The Allure of Labor

The Allure of Labor
Author: Paulo Drinot
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2011-04-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0822350130

Reveals how Perus early-twentieth-century labor reforms excluded the majority of the countrys laborers. They were indigenous, and the nations elites saw indigeneity as incommensurable with work, modernity, and industrial progress.

Fairness and Division of Labor in Market Societies

Fairness and Division of Labor in Market Societies
Author: Hyeong-ki Kwon
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781571816719

Contrary to the explanations offered by the theory of non-reflexive, path-dependent institutionalism, the U.S. and the German automotive industries undertook strikingly similar patterns of industry modification under tough international competition during the 1990s, departing from their traditional national patterns. By investigating the processes of the U.S. and German adjustments, the author critically reconsiders the prevalent paradigms of political economy and comes to the conclusion that the evidence does not confirm the neoliberal paradigm. In order to better account for the recomposition of new market relations, which the author terms "converging but non-liberal" and "diverging but not predetermined" markets, he proposes an alternative model of "politics among reflexive agents," emphasizing different kinds of problem-solving practices among those reflexive agents. He argues that different forms and regimes of market are established in the process of recomposition, in which agents reflect upon not only market rationality but also upon their own institutions, creating new norms.

The Ambiguous Allure of the West

The Ambiguous Allure of the West
Author: Rachel V. Harrison
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2018-05-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501719211

The Ambiguous Allure of the West examines the impact of Western imperialism on Thai cultural development from the 1850s to the present and highlights the value of postcolonial analysis for studying the ambiguities, inventions, and accommodations with the West that continue to enrich Thai culture. Since the mid-nineteenth century, Thais have adopted and adapted aspects of Western culture and practice in an ongoing relationship that may be characterized as semicolonial. As they have done so, the notions of what constitutes "Thainess" have been inflected by Western influence in complex and ambiguous ways, producing nuanced, hybridized Thai identities.The Ambiguous Allure of the West brings together Thai and Western scholars of history, anthropology, film, and literary and cultural studies to analyze how the protean Thai self has been shaped by the traces of the colonial Western Other. Thus, the book draws the study of Siam/Thailand into the critical field of postcolonial theory, expanding the potential of Thai Studies to contribute to wider debates in the region and in the disciplines of cultural studies and critical theory. The chapters in this book present the first sustained dialogue between Thai cultural studies and postcolonial analysis.By clarifying the distinctive position of semicolonial societies such as Thailand in the Western-dominated world order, this book bridges and integrates studies of former colonies with studies of the Asian societies that retained their political independence while being economically and culturally subordinated to Euro-American power.

Housekeeping by Design

Housekeeping by Design
Author: David Brody
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2016-10-17
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 022638912X

A mattress, box spring, and duvet for a king-size hotel bed weighs in at 225 pounds. Imagine trying to wrestle with changing the sheets and getting the hospital corners just right; it is easy to see why hotel housekeepers experience back and shoulder injuries at increasing rates. David Brody got behind the scenes at the Chicago Hyatt Regency and the Starwood hotels in Hawaii, bypassing management and corporate press releases to interview the housekeeping staff directly. Given Brody s expertise in architecture and design, his mission here is to help us understand service design in hotels in order to situate the needs of hotel customers, housekeepers, and hotel management one relative to the other. What unfolds as a new perspective on hotels is designin terms of spaces, products, maintenance, and workflow systems. We get vivid examples of how a hotel room s design encapsulates a highly orchestrated, hidden process of management and labor, where work is invisible and surface appearances are paramount to the guest s sense of domestic comfort. ( Turndown service is one exampleroom light dimmed, drapes drawn, music on classical, turndown mat on floor, slippers in place, mint on pillow, etc.) Brody opts strongly for what he calls co-design, which means collaboration between workers and management on improving hotel design, and he is unabashedly partisan in taking sides with hotel workers and their unions. He also advocates for sustainability and green politics."

The Peculiar Revolution

The Peculiar Revolution
Author: Carlos Aguirre
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2017-05-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1477312129

Bringing much-needed historical perspectives to debates about an idiosyncratic period in modern Latin American history, scholars from the United States and Peru reassess the meaning and legacy of Peru's left-leaning military dictatorship.

Labor Justice across the Americas

Labor Justice across the Americas
Author: Leon Fink
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2017-12-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0252050118

Opinions of specialized labor courts differ, but labor justice undoubtedly represented a decisive moment in worker 's history. When and how did these courts take shape? Why did their originators consider them necessary? Leon Fink and Juan Manuel Palacio present essays that address these essential questions. Ranging from Canada and the United States to Chile and Argentina, the authors search for common factors in the appearance of labor courts while recognizing the specific character of the creative process in each nation. Their transnational and comparative approach advances a global perspective on the various mechanisms for regulating industrial relations and resolving labor conflicts. The result is the first country-by-country study of its kind, one that addresses a defining shift in law in the first half of the twentieth century. Contributors: Rossana Barragán Romano, Angela de Castro Gomes, David Díaz-Arias, Leon Fink, Frank Luce, Diego Ortúzar, Germán Palacio, Juan Manuel Palacio, William Suarez-Potts, Fernando Teixeira da Silva, Victor Uribe-Urán, Angela Vergara, and Ronny J. Viales-Hurtado.

The Labor of Extraction in Latin America

The Labor of Extraction in Latin America
Author: Kristin Ciupa
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2024-01-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1538187566

Natural resource extraction and primary commodity export remain persistent features of the Latin American economy. This edited volume traces the power of labor in extractive sectors in Latin America starting in the 1980s and shows how labor shapes national export sectors, economies, politics, and societies more broadly. Kristin Ciupa and Jeffery R. Webber bring together a team of international experts who look at labor in several extractive sectors—including oil and gas, mining and agriculture, and migrant labor. They present a variety of viewpoints and case studies, exploring themes of the strategic organizing potential of extractive workers, the rise of informal labor and its impact on organizing and worker solidarity, and migrant labor-power as extraction. The book analyzes relationships between workers, extractive companies, states, political parties, national social sectors, and global commodity markets. The Labor of Extraction in Latin America puts the question of labor organizing to the forefront of discussions on Latin America’s ongoing history of extractive capitalism, its effects on nature, and resistance against it. Contributions by: Fernando Cazón, Kristin Ciupa, Aleida Hernández Cervantes, Phillip A. Hough, Christopher Little, Omar Manky, Andrea Marston, Viviana Patroni, Guido Starosta, Jeffery R. Webber, Anna Zalik

The Allure of the Archives

The Allure of the Archives
Author: Arlette Farge
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2013-09-24
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0300180217

DIVArlette Farge’s Le Goût de l’archive is widely regarded as a historiographical classic. While combing through two-hundred-year-old judicial records from the Archives of the Bastille, historian Farge was struck by the extraordinarily intimate portrayal they provided of the lives of the poor in pre-Revolutionary France, especially women. She was seduced by the sensuality of old manuscripts and by the revelatory power of voices otherwise lost. In The Allure of the Archives, she conveys the exhilaration of uncovering hidden secrets and the thrill of venturing into new dimensions of the past. Originally published in 1989, Farge’s classic work communicates the tactile, interpretive, and emotional experience of archival research while sharing astonishing details about life under the Old Regime in France. At once a practical guide to research methodology and an elegant literary reflection on the challenges of writing history, this uniquely rich volume demonstrates how surrendering to the archive’s allure can forever change how we understand the past./div

What We Talk About When We Talk About Books

What We Talk About When We Talk About Books
Author: Leah Price
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2019-08-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1541673905

Reports of the death of reading are greatly exaggerated Do you worry that you've lost patience for anything longer than a tweet? If so, you're not alone. Digital-age pundits warn that as our appetite for books dwindles, so too do the virtues in which printed, bound objects once trained us: the willpower to focus on a sustained argument, the curiosity to look beyond the day's news, the willingness to be alone. The shelves of the world's great libraries, though, tell a more complicated story. Examining the wear and tear on the books that they contain, English professor Leah Price finds scant evidence that a golden age of reading ever existed. From the dawn of mass literacy to the invention of the paperback, most readers already skimmed and multitasked. Print-era doctors even forbade the very same silent absorption now recommended as a cure for electronic addictions. The evidence that books are dying proves even scarcer. In encounters with librarians, booksellers and activists who are reinventing old ways of reading, Price offers fresh hope to bibliophiles and literature lovers alike. Winner of the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award, 2020

The Allure of Toxic Leaders

The Allure of Toxic Leaders
Author: Jean Lipman-Blumen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 453
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0195312007

Toxic leaders, both political, like Slobodan Milosevic, and corporate, like Enron's Ken Lay, have always been with us, and many books have been written to explain what makes them tick. Here leadership scholar Jean Lipman-Blumen explains what makes the followers tick, exploring why people will tolerate--and remain loyal to--leaders who are destructive to their organizations, their employees, or their nations. Why do we knowingly follow, seldom unseat, frequently prefer, and sometimes even create toxic leaders? Lipman-Blumen argues that these leaders appeal to our deepest needs, playing on our anxieties and fears, on our yearnings for security, high self-esteem, and significance, and on our desire for noble enterprises and immortality. She also explores how followers inadvertently keep themselves in line by a set of insidious control myths that they internalize. For example, the belief that the leader must necessarily be in a position to "know more" than the followers often stills their objections. In addition, outside forces--such as economic depressions, political upheavals, or a crisis in a company--can increase our anxiety and our longing for charismatic leaders. Lipman-Blumen shows how followers can learn critical lessons for the future and survive in the meantime. She discusses how to confront, reform, undermine, blow the whistle on, or oust a toxic leader. And she suggests how we can diminish our need for strong leaders, identify "reluctant leaders" among competent followers, and even nurture the leader within ourselves. Toxic leaders charm, manipulate, mistreat, weaken, and ultimately devastate their followers. The Allure of Toxic Leaders tells us how to recognize these leaders before it's too late.