This edited volume discusses how deeply entrenched gender norms in work environments, even in welfare economies, can affect women's health in an adverse way. The volume provides a broad overview of contributing factors. It derives specific answers from case studies in Sweden, a welfare state where women's labour market participation is very high, but where horizontal and vertical gender segregation in work is also one of the highest in the world. Women tend to work in occupations that are heavily dominated by women. An issue in women-dominated occupations is a considerably higher sickness absence than men, with the highest rates being in human service and care occupations. This volume adds to the literature on health and wellbeing in women-dominated professions and workplaces through studying the work environment, organizational changes, digitalization, threats, violence and conflict, and work conditions that could contribute to healthier workplaces for women. In addition, it pointsto the need for deeper gender analysis in work norms, and using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. It is of interest to social and behavioural scientists studying work, gender and health, as well as HR professionals and policy makers.

This book argues that Marxist theory is essential for understanding the contemporary industrialization of the form of artificial intelligence (AI) called machine learning. It includes a political economic history of AI, tracking how it went from a fringe research interest for a handful of scientists in the 1950s to a centerpiece of cybernetic capital fifty years later. It also includes a political economic study of the scale, scope and dynamics of the contemporary AI industry as well as a labour process analysis of commercial machine learning software production, based on interviews with workers and management in AI companies around the world, ranging from tiny startups to giant technology firms. On the basis of this study, Steinhoff develops a Marxist analysis to argue that the popular theory of immaterial labour, which holds that information technologies increase the autonomy of workers from capital, tending towards a post-capitalist economy, does not adequately describe the situation of high-tech digital labour today. In the AI industry, digital labour remains firmly under the control of capital. Steinhoff argues that theories discerning therein an emergent autonomy of labour are in fact witnessing labour's increasing automation.

This book explores the shift towards individual responsibility that is increasingly evident in welfare systems across the world.

The book will be of interest to students and scholars across sociology, social policy, and political science, with a particular focus on migration, minorities, political discourse, securitisation, social justice and human rights.

"This book offers a compelling read, analysing how workfare is legitimated in the Central European context, through the innovative metaphor of "political farming." The analytical framework brings together several distinct streams of theorizing (critical discourse studies, critical security studies, governmentality, boundary-making, and the dynamics of ethnic relations) seamlessly and effectively. Through a very nuanced discursive analysis, Kissova shows how the poor, the offenders, and the "unadaptable" - categories policymakers use to talk about material need recipients - are linked pathologically with criminality, abuse of the system and other negative perceptions. This is a must-read text for anyone interested in how political actors justify questionable legislation that cements inequality in today's neoliberal milieu."

- B. Nadya Jaworsky, Associate Professor, Sociology, Masaryk University, Czech Republic

"Lenka Kissova's book is clearly written and carefully researched. Her interdisciplinary insight and discursive analysis of parliamentary debates on Slovak "workfare" policies illustrates the deliberate, precise and politicized colocation of Roma marginalization and economic disadvantage, in a manner that starkly illustrates systemic racism dressed up as morally necessary regulatory reform. Moreover, her research has broader comparative and methodological relevance given how she layers in and utilizes governmentality, securitization and legitimation theory, unmasking how neoliberal economic assumptions and dog whistle politics, woven into the speech of politicians, works to demonize recipients as real or potential cheats and criminals, enact further social exclusion and heighten inequality and fear while not-so-subtly promoting existing prejudices. Her overarching metaphor-that of parliamentarians engaging in "political farming" where their ideas seed and take root in fertile soil of the national landscape resulting in regulatory "products"-effectively demonstrates how social reality generally and state regulation specifically can be constructed divorced from actual evidence, a process beyond her specific case and critically relevant to our times."

- Barbara J. Falk, Professor, Department of Defence Studies, Canadian Forces College/Royal Military College of Canada, Fellow, Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada

This book provides a fine-grained ethnographic examination of the everyday negotiations and conflicts taking place in greenhouses and packinghouses in an agricultural district in south-eastern Italy (Sicily). In a highly competitive global scenario, driven by multinational corporations and large retailers, small and medium-sized farms largely rely on migrant labour to fill their demand for casualized, flexible and low-paid jobs. By taking the reader into the 'plastic factories' where the author was hired as a farmworker, this book sheds light on the struggles - around the employment contract, the wage and the body - which take place every day between employers and employees.

The book contributes to broadening the understanding of the dynamics innervating food production worldwide by recognizing the pivotal role of migrant labour not only as a factor in the restructuring of global supply chains, but also as an actor shaping these processes through its own unpredictable strategies.

The Lived Experience of Work and City Rhythms looks at the working environment, with a focus on the geographical workplace and how this affects the experience of our working lives. It raises key questions such as: Does where we work affect our experience of work? What is the relationship between place and work? What is it like to work in a place dominated by a particular industry or sector?

The book draws on empirical research carried out in the City of London - the heart of the UK's financial services sector. The 'Square Mile', as it is also known, is widely perceived to be a distinctive place because of its architecture, history, traditions, and culture. Exploring how the City is experienced as a workplace, this book also presents a method of researching such places through an attention to, and analysis of, their spatial and temporal rhythms.

By illuminating how we experience the places where we work, this book explores what makes us feel that we fit in - or don't fit in - to certain places, how a sense of place endures, and how the relationship between people, place, and work can be researched.

This Open Access book provides a thorough analysis of the quality of work in the Netherlands, and suggests policy proposals to promote and facilitate good work for more people. New technology, flexibilization and the intensification of work will have significant consequences for all those who will still have jobs in the future, and - much less studied so far - for the quality of their work. Good work is essential for general well-being: for the individual's quality of life, for the economy and for society. Good work for everyone should therefore be seen as an important aspiration for companies, institutions, social partners and governments. An essential read for an international audience of academics in the field of the sociology of work, labor economics and social policy, as well as for policymakers and researchers of trade unions, and representatives of other social movements.

Generation A is the half-million individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who will reach adulthood in the next decade and be ready to enter the workforce.

Generation A: Research on Autism in the Workplace is the first volume in the Emerald Studies in Workplace Neurodiversity Series. The book brings together scholars, practitioners, and educators to share their research on Autism in the workplace with a particular emphasis on Generation A. This book explores ways that researchers can help facilitate finding and maintaining employment for individuals with ASD by focusing on the transition, work, and career experiences of Generation A.

This volume offers researchers, educators, and practitioners several avenues for smoothing the transition from educational settings into the workplace for a generational cohort who are poised to enter the labor market, eager to work, and wish to achieve positive work and life outcomes. This book provides several contributions to both the disability literature and research on neurodiversity in the workplace, has the potential to reduce the stigma associated with ASD, change image norms surrounding ASD, and facilitate integrating individuals with ASD into the workforce.

This book will be a valuable resource for individuals with ASD, organizations interested in obtaining the benefits of hiring people with ASD, and advocacy groups supporting the transition and employment needs of individuals with ASD.

This book provides a comparative analysis of how communities have developed people-based resilience in response to the global impact of COVID-19. The crisis of the capitalist economy due to border closure, downturn in business, loss of jobs and large-scale destruction of people's well-being has worsened poverty, and inequality worsened the situation of the already marginalized. At the same time, it has provided the opportunity for indigenous and marginalized communities to innovatively strengthen their social and solidarity economies to respond the unprecedented calamity in a self-empowering and sustainable way. The book explores some of the ways in which local communities have mobilized their cultural resources to strengthen their social solidarity and mitigating mechanisms against the continuing global calamity. It looks at how different communities approach social protection as a way of sustaining their well-being outside the parameters of the ailing market economy andhow some of these can provide valuable lessons for strengthening resilience for the future.

Modern workplaces are following a strong trend of increasing flexible working practices and approaches, offering more flexibility in working times, working places, work organization, and work relations as the result of new information and communication technologies. This book brings together a group of internationally recognized experts in the field of flexible work to examine the psychological and social implications of these practices, describing the current state of research and empirically-based practices in this field. It focuses on organizational, job, and individual factors related to the quality of working life, and identifies potential risk groups where the benefits of flexible work are suppressed or not realized.

Covid 19 was a black swan event which led to working from home emerging as the new normal at a global level. As HRM scholars we aim to understand this phenomenon from both an employee and employer perspective, while drawing on the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs) which aspire for a fairer and more inclusive world for people and the planet.

At the individual level of analysis there are chapters on conflicts between work and home life, differing levels of motivation, workplace loneliness and the work preferences of introverts and extraverts.

At the organizational level questions are raised about the effects on profitability, organizational resilience, and the ability of organizations to remain innovative. How can employees be managed in terms of mentoring, role modelling and how can they be monitored for purposes of appraisal reviews? Chapters include the romanticization of WFH, a case study of shared leadership in Vienna and WFH amongst start-ups in India.

In this edited book, researchers from the Global North and the Global south answer these questions, while making a seminal contribution to the field of HRM from a work from home perspective. This is an essential read not just for scholars and students of management, but also for those from the domains of psychology and sociology, and also for policy makers. This book has long-term relevance given that recent polls indicate that as a fallout of Covid-19, many employees the world over are showing a preference for a hybrid model of work - partially at the brick-and-mortar office and partially from home.

The labour movement in Lebanon: Power on hold narrates the history of the Lebanese labour movement from the early twentieth century to today. Bou Khater demonstrates that trade unionism in the country has largely been a failure, for reasons including state interference, tactical co-optation, and the strategic use of sectarianism by an oligarchic elite, together with the structural weakness of a service-based laissez-faire economy. Drawing on a vast body of Arabic-language primary sources and difficult-to-access archives, the book's conclusions are significant not only for trade unionism, but also for new forms of workers' organisations and social movements in Lebanon and beyond.

The Lebanese case study presented here holds significant implications for the wider Arab world and for comparative studies of labour. This authoritative history of the labour movement in Lebanon is vital reading for scholars of trade unionism, Lebanese politics, and political economy.

As organizations continue to adapt and evolve to meet the challenges related to globalization and working with new collaboration technologies to bridge time and space, demands on employees' time and attention continue to increase. Recognizing this problem and its implications, such as increased employee turnover, many companies are seeking ways to help their employees maintain a healthy balance between work and life. This book examines work-life conflict, i.e., the increasing lack of employees' work-life balance, in the context of virtual teams and distributed work. It explores the negative impact on work-life conflict exacerbated by working across time zones, cultures, and geographical spaces. Further, it investigates specific causes of work-life conflict in distributed work environments. For researchers and practitioners in the HRM and OB domains, this book adds to the body of knowledge on work-life conflict, with a unique focus on the role of technology.

This aim of this open access book is to launch an international, cross-disciplinary conversation on fatherhood engagement. By integrating perspective from three sectors-Health, Social Policy, and Work in Organizations-the book offers a novel perspective on the benefits of engaged fatherhood for men, for families, and for gender equality. The chapters are crafted to engaged broad audiences, including policy makers and organizational leaders, healthcare practitioners and fellow scholars, as well as families and their loved ones.

This book presents a cross-cultural investigation into the interplay between social capital and subjective well-being. Based on a quantitative analysis of the latest large-N cross-cultural data sets, including the World Value Survey and the European Social Survey, and covering various countries, it offers a comparative perspective on and new insights into the determinants of social capital and well-being. By identifying both universal and culture-specific patterns, the authors shed new light on the spatial and temporal differentiation of social capital and subjective well-being.

The book is divided into two main parts: The first discusses mutual trust, religious and cultural tolerance, and pro-social and human values as essential dimensions of social capital. In turn, the second part studies social capital as a source of subjective well-being and life satisfaction. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars of sociology, social psychology, political science and economics seeking a deeper understanding of the multi-faceted nature of social capital and well-being.