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This engaging and timely book provides an in-depth analysis of work and labour relations within global platform capitalism with a specific focus on digital platforms that organise labour processes, known as labour platforms. Well-respected contributors thoroughly examine both online and offline platforms, their distinct differences and the important roles they play for both large transnational companies and those with a smaller global reach.
With the harmonization of the EU economies, and issues of EU enlargement and integration with Europe's transition economies topping the political agenda, the economic geography of Europe is being recast. This important volume analyses the spatial implications of the integration-transition process, and examines key issues such as north-south and east-west divides, regional cooperation and cross-border dynamics.
Is the EU enlargement the success EU institutions proclaim? Based on fifteen years of fieldwork research across Central and Eastern Europe and on migrants in the UK and Germany, this book provides a less glittering answer. The EU has betrayed hopes of social cohesion: social regulations have been forgotten, multinationals use threats of relocations, and workers, left without institutional channels to voice their concerns, have reacted by leaving their countries en masse. Yet migration, for many, increases social vulnerability. Drawing on Hirschman’s concepts of ‘Exit’ and ‘Voice’, the book traces the origins of such failures in the management of EU enlargement as a pure economic an...
With the collapse of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance in 1991, the Eastern European nations of the former socialist bloc had to figure out their newly capitalist future. Capitalism, they found, was not a single set of political-economic relations. Rather, they each had to decide what sort of capitalist nation to become. In Capitalist Diversity on Europe's Periphery, Dorothee Bohle and Béla Geskovits trace the form that capitalism took in each country, the assets and liabilities left behind by socialism, the transformational strategies embraced by political and technocratic elites, and the influence of transnational actors and institutions. They also evaluate the impact of three re...
In The Politics of the New Welfare State the main reforms in work and welfare are summarized and analyzed to provide up-dated evidence of policy change and its main determinants to policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders interested in the field.
This volume provides a comprehensive account of the European Union’s social role in the world, assessing the EU’s ability to shape the social aspect of globalization from both law and political science perspectives. Focusing explicitly on the EU, the authors address the extent of coherence between the Union’s international social objectives compared with the activities of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and with other EU foreign policy goals. Various dimensions of Europe’s global social role are addressed, including: the social dimension of EU trade relations the involvement of civil society in EU development policies the linkage between the EU’s internal and external ‘social model’ the export of Europe’s social acquis through enlargement and neighbourhood policies the EU’s international position on health, gender equality, children’s rights, and corporate social responsibility the role of the Union in the ILO The European Union and the Social Dimension of Globalization will be of strong interest to students and researchers in EU studies, Globalization studies, and Social Policy.
Religious Identity and Social Change offers a macro and micro analysis of the dynamics of rapid social and religious change occurring within the Muslim world. Drawing on rich ethnographic and quantitative research in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, David Radford provides theoretical insight into the nature of religious and social change and ethnic identity transformation exploring significant questions concerning why people convert and what happens when they do so. A crisis of identity occurs when religious conversion takes place, especially from one major religious tradition (Islam) to another (Christianity); and where religious identity is intimately connected to ethnic and national identity. Radford argues for the importance of recognising the socially constructed nature of identity involving the dynamic interplay between human agency, culture and social networks. Kyrgyz Christians have been active agents in bringing religious and identity transformation building upon the contextual parameters in which they are situated.
The potential of visual research methods in the sociology of religion is vast, but largely untapped. This comes as a surprise, however, given the visual, symbolic, and material nature of religion and spirituality. Evidence of religious faith and practice is materially present in everything from clothing and jewelry to artifacts found in people’s homes and workplaces. Not only is religion’s symbolic and material presence palpable throughout society, it also informs attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of countless people worldwide. Words-and-numbers approaches to social research, however, sometimes miss important dimensions of religion and spirituality in the contemporary world. Seeing Religion is an invitation to a visual sociology of religion. Contributors draw from their current research to discuss the application of visual methods to the study of religion and spirituality. Each chapter stimulates the sociological imagination through examples of research techniques, analytical approaches, and methodological concerns.
Concerns about immigration and the rising visibility of minorities have triggered a lively scholarly debate on the consequences of ethnic diversity for trust, cooperation, and other aspects of social cohesion. In this accessibly written volume, leading scholars explore where, when, and why ethnic diversity affects social cohesion by way of analyses covering the major European immigration countries, as well as the United States and Canada. They explore the merits of competing theoretical accounts and give rare insights into the underlying mechanisms through which diversity affects social cohesion. The volume offers a nuanced picture of the topic by explicitly exploring the conditions under which ethnic diversity affects the ‘glue’ that holds societies together. With its interdisciplinary perspective and contributions by sociologists, political scientists, social psychologists, as well as economists, the book offers the most comprehensive analysis of the link between ethnic diversity and social cohesion that is currently available.
This book examines the United States as a destination for international consumers of assisted fertility services, including egg donation, surrogacy, and sex selection. Based on interviews conducted with fertility industry insiders who market their services to an international clientele in three of the largest American hubs of the global fertility marketplace - New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco - and focusing on the providers rather than the consumers of assisted fertility services, the book shines a light on how professional ethics and norms, in addition to personal moralities, shape the practice of reproductive tourism.