Economic Sociology

La presenza femminile è cresciuta rapidamente, negli ultimi anni, nella fascia più alta della stratificazione socio-professionale, in molte professioni che implicano un certo grado di autonomia e di responsabilità, e garantiscono redditi elevati: le donne sono divenute, più spesso che in passato, magistrati e avvocati, medici e architetti, ricercatrici e docenti universitarie.
L’ingresso "nelle professioni degli uomini" ha trovato una chiave di lettura, ormai consolidata, e a nostro avviso ineludibile, nella distinzione fra i modi di agire di generazioni diverse (Vicarelli, 1994). Se infatti solo un limitato nucleo di donne, definite come le "grandi emancipate", era presente nel mondo professionale degli anni Sessanta, la generazione nata fra il 1947 e il 1956, che ha maturato il suo percorso di studio e le prime esperienze di lavoro negli anni Settanta, è stata protagonista di una significativa rottura e di una intensa accelerazione. Queste figure sono state definite "innovative" perché molte di loro hanno rifiutato in modo esplicito un progetto di vita che subordinava il lavoro alla famiglia, sono entrate in gran numero nel mercato del lavoro e, in misura più limitata, anche in professioni tradizionalmente maschili. Questa generazione emerge ancora per la sua specificità negli studi sul mercato del lavoro. Le analisi delle forze di lavoro mostrano infatti che queste coorti, oggi in età fra i 45 e i 55 anni, costituiscono la prima generazione femminile diffusamente secolarizzata; a differenza delle generazioni precedenti, anche a causa delle riforme previdenziali, sono rimaste fino a quest’età nel mercato del lavoro formale . Questo ampio gruppo ha aperto la strada alla generazione alle quarantenni di oggi, le "neo-emancipate", nate a cavallo degli anni Sessanta che, inserendosi in un solco già tracciato, hanno potuto vivere la doppia presenza in modo meno conflittuale.
Questo saggio indaga sulla presenza femminile nel ricambio generazionale delle imprese con particolare riferimento al caso toscano.

We examine workplace-level sources of gender inequality
to explore the link between organizational change and
levels of workplace gender integration over time. To do so,
we analyze the gender division of labor and key structural
aspects of U.S. private-sector work establishments, using
longitudinal data from the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission from 1975 to 2005. We fi nd that
women’s presence in managerial positions is positively
related to gender integration, as is both establishment
size and growth. Additionally, the results show that trends
toward gender integration are due to change within
workplaces rather than new, relatively integrated
workplaces entering the population over time. Our results
also provide compelling evidence that the effect of female
managers varies dramatically across organizational
contexts, with the strongest desegregating effects in
larger and growing establishments. Finally, the effect of
women’s access to organizational power structures has
sharply diminished over time.

Investigations into the political economy of globalization usually concentrate upon three related developments—the expansion of international trade and the growth in transnational production, including the rise of transnational corporations;  the creation of a world-wide market for finance and credit;  and finally, the development of regimes and institutions of global economic governance.  By comparison, the role and significance of labour and labourers tends to be neglected in most studies. Yet, from its very inception, the process of globalization has been marked by the different methods of organizing work and organizing the activity of workers themselves.

This volume goes some way in restoring labour to a proper place in the globalization literature. The title 'Globalizing Labour' has a dual meaning. On the one hand it refers to increasing connectedness of workers and work as the globalization of integrated trade, financial and production systems merges economic activity from around the world. Labour is globalizing in the sense that it is connected to world-wide production and exchange structures. On the other hand, the title refers to the activities of workers themselves as their political and economic activities influence broader globalization structures. Labour is globalizing in the sense that workers are themselves building organizational links between different communities and are engaging global power structures whether they be globalizing corporations or international organizations. This volume introduces the subject of labour and globalization by examining four elements of the relationship. Firstly, the historical relationship between labour and globalization is briefly reviewed. Secondly, the condition of various forms of labour since the end of the Cold War is surveyed. Thirdly, the issue of labour, the state and regulation of globalizing corporations is highlighted. The volume concludes with some thoughts on key issues facing global labour in the twenty-first century.

Abstract: In this paper, we outline a number of features of an interdisciplinary and pluralistic approach to economics. As a suitable example of how an interdisciplinary cooperation can unfold, we focus attention on the relations between institutional economics and psychoanalysis. In the first ...

The paper examines variation in union density in advanced Western countries. It employs newly updated data on unionization which show that differences among industrialized Western nations persist overtime. The analysis includes examination of the role of corporatism, Left party power, Catholic party power, ethnic and linguistic diversity, the religious composition of the population, size of countries and labor force markets, proportion of the government and industry employment, government‟s share of GDP revenue. In addition to cross-national statistical analysis, union density rates are examined by major geographical and cultural clusters of countries, i.e., Northern countries, the Low Countries, English-speaking countries, German-speaking countries and Southern countries. We focus on divergence of union density between the United States and Canada, which belong to the same cluster of Western nations and have similar economic structures. We examine the role of social values and structural, economic, and political factors in divergence of unionism in Canada and the United States. Our analysis employs 1996 Lipset-Meltz survey data on attitudes towards unions in the United States and Canada as well as data from other surveys, such as the World Values Surveys.

This paper evaluates critically the third-sector approach that encourages involvement in groups in order to foster community participation in deprived neighbourhoods. Analysing recent government surveys of community participation in the UK, it reveals that a culture of engagement in groups is relatively alien to most people in deprived areas, unlike one-to-one aid that is extensively used.

Beedi manufacturing industry in India, is a highly labour-intensive and predominantly it is an unorganized sector. The beedi rolling function is generally done by women and child labourers who have no other means of financial earning. Child labourers are weak segments of Indian unorganized labour force. This study has been done in Solapur city of Maharashtra state in India. This city is important and famous for power loom industry and beedi industry also. Through the study an attempt has been made to highlight the health problems faced by child beedi rollers. This study also focuses on the factors which force children to work in beedi manufacturing industry and assesses literacy level of the child beedi rollers. The results of the study show that socioeconomic condition of majority of the selected child beedi rollers is very poor and majority of them are facing various deceases due to constant exposure to tobacco dust and unhygienic working conditions at work place. Most of them have not completed their primary education.

"In the last quarter of the 20th century, many firms significantly expanded their operations across national borders. It has been argued that, as a result, they have become disembedded from the national economic fields in which they conduct their business and have experienced a race to the bottom in their corporate labor policy. In this dissertation Sander Quak argues that this contention does not accurately describe the recent development of transnational firms and their corporate labor policy. Rather, transnational firms experienced a significant shift in their dual embeddedness in national and transnational economic fields. They were restructured in line with the competitive conditions in the transnational economic field, but the competitive conditions in the national economic fields continue to be of great importance for their corporate labor policy. Consequently, the recent development of their corporate labor policy is characterized by processes of centralization, instrumentalization, and polarization.
"

12th Annual Green Economics Institute Conference  10-12th June 2017
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Despite decades of research showing greater black-white inequality in local areas where the black population is relatively large, little is known about the mechanisms for this effect. Using a unique data set of individuals nested within jobs across labor markets, this article tests two possible mechanisms for the black concentration effect on wage inequality: job segregation and devaluation. Results show that black population size is associated with greater segregation of black workers into black-dominated jobs. On the other hand, no evidence is found that the penalty for working in a black-dominated job (the devaluation effect) increases as a function of black population size. The article concludes that discrimination against workers—especially exclusion from better-paying jobs—is an important mechanism for the effect of black population size on the racial wage gap.

Self Help Groups have been a part of rural employment in India since 1985 (Nair,2015). While the purpose of these groups is to employ and empower rural populations, especially individuals that either have no economic means; or those who are employed in non- economic activities, their success rate so far has been debatable(Deininger and Liu, 2019).
In 2021, on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Statehood, the Government of Himachal Pradesh attempted to reboot the Self Help Groups in various rural pockets throughout the state, with a special focus on reviving handicrafts, while providing money and economic incentives to rural women. The present case study attempts to analyse this new trend for self-help groups in business with respect to women of Mahi Panchayat of the Kandaghat Block of District Solan, where women of 13 Self Help Groups of Mahi Gram Panchayat have been employed in basketry using pine needles.
For the purpose of this study several individual members of the said SHGs were personally interviewed and supervising authorities were consulted. Also, the data records with these groups and in charge of Himachal State Emporium were accessed. Through this study, therefore, an attempt has been made to understand how successful this endeavor has been in the economic emancipation of the women involved and how sustainable this venture is in terms of raw materials used and objects made.

This qualitative case study of travel journalism in the USA explores how freelancers produce on speculation because publications do not contractually guarantee pay or advanced resources for travel. Freelance travel journalists therefore experience their work as an investment into an uncertain return in an undefined future. This article shows how such speculation manifests itself as a new productive process and relations of organisational externalisation in lean capitalism. Examining the changing obligations between freelancers and publications without assignment-contracts, this study argues that speculation presents the obfuscation of production. It externalises the risks of production onto the freelancer; reduces organisational control over production; and changes occupational norms and practices.

The 21st century consumers are mindful of problems that impact social and environmental sustainability, fast fashion’s main emphasis is faster turnaround from factories to stay competitive thus some retail companies aren’t paying keen attention on the ethics in apparel production factories (Bhasin, 2014, June 04; Tan, 2016). According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) forced labor is a worldwide concern affecting 21 million people; simply put there are 3 out of every 1,000 victims who are part of forced labor within Asia-Pacific with 11.7 million and other regions as shown in Appendix A (Mcclelland, 2017). 260 million children partake in employment with an estimate of 170 million children engaged in apparel making; ILO estimated that 6 million children are in forced labor with 14 to 16 working hour days in poor working conditions with reported cases in Bangladesh apparel factories; yarn spinning in India; cotton seeds production in Benin; and harvesting cotton in Uzbekistan (Moulds, 2017; Peiris, 2005). Ashridge Centre for Business and Sustainability, and Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) confirmed that 71% of companies admitted to cases of modern slavery in their supply chain; with 168 million child labor cases in 2017 and a proven improvement from 246 million cases in 2000 (Mcclelland, 2017). Can apparel suppliers and retailers tackle the unethical practices that are impacting humanity and integrate practices that would ensure social sustainability? The focus of this research was for an opportunity to acquire and understand millennials perspectives on the unethical conduct and fashion industry with relevance to apparel sourcing, manufacturing, industry sustainability.

JEL: L60, L67, M14, D29, K20

... a typical naive set of assumptions about "group oriented" cultures it that the participants within them are basically altruistic, self-effacing, self-sacrificing and sociable. A society of such individuals should exhibit the very best of human civilization working in equitable, democratic communities. By contrast, those from individualistic cultures should be cold, grasping, selfish, egotistical and almost incapable of the cooperation demanded by a civil society. Indeed, a society of individualists, by this stereotype would be a dog eat dog affair, dedicated to conflict, riven with disloyalty and betrayal, forever failing to build a stable and humanistic community.

Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS) are networks for exchanging goods and services using a local currency. They are seen by some as providing an `alternative' way of negotiating changing and complex livelihoods. Current literature on LETS and work understands participation as a response to dissatisfaction around work and as a strategy for re-valuing work. In this paper we draw initially on new quantitative data to understand who engages in LETS work and find that trading is small-scale and limited to a particular group of people. The data also suggest that contrary to previous research exchanges on LETS sometimes transform and sometimes reinforce existing work relations. To illuminate these complexities we draw on in-depth interviews with Stroud and Brixton LETS members. First, we highlight the multiple ways in which their relations to work connect with their motivations for joining LETS. Second, we examine how these motivations are translated into practice by looking at how prices for LETS work are negotiated. This illustrates that the way power interweaves during these negotiations is multiple and dynamic. Finally, we suggest that for LETS trading to be more equal, the different capacities that people have to negotiate needs to be considered.

There is an increasing trend among Indonesian Islamic boarding schools or locally called pesantren to address the socioeconomic problems of their neighbouring communities. Over the last two decades, many pesantren have articulated that concern through operating Islamic microfinance business or popularly called BMT (Baitul Maal wat Tamwil) and other enterprise forms. However, the majority of those initiatives are not financially developing. Pesantren Sidogiri is among a few of those exhibit business success and relatively significant social benefits to the Pesantren as well as its graduates. Based on fieldwork findings and the employment of social capital theory, this paper argues that the success of Pesantren Sidogiri's three business hubs (Kopontren Sidogiri, BMT MMU, BMT UGT) is because the Pesantren has successfully mobilised and managed its rich social capital which is embedded in the Pesantren's social networks. That social networks have constantly been managed and developed through appropriable social organisations and closure of social networks. The former is evident in the Pesantren's program of Affiliating Madrasah (madrasah ranting) and Teacher-Internship (guru tugas), while the latter in the Alumni Association (himpunan alumni) and the publication of monthly-Bulletin Sidogiri. These two streams have intentionally or unintentionally provided the Pesantren with a ready-use of social capital to be converted as economic capital in its economic projects.

Abstrak

Terdapat trend yang meningkat di kalangan pesantren untuk turut menjawab masalah social-ekonomi masyarakat di sekitarnya. Dalam dua decade terakhir, banyak pesantren telah mencurahkan perhatian mereka melalui lembaga keuangan Islam atau BMT (Baitul Maal wat Tamwil) dan berbagai bentuk usaha lain. Kendati demikian, mayoritas inisiatif semacam itu tidak berkembang secara keuangan. Pesantren Sidogiri di Pasuruan, Jawa Timur adalah salah satu dari sedikit yang sukses dan menunjukkan kemanfaatan social signifikan bagi Pesantren tersebut beserta alumninya. Berdasarkan temuan riset lapangan dan penggunaan teori modal social, artikel ini berargumen bahwa kesuksesan tiga unit usaha Pesantren Sidogiri (Kopontren Sidogiri, BMT MMU, BMT UGT) adalah karena Pesantren ini berhasil memobilisasi dan mengelola modal sosialnya yang begitu kaya, yang terkandung dalam jaringan social Pesantren ini. Jaringan

Despite calls for reform of the credit rating industry and the argued need to reduce the influence of ratings on financial markets following the 2007/8 financial crisis, the major rating agencies continue to occupy a prominent place in the global financial architecture. Instead of focusing on the technical or legal aspects of the ratings industry, this dissertation provides a sociological analysis of the role of the credit rating agencies in contemporary financial markets. By taking the social nature of markets as a starting point, and situating the emergence of the rating agencies within wider politico-economic developments over the last four decades, an analysis of the rating agencies is arrived at which places them at the heart of a regime of financial value-generation that revolves around the transformation of uncertainty into measurable risks. After outlining how the agencies, by contributing to a collective belief in the technical possibility of managing credit risk, formed part of the cognitive and social framework underpinning the expansion of the complex subprime credit market, the implications of the near-collapse of global credit markets in 2008 are discussed.

In Digitalized Finance, Edemilson Paraná investigates the relationship between the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the process of financialization of economies on a global scale, particularly in Brazil. The book explains the influence of ICT in the emergence and consolidation, especially from the 1980s, of new forms of operation and management of the globalized financial system, highly connected, operated in “real time” with intensive use of technological features, and how these advances are related with the economic and social changes in question. It also describes how contemporary capital markets work, where the search for earnings is leveraged by sophisticated mathematical models, robots and automated trading software that seek financial gains in the milliseconds scale.

Si la protection sociale semble reculer, l’ tat n’a pas pour
autant renonc    prot ger ses citoyens. De la r glementation
du compte en banque jusqu’  l’ ducation budg taire
en passant par l’inclusion bancaire ou la proc dure de surendettement,
cet ouvrage met en lumi re la part bancaire des
politiques sociales. Il analyse un p rim tre d’action publique
qui prend une importance croissante : les politiques publiques
de l’argent des m nages, destin es   prot ger l’argent des
citoyens et leurs capacit s de consommation, en m me temps
qu’  lutter contre la pauvret .
Mais parce que ces politiques publiques de protection ne
sont pas collectives et s’appuient sur des dispositifs et des
institutions marchandes, elles illustrent la transformation profonde
des modes de protection et de solidarit  des soci t s
contemporaines : il ne s’agit pas tant de diminuer les risques
que de pr parer les individus   les affronter. L’auteure montre
ainsi magistralement comment les pouvoirs publics tentent
de r duire la pauvret , non par la redistribution, mais en transformant
les usages de l’argent des citoyens.

Η οικονομική κρίση της δεκαετίας του 2010 έστρεψε την προσοχή της κοινής γνώμης, των δημοσιογράφων και των πολιτικών στους οικονομολόγους, οι οποίοι κλήθηκαν να εντοπίσουν τα αίτια και τους τρόπους υπέρβασης της κρίσης, απέκτησαν μεγαλύτερη δημοσιότητα και κύρος και βρέθηκαν στην κορυφή της πολιτικής εξουσίας (όπως οι πρωθυπουργοί Παπαδήμος στην Ελλάδα και Μόντι στην Ιταλία). Ωστόσο, η σχέση των οικονομολόγων με την πολιτική έχει ευρύτερο κοινωνικό και ιστορικό βάθος.

Διατρέχοντας την πολιτική ιστορία τεσσάρων δεκαετιών, ο συγγραφέας διερευνά, πίσω από τις στερεότυπες εντυπώσεις, ερωτήματα όπως τα παρακάτω: Πώς σχετίζεται η τεχνοκρατικοποίηση της πολιτικής με την οικονομική παγκοσμιοποίηση; Είναι κατ’ ανάγκην οι τεχνοκράτες εκφραστές του νεοφιλελευθερισμού; Έχει σχέση η συμμετοχή τους στη διαμόρφωση της οικονομικής πολιτικής με την υποχώρηση της πολιτικής και της δημοκρατίας;

Στις σελίδες του βιβλίου ο αναγνώστης θα βρει μια πρωτότυπη κοινωνιολογική μελέτη των τεχνοκρατών/τεχνοπολιτικών της ελληνικής οικονομικής πολιτικής. Από τον Γ. Αρσένη μέχρι τον Γ. Αλογοσκούφη, τον Γ. Στουρνάρα, τον Γ. Βαρουφάκη και πολλούς άλλους, αναλύονται οι σταδιοδρομίες, τα δίκτυα και οι στρατηγικές όσων συνέβαλαν καθοριστικά σε αυτή την πολιτική ως υπουργοί, σύμβουλοι, ειδήμονες και διοικητές τραπεζών και σκιαγραφούνται οι ετερόδοξοι τεχνοκράτες, οι φιλοευρωπαίοι τεχνοπολιτικοί, τα στελέχη νεοφιλελεύθερων δεξαμενών σκέψης και οι αριστεροί πανεπιστημιακοί που συνθέτουν το ανταγωνιστικό πεδίο μιας κοσμοπολίτικης πολιτικο-επαγγελματικής ελίτ.

This article, inspired by the recent restructuring of social dialogue in Poland, reflects on the role played by neo-corporatist institutions in the country, with specific reference to their capacity to influence (or not) the approach, contents and implementation of labour policies and, therefore, affect social change. For this purpose, it presents the findings of a case study focused on the sub-national level of regulation and conducted in the region of Lower Silesia, within the framework of the Airmulp project. The analysis-which relies on mixed methods, including the analysis of statistical data, the review of official documents, and interviews with key informants-reveals that regional social dialogue is not likely to produce substantial outcomes and is, most feasibly, a means for building consensus on neo-liberal policies from the bottom up.

El Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte (TLCAN) significaba, desde su partida, poner a competir en condiciones iguales a países desiguales. La experiencia histórica había
mostrado que los tratados de libre comercio parecían generalmente conducir a la concentración de los beneficios en los países más desarrollados, así como a la absorción de los
costos parte por parte de los países más pobres. El desafío era evitar caer en esa regla general.

With the growing urbanization in India, removal of poverty in cities through specified government programs has assumed importance. The Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) aims at poverty alleviation through the strategy of encouraging self-employment by building capabilities for undertaking entrepreneurial activities. The strategy of the program is to impart skills through training and provide financial assistance to start micro enterprises (business). The program has focused on women especially. This research paper is an empirical study of this program as implemented in Mumbai city. The impact of this program in Mumbai has been evaluated through fieldwork. 100 beneficiaries were selected from the municipal wards where the program was being implemented. The study has ascertained that on an average the augmented income is in the range of ₹ 1000 to ₹ 3000 per month. 30 percent of the families did not undertake any entrepreneurial activity despite being trained under the progr...