The Political Economy Of Work

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.

John Maynard Keynes expected that around the year 2030 people would only work 15 hours a week. In the mid-1960s, Jean Fourastié still anticipated the introduction of the 30-hour week in the year 2000, when productivity would continue to grow at an established pace. Productivity growth slowed down somewhat in the 1970s and 1980s, but rebounded in the 1990s with the spread of new information and communication technologies. The knowledge economy, however, did not bring about a jobless future or a world without work, as some scholars had predicted. With few exceptions, work hours of full-time employees have hardly fallen in the advanced capitalist countries in the last three decades, while in a number of countries they have actually increased since the 1980s. This book takes the persistence of long work hours as starting point to investigate the relationship between capitalism and work time. It does so by discussing major theoretical schools and their explanations for the length and distribution of work hours, as well as tracing major changes in production and reproduction systems, and analyzing their consequences for work hours. Furthermore, this volume explores the struggle for shorter work hours, starting from the introduction of the ten-hour work day in the nineteenth century to the introduction of the 35-hour week in France and Germany at the end of the twentieth century. However, the book also shows how neoliberalism has eroded collective work time regulations and resulted in an increase and polarization of work hours since the 1980s. Finally, the book argues that shorter work hours not only means more free time for workers, but also reduces inequality and improves human and ecological sustainability.

Employment has changed dramatically in the last few decades with the onset of neoliberal globalization. This change has become the objective of inquiry from different perspectives, such as development studies, labour economics or industrial relations, focusing on different units of analysis. The Political Economy of Employment Relations provides an exceptional contribution to existing literature by presenting alternative theory and practice on employment relations. It is within this critical theoretical intervention that solidarity economies emerge as a unique theoretical construct as well as a unit of analysis to expose the alternative paths that employment relations may resort to against the contemporary challenges of neoliberal globalization. This book analyses globalization, global economic crisis, and issues of work and labour from the point of view of the developing world, presenting local case studies from countries including the USA, India, Spain and Greece, and outlining alternative approaches to global challenges. This volume has relevance to those with an interest in industrial relations, sociology of work and occupations, labour economics and development economics.

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.

Workplace injuries are common, avoidable, and unacceptable. The Political Economy of Workplace Injury in Canada reveals how employers and governments engage in ineffective injury prevention efforts, intervening only when necessary to maintain standard legitimacy. Barnetson sheds light on this faulty system, highlighting the way in which employers create dangerous work environments yet pour billions of dollars into compensation and treatment. Examining this dynamic clarifies the way in which production costs are passed on to workers in the form of workplace injuries.

This book explores the political economy of labor repression and expands the meaning of repression by looking at the relation of politics to economics throughout the course of US history. It explains how and why this relation leads to the repression of labor and considers how it develops over time from the social relation of capital and labor.

Much of our life involves working, preparing for work, searching for work, or thinking and worrying about work. Whether paid or unpaid, free or coerced, full-time, part-time, or zero-hours, work defines us and helps shape our behavior both on and off the job. In this accessible book, leading labor economist Bruce Pietrykowski offers a highly engaging exploration of the history and contemporary organization of work under capitalism. His clear presentation of the theoretical debates is illustrated by real-world examples from across the globe and a skillful account of alternatives that point toward a post-capitalist future. Employing a progressive, worker-centered vision that goes beyond mainstream economics, he examines themes ranging from inequality, care work, and the gig economy to technological change and a universal basic income. His analysis emphasizes power, conflict, solidarity, and cooperation, interpreted through the lenses of class, race, gender, and place. This comprehensive and highly readable book will be of interest to students of economics, sociology, labor studies, and politics seeking to learn more about work and workers in the global economy, as well as interested general readers.

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.