Sociotechnical Systems and Unions: Nicety or Necessity

Sociotechnical systems (STS) theorists havelargely ignored the role of unions both in theirtheoretical framework and in STS implementation. Thisoversight weakens the potential application anddissemination of STS theory and practice. STS democracy isfrequently seen by its proponents as preferable to uniondemocracy except when they come to the same conclusion.Unions have historically played a role in the development and success of seminal STSinitiatives but are not seen as a critical specificationfor success. Many practitioners have noted theinstrumental importance of unions in unionized settings without acknowledging class, conflict, or unionvalues. As such, many unions have dismissed or resistedSTS innovations. Despite these serious shortcomings, thelabor process argument has failed to produce a credible alternative to STS principles. Insome cases, the union role has been central to STSreforms and examples like these have prompted somenational union movements to promote work reform with an STS base. Recently, the American labor movementhas endorsed work reform approaches akin to STSapproaches. STS changes are seen not just as ways tochange managerial practices but also to alter unionstructures and functioning. As such, a union-rooted STSapproach provides greater societal and workplace impactbenefitting employees, employers, trade unions, and thesociety.     

Cultivation and Control: Grape Growing as Expansion in Nineteenth-century United States and Australia

Abstract

This essay proposes that viticulture (growing grapes for wine) was an international set of colonial tactics for transforming landscapes and for propagating a worldview of cultivation and control in the nineteenth century. By virtue of propagating grapes, Americans and Australians sought to prove themselves and their landscapes as solidly located within the accepted Western narrative of world history which claimed that all powerful nations, since antiquity, had successful grape cultures. A study of the international mid-nineteenth century grape craze reveals similarities and crucial differences in colonial viticultural rhetoric and aesthetics. The Western capitalist dedication to growing wine in America and Australia reveals that the eighteenth-century 'ethic of exploration' had successfully transformed into a nineteenth-century ethic of cultivation.     

论《弃儿汤姆·琼斯的历史》的时空体

时空体理论是俄国著名理论家巴赫金的核心理论之一,对理解和分析文学作品的艺术成就有非常重要的指导作用。运用巴赫金的＂希腊传奇教喻小说＂时空体理论,从情节设置、结构框架及人物塑造三个方面分析并探究《弃儿汤姆.琼斯的历史》的时空体,拟从全新的理论视角对菲尔丁的创作技巧作更全面和深刻的探讨。     

《许三观卖血记:》荒诞而真实的苦难叙事

《许三观卖血记》通过一个市井小民卖血求生的悲剧故事,深刻地揭示了苦难与人生的终极意义。许三观以他应对苦难的特有方式,集中诠释了中国人在苦难面前的民族智慧与坚韧性格。许三观并没有用麻木去"消解和遗忘"人生苦难,相反,他是在以一种俗人经验诠释人生苦难,苦难通过卖血被还原为生命本质。因此,许三观不是某一具体人物,而是民族苦难象征的艺术符号,他唤起并强化了我们对民族苦难历史的情绪记忆,进而使我们真正懂得了什么是苦难与如何去面对苦难。     

Reinserting the professional into the study of globalizing professional service firms: the case of law

Abstract In discussions of the globalization of professional service firms there is an increasing recognition that understanding the ‘social construction’ of organizational architectures is essential. In this article we argue, using the management of transnational law firms as an example, that to understand effectively these social constructions we must reincorporate an understanding of the principles of professionalism into discussions. We highlight the importance of occupational autonomy to professionals and how this is likely to influence the strategies that global professional service firms use. We also point to what we term the ‘varieties of professionalism’ and the spatially variable professional projects that underlie the values and identities of lawyers. This reveals the way rational and efficient forms of organizing have to be adapted as a result of professional values and the diverse ideals and beliefs of lawyers in different international jurisdictions.     

Organizational Hope: Reaffirming the Constructive Task of Social and Organizational Inquiry

This paper develops the construct oforganizational hope as a methodological imperative forstudying and strengthening organizations. It calls onorganizational scholars and practitioners to move beyond the critical impulse by advancing texturedvocabularies of hope that affirm the best and mostpromising dimensions of social and organizational lifeand provide a moral image of the future to guidecollective action. This can be accomplished by defininghopeful research agendas and choosing methods of inquirythat explore and illuminate the hopes and aspirations ofa broad range of organizational members. After clarifying the concept of textured vocabulariesof hope, this paper undertakes a thorough analysis ofhope by tracing the construct throughout the Westernintellectual tradition, highlighting four of hope'senduring qualities, and offering a set of propositionsthat extends the implications of organizational hope toour task as scholars and practitioners.     

The “Three Waves” of Industrial Group Work: Historical Reflections on Current Research on Group Work

This paper deals with the three waves of the discourse on group work in social science and industrial practice that have helped pave the way for the current boom in the introduction of group work in companies. These waves are represented by the human relations approach, the sociotechnical systems approach, and the lean management debate. They are reviewed in two perspectives. The first relates to their concepts of work design and group work, following four questions: (a) What emphasis is put on work factors or on subjective orientations, on the design of working conditions or symbolic strategies? (b) How do the various approaches address the relationship between efficiency and control? (c) Which concepts of participation or democracy are involved? (d) How is the role of the social scientist in the process of industrial modernization conceptualized, explicitly or implicitly? The second perspective from a sociology of science relates to the context of production and utilization of social scientific knowledge. In general, two theses are put forward. The first states that a gap exists between the aspirations and reality of group work because the basic conflict of efficiency and control has been overlooked for ideological reasons. The second postulates that there is no linear progress in the theory and practice of group work. It seems that the socioeconomical context determines reasonably which group concept and ideology dominates certain historical phases of industrial modernization.     

Bringing about the global movement for the rights of nature: sites and practices for intelligibility

Legal scholars, environmental organizations, indigenous groups and activists from around the world are energizing an emergent global movement on the rights of nature. To face the environmental crisis, these heterogeneous actors are coming together to reconceptualize nature as a legal subject. In this article, I examine Democracy Schools and Awakening the Dreamer Symposia (ADS) to establish where and how this emergent movement is being organized. The meaning structures, knowledge stocks and identity cues that characterize it are made intelligible to potential adherents through these seminars and workshops. Interpretive analysis reveals that Democracy Schools and ADSs are distinctively mobile and replicable infrastructures. The concept of ‘stagings' was developed to help examine cultural and spatial dynamics in heterogeneous and extensive collective action.     

An analysis of the homeworker network in Pakistan: a global justice network (GJN) perspective

Using a global justice network (GJN) approach, in this article I examine the localization of a transnational network for homeworker rights. Based on my field research undertaken in Pakistan between January 2015 and December 2017, I compare different organizing approaches to establish how a politics of vulnerability may be transformed into a politics of voice and mobility. I found that, from the vantage point of the homeworker, the process of organizing rather than the results achieved is what really matters. In the case of Pakistan, union‐style organizing by the Home‐worker Federation, which is mindful of gender and class hierarchies, enhances the homeworkers’ voice, agency and mobility, while also building translocal labour solidarities. Conversely, an NGO‐led national network, with its top–down approach, perpetuates the very hierarchies it was mission bound to dismantle, thus forcing the women to stay spatially imprisoned. Without arguing that one institutional form is superior to the other, I demonstrate that for a GJN to articulate diverse local and global struggles it must be mindful of the hierarchies and boundaries that isolate and silence marginalized workers. It must also genuinely include the grassroots in the production and transference of knowledge.     

American Studies in East Asia

Abstract

American Studies as practised in China, Japan, and Korea has some features of its own and reflects the specific conditions and needs of each country. Chinese Americanists have shown keen interest in US economy, politics, and China policy. Japanese Americanists are interested in ethnic studies and contemporary international issues involving the USA, while Korean Americanists are attracted to ethnic writers and politicians. Unlike their colleagues elsewhere, some East Asian Americanists have tended to study the USA in order to find the source of American strength through social sciences more than the American national ethos reflected in American culture, literature, and history.