Search

This book explores the conceptual and practical implications of applying a relational view to cultural complexity. The authors take the findings of an international and interdisciplinary Delphi study on transcultural competence as a starting point and offer further analysis and interpretation from their specific perspectives. Written by experts from a variety of disciplines, the book discusses the potential contributions of a relational approach to understanding and strengthening individuals and organizations in their contexts. Through various conceptual chapters, case studies and field reports, it explores the role and nature of commonalities for cooperation in contexts of cultural complexity and discusses the relationship between differences and commonalities, as well as the implications for relational leadership and management. The book is divided into four parts, the first of which introduces readers to the relational view. In turn, the second part elaborates on transcultural competence, while the third presents various case studies and field reports on experience-based learning and relationality in culturally complex settings. Finally, the fourth part sheds new light on relational leadership and the role of commonalities in organizational practice. As such, this book will appeal to scholars and practitioners in the areas of cultural and relational economics, intercultural communication, business strategy and leadership, and organizational studies.

This book is an exploration that shows us how sentiment and duty form the core of Japanese culture. It looks at how the combination of common sense, culture, and social norms influence people's ways of thinking and behavior. Although the focus is Japan in looking at these interrelationships, the author draws on his experience and knowledge of other countries from his days before graduate school, when he traveled the world as a backpacker. Now, from the world of academia, he uses his knowledge of economic analysis to consider the similarities and differences in human behavior among countries and cultures. The wide-ranging scope of the book takes in marital life, education, sports, business, and culture in modern Japanese society. Why, for instance, does linguistic heterogeneity generally have negative effects on FIFA rankings of national soccer teams, and what does this have to do with the difficulty of technology transfer among businesses in multilingual countries? Whywas the demand for the film Bohemian Rhapsody, about the British rock group Queen, so high in Japan? How do Kazuo Ishiguro's novels resemble scenarios related to Japan's long-term public finance prospects? How does the depiction of contemporary life compared with “the old days” in the films of Yasujiro Ozu provide a cautionary tale for aging societies today? How are older people with grandchildren more likely to accept tax increases to support future generations? And how is the Japanese government actively drawing on behavioral economics to appeal to public sentiment to contain the spread of COVID-19. These and a multitude of other questions are tackled by the backpacker who entered academia to become an economist and who now goes on a journey to find the answers. Readers can take the trip with him under his expert guidance, as he artfully combines sentiment, duty, and economic analysis.

The social sciences often fail to examine in any systematic way the nature of their subject matter. Demonstrating that this is a central explanation of the widely acknowledged failings of the social sciences, not least of modern economics, this book sets about rectifying matters. Providing an account of the nature of social material in general, as well as of the specific natures of central components of the modern world, such as money and the corporation, Lawson also considers the implications of this theory regarding possibilities for social change. Readers will gain an understanding of how social phenomena, from tables and chairs, to money and firms, and nurses and Presidents are constituted. Fundamental to Lawson's conception is a theory of community-based social positioning, whereby people and things within a community become constituted as components of emergent totalities, with actions governed by the rights and obligations of relevant members of the community. This theory isolates a set of basic principles that will offer the reader an understanding of the natures of all social phenomena. The Nature of Social Reality is for all those, academics and non-academics alike, who wish to gain a grasp on the nature of social phenomena that goes beyond the superficial.

This book illustrates the applicability of the seminal and controversial metaphor of the «invisible hand» in modern sociological theory. It shows that sociologists have long been part of a field mainly associated with economists and political philosophers. Though unlike the framing that builds directly on Adam Smith, sociological theory focuses on undesirable and perverse outcomes. Furthermore, the sociological angle favors the explanation of invisible hand-like mechanisms as contingent upon social structures and broader processes. Thus, it goes beyond its classical formulation in terms of interdependence, interaction and aggregation of individual actions. This book gathers contributions of remarkable authors who are linked directly either with the invisible hand metaphor, with the spontaneous order phenomenon or with the unintended consequences issue and aims to describe the traditional and contemporary applicability of the sociological framing of the invisible hand for social sciences.

This book examines the societies of the civilised world - old and new - and its two distinct and separate classes. Whilst one class accumulates in utter idleness enormous and ever increasing revenues, the other, far more numerous, labours life-long for miserable wages. One class lives without working, the other works without living or without a life worthwhile. When confronted by such a contrast, the question must at once occur to every mind: is this sad state of affairs the result of inherent necessity, inseparable from the organic conditions of human nature; or is it merely the outcome of certain historical tendencies that are destined to disappear at a later stage of social evolution? It concludes that the truth is to be found in the latter alternative: that capitalistic property, with its caste division of humanity into capitalists and labourers, is by no means the product of conditions inherent in human nature, but simply the result of powerful historical causes which will eventually disappear. A variety of facts are presented in support of this argument.

Myrdal described this book as a discussion of three key notions in economic theory: the ideas of value, freedom, and collective house-keeping. It is through these concepts, he charged, that political ideology has been intro-duced into economic theory. This volume continues to be relevant in its emphasis on the problem of objectivity in the social sciences.

This collection explores how pioneering gender equality policies have shaped women's economic presence in Europe since 2000. Equal pay policies, parental leave reforms, corporate quotas and electoral quotas have raised pressing questions about the effectiveness in promoting equal participation, as researchers quote both quantitative improvement in gender diversity and qualitative lag in cultural change. The chapters in this book present interlocking cross-national and cross-policy comparisons of the three most controversial reforms: equal pay, parental leave, and quotas for political representatives. The contributors address the cultural context in which reforms arose, internally contradictory policies, and the relative effectiveness of fast-track quotas and incentives compared to long-term efforts to change the overall culture of gender. This critical examination of the new millennium's groundbreaking gender policies will appeal to academics and practitioners interested in the progress of gender equality in the economic, political, and social welfare fields.

Die Kombination von Wirtschaft und Recht ist insbesondere für Unternehmen, Übersetzer und Wirtschafts- bzw. Jurastudenten von starkem Interesse. Das Lexikon ist in vieljähriger Arbeit von einem Profi seines Fachs zusammengestellt worden. Es hat sich einen Platz im Handapparat vieler Nachfrager in kurzer Zeit erobert.

Das zunehmende Interesse an ökonomischen Fragestellungen in der Soziologie hat zu einer Fülle empirischer Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet der Wirtschaftssoziologie geführt. Das Buch trägt fundamentale Erkenntnisse quantitativer Forschung zusammen und demonstriert anhand eigener empirischer Beiträge den Erklärungsgehalt von wirtschaftssoziologischen Überlegungen. Behandelt werden u.a. die Bedeutung von Vertrauen bei der Durchführung wirtschaftlicher Transaktionen, Gewohnheit und Sucht im Konsumverhalten, die Entstehung von Superstars in Kulturmärkten, Diskriminierung im Arbeitsmarkt, Globalisierung und Einkommensungleichheit sowie monetäre und soziale Bestimmungsgründe der Lebenszufriedenheit. Die Beiträge bauen auf dem im ersten Band des Lehrbuchs vermittelten Wissen auf und verdeutlichen die empirische Fruchtbarkeit des vorgeschlagenen Forschungsprogramms.

Das zunehmende Interesse an ökonomischen Fragestellungen in der Soziologie hat zu einer Fülle empirischer Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet der Wirtschaftssoziologie geführt. Das Buch trägt fundamentale Erkenntnisse quantitativer Forschung zusammen und demonstriert anhand eigener empirischer Beiträge den Erklärungsgehalt von wirtschaftssoziologischen Überlegungen. Behandelt werden u.a. die Bedeutung von Vertrauen bei der Durchführung wirtschaftlicher Transaktionen, Gewohnheit und Sucht im Konsumverhalten, die Entstehung von Superstars in Kulturmärkten, Diskriminierung im Arbeitsmarkt, Globalisierung und Einkommensungleichheit sowie monetäre und soziale Bestimmungsgründe der Lebenszufriedenheit. Die Beiträge bauen auf dem im ersten Band des Lehrbuchs vermittelten Wissen auf und verdeutlichen die empirische Fruchtbarkeit des vorgeschlagenen Forschungsprogramms.

En choisissant l'électroménager comme objet de recherche, ce livre propose une autre lecture de l'histoire de la société industrielle. L'électroménager représente la consommation finale, les classes moyennes, les femmes, dimensions souvent oubliées de cette histoire. Un mode de vie et de consommation est devenu le même pour tous. Il pourrait être promu au rang d'élément moteur de la vie politique et sociale. En transférant les préoccupations de l'économie familiale au niveau du politique, les femmes transforment le contenu du politique.

The boundary between economics and sociology is presently being redefined--but how, why, and by whom? Richard Swedberg answers these questions in this thought-provoking book of conversations with well-known economists and sociologists. Among the economists interviewed are Gary Becker, Amartya Sen, Kenneth Arrow, and Albert O. Hirschman; the sociologists include Daniel Bell, Harrison White, James Coleman, and Mark Granovetter. The picture that emerges is that economists and sociologists have paid little attention to each other during most of the twentieth century: social problems have been analyzed as if they had no economic dimension and economic problems as if they had no social dimension. Today, however, there is a dialogue between the two fields, as economists take on social topics and as sociologists become interested in rational choice and'new economic sociology.'The interviewees describe how they came to challenge the present separation between economics and sociology, what they think of the various proposals to integrate the fields, and how they envision the future. The author summarizes the results of the conversations in the final chapter. The individual interviews also serve as superb introductions to the work of these scholars.

John R. Commons is one of the most significant figures in the development of American economics. One of the founders of the Institutional school, Commons developed theories of the evolution of capitalism and of institutional change which continue to influence modern economics. These volumes collect, for the first time, his major essays and articles.

First Published in 2015. Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) was a contemporary of John Dewey and C.S. Peirce and ranks as one of the seminal minds of his generation of American thinkers in economics and sociology. He was a caustic critic of American business culture and his prose being peppered with Latin vocabulary might have made his ideas difficult to comprehend to the layperson. This collection of his writings looks at Veblen's works, main concepts and enables the reader to sample the broad spectrum of his thought and to reach his or her own conclusions regarding its present relevance.

John R. Commons is one of the most significant figures in the development of American economics. One of the founders of the Institutional school, Commons developed theories of the evolution of capitalism and of institutional change which continue to influence modern economics. These volumes collect, for the first time, his major essays and articles.