Reproduction Of Workers Research Articles

Changes in the problem and subject field of labor sociology against the backdrop of the time challenges (Based on publications in the journal “Sociological Studies” over 50 years)

Trends in the problem and subject field of labor sociology were identified by referring to the Sociological Studies journal publications for 1974–2023. An array of 351 articles on labor sociology was selected for qualitative and quantitative content analysis. Eleven problematic subject areas of research were identified by the criterion of the leading target of the article’s text. Fourtime frames in Russian society and economic development over the past 50 years have been distinguished to identify the time challenges that vary in content. Each period was provided with a brief description of the content of the research problem and subject areas, as well as interpretations thereof with due consideration of the time challenges. Analysis of the publications permitted to reveal that by the criteria of how frequent and stable the sociologists’ referrals to the selected areas have been, the core, the margins, and the mobile realm may be identified in the Russian sociology of labor. The core is formed by the areas related to the studies of labor attitudes, labor incentives, labor values, employee behavior, and job satisfaction. The areas – whose principal object of study is labor itself, along with its role and significance in both the society and the employees’ values as well as social problems of work at the enterprise – are adjacent to the core. The margins are formed by rare areas of research such as the workers’ capacity to act, manifestations of independence and involvement in the organization’s affairs, problems of the socioeconomic standing of workers and degree of labor protection, labor culture, shortage and reproduction of workers. The mobile realm of labor sociology is composed by the areas treated generally depending on the context of time and the aggravation of particular problem situations (labor organization, labor relations, precarity of labor, etc). We observed adequate coverage of the critical time challenges in publications in all those time frames; however, that coverage was reactive and appeared to lack forward-looking ideas that are ahead of theory and practice.

No sign of reproductive cessation in the old workers of a queenless ponerine ant

In many social hymenopterans, workers of different ages engage in different tasks; younger workers remain inside the nest as intranidal workers, while older workers go outside the nest as extranidal workers (i.e., age polyethism). Previous studies have shown that ovarian activity is diminished in old, extranidal workers, but it remains unclear whether workers’ reproductive ability persists for life or whether they exhibit post-reproductive lifespans. In this study, we investigated the age-dependence of worker reproductive ability in a monomorphic ponerine ant Diacamma cf. indicum. In Diacamma ants, all females in a colony have reproductive ability, but effective reproduction is limited to one or a few dominant females, and the remaining females act as sterile helpers. Using long-term laboratory rearing, we investigated whether worker reproductive ability lasts throughout a worker’s lifetime. The ages of workers were accurately tracked, and the reproductive ability of young and old workers was examined by creating several gamergate-less sub-colonies. Results showed that at least one individual in each sub-colony developed ovaries, even in the sub-colonies that solely consisted of very old workers (> 252 days old). Interestingly, in the presence of younger workers, old workers rarely showed ovarian development. Besides age, we found a positive correlation between the amount of fat (i.e., nutritional condition) and ovarian development in old workers. Our data suggest that reproductive activity of old workers is low but maintained throughout their life in Diacamma.Significance statementFemales of social animals, such as cetaceans, are known to stop reproducing before the end of their lifespan. It is suggested that the reproductive ability of ant queens does not decline and is maintained throughout their lives; however, it is unclear whether this is also true in ant workers. We maintained ant colonies for more than 500 days and then tested whether the reproductive ability of ant workers is maintained throughout their lifespan. Even in small groups composed of only very old workers (> 252 days old), at least one individual in each group always reproduced actively. Interestingly, the presence of young workers seemed to suppress the reproduction of old workers. In addition, fat content was positively associated with the individual’s reproductive potential.

Some reflections on the capitalist labour process, nature and social reproduction

This article suggests that Labour Process Theory (LPT) could engage more substantially with the spheres of ecology and social reproduction. By drawing on ecological and feminist Marxist literatures, it seeks to recast a materialist analysis of the capitalist labour process, which is reconstructed as an ecological process as well as a process structurally shaped by spaces and institutions where the social reproduction of workers and the working class take place. Drawing from the collective and individual work done over the last few years within these areas, the article translates abstract observations in more operative analytical categories by reinstating the relevance of socio-ecological indeterminacy of the labour process, the materiality of the body, the commodity and the workplace, the intertwining between exploitation and disciplining and by introducing the notion of reproductive subsumption.

Toward an affective geography of contemporary China’s state-owned enterprises: Ambivalence, assemblage, and affective socio-spaces

This article advances an affective geography of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in contemporary China. Drawing on existing theorizations of the potential roles of affect, emotion, and pre-consciousness in (re)shaping socioeconomic landscapes, we argue for an affective geography based on Ruez and Cockayne’s affirmative theorization of ambivalence. The paper contends that SOEs are affective socio-spaces with divergent possibilities arising through workers’ everyday life and not just a-priori institutional products of state power. The paper illustrates this framework with a close reading of the assemblage of workers’ everyday life with the emergent socio-spatial formations of SOEs. The original case is based on in-depth interviews and on-site observations in 13 SOEs in the Northeast provinces of China. Ambivalent affects include sense of belonging and human kindness. These embody ambiguities and transformation of intense feelings, further acting on workers’ ongoing employment practices to actualize the reproduction of SOE socio-spaces and workers’ affective practices of “stabilities” and “mobilities”. The results strengthen the affirmative meaning of ambivalence in (re)configuring SOE social, spatial and temporal relations. We thus call for further affective geographies that investigate the emergence of feeling-knowing-acting regime of ambivalence with possibilities for multiple becomings.

ВОСПРОИЗВОДСТВО КВАЛИФИЦИРОВАННЫХ КАДРОВ: ПРОБЛЕМЫ, ТЕНДЕНЦИИ, ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ

The subject of the study is the reproduction of qualified personnel. The aim of the paper is to develop proposals for the reproduction of skilled workers and specialists. The main research methods are systematic and comparative analysis, expert surveys, and pedagogical experiments. The theoretical significance of the article lies in the fact that as a result of the research, new and additional scientific knowledge and methods of reproduction of highly qualified personnel have been obtained, and scientific and practical recommendations have been developed for the gradual formation of the competence of graduates of professional educational organizations, a model for the ascent of young specialists to professional competence has been formed. The practical significance of the research results lies in their use in professional educational organizations and in the system of in-house training of personnel.

‘Adversely Incorporated yet Moving up the Social Ladder?’: Labour Migrants Shifting the Gaze from Agricultural Investment Chains to ‘Care Chains’ in Capitalist Social Reproduction in Senegal

In Senegal, the growth of horticulture has been particularly rapid in the last decade or so, partly coinciding with the 2007–2008 ‘land rush’ and a boom in agricultural investment. This article analyses the implications of the rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the horticultural sector in northern Senegal. Specifically, it examines FDI’s effects on labour migration and the social reproduction of rural classes of labour through an intersectional feminist and gendered lens. It argues that invisibilised ‘care chains’ that overly burden women, and communities of solidarities, play a crucial role in the social reproduction of horticultural workers, most specifically migrant workers, and provide a subsidy to agrarian capital. Yet, capitalist development does not always translate to better wages and more inclusive laws and policies for horticultural wage workers and providers of caring labour who are adversely incorporated in these political economies. As a result, this requires further attention from policy-makers and political leaders. Using a combination of working-life histories and survey data gathered through two rounds of fieldwork over two years, and secondary data from relevant databases, this article focuses on the River Valley Region and Louga to analyse the emerging challenges of labour migration, social reproduction and caring labour in rural Senegal.

The models of education of Russian Protestantism: The example of the Zaoksky Adventist University

The article is devoted to the study of the current stage of development of the Christian educational paradigm of Russia in the segment of Protestant religious education as one of the aspects of the modern theory and practice of Russian confessional pedagogy from the standpoint of the theology of education. The article provides a brief overview of the emergence, development and current state of the educational model of the Seventh — Day Adventist Christian Church in Russia, which is represented by the Religious Spiritual Educational Organization of Higher education Zaoksky University of the Seventh-Day Adventist Christian Church (Zaoksky Adventist University, ZAU). This article substantiates the status of ZAU as a non-state educational institution of higher education, the ideological, worldview core of the educational model of which has a confessional religious character. The theological part itself is quite adequately combined with the secular-minded components of the vocational education. This phenomenon is connected to the fact that the training and educational process take place both according to programs corresponding to Federal State Educational Standard (FSES) and confessional university educational programs at the same time. The reasonable conclusion of this article is presented by the review of the educational religious model of reproduction of pedagogical workers created in ZAU, capable of both qualified working in confessional educational institutions and working in the secular educational sphere.

Transmission of Educational Outcomes Across Three Generations: Evidence From Migrant Workers’ Children in China

The migration of parents or children may bring risks to children’s academic performance, but intergenerational effects on the academic performance of migrant workers’ children have been underexplored. This study aims to investigate how grandparents’ socioeconomic status (G1) and parents’ proximal and distal socioeconomic status (G2) influence the academic performance of migrant workers’ children (G3) and the corresponding impacts on the academic performance of migrant and left-behind children. The data used in this study were collected from a survey of 2017 migrant workers conducted in 13 districts and cities of 7 provinces of China in 2014. The results of ordered logistic regression models indicate that G1 grandparent socioeconomic status is positively associated with G2 academic performance and education level. Similarly, G2 parental academic performance and education level are positively linked to G3 academic performance. Parental distal academic performance and education level play an important role in G3 academic performance, but grandparents’ socioeconomic status is not significantly associated with G3 academic performance while controlling for both G1 and G2 variables. In addition, the influence of grandparents’ and parents’ socioeconomic status differs between migrant and left-behind children. Grandparent and parental occupation status only have a significant impact on left-behind children. The educational reproduction of migrant workers’ children has different logics among migrant and left-behind children. Further policies and social services are required to improve the development of migrant workers’ children.

La economía social y la recuperación del trabajo en Uruguay

Frente a las crisis cíclicas del capital y el alto desempleo que estas provocan, ¿cuáles son las estrategias que los/as trabajadores/as despliegan desde la economía social como forma de resistencia?. El artículo analizará las experiencias de las Empresas Recuperadas por sus Trabajadores/as (ERT) en Uruguay, abordándolas como microcampos empíricos actuales desde los cuales, en la búsqueda por resistir al desempleo, se construyen nuevas prácticas colectivas que permiten garantizar el sustento y la reproducción de la vida de los/as trabajadores/as. Con el objetivo de comprender las posibles transformaciones relacionales que se experimentan y vivencian en dichas experiencias, se propone un enfoque cualitativo que analice las siguientes dimensiones: la dirección, los mecanismos de coordinación, la división del trabajo, la distribución de la riqueza y las relaciones de explotación y dominación a la interna de los emprendimientos. Para la obtención de información y construcción de los datos, por un lado se realizó un mapeo y encuesta a 43 de las 50 ERT relevadas a nivel nacional y por otro lado se realizaron 40 entrevistas semiestructuradas a 40 de dichos emprendimientos.

Ant workers produce males in queenless parts of multi-nest colonies

Workers of several social insects are capable of gaining direct fitness by laying unfertilized eggs, which then develop into males. However, under queenright conditions, direct reproduction of workers is usually prevented by queen-induced regulatory mechanisms. In nature, some ant colonies inhabit multiple nests sites (polydomy). This might allow workers to escape queen control and to reproduce. However, whether worker-produced brood survives after colony reunion in seasonally polydomous species remains unclear. In several species, worker-produced eggs and male-destined larvae are selectively destroyed in queenright colonies. Here, we test whether workers discriminate between queen- and worker-produced larvae during colony reunion. We examined the reproductive success of workers in queenless subcolonies of our study species Temnothorax crassispinus. Our results show that present brood did not inhibit worker reproduction but had a positive effect on worker lifespan. Larvae produced by workers were readily integrated into queenright subcolonies during colony reunion and these larvae successfully developed into adult males.

Labour, population, and precarity: temporary foreign workers transition to permanent residency in rural Manitoba

Analyzing accounts of what 53 migrant workers experienced after their arrival in rural Manitoba, Canada, this article addresses the tensions created by their employer’s evolving labour recruitment strategy, which has depended on Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Programme and the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Programme. The article underscores the ways in which immigration policy connects to the interests of states and capital in the creation and reproduction of workers in specific labour markets.

Do Primitively Eusocial Wasps Use Queen Pheromones to Regulate Reproduction? A Case Study of the Paper Wasp Polistes satan

In several highly eusocial insect species with morphologically distinct castes, queen-characteristic cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) have been shown to act as queen signals that suppress the reproduction of nestmate workers. However, it is not known whether such queen pheromones might also play a role in regulating reproductive division of labour in primitively eusocial insects that lack morphologically defined castes. Here, we experimentally tested whether a blend of CHCs which occurred in higher concentrations in the dominant breeding female act as a queen pheromone, and inhibit reproduction by subordinate females in the primitively eusocial paper wasp Polistes satan. In contrast to earlier findings with highly eusocial species, our results show that although specific compounds were enhanced in dominant, reproductively active females, a blend of five of these compounds did not inhibit development of the ovaries of female nestmates. Instead, the dominant female had to be physically present to prevent subordinate females from reproducing. Our results are in line with earlier evidence suggesting that fertility-linked compounds in primitively eusocial wasps act only as cues and help to regulate reproduction when used in conjunction with aggressive dominance behaviour, meaning the physical presence of the dominant female. Alternatively, our results support the hypothesis that queen pheromones in highly eusocial insects were co-opted from fertility cues that were already present in primitively eusocial ancestors, even when initially, such compounds were merely produced as by-products of ovarian activation, without actually serving to signal reproductive status.

Germany’s dual education system: The assessment by its subjects

Introduction.The dual system of VET, widely practiced and popular in Germany, serves as a model for the European Union. The effectiveness of such training, successfully combining the development of theoretical knowledge with the practical activities of students, has been tested by life and time. The indisputable advantages of this system include its ability to respond quickly to the challenges of globalisation and transformation in the world of professions. In this regard, it is very important to address the socio-cultural and historical backgrounds of the dual system formation and to find out the reasons for its successful contemporary functioning.Theaimof the present publication was to comprehend the implementation experience of theGermany’s dual system based on the opinions analysis of experts and participants of the dual education system and the feedback from the direct participants of the educational process about this method of acquiring a profession and building a career path.Methodology and research methods.The leading research methods were questionnaire survey, comparative analysis and content analysis of empirical materials. Processing and generalisation of the detailed answers of respondents were based on the inductive method.Results.Historical, mental, socio-economic prerequisites for the appearance and formation of the Germany’s dual education system were identified and described. The methodology and methodological tools for the comparative analysis of attitudes of educational process members (students, practitioners, experts) and their points of view concerning degree of rationality, expediency and efficiency of support and development of dual forms of vocational education. The obtained data and synthesis of evaluative judgments of informants allow us to present an objective picture of the considered option for providing the country’s economy with the necessary labour resources.Practical significance.The materials of the article, confirming the prospects of the introduction and dissemination of the experience accumulated inGermany on the reproduction of skilled workers of enterprises, can be useful for understanding the directions of VET in other countries. Moreover, the research materials can be practically applied for the selection and creation of effective, similar to the German, mechanisms of rapid response to globalisation changes in the manufacturing sector.

A criação de espaços sociais como forma de luta das mulheres artesãs de Alagoas: a experiência da economia solidária

Este artigo busca especificar como a economia solidária vem construindo novos espaços para a reprodução social dos trabalhadores no Brasil, essencialmente no estado de Alagoas, evidenciando como possibilidade a superação de uma lógica puramente utilitária que norteia a sociedade vigente. Essa trajetória, ainda que contraditória e difícil de se fazer hegemônica, pode embasar processos conduzem a uma transformação social. Discutir essa perspectiva e evidenciar o contributo da economia solidária implica em dar-lhe o devido espaço, destacando sua importância como experimento social ao constituir práticas alternativas e possibilidades reais de organização diferenciada em um momento em que, mais uma vez, o capitalismo atravessa uma intensa crise. As organizações sociais acionaram ao longo de sua constituição instrumentos pedagógicos, de gestão, de estratégias e de materiais que podem indicar elementos de um novo espaço que se contrapõe e põe em “xeque” o espaço do capital como forma de reprodução destas populações.

Reproduction of rebel workers in honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies

The honeybee is one of several eusocial species in which the queen is typically the only reproductive member of the colony; worker reproduction is mostly restricted to queenless colonies. Because workers cannot mate, they lay unfertilized eggs, which develop into males. A recent study showed that in queenless colonies, which arise after swarming, worker larvae develop into rebel workers that have greater reproductive potential than do workers reared in queenright colonies, as measured by the number of ovarioles and degree of ovary activation. However, there was no evidence that rebels had an opportunity to produce male offspring. Here, we show for the first time that rebel workers not only activate their ovaries but also produce significantly more male offspring in queenright colonies than do normal workers. Moreover, our results show that the level of rebel reproduction in queenright colonies is similar to the reproduction of normal workers in queenless colonies. This finding suggests that the ultimate factor favouring the evolution of the rebel strategy is the decrease in relatedness between the old-generation workers and the new queen’s offspring that occurs after queen exchange at swarming.

“Our Public Library”: Social reproduction and urban public space in Toronto

Synopsis A recent struggle to stop proposed cuts to the public library budget in Toronto, Canada led toward broader debates over the effects of declining public budgets for the social reproduction of workers and citizens in neoliberalizing urban public spaces. Library proponents proclaimed that public libraries are a vital service and charged that budget cuts would disproportionately affect women and economically marginalized workers across the city. The controversy over Toronto's public library budget revealed that public libraries are unique public spaces where people are formed as workers and citizens, but through which they can also contest neoliberal disinvestment from the public sphere. Drawing from the events, outcomes, and claims made during the controversy, I argue that public libraries should be understood as spaces for social reproduction.

Dispossession is Nine-tenths of the Law

Anti-union right-to-work (RTW) laws are key tools in the reproduction of insecure or precarious workers. This article uses a comparison of the passage of RTW laws in Indiana in 1957 and 2012 to examine the process that sociologist Guy Standing and others have termed precariatization, the formation of a new type of insecure labor force. Through a comparison of the passage of the laws and the resistance of organized labor in both cases, the article charts the processes by which American workers in general, and Indiana workers in particular, have been dispossessed of rights in the workplace. This process of dispossession, along with the climate of neoliberal austerity, contributed to the inability of organized labor in Indiana to stop the implementation of an RTW law in 2012. By placing each set of events in the wider historical and national context, this article provides a framework for understanding the short- and long-term effects of dispossession in this key industrial state.

Reproduction of honeybee workers is regulated by epidermal growth factor receptor signaling

Eusocial insect societies display a remarkable reproductive division of labor between a single fertile queen and thousands of largely sterile workers. In most species, however, the workers retain the capacity to reproduce, particularly in queenless colonies where typically many workers lay eggs. As yet, the molecular determinants that initiate this shift in worker fertility are still poorly documented. By using RNA interference we here demonstrate that the knockdown of epidermal growth factor receptor, a gene which was previously shown to be involved in queen-worker caste differentiation, also induces reproduction in worker honeybees (Apis mellifera). These data show that worker fertility and queen-worker caste determination partly rely on the same gene regulatory networks, thereby providing a major breakthrough in our understanding of the molecular determinants of the social insects’ spectacular reproductive division of labor.

Alienated Enclaves: Economic Crisis and Neo-bondage in a South Indian Plantation Belt

The recent economic crisis in the Indian tea industry has led to the closure of many plantations and to the marginalization of the plantation workers. A critical analysis of the social processes that evolve out of the crisis-ridden plantations reveals otherwise hidden forces that condition continuing marginality of the workers. Accordingly, the major focus of the article is to identify and delineate the social processes that underpin the social reproduction of the plantation workers' alienation in the crisis context. This article suggests that the marginal position of the plantation workforce, both in India and elsewhere, needs to be understood as a phenomenon equally reinforced by the larger social processes of the region as much as by the economic processes specific to the plantation system.

Who Cares? Gender, Reproduction, and Care Chains of Burmese Migrant Workers in Thailand

This study analyzes the challenges facing Burmese women factory workers in Thailand who seek to secure the daily reproduction of their labor power as well as the generational reproduction of their children. It illustrates how the reproduction of workers' labor is crucial for the social reproduction of a global economy in which migration is increasingly central to the changing contours of economic development and accumulation. Based on twenty-four months of research, which included life history interviews and survey responses obtained at three sites of factory production in Thailand, the study charts the complexities of Burmese migrant workers' transborder care strategies, as they manage their responsibilities to their children and natal families. Moreover, in analyzing the care burdens of migrant women employed in non-care sectors, this contribution expands the global care chain framework and adds to the understanding of the intersection of productive and reproductive work in contemporary globalization