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Purpose – The chapter explores how gendered division of labor shapes gender hierarchal relationships, inequality, social mobility, and labor solidarity of women and men workers in the small-scale restaurant industry in China.

Methodological approach – Thirty-four interviews with restaurant workers were conducted and a survey was taken.

Findings – Small-scale restaurants in China are patriarchal in structure that symbolizes a familial hegemonic regime. Labor is divided by gender, age and, to some extent, class with women concentrated in the lower positions. Most restaurant workers are young migrant women who come to the city to work before marrying and having children. Restaurant work is arduous: the hours are long and the wages are low. Women workers do not advance beyond the position of server, while men make use of social contacts and advance in status and wages. Because of kinship and village ties as well as divisions by age and gender, class solidarity cannot be achieved.

Value of the study – The chapter focuses on a topic that has been little studied. It furthers an understanding of intersectionality and inequality among food service workers in the context of China.

Small traditional industry has been recognized as an important local economy that support cultural industry and is significant in many parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. The significance of this type industry as a poverty barrier, enables jobs for local rural villagers, and their role in continuing local community based cultural activities have become obvious. However, as the current modern days global pressures affecting many traditional people in developing countries, pathways of small traditional industry toward local sustainable development remain unclear. Further continuous investigations are still required on how this industry provide the platform for greater local, regional and global sustainability. Literatures and debates on the sustainability of the rural developing country concerning small traditional industries may even begin from the establishment of Brundtland sustainability commission in 1987. The conflict between brown and green agenda in Brundtland commission may also point to small-scale traditional industry growth in the developing world. Cultural traditional industries in developing countries could better lead to local sustainability pathway. On the other hand, conflict of the use of natural resources and competition may create different stories. How traditional industry in developing country survive and further innovate for development is a significant knowledge to understand. This chapter uses Jepara traditional furniture industry in Central Java – Indonesia which has been the subject of prolonged study on how small-scale industry implicated to global competition and pressures of raw material resources decline. This chapter further reviews previous research and recent study on Jepara industry upgrade and innovation, and how likely innovation may prosper for the future sustainability of this type of industry.

In this chapter we examine how the small scale agro-industries located in Southern Brazil, specifically in the North of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, started to deal with changes in their production processes, how they created and adapted technologies, and devised new products. Among the main outcomes of the study we highlight the novelties observed during the field research, especially regarding the family situation and the agro-manufacturing activities, in which we observed (i) a relative raise in autonomy; (ii) improvement in both the income level and the quality of life of household members; (iii) creation of new nested markets and marketing channels; (iv) development of more environmentally sustainable products; (v) improvement of the value added to food products; and (vi) development of new interfaces between families and other social actors.

A company as an entity could cease to exist owing to its merger and dormancy in activity. The latter can be attributed to two causes – unsustainability of present state of production or shell companies. Therefore, three questions are posed – one, why do companies merge, two – why do companies shut down and third – of those that disappear can they be identified as shell.

The motives for each of these cases of disappearance of a company are enlisted and a firm-level analysis is undertaken where each firm is compared with a counterfactual.

It is found that companies that survived despite the inefficiencies and smaller market shares were the ones that had some foreign affiliation and were unrelated to existing business entities. On the other hand, the dormancy or shutdown can be attributed to lack of access to imported technology and low shares of market with dismal profitability. With the growing intensity of globalisation, the Indian corporate sector is now more prone to global economic conditions. Lastly, the disappearance or shutdown of companies that may have been used for tax avoidance is supported by the data.

The present study is the first to amalgamate and discuss various the causes for shutdown of companies. Further, the methodology adopted is unique in terms of the use of counterfactuals.

Purpose: This chapter investigates the current skill gap in small-scale industries, the need for skill development and digital training in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME), and reviews policies for skill development and solutions.

Need for the Study: While the legislature and organisations have initiated various considerations for the successful implementation of the Skill Development System in the country’s MSMEs, there are significant challenges that must be addressed quickly to fill the skill gap in workers in this digital era.

Research Methodology: Secondary data has been used for the chapter review. Analysis has been done based on review data from women handloom and handicraft workers in the micro or craft industry who received a Star rating from the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) partners in Lucknow. For data collection, a questionnaire based on random sampling was used. The data were analysed using a rudimentary weighted average and a percentage technique.

Findings: The studies provide answers to some fundamental problems: are small industry employees indeed mobilised to be skilled outside the official schooling system? Is the training delivery mechanism adequate to prepare pupils for employment? Would industries be willing to reduce minimum qualification criteria to foster skill development?

Practical Implication: Non-technical aptitudes digital and soft skills for workers in this sector should be emphasised in MSMEs, and significant reforms in MSME sectors and capacity-building education and training programmes should be implemented in the Indian industry to generate small and medium enterprises production and employment.

This paper examines the impact that the global economy and local institutional environment had on the rise and demise of the small-scale industrialists movement in Peru. Informed by Alan Lipietz's regime theory, the author argues that as the mode of regulation changes according to major transformations in the regime of accumulation, these macrostructural factors impact social movements' strategy and collective identity. Each mode of regulation has a locus of resource allocation. The small-scale industrialists' movement reoriented its actions and redefined itself in adaptation to the locus of resource allocation, which shifted from the state to international funds. Two periods in the history of the movement are compared in order to test this argument. Under populism (1968–1975), the Peruvian state centralized the distribution of resources, organized the population in a corporate fashion, and ethnicized the language of protest and distributed resources along corporate lines. This institutional framework fostered a class movement which, ultimately centralized in two national associations, advocated an industrialization strategy based on the promotion of small-scale industry. Under delegative democracy the locus of resource allocation was dispersed among dozens of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), while human rights violations multiplied. The dispersion of resources fostered the multiplication of trade-specific, ethnic, or gender associations of small-scale industrialists. The decline of the national movement resulted from its atomization and the intensification of state repression.

This chapter argues that the primary reason for the underdeveloped state of microfoundations research in language and communications studies is methodological. It asserts that the long-standing methodological division between micro and macro analyses (traditionally small-scale and large-scale, respectively) has led to their continued theoretical separation. The paper draws from Giddens’ theory of structuration and newly developed computational methods to outline an alternative, mixed-methods framework for discourse analysis that the author calls Recursive Analysis (RA). The author demonstrates the application of the RA framework through a case study of the electric vehicle industry that aligns small-scale and large-scale textual analysis to generate theoretical insights.

This study aimed to document the life experiences of child miners (CMs) engaged in small-scale gold mining system (SSGMS) in Paracale using qualitative and ethnographic approaches. Findings revealed that the SSGMS started even before the Spaniards came in 1572. Pagbibitâ (underground mining), and pagkocompressor (underwater mining) were identified as types of SSGMS (pagkakabod) with common organizational structure and CMs. Their differences were in the nature of work, roles, costs, income, equipment, and processes. Majority of the CMs are males, out-of-school youth, eldest children, and have worked from two months to nine years. Altruistic factors, a source of inspiración, motivated them to engage on mining. They view their families as poor, and mining as their primary means of livelihood and family tradición. Their life threatening or work-related risks and impoverished living conditions unquestionably infringe their children’s rights. Their aspiración include having permanent employment, better family life and community, finishing their studies, and sending their siblings to school. Perseverance and hard work are their means to realize them.

Their experiences of labour explotación and destitution are indeed social issues. Espousing social development and community organizing frameworks, good governance, holistic alternative livelihood and learning system may minimize their plight as child miners.