forms of social exclusion in the ongoing processes of globalization, deregulation, crisis of the welfare state, and rise of individualism.

With unemployment at historically high rates that show signs of becoming structural, there is a pressing need for an in-depth exploration of this economic injustice. Unemployment is one of the problems most likely to put critical pressure on our political institutions, disrupt the social fabric of our way of life, and even threaten the continuation of liberalism itself. Despite the obvious importance of the problem of unemployment, however, there has been a curious lack of attention paid to this issue by contemporary non-Marxist political philosophers. On Unemployment explores the moral implications of the problem of unemployment despite the continuing uncertainty involving both its causes and its cures. Reiff takes up a series of questions about the nature of unemployment and what justice has to tell us about what we should do, if anything, to alleviate it. The book comprehensively discusses the related theory and suggests how we might implement these more general observations in the real world. It addresses the politics of unemployment and the extent to which opposition to some or all of the book's various proposals stem not from empirical disagreements about the best solutions, but from more basic moral disagreements about whether the reduction of unemployment is indeed an appropriate moral goal. This exciting new text will be essential for scholars and readers across business, economics, and finance, as well as politics, philosophy, and sociology.

'Good governance, social stabilization and economic justice are not luxuries that weigh down and impede the process of development. They are the essence of development itself. This book provides the documentation required to carry the point.'- From the foreword by James K. GalbraithLabor market institutions, including collective bargaining, the regulation of employment contracts and social protection policies, are instrumental for improving the well-being of workers, their families and society. In many countries, these institutions have been eroded, whilst in other countries they do not exist at all.Labour Markets, Institutions and Inequality includes empirical case studies, from both developed and developing countries, which examine the role of institutions in ensuring equitable income distribution. The volume discusses the effect of macroeconomic, labor and social policies on inequality, highlighting how specific groups such as women, migrants and younger workers are affected by labor market institutions. Expert contributions demonstrate that in order to reduce inequality, countries must strengthen their labour market institutions through comprehensive policy formulation.Contributors: C. Behrendt, P. Belser, J. Berg, S. Cazes, J. Martínez Franzoni, S. Gammage, M. Gerecke, D. Grimshaw, S. Hayter, M. Hengge, I. ['Yan'] Islam, C. Kuptsch, J. Ramón de Laiglesia, S. Lee, M. Luebker, J.C. Messenger, U. Rani, N. Ray, G. Reinecke, D. Sánchez-Ancochea, J. Woodall