Sociology: work & labour
Labour Conflicts in the Digital Age
A Comparative Perspective
This book offers a complete view of the new labour conflicts in the platform economy. Through case studies in advanced economies in Europe and the US and with an original approach that combines social movement studies and industrial relations, it provides a radical interpretation on the changing nature of worker movements in the digital age.
COVID-19 Stories from the Swedish Welfare State
The Pandemicracy
Based on field material collected from 2020 to 2022 in Sweden, this book tells a composite story of the everyday work of public sector workers that maintained the welfare infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Varieties of Precarity
Melting Labour and the Failure to Protect Workers in the Korean Welfare State
Based on in-depth interviews with over 80 precarious workers in Korea, this book introduces the concept of ‘melting labour’ and provides a real depiction of how workers lose control over their lives and experience precariousness in labour markets.
Work and Social Justice
Rethinking Labour in Society and the Economy
This book examines the urgent workplace challenges we’re facing today with an interdisciplinary and historical analysis that challenges and broadens the scope of existing economic literature. Exploring the current economic proposals to address these issues, it offers ways forward for greater economic social justice and equality at work.
The Politics of Fiscal Welfare
Towards a Social Division of Welfare and Labour
The use of fiscal welfare has been growing over the past decades in European welfare states. This book sheds light on the use and effects of fiscal welfare in welfare and labour market reforms in both countries and examines the introduction of a 50% tax deduction on domiciliary care and household services.
Politics of the Gift
Towards a Convivial Society
Drawing on French sociologist Marcel Mauss' influential theory of 'the gift', this book shows that trust is the only glue that holds societies together, and people are giving beings and they who can cooperate for the benefit of all when the logic of maximizing utility personal gain in capitalism is broken.
The EU Migrant Generation in Asia
Middle-Class Aspirations in Asian Global Cities
Drawing on a comparative study with individuals who migrated to Singapore and Tokyo in 2010s, this book demonstrates how migration to Asian business centres has become an alternative to a middle-class life in Europe and how the perceived insecurities of life in the crisis-ridden EU result in these migrants’ prolonged stay in Asia.
Exiting the Factory (Volume 1)
Strikes and Class Formation beyond the Industrial Sector
Drawing on case studies from Germany, Britain and Spain, this book offers a novel assessment of labour struggles and class formation. Gallas explores key issues around class relations, struggles around waged and unwaged work and labour movements in contemporary capitalism to bring class theory back to labour studies.
Older Workers in Transition
European Experiences in a Neoliberal Era
This collection explores a variety of job transitions for older people, including voluntary job moves, coming out of unemployment, temporary labour and passages into retirement. Each chapter hears the voices of older workers and employers, and is positioned within the context of various European countries, with important lessons for future policy.
The Flexibility Paradox
Why Flexible Working Leads to (Self-)Exploitation
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, flexible working has become the norm for many workers. This volume examines flexible working using data from 30 European countries and drawing on studies conducted in Australia, the US and India
Beyond the Wage
Ordinary Work in Diverse Economies
This volume challenges the idea of wage employment as the global norm, comparing lived experiences of ‘ordinary work’ across conceptual and geographical boundaries and opening up new possibilities for how work, income, identity and care might be woven together differently.
Job Insecurity and Life Courses
Drawing from interviews and survey data across the EU and the UK, this in-depth study explores how worker instability is perceived and experienced, and how this “perception” in turn affects individuals’ economic and social situation. Using intersectional analysis, the authors identify groups who are more prone to labour market risks.