Work Appropriation And Social Inequality

This volume is a collection of subject-oriented studies on paid work. Each chapter refers to the social structures that form conditions for peoples’ working contexts and interprets workers’ and employees’ narrations on work. Work appropriation—a process of formation of subjectivity, in which workers and employees relate to the social status of their occupations and the use-value of their work in actively dealing with the work’s content and conditions—serves as a comprehensive concept for each varying subject-oriented approach in the volume. ‘Work Appropriation and Social Inequality’ focuses on social inequality, understood as the distribution of life chances that privilege some and discriminate others and reveals the unequal conditions for, and outcomes of, work appropriation. By analyzing work appropriation, it uses a broader concept than that of ‘meaning of work’ or ‘meaningful work’ as it includes the practice and processes of working. The volume’s subject-oriented approach to work differs from the stream ‘subjectivation’ in going beyond individuals’ desires for self-realization in work and to companies’ requirements of accessing emotional and personal dimensions of their workforce. The volume contains three parts: the first lays out basic approaches to work appropriation and social inequality, the second analyses current threats to work appropriation in the UK and Germany, and the third consists of a philosophical outlook on work in the Anthropocene. The book’s impact lies in pushing forward the debate on how work appropriations are linked to unequal social structures. It will therefore appeal to social scientists interested in social inequality, sociology of work and organization, as well as students and teachers at the undergraduate and graduate level in the areas of social sciences.

Work Appropriation of Low-Wage Workers in the Service Sector deftly explores how supermarket clerks perceive their work when faced with meagre pay and frequently precarious working conditions. Speaking substantively on current social problems within clerksÕ livelihoods, this essential book provides a fascinating comparison between German and US-based low-wage worker experiences.

The 2008 financial crisis led the whole world to ask questions of the financial industry. Why are wages in the financial industry so high? Are bonuses responsible for the financial crisis? Where do bonuses come from? Politicians and others urged people to believe that the crisis was the price of Wall Street’s greed and blamed the "bonus culture" prevalent in the financial industry. However, despite widespread condemnation and the threat of tighter regulation, bonuses in the industry have proven remarkably resilient. Wages, Bonuses and Appropriation of Profit in the Financial Industry provides an in-depth inquiry into the bonus system. Drawing on examples from France, the City and Wall Street, it explains how and why workers in the financial industry can receive such large bonuses. The book examines issues around incentives, morality and wealth-sharing among employees, including the rise of "the working rich" – those who have benefited the most from the high wages and large bonuses on offer to some employees. These people have achieved wealth through their work thanks to new forms of exploitation in our ever-more dematerialised economy. This book shows how the most mobile employees holding the most mobile assets can exploit the most immobile stakeholders. In a world where inequalities are rising sharply, this book is therefore an important study of one of the key contemporary issues. It will be of vital interest to those studying finance, banking or political economy.

This is an open access book. We are pleased to announce our Springer International Conference on Advances in Nano-Neuro-Bio-Quantum (I-CAN – 2023) which will be a unique conference where we will connect Biological Function through Computational sciences to the world of integrated quantum physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and therapeutics. The quantum science is seeking insights in Bioinformatics through quantum computing which again is an interdisciplinary filed linking quantum physics, chemistry and biology with computer science. Quantum computers achieve unprecedented calculating capabilities by harnessing the bizarre properties of matter on the subatomic scale, where electrons exist as clouds of probability and pairs of entangled particles can interact instantaneously, irrespective of their distance apart. But how far are we from fully realizing this new class of computers? What are its prospects to advance the study of artificial intelligence? And, when, if ever, will psychological scientists be able to write programs that unlock some of the secrets of human cognition? For now, a daunting list of technological innovations stands in the way of answering these questions. We can, however, take a glimpse at the current frontier of quantum computing and consider the technological gaps that remain. This science along with traditional Indian sciences coupled with big data and bioinformatics aims to unfold the complex relationship between genotype and phenotype on a global (genome-wide) scale to different biological processes. Quantum neurobiology is a concept to which we are not yet fully accustomed to: it refers to a narrow field of the operation of quantum physics in the nervous system such as the emergence of higher cognitive functions like consciousness, memory, internal experiences, and the processes of choice and decision-making which are products of the warm-wet-noisy brain. According to quantum neurobiology, quantum physics is involved in biological processes, and consciousness, memory, internal experiences, and the processes of choice and decision-making, which are the products of the warm-wet-noisy brain, may be the result of the operations of quantum physics.

Social Inequality in Canada is a collection of twenty-eight articles that cover all of the major aspects of social inequality. The text covers two broad components: objective or structural conditions of social inequality (power, poverty and wealth, occupations, and educational attainment, in particular) and ideologies that help support these differences. Readers who would prefer a more egalitarian society than currently exists in Canada will find reasons for both optimism and pessimism in the research presented here. The studies in this collection demonstrate that some types of inequality are generally becoming more marked over time, while others have considerably diminished, and still more that show little change in recent decades.

Inequality in income, earnings, and wealth has risen dramatically in the United States over the past three decades. Most research into this issue has focused on the causes—global trade, new technology, and economic policy—rather than the consequences of inequality. In Social Inequality, a group of the nation's leading social scientists opens a wide-ranging inquiry into the social implications of rising economic inequality. Beginning with a critical evaluation of the existing research, they assess whether the recent run-up in economic inequality has been accompanied by rising inequality in social domains such as the quality of family and neighborhood life, equal access to education and health care, job satisfaction, and political participation. Marcia Meyers and colleagues find that many low-income mothers cannot afford market-based child care, which contributes to inequality both at the present time—by reducing maternal employment and family income—and through the long-term consequences of informal or low-quality care on children's educational achievement. At the other end of the educational spectrum, Thomas Kane links the growing inequality in college attendance to rising tuition and cuts in financial aid. Neil Fligstein and Taek-Jin Shin show how both job security and job satisfaction have decreased for low-wage workers compared with their higher-paid counterparts. Those who fall behind economically may also suffer diminished access to essential social resources like health care. John Mullahy, Stephanie Robert, and Barbara Wolfe discuss why higher inequality may lead to poorer health: wider inequality might mean increased stress-related ailments for the poor, and it might also be associated with public health care policies that favor the privileged. On the political front, Richard Freeman concludes that political participation has become more stratified as incomes have become more unequal. Workers at the bottom of the income scale may simply be too hard-pressed or too demoralized to care about political participation. Social Inequality concludes with a comprehensive section on the methodological problems involved in disentangling the effects of inequality from other economic factors, which will be of great benefit to future investigators. While today's widening inequality may be a temporary episode, the danger is that the current economic divisions may set in motion a self-perpetuating cycle of social disadvantage. The most comprehensive review of this quandary to date, Social Inequality maps out a new agenda for research on inequality in America with important implications for public policy.

Work Appropriation of Low-Wage Workers in the Service Sector deftly explores how supermarket clerks perceive their work when faced with meagre pay and frequently precarious working conditions. Speaking substantively on current social problems within clerks' livelihoods, this essential book provides a fascinating comparison between German and US-based low-wage worker experiences. Weaving together significant theoretical analysis and real-world empirical evidence, Antonia Kupfer presents fresh findings based on intricate sociological research. Chapters utilize accounts from supermarket clerks working in a wide variety of positions and stores, from discounters to high-end grocers. Ultimately, they suggest that political frameworks could greatly improve conditions for these workers and raise the level of professionalism within the service sector. This engaging book will be highly illuminating for sociology scholars and policy makers seeking to understand the lived experiences of low paid workers. It will additionally be of benefit to those studying labor policy, inequality reduction and the sociology of discrimination.

Annotation Covers over 500 topics important to Canadian social work. Written by a highly diverse group of experts and covering all aspects of the field nation-wide.