Tag Archives: labor

Was Karl Polanyi wrong? Land, labor, and private authority in the global economy

Posted on May 26, 2018 by Oleg Komlik

by Tim Bartley* Karl Polanyi famously argued that land, labor, and money are “fictitious commodities.” They cannot be fully subjected to the dictates of the market without spurring backlashes that seek to re-embed them in society. It is easy to … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, community members posts | Tagged China, Economic Sociology, glocalization, Indonesia, institutions, Karl Polanyi, labor, land, norms, Political economy, regulation | Leave a comment

Leonora Barry: a pioneer statistician of women’s labour

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Oleg Komlik

by Eli Cook* Unfortunately yet unsurprisingly, the world of economic quantification was dominated by men in the nineteenth century. In honor of International Women’s Day, here is a story, excerpted from my book The Pricing of Progress, on Leonora Barry, one of … Continue reading →

Posted in community members posts | Tagged economic history, labor, statistics, United States, women rights, work | Leave a comment

Calling for Resistance: the Electronic Panopticon of Call Centers and the Neoliberal Future of Work

Posted on February 5, 2018 by Oleg Komlik

by Jamie Woodcock* For Working the Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centres, I spent six months working undercover in a call centre in the UK. Taking inspiration from workers’ inquiry – a Marxist method of co-research that combines knowledge production with organising … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, community members posts | Tagged control, ethnography, labor, managerialization, Marxism, neoliberalism, precarity, work | Leave a comment

Political Economy of Labor Repression in the United States

Posted on September 12, 2017 by Oleg Komlik

by Andrew Kolin* The task at hand is to place the political economy of repression within the contours of U.S. history and sketch in broad terms how, over time, repression is the product of dynamic and fixed relations between capital and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, community members posts | Tagged capitalism, economic history, labor, state, United States | Leave a comment

Ten years after the 2007-2008 global financial crisis – the human toll in the financial services sector

Posted on August 18, 2017 by Oleg Komlik

by Gregor Gall* Ten years ago this summer, the first rumblings of the thunderclap of what would become the global storm of the great financial crisis of 2007-2008 were heard. The first rumble to be heard was of the panic … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, community members posts | Tagged banking, Critical management studies, financial centres, financial crisis, labor, sociology of work, Unions, United Kingdom | Leave a comment

Unpaid Labor and the Neoliberal Myth of Meritocracy

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Oleg Komlik

Several months ago, a British columnist James Bloodworth published his first book The Myth of Meritocracy: Why Working-Class Kids Still Get Working Class Jobs. The main thesis of the book is precisely reflected in its title: it discusses the neoliberal false … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Name and Shame | Tagged inequality, labor, Middle class, neoliberalism, precariat | 2 Comments

Why is there no labor party in the United States? Look at Canada to find out

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Oleg Komlik

In 1906, a German distinguished (somewhat neglected) economist and sociologist Werner Sombart published Why is there no Socialism in the United States? – a book which will become a famous work on American exceptionalism to this day (along with a pioneering and penetrative Democracy in America, by Alexis de … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged agriculture, Canada, class, comparative political economy, institutional change, labor, policy, politics, Representation (politics), social movements, socialism, Unions, United States | 1 Comment

Capital as power and class struggle explained by… Adam Smith?!

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

In any given society, there is no freedom of contract between capitalist and worker, whose interests are essentially opposite. The power of a landlord, a manufacturer, a merchant resides in his wealth, explaining the inherent subjection of laborers, which lack almost any … Continue reading →

Posted in Oleg Komlik | Tagged Adam Smith, capital, capitalism, class, labor, power | 3 Comments

Gender Inequality in the Labour Market in the UK

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

While women’s engagement and outcomes in the labour market have progressed, the work they do and the remuneration they receive does not reflect personal qualifications relative to men. Why? Gender Inequality in the Labour Market in the UK provides an extensive … Continue reading →