Materials for Teaching, Research and Policy Making

Principal Investigator: David W. Livingstone
Team Members: M. Raykov, K. Pollock, F. Antonelli

CHAPTER 2: Work [PDF]

SECTION

2.1. General Perspectives on the
       Changing Nature of Work [PDF]

1. Ackerman, F., Goodwin, R. N., Dougherty, L., & Gallagher, K. (Eds.). (1998). The changing nature of work. Washington, DC: Island Press.

            The book examines the causes and effects of the rapid transformation of the world of work. It summarizes key writings on work and workplace issues, extending labor economics to include the social and psychological components of work. The book provides a brief history of the changing nature of work and situates current problems in the context of longer-term developments. There are eight significant sections that feature three- to five-page summaries for each of the ten to twelve most important articles or book chapters on a particular subject. The book provides a vast and diverse literature concerning labor issues, in addition to a quick overview of that rapidly changing field.

            KEY WORDS: Labor Economics; Industrial Relations; Diversity in ihe Workplace; Women and Employment; Foreign Trade and Employment; Employees and the Effect of Technological Innovations on Work; Economic Change; Change.

2. Anker, C. (2004). The political economy of new slavery. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

            Looking at the role of globalization and the local factors in the rise of contemporary slavery and possible ways forward in legislation, policy-making, NGO campaigns and research, this book presents proposals for improvement of international and national law as well as victim support measures, perspectives on economic development and social change are examined for their use in combating slavery. Past reparations for slavery are reviewed as possible aids in bringing about awareness and increasing pressure on governments to take full responsibility for bringing an end to slavery.

            KEY WORDS: Child Slaves; Child Labor; History; 21st Century; Law and Legislation; Work and Learning.

3. Baldoz, R., Koeber, C., & Kraft, P. (2001). Making sense of work in the twenty-first century. In R. Baldoz, C. Koeber & P. Kraft (Eds.). The critical study of work: Labor, technology, and global production (pp. 3-17). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

            Two broad developments reshaped work at the end of the twentieth century. The first was the implosion of the Soviet Union and the worldwide triumph of market capitalism. The second was the increasing use of computer-based production technologies and management command-and-control systems. How do we make sense of these important developments? The editors have assembled a collection of provocative, original essays on work and workplaces throughout the world that challenge the current celebration of globalization and new technologies. Building on labor process analysis, individual case studies venture beyond factory and office to examine "virtual" workplaces, computer-era cottage work, and emotional and household labor. The settings range from Indian and Irish software factories to Brazilian supermarkets, Los Angeles sweatshops, and Taiwanese department stores. Other essays seek to make theoretical sense of increasingly de-centered production chains, fluid work relations, and uncertain employment. Individually and collectively the authors construct a new critical study of work, highlighting the connections between geography, technology, gender, race, and class. The authors offer an accessible and flexible approach to the study of workplace relations and production organization—and even the notion of work itself.

            KEY WORDS: Labour; Knowledge; KBE; Software; Management; Information Technology; Change.

4. Berberoglu, B. (2002). Labor and capital in the age of globalization: The labor process and the changing nature of work in the global economy. Lanham, MD; Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.

            This book offers an analysis of work and labour processes and how they are rapidly changing under globalization. The contributors explore traditional sectors of the U.S. and world economies - from auto to steel to agriculture - as well as work under new production arrangements, such as third world export-processing zones. Many chapters analyze changing dynamics of gender, nationality, and class. The contributors explain why more intensified forms of control by capitalist interests and the state are emerging under globalization. They also emphasize new possibilities for labour, including new forms of organizing and struggle in a rapidly changing global economy.

            KEY WORDS: Labor Movement; United States; Working Class; Social Conflict; Globalization; Economic Aspects; Capitalism; Marxian Economics.

5. Berg, I., & Kalleberg, A. L. (2001). Sourcebook of labor markets: Evolving structures and processes. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

            This volume in the Plenum Studies in Work and Industry series is an attempt to bring together sociological thought regarding American labor markets. Organized are four main sections: (1) evolving markets and institutional structures, (2) evolving employment relations and work structures, (3) evolving patterns of stratification in the US, and (4) evolving public policies.

            KEY WORDS: Labor Market; Work Organization; Labor Relations; Labor Market Segmentation; Employment Changes; Social Stratification; Labor Policy; Organizational Change; Change.

6. Bittman, M., & Rice, J. M. (2002). The spectre of overwork: An analysis of trends between 1974 and 1997 using Australian time-use diaries. Labour & Industry, 12(3), 5-25.

            This article uses four Australian time use surveys from 1974, 1987, 1992, & 1997 to examine three aspects of possible change in working hours: (1) average length of the working day; (2) distribution of working hours; & (3) amount of time spent at work during nonstandard hours. Analysis shows that the average number of hours Australians provide the labor market has not changed noticeably between 1974 & 1997. On the other hand, there has been a significant redistribution of paid work from men to women. This has created more dual earner households. There has also been a substantial collapse in standard working hours, while the amount of time workers spend at work during nonstandard hours has increased.

            KEY WORDS: Australia; Working Hours; Employment Changes; Feminization; Dual Career Family; Change.

7. Blair, M. M., Kochan, T. A., & Blair, M. (Eds.). (2000). The new relationship: Human capital in the American corporation. Washington DC: The Brookings Institution.

            Human capital and organizational capital are increasingly important as a source of value in many firms. But even as this is happening, organizational forms and employment relationships appear to be changing in ways that reduce loyalty and commitment and encourage mobility on the part of employees. Are these changes consistent in ways that contradict traditional theory and wisdom, or is the corporate sector getting a temporary boost in earnings by restructuring and cutting payrolls, but failing to make necessary new investments in human capital? The essays in this book provide intriguing new evidence on these questions. The contributors quantify the degree to which job stability is declining, and the costs of job loss to long-term workers; provide historical perspective on today's workplace changes; explore the reasons why work is being reorganized and decision making tasks are being pushed downward; examine the rationale for and effect of equity-based compensation systems, both in old industries and in the newest high-tech sectors; and assess the "state of the art" of measuring and accounting for investments in human capital. This book is the result of a joint Brookings-MIT conference.

            KEY WORDS: Personnel Management; Human Capital; Corporations; Employment Changes; Organizational Change; Change.

8. Blinder, A. S. (2006). Offshoring: The next industrial revolution? Foreign Affairs, 85(2), 113-128.

            The author, a professor of economics and former senior economic advisor to the US government, predicts a 3rd industrial revolution where the only jobs that will not be outsourced are those of a "personal service" nature. The phenomenon of outsourcing and the ongoing development of communication technologies means that many service sector jobs can be performed elsewhere by lower paid workers. Blinder believes that government and society have not recognized the coming transition, which is sure to be a bumpy one. Rather than protectionist measures, he advocates that developed nations look to exploit their comparative advantage in high-end personal services, educating the young not for "impersonal service" jobs in radiology, computer programming, or accounting, but rather in health, education, and face-to-face sales. He also believes that nations must strengthen their job-transition system, including worker re-training, income assistance, health care, pensions, etc. One aspect that Blinder downplays is the drop in real wages that will surely result from the outsourcing of so many manufacturing and impersonal service jobs. He emphasizes that mass unemployment will not occur, but does not explain how the economy will perform and social safety net survive if the tax base drops rapidly.

            KEY WORDS: Offshoring; Outsourcing; Globalization; Industrialism; Economics; Economic Change; Organizational Change; Change.

9. Blyton, P., & Bacon, N. (2001). Job insecurity: A review of measurement, consequences and implications. Human Relations, 54(9), 1223-1233.

            This is a review essay on books by (1) Edmund Heery & John Salmon (Eds), The Insecure Workforce (London: Routledge, 2000); (2) Richard Sennett, The Corrosion of Character (New York: Norton, 1998); (3) Brendan Burchell, et al, Job Insecurity and Work Intensification (New York: Joseph Rowntree, 1999); and (4) Peter Capelli, The New Deal at Work (Boston: Harvard Business School, 1999). Heery and Salmon present a collection of readings on job insecurity from different perspectives. Sennett examines the reality of increasing job insecurity and its impact on individuals and society. Burchell and others present the findings from 300+ interviews with employees in the UK. Cappelli identifies factors that are reshaping contemporary labor markets and their relationship to public policy.

            KEY WORDS: Labor Turnover; Labor Market; Labor Policy; Employment Changes; Organizational Changes; Change.

10. Braverman, H. (1998). Labor and monopoly capital: The degradation of work in the twentieth century (25th anniversary ed.). New York: Monthly Review Press.

            This book, first published in 1974, challenged the predominant ideologies of academic sociology and became the standard text for many basic areas of sociological inquiry, including the science of managerial control, the relationship of technological innovation to social class, and the eradication of skill from work under capitalism.

This recent edition contains a forward by John Bellamy Foster that sets the work in a historical and theoretical context. Included are two rare articles by Braverman that contribute to the understanding of the book: "The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century" (1975) and "Two Comments" (1976).

            KEY WORDS: Labor History 20th Century; Capitalism; Division of Labor; Machinery in the Workplace; Industrial Management; Working Class; Employment Changes; Change.

11. Burris, B. H. (1998). Computerization of the workplace. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 141-157.

            This paper reviews sociological research on computerization and its impact on three analytically separate dimensions of the workplace: organizational restructuring, changes in worker skill, and power and authority relationships. Findings indicate that computerized work organizations typically have fewer hierarchical levels; a bifurcated workforce, frequently exhibit race and sex segregation; a less formal structure; and diminished use of internal labor markets and reliance instead on external credentialing. Also present were variable patterns of centralization and decentralization, and workplace power relationships interact with technological change to produce variable political outcomes. With regard to worker skills, recent evidence suggests aggregate upskilling with some deskilling and skill bifurcation. It is suggested that future research should closely analyze the process of technological design and implementation.

            KEY WORDS: Office Automation; Organizational Change; Adoption of Innovations; Technological Innovations; Organizational Structure; Labor Relations; Computers; Organizational Changes; Changes.

12. Carmen, R., & Sobrado, M. (2000). A future for the excluded: Job creation and income generation by the poor: Clodomir Santos de Morais and the organization workshop. London: Zed Books.

            This book, translated from Spanish, contains 20 chapters by various authors examining and expanding on the work of Clodomir Santos de Morais in educating and empowering the poor, mostly in Latin America, for entrepreneurship.

            KEY WORDS: Job Creation; Poverty; Welfare Economics; Marginality; Social Economic Aspects; Work and Learning; Social Change; Change.

13. Carre, F. J., Ferber, M. A., Golden, L., & Herzenberg, S. A. (2000). Nonstandard work: The nature and challenges of changing employment arrangements. Champaign, IL; Ithaca, NY: Industrial Relations Research Association: Cornell University Press.

            This book assembles a coherent portrait of what we know and do not know about nonstandard work, the challenges it presents, and institutional strategies that might address these challenges. The message is both reassuring and unsettling: no rapid retreat from New Deal employment relations but an unsteady drift toward increasingly diverse postindustrial arrangements. Most unsettling is that work arrangements are increasingly at odds with labor market institutions honed during the golden age of industrialism. The 16 assembled papers include scholarly contributions and field reports from innovative programs designed to meet the challenges of nonstandard work arrangements. All are neatly summarized in an editors' introduction that begins with a candid acknowledgment of decades of Industrial Relations Research Association (IRRA) preoccupation with "standard" employment relations and an equally candid acknowledgment of the challenges facing those who would try to identify the lines of demarcation separating "standard" work from "nonstandard" work. The proliferation of value-laden terms to describe these arrangements (e.g., flexible, contingent) is only one example of these challenges. The editors settle on nonstandard, defined simply as work arrangements outside of what was considered to be standard during the postwar era, to cast a wide net with minimal value connotations. This ground rule for nomenclature is adopted by all contributors and establishes a shared benchmark of full-time standard work for comparison.

            KEY WORDS: Part-Time Employment; United States; Home Labor; Work; Nonstandard Work; Employment Changes.

14. Castells, M. (2000). Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society. The British Journal of Sociology, 51(1), 5-24.

            This article advances a grounded theory of the network society. Characteristic of the Information Age, this social structure permeates most societies in the world in various cultural & institutional manifestations throughout most of the 20th century. These structures are organized around relationships of production/consumption, power, & experience. They are enacted, reproduced, & ultimately transformed by social actors who are part of these social structures. Yet they freely engage in conflictive social practices, with unpredictable outcomes. A key element of the Information Age is a reliance on networks. Although they are not a new form of social organization, networks are now able to cope with flexible decentralization & focused decision-making. The relationship among networks and production/consumption, power, experience, & culture is examined.

            KEY WORDS: Postindustrial Societies; Social Networks; Information Technology; Technological Change; Sociological Theory; Change.

15. Cleaver, H. (2000). Reading capital politically. London: AK Press.

            As social movements waned in the late 70s, the study of Marx seemed to take on a life of its own. Structuralist, post-structuralist, deconstructed Marxist bloomed in journals and seminar rooms across the US and Europe. These Marxes and their interpreters struggled to interpret the world, and sometimes to interpret Marx himself, losing sight at times of his dictum that the challenge is not to interpret the world but to change it. In 1979, Harry Cleaver tossed an incendiary device called Reading Capital Politically into those seminar rooms. Through a close reading of the first chapter, the author shows that Das Kapital was written for the workers, not for academics, and that we need to expand our idea of workers to include housewives, students, the unemployed, and other non-waged workers. Reading Capital Politically provides a theoretical and historical bridge between struggles in Europe in the 60s and 70s and, particularly, the Autonomia of Italy to the Zapatistas of the 90s. The introduction provides a brilliant and succinct overview of working class struggles in the century since Capital was published.

            KEY WORDS: Marx; Work and Learning; Social Change.

16. Cornfield, D. B., & Hodson, R. (2002). Worlds of work: Building an international sociology of work. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

            The advent of transnational economic production and market integration compels sociologists of work to look beyond traditional national boundaries and build an international sociology of work in order to effectively address the human, scientific, and practical challenges posed by global economic transnationalism. The purpose of this volume is to promote transnational dialogue about the sociology of work and help build a truly international discipline in this field.

            KEY WORDS: Work; Social Aspects Case Studies; Industrial Sociology Case Studies; Social Change.

17. Dastmalchian, A., & Blyton, P. (2001). Workplace flexibility and the changing nature of work: An introduction. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 18(1), 1-4.

            The dominant view of organizational survival and success posits that flexible organizations adapt to change better than their non-flexible counterparts. In recent times, flexibly has been emphasized further as industry deregulation and advances in new technologies heighten the competitive markets and the pace and volatility of change. However, the introduction and maintenance of this flexibly can be problematic.

            KEY WORDS: Flexibility; Work Environment; Competition; Human Resources; Changes.

18. Dore, R. (2004). New forms and meanings of work in an increasingly globalized world. Geneva: International Labour Organization.

            This work is based on the 6th ILO Social Policy Lectures, which are endowed with the ILO’s Nobel Peace Prize, held in Tokyo, Japan, in December 2003. In keeping with the topics covered in the lecture series, it focuses on the evolution of work and relations at work with special reference to industrial societies. The book draws attention to a perceived trend in industrial societies towards a rising tolerance of inequalities. Globalization has always been associated with the rise of “market individualism” and a polarization of the workforce. How this trend could be reversed through national economic and social policies is one of the main messages of this volume. Even in this era of globalized markets, each country can still initiate a range of independent policy choices, but as this book points out, the reach and effectiveness of these choices tend to be circumscribed by the economic and cultural hegemony of industrially advanced economies.

            KEY WORDS: Globalization; New Economy; Economic Policies; Change Agents; Change.

19. Epstein, C. F., & Kalleberg, A. L. (2001). Time and the sociology of work: Issues and implications. Work and Occupations, 28(1), 5-16.

            Introduces the articles in this journal issue, which reevaluate the common assumptions about time and the ways in which time interacts with factors such as gender roles, autonomy, and technology. The contributors examine how the hours people work, when they work, how stressed they are, and how they integrate work with life's pleasures and responsibilities have a direct bearing on society's definition of justice, fairness, skills, gender roles, and the use of authority and power. These articles present a challenge to Schor's thesis and reconceptualize time as expanding and contracting, thereby generating a sense of either a well-balanced or a tense state of being. In addition, recent social science research on time and work is discussed, and how the articles in this issue fit in with these general subjects is briefly demonstrated.

            KEY WORDS: Organization Theory; Business Hours; Human Resource Management; Corporate Culture; Community Relations; Time; Change.

20. European Trade Union Confederation. (2003). Benchmarking working Europe 2003. Brussels: European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC/ETUI).

            Social benchmarking is a useful instrument with which to mould social processes and social policy. To ensure that the benefits of progress are shared more equitably, it is not enough merely to defend minimum standards: rising standards must be promoted through benchmarking. With the reports on Benchmarking Working Europe, the ETUC and the ETUI are seeking to make a genuine contribution to the practical implementation of a social benchmarking process. Succinct texts, accompanied on almost every page by data in graph and table form, give abundant information on seven areas of particular relevance to the world of work in Europe: employment, income distribution and social exclusion, working time, social protection and social infrastructure, lifelong learning and the knowledge society, working environment and occupational health and safety, worker participation, information and consultation, European social dialogue and implementation.

            KEY WORDS: Social Policy; Europe; Work; Changing Nature of Work; Health and Safety; Benchmarks; Social Inequality; Change.

21. Ezzy, D. (2001). A simulacrum of workplace community: Individualism and engineered culture. Sociology, 35(3), 631-650.

            This article outlines the cultural and social consequences of individualism and engineered culture in the workplace. Modern society is increasingly individualistic; it is changing from authoritarian to normative forms of control. Comprised of multiple roles, modern society provides little substantial basis for the self. Modern engineered corporate culture encourages a form of individualistic orientation that has minimal concern for others. Liberty, and more specifically good work, comes from an orientation where workers are not focused on serving corporate interests and their own self-gratification, but on the value of the voice and experience of others. Engineered workplace settings may generate more efficient production of goods, but their effects on workers and social relations are mixed.

            KEY WORDS: Business Organizations; Employee Attitudes; Individuality; Sociocultural Factors; Working Conditions; Authoritarianism; Freedom; Social Norms; Organizational Change; Change.

22. Forum, N. R. (2000). The changing nature of work. Leabrook, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research.

            This publication contains materials from a forum on the changing nature of work (CNW) that brought together researchers and research users to hear how to use findings to improve vocational education and training (VET) in Australia. An overview of the program and biographical information on presenters and panel members follow. The next section reports these research findings on CNW: technology drives globalization which drives the CNW; having higher skill levels is becoming more important; meeting training needs of existing, older, outsourced, and casual workers is important; and the VET sector needs to do much more for casual and outsourced workers. Overviews of the research presented at this forum cover these four themes: (1) "The 'Big Picture': Globalization, International Trends, and the Nature of Work" (Simon Marginson); (2) "Changes in the Australian Labor Market: Impact on Training Arrangements" (Richard Hall), including "Making the Grade? Globalization and the Training Market in Australia" and "'It's Not My Problem': Growth of Non-Standard Work and Its Impact on VET in Australia"; (3) "Changes at the Workplace: New Management Practices and Enterprise Training" (Andy Smith); and (4) "Provider Perspective" (Peter Waterhouse). Each presentation consists of some or all of the following: background to research; key findings; implications for policy, providers, and teachers and trainers; key issues; and directions for further research.

            KEY WORDS: Administration; Adult Education; Developed Nations; Dislocated Workers; Educational Change; Educational Research; Employment Patterns; Employment Practices; Foreign Countries; Global Approach; Job Training; Labor Force Development; Labor Market; Organizational Development; Postsecondary Education; Secondary Education; Technological Advancement; Temporary Employment; Vocational Education; Change.

23. Freeman, R. B., & Rogers, J. (1999). What workers want. Ithaca, New York / London: ILR Press.

            How would employees design an American workplace? Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers contend that such an organization would be jointly run by supervisors and employees. It would be an organization run jointly by employees and supervisors; disputes between labor and management would be resolved through independent arbitration. Based on the most extensive workplace survey in the last twenty years, their groundbreaking book provides a comprehensive account of employees' attitudes about participation, representation, and regulation at work. The authors find that workers want to be heard. They want a greater role at their place of work and they have strong ideas about how their involvement could improve everyone's fortunes. Many nonunion workers are in favor of the formation of unions, and virtually all union workers strongly support their union. Most employees want to see the creation of elected labor-management committees to run the organization and settle conflicts.

            KEY WORDS: Job Satisfaction; Employees; United States; Attitudes; Organizational Change; Employment Changes.

24. Frenkel, S. J. (2003). The embedded character of workplace relations. Work and Occupations, 30(2), 135-153.

            This article describes an embedded framework for analyzing workplace relations. The author argues that the contemporary workplace is embedded to varying degrees in three force-fields: the macro field of globalization and new technology, the meso field of transnational production networks, and the micro field of local political and labor market institutions and organization structure and culture. The article explores the effect of these influences on management, particularly the way flexibility and cost reduction are prioritized, and the consequences of this for workplace structures and relations. This analysis provides a relevant and shared context for the issues explored in the following five articles. These are briefly introduced in the final section of this article.

            KEY WORDS: Administrative Organization; Labor Market; Labor Relations; Manufacturing Industry; Networks; Organizational Change; Change.

25. Galarneau, D., Maynard, J.-P., & Lee, J. (2005). Wither the workweek? Perspectives on Labour and Income, 17(3), 5-17.

            The average annual hours that people work has decreased by two weeks. The number of hours worked is influenced by a number of factors. These include population aging, industrial shifts, the business cycle, natural disasters, legislative changes and personal preferences. The survey methodology itself also affects the factors responsible for hours worked. The article also speculates on just how the various factors have contributed to the recent drop in hours of work.

            KEY WORDS: Hours of Labor; Canada; Statistics; Employment; Canada; Employment Change.

26. Gallie, D., Felstead, A., & Green, F. (2004). Changing patterns of task discretion in Britain. Work, Employment and Society, 18(2), 243-266.

            Task discretion has held a central place in theories of work organization and the employment relationship. However, there have been sharply differing views about both the factors that determine it and the principal trends over time. Using evidence from three national surveys, this article shows that there has been a decline in task discretion since the early 1990s. This contrasts with an increase in other forms of employee involvement such as direct participation and consultative involvement. Many of the arguments in the literature about the factors that favour higher task discretion are supported by our evidence – in particular those emphasizing the importance of skill levels and the broader organizational ethos with respect to employee involvement. However, such factors do not account for the decline in task discretion, implying that existing theories fail to address some of the crucial determinants. It is tentatively suggested that it may be necessary also to take account of macro factors such as competitive pressure, public sector reform programmes and the growth of accountability structures.

            KEY WORDS: Employee Involvement; Job Control; New Technology; Participation; Quality of Working Life; Skill; Task Discretion; Trade Unions; Organizational Change.

27. Gershuny, J., Bittman, M., & Brice, J. (2005). Exit, voice, and suffering: Do couples adapt to changing employment patterns? Journal of Marriage and Family, 67(3), 656-665.

            What is the long-term effect of the emerging predominance of the dual-earner family? This study uses data from 3 national household panel surveys - the British Household Panel Survey (N= 16,044), the German Socioeconomic Panel (N= 14,164), and the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N= 7,423) which provide, for the first time, clear and direct longitudinal evidence of change in the balance of domestic labor within couples: evidence that women make large adjustments in their domestic work time immediately upon entering full-time paid work and that men exhibit a less obvious pattern of lagged adaptation, showing larger increases in domestic work in successive years.

            KEY WORDS: Employment Patterns; Working Hours; Educational Attainment; Change.

28. Gottschalk, P., & Moffitt, R. A. (2000). Job instability and insecurity for males and females in the 1980s and 1990s. In D. Neumark (Ed.), On the job: Is long-term employment a thing of the past? (pp. 142-195). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

            This book chapter employs data from the Survey of Income & Program Participation to measure changes in job stability and job security during the 1980s & 1990s. Examination of one-year & monthly separation dates from 1983 to 1995 indicated a decline in monthly separation dates from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. Results were also contrasted with those from the more widely used Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The comparison illustrated that neither data set offered evidence of an increase in yearly exit rates during the 1980s & 1990s, illustrating that earlier increases in instability did not continue. This conclusion was supported by similar yearly and monthly patterns. No evidence was found to support either an increase in job insecurity or a worsening of the consequences of job changes.

            KEY WORDS: Dismissal; Job Change; Unemployment; Employment Changes; Labor Turnover; Unemployment Rates; Dislocated Workers; Males; Females; Organizational Change.

29. Harcourt, W. (1999). Women@Internet: Creating new cultures in cyberspace. London: Zed Books.

            The first major analysis of this kind, it documents emerging cultural characteristics of women's activities on the Internet across the globe. Anthropologists, communications experts, development workers and media analysts and women's movement activists ask whether women caught in the net or weaving it themselves. The book traces the social, economic and political biases in which the culture of cyberspace is embedded and the revolutionary potential of women's knowledge of and access to the Internet across the world. It puts forward concrete proposals for increasing women's engagement with the new communication technologies and shows how the Internet can create new spaces for women working within radically different cultural environments. This view rethinks the very idea of culture by looking at the links and discontinuities between the local and the global.

            KEY WORDS: Women; Internet; Culture of Cyberspace; Social Change.

30. Hayden, A. (1999). Sharing the work, sparing the planet: Work time, consumption, & ecology. London: Zed Books.

            This book argues that making ecological sustainability our first economic priority can provide a practical strategy for job creation as well as the expansion of our leisure time. It is a study of the wide range of reduced work-time initiatives that have been implemented in industrialised nations during the last 10 years. Hayden moves beyond pitting the protection of the environment against the protection of jobs and argues the case for a green economic and social vision. Work time reduction is most commonly thought of in terms of a shorter working week, but Hayden covers a much wider range of possibilities including parental or educational leave, phased in or partial retirement, sabbaticals, longer holidays and any number of other ways of reducing work hours over the a human lifetime. These other options allow for flexibility for both employers and employees to work different schedules at different times in their lives. Work time reduction is seen as an ecologically sound response to the employment crisis. Hayden advocates less consumption and more thought about environmental and socially sustainable job creation. He argues that the solutions of frugality and individual life style changes, though needed, cannot be divorced from a larger political project to ensure an equitable sharing of wealth. Hayden also notes that the greatest obstacle to work time reduction is the dominance in industrialised nations, of a culture consumed by growth. This culture has produced a business sector resistance to shorter hours and a state sector focused on reducing welfare. Coupled with falling wage rates, these strategies mean families work longer hours to meet their daily needs.

            KEY WORDS: Hours of Labor; Early Retirement; Parental Leave; Environmental Degradation; Consumption (Economics); Economic Change; Organizational Change.

31. Holman, D., Clegg, C., & Waterson, P. (2002). Navigating the territory of job design. Applied Ergonomics, 33(3), 197-205.

            This paper reviews job design field from 3 paradigmatic perspectives; functionalism, interpretivism and critical theory. Central to job design theory, across all paradigms, is the concerned with the outcomes of job design, the role of key factors such as control, demand, and skill, and how jobs can be changed. In reference to how work is changing, it is argued that although job design still has much to offer (its traditional core concerns are still relevant), it must develop to have a wider appeal and more relevance. Finally, suggestions are presented on how job design can develop as a field. These suggestions are based on the belief that job design theory can progress most fully by drawing on multiple theories from across different paradigms and from grounded studies of the changing nature of work in diverse occupational contexts.

            KEY WORDS: Industrial Psychology; Job Analysis; Job Characteristics; Theories; Trends; Employment Change.

32. Horgen, T. (1999). Excellence by design: Transforming workplace and work practice. New York; Chichester: John Wiley.

            This book reports findings from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture four-year project. Specifically the book describes how changes in the workplace can improve the quality of production and the lives of workers. The Process Architecture framework is introduced and through examples demonstrates how it can be applied in a wide variety of organizations and industries. The information is accessible to managers and others with no background in architecture or space planning.

            KEY WORDS: Work Environment; Work Design; Employment Changes.

33. Huberman, M., & Lanoie, P. (2000). Changing attitudes toward worksharing: Evidence from Quebec. Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de Politiques, 26(2), 141-155.

            This paper reports on survey results administered to five work sharing opportunities in Quebec since 1994: Bell Canada, Alcan, Scott Paper, Sico, and the Ministere de l'environnement et de la faune. Findings indicate that while previous studies have raised doubts about the likelihood of successful work-sharing initiatives. However, based on the cases studied, participation rates in voluntary work-sharing programs were high, especially where the worker's sacrifice (lost wages) was less than ideal and where workers had previous experience with reduced and flexible work time. Work-sharing initiatives were less successful when they were mandatory. The programs studied point to the importance of labor-supply responses in policy design. It was recommended that governments makes work sharing more attractive to workers, as it would hopefully lead to changes in workers attitudes toward it. The findings are consistent with the recommendations of the federal government's Advisory Group on Working Time.

            KEY WORDS: Attitude Change; Quebec; Working Hours; Work; Labor Policy; Flexibility; Government Policy; Employment Changes.

34. Hudson, K. (2001). The disposable worker. Monthly Review, 52(11), 43-55.

            While the emerging practice of contract employment offers potentially better working conditions than such practices as day labor, it has an ominous potential, since workers may be doing the same job, in the same industry, firm, and occupation, and yet receive very different compensation. Employers, and employees in the favored primary job market, are motivated to perpetuate the uneven distribution of rewards. Eliminating the two-tiered labor market will require a full commitment from both government and organized labor.

            KEY WORDS: Employment Changes; Labor Market; Labor Movements; United States of America.

35. Huws, U. (2003). The making of a cybertariat: Virtual work in a real world. New York: Monthly Review Press.

            In recent decades by the rise of digital technologies has changed the workplace. Parts of a single labor process can be moved around the world, with implications not only for individual workplaces or firms, but for the working class as a whole. Computer operators in India process medical transcriptions for doctors in the United States at one-eighth of what U.S. computer operators would earn, and at four times the pay of an Indian schoolteacher. Within advanced capitalist countries, the workplace has been made more “flexible” through cellphones, e-mail, freelancing, and outsourcing. The same process often makes the situation of the worker more precarious, as they are required to pay for the tools of their trade, made constantly accessible to the demands of the workplace, and isolated from their fellow-workers. Huws’ Making of a Cybertariat examines this process from a number of perspectives. It focuses especially on women in the workplace and at home. It examines changing categories of employment, and modes of organization. It shows how new divisions of race and gender are created in the process, and sets out an agenda for negotiating them. It explores the ways in which traditional forms of organization are being reshaped, and questions how the emerging cybertariat can become conscious of their common interests and stand together to struggle for them.

            KEY WORDS: ICT; Labour Process; Technological Determinism; Globalization; Telework; Spatial; Changes in Paid Work.

36. Innes, P. A., & Littler, C. R. (2004). A decade of downsizing: Understanding the contours of change in Australia, 1990-99. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 42(2), 229-242.

            This paper seeks to map a decade of organizational downsizing in Australia utilizing a comprehensive longitudinal data set of 4153 firms. Aggregate downsizing measures conceal extensive change within organizations. We seek to assess these processes by comparing a conventional downsizing measure with more specific occupational downsizing measures. The results show the contours of change in Australia over the 1990s; indicate that there are distinctive and contrasting trends; and raise significant issues for future theoretical and empirical research.

            KEY WORDS: Australia; Downsizing; Longitudinal Methodology; Occupation; Restructuring; Organizational Change; Employment Change.

37. Jackson, A., Baldwin, B., Robinson, D., & Wiggins, C. (2000). Falling behind: The state of working Canada, 2000. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

            This report describes how the poor economic performance and government cutbacks of the 1990s have adversely affected most Canadians. Findings indicate that there has been no increase for more than 20 years in the real annual earnings of Canadian men working full-time and the average weekly earnings, adjusted for inflation, grew just 2.8% from 1989 to 1998. Yet, despite strong economic growth in 1999, there was no increase in real weekly earnings. Lastly, the average after-tax and after-transfer income of Canadians fell by 5.6% over the 1990s, with poorer families experiencing a decline of 12%.

            KEY WORDS: Canada; Economic Conditions; Statistics; Working Class; Economic Policy; Change; Economic Change.

38. Jacobs, J. A., & Gerson, K. (2001). Overworked individuals or overworked families? Explaining trends in work, leisure, and family time. Work and Occupations, 28(1), 40-63.

            Data from the 1970 and 1997 Current Population Survey demonstrate that, more than changes in working hours, the shift from male-breadwinner to dual-earner and single-parent households has increased concern for family-work balance. Research should focus on combined work schedules of family members rather than changes in individual work patterns.

            KEY WORDS: Family-Work Relationship; Work Leisure Relationship; Time Utilization; Dual Career Family; Working Hours; Work and Learning; Employment Changes.

39. Kalleberg, A. L. (2000). Nonstandard employment relations: Part-time, temporary and contract work. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 341-365.

            Part-time work, temporary help agency, contract company employment, short-term and contingent work, and independent contracting are all examples of nonstandard employment. These employment arrangements have become increasingly prominent ways of organizing work in recent years. Understanding of these nonstandard work arrangements has been hampered by inconsistent definitions, often-inadequate measures, and the scarcity of comparative research. A review of the emerging research on nonstandard work arrangements emphasizes the multidisciplinary nature of contributions to this field, including research by a variety of sociologists, economists, and psychologists. Cross-national research, which is needed to investigate how macroeconomic, political, and institutional factors affect the nature of employment relations, is also assessed, with areas for future research suggested.

            KEY WORDS: Employment Changes; Part-Time Employment; Self Employment; Contracts; Working Hours; Sociology of Work; Sociological Research.

40. Kalleberg, A. L. (2001). Evolving employment relations in the United States. In I. Berg, & Kalleberg, Arne L. (Eds.), Sourcebook of labour markets: Evolving structures and processes (pp. 27-31). New York: Kluwer Academic /Plenum.

            Scholars, economists, and sociologists throughout the US and other industrialized nations have begun to discuss the changing employment relations with regard to "nonstandard" work arrangements, such as temporary and part-time employment. Employment situations that offer both flexibility and instability. This book brings to light four important issues associated with this scenario: (1) the number of workers in the US who are currently affected by nonstandard employment arrangements; (2) the rationale for nonstandard employment relations trends; (3) the relationship that exists between nonstandard employment arrangements and job quality; and (4) the triangular employment relationship that prompted the development of nonstandard employment arrangements.

            KEY WORDS: Labor Relations; Part Time Employment; Labor Market; Underemployment; Employment Changes; United States of America

41. Kalleberg, A. L. (2001). Farewell to commitment? Changing employment relations and labor markets in the United States. Contemporary Sociology, 30(1), 9-12.

            Review essay on books by (1) Peter Cappelli, The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1999); (2) David Marsden, A Theory of Employment Systems: Micro-Foundations of Diversity (Oxford: Oxford U Press, 1999); & (3) Paul Osterman, Securing Prosperity: The American Labor Market: How It Has Changed and What to Do about It (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 1999). The focus of these books is on the new institutional rules between employees and employers. Called the "new deal" by Cappelli, and the "new labor market" by Osterman, these new relations are characterized by a rise in interfirm mobility, the end of the corporation as "family," lay-offs, and corporate reform practices like downsizing and subcontracting. All 3 books are written from an industrial relations perspective and use the firm as the basis for understanding changes in employment relations. Stressed are the inequalities that result from increased job mobility. Cappelli focuses on the impact of changes on employee management practices in the US. Marsden's original institutional theory of labor markets and human resources management offers a way to consider the range of possibilities for the evolution of employment relations. 1 Reference.

            KEY WORDS: United States of America; Labor Market; Job Change; Employment Changes; Labor Relations; Employers; Superior Subordinate Relationship; Occupational Mobility.

42. Katz-Fishman, W., Scott, J., & Modupe, I. (2002). Globalization of capital and class struggle. In B. Berberoglu (Ed.), Labor and capital in the age of globalization (pp. 179-194). New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

            Globalization, fueled by technological revolution & the triumph of neoliberalism over reform, has transformed the labor process & class relations worldwide by exporting production, eliminating many domestic jobs, & hastening the deterioration of work conditions. The chapter offers an overview of the transformation of capitalism & the labor process on the latter decades of the twentieth century. The consequences of economic crisis for labor, especially in terms of mass unemployment & underemployment, have lain the groundwork for global struggle, signs of which are evidenced by increasing labor movement & political activism in the US & internationally. The gradual, collective recognition that the struggle against advanced capitalism's "superexploitation" is at heart a political struggle that suggests the inchoate formation of an international workers' revolution.

            KEY WORDS: Globalization; Labor Movements; Forces and Relations of Production; Scientific Technological Revolution; Labor Process; Political Movements; Worker Consciousness; Class Struggle; International Division of Labor; Exploitation; Activism.

43. Koeber, C. (2002). Corporate restructuring, downsizing, and the middle class: The process and meaning of worker displacement in the "new" economy. Qualitative Sociology, 25(2), 217-246.

            Based on a case study of displaced IBM computer and Link aerospace workers in Binghamton, NY, this article analyzes the phenomenon of corporate downsizing and the experience of worker displacement as a process of work and employment change that occurs within the context of structural changes in the economy, large firms, and labor markets. Findings suggest that in the new economy, the concept of worker "displacement" should be thought of in more expansive terms than the more narrow and conventional definition that is often associated with it. Workers' experiences of downsizing, displacement, and employment change were not simply associated with loss, but were characterized mainly by the change between objective conditions and subjective meanings of work and of being workers.

            KEY WORDS: Dislocated Workers; Corporations; Unemployment; Employment Changes; Organizational Change; Labor Market; Economic Conditions; New York.

44. Kuutti, K. (1999). Activity theory, transformation of work, and information systems design. In Y. Engestroem & R. Miettinen (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory. Learning in doing: Social, cognitive, and computational perspectives (pp. 360-376). New York: Cambridge University Press.

            This chapter provides an overview of the information system research discussion. The author analyzes the continued transformation of work organization and compares the need of this changing work with the goals of the new information system research and design approaches. Lastly, some major problems in recent information system research is discussed with comparisons made with the properties of activity theory. The latter is suggested to be an encouraging alternative as a new background theory for information system research and design.

            KEY WORDS: Human Machine Systems Design; Information Systems; Theories; Working Conditions; Change.

45. Laviec, J.-P., Horiuchi, M., & Sugeno, K. (Eds.). (2004). Work in the global economy. Geneva: ILO.

            Globalization has always been connected with the rise of “market individualism” and a polarization of the workforce. As the pace of globalization has quickened in recent years, the outcome has been rising inequality within labour markets. Quite significantly, this is accompanied by a rising acceptance of inequality, notably among the industrialized societies. The lectures in this book discuss whether this trend could be reversed through national economic and social policies.

            KEY WORDS: Globalization; Work; New Economy; Social Inequality; Social Change; Economic Change.

46. Lowe, G. S. (2000). The quality of work: A people-centered agenda. Don Mills, ON; Oxford: Oxford University Press.

            This book examines trends and issues in Canadian workplaces and advocates a people-centered agenda for improving the quality of working life. Chapters 1-9 discuss the following topics: the future of work; the crisis in work; what Canadians want from work; the "new economy"; education, skills, and the knowledge economy; youth and work; "putting people first"; workplace innovation; and unions and the quality agenda. Chapter 10 provides eight principles of higher-quality work for assessing overall work trends, employers' practices, government policies, and the agendas of unions and professional associations.

            KEY WORDS: Quality of Work Life; Canada; Work; Social Aspects; Labor Policy; Canada; Economic Changes; Organizational Changes; Employment Changes.

47. Magdoff, F., & Magdoff, H. (2004). Disposable workers: Today's reserve army of labor. Monthly Review, 55(11), 18-35.

            It has been suggested that the drive to increase profitability of investments has generated large numbers of workers living a precarious existence. Marx called this "reserve army of labor" a basic characteristic of capitalism. It allows the market system to function profitably by keeping costs low. This reserve army includes the unemployed, part-time workers, those working independently but desiring full-time work, as well as individuals not counted in employment statistics that would be available for work under changed circumstances (such as prisoners & the disabled). This paper explores the shifts in the reserve army's composition over time, along with the movement of workers from one segment to another; ways in which the reserve army benefits capital; and the improbability of ever reaching full employment. The future of the reserve army is contingent on labor's response to increased capital pressure.

            KEY WORDS: United States of America; Labor Policy; Labor Supply; Capitalism; Marxist Analysis; Workers; Employment Changes; Employment; Economic Conditions.

48. Marlow, S., & Patton, D. (2002). Minding the gap between employers and employees: The challenge for owner-managers of smaller manufacturing firms. Employee Relations, 24(5), 523-539.

            Using interviews with the owner-manager and employees of 45 manufacturing firms, the way in which labor compliance and control is addressed in smaller manufacturing firms is examined. Findings suggest that there can be blurred divisions between employers and employees. Through necessity or choice, when the owner of the firm also takes the role of co-worker this can create shared social relationships and group working which is advantageous to the owner, but this can have implications for managing labor discipline.

            KEY WORDS: Business Organizations; Labor Management Relations; Organizational Behavior; Supervisor Employee Interaction; Employment Changes.

49. National Research Council. (1999). The changing nature of work: Implications for occupational analysis. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

            The subject of this book is the changing nature of work and the implications for occupational analysis. The charge to the committee from the Army Research Institute was (1) to review and analyze the research on the environmental forces, organizational factors, and the content of work; (2) to identify key issues in the changing context and content of work that affect the design of occupations in the civilian and military sectors; (3) to evaluate the changes in tools for analyzing the nature of the work environment and developing occupational classification systems that are responsive to current and future needs of the workplace; and (4) to assess the application of methods and tools developed in the civilian sector to occupational classification and analysis in the Army. The current composition of the committee includes experts in the areas of sociology, economics, management, occupational analysis, and industrial and organizational psychology and training. This book is intended to provide decision makers in both public and private organizations, as well as in both the civilian and military sectors, with guidance on how to assess and respond to contemporary debates about changes in work. The intended audience extends far beyond the boundaries of social scientists and human resource specialists who have a professional interest in understanding changes in work and the adequacy of occupational analysis systems for charting and managing the changes. In particular, the authors hope that decision makers whose choices influence the nature of work - who include senior executives, line mangers, military officers, and designers of technology - will find valuable information in this volume.

            KEY WORDS: Diversity in the Workplace; Labor Market; Occupations; Forecasting; Industrial Sociology; Work; Change.

50. Neuwirth, E. B. (2004). Blurring corporate boundaries: Staffing agencies, human resource practices and unions in the new employment relationship. Dissertation Abstracts International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 65(6), 2384-A.

            Drawing on comparative ethnographic data from 2 different staffing services, a private agency and a non-profit, union-affiliated staffing organization, this research demonstrates how contemporary staffing agencies connect more to organizations, changing the traditional employment relationship. In the dissertation, Neuwirth argues that staffing agencies actively shape labor market dynamics, as opposed to simply reacting to impersonal market forces. The research shows how the staffing agencies played a crucial role inside their client firms, taking on a range of functions once reserved for HR departments and unions. Currently many corporate managers are relying on staffing agencies to recruit and manage a temporary and sometimes permanent workforce. At the same time, many workers are now using staffing agencies to help them navigate the complex terrain of the labor market. Adapting to these changes in the employment relationship, Working Partnerships Staffing Service (WPSS), ventured far beyond familiar territory. Findings show that this organization sought to create an alternative worker-centered staffing service. However, they continually ran the risk of reproducing normative models of staffing. Even so, WPSS innovatively mobilized across the different fields of organized labor, staffing, and workforce development to forge a new model for staffing.

            KEY WORDS: Unions; Corporations; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change; Hiring Practices; Interorganizational Networks.

51. Osterman, P. (2000). Securing prosperity: The American labor market: How it has changed and what to do about it. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

            This book suggests that the recent US prosperity is built on the ruins of the once reassuring postwar labor market. Today, workers can no longer expect stable, full-time jobs and steadily rising incomes. Instead they face stagnant wages, layoffs, rising inequality, and the increased likelihood of merely temporary work. Osterman attempts to explain why these changes have occurred and lays out an innovative plan for new economic institutions that promises a more secure future. He argues that new policies must engage on two fronts: addressing both higher rates of mobility in the labor market and a major shift in the balance of power against employees.

            KEY WORDS: Labor Market; Trade Unions; Industrial Relations; Economic Conditions; Economic Policy; United States; Organizational Change.

52. Osterman, P., Kochan, T. A., Locke, R. M., & Piore, M. J. (Eds.). (2002). Working in America: A blueprint for the new labor market. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

            This book represents nearly three years of deliberation by more than 250 people drawn from business, labor, community groups, academia, and government. It provides a historical context from today's labor-market policy and laws back to the New Deal and to a second wave of social regulation that began in the 1960s. Underlying the current economic system are assumptions about who is working, what workers do, and how much job security workers enjoy. Economic and social changes have made those assumptions invalid and have resulted in mismatches between labor institutions and efficient and equitable deployment of the workforce, as well as between commitments to the labor market and family responsibilities.

            KEY WORDS: Labor Market; Manpower Policy; United States; Change.

53. Owens, R. (2002). Decent work for the contingent workforce in the new economy. Australian Journal of Labour Law, 15(3), 209-234.

            The author examines whether the Australian safety net is an adequate protection of decent work and life. The author focuses primarily on a new regulatory strategy for the protection of basic workplace rights and entitlements, that of providing some casual workers with the opportunity to convert to ongoing employment.

            KEY WORDS: Contingent Workers; Australia; Employment Change.

54. Pasi, P. (2003). Knowledge work in distributed environments: Issues and illusions. New Technology, Work and Employment, 18(3), 116-180.

            Even though Finland has a sophisticated technological infrastructure and is one of the most advanced and competitive economics in the world, only four per cent of Finnish wage earners see themselves as doing telework. Moreover, only four per cent had tried telework. This paper presents empirical evidence of telework.

            KEY WORDS: Finland; Telework; Knowledge Workers.

55. Peters, K. (2001). Individual autonomy in new forms of work organization. Concepts and Transformation, 6(2), 141-158.

            In this article we see new management methods attempting to reproduce the performance dynamics of self-employed entrepreneurs among their "regular" employees. In order for this to be successful, the system of command and control must be replaced by a system of indirect control, which makes the autonomous free will of the individual employee instrumental to the company's purpose. Works councils and trade unions are then confronted with an entirely new situation. These organizations now have to render ineffectual the conventional means of conflict with which they are inclined to react to its negative consequences. The article concludes that to cope with this challenge an agreement must be reached on an understanding of autonomy and the changes it encounters, along with the changes in forms of management itself.

            KEY WORDS: Management Styles; Management; Organizational Culture; Work Organization; Worker Control; Autonomy; Organizational Change.

56. Portes, A. (2003). The enduring importance of social class: A nominalist interpretation. Estudios Sociologicos, 21(61), 11-54.

            This article advocates the use of the concept of social class and constructs a more flexible interpretation based on the usefulness of various definitions for the analysis of different aspects of social realities. It is a typological illustration of North American class structures based exclusively on the criteria of wealth possession. This typology is applied to the analysis of two specific topics: industrial restructuring processes and labor migration.

            KEY WORDS: Social Class; Sociological Theory; Theoretical Problems; Nominalism; Social Structure; Social Stratification; North America; Employment Changes; Labor Migration.

57. Reed, M. I. (2001). Organization, trust and control: A realist analysis. Organization Studies. Special Issue: Trust and control in organizational relations, 22(2), 201-228.

            This article presents a critical realist analysis of trust/control relations within and between complex organizations. It suggests that trust/control relations are most usefully seen as structures of interrelated "positioned-practices" which generate, shape and constrain the development of contrasting forms of expert power in a number of organizational contexts. The article begins with a general overview of a number of currently influential theoretical perspectives on trust/control relations in social and organizational analysis, and then proceeds to advance a critical realist analysis of trust/control relations as generative mechanisms that govern, but do not determine, the production, reproduction and transformation of expert power. The significance of this realist analysis is demonstrated by the limited number of historical and institutional case studies on expert technologies and practices.

            KEY WORDS: Organizations; Realism (Philosophy); Social Control; Trust (Social Behavior); Analysis; Change.

58. Rifkin, J. (2001). The age of access: The new culture of hypercapitalism, where all of life is a paid-for experience. New York: Tarcher/Putnam.

            Using examples from business and government experiments with just-in-time access to goods and services and resource sharing, this book defines a new society of renters who are too busy breaking the shackles of material possessions to mourn the passing of public property. Are we encouraging alienation or participation? Can we trust corporations with stewardship of our social lives? True to form, the author asks more questions than he answers. If property is theft, leased access is extortion, and this book warns us of the complex changes coming in our relationships with our homes, our communities, and our world.

            KEY WORDS: Electronic Commerce; Social Aspects; Electronic Data Interchange; Business; Computer Networks; Internet; Economic Aspects; Social Change; Change.

59. Rikowski, R. (2004). On the impossibility of determining the length of the working-day for intellectual labour. Information for Social Change, 19, 52-60.

            This article will explore, specifically, the length of the working day for the labourer, and will demonstrate the impossibility of determining the length of the working-day for intellectual labour. The author suggests that the concept of the working-day becomes meaningless in the knowledge revolution. Thus, an appreciation and an understanding of Marx's concept of the working-day is needed, having arrived at this understanding, the authors then need to appreciate the fact that the concept actually starts to lose its meaning and significance in the advanced stage of capitalism that we are now in.

            KEY WORDS: Knowledge Workers; Work Quality; Work Day; Intellectual Labour; Organizational Change.

60. Seymour, N. (2002). Copreneurs. CELCEE Digest. Kansas City, MO: Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

            "Copreneurship" occurs when couples begin their own business and partner in self-employment ventures. It is the fastest-growing segment of family-based businesses, with husband-and wife teams constituting the most visible and most researched category of copreneurs. Copreneurs tend to be older, more likely to live in suburban or rural areas, and more highly educated than compared with conventional dual-earning couples. Like other self-employed individuals, copreneurs have more flexibility in setting their own schedules, which provides distinct advantages in many aspects of personal life. However, copreneurs tend to work more hours than other couples, and like other entrepreneurs, they have less security than workers in typical corporate or salaried jobs - especially since both partners are self-employed. The most difficult issue for copreneurs is contending with pursuing the parallel life goals of running a successful business and maintaining a successful relationship. Although men most often assume the leading role in copreneurial ventures, increasing numbers of females are assuming the leading role as well. The number of copreneurs is expected to rise as more people strive for greater flexibility in managing work and family, increased jobs satisfaction, and more personal time.

            KEY WORDS: Employment Patterns; Dual Career Family; Employed Parents; Employment Problems; Entrepreneurship; Family Financial Resources; Family Life; Foreign Countries; National Surveys; Trend Analysis; Work Environment; Canada; Family Owned Businesses; United States; Employment Change.

61. Smith, V. (1997). New forms of work organization. Annual Review of Sociology, 23, 315-339.

            This is a review of social science literature on the organizational innovations and staffing practices associated with new flexible forms of work. The review reveals a model of uneven flexibility, characterized by the differential distribution of opportunities across groups of US workers. These opportunities have emerged under conditions in which effort is intensified, control is decentered, and employment is destabilized. This new flexible model is contradictory in that it is both a progressive, enabling, high-performance approach, and a coercive, restrictive, low-performance approach. Although involvement and empowerment are key to the new models, their achievement requires workers to participate in organizational mechanisms of multifaceted and decentered systems of control that reproduce hierarchical features of traditional control systems.

            KEY WORDS: Work Organization; Part-Time Employment; Employment Changes; Dislocated Workers; Labor Process; Social Inequality; United States of America; Sociological Research.

62. Smith, V. (2001). Crossing the great divide: Worker risk and opportunity in the new economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

            The 1990s were years of turmoil and change in American work experiences and employment relationships. Trends including the growth of contingent labor, the reduction of stable employment contracts, the restructuring of jobs and companies, and the emergence of opportunity-enhancing employee participation programs impacted occupations, career paths, and labor market opportunities. The author analyzes this shift, asking how workers navigated their way across the divide between bad jobs and good jobs, between jobs organized hierarchically and jobs requiring greater worker involvement, and between temporary and stable work.

The author uses original case study data from four diverse organizational settings around the country. She compares the situations of nonunionized, white-collar workers at a photocopy service firm; unionized blue-collar workers in a wood-products processing factory; temporary assemblers and clerical workers in a high-tech firm; and unemployed managers, technical workers, and professionals participating in a job search club.

            KEY WORDS: Sociology of Work; Economics & Finance; Changes in Paid Work.

63. Smith, V. (2006). The end of work: The decline of the global labor force and the dawn of the post-market era, updated for the 21st century. Work and Occupations, 33(3), 303-306.

            Jeremy Rifkin's 1995 book, The End of Work, has recently been reissued, “updated for the 21st century.” Rifkin's prediction of how changing technologies will displace workers and lead to massive global unemployment by the mid-21st century has been repeatedly cited by many academics, policy makers, and members of the public. This essay revisits Rifkin's argument, asking, “How well does it stand a decade later?” The author contends that although The End of Work will continue to generate lively debate, it doesn't provide a defensible sociological guide for understanding work trends and, in fact, probably never should have been viewed as one.

            KEY WORDS: Business Literature; Teamwork (Workplace); Downsizing (Management); Change.

64. Suchman, L. A. (2002). Practice-based design of information systems: Notes from the hyperdeveloped world. The Information Society, 18(2), 139-144.

            Reflections on information systems design based in daily practices. From experience in what is name the hyperdeveloped world of industrial research and development in the United States, the author outlines a series of concerns, organized under the themes of information flows, local improvisations, and work practices. The author then offers alternative understandings of change and innovation that underwrite a practice based design approach. These include a view of innovation as indigenous to technologies-in-use, emphasizing investments needed to create sustainable change, & an orientation to artful integration for information systems design.

            KEY WORDS: Information Technology; Research and Development; Systems; United States of America; Technological Innovations; Sustainable Development; Change.

65. Thompson, P. (2003). Disconnected capitalism: Or why employers can't keep their side of the bargain. Work, Employment and Society, 17(2), 359-378.

One of the central problems for critical materialist analysis is how to reengage with a larger canvas while avoiding both the non-empirical metatheorizing characteristic of much recent post-modern social theory and the teleological and totalizing grand narratives that disfigured previous perspectives. The pursuit of a complete picture of capitalist political economy and its relations with the spheres of work and employment, may, in other words, have inherent limitations and, to the extent that it can be achieved, come, not from a total analysis, but the combination of smaller pictures, and from analyses that start at different levels. This article has been a contribution to thinking about ways of assembling the tools for creating such a picture.

            KEY WORDS: Critical Materialism; Post-modern Theory; Social Theory; Narratives; Capitalist Political Economy; Work and Employment.

66. Vallas, S. P. (1999). Rethinking post-Fordism: The meaning of workplace flexibility. Sociological Theory, 17(1), 68-101.

            Social scientists increasingly claim that work structures based on the mass production or Fordist paradigm have grown obsolete and they have given way to a more flexible, post-Fordist work structure. There is much disagreement over these claims, however. This article reorients this debate by subjecting the post-Fordist approach to theoretical & empirical critique. In doing so, it identifies several theoretical weaknesses, like for example, its uncertain handling of power & efficiency; its failure to acknowledge multiple responses to the crisis of Fordism, several of which seem at odds with the post-Fordist paradigm; and its tendency to neglect the resurgence of economic dualism & disparity in organizations & industries. A review of the empirical literature suggests that, despite scattered support for the post-Fordist approach, important anomalies exist that post-Fordism seems unable to explain. Despite its ample contributions, post-Fordist theory provides a distorted guide to the nature of workplace change in the US. Two alternative perspectives are sketched - neoinstitutionalist & flexible accumulation models. Both seem likely to inspire more fruitful lines of research on the disparate patterns currently unfolding in US work organizations.

            KEY WORDS: Organizational Structure; Organizational Change; Work Organization; Fordism; Flexible Specialization; Theoretical Problems; United States of America; Change.

67. Wardell, M. L., Steiger, T. L., & Meiksins, P. (1999). Rethinking the labor process. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

            While paying tribute to Harry Braverman for launching the research field known as the labor process, this book neither eulogizes nor castigates his work. Rather, it takes stock of the field, showing its blend of qualitative and quantitative methodologies and revealing its diverse contributions to the sociology of work, organizations, and stratification. Both U.S. and British authors use this venue as an opportunity to rethink and reinvigorate the labor process field, yet they maintain an intellectual commitment to the spirit with which Braverman wrote his work. They focus on aspects central to the labor process perspective, including management strategies, technology, innovations in the workplace, the value of labor, and control and resistance.

            KEY WORDS: Sex Role in the Work Environment; Employees and Effect of Technological Innovations on Division of Labor; Social Conflict; Industrial Relations; Industrial Sociology; Braverman, Harry; Organizational Change; Managerial Strategies; Management; Equality.

68. Williams, C. C. (2002). A critical evaluation of the commodification thesis. The Sociological Review, 50(4), 525-542.

            A recurring theme across the social sciences is that noncapitalist production is disappearing, albeit slowly and unevenly, and is being replaced by a commodified economy in which goods and services are produced by capitalist firms for a profit under conditions of market exchange. In this paper, however, I evaluate critically this commodification thesis. Even in the heartland of commoditization, "the advanced economies" large economic spaces are identified where alternative economic relations and motives prevail. Rather than view them as leftovers of precapitalist formations, this paper argues that they are the result of both the contradictions inherent in the structural shifts associated with the pursuit of commodification as well as the existence of "cultures of resistance." As such, they are viewed as "spaces of hope" that highlight the demonstrable construction and practice of alternative social relations and logic's of work outside profit-motivated market-orientated exchange.

            KEY WORDS: Capitalism; Economic Structure; Market Economy; Commodification; Profit Motive; Forces and Relations of Production; Economic Change.

69. Williams, C. C., & Windebank, J. (2003). The slow advance and uneven penetration of commodification. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27(2), 250-264.

            A common assumption is that commodification - the process by which goods and services are increasingly produced by capitalist firms for a profit under conditions of market exchange - is colonizing, albeit slowly and unevenly, ever more areas of daily life. Yet little evidence has been supplied to show either the extent or unevenness of this penetration. Here, we first draw on secondary data to evaluate the degree to which the advanced economies have been permeated by commodification. This identifies large spaces of non-exchanged work, non-monetized exchange, and non-profit-motivated monetary exchange. To both explain the existence of these spaces as well as the uneven penetration of commodification, we then report case study evidence from the sphere of domestic services in UK urban areas. This displays that although domestic services are slightly more commodified among higher-income populations, the uneven contours of commodification cannot be explained simply in terms of whether populations can afford to use formal service provision. While economic constraints do prevent the advance of commodification, especially in lower-income populations, strong 'cultures of resistance' are also uncovered that impede its deeper penetration. To conclude, therefore, the contrasting roles played by economic and cultural constraints in slowing the advance of commodification and creating its uneven contours are explored.

            KEY WORDS: Commodification; Labor; Capitalist Societies; Exchange (Economics); Forces and Relations of Production; Domestics; United Kingdom; Urban Areas; Commodification; Economic Change.

70. Williams, C. C. (2004). The myth of marketization: An evaluation of the persistence of non-market activities in advanced economies. International Sociology, 19(4), 437-449.

            A recurring theme across the social sciences is that noncapitalist production is disappearing, albeit slowly and unevenly, and is being replaced by a commodified economy in which goods and services are produced by capitalist firms for a profit under conditions of market exchange. In this paper, however, I evaluate critically this commodification thesis. Even in the heartland of commoditization, "the advanced economies" large economic spaces are identified where alternative economic relations and motives prevail. Rather than view them as leftovers of precapitalist formations, this paper argues that they are the result of both the contradictions inherent in the structural shifts associated with the pursuit of commodification as well as the existence of "cultures of resistance." As such, they are viewed as "spaces of hope" that highlight the demonstrable construction and practice of alternative social relations and logic's of work outside profit-motivated market-orientated exchange.

            KEY WORDS: Commercialization; Commodification; Informal Sector; Marketization; Resistance; Economic Change.

71. Worrall, L., Cooper, C., & Campbell, F. (2000). The new reality for UK managers: Perpetual change and employment instability. Work, Employment and Society, 14(4), 647-668.

            Using results from the first three years of a five-year UMIST-Institute of Management study, this paper explores the changing nature of managerial work in the UK and the impact of organizational change on managers' sense of loyalty, morale, and motivation. This article discusses the impact of organizational change on surviving managers where redundancy has been used, compared with organizations where redundancy has not been used. The results suggest that if redundancy is to be continually pursued as a method of change, managers should be aware of the damaging implications not only to individuals, but to the culture of the downsized organization.

            KEY WORDS: Employment Changes; Organizational Change; Managers; Redundancy; Work Organization; Management; United Kingdom; Organizational Commitment; Organizational Culture.

72. Yen, I. H., & Frank, J. W. (2002). Improving the health of working families: Research connections between work and health. (No. No-302).

            These two papers are presented in the context of recent research on the connections among work, family, and health. Chapter 1 focuses on the changing nature of work, the new economy, and recent demographic trends. Chapter 2 examines the health effects of job security, income, work organization, health and pension benefits, work schedules, workplace stress, occupational health, socioeconomic status across the life course, and family and sick leave. Chapter 3 explores policy options by outlining three possible strategies. Lastly, in the second paper policy makers are urged to adopt policies based on the following principles: work redesign; paid leave and family care; reduced hours and flexibility; women in leadership positions, worker voice, community empowerment; and work-family councils.

            KEY WORDS: Access to Health Care; Adjustment (to Environment); Child Care; Employment Practices; Family Health; Family-Work Relationship; Government Role; Health Insurance; Income; Job Security; Policy Formation; Population Trends; Public Policy; Retirement Benefits; Social Science Research; Unemployment Insurance; Wellness; Work Environment; Working Poor; Economic Change; Employment Change.

73. Zeytinoglu, I. U. (2004). Flexible work arrangements: Conceptualizations and international experiences. New York: Kluwer Law.

            In today's world of work, the old standards of fixed hours and location have been substantially weakened. The majority of employers, in fact, prefer to maintain a flexible system of work arrangements that gives them more control over rate of production, assignment of tasks, and economic circumstances. The global development of these new and extensive conditions of employment variously characterized as nonstandard, alternative, peripheral, contingent, or atypical has progressed to a point at which its significance for both employers and employees (as well as for society in general) can be fruitfully analyzed.

            KEY WORDS: Work and Learning; Economic Analysis; Workplace Alternatives; Changes in Paid Work.