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In this chapter, we take up the distinction between applied and general fields of study in order to consider how patterns of gender stratification between them may differ. Purporting to offer industry- and firm-specific skills, applied fields of study are often differentiated from general education pathways that are offered within the university sector. However, as our research demonstrates, there is considerable interplay between these two forms of education when higher education engagement over the life course is examined. Using sequence and cluster analysis, we illustrate five ideal-typical higher education pathways in a sample of males and females over a 22-year period in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The gendered patterns of how individuals choose and move between general and applied fields of study offer a deeper account of stratification within general and applied skill acquisition and provide nuance concerning how vocational education can be conceptualised in relation to the actual higher education pathways students undertake. In Canada, where a high percentage of students gain university-level credentials, vertical and horizontal gender stratification within applied and general fields of study is distinctive and highlights system-specific engagement.

Globalization is rapidly integrating markets, universalizing Western materialism, and weakening the capacity of national states to safeguard local values and institutions. While some, principally the World Bank (1999) regard integrating world markets as an efficiency‐driven process, spreading the benefits of technical innovation and information technologies around the world, many are skeptical. Skeptics include in particular social scientists writing from a Non‐Western and Islamic perspective (Ismail 1999, Rajee 2000). If globalization is indeed a threat to the Nation‐State, then it would follow that small states would be the most vulnerable. At a minimum, it is significant to inquire whether globalization threatens the survival and sustainability of small states.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how occupations and the institutional setting shape the power balance (individual bargaining power) between employees and employers. It builds on theoretical approaches on knowledge work and institutional theory.

The paper uses the European Social Survey data in 2010/2011 to compare the power balance between employees and employers in three countries: Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Multinomial logit regression was employed.

The results show that occupation and the institutional setting shape the power balance between employees and employers. Employees in highly skilled occupations perceive greater power vis-à-vis their employer, and employees in Denmark, characterized by greater flexibility for employers, perceive less power than in Sweden and Norway. In addition, age and gender are important demographic factors determining employees’ perceived power towards their employers.

The literature makes a number of assumptions with regard to the attitudes and behaviour of knowledge workers. However, research that compares employees in knowledge work with other occupational groups is scarce. This paper adds to the literature by comparing employees in highly skilled knowledge work with employees in lower skilled occupations. It also empirically shows how different approaches to definitions of knowledge work correspond.

This paper examines the phenomen of microstates and, in particular, their often exceptionally high per‐capita levels of income. It suggests that the small size of a state, in terms of both area and population, may be economically advantageous. The special characteristics of microstates are defined and a case study of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus is used to examine them further. Conclusions are drawn and, hopefully, discussion will be stimulated regarding the relatively unexplored field of microstates.

Presents and discusses findings from a major study of changing employment practices in UK banking. Uses case studies to explore different patterns of reaction to a fast and radically changing business environment. Addresses important questions including the nature of the changes to human resource management practices, the extent and depth of these changes and, most importantly, the degree to which the different banks are following similar or divergent paths. Offers explanations for the findings under each of these headings.

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the boundaries separating strategic and comparative institutional perspectives on human resource systems and employment relations. Each research tradition has investigated the role and outcomes of corporations as they operate in an increasingly global economy. Researchers in these traditions, however, ask different research questions and draw on distinct social science disciplines, theoretical assumptions, and research methodologies. While they have pursued parallel but separate tracks, we argue that they have important lessons for each other. In this paper, we review the core characteristics and critiques of each research tradition, provide a series of examples of efforts to bridge their differences, and offer suggestions for future integration.

This chapter maps existing patterns of broad-based worker ownership and control in contemporary advanced capitalism and considers future possibilities for expanding democracy within firms. Section one discusses worker ownership and control arrangements in relation to different theories of the firm and shows how these arrangements map onto different national systems. Section two compares Germany, which is characterized by worker control without ownership, and the United States, which is marked by worker ownership without control. Section three explores three pathways through which broad-based worker ownership and control might be deepened and more strongly coupled in the future.

We test two alternative hypotheses concerning the impact of union membership on the reemployment earnings of displaced workers and find support for the hypothesis that unions exert monopoly power in setting wages rather than providing any direct productivity enhancements. This effect holds in both the short run and over time.

This paper draws on a telephone survey of 116 independent SMEs to explore the impact of a variety of training interventions on human resource (HR) practices and business performance in Great Britain. The paper investigates the extent to which targeting such interventions on the managers of SMEs affects the impact and the likelihood of changes in HR practices but finds no statistically significant relationship. The research findings suggest that whilst training interventions have positively contributed to the establishment of HR practices and are perceived by SME managers to have met the needs of the organisation, their impact on a range of business performance indicators is fairly modest. Furthermore the research identifies the propensity of SMEs who are currently engaged in training to become involved in these interventions whilst the majority of SMEs who are not engaged in external training activities remain untouched by the policy intervention.

The chapter elaborates a critical theoretical narrative about the political economy of European capitalism. It illustrates how precariousness has been exacerbated by the impact of the global financial crisis and the emergence of a new system of European governance. Theoretical accounts in the sociology of work and labor studies have demonstrated the complexity of the outcomes and widely discussed the role of national labor market institutions and employment policies and practices, political ideology, and cultural frameworks impinging upon precarious work as a multidimensional concept. The chapter’s core concern is to illustrate how shifts in power resources, and particularly the weakening and deinstitutionalization of organized labor relative to capital, has acted as a central social condition that has brought about precariousness during the years leading up to and following the 2007–2008 crisis. In so doing, the chapter aims to overcome the existing theoretical accounts of precariousness which have often been limited by one or another variant of “methodological nationalism,” thereby exploring the transnational apparatuses that are emerging across national economies to date, and which impinge upon the structures and experiences that workers exhibit in an age of growing marketization.