Globalisation and Employment

8 Key excerpts on "Globalisation and Employment"

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  Labour and Employment in a Globalising World : Autonomy, Collectives and Political Dilemmas

  • Christian Azaïs(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Peter Lang International Academic Publishers

    (Publisher)

  They are inclined to converge in an overlapping space be- tween developing and developed countries. As an economic, political and social phenomenon our analysis draws upon the relevant interdisci- plinary literature, various national case studies and thematic perspec- tives. lts unity stems from the central function of politics in all these realms. Our analysis of current trends structures globalisation's impact into three main themes, from macro to micro perspective, each advancing its particular conceptual blueprint. The first outlines what has changed in labour market policies; the second, in labour-management negotiations, the last is more work-centred; focusing upon autonomy at work and the evolutions of the capitalist workplace. The articles concur in their critical stance towards neo-liberal accep- tance of globalisation. Economic and social thought has primarily dealt with four major concerns: "the present form of world economy; the 15 Labour and Employment in a Globalising World dominant regime of capitalist accumulation; the modes and effectiveness of contemporary economic governance; and the robustness of national economic autonomy and sovereignty" (Held McGrew, 2000: 19). These concerns are applied to work and employment in the articles here. The perspectives they propose from the South as from the North thus provide partial but contextualised visions from wide-ranging disciplinary angles. This book is not a comparative work stricto sensu; term-to-term comparisons tend to compartmentalise social phenomena, with often ethnocentric overtones. Work and employment are the products of societal structuring and can rarely be removed from their original set- tings without the risk of distorting their substance. When international comparisons are carried out they most often remain embedded within their national labour markets.

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  Globalisation, Employment and Mobility

  The South Asian Experience

  • H. Sato, M. Murayama, H. Sato, M. Murayama(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Introduction: Globalization and Employment in South Asia Hiroshi Sato and Mayumi Murayama People see the world through the optics of their workplace. Success or fail- ure in the labour market determines whether family needs and aspirations can be met, whether girls and boys get a decent education, whether youths are able to build a career or end up on the street. Youth employment is a critical area for action. Loss of work affects dignity and self-esteem, gener- ates stress and other health problems, and undermines social integration. (A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunity for All, World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, February 2004, p. 86) Background and issues What is meant by ‘globalization’? Is ‘globalization’ a new word representing a new phenomenon? Or is it merely a newly coined word to designate an age-old phenomenon? Scholars like Amartya Sen who view ‘globalization’ in terms of human history over several millennia would argue that globalization, in its basic form, is not particularly new, and that around the year 1000, the globalization of science, technology and mathematics was changing the nature of the old world (Sen 2005: 345). Sen, however, emphasizes here the importance of the migration of peoples and the transmission of ideas, goods and technology. Coming much nearer, we may cite ‘world system’ theorists like Wallerstein who hold that Western capitalism has woven a globalized network by engendering integrated but basically asym- metric economic relations between metropolitan centres and peripheries. There is certainly merit to extending our intellectual horizons far and wide, but here we have to concentrate our focus on the particular situation which made the word ‘globalization’ so central to our understanding of the current global political economy.

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  Workplace Vagabonds

  Career and Community in Changing Worlds of Work

  • C. Garsten(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  1 Work in the Global Economy Working through the prism of globalization In a volume on the significance of the cultural study of work, Harper and Lawson (2003: p. xvi) state: ‘There is no greater issue in the current configuration of work than globalization.’ Without doubt, globalization is a force to be reckoned with in the world of work. Economic relations are becoming increasingly globalized and the mobility of finance capitalism challenges the capacity of nation states to control market actors through political action. Labour mar- kets, too, are more tightly connected to each other across nation states. Globalization moves jobs such as software development, customer services and assembly work to different places in the world depending on proficiency, wage levels and production costs. In the search for new markets and profitable production arrangements, business organizations are outsourcing and externalizing their operations across great distances. Such organizations challenge established boundaries – spatial, organizational and cultural – and contribute to the web of global interconnectedness. They play a vital role in organizing people, ideas and products, and contribute to restructuring and transforming the experience of work for a large proportion of the workforce. 1 The global market redistributes work opportunities, rewards and risks along new axes. For the well-educated and skilled, the people with recognized credentials, globalization opens up new spaces and avenues for pursuing exciting and rewarding job opportunities. In the telecommunications industry, computing, finance and the 11 12 Workplace Vagabonds academic world, many professionals have agendas with lots of mobility written into them, and are able to take advantage of the many benefits out there. Accordingly, we may now perceive work as being increasingly translocal in character.

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  Globalization, Employment and the Workplace

  Diverse Impacts

  • Yaw A. Debrah, Ian G. Smith(Authors)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  According to Kogut and Gittelman (1999), globalization is the process of increasing integration between world civilizations. Waters (1995) adds that it is a social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that these constraints are receding. In a sense, globalization implies a borderless world (Ohmae, 1995). Giddens (1990: 4) also describes globalization as the intensification of world-wide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. These few definitions of globalization point to the trend towards the global village (Ohmae, 1990).

  Exploration of these definitions reveals that globalization impacts on several areas of social life. These include: (a) the economy; (b) the polity; and (c) the culture (Waters, 1995). This implies that the definition of globalization adopted by a particular author depends on the focus of the study. But it is known that globalization is the product of both exogenous and endogenous forces as governments, firms and groups all interact to effect significant political, economic and social changes (Kogut and Gittelman, 1999).

  While it is not possible for us to study the totality of the impact of globalization on society as a whole, we can examine some aspects of the economic impacts of globalization. However, Wiseman (1998) argues that while it is important for us to focus on the economic aspects of globalization, an adequate understanding of the diverse processes of globalization requires a more integrated approach, which illuminates the overall landscape of economic, social, cultural, environmental and political relationships. Hence, it is advisable that while investigating the economic impacts of globalization one does not gloss over its political and social antecedents. In this book we intend to deal principally with economic globalization.

  Following Hill (2001), we use the term globalization in an economic sense to refer to the shift towards a more integrated and interdependent world economy. This is in line with the debates in the literature on the increasing interdependence of regional and national economies and the fundamental shift occurring in the global economy. In Hill’s view, we are witnessing the end of an era when national economies were pretty well isolated from each other by barriers to international trade and investment, by time zones, distance, language, by national differences in government regulations, culture, and business systems. In its place we are witnessing the movement towards a more integrated and interdependent global economic system.

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  The Organisation of Employment

  An International Perspective

  • Jill Rubery, Damian Grimshaw(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  224 The organization of employment change to political and economic sovereignty, it naturally attracts interest from political science and the social sciences in general. Within these fields of enquiry, there is much less apparent consensus, not only over whether we have already entered or are about to enter a globalized world order, but also about what global-ization actually means. These disagreements in practice focus on the extent to which political forces, at the national or international level, have the power to shape the development of the new world order, or whether this power lies vested in the transnational corporations or in global capital. Is globalization here, and is its progress inevitable? There are many and various definitions of the term globalization, and an even wider variety of contexts where the term is used loosely and without any attempt at precise definition. Those who regard use of the term globalization to describe current trends as inappropriate or a great exaggeration are more likely to insist on precise defini-tions and muster data and information to demonstrate that globalization has not yet happened. This group tends to see the world as facing as much continuity as change, and moreover, regards internationalization of the economic system as nothing new and certainly not to be confused with the term globalization. Those who consider globalization to be a term which captures an underlying trend towards a qualitative-ly new situation, which may or may not yet be fully evident in the data, are happy to use the expression in a looser way. Hirst and Thompson (1997) are unashamed members of the first category of scholars. They provide two definitions which distinguish clearly between a world-wide international economy and a global international economy . The worldwide inter-national economy: is one in which the principle entities are nation states and involves the process of growing interconnection between national economies.

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  A Primer on Policies for Jobs

  • Raj Nallari, Breda Griffith, Yidan Wang, Soamiely Andriamananjara, Derek H. C. Chen, Rwitwika Bhattacharya(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • World Bank

    (Publisher)

  135 C H A P T E R 6 Globalization and Jobs What first comes to mind when thinking about globalization is the tre- mendous growth in cross-border trade flows. This growth has occurred not just in merchandise trade but also in trade in services: the value of trade (goods and services) as a percentage of world gross domestic prod- uct (GDP) increased from 42 percent in 1980 to 62 percent in 2007. Broadly speaking, however, economic globalization refers to the greater integration of national economies into the international economy, not only through trade but also through foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. This integration has gradually taken place over time, but its pace has accelerated over recent decades. According to the International Monetary Fund, foreign direct invest- ment increased from 6.5 percent of world GDP in 1980 to 31.8 percent in 2006; the stock of international claims (primarily bank loans) as a percentage of world GDP increased from roughly 10 percent in 1980 to 48 percent in 2006; and the number of minutes spent on cross-border telephone calls, on a per capita basis, increased from 7.3 in 1991 to 28.8 in 2006 (IMF 2008). The integration of the global marketplace is believed to generate significant opportunities for both producers and consumers to take advantage of the larger and more diversified markets around the world, 136 A Primer on Policies for Jobs leading to better access to cheaper imports (as well as technology) and larger export markets. It is also thought to enhance efficiency through specialization and competition. While an integrated and open trading system is generally associated with economic growth and prosperity, questions—often concerns—have been raised about the implications for various groups’ in society.

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  New Capitalism?

  • Kevin Doogan(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Polity

    (Publisher)

  3 Globalization: Mobility, Transnationality and Employment

  In progressing this materialist critique of new capitalism, this chapter moves on to discuss globalization. Globalization is a multidimensional concept but the principal approach adopted here relates to its perceived role in promoting relational change within capitalism. In Bauman’s Liquid Modernity globalization creates new forms of engagement between capital and labour based on tenuous connections between firms and workers and a much greater sense of individualization, whereas for Giddens globalization gives rise to a ‘post-traditional society’. Traditional roles within the family and the community are undermined by a greater awareness of, and engagement with, modern life styles, non-traditional work outside the home and new expressions of sexuality and intimacy. In his view the transformation of work is emphasized in the decline of traditional industries, traditional skills and crafts and the spread of nontraditional ‘a-typical’ forms of employment which give rise to new social relations in the home, at work and wider society.

  Parallels between narratives of globalization and the network society are evident in that both accounts, to varying degrees, stress the autonomy of social process. Moreover, just as Castells is keen to abstract informationalism from industrialism, Giddens similarly stresses that new dynamics express modern forms of globalization.

  The first phase of globalization was plainly governed by the expansion of the West, and institutions which originated in the West. No other civilization made anything like so pervasive an impact on the world, or shaped it so much in its own image. Yet, unlike other forms of cultural or military conquest, disembedding via abstract systems is intrinsically decentred, since it cuts through the organic connection with place upon which tradition depended

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  Reassessing the Employment Relationship

  • Edmund Heery, Peter Turnbull, Edmund Heery, Peter Turnbull, E. Heery, Peter Turnbull(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  part 2 Contextual influences shaping the employment relationship 8 Reassessing markets and employment relations Marco Hauptmeier Introduction Markets are both a central institution and a source of turbulence in capitalist societies. The emergence and decline of markets, competition in markets and the contraction of markets are powerful social and economic processes that have a profound impact on employment relations. Weber (1948) described the competition in markets as a struggle between people without war. For Schumpeter (1942), the rise and fall of companies in markets were part of capitalism’s creative destruction. Commons (1909) pointed to the ‘competi-tive menace’ in markets that drove down the living standards of workers while Polanyi (1944) regarded markets as grinding ‘satanic mills’ that destroy social relations if they are not embedded in social institutions. In addition, a variety of authors have linked globalization and the related expansion and liberaliza-tion of markets to the decline in labour standards and labour rights (Jenkins and Turnbull this volume; Moody, 1997; Tilly, 1995). In a recent important article, Piore and Safford (2006) question the impor-tance of markets for employment relations. They strongly rebut the thesis that changes in employment relations are driven by market forces, and instead sug-gest that they can be attributed to the rise of new identity groups and the mobilization of individual rights at the workplace. They observe a change from a collective bargaining regime to an employment rights regime based on shifting social identities. The collective bargaining regime was underpinned by class-based worker identities and labour unions that negotiated the terms 171 of employment relations through collective bargaining. The decline of class-based identities and the rise of groups based on gender, sexuality, disability and other forms of identity underpinned the emergence of the new employment rights regime.

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