Work and Occupations recent issues

Work Without End?: Scheduling Flexibility and Work-to-Family Conflict Among Stockbrokers

Blair-Loy, M. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:19:53 PST

The common finding in the work–family literature that workplace scheduling flexibility reduces work-to-family conflict may not be generalizable to service occupations with intense client demands. This qualitative analysis of stockbrokers finds that brokers in firms granting scheduling flexibility experience more work-to-family conflict than those in the firm with scheduling rigidity. Although brokers in the latter firm lose autonomy from their employer (and earning potential), bureaucratic rigidity buffers them from client pressures that intrude on family life. This finding should be tested in other occupations requiring extensive client interactions in a 24-hour economy.

Stalled Progress?: Gender Segregation and Wage Inequality Among Managers, 1980-2000

Cohen, P. N., Huffman, M. L., Knauer, S. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:19:53 PST

Trends toward gender equality largely stalled in the 1990s, but the progress of women in management was mixed. Given the importance of managers as actors in the reproduction of inequality, and managerial positions as rewards in their own right, this study investigates the relative status of women in management over the past two decades, using U.S. Decennial Census data from 1980 to 2000. The authors find that women’s entry into management occupations slowed markedly in the 1990s. Furthermore, after decreasing in the 1980s, gender segregation among managers rebounded sharply upward in the 1990s. However, greater segregation coincided with a decreasing gender earnings gap, which largely resulted from narrowing gaps within integrated or male-dominated managerial occupations. Finally, there remains a substantial earnings penalty for managers who work in female-dominated occupations.

Gender Inequality in Job Authority: A Cross-National Comparison of 26 Countries

Yaish, M., Stier, H. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:19:53 PST

This article argues that cross-national diversity in women’s concentration in the public sector explains a substantial part of the cross-national variation in the gender gap in job authority. Using data on individuals in 26 countries represented in the 2005 International Social Survey Program module on Work Orientation (supplemented by societal-level information), this study supports this argument. The authors find that in countries with high levels of women’s concentration in the public sector, the gender gap in job authority is wider than in countries with lower levels of public sector feminization. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of state interventions in gender inequalities.

Does Unauthorized Status Reduce Exposure to Pesticides?: Evidence From the National Agricultural Workers Survey

Kandel, W. A., Donato, K. M. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:19:53 PST

Ample scholarship suggests that unauthorized immigrants are more likely to face occupational hazards because their lack of legal status makes them more vulnerable to workplace abuse. Despite much research documenting how legal status affects wages, employment, and job stability, few studies have empirically analyzed impacts of legal status on the employment conditions of hired farmworkers. In this article we examine whether unauthorized farmworkers are more likely to handle pesticides and receive pesticide training. We use the National Agricultural Workers Survey, a data set that distinguishes between unauthorized, authorized, and citizen workers. Results from descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses suggest, contrary to expectation, that unauthorized legal status is associated with a reduced likelihood of handling pesticides or receiving training for pesticides. This finding is bolstered by results for control variables associated with unauthorized status, such as age and U.S. agricultural employment experience. Taken together, the results are consistent with labor market segmentation theory that suggests jobs encompassing occupational hazards are allocated to or held by more experienced workers who are better compensated for the risks they undertake.

Entrepreneurship as Economic Detour?: Client Segregation by Race and Class and the Black-White Earnings Gap Among Physicians

Kornrich, S. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:19:53 PST

Since the Civil Rights Movement, greater numbers of African Americans have moved into professional work but continue to have lower earnings than their White counterparts. One possible explanation for this difference is that Black professionals have lower earnings because they serve larger percentages of Blacks in their practices. However, little research has documented this hypothesized effect, particularly while controlling for specialization and other important earnings-relevant characteristics. Additionally, little research has focused on why this effect occurs: Black clients may be less able to pay for costly services, or organizations may devalue work done by professionals when they serve Black clients. This article uses data on the earnings of Black and White doctors to test whether and how the proportion of Black patients influences earnings. It is found that the proportion of Black patients is significantly associated with lower earnings for entrepreneurial Black doctors, higher earnings for entrepreneurial White doctors, and has no association with the earnings of either Black or White doctors who work in nonentrepreneurial settings. Supplementary analysis shows that controlling for doctors’ reliance on Medicare and Medicaid revenues reduces the associations between patients’ racial composition and earnings to zero for both Black and White physicians. These findings suggest that there is little bias in organizational pay-setting practices against positions that serve larger numbers of Black clients. Instead, disadvantage results from Black patients’ greater reliance on lower paying Medicare and Medicaid insurances and client segregation on the basis of race and class among physicians.

Book review: Textures of Struggle: The Emergence of Resistance Among Garment Workers in Thailand

Chaudhuri, S. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:19:53 PST

Book review: Never Good Enough: Health Care Workers and the False Promise of Job Training

Cappelli, P. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:19:53 PST

Book review: Redirections in the Study of Expert Labour: Established Professions and New Expert Occupations

Sandefur, R. L. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:19:53 PST

Book review: Equity, Diversity, and Canadian Labour

Cranford, C. J. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:19:53 PST

Immigrant Self-Employment: Testing Hypotheses About the Role of Origin- and Host-Country Human Capital and Bonding and Bridging Social Capital

Kanas, A., van Tubergen, F., van der Lippe, T. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

Using large-scale data on immigrants in the Netherlands, the authors tested competing arguments about the role of origin- and host-country human capital and bonding and bridging social capital in immigrants' self-employment. When taking job-skill level into account, immigrants with a higher level of origin- and destination-country education are less likely to be self-employed than salary employed. Likewise, the likelihood of self-employment decreases with origin-country work experience but not with host-country work experience. The presumed positive effect of bonding social capital is not found, but this study's results suggest that immigrants with an access to bridging social capital are more likely to be self-employed than those without such contacts.

Grounding the Regime of Precarious Employment: Homeless Day Laborers' Negotiation of the Job Queue

Williams, D. T. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

This ethnography of day laboring contends that to better understand how the labor process situated within the industry is regulated at the micro-level, it is necessary to move beyond studies that limit their analyses of homeless day laborers—an important subset of workers who mediate and respond to this low-road industry's bottom line imperatives—to worker grievances or the strategies they use to combat anonymity. This article shows that the reasons homeless workers see day labor as a "sensible" income-generating strategy and the ways in which they comprehend and negotiate the job queue—the central, supply-side regulatory mechanism with which they contend each day—illuminate both the ways in which they coproduce the regime of workplace discipline that regulates the temporary-labor process and contribute to the reproduction of the industry's micro-foundations. By extending the concept of "reliable contingency" to include these supply-side processes, this analysis reveals that agency loyalty is produced by a divide-and-rule dynamic that emerges from and acts back on these interpretive and interactional dynamics, creating an informal regulatory structure embedded in the hiring hall.

Labor Divided, Labor Defeated

Heery, E. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

These two books deal, respectively, with the division of the American labor movement in 2005 and the dramatic strike of graduate teaching assistants at New York University in the same year. They are also representative of a larger class of writing on "union revitalization" that deals with the condition of the labor movement and its prospects for renewal. In this review article, the author uses the two books to reflect on the dominant themes of this broader literature. These include an emphasis on the deep hostility of neoliberalism to organized labor, the failure of the existing labor movement, and the need for a neosyndicalist strategy to achieve revitalization.

Book Review: Gallie, D. (Ed.). (2007). Employment Regimes and the Quality of Work. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 277 pp. $99.00 (cloth)

McGovern, P. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

Book Review: Hernandez-Leon, R. (2008). Metropolitan Migrants: The Migration of Urban Mexicans to the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press. 272 pp. $21.95 (paper)

Reimers, C. W. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

Book Review: O'Brien, R. (Ed.), & Featherstone, L. (Foreword). (2008). Telling Stories Out of Court: Narratives About Women and Workplace Discrimination. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press. 246 pp. $55.00 (paper)

Kmec, J. A. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

Book Review: Anteby, M. (2008). Moral Gray Zones: Side Productions, Identity, and Regulation in an Aeronautic Plant. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 248 pp. $35.00 (cloth)

Crowley, M. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

Book Review: McKay, S. C. (2006). Satanic Mills or Silicon Islands? The Politics of High-Tech Production in the Philippines. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 253 pp. $21.95 (paperback)

Jarman, J. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

Book Review: Caputo, G. A. (2008). Out in the Storm: Drug-Addicted Women Living as Shoplifters and Sex Workers. Boston: Northeastern University Press. 232 pp. $24.95 (paper)

Lucas, A. M. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

Book Review: Sweet, S., & Meiksins, P. (2008). Changing Contours of Work: Jobs and Opportunities in the New Economy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. 239 pp. $44.95 (cloth)

Landry, B. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

Nueva Convocatoria Al VI Congreso De La Asociacion Latinoamericana De Sociologia Del Trabajo (20 Al 23 De Abril Del 2010)

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:43:26 PDT

The Global Turn: Lessons From Southern Labor Scholars and Their Labor Movements

Burawoy, M. — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:27:12 PDT

For too long U.S. labor sociology has been reluctant to explore the world. By taking a global turn, we have much to learn from labor scholars and labor movements in the Global South—much to learn about our own peculiarities, about the possibilities and obstacles to building links across national boundaries, and about the implications of "globalization" for both labor organizing and labor studies. In particular, the public turn taken by scholars in the Global South toward their own labor movements holds lessons for a collaboration that is always fraught from both sides. These are just some of the issues raised by the essays in this issue that examine the history of labor sociologies and labor movements in Brazil, China, India, South Africa, and South Korea.

Brazil: The Swinging Pendulum Between Labor Sociology and Labor Movement

Santana, M. A., Braga, R. — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:27:12 PDT

In this article, the authors analyze the relationship between labor sociology and trade unionism in Brazil by focusing on its three key phases. Against the backdrop of successive political and economical scenarios, the authors go from the first generation of labor sociologists to the most recent period, trying to identify the transition points in this trajectory. This study develops the hypothesis that labor sociology in Brazil was first characterized by a search for affirmation and professionalization (1950-1960). Later, it developed a strong political—social engagement, and assumed a public character, by claiming particular social identities (1970-1980). Finally, it flowed toward policy sociology (1990-2000).

China: The Paradox and Possibility of a Public Sociology of Labor

Ching Kwan Lee, , Yuan Shen, — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:27:12 PDT

This article examines the predicament and possibility for the development of a public sociology of labor in China. Labor studies that take seriously workers' class experience and capacity have been stymied by a Communist regime keen on censoring and domesticating sociology as a profession as well as fragmenting the interests, identities, and mobilization of the working class. Yet, in recent years, persistent struggles by Chinese workers themselves have created intense pressure on the Chinese state to redefine its position toward labor conflicts. At the same time, global labor and academic communities have infused ideas and resources that help expand the scope and linkages of labor civic activism.

India: Labor Sociology Searching for a Direction

Bhowmik, S. K. — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:27:12 PDT

This article explores the history of the labor movement in India and the parallel development of labor sociology. It assesses the influence of Western models of labor, stressing their weaknesses in diagnosing the peculiarity of the Indian situation. Because of these models, and also because of the narrow concerns of trade unions, until recently labor studies overlooked the overwhelming proportion of the work force—namely, the informal workers. Despite all the hype about business process outsourcing companies and call centers, it is this sector of the labor force that has increased most rapidly during the past 15 years since the beginning of market liberalization. Although sociological studies are catching up with the transformation of the labor force, there still remain very few contacts between scholars and labor unions or labor activists.

South Africa: The Decline of Labor Studies and the Democratic Transition

Buhlungu, S. — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:27:12 PDT

This article explores the ways in which a form of intellectual engagement has gone beyond merely studying society and sought to influence processes of change by engaging with actors outside disciplinary scholarship and the academy. In South Africa, the broad subdiscipline of labor studies provides probably the best illustration of this engagement, which Burawoy has termed public sociology. The article traces the emergence and growth of public sociology, initially from the position of relative privilege in the ivory tower and later to more direct forms of engagement with the new publics that emerged in the antiapartheid struggle. The discussion explains why the labor movement became the focal point of public sociology in South Africa. Finally, the article argues that the advent of democracy led to a growing assertiveness among the antiapartheid movements, including labor. Not only did this alter the terms on which public sociology was undertaken, it also resulted in a decline of public sociology inherited from the antiapartheid struggle.

South Korea: Toward a Collective Public Sociology of Labor

Cho, S.-K. — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:27:12 PDT

Third-wave marketization in South Korea has changed the social structure of academic knowledge production, revealing the dilemmas and limitations of both traditional and organic public sociology. The emergence of collective intellectuals during the candlelight movement points to an alternative relationship between the researcher and the researched. The candlelight vigils that recently rocked Korean society have pointed to new possibilities for a public sociology of labor. This article discusses the conditions for public labor sociology as a new paradigm based on collective knowledge and argues that when facing increasing professionalization of public sociology, the "crisis of labor" calls for a collective public sociology.

Unemployment and Subjective Well-Being: A Question of Class?

Hald Andersen, S. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:00:39 PST

An analysis is conducted as to whether social class position matters for the negative change in subjective well-being experienced from unemployment. Theory on work identification and work conditions is used to formulate hypotheses on the differential impact on well-being of entering unemployment from different social classes. Data are analyzed from 14 waves of the British Household Panel Survey, and fixed effects methods are used. Main results are that the negative effect of job loss on subjective well-being is highest for individuals who are in the middle classes prior to becoming unemployed.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ordinary: Work Identities in "Good" and "Bad" Jobs in the United Kingdom

Sengupta, S., Edwards, P. K., Tsai, C.-J. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:00:39 PST

Much debate exists about postbureaucratic organizational forms that are sometimes felt to strengthen the polarization between good and bad jobs. Small firms provide one test in that they lack bureaucracy. Such firms from two contrasting sectors, food manufacture and the media, are used to assess, respectively, the models of good and bad jobs. Data from 66 firms and 203 employees show a mixed picture: Food jobs are bad for pay but relatively good for autonomy. Media jobs offer autonomy, but this is constrained by tight performance demands and low pay. These results help to explain why national surveys find no polarization in terms of autonomy and are explained by the economic contingencies of the two sectors. Ordinariness rather than stark polarization is the key picture.

Lessons From the Policy World: How the Economy, Work Supports, and Education Matter for Low-Income Workers

Lambert, S. J. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:00:39 PST

Work and employment scholars interested in jobs and workers at the lower end of the labor market have much to learn from a recent set of volumes authored by policy scholars. These volumes focus on how shifts in the macroeconomy, work supports, and postsecondary education affect the well-being of workers both on and off the job. This essay identifies some of the more subtle contributions of these volumes to knowledge on the nature of employment. It explains how many of the analyses could benefit, however, from additional consideration of the jobs low-earners perform. The essay concludes by offering specific suggestions for incorporating additional measures of job conditions into policy-relevant research.

Book Review: Smith, V., & Neuwirth, E. B. (2008). The Good Temp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 243 pp. $29.95 (cloth)

Fasenfest, D. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:00:39 PST

Book Review: Roscigno, V. J. (2007). The Face of Discrimination: How Race and Gender Impact Work and Home Lives. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 255 pp. $76.00 (cloth)

Kalev, A. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:00:39 PST

Book Review: Wingfield, A. H. (2008). Doing Business With Beauty: Black Women, Hair Salons, and the Racial Enclave Economy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 156 pp. $65.00 (cloth)

Banks, I. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:00:39 PST

Book Review: Martin-Matthews, A., & Phillips, J. E. (Eds.) (2008). Aging and Caring at the Intersection of Work and Home Life: Blurring the Boundaries. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum. 270 pp. $79.95 (cloth)

Riggs, K. E. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:00:39 PST

Book Review: Chetkovich, C., & Kunreuther, F. (2006). From the Ground Up: Grassroots Organizations Making Social Change. New York: ILR Press. 205 pp. $49.95 (cloth), $18.95 (paper)

Hernandez, S. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:00:39 PST

Book Review: Archer, M. S. (2007). Making Our Way Through the World: Human Reflexivity and Social Mobility. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 343 pp. $34.99 (cloth)

McDonald, S. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:00:39 PST

Book Review: Boreham, P., Parker, R., Thompson, P., & Hall, R. (2008). New Technology @ Work. New York: Routledge. 224 pp

Demerath, L. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:00:39 PST