Globalization and Collective Labor Rights

The impact of globalization has been a perennial source of contention, and issues regarding labor rights have been a visible aspect of this struggle. Despite the popular controversy about a potential “race to the bottom” regarding globalization and labor rights, the empirical record on these linkages remains mixed. Moreover, despite the multifaceted nature of globalization, extant literature in this area has focused purely on several specific facets of economic globalization, such as trade and FDI. We focus on two additional aspects of globalization, social and political integration, as well as a broadly based measure of economic globalization, and examine how they influence collective labor rights—both in terms of labor laws, as well as their enforcement in practice—in the developing world from 1986 to 2002. We find that all three facets of globalization are negatively related to labor rights. Specifically, social, political, and economic globalization are related to the decoupling of labor practices from extant labor laws; that is, labor practices deteriorate while labor laws remain largely unaffected.     

Modernization,neo-liberal globalization,or variegated development: the Indian food system transformation in comparative perspective

This paper discusses the question of when generalizations risk compromising the utility and accuracy of a theory and seeks to show how a balance can be struck between generalized and context-specific analyses in disciplines like international sociology, political economy, and comparative politics. For this purpose, the paper reviews three theoretical approaches to agri-food system change, placed at different levels on the ladder of generality. It then considers these approaches in relation to India's changing agri-food system. Finally, the paper discusses the general and the particularistic features of the Indian case and examines their implications for theories relating to global governance and international political economy.     

Second modernity as a research agenda: theoretical and empirical explorations in the 'meta-change' of modern society

In this article we are reformulating the theory of reflexive modernization as an empirical research programme and summarize some of the most recent findings which have been produced by a research consortium in Munich (integrating four universities, funded by the German Research Society (DFG)). On this basis we reject the idea that Western societies at the beginning of the twenty-first century move from the modern to the post-modern. We argue that there has been no clear break with the basic principles of modernity but rather a transformation of basic institutions of modernity such as the nation-state and the nuclear family. We would suggest, therefore, that what we are witnessing is a second modernity. Finally, we reform the theory of reflexive modernization in reaction to three uttered objections.     

Toward a Psychology of Societal Change and Stability: The Case of Human Rights and Duties

A distinction is made between two types of psychology concerned with: performance capacity, the abilities of individuals tested in isolation; and performance style, the way things get done and the meanings ascribed to phenomena. Causal explanations are appropriate for performance capacity, and normative ones for performance style. Traditional psychology has focused predominantly on performance capacity and causation. Societal change and stability, it is argued, involves meaning systems and are best understood in terms of performance style and normative models. Stability is achieved through carriers, flexible vehicles that help to sustain meaning systems. As our illustrative example, we consider the topic of human rights and duties. Carriers in some situations widen a gap between formal law and actual behavior. This gap, we argue, is in part due to the faster maximum speed of change in legal and other macrolevel spheres, relative to the psychological level.     

Model,Event, Context: Globalization,Arab Social Movements,and the Modeling of Global Order

In this article I scrutinize a particular discursive strategy that attempts to straightjacket the new social movements in the Arab uprisings. Rather than being open to new forms of polities and alternative modes of economic and social organization, an emerging governmental and scholarly discourse calls for a model of development for the Arab world. I argue that this model limits political imagination; and that it is the effect of a late modern logic that seeks to impose a particular form of politics in global political life. In, and through, the language of an archetype, these social movements, and the emerging polities, are being tamed to inherit the tensions and fragilities of a certain form of political and economic globalization.

En este artículo examino detalladamente una estrategia particularmente divagadora, que trata de restringir los nuevos movimientos sociales en los levantamientos árabes. En vez de abrirse a nuevos sistemas de gobierno y medios alternativos de organización económica y social, un planteamiento de gobierno emergente y académico exige un modelo de desarrollo para el mundo árabe. Sostengo que este modelo limita la imaginación política y que es el efecto de una lógica moderna tardía que busca imponerse a una forma particular de política en la vida política global. Estos movimientos sociales y los sistemas de gobierno nacientes dentro y a través del lenguaje de un arquetipo, se han domado para heredar las tensiones y fragilidades de cierta forma de globalización política y económica.

本文中,我详细审视了一种特定的话语策略,它试图严格限定阿拉伯起义中的新社会运动。 一套新近兴起的政府和学术话语呼吁阿拉伯世界的发展模式,而非对新形式的政体及替代性经济和社会组织模式开放。我认为,这种模式限定了政治想象力,它是试图在全球政治生活中强加一种特定政治形式的晚期现代逻辑作用的结果。在原始类型的语言中,或通过这种语言,这些社会运动及新兴政体正被驯服,以继承某种形式的政治和经济全球化的紧张与脆弱。     

Public Support for International Human Rights Institutions: A Cross‐National and Multilevel Analysis

The expansion of international human rights institutions has drawn much attention. Bringing together theories from sociology, political science, and international law, this article examines what factors promote public support for international human rights institutions, using the recent wave of the World Values Survey data (2005–2008). The level of public support displays both cross‐national and cross‐individual variations, so I conceptualize it as a two‐level process and employ the multilevel modeling. At the individual level, it is found that men, younger people, and individuals with more education and income show a higher level of support. At the country level, national affluence, political change (de‐democratization), and linkage to the world society are associated with more support. I further integrate individual‐level characteristics and country‐level social contexts, and pay special attention to education. Education is the institutional link between macro‐level social influences and micro‐level individual attitudes. I find that the support‐promoting effect of education is contingent on social contexts. It is more salient in wealthy countries and countries with strong ties to the world society.     

A Womb That Is (Not Always) One's Own

The global diffusion of technology has spurred growth across a variety of sectors and increased linkages among actors in the global political economy. Advances in communication and travel technologies connect disparate regions around the world, while advances in medical technologies have increased the opportunities and options for both extending and creating life. Together these advances have led to the globalization of medical tourism and the rise of reproductive tourism. Reproductive tourism covers a variety of services, including surrogacy. As a result of such technological advances, not only is surrogacy increasing, it is increasingly transnational and commercialized. One of the top destinations for reproductive tourism is India, and Indian surrogates are becoming a hot commodity for western individuals looking to enlarge their families. Hailed by advocates as beneficial to all parties involved, critics are quick to point out the potential for exploitation and abuse in transnational commercial surrogacy arrangements. Adopting Spike Peterson's Reproductive, Productive and Virtual framing, this article explores the contradiction and the potential that results when the boundaries between economies blur and what has traditionally been considered a reproductive activity becomes another form of labor for sale.     

From Social Capital to Inequality: Migrant Networks in Different Stages of Labor Incorporation

How does social capital vary in the distinct stages (prehiring, hiring, and posthiring) of labor incorporation? Based on interviews with 71 Latino migrant workers engaged in residential construction in Las Vegas, Nevada, and 30 transnational migrants who returned to Mexico after working in the United States, I examined two primary issues: first, the structural labor mechanisms that create hyperexploitation, and second, how, in turn, such processes shape social capital. I discovered, at the prehiring phase, social networks connected to subcontractors and those who attempt to form a labor crew function as social capital, despite what may appear to be bonded labor. At the hiring stage, social capital continues to play a role, yet posthiring labor structures create hyperexploitation and immigrants experience inequality in social capital. In such contexts, undocumented Latinos are unable to retain their social capital as U.S. labor structures such as subcontracting and piece‐rate compensation lead to the subjugation of workers, who can become “ghost workers” and bonded laborers. I conclude that in the posthiring stage, such labor structures create what Lin (2000, 2001) refers to as capital deficit and return deficit in social capital that greatly limit the economic incorporation of Latino immigrants.     

Crossing the Divide:An American Woman's in China

WHEN one of my former colleagues at Women of China magazine phoned recently to ask me to write an article about my experiences over the past five years living and working in Beijing, I readily agreed. The magazine's mission is to help readers overseas understand life in the Middle Kingdom, particularly the challenges faced by women during the last 20 years of economic reform.     

Managers in the Global Economy: A Multilevel Analysis

We examine individual‐ and country‐level determinants of managerial employment, using data from the 1989 to 2009 waves of the World Values and European Values Surveys (n = 89,336 employed adults in 59 countries). Reflecting the rise of the transnational capitalist class, we find that factors related to globalization and international political institutions are most strongly associated with opportunities to join the managerial class relative to factors related to the business‐cycle or development. Additionally, in a subset of countries with detailed occupational information, we find that global trade has a particularly strong, positive association with the odds of being a corporate manager in a large firm.     

International Opportunities and Domestic Protest: Zapatistas,Mexico and the New World Economy

The EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, in 1994 took advantage of many political opportunities in an economic and politically liberalizing state. Most significantly, the negotiation and passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) generated issues over which to mobilize and created political openings in the system to support mobilization. While NAFTA highlighted the dark side of globalization with its negative effects on living conditions in southern Mexico, it also ushered in political reforms that protected human rights and brought great international attention to Mexico. Many nations were watching to see whether Mexico had reached economic and political maturity. Taken together, these political opportunities provided the context for the EZLN to mobilize as a political movement.     

Elder Abuse and Neglect in South Africa: A Case of Marginalization,Disrespect, Exploitation and Violence

ABSTRACT

The problem of elder abuse and neglect in South Africa is widespread, but the definition of abuse remains problematic. An expanded typology is needed to classify certain types of abuse reported commonly, such as marginalization, disrespect, exploitation and violence. The history of elder abuse and responses is traced, relevant legislation and selected intervention programs are reviewed, and research and the status of elder abuse are evaluated. Interventions to address sociostructural factors that impact elders' settings, increase their vulnerability, and diminish their ability to realize human rights can contribute to an improvement in their condition and a reduction in abuse and rights violations in the long-term.     

From philosophy of history to political philosophy: an ideological investigation of globalization

Many have argued that one of the reasons for the irresistible trend of liberal democracy is the irreversible process of globalization. The logic assumes that globalization is not only an inseparable prerequisite for promoting economic development but also the dynamic to transform political structures into liberalism in less democratic countries, because economic development within countries creates new middle classes around the world, with their natural demands for more participation in decision and political pluralism. In other words, all societies will evolve to a point where they will adopt liberal democratic institutions. In turn, the resulting new world order will be characterized by international cooperation through market economies and liberal democracy. This paper investigates the ideological origin of globalization by inspecting Fukuyama's theory of the ‘end of history’. It argues that this belief is a continuance of modernization theory and reminiscent of functionalist concepts by Western scholars concerning the development of less developed countries. The difference is that globalizers cleverly cover their ethnocentrism with Hegel's philosophy, as it implies that the Western system is some perfect theory that all people will eventually accept as their cultures and societies evolve into a Western superior state.     

Selectivity Is Still in the Running: A Comment on Ifatunji's “Labor Market Disparities”

This comment is in response to Ifatunji's ( 2017 ) article, “Labor Market Disparities Between African Americans and Afro Caribbeans: Reexamining the Role of Immigrant Selectivity,” published in this journal.     

The Venezuelan Government and the Global Field: The Legislative Battle over Foreign Funding for Nongovernmental Organizations

In recent years, several governments have targeted nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by enacting legislation that prohibits foreign funding for them. This article uses diplomatic cables, newspaper articles, and interviews with representatives from NGOs and donors to explain the Venezuelan government's passage of legislation prohibiting foreign funding for political NGOs in 2010. Existent political, sociological, and globalization‐oriented theories fail to explain the passage and timing of this legislation. Instead, I utilize and extend global fields theory to examine the Venezuelan government's redirection of its foreign relations, which I argue generated the political opportunity for the government to pass this legislation. I show that the government initially remained keyed into a global subfield involving groups that successfully pressured it to reconsider a more radical form of legislation prohibiting direct foreign funding for all NGOs when it came up for discussion in 2006, including the U.S. and Western European governments, and domestic NGOs. By 2010, however, the government had become embedded within a global subfield involving authoritarian and anti‐imperial governments that had already passed similar legislation, and domestic community councils. These newfound relations insulated the government from reconsideration and allowed it the political opportunity to pass a new, less radical piece of legislation.     

Global Civil Society and Ethnic Social Movements in the Contemporary World

Studies on ethnic movements have largely overlooked the global dimensions of ethnic social movements. Drawing on social movement theories and the world culture approach, I argue that linkage to global civil society gives rise to ethnic mobilization because it diffuses models of claim-making based on human rights ideas, while intergovernmental networks suppress ethnic mobilization as they enhance state power and authority. Tobit analyses on violent and nonviolent ethnic mobilizations show that, controlling for domestic factors, linkage to global civil society raises the potential for ethnic social movements, while intergovernmental networks do not have a strong impact on ethnic mobilization.     

Defending Diversity,Sustaining Consensus: NGOs at the Beijing Women's Conference and Beyond

SUMMARY

This article discusses access to and involvement of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, in September 1995. It also looks at the impact on consensus-building of the growing diversity of NGOs participating in these global UN events and at the effect on the international women's movement of the frustrations and difficulties faced in the follow up to Beijing as agreements have been reopened or rolled back. In this climate, women activists and feminist analysts are questioning the future viability of the United Nations as a political space for women's organizing, and under conditions of rapid globalization, are increasingly divided on strategies for implementation and activism.     

Professor mom: Woman's work in a man's world

This essay identifies parallels between the traits assigned to gender work roles and the teaching/research division of labor at research universities. The character and definition of undergraduate teaching at research universities is very similar to what has often been described as women's work.