“经济人”与人文关怀

英国著名经济学家马克·布劳格认为,现代经济学已出现了“病态”,日益成为一种为自身而存在的智力游戏,而不是为了实践的结果。布劳格认为主流经济学家已经逐渐把这个学科变成了某种社会数学。他套用英国一首流行音乐的标题调侃这种经济学:“请不要和我谈论现实,我们是经济学家!”布劳格正确指出了现代经济学发展中所出现的一种病态趋向:越来越数理化和模型化,缺少现实的人文关怀。西方“经济人”思想的演进现代经济学的这一病态发展,源自它的“经济人”假说。虽然亚当·斯密没有明确提出“经济人”的说法,但后来的经济学家都公认“经济人”…     

大学毕业生就业问题与政策研究

青年失业是世界各国的普遍现象,也是一个全球性的社会问题。在经济不断发展的今天,大学毕业生就业问题越来越严峻,成为中国政府日益重视的现实课题。大学毕业生就业难具有多重因素。经济增长方式不协调和高校教育模式的计划性与就业的市场化之间的矛盾成为就业困难的主要原因。由于就业困难。一些用人单位人才高消费和大学毕业生沦为边缘群体事件频发。2012年,第一批“90后”大学生步入就业市场,未来的大学毕业生的就业问题就是“90后”的就业问题,大学生的发展问题也就是“90后”的发展问题。因此,要研究“90后”大学生的发展特点,建立与完善大学毕业生就业的法律保障体系、就业社会政策和创业教育制度等相关政策势在必行。     

做好培训与就业的有机结合促进下岗职工再就业

培训与就业的关系问题，不仅是一个理论问题，更重要的是一个实践问题。理论上对二者关系的认识是“仁者见仁，智者见智”；实践中对二者关系的处理也是“八仙过海，各显神通”。当前，对培训和就业的关系问题，有三种认识。第一种认识是认为“培训是为就业服务的”；第二...     

环境社会学发展视角分析：生态、经济与社会

诗人温德尔·贝里(WendellBerry)曾经指出:“人类生态问题的答案将在经济学中找到,经济问题的答案将在人类文化、社会结构和特质中找到。”环境社会学的发展恰恰就体现在与生态学和环境经济学的视角比照过程中。生态学为环境社会学提供了基础和前提生态学的研究成果为环境社会学提供了一个基础和前提,同时,由于两个学科关心的主题同是“人类     

青年与风险:反思性及其挑战

从某种程度上说。当今的青年一代可被认为是在一个以风险社会为主要标志的社会背景下成长起来的。当今青年社会化环境向“脱域”与陌生变迁;青年社会化机构向“时空压缩”与即时性转变;青年个体化方式也产生了“选择‘与责任的革新。在风险社会中。青年的教育、就业及亲密关系都表现出新的特征,在这种境况下,一直以来被认为权威的专家调查和分析也越来越使人感到迷惑,一种有效的方式就是深度反思新一代青年在未来的时期中将要面对的各种挑战。所以,适当的反思是可行而且重要的。     

职业院校学生思想教育创新性思考

经济和社会发展,学生的就业问题越来越成为社会关注的焦点。就业难已经成为困扰各个院校尤其是职业院校发展的瓶颈性问题。就业率不仅关乎着院校的生存发展,也成为影响社会和谐稳定的重要因素。“就业”看“技能”,“技能”看“做人”,做人的成败缘由思想教育,思想教育也成了政治任务。所以,“思想政治”亦成为校园教育的重要课题。     

再谈经济学的“主流”与“非主流”

《社会观察》2005年第5期上的《也谈经济学的“流”和“派”》一文谈到经济学的“主流”与“非主流”划分问题,介绍了学术界的一种流行看法即:是否以市场经济作为研究对象,将经济学界划分为主流和非主流两个基本阵营。关于划分标准问题,不同人会有不同的参照系,但在参照系的选择中绕不过对经济学研究对象的讨沦。经济学的研究对象归根到底是人,而现实世界中的人既是新古典世界中的理性“经济人”,也是康德世界中的理性“道德人”。也就是说,经济学既是以市场经济作为研究对象,又是以伦理和正义(制度)作为研究对象。从这个角度看,我以为,以两者为研究对象的经济学都可视为“主流”。那种“以市场为研究对象,或者说以‘经济人’为研究对象的就是主流经济学,以公平和正义等为研究对象的就是非主流经济学”的说法可能是个误解。这种误解的产生与现代经济学和伦理学的分离相关。     

环境外部性·蒂伯特模型·城市政府——克服环境外部性的制度思路

一、问题的提出 随着工业化和城市化的推进,城市环境问题也日益凸现,资源因过度开采而匮乏,环境污染问题更是层出不穷。经济学认为,外部性的存在是环境问题的根本原因,即由于在个人的生产或消费中的边际私人成本小于边际社会成本,差额即环境外部成本。早在1920年,著名经济学家庇古在其《福利经济学》一书中就分析了外部性,并提出由国家政府采用征税手段来调节边际私人成本与边际社会成本达到平衡,从而实现资源配置的帕累托最优。后来,西方环境经济学家便以此为据提出了“庇     

美国的现代大众消费模式

1936年,现代经济学之父凯恩斯在其代表作《就业、利息和货币通论》中,将早期资本主义发家致富的所谓“节俭”美德视作30年代经济危机的罪魁祸首,从而向“供给自动创造需求”的传统经济学观念发起了挑战。凯恩斯指出,人们将没有价值的货币作为观念财富储藏,破坏了“供给自动创造需求”的原理,     

劳动权保护及其立法问题研究

我国正在制定《农民权益保护立法》，并在2007年8月出台了《中华人民共和国就业促进法》，其涉及的核心问题是公民劳动权保护，因此，分析劳动权的法学意义对我国的社会建设具有重要意义。劳动权是经济学与法学研究的重要领域，经济学学科侧重讨论就业问题，法学学科则重从公民权的角度进行研究，从法学的基本范畴即权利与义务关系分析社会主体就业的公平与社会责任问题。     

Ecological Modernization,Environmental Policy and Employment. Can Environmental Protection and Employment be Reconciled?

The paper examines the relationship between environmental policy and employment. It argues that environmental policy probably has a positive effect on employment. To support this conclusion the following arguments will be made: polluting companies, and hence employment in these companies, can be, but is not always, negatively affected by environmental policy; polluting companies do not move to another country due to environmental policy; the ecosector is an important employment sector; and, the net balance between job losses and gains due to environmental policy is positive. This conclusion is conditional on certain assumptions concerning the functioning of labour markets, the improvement in environmental quality and the normative implications of the debate.     

高校毕业生城乡基层就业的长效机制研究

大学生基层就业既是缓解大学生就业压力,也是解决基层人才匮乏问题的有效路径。当前,大学生基层就业受到多重行为因素影响,主观认知上存在待遇水平、发展空间、地域差别、就业观念、生活环境等因素影响,客观上受到政策支持力度、经济发展状况、社会和家庭观念等因素制约,其中待遇水平和政策支持力度是两个关键影响因素。对浙江省高校毕业生的实际研究发现,构建促进高校毕业生到基层就业的长效机制应从创建大学生基层就业的人文关怀服务体系、政策扶持体系、资金融通支持体系以及教育培训体系四个维度入手。     

Women's Rights vs. "Fetal Rights":

Policies restricting the employment opportunities of women have a long history in the U.S. The most recent manifestation has been so-called "fetal protection" policies, which exclude women of childbearing age from jobs involving exposure to toxins considered dangerous to a developing fetus. Traditional arguments that women's biology is justification to keep them from jobs have resurfaced in a new form. In the present debate the issue is framed as one of competing rights, those of fetus versus those of the woman. An analysis of public policy on this issue from a feminist legal standpoint reveals how the law's implicit male standard hinders the attainment of equal employment opportunity for women, as they must now compete with hypothetical fetuses sa well sa with men.     

Reducing unemployment: Lay beliefs about how to reduce current unemployment

Whereas most psychological work on unemployment has concerned how people react to being unemployed, considerably less has concerned peoples' explanations for and attitudes towards unemployment. This study was concerned with lay peoples' perceived cures for current unemployment. It was argued that these perceptions both influence and are influenced by current economic policy options. A quasi-representative sample of nearly 450 people answered one open-ended and six closed questions. The results showed a wide variety of perceived ways of reducing unemployment ranging from stimulating the economy to provide more jobs to redistributing existing jobs. However, the ratings of the six specific questions revealed that there was little agreement between the subjects with regard to job sharing, reducing working hours and women giving up their jobs. Further, there were some interesting and predictable sex, age and employment history differences in the subjects' response. The results are discussed in terms of the role of lay beliefs in the economy, the literature on unemployment and possibilities for future research.     

Employment Trajectories Beyond Retirement

Within the political and academic debate on working longer, post-retirement employment is discussed as an alternative to maintain older workers in the labor market. Our article enhances this discussion by studying determinants of transitions into post-retirement jobs within differing work environments of birth cohorts 1940–1942. We estimate proportional subhazard models accounting for competing risks using unique German social security data linked to pension accounts. Our findings suggest that individuals’ preferences to take up post-retirement jobs are not mutually exclusive. Our study provides evidence that taking up post-retirement jobs is related to seeking financial security, continuity, and work ability, suggesting that public policy has to develop target-oriented support through a public policy mix of different measures aligned to the different peer groups in the labor market.     

Welfare to work: Building a better path to private employment opportunities

As welfare reform legislation takes effect, employers in both the private and public sectors hope to create jobs and offer employment to over two million former welfare recipients entering the labor market. We examine the economic environment facing these welfare-to-work efforts: the job market and the characteristics of the welfare population, current business approaches, and employment policy regulations which could be changed to ease the often difficult transition from welfare to work. This paper was originally prepared as a background paper for the Employment Policy Foundation's Wel-fare to Work forum held November 12, 1997 in cooperation with the National Alliance of Business and the John M. Olin Institute for Employment Practice and Policy. The authors gratefully acknowledge the con-tributions of James Van Erden to this paper, and the helpful comments of Max Lyons, Edward Potter, and Gary Shiu on earlier drafts.     

Social Capital Investment and Immigrant Economic Trajectories: A Case Study of Punjabi American Taxi Drivers in New York City

Although the scholarship on social capital and immigrant economic incorporation has sufficiently documented how immigrants mobilize social capital in their search for employment which often leads to the formation of immigrant niches, how social capital is processed after immigrants acquire employment and its significance for the preservation of immigrant employment niches is less well explored. This paper addresses this gap in the literature with a case study of immigrant Punjabi taxi drivers in the New York metropolitan area. In particular, this study shows how a group of immigrant Punjabi taxi drivers mobilized social capital via embeddedness in co‐ethnic social networks and improved their working conditions – a process that must be considered in explanations of the Punjabi niche in the taxi industry for more than two decades. The study has implications for the relationship between social capital and the structure of the workplace or industry where immigrants are incorporated and its subsequent impact on immigrant economic trajectories. Further, this study contributes to the debate on the usefulness of ethnic communities for the adaptation of immigrant groups. Additionally, this research is relevant to the scholarship on the economic adaptation of South Asian (a subset of Asian Americans) immigrants, an understudied immigrant group in the United States.     

Employment and environmental hazard: women workers and strategies of resistance in northern Thailand

This case study explores women's awareness of health and environmental dangers associated with employment in electronics factories in export processing zones (EPZs) in Thailand. The author illustrates with two examples of alliances between women and two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) the constraints of formal alliances. Data are obtained from participatory research conducted among women employed in the electronics industry in 1995 in the Northern Regional Industrial Estate (NRIE) in Lamphun in rural northern Thailand. This article discusses whether the emphasis on women's employment in EPZs really results in the greater good for women or whether it is exploitation. Women working in the NRIE were aware of the environmental hazards of their jobs. Many women workers migrated to EPZs from rural areas in order to create income to support a family or pay educational expenses. Another reason for seeking work at NRIE was to earn high wages for a limited period that could be used as capital to start their own business. Although women expressed interest in reducing the environmental hazards of their jobs, women put a stronger priority on not jeopardizing their employment status. Labor is in great supply, and women trouble-makers are likely to lose their jobs. The Center for the Advancement of Lanna Women (CALW) is an NGO that was set up by academics from Chiangmai University. CALW encourages women to speak out about health and working conditions, but workers did not know how far to go in protests before losing their jobs, and this undermined the alliance building and potential for change. It is urged that the Thai government acknowledge NGOs legally and open up dialogue. Civil participation can only be actualized, if there is formal recognition of the role of the state and its relationship to industry and industry's goals of profit.     

Moving beyond class: A critical review of labor‐environmental conflicts from the global south

Popularly referred to as the “Blue‐Green conflicts,” the tensions between labor and environmental movements have received extensive scholarly attention as it exposes the trade‐off between the economy and the environment. The jobs versus the environment trade‐off has been a focal point of tension in the relationship between trade‐unions and green movements across the globe. In this article, I critically review the existing literature on labor and environmental conflicts from a Global South standpoint. The review exposes how the extant literature on labor‐environmental relations almost exclusively focuses on cases and settings in the Global North, thereby centering the process of inquiry entirely around western social contexts and movements. In this article, I demonstrate why the conception of environmentalism as a middle‐class phenomenon within the extant literature is problematic as; (a) it fails to consider the poor and working‐class environmental movements in countries in the Global South, and (b) it completely overlooks the environmental justice movements and other working‐class environmental movements in the Global North itself. The review highlights the need to bring postcolonial movements and settings to the center of sociological analysis to decolonize the research on social movements.     

Ungrateful slaves? An examination of job quality and job satisfaction for male part-time workers in the UK

Research on part-time work has concentrated over many decades on the experiences of women but male part-time employment is growing in the UK. This article addresses two sizable gaps in knowledge concerning male part-timers: are men's part-time jobs of lower quality than men's full-time jobs? Are male part-timers more or less job-satisfied compared to their full-time peers? A fundamental part of both interrogations is whether men's part-time employment varies by occupational class. The article is motivated by the large body of work on female part-timers. Its theoretical framework is rooted in one of the most controversial discussions in the sociology of women workers: the “grateful slave” debate that emerged in the 1990s when researchers sought to explain why so many women expressed job satisfaction with low-quality part-time jobs. Innovatively, this article draws upon those contentious ideas to provide new insights into male, rather than female, part-time employment. Based upon analysis of a large quantitative data set, the results provide clear evidence of low-quality male part-time employment in the UK, when compared with men's full-time jobs. Men working part-time also express deteriorating satisfaction with jobs overall and in several specific dimensions of their jobs. Male part-timers in lower occupational class positions retain a clear “lead” both in bad job quality and low satisfaction. The article asks whether decreasingly satisfied male part-time workers should be termed “ungrateful slaves?” It unpacks the “grateful slave” metaphor and, after doing so, rejects its value for the ongoing analysis of part-time jobs in the formal labor market.