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The reemergence of aesthetics in China's early reform period witnessed a wide-ranging embrace of the early Marxist vocabulary of species-being, alienation, and unalienated labor, in tandem with a wave of interest in developments in Soviet aesthetics that had arisen over the 1960s and 1970s. Above all, Chinese aestheticians were enthused by the Soviet field of "technical aesthetics," which marked those currents in Soviet aesthetic thought that extended the possibilities of beauty beyond the delimited space of the artwork or literary creation to envision how factory labor might become an aesthetic process, simultaneously productive and artistic. By tracing the trajectory of these currents of aesthetic thought against the background of Marxist humanism, I show the ways in which Soviet–Chinese aesthetic encounters conditioned the fashioning of the post-Maoist factory as creative space and the postsocialist figure of the human as creative laborer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we develop an endogenous growth model to analyze how fiscal and monetary policies can manage the macroeconomic effects of the robotization process. We consider that unskilled labor can be replaced by robots and that: (i) the government collects tax revenues to invest in social capital and compensate those who lose their jobs; (ii) there is monetary policy with cash-in-advance restrictions; (iii) social capital contributes to increasing technological-knowledge progress. Our results confirm that robotization stimulates economic growth, but contributes to widening wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers. We show that, under specific circumstances, an expansionary monetary policy or a more progressive taxation can attenuate such widening effect. We also show that public investment in social capital and public transfers to those who lose their jobs play a crucial role in attenuating the negative consequences of rising unemployment caused by robotization. • We develop an endogenous growth model in which unskilled labor can be replaced by robots. • The government collects taxes to invest in social capital and compensate those who lose their jobs. • Monetary policy is included through cash-in-advance restrictions. • Robotization stimulates economic growth and increases wage inequality. • Fiscal and monetary policies can be crucial to attenuate the negative impacts of robotization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, conducted through a combination of interviews, surveys, and direct observations, examines the exploitation of sleep-in domestic workers from Lesotho who work in South African households. Based on data collected from 15 participants, the research brings to light the difficult living conditions these workers face, including a lack of privacy and inadequate working environments. The study identifies several key issues, such as the absence of written contracts, leaving workers susceptible to exploitation, unpaid overtime, and widespread non-compliance with minimum wage laws. The research shows that domestic workers encounter major obstacles in getting necessary healthcare and support services, which worsens their already unstable situation. The study also emphasizes the lack of chances for training and skills improvement, which hampers the workers' ability to enhance their lives and find better job opportunities. Many of these domestic workers are the main providers for their families and single parents, making the importance of fair pay and good working conditions even more crucial. The study highlights the significance of fair pay and good working conditions, stressing the urgent need for these rights and immediate policy interventions to be upheld. The research aims to bring attention to the systemic exploitation faced by this vulnerable group and advocate for essential reforms to protect their rights and improve their living and working conditions. Overall, the study emphasizes the pressing need for policy interventions and support mechanisms to empower domestic workers and enhance their quality of life in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter relies on tax records to estimate the distribution of wealth in 19th century Lima. In particular, by using real estate tax records of 1836 and 1857, I estimate the distribution of wealth of proprietors of Lima prior and during the Guano Era. I find that wealth inequality among proprietors remained practically the same in those two years. During this period of economic bonanza, social mobility was possible but did not change the distribution of wealth. Wealth inequality remained practically the same across real estate proprietors. On the other hand, a comparison of the wealth of proprietors and the labor income of laborers suggests that inequality between proprietors and low-skilled workers increased during the Guano Era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes online shopping into consideration, and constructs general equilibrium models to analyze how consumers' dependence on online shopping affects rural‐urban skilled‐unskilled wage inequality. We find that when consumers' dependence on online shopping increases, wage inequality can be conditionally narrowed down, depending on the unskilled labor intensity in the urban manufacturing sector and the possible elasticity of the contract price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Automobile Technology & Material is the property of Automobile Technology & Material Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article traces how local, state, and federal officials in the United Sates weaponized morality against Mexican contract wage laborers in the first three decades of the twentieth century. The author argues that the sexual morals policing project targeting immigrant women suspected of prostitution and other immoral behaviors shaped the experiences of Mexican contract wage laborers as they sought entry into the United States and once they were admitted. By focusing on the racialized poverty of the Mexican, US immigration officials and employers created a stark binary of workers as "moral" law‐abiding/"immoral" vagrant criminals depending on laborers compliance and participation within a burgeoning transnational contract labor system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focused on migration between Hispaniola and Pennsylvania from the 1790s to the 1820s, this article demonstrates how the anti-Black logics of slavery continued to subjugate Black laborers during the era of emancipation. It contends that Black unfreedom was reconstituted both alongside and, at times, as a result of Pennsylvania's 1780 Gradual Abolition Act. This essay documents how Black migrants, especially children and youths, were affected by the racialized indentured labor regime stimulated by the act. This article employs a transnational analysis of Pennsylvania's gradual abolition policies to highlight how foreign enslavers could affect the emancipatory reach of domestic legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human migration is a defining feature of our world, yet the simplistic binary categorization of "legal" versus "illegal" movement often obscures the complexities of cross-border movement. This paper examines the nuanced spectrum of (il)legality along the Ethiopia-Sudan border, focusing on how legal frameworks and social perceptions of (il)legality shape experiences of migrants and people on the move. The study proposes categorizing migration as including sectoral classifications (laborers, tourists) and legality-based situations (overstays, illegal routes). Building upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2021, the paper analyzes the discrepancies between national migration legislation, on-the-ground enforcement practices, and lived realities of migrants and border communities while acknowledging a multifaceted landscape of performances. By exploring this dynamic, the paper contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the concept of (il)legality in migration studies, in particular in the context of the Ethiopia-Sudan border, while providing insights that extend beyond this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a small open economy with three sector and four factors. Agricultural sector produces output with unskilled labour and land. Manufacturing sector and skill formation sector produce output with skilled labour and capital. Skill formation sector transforms the unskilled labour into skilled labour. We also consider an extended version of this model where agricultural sector also uses capital. So capital is mobile between all three sectors. Both change in the price of manufacturing sector and capital stock alter skill formation in a similar direction. But change in the price of manufacturing sector leads to change in skilled–unskilled wage inequality in the same direction whereas due to change in capital stock it changes in opposite direction. In our extended study, where capital is mobile between all three sectors, the results of the basic model are unaltered. JEL Codes: F13, J31 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid influx of labor migration and accelerating rates of globalization, studies of hegemonic masculinity have become increasingly divided in representing the amount of agency marginalized men have access to in constructing alternative, more hybrid masculine ideals as they travel overseas. This paper offers a new methodological approach for studying hegemonic masculinity. Specifically, we analyze how multiple forces at the structural, interpersonal, and individual levels work together as a system of oppression. As our case study, we focus on African bachelors who have migrated to South Korea to fill the demand for 3‐d (dirty, difficult, and dangerous) labor. By analyzing 30 interviews and two years of ethnographic observation of African migrants in Korea, our study demonstrates how migrant men become trapped by their desires to perform their masculine worth as reliable wage laborers, even at the cost of their physical and emotional well‐being. While past studies on undocumented migrant workers in Korea have highlighted their heightened exposure to institutional violence, we shed light on how structural forces also bleed into the private spaces of everyday life, shaping the intimate relationships and personal desires of marginalized men themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s second stint in power 2012 to 2020 oversaw numerous ambitious reforms to Japan’s immigration regime whilst still maintaining the country’s status quo of ‘no immigration policy’. This status quo was established through the 1990 system and denies both the admittance of unskilled foreign labor and formal immigration policy, instead relying on ‘side-door’ policies to recruit most foreign workers. The goal of this article is to evaluate the policy outcomes of Abe’s reforms by taking a macro-level approach and using a historical institutionalist methodological framework. Through classifying Abe’s major policy initiatives utilizing the mechanisms of institutional change, I analyze whether despite Abe’s own insistence, he has changed the immigration status quo in a fundamental way. In the conclusion, I argue that in combination with recent reforms by his successors, the potential for a fundamental change in Japan’s immigration policy trajectory is present – even though this change has not taken place yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical census data are a pivotal source for studying occupational dynamics, yet analyzing them is often challenging due to the large number of unique occupations and the need to standardize unspecific titles. A new methodology for attributing occupational titles to industrial sectors, demonstrated with the 1939 National Register for England and Wales (a dataset of approximately 42 million entries), produces findings that align with the trends across the agriculture and mining, secondary, and tertiary sectors identified in previous studies. At the subsector level, however, this procedure revises the shares for agricultural workers and individuals employed across the tertiary subsectors. At the district level, the sectoral allocation process results in a redistribution of workers into certain secondary subsectors driven by more precise sectoral estimations for previously underrepresented groups and the empirical allocation of generic laborers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exertional heat illnesses (EHIs), specifically exertional heat stroke (EHS), are a top cause of nonaccidental death among U.S. laborers. EHS management requires coordination between Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and workplace officials to implement cold water immersion (CWI) and cool first, transport second (CFTS). The purpose of this article was to quantify and identify existing statewide EMS guidelines, determine whether statewide EHS guidelines improved outcomes for EHIs in laborers, and examine the odds of laborer EHS fatalities when best practices are present in EMS statewide guidelines. The Paramedic Protocol Provider database and official EMS websites were examined to determine which U.S. states had statewide EMS guidelines and, for those with statewide guidelines, a two-way χ2 analysis with associated odds ratios examined EHI outcomes. Statewide EMS guidelines underwent content analysis by three independent reviewers regarding EHS best practices. Significance was set a priori at p < 0.05. Among 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, 57.7% (n = 30) had statewide EMS guidelines and 42.3% (n = 22) did not. There was a significant association for EHI outcome for states recommending CWI as a cooling method vs. those that did not (χ2 1 = 3.336; p = 0.049). The odds of EHS deaths for laborers were 3.0 times higher if CWI was not included in the EMS guidelines. There was a significant association in EHI outcomes for states without CFTS (χ2 1 = 5.051; p = 0.017). The odds of laborers dying from EHS were 3.7 times higher in states without CFTS. Laborers are 3.0 and 3.7 times less likely to die from EHS when statewide EMS guidelines include CWI and CFTS, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze the effects of food tariff changes on the welfare of urban and rural households in Iran. The study considers the role of households as consumers, producers, and workers, as well as the market structure over the past fifteen years. Firstly, the study estimated the consumption behavior for the main food groups using the QUAIDS and pseudo-panel data. Then, the extent of tariff pass-through to domestic food prices was determined, and after that, price-wage elasticity and wage changes as a result of tariff changes were estimated. Finally, it calculated the effect of tariff changes on household purchasing power and income through an indirect utility function to get welfare effects. The results indicate that tariff pass-through to food prices is incomplete and varies between urban and rural areas. The study has found that skilled labor is more sensitive to food tariff reductions than unskilled labor, particularly in rural areas. The results reveal that tariff changes positively affect urban households' welfare, while rural households experience a loss due to these changes. Urban areas benefit from reduced household expenditure, while food prices are increasing in rural areas due to weak or absent tariff passthrough. Although these increases favor producers, they do not compensate for the loss consumers suffer, resulting in reduced welfare in rural areas. The findings show that the effects of tariff changes vary across regions, not only between urban and rural areas but also among different provinces. Furthermore, the tariff reductions have been a boon for consumers, but a bane for producers, ultimately harming production in the long term. The findings suggest that regional markets may be either sufficient or insufficient to convert pass-through-the-border prices into domestic prices. Therefore, policymakers can use this study as a useful guide to reform the regional market structure to raise household welfare, food security, and income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: In the past decades, increasing population, urbanization and industrial development, have increased demand for water which has resulted into considerable decrease in annual renewable water resources per capita. One of the most important ways to solve the problem of water shortage is pricing. Based on the studies, there is a significant gap between the actual water price and the price paid by consumers. Therefore, design of water price structure is a crucial issue for water utilities and local communities to achieve an efficient allocation of the scarce water resources. In this study, the effect of water pricing on structural changes has been investigated. Structural changes can occur due to changes in total income and changes in relative prices. Structural changes can also occur through changes in input-output (partial) links, which have received less attention in the literature (Neuss 2019). The purpose of this study is to answer the question whether water pricing can cause structural changes in the Iranian economy in the horizon of 2032? METHODOLOGY: In this study, dynamic general equilibrium models have been used. The data required to simulate the scenario proposed in this research is taken from the ninth version of GTAP-E. According to the research objectives, the regions are divided into Iran and rest of the world. Economic sectors include agriculture, coal, oil, gas, industry, petrochemicals, electricity, water and services. Factors of production include skilled labor, unskilled labor, land, natural resources, and capital. In this study, two scenarios are defined. In the first scenario, an impact of 30% on the price of water in the industrial sector is considered. In the second scenario, an impact of 30% on the price of water in the agricultural sector is considered. In the third scenario, an impact of 30% on the price of water in both sector is considered. FINDINGS: The results show that with increasing water prices in the industrial sector (first scenario), skilled and unskilled labor in the agricultural sector decreases. Therefore, it can be accepted that the labor move from the agricultural sector to other economic sectors. Rising prices have also led to an increasing in the employment of skilled and unskilled labor in the coal, oil, gas, petrochemical and electricity sectors. With the increase in water prices in the agricultural sector (second scenario), the increas skilled and unskilled labor in the industrial and service sectors has always increased during the forecast years. Therefore, it can be concluded that one of the important factors affecting the structural changes that have occur slowly over the past years can be the change in water prices in various economic sectors. Also, the reduction of capital in the agricultural sector is associated with the use of capital in the main energy sectors in Iran. CONCLUSION: Structural changes are one of the causes and effects relationship in economic development. Structural changes is formed with the development process itself can also be a factor of development and prosperity. For structural change, generally a shocke in a part of the economy can be a reason for structural change. For this reason, in this study, water prices in economic sectors have been considered. The results show that increasing of water prices in the industrial and agricultural sectors, lead to the population growth of skilled and unskilled labor decreases, but consequently, in the coming years until 2032, skilled and unskilled labor in the industrial and service sectors will experience positive growth. Based on this, it can be concluded that realizing the price of water can help the process of structural change in Iran. Of course, along with the labor force, capital flows have also been affected, which is better reflected in key energy sectors. Therefore, realizing the price of water and taking a step in its direction can help the process of using the active population of the country in order to achieve stable and sustainable growth. Therefore, the policy proposal is that the gradual realization of water prices can gradually cause structural changes in the Iran economy over time, which in turn leads to stable and sustainable growth and, most importantly, employment and the formation of sustainable capacities in industry and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the work of Vicente Telles, a cultural iconographer from New Mexico who creates traditional retablos using mineral pigments and contemporary materials. Telles blends past, present, and future to solidify his relationship with culture, heritage, and identity. His pieces address social issues, such as the demonization of migrants at the southern border, and aim to educate audiences on labor, art, and elitism within the art world. Telles' work reflects his culture and challenges viewers to consider the importance of manual labor and the contributions of Latino workers in the United States. [Extracted from the article]

Using what Perry calls "a diachronic poesis of living in politics that is ever changing, uncertain, and vexed," I argue that the crushed bones of the Sugarland 95 are preceded in their suffering and vulnerability by medieval representations of impoverished femininity. Perry's notion of "the fact of being a human being" offers a parallel way of thinking through medieval maternal poverty, and the way that the state might contravene human agency through forced labor. I read William Langland's critique of the post-plague Statutes of Laborers, seen in his pairing of Will's work as a vagabond poet, with the precarity of hungry, desperate mothers, as an alternative poetics of capaciously gendered endurance distinct from dominant, masculinist models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human capital plays a crucial role in regional innovation and economic progress, which has increasingly been highlighted in research. However, rising housing costs in cities can push talent away, causing brain drain and hindering local innovation. Within this context, China has seen widespread adoption of talent housing policies (THPs) aimed at providing housing assistance for the high-skilled labor force, although the ramifications of these initiatives remain largely underexplored. Based on labor force heterogeneity, this study investigates the effects of THPs targeted at high-skilled labor on the mobility of both high- and low-skilled workers and their consequent impact on regional innovation. Our findings reveal that while THPs bolster the local pool of highly skilled human capital and attract more low-skilled workforce, enhancing regional innovation through labor–skill complementarities, they concurrently elevate housing costs for low-skilled laborers, reducing their long-term settlement intensions and potentially hindering a city's innovation trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key parameter in the analysis of wage inequality is the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled labor. We show that the empirical literature is consistent with both publication and attenuation bias in the estimated inverse elasticities. Publication bias, which exaggerates the mean reported inverse elasticity, dominates and results in corrected inverse elasticities closer to zero than the typically published estimates. The implied mean elasticity is 4, with a lower bound of 2. Elasticities are smaller for developing countries. To derive these results, we use nonlinear tests for publication bias and model averaging techniques that account for model uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the distributive and welfare effects of cross‐ownership by firms in a general equilibrium economy on the product and factor markets. The cross‐ownership of equities, such as collusion, tends to be anticompetitive, thereby narrowing the wage gap between skilled and unskilled labor in the short term with the existing number of firms. In the capital market, reducing capital cost through cross‐ownership causes new firms to enter the market in the long term. This firm‐entry effect induced by cross‐ownership through an increase in the number of competitors generates a competitive force that exacerbates wage inequality and reduces welfare in the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article disentangles the nexus between coloniality, territoriality, and gendered necropolitics of state in Iran and how it shapes the lives of the Kurdish female cross‐border laborers (kolbers, in Kurdish) in Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhelat, in Kurdish). Drawing on Achille Mbembe's notion of “necropolitics,” we conceptualize kolberi as a work of death that subjects Kurds to indiscriminate and collective punishment through necro‐disciplinary measures, exposing them constantly to precarious conditions. The necropolitics of Kurdish female kolberi underlines how the meaning of death, like the meaning of life (in biopolitics), is produced and managed through elements of embodiment―bodies, of who kills, and of who is marked for death and for taking life. We interviewed 13 Kurdish women in Rojhelat who have been involved in kolberi over the last few years. By bringing the gendered dimension of kolberi to the forefront, our article theorizes the experiences of women kolbers as occurring in a “death world”―a world where female kolbers' lives are perpetually endangered by the state apparatus of death and silenced by the patriarchal regime of “truth.” Our analysis reveals a form of state violence that highlights the gendered expression of “colonized subjects.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the interplay between race and trade within the framework of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). It examines how historical and ongoing racial dynamics influence trade practices, using the example of the pecan industry in El Paso County to illustrate broader patterns of racial capitalism. It highlights the persistent inequalities faced by low-wage Mexican laborers in the trade system.

Key Clinical Message: Ruptured sinus of Valsalva (RSOV) upon physical exertion is rare but should be considered in differential in young adults. Symptoms of acute heart failure, hemodynamic instability, and continuous heart murmur raises suspicion for RSOV and requires emergent surgical repair of right ventricular outflow tract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the summer of 1944, the Jewish forced laborers from Hasag in Skarżysko-Kamienna were evacuated and used for work in other camps in the General Government or further inland of the Reich. The purpose of this article is to present the events that occurred at that time. The moment of evacuation from the camp in Skarżysko will be described first, then the fate of prisoners who were transferred from there to other labor camps. The article was written and based on broad research of sources and it presents the events from the perspective of survivors of Hasag in Skarżysko. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CTS is arranged in outer muscle problems. This infection is brought about by pressure of the middle nerve at the wrist. Occupational factors are work- related risk factors, such as working quickly, repetitive movements, work stress, work that uses a lot of wrists and vibrations. The motivation behind this study is to decide the impact of word related elements to CTS frequency on regulatory specialists. This study uses cross sectional design with 35 respondents as sample. To determine hand posture was carried out by observation and interpretation with RULA, measurement of repetitive motion use a stopwatch, and work stress use Stress Diagnosis Survey. Utilize the Phalen's Test and the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire to determine the incidence of CTS. The aftereffect of prescreening on managerial specialists uncovered that 40% laborers are positive for CTS. While the analysis uses binary logistic regression to determine the influence of occupational factors to CTS incident. Variables that influence CTS are repetitive motion of using mouse (p=0.005), repetitive motion of typing (p=0.027), and work stress (p=0.027). Therefore, it is necessary to give recommendations based on related variables (repetitive motion and work stress) in order to minimize the occurrence of CTS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Small Business International Review is the property of Asociacion Espanola de Contabilidad y Administracion de Empresas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study provides a four-good general equilibrium framework with international trade for assessing the impact of the advancement of automation and artificial intelligence (A&AI) on the welfare of a group of agents who are excluded from both owning productive assets, such as capital and land, as well as consuming digital output (digital exclusion). We show that, depending on the magnitude of the factor intensities, the accumulation of A&AI capital may negatively affect the income of the excluded group, who provide unskilled labor, or the owners of land. In doing so, we bring out the conflict of interests that may arise between the owners of A&AI capital and other groups within society, which has implications for the pressure that exists to slow down the adoption of A&AI in an economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Indonesia, the negative health impact of COVID‐19 and the initial, direct loss of employment have been largest in urban, not rural areas. But the second‐round effects on labor markets have been very different. They have included a huge, empirically documented migration of newly unemployed urban workers from urban to rural areas, in urgent search of employment, food, and safety from the pandemic. We call this "de‐urbanization." It placed the migrating workers in economic competition with the least skilled agricultural workers, expanding their numbers by almost 8%. By increasing the supply of unskilled farm labor, de‐urbanization depressed farm workers' real wages. Because the demand for farm labor is inelastic, the total wage income of these workers, aggregated across all unskilled farm laborers, declined. The households relying on this source of income are by far Indonesia's poorest. Similar outcomes may occur in other pandemic‐affected developing countries with large agricultural sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of relative performance evaluation (RPE) on skilled‐unskilled wage inequality. We find that in an economy with full employment, skilled‐unskilled wage inequality will be expanded when the strength of RPE increases. However, when the urban sector is under the minimum wage restriction, the impact of RPE on skilled‐unskilled wage inequality depends on the substitution elasticity between land and unskilled labor in the rural sector. If this substitution elasticity is sufficiently large (resp. small), skilled‐unskilled wage inequality will be expanded (resp. narrowed down) when the strength of RPE rises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's experiences teaching in a business school in Idaho, a state known for its right-wing political environment. The author highlights the challenges and opportunities of teaching in a region with a unique demographic of non-traditional and first-generation students. By incorporating critical analysis of markets and historical context into their teaching, the author aims to engage students in meaningful discussions about political economy and social justice. Despite facing austerity measures and potential pushback, the author finds teaching in a business school to be a valuable platform for fostering awareness and understanding among students from diverse backgrounds. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Historia Contemporanea is the property of Historia Contemporania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The objective of identifying constraining factors is to reveal that the key obstacles affecting the competitiveness of South Africa's domestic orange industry include issues such as the "quality of unskilled labor," "trust in the honesty of politicians," "electricity suppliers," "health," "South Africa's land reform policy," "South Africa's BEE policy," and "crime." Additionally, challenges related to the lack of quality infrastructure, bilateral agreements with trading countries, and poor performance of ports relative to their global counterparts have been identified. The constraining factors were ranked, with the top issues aligning closely with the industry's current challenges. In contrast, enhancing factors play a crucial role in boosting industry competitiveness in both domestic and international markets. The key elements contributing positively include the availability of unskilled labor, local input suppliers, scientific research institutions, technological quality, the cost of unskilled labor, soil conditions, and the sustainability of local input suppliers. Attention to maintaining and improving these factors is crucial for the sustained competitiveness of the South African orange sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advancement in technologies such as robotic industries and artificial intelligence bring fear among human being that jobs will be substituted by robots. Base on the panel data of 28 China's manufacturing industries, this research analyzed the impact of technical progress bias on employment. First, we calculate the technical progress bias index of 28 industries base on the stochastic frontier model with transcendental logarithm function found 16 industries were toward the skilled labor while the remaining 12 industries were toward the unskilled labor. Second, the empirical results show that technical progress bias has a positive impact on the total manufacturing employment and significant positive effect on the unskilled labor, while no significant impact on skilled labor employment. Third, the threshold effect test proves that if taking industry value-added per capita or R&D capital stock as threshold variable, the threshold about the impact exist, making the impact on skilled labor was insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The State Ammunition Factory in Skarżysko-Kamienna, just after the outbreak of World War II was taken over by the German company Hasag from Leipzig which produced weapons and ammunition for the Wehrmacht during the occupation. In Skarżysko the German authorities used the Jewish forced laborers, who were forced to work at an inhumane rate and endure horrendous sanitary and living conditions. The plight of exploited Jews may have been influenced by their Polish colleagues who worked side by side with them in factory halls. The aim of this article is to characterize the attitudes Polish nationals of towards the Jews working in Hasag in Skarżysko. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the representation of social classes in novels about the crisis based on a general overview and the subsequent analysis of two works with choral protagonists, Los besos en el pan by Almudena Grandes and Peligro de derrumbe by Pedro Simón. It is found that this narrative has focused its interest on the portrayal of the decomposition of the middle class and has thus contributed to shaping a depiction of the consequences of the economic crisis from a partial and limited perspecti- ve that sidelines migrants, workers, or laborers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become increasingly prevalent and is expected to replace a range of human tasks. In this context, this study seeks to identify occupations that are vulnerable to AI, and focuses on their occupational and spatial characteristics. Korean patent data within Google Patents and tasks of occupations based on ISCO-08 were collected and analyzed via dependency parsing to reveal the corresponding tasks and occupations with AI's technical characteristics. Our analysis highlights the vulnerability of tasks that have remained unchanged for a long time, while managerial professions and other occupations involving new and complex tasks based on know-how are less susceptible to the influence of AI. The study also shows significant regional disparities in labor distribution according to AI vulnerability in Korea, forming a strong spatial cluster. While previous waves of automation primarily affected manual labor involving unskilled work and low levels of education, AI is expected to replace various forms of middle and high skilled and educated human work. As such, this study recommends that local governments prepare for the polarization of the labor market by AI based on the understanding of their employment structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Lave's theorisation of situated learning, this article engages with skills in the so-called 'unskilled' domain of waste work. Waste work involves handling diverse material discards, from household vegetable peelings, metal and plastic scraps, to human and animal faecal material and corpses. In India, forms of waste work are toxic, historically stigmatised, burdened on Dalit and Adivasi bodies, and officially categorised as 'unskilled' work. Based on fieldwork in a town in central India, the paper draws attention to skills in waste work, documenting social practices that involve processes of learning and acquiring skills. Analysing institutions that mediate skill acquisition in waste work, the paper argues that 'skilled' work is politically and socially constructed and materially contingent. The article destabilises reified notions of how work gets classified as '(un)skilled'. Further, the paper reflects on the conflicts and paradoxes that a conversation on skills in waste work throws up: valuing and recognising different forms of waste work while also pointing to their toxicities and struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the representation of the class conflict between Don Quixote as a hidalgo, Juan Haldudo as a rich herder, and Andrés as a poor day laborer through the lens of institutional betrayal (Don Quixote 1.4 and 1.31). The increased physical and social violence inflicted on Andrés by Haldudo after Don Quixote's intervention, as well as the young man's trauma response to the situation reveal the way social institutions reinforced the power of the rich laborers in early modern Castile and the tensions between them and the hidalguía. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors assess the effectiveness of campaigns designed to increase the sport activities of migrant workers in Qatar, host nation of the FIFA Men's World Cup Qatar 2022TM. The authors used the integrative model of behavioral prediction (IM) as a guide and conducted ethnographic interviews with migrant workers in Qatar. The results suggest that the respondents have very low participation rates, positive attitudes towards the sports campaigns and desire to participate more but are hampered by environmental factors beyond their control including time off of work, transportation and money. Utilization of external factors is necessary for the management and assessment of sports campaigns targeted at migrant workers and by extension, other populations. The inclusion of external elements from the IM is especially important in the design of sports campaigns targeted at migrant workers. Focusing exclusively on internal perceptions, attitudes and beliefs risks missing the factors that prevent the campaigns from succeeding. Sports opportunities are not often targeted at migrant laborers nor assessed; the study fills this gap. The external factors from the IM are underutilized. The study addresses this gap and provides valuable insight that can guide the management and assessment of sports and leisure opportunities for migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the qualitative results of a survey of 285 H-2A workers in Ohio to explore questions of care, social reproduction, and agency within agricultural guestwork. Drawing on frameworks developed in labor and feminist geography, it examines how H-2A workers create community and develop skills of social reproduction during their time in the United States. Countering the common narratives of H-2A worker as victims or stoic, long suffering laborers, the research draws attention to the relational and emotional lives of the men who do this work. By highlighting affective and social dimensions of the guestworker experience, it argues for an approach to questions of agricultural labor that emphasizes the agency, range of experiences, and humanity of the people who participate in the H-2A program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the post-earthquake performances of structures in four rural villages in the Moroccan Atlas, emphasizing common construction system characteristics and design flaws that render buildings susceptible to seismic events. Village selection was based on a prior multispectral satellite-image study, proving effective for planning high-impact, post-earthquake field campaigns. The significance of this research resides in on-site data collection, facilitating the physical assessment of earthquake-induced damage and identification of inherent vulnerabilities in construction systems. The constructions in the study area exhibited structural design deficiencies, inadequate construction techniques, and urban modifiers, leading to damage extensively documented in the literature, as well as less-documented unique damage. Predominant seismic-design shortcomings in the study area included subpar material quality, insufficient earthquake-resistant design, and unskilled labor. In situ data were complemented by a global geospatial approach using differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry with Copernicus Sentinel 1 data. Once calibrated the proposed methodology with field data, the analysis of remote sensing processing results, allow assessing the damages in other earthquake-affected areas, including those not visited in the field but also impacted by the seismic event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on the articles that won the Impact Award for theoretical contributions as well as practical value that were published in the "Academy of Management Journal." It mentions Blake E, Ashforth's paper on managing workers in what are considered dirty jobs, Robin Ely's research on women's construction of gender identity in the workplace, and the importance of research in less examined occupations.

Commercial surrogacy marketizes life's work. In the era of neo-liberalism, women's work, which is often intimately performed within a heterosexual marriage in exchange of support, now remains a principal avenue to earn money. This form of feminization of labor has led to the emergence of markets for women's reproductive capacities. The present study stems from my ethnographic journey into the lives of the women who work as surrogate mothers in India. The narratives presented in the paper emerge from my prolonged fieldwork in Anand, Gujarat. It engages with the experiences, understandings, and the voices of these women, who I term reproductive laborers, in order to examine the notion of putting one's reproductive capacities in this intimate market for money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. nonstandard workforce remained at around 10% of the total employed population for the past decades, although the subnational levels reveal variation. Insufficient scholarly attention has been devoted to understanding its spatial distribution and associated causes. This paper addresses this gap by analyzing the contextual factors that help explain the geographic unevenness of the nonstandard workforce across U.S. metropolitan areas from 1997 to 2017. We find evidence that the urban context matters, but unevenly across arrangements and time. Three out of four of the nonstandard arrangements studied are more prevalent in metropolitan areas, while on-call workers are typically rural. Independent contractors are more concentrated in cities with higher fissuring, contrary to temporary and contracted out workers. Higher unemployment rates seem to push workers toward on-call arrangements, and inequality to temporary jobs. While the city effects change substantially over time, individual determinants are consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]