Labor Perspective Research Articles

Environmental education at regular schools and in youth and adult education

This study aimed to comparatively investigate the concepts of environmental education (EE) related to elementary school students enrolled in regular schools and in youth and adult education (YAE) in Brazil. A qualitative study was conducted using unstructured interviews. These interviews were carried out with twenty two students of YAE and the regular elementary school with themes formed about relation between human being and nature, conceptions about labor and conceptions of EE. We used the technique of content analysis and Toulmin’s argument pattern to analyze the data. The theoretical basis our study was the relation between the human being and labor. We considered the perspective of the ontological labor’s in the transformation of nature by the human being, and the subsequent transformation of the human being by nature, forming a cyclic process. Our results show that the students’ conceptions are related to a separation of the human being and nature, as well as their ideas about conservation and preservation of nature, recognizing their impacts on the environment. We did not verify any knowledge involving a more complex and critical comprehension about the relation between human beings and nature.This research suggests that the development and application of EE projects, should consider how subjects comprehend the relation between society and nature, leading to interesting outcomes.

Peripheral Labour and Accumulation on a World Scale in the Green Transitions

This commentary turns a critical lens on the perspectives of labour in the potential green transition. It shows what changes when we focus on worldwide social labour—the labour which most of humanity currently performs—and its worldwide impact, going beyond climate to damages from mining and to biodiversity and other elements of the ecology. Such an optic forces scepticism about approaches which only consider the North when it comes to a large-scale green transition. Indeed, this paper argues, using illustrative examples, how such approaches rely on suppressing the historical role of colonialism and imperialism in making First World (core) development possible. It shows how lenses such as “social reproduction” or policies such as “universal health care” focused only on the core reproduction of worldwide patterns of domination. It then puts forward the outlines of an alternative approach to decent work in the context of a worldwide green transition toward a non-hierarchical world system.

Carbon Footprint Assessment and Efficiency Measurement of Wood Processing Industry Based on Life Cycle Assessment

The contradiction between economic development and the ecological barrier function of the wood processing sector is increasingly deepening. However, China has not yet established a life cycle database for the wood processing industry, which makes it difficult to scientifically evaluate its carbon emission efficiency. Therefore, based on the panel data of 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 2014 to 2020 published in the China Statistical Yearbook, this paper combined a life cycle assessment and dynamic network slacks-based model, and the carbon emission efficiency of different stages was measured from the multidimensional perspective of labor, energy, capital input, and economic and ecological benefits output. The results show that: (1) The overall carbon emission efficiency is 0.6161, and the coastal and northwest regions have higher efficiency; (2) The efficiency levels of Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, and another four provinces have been increasing while other regions have significant differences; (3) Beijing, Jiangsu, and the other four provinces are at an effective level overall. The most serious efficiency loss is at the processing stage. These findings provide an important reference for promoting the low-carbon cycle development of China’s wood processing industry and the formulation of policies in various regions.

The forgotten teammate: Considering the labor perspective in human-autonomy teams

Advancements in technology, such as autonomous agents, have sparked a substantial increase in human-autonomy teaming (HAT) research. Despite this increase in research, there is one perspective that is often overlooked in the literature: the human worker. As such, our research extends the literature by presenting the worker's perspective and providing key contextual considerations for successful integration of HATs within field environments. To accomplish this, interviews, focus groups and site visits were conducted in both the construction and manufacturing industries. We aim to answer two questions: (1) what are the subjective worker experiences regarding HATs in the field? And (2) what is the influence of context on worker experiences in field HATs? We discuss three themes that emerged, followed by implications for research and practice.

Digital Economy, Factor Allocation, and Sustainable Agricultural Development: The Perspective of Labor and Capital Misallocation

As an emerging economy, the combination of the digital economy and industrial development can lead to a variety of new industries and new formats and form new momentum. This paper aims to analyze how the digital economy affects sustainable agricultural development, through what path, and what role the factor allocation plays in this process. Based on the analysis of the impact mechanism of the digital economy on sustainable agricultural development, this paper takes 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2020 as the research object, builds a panel data model and mediation effect model, empirical analyses on the impact of the digital economy on sustainable agricultural development, and verifies the mediation effect of factor allocation in this process. This study found that the digital economy significantly promoted sustainable agricultural development. At the national level, this obvious promotion effect was achieved by reducing the misallocation of labor and capital. At the regional level, sustainable agricultural development in the eastern region of China depended on the optimization effect of the digital economy on the allocation of labor and capital, but the situation was slightly different in the central and western regions of China. The digital economy in the central and western regions of China significantly improved sustainable agricultural development by allocation effect of labor factors. Although the allocation effect of capital factors had a positive effect on sustainable agricultural development, it was not significant. In order to promote sustainable agricultural development, the digital industry development should be accelerated, the allocation effect of the factor market should be brought into play, and the digital economy should be better integrated with sustainable agricultural development so as to realize the modernization of agricultural development.

Living and Working Research Policies: The Case of International Scholars in Latvia

The article examines the incorporation of international scholars into the Latvian higher education and research system from the perspective of labour. Whilst recent research policies in the country are aimed at increasing international cooperation to situate Latvia within the global regimes of knowledge production, the number of international researchers in Latvia remains low. Based on ethnographic research, I suggest that this is at least partially because of the largely invisible work that both international researchers in the country and their local counterparts have to perform to bridge the gap between policy dreams and structural realities. In conversation with scholarship on academic precarity and through the lens of interpretive and infrastructural labour, this article shows how the task of ‘internationalising’ knowledge production in Latvia is entrusted to individual local researchers, whilst international scholars face a multitude of uncertainties regarding their work lives and their presence in the country in general.

Situating platform gig economy in the formal subsumption of reproductive labor: Transnational migrant domestic workers and the continuum of exploitation and precarity

In conversation with critical platform and labor studies, which tend to focus on drivers and food delivery workers, this article seeks to expand our understanding of the platform gig economy from the perspective of reproductive labor and migrant domestic workers. The exploitation of women’s unpaid and low-paid reproductive work has persisted throughout various stages of capitalist development. Migrant domestic workers’ underpaid reproductive labor becomes an essential site for primitive capital accumulation and the production of the labor force in the contemporary neoliberal global economy. Building upon analyses of the historical and contemporary circumstances of transnational migrant domestic workers in Canada, I argue that digital labor platforms become a technology-enabled, capital-driven force in the larger commodification and exploitation process of migrant workers’ reproductive labor, and such processes are underpinned by entangled structural and institutional forces of the uneven capitalist development, racism, patriarchy, and the state’s discriminatory (im)migration and labor policies. The article suggests that understanding the seeming prevalence of platform work should be situated in the continuous formal subsumption of reproductive labor and the class immobility of migrant domestic workers, and labor activism and movements should contest the entwined power dominations beyond merely demanding regulations over platforms.

Study on the Impact of Housing Price on the Heterogeneous Labor Force

The talents have become a key engine to promote the economic development in the new economic era. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also pointed out that China should rely on talents to build a strong country. Regarding talent attraction and aggregation in cities, housing price is an important factor. In order to study the impacts of housing price, from the heterogeneous labor perspective, this paper uses data of National 1% Population Sampling Survey 2005-2015, and the National Census 2010 for empirical analysis, discussing the relationship between housing price and the heterogeneity of the labor force. The study finds that: (1) The housing price does not reduce skilled and labor force accumulation; (2) The housing price has an inverted U-shaped relationship with skilled labor and ordinary labor. When the housing price exceeds a certain critical value, the uncertainty brought by the rising housing price and the pressure of rising cost play a dominant role and hinder the accumulation of the two types of labor; (3) Compared with small and medium-sized cities, the impact of rising housing price in big cities on the accumulation of the labor force is still significant, and the impact on the ordinary labor force is more obvious. The conclusion of this paper is of great significance to the implementation of the talent country and the proper strategies to deal with the relationship between housing price and labor force in the new era.

Quantitative analysis of construction labor acceptance of wearable sensing devices to enhance workers' safety

Despite significant advances in technology applications in the construction sector, labor safety statistics in the USA suggest a need for significant improvement. In recent years, wearable safety devices (WSDs) have shown great prospects to address construction labor safety. Physiological monitoring wearable sensing devices and location tracking wearable sensing devices have been studied and found to increase construction site safety. However, the devices are not utilized by construction contractors on a wide scale due to labor concerns and hesitation in using these devices. Therefore, this paper presents a quantitative analysis of the construction labor perspective of the WDS and analysis the main reason behind this hesitation. A modified unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model is proposed to measure the user acceptance of WSDs. The study found that a slight minority (46%) of field laborers would not voluntarily agree to use the biometric wearable sensing devices and the majority (59%) would not voluntarily agree to use the location tracking wearable sensing devices. An association was found between behavioral intent to use a biometric wearable sensing device and perceived performance expectancy, perceived effort expectancy, and the social influence of family/loved ones and coworkers. An association was found between behavioral intent to use a location-tracking wearable sensing device and perceived performance expectancy, data security, and social influence of family/loved ones and coworkers.

Labour Commutation in the Agricultural Sector—An Analysis of Agricultural Workers in Chile

Agricultural activity is a key strategic sector for countries, particularly for food production. One way to strengthen the sector is through the use of technology. However, while integrating new technologies, challenges have emerged in the sector with regard to incorporating workers. Thus, one way to resolve this workforce shortfall could be through labour commutation, which consists of people living in one territory but working in another. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the likelihood of agricultural workers becoming worker commuters. Chile is used as a case study, drawing on the Chilean National Employment Survey of 2018 to analyse differences among the five largest regions in the country: Great North, Small North, Central Zone, South, and Chilean Patagonia. Each zone possesses different characteristics, and a propensity score matching process was carried out within the data. The results indicate that agricultural workers with a higher education level, full-time jobs, working in the formal sector, and younger workers are more likely to commute. Different impacts of variables were found across the zones. However, most of the variables have similar impact on the likelihood to commute in different areas. Thus, from a labour perspective, public policies can create general incentives to attract a new workforce to strengthen the agricultural sector.

Migraciones de retorno en España bajo el franqusmo: políticas, percepciones y discursos, 1939-1975

The policies, perceptions and discourses around return migration to Spain during the years of Franco dictatorship were transformed in parallel to the changes experienced by emigration outside the country. This article analyses this transformation of return migration, initially identified with repatriation, until its conceptualization within the framework of assisted migration schemes articulated in the Europe of the “guestworker system”. This transformation took place as a result of the displacement of the American migration cycle by the European migration cycle. In this process, return migration lost its assistance character and began to be conceived from an economic and labor perspective that connected with de developmental objectives of the Spanish government. Based on archival research and the analysis of legislative texts, publications and cultural production, this essay highlights the limits and contradictions of the discourses and public policies on return migration under the dictatorship.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE, MATERIAL CAPITAL, HUMAN CAPITAL AND TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY TO ECONOMIC GROWTH BASED ON THE CHANGE OF EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR

BackgroundPromoting the sustained and stable growth of the national economy is the eternal goal of economic theory researchers and policy makers. So, what is the fundamental source of promoting a country's sustainable economic growth?Research Objects and MethodsFrom the perspective of labor, physical capital, human capital and total factor productivity, this paper makes an empirical study on the contribution of various input factors to economic growth in 36 OECD countries from 1990 to 2017. In order to analyze the impact of this strategy on the change of livelihood capital on emotion, and provide effective measures and basis for alleviating psychological pressure. In this study, 500 subjects in Southwest China were investigated with Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21).ResultsThe results show that: (1) the output elasticity of labor, physical capital and human capital input factors is statistically significant, indicating that input has an important impact on economic growth. (2) The total contribution share of investment accounts for about 1 / 3, of which labor force accounts for about 24%, and the proportion of physical capital and human capital accounts for 5% and 6% respectively is similar and relatively small. (3) Total factor productivity (TFP) is the most important driving force of economic growth, accounting for 2 / 3 of economic growth. (4) The contribution of labor and material capital showed a slow upward trend, the contribution of human capital was basically stable, and the contribution of total factor productivity showed a slow downward trend. (5) Exploring the sources of economic growth has important policy implications not only for OECD countries but also for developing countries. Taking the emotional grouping as the independent variable, the group conducted a one-way multivariate analysis of variance on the fluency and novelty of aut, box's M = 24.05, P < 0.001. The result shows that the data is not suitable for multivariate analysis of variance, so the emotional grouping is used as the independent variable to analyze the fluency and novelty of aut by one-way ANOVA respectively. Specifically, the main effect of emotion on aut fluency is significant, f (2, 99) = 6.43, P = 0.002, η 2 p= 0.12. Post hoc comparison showed that the anger group (M = 11.26, SD = 6.20) was higher than the neutral emotion group (M = 7.26, SD = 3.44, P = 0.002, Cohen's d = 0.80), with no other significant difference (see Figure 2D). The main effect of emotion on the novelty of aut was significant, f (2, 99) = 7.84, P < 0.001, η 2 p = 0.14. Post hoc comparison showed that the anger group (M = 15.29, SD = 8.85) was higher than the sadness group (M = 11.21, SD = 5.50, P = 0.042, Cohen's d = 0.55) and the neutral emotion group (M = 8.91, SD = 5.23, P = 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.88).ConclusionAll sectors of society should fully understand the importance of emotional factors of relevant groups in rehabilitation, actively improve the surrounding environment and the respective roles of both sides, pay special attention to their own virtual technology language and behavior, and shift from single display to multi-dimensional management, coordinator and collaborator. In the process of output, actively present personalized psychology to patients, flexibly organize activities, strive to create a relaxed and harmonious rehabilitation atmosphere, create a friendly and mutual aid business environment, encourage and guide patients to adjust their psychology to the best state.AcknowledgementsThe work is supported by Open Fund Project of Research Center for Economy of Upper Reaches of the Yangtse River of Chongqing Technology and Business University (KFJJ2018002). The author is highly grateful to the editor and anonymous referees for their valuable comments and constructive suggestions which help to improve the present form of this paper.

Putting creative labour in its place in the shadow of the Korean Wave

ABSTRACT This study re-evaluates the current Korean Wave from the perspective of creative labour, an issue insufficiently addressed in previous research. By focusing on the roles of the Korean state, cultural industry, and creative workers as crucial actors in the creation of the Korean Wave, this study examines whether a proper place for creative labour has been established in the context of the Korean Wave’s success. To answer this question, this study explores how each crucial actor within the Korean Wave has viewed and treated the problem of labour. First, it analyses how the Korean state has continuously promoted industrial policy while undercutting labour policy in its cultural industry. Second, it traces how the industry has legitimised unfair labour practices as unavoidable to exploit its creative workforce. Third, it traces how creative workers themselves have largely promoted their self-identity as cultural entrepreneurs and artistic creators while diminishing their identity as creative workers. Based on this overview of the continuity and change in the Korean cultural industry, this study reorients industrial sustainability discourse on the Korean Wave, examining its possibilities and future direction as a venue for alternative cultural production by putting creative labour in its place.

Social and Moral Practices of the Organizations and Employee-Based Brand Equity: Female Digital Labor Perspective.

This study investigates the role of socially responsible management as a significant determining factor for employees’ morale engagement (EME), employee vitality (EV), and employee-based brand equity (EBBE). Human resource management policies and strategies are important for addressing the interests of the employees and boosting the overall effectiveness of the organization. To examine this, this study analyzes the role of socially responsible management and organizational morality on EME with the mediation of EV. Also, the study examines the role of EME in EBBE. To conduct this study, the data were obtained from 310 female employees working in software houses from home in China. The sampling technique used in the study is purposive sampling. A partial least square structural equation modeling technique is used to analyze the data of the study. The study found that socially responsible management has a positive effect on both EME and EV. The study also reveals that organizational morality has a positive impact on EME and consequently impacts the EBBE in a positive way. The results of the mediation analysis show that EV mediates the relationship between socially responsible management and EME. The study provides practical implications, explaining the strategies and policies that can be adopted by the HR department of the organization to boost employee interests. The study also provides some limitations and future recommendations, such as sample size, the context of the study, and adding new variables to the existing framework.

Back to Media Work in a Data-Driven Market: Re-Thinking the Labor of Advertising Practitioners

Industry advocates argue that the focus of advertising production has shifted from the creativity of practitioners to consumer analytics and the potential advantages of big data. Although a little empirical research offers valuable insights about the changing role of advertising practitioners, it lacks a critical perspective to situate it in a broader social context. On the other hand, digital labor and branding literature over-concentrate on user labor and neglect the role of practitioners in advertising production. By deploying the concept of immaterial labor, this article reevaluates the findings of mainstream marketing-advertising literature within the context of post-Fordist labor. This article aims to create a resonance between theories of immaterial labor and advertising literature and to call for further empirical research from a labor perspective. It argues that advertising practitioners put more strategical, relational and communicative powers into work to manage a data-oriented market.

Making it up: Adaptive approaches to bringing freelance cultural work to a cultural ecologies discourse

In this article, a transdisciplinary cultural labour perspective is used to examine the evolving and spontaneous networks and grassroots collective movements of performing arts freelancers in two contexts: Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Athens (Greece) in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. With a principally methodological contribution, the article proposes that evolving cultural ecologies research should mirror the ecologies it studies by adopting more collaborative and improvisational research approaches, drawing on inclusive research methods from disability studies and decolonising approaches within anthropology to reveal deeper knowledge and offer mutual benefit. Furthermore, it proposes that artists, overlooked in cultural ecologies research to date, bring knowledge from their practice beyond lived experience of value to such inquiry. The researchers collaborated with practitioner experts, revealing insights to freelancers’ milieu; their alternate systems for inclusion, representation and radical mutual care; and their increasing vulnerability in the face of ongoing exclusion from cultural recovery strategies and wider political and policy apathy to their concerns. This raises important moral and ethical questions for how cultural ecologies research and researchers engage with practitioner knowledge and the purpose of research in rendering such groups as creative freelancers visible within research and in the implicit and explicit urban and regional recovery planning in different locales. In addition, it proposes the inter- or transdisciplinary nature of cultural ecologies research may be better served by keeping its boundaries fluid, not just in the potential strength of blending research disciplines but also in its boundaries between the formal academy and practice.

A Slow Downward Road: Occupational Status Attainment in Mexico’s Development

Mexico underwent several economic transformations between the 1950s and the early 21st century, most notably its integration to the world economy as of the 1980s. Sociological perspectives on global economic integration, development, and inequality, have contrasting predictions for the effect of these transformations on labor cohort occupational status. Perspectives that anticipate integration to spawn economic dynamism, predict improved occupational status over cohorts, but the international division of labor (IDL) perspective predicts worsening occupational status attainment. The institutionalist perspective does not have clear-cut predictions. Drawing on three surveys on Mexican social mobility (2006 and 2011, 2016), I examine labor cohort differences in occupational status to evaluate whether historical timing of entry into the workforce shapes occupational achievement dynamics throughout Mexico’s industrialization. I find significant direct effects of labor cohort membership on occupational status net of education and of parental occupational status. Specifically, entering the workforce at the height of Mexico’s industrialization, between the 1950s and early 1970s, led to higher status than entering during the transition to and subsequent institutionalization of neoliberal policy. The findings are most consistent with perspectives in sociology that emphasize the centrality for stratification of the international division of labor, but provide partial support for institutionalist perspectives.

Control and Resistance: An Analysis of Non-employed Internet Celebrities from the Perspective of Digital Labor—Based on A Case Study

Control and Resistance: An Analysis of Non-employed Internet Celebrities from the Perspective of Digital Labor—Based on A Case Study

Rethinking creativity: creative industries, AI and everyday creativity

This commentary reflects on how creativity is dehumanised (and rehumanised) and how its labour aspects are hindered (and highlighted) in the three recent developments in our understanding of arts, culture and creativity: the creative industries; AI creativity; and creativity in everyday life. The creative industries discourse instrumentalises and dehumanises creativity by hiding labour perspectives and treating creativity as human capital and a generator of IP. Meanwhile, contemplating AI creativity helps us to look beyond the economic paradigm and consider key traits of human creativity and the creation process, some aspects of which are successfully emulated by AI. Yet, we also observe how AI dissociates creativity from human agency and how its cost-cutting effect can challenge human creators in many sectors. Finally, the idea of everyday creativity effectively rehumanises and democratises creativity; however, it not only lacks labour perspectives but also hinders them.

PGC Content Production in the Perspective of Digital Labor: Exemplified by Food Uploaders on Bilibili

In the post-epidemic era, there are more and more food-related contend on Bilibili. Besides, the purchasing power of Gen-Z is also growing rapidly. Against this backdrop, food brands take Bilibili as their targeted area for promotion to attract young people and build their brand equity. Based on this, the paper chose Bilibili where Gen-Z gather as the study platform and adopted a quantitative research method to analyze the PGC content production. Meanwhile, the paper also selected two major uploaders as the representatives in studying digital laborers' ways to adapt themselves to the era of convergence media, so as to put forward corresponding suggestions. After the analysis, it was found that the current PGC content creators and content production platforms are faced with dilemmas and defects, and how to achieve the production of quality PGC content and get rid of the dilemma of digital labor in content production has become a major concern.