Working under Different Rules or People out of Place

Working under Different Rules

Author: Richard B Freeman

For much of the twentieth century, American workers were the world's leaders in productivity, wages, and positive workplace conditions. American unions championed free enterprise and high labor standards, and American businesses dominated the world market. But, as editor Richard B. Freeman cautions in Working Under Different Rules, despite our relatively high standard of living we have fallen behind our major trading partners and competitors in providing good jobs at good pay - what was once considered "the American dream." Working Under Different Rules assesses the decline in the well-being of American workers - evidenced by spiraling income inequality and stagnant real earnings - and compares our employment and labor conditions with those of Western Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia. As these original essays demonstrate, the modern U.S. labor market is characterized by a high degree of flexibility, with rapid employee turnover, ongoing creation of new jobs, and decentralized wage setting practices. But closer inspection reveals a troubling flip side to this adaptability in the form of inadequate job training, more frequent layoffs, and increased numbers of workers pushed to the very bottom of the income scale, into the low wage occupations where much of the recent job growth has occurred. While the variety of works councils prevalent throughout the developed world have done much to foster democratic rights and economic protection for employees, the virtually union-free environment emerging in many areas of the private U.S. economy has stripped workers of a strong collective voice. German apprenticeship programs and the Japanese system of "job rotation" represent more effective approaches to preparing workers for the changing demands of lifetime employment. In addition, workers in European advanced economies and in Canada have greater social protection than Americans. But while this has some cost in unemployment and higher taxes, carefully designed social s

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Assesses the decline in the well- being of American workers--evidenced by spiraling income inequality and stagnant real earnings--and compares American employment and labor conditions with those of Western Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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People Out of Place: Globalization, Human Rights, and the Citizenship Gap

Author: Alison Brysk

Globalization pushes people "out of place"--across borders, out of traditions, into markets, and away from the rights of national citizenship. But globalization also contributes to the spread of international human rights ideas and institutions. This book analyzes the impact of these contradictory trends, with a focus on vulnerable groups such as migrants, laborers, women, and children. Theoretical essays by Richard Falk, Ronnie Lipschutz, Aihwa Ong, and Saskia Sassen rethink the shifting nature of citizenship. This collection advances the debate on globalization, human rights, and the meaning of citizenship.

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments
1	Introduction: Globalization and the Citizenship Gap	3
2	Citizenship and Human Rights in an Era of Globalization	11
3	Constituting Political Community: Globalization, Citizenship, and Human Rights	29
4	Latitudes of Citizenship: Membership, Meaning, and Multiculturalism	53
5	Agency on a Global Scale: Rules, Rights, and the European Union	73
6	Mandated Membership, Diluted Identity: Citizenship, Globalization, and International Law	87
7	Deflated Citizenship: Labor Rights in a Global Era	109
8	Globalized Social Reproduction: Women Migrants and the Citizenship Gap	131
9	Children across Borders: Patrimony, Property, or Persons?	153
10	Citizenship and Globalism: Markets, Empire, and Terrorism	177
11	The Repositioning of Citizenship	191
12	Conclusion: Globalizing Citizenship?	209
	Bibliography	217
	List of Contributors	235
	Index	239