This work brings together a collection of articles exploring the impact of Japanese manufacturing investment and the adoption of Japanese working practices on a cross-national basis. Key issues are explored through a range of national and sectoral studies of work reorganization and work experience within Japanese companies and their competitors. Original case studies are employed to support a wide-ranging critique of the established view of the "Japanese model" of work organization. Alternative models, as in the Swedish and Italian cases, are discussed in depth. Drawing on international research, this volume aims to shed new light on the controversial debate centring on Japanese working practices, and should be of interest to students and researchers in the sociology of work, organizational sociology and international business.

Product Description: In this book, the authors present topical research in the study of labour market policies, challenges and its role in globalisation. Topics discussed include work values and educational socio-demographics from a sample of young people in vocational education in Barcelona, Spain; the economic restructuring of rural communities through rural tourism; challenging globalisation and a theory of marginality using the case of public school teachers in the Dominican Republic; and a review of the development of comprehensive lifelong learning strategies in enhancing employment, combating unemployment and increasing competitiveness in the European Union...read more

Product Description: Work Matters offers a strong set of empirical accounts on the experience of work in the contemporary workplace, accounts that bring forth the voice and humanity of people in relation to their work experiences.

Work and Society is an important new text about the sociology of work and employment. It provides both undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology, business and politics, with a firm and enjoyable foundation to this fascinating area of sociology, giving comprehensive coverage of traditional areas of the sub-discipline as well as new trends and developments. The book is divided into three complementary and interconnected sections – investigating work, work and social change and understanding work. These sections allow readers to explore themes, issues and approaches by examining how sociologists have thought about, and researched work and how the sub-discipline has been influenced by wider society itself. Novel features include separate chapters on researching work, domestic work, unemployment and work, and the representation of work in literary and visual media.

Product Description: Key Concepts in Work clearly and concisely explains the central ideas, debates, and theories of work. Authors Paul Blyton and Jean Jenkins offer a broad overview of the social, political, and economic contexts of work illustrated from diverse industrial societies...read more

Product Description: This is the second volume, after Democratizing Democracy, of the collection Reinventing Social Emancipation: Towards New Manifestoes.Here, the author examines alternative models to capitalist developmentthrough case studies of collective land management, cooperatives ofgarbage collectors and women’s agricultural cooperatives...read more

Product Description: Investigating the effects of the New Economy on Canada’s workers and their families, this study examines the promises made by the advances of technology and globalization versus the challenges that face workers today. The changes that have been made in the working world have not been the predicted boon for laborers, the book explains, leading instead to under- and unemployment and a rehash of an old, exploitative system...read more