Division of labor

T his paper examines the staffing, division of labor, and resulting profitability of primary care physician practices. Division of labor is viewed as a mechanism to increase the efficiency of production processes through specialization. At the same time, division of labor also introduces coordination cost as handoffs and communication needs increase. We attempt to empirically assess the net effect in primary care physician offices. We collected data from a sample of these practices and tested two hypotheses: (H1) controlling for staff size, greater delegation through the use of more staff types will decrease the throughput of visits, and (H2) controlling for staff size, income per unit time generated by the practice is decreasing in the number of staff types. We find evidence supporting both hypotheses. We conclude that many physicians are gaining little financial benefit from delegating work to support staff. This suggests that small practices with few staff may be viable alternati...

Although largely absent from modern accounts of the Industrial Revolution, watches were the first mass produced consumer durable, and were Adam Smith’s pre-eminent example of technological progress. In fact, Smith makes the notable claim that watch prices may have fallen by up to 95 per cent over the preceding century; a claim that this paper attempts to evaluate. We look at changes in the reported value of over 3,200 stolen watches from records of criminal trials in the Old Bailey court in London from 1685 to 1810. Before allowing for quality improvements we find that the real price of watches in
nearly all categories falls steadily by 1.3 per cent per year, equivalent to a fall of 75 per cent over a century, a rate considerably above the growth rate of average labour productivity in British industry in the early nineteenth century.
(JEL N0, Keywords: Watch prices, Adam Smith, Industrial Revolution.)

This article draws from my reading and thinking in sociology in interaction with my lived experience as a sociology graduate student and a political activist over the last ten years. As a graduate student, I have found it frustrating to see politically-minded faculty and students become or remain academic specialists satisfied with defining their public engagement largely in terms of teaching and research. As a political activist and a 2002 Green Party candidate for state elected office, I have been frustrated with what sociologist Richard Flacks would call the taken-for-granted distance for most people between making history and making everyday life, and the consequently evanescent, crisis or election-focused nature of most political participation. The paper suggests some fundamental social problems with the existing division of labor, including the division of “knowledge power,” and proposes some ways sociologists can help address these problems.

"Now written as a chapter in Rational Freedom vol 2 Philosophical Origins by Dr Peter Critchley

This paper considers Rousseau’s importance as a prophet of popular sovereignty and of the democratic state. In examining these claims, this paper makes an important distinction between the negative and positive conceptions of freedom. The paper proceeds to show how, in Rousseau’s construction, government becomes an agent of individual freedom so that individuals are perfectly free in a democracy worthy of the name - that is, which embodies and expresses sovereign power actively and directly."

This study examines the hypothesis that the effect children have on their parents' marriages is due to stress in the parental role. A multivariate model was specified to assess the relationship between fathers' and mothers' parenting stress and their psychological well-being and perception of marital quality. In addition, the effects of 6 other variables were assessed: 2 competing roles (mother's

A partir d’une problématique suscitée par l’élaboration de l’Observatoire des Conditions de Travail de l’Agence Nationale pour l’Emploi (ANPE) auquel nous avons participé en Convention Industrielle de Formation par la Recherche (CIFRE), la thèse retrace les généalogies conceptuelles qui ont amené aux visions actuelles du concept de « conditions de travail », qui s’est institutionnalisé en France vers 1970 en restant sans définition. Marqué au niveau de sa structure par une conception factorielle issue de la division du travail, et par une conception séquentielle issue du taylorisme qui s’y est superposée, il se constitue progressivement au niveau de son sens dans les débats du XIXe siècle dans une dialectique entre droit-liberté et pouvoir-domination qui s’apparente à une conception politique des conditions pour le travail, subsumée à partir du mouvement de rationalisation du début du XXe siècle par une conception organisationnelle de conditions entièrement normées ou normables. Ces conditions tendent alors à être traitées dans des négociations institutionnelles, en désadhérence de la dialectique permanente et sans cesse renouvelée du normatif et du normé dans l’activité. Cette distance entre le concept et la vie est une usurpation épistémologique dont nous proposons le dépassement par une modélisation ergologique du concept mettant en visibilité les multiples entités de débats de normes, et donc de valeurs, du micro au macro dans l’espace social. Ce mode de traitement renouvelé du concept au profit de ceux qui travaillent, favoriserait l’émergence d’alternatives laissées en pénombre dans l’activité, sources potentielles de performance pour les entités productives.


The « working conditions » : modeling proposal for use.
Between epistemology and social philosophy, an ergological approach for processing the concept

Stemming from an issue concerning the creation of the observatory of the working conditions within the French National Employment Agency (ANPE) that we participated in as beneficiary of an industrial research grant (CIFRE), the thesis retraces the conceptual genealogies that led to the current views on the concept of « working conditions », which was institutionalized in France around 1970 but remain undefined. Initially structured according to a factorial understanding based on the division of labour, then extended using sequential design derived from taylorism, its meaning is progressively built during the nineteenth century through dialectics between rights-freedom and authority-domination which refers to a political understanding of the working conditions, subsumed from the early twentieth century’s rationalization movement by an organizational design of fully standardized or standardizable conditions. These conditions then tend to be exploited within institutional negotiations, being disconnected from continuously renewed dialectics between normative and normed in activity. This gap between the concept and real life is an epistemological usurpation which we propose to surpass using an ergological way of modeling the concept that brings visibility to multiple groups of debates regarding standards, and therefore values, from micro to macro in the social space. This renewed way of addressing the concept which benefits to those who work, could promote the emergence of alternatives left in the semi-darkness of the activity, potential sources of performance for productive groups.

Bu makale fındık temalı iş ve imece türkülerinde bahçe tarımı, iş bölümü ve toplumsal cinsiyeti sözlü folklor kuramları bakımından incelemektedir. Türkü performansını, işlevini bahçe gibi mekânlar ile imece çalışma biçimleri üzerinden açıklayarak günümüzde unutulmak üzere olan müzik ve iş üretme biçimlerini tasvir etmektedir. Tarım ve hayvancılığa dayalı yaşama tarzına bağlı kültürel mirasa ait türkülerin çoğunda fındık meyvesinden bahsedilmektedir. Bunlara gerçek anlamından öte sembolik çağrışımlar yüklenmiştir. Makale öncelikle fındık kelimesi içeren türkülerle fındık meyvesinin tarımı hakkında kültürel aktarımlar içerenleri ele almaktadır. Daha sonra fındık yetiştiren bölgeye ait olanlarını ayırt etmekte ve iş bölümü üzerinden toplumsal cinsiyetin yansıtma biçimlerini ele almaktadır. Yazı bu bağlamda performansa dayalı icra ortamları olarak fındık bahçeleri ve harmanlarını, fındık imece türkülerindeki yaşama kültürü üzerinden toplumsal cinsiyet anlayışı ve işbölümünü konu etmiştir.
Halk şiirinin müzikal formu türküler, bireysel ve toplumsal hayatla doğrudan bağlantılıdır. Melodiyle birlikte yaratılan sözleri kişinin iç dünyasını yansıttığı gibi bazı türlerinde iş ve çalışma hayatına ait gözlemleri, pratikleri, yaşantıları anlatırlar. Bu bağlamda ezgisi, ritmi, anlamı, çalgısı, zamanı, icrası, bağlam ve mekânı insanı yaşantısının göstergesidir. Bu anlamda türkülerin geleneksel icrası ve söylenişi topluluğun içinde dolaysız biçimde doğar ve irticalen gerçekleşir. Toplulukla yapılması gereken büyük işlerde, üretim zamanlarında müzikler ve salt sözle icra edilen türküler olumlu hisleri güçlendirir. Üretime ve çalışmaya kolaylık sağlar. Yakın tanışık olmayan bireyler arasında güveni arttırır, o ortamdaki insanlar arasında karşılıklı tanıştırıcı, yakınlaştırıcı, kaynaştırıcı oluşunun yanında karşılıklı konuşmayı kolaylaştırarak sevdalanma ortamını olumlu etkiler. Bu makalede fındık imece türkülerinin yapısı ve işlevi bu açıdan ele alınmaktadır. Doğduğu ve yaşamayı sürdürdüğü fındık bahçelerindeki asıl icra zamanlarında bu özellikleri taşıdığı uzun yıllara bağlı gözlemlere dayalı biçimde metinlerle karşılaştırılarak aktarılmıştır.
Fındık üretimi imeceliğine veya işçiliğine ait yöreden TRT Müzik Dairesi tarafından derlenmiş fındık bahçesi ve fındık toplayıcıları türkülerinin hasat ve harman sezonu içinde işbirliğine katkı verici, dayanışmayı kolaylaştırıcı işlevi vardır. Türkülerin fındık toplama esnasında çalışmayı ritmik açıdan düzenlediği, imece sırasında bahçelerde, harmanlarda toplu yemeklerde geçen zamanı ve eylemleri ritüelleştirdiği gözlemlenmiştir. On yıldan fazla bir süredir imece türkülerinin yaratılma ortamı bulunmamaktadır. Geçmişte yapılan işin bütünlüğü içinde meydana gelen fındık tarımı ve üretim biçimi Güneydoğu’dan gelen mevsimlik toplayıcı “profesyonel” tarım işçiliğiyle beraber bugün ortadan kalkmıştır.

Uvod Interesovanje za pojam, strukturu, načine prilagođavanja izmenjenim društveno-istorijskim uslovima i nestajanje porodične zadruge naročito je bilo veliko u XIX veku. Vuk Karadžić je 1818. godine, objavljivanjem Srbskog riječnika, upoznao domaću i svetsku javnost sa zadrugom kod Srba. Izmislio je imenicu "zadruga", dok se u narodu pominjala "zadružna kuća" ili "velika kuća". Ona je "plures familae in eadem domo (more Serbico)". Smatrao je da je to ustanova specifična za Južne Slovene, i da je tada najviše bilo kod Srba (Karadžić, 1969: 173). Jedna od osnovnih karakteristika literature o porodičnoj zadruzi jeste njena raznovrsnost i izuzetna brojnost. U pitanju je etnološka, istorijska, ekonomska, sociološka, demografska i srodna građa. Postoje radovi koji se odnose samo na pojedine njene aspekte, ali i oni u kojima se iznosi i celovita i razvijena teorija društvenog razvoja i mesta porodice i zadruge. U jednima je u prvom planu saznajni motiv istraživanja, u drugim je on podređen političkim stremljeljima autora. Tek uvidom u celinu nečijeg shvatanja, i osvrtom na društvene uslove u kojima je ono nastajalo, može se objektivnije proceniti njegov doprinos nauci. Ovde će to ostati u drugom planu. U prvom je klasifikovanje teorija o porodičnoj zadruzi.

In this paper, through the history of women in Afghanistan, I want to locate the position of women in the future by lessons learnt from the past. Given Afghanistan's current situation of poverty, political disenfranchisement and social disarray, I argue that these very deficiencies could be maneuvered to favor the empowerment of women by redefining her role in the family and the community. Afghanistan's social development can only be ensured through democracy and the reduction of poverty, the success of both being assured through full participation of women, especially in rural Afghanistan. In this paper I would like to trace the history of women in Afghanistan for three main reasons. One, to show that women in Afghanistan were not always oppressed by fundamentalism as occurred under the Mujahideen and the Taliban. Second, to go back into history and reflect on regimes and politicians to show that women's issues were an integral part of national construction agendas even...

BackgroundPhosphatase and TENsin (PTEN) homolog is a negative regulator that takes part in IIS (insulin/insulin-like signaling) and Egfr (epidermal growth factor receptor) activation in Drosophila melanogaster. IIS and Egfr signaling events are also involved in the developmental process of queen and worker differentiation in honey bees (Apis mellifera). Here, we characterized the bee PTEN gene homologue for the first time

Kuhn wanted to install a new research agenda in philosophy of science. I argue that the tools are now available to better articulate his paradigm and let it guide philosophical research instead of itself remaining the object of philosophical debate.

Globalisation is an ambiguous concept that is an integral part of the world that we live in. It is multi-faceted and whether it is defined in economic, political or socio-cultural terms; the concept itself is likened to a living organism that grows every second. Many have explained and deliberated the various aspects pertaining to the magnitude of the term that is globalisation, and one such person is Emile Durkheim. He developed what is now known as the Durkheimian Approach (from now on referred to as the Approach) that centres on his book Division of Labour (1893) as the key component in his discussion for a global society. It bears a sense of peculiarity as it creates a controversial position with classical sociological explanations of globalisation. As such this essay, will discuss three main ideas namely: solidarity, social change, and organisation studies based on the Durkheimian Approach and ideas cited from Durkheim’s book:  Division (the Division of Labour). It will further seek to relate how such ideas under this approach works in my society.

The successful life of insect societies has evolved from the division of labor among more or less specialized individuals, who carry out all necessary tasks for the maintenance and growth of the colony. The extreme division of labor has produced workers specialized in the removal of dead members of the colony, an evident and highly stereotyped behavior called undertaking which consists of the ability to recognize and dispose of the dead members of the colony using specific chemical cues. Although living in enclosed nests has contributed to the ecological success of social insects due to environmental control, it also poses disadvantages. Nests of social insects, containing dense groups of genetically close individuals with frequent physical contact, present ideal conditions for the incidence and dispersion of infectious diseases. To maintain strict microbiological control inside the nest, these insects have evolved hygienic behavioral strategies to avoid and control the proliferation of pathogens. Undertaking behavior is one of the fundamental strategies to exert microbiological control inside the nest by means of suitable management and removal of dead members of the colony, to prevent the emergence of epidemics that may lead the insect society to extinction. Therefore, undertaking behavior has been fundamental to the evolution of social insects. This stereotyped behavior constitutes an excellent model for the understanding of both social evolution and the neurobiological basis of social behavior. In this paper, we review the present knowledge on undertaking behavior, and outline some perspectives of the study of such far-reaching behavior of social organization.