This paper uses a sample of 1243 international firms for the period 2013–2017 to analyse the effect that a greater presence of women in management teams has on business behaviour in relation to labour and human rights, and the mediating role of improved performance in these rights on corporate transparency. The results show that gender diversity in management teams is positively associated with performance in relation to labour and human rights, and that such a performance acts as a (...) mediating factor by fostering a higher disclosure of information regarding these issues. The findings therefore seem to indicate that the presence of women in management teams acts as a driving force for enhanced social responsibility. (shrink)

In the fiercely competitive global business environment, the attainment of excellence is contingent upon the efficient management of human resources and their alignment with sustainable development goals. This study examines the interplay between labour practices, social sustainability and organizational performance, with a focus on the often-ignored perspectives of employees. Employees, often neglected as critical stakeholders, shape corporate values and strategy. The study uses a quantitative approach, having applied the partial least square method for the proposed research model. Questionnaire responses (...) from 574 Portuguese employees reveal that labour practices (employee development, employee participation and equal opportunity) positively influence perceived social sustainability. Perceived social sustainability positively influences perceived organizational performance. The examined labour practices only exhibit a positive influence on perceived organizational performance when perceived social sustainability acts as a mediator. Companies must place a high priority on the perceptions of their employees to achieve social sustainability. This involves incorporating inclusive, participative and proactive policies regarding human resources policies, thereby leveraging the mutual advantages derived from labour practices. This demonstrates the pivotal role of social sustainability in companies' decision-making processes, as it substantially contributes to enhancing organizational performance. This study emphasizes the importance of integrating social sustainability to maximize organizational performance, providing valuable insights for business leaders. The original model, social sustainability-driven organizational performance, which is based on employees' perceptions, identifies labour practices as antecedents of social sustainability, and the influence of social sustainability, both directly and as a mediator, on organizational performance, is presented. (shrink)

This article focuses on emotions, conceptualised as emotional labour, evoked during data practices used to repurpose and enable healthcare data journeys for Finnish public healthcare. Combined approaches from critical data studies and the sociology of emotions were used to contribute to a better understanding of the mundane but often invisible work of the emotions of experts involved in data practices, such as facilitating data journeys and building data technologies. The article is based on a two-and-a-half-year ethnographic study conducted in (...) a Finnish regional public healthcare and social service organisation. The study results were derived from the analysis of 39 interviews and fieldnotes produced by observing 170 h of various meetings, events and work activities performed by experts. The results were organised into three forms of observed experts’ emotional labour related to three phases of healthcare data journeys: caring for data production and preparing data for travel, managing excitement and frustration in data processing for continually building the data management system, and reassuring users in making sense of obtained data analytics. The results contribute to a greater understanding of the emotions and emotional labour generated by healthcare data journeys and in relation to the volatile nature of healthcare data and the collaborative character of data practices. This work advocates for a better recognition of the emotional aspects of data practices and their implications on data-based knowledge and datafication processes in healthcare. (shrink)

Self-tracking practices include the use of personal data-gathering apps, wearable devices, and data analysis tools to record patterns from daily activities, as well as the organization, visualization, and analysis of this data. This paper draws on theories of digital labour and feminist political economy to build a framework of digital productive labour that highlights the exploitation of activities external to the formal labour relationship. Self-tracking practices are analysed through the lens of digital productive insofar as they fulfill (...) three roles: they generate the content necessary for sustaining digital networks and producing data that can be captured in commodity form; they aid in the reproduction of the social factory’s labour force; and they cultivate subjectivities amenable to consumption and production in contemporary capitalism. The paper examines the production and commodification of data, highlighting the algorithmic means by which self-trackers are separated from the financial value of their data. This is connected to feminist analyses of unpaid labour, with particular attention to self-tracking’s role as a contemporary form of reproductive labour that replenishes the labour force. Finally, the paper provides an analysis of the themes of self-knowledge, self-discovery, and gamification to understand how these frame self-trackers’ understanding of themselves as labourers, thus reproducing and deepening capitalist subjectivities. The paper concludes by considering self-tracking through the lens of the exploitation of life ‘outside’ the official labour relationship. (shrink)

Background. Midwives provide the majority of maternal and child healthcare in South Africa. The care provided by midwives during childbirth is a unique life experience for women, and in order to provide safe care, midwives are expected to comply with ethical principles, policies and legislation governing their profession, as guided by the International Confederation of Midwives. Objective. To establish midwives’ perception of ethical and professional practice in selected labour units of public healthcare, in Tshwane District, Gauteng Province, SA. (...) Methods. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive cross-sectional design was applied by use of in-depth interviews. Non-probability purposive sampling was used to draw a sample from midwives with 2 or more years of experience working in the labour units. Data saturation was reached with the eighth participant. The digitally recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was based on interpretive description. Results. The findings revealed that midwives do understand the ethical code of conduct. They experience challenges such as staff shortages, non-compliance with policies and lack of managerial support, which compromise ethical conduct to a certain extent. Conclusion. It is hoped that the suggested administrative, midwifery practice and research recommendations will guide the process of empowering midwives in ethical practice. (shrink)

Straipsnis skirtas originaliai, Lietuvos teisės doktrinoje nenagrinėtai temai – ikiteisminės ir teisminės darbo ginčų praktikos problemoms. Darbo ginčų ikiteisminė praktika pradėta kaupti tik po 2013 m. sausio 1 d., pasikeitus Darbo ginčų komisijų formavimo tvarkai. Dabar šios komisijos nuolat veikia prie teritorinių Valstybinės darbo inspekcijos padalinių. Autorius, turėdamas praktinės darbo šiose komisijose patirties, analizuoja konkrečias bylas, atskleidžia teigiamas ir neigiamas darbo teisės reformos puses bei jos įtaką ikiteisminei ir teisminei darbo ginčų praktikai. Aptariamos Darbo ir Civilinio proceso kodeksų harmonizavimo, nacionalinės (...) teisės reformos bei Europos Sąjungos teisės individualių ir kolektyvinių ginčų srityje derinimo problemos. Prieinama prie pagrindinės išvados, kad darbo teisės sisteminė reforma turi būti tęsiama, ją įgyvendinant konceptualiai ir sistemiškai derinant visas teisės šakas. Tai sudarytų sąlygas harmonizuoti įstatymines kodeksų nuostatas ir vienodinti nacionalinę ikiteisminę bei teismų praktiką. Siekiant tobulinti Valstybinės darbo inspekcijos misiją šioje srityje, reikėtų nuolat rengti atitinkamus mokymus į darbo ginčų komisiją deleguotiems darbuotojams ir socialiniams partneriams. Tai neabejotinai veiktų taikos sutarčių dinamiką. (shrink)

Vocational education and training (VET) finds itself in an ever-deepening crisis – both in Flanders and internationally. Attendance is dwindling, labour market shortages persist, and VET is increasingly viewed as an unattractive educational path. Dominant responses frame this as an economic issue. Yet, these instrumental perspectives rarely consider what is educational about vocational labour itself. While critiques exist, few address concrete vocational practices as educational environments in their own right. This article engages with the work of Oskar Negt (...) and Alexander Kluge – particularly Geschichte und Eigensinn (1981) – to explore how vocational labour practices can function as sites of education. Drawing on their concept of Eigensinn [obstinacy], it argues for a shift in how we understand labour as educational. Using Flemish youth work as an example of a vocational labour environment, this article shows show how everyday labour practices can express forms of resistance, transformation, and suspension that are educationally significant. This reveals that obstinacy is not only possible but already occurs in everyday labour practice. Ultimately, this article calls for VET research to take such obstinate practices seriously as essential and everyday expressions of people living together in new and educational ways. By attending to this obstinacy in research, we can develop more concrete and critical understandings of vocational labour as spaces where individuals learn how to live and move together, here and now. (shrink)

This article examines the ethical characteristics of MNEs employee relations in developing countries. Specifically, it addresses various ethical issues relating to labour relations and trade unions in extractive industries in Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia. Data collected in these countries indicate that criticisms aginst MNEs relating to labour issues and labour practices in developing countries are not lessening. The discussion is lent focus and direction through the analysis of critical incidents from the perspectives of various stakeholders: government, (...) oil and mining companies, and leaders of trade unions. Tensions over pay, expatriate employments as against the locals, negotiation rights and employees well-being are evident. The argument advanced is that the MNEs operating in the extractive industries of Africa will have to improve their relations with local employees in order to bridge the legitimacy gaps that exist. An improved mutual understanding between the MNEs and trade unions is required for both actors to have a smooth working relationship. (shrink)

In applied health care research, an essentialised notion of culture is often used when studying ethnic disparities in health and health care access between the majority populations of Western countries and migrants, with ethnic backgrounds that differ from majority population. This notion of culture, however, is considered highly problematic in anthropology and ethnic studies. Therefore, in our research on Dutch illness certification practices, we employed a dynamic conceptualisation of culture. Our research shows that, in practice, when clients fail to (...) meet the implicit norms of this practice, doctors ascribe this nonconformity differently when the client is a migrant than when he or she is a Dutch client. More specifically, when migrants fail to meet the norms, doctors are inclined to automatically ascribe this nonconformity to the assumed cultural background of the client. Consequently, these doctors feel less able to use the tools they normally use to coach their clients. This, in turn, results in more problematic and longer reintegration trajectories for migrants in comparison to Dutch clients in similar circumstances. In other words, framing the problems of migrants in terms of culture results in greater sick leave rates for migrants than for Dutch people. Clearly, culturalistic perspectives on ethnic differences have negative consequences. We therefore implore the application of a dynamic notion of culture in applied research. (shrink)

The Anthropocene is characterized by multiple crises associated with the infinite accumulation of growth on a planet of finite resources. Productive labour and the 8-h working model contribute to this contradiction. We argue for the reduction of productive labour in favour of reproductive labour accumulated through practices of collective care. The latter can heal the damage capital accumulation produces. Collective care brings into light various social practices often invisible to production, allows for a new understanding of nonhuman (...) agency, and challenges the dominant ethical disposition around work. We advocate for a new power equilibrium between productive and reproductive labour. (shrink)

The practice of early modern natural history depended on the collective collecting activities of a great variety of people. Among them, artisans played a major role in acquiring and distributing knowledge about the natural world and they contributed significantly to the scholarly labour in natural history. This distributed labour was both acknowledged by contemporaries as well as hidden from sight, reflecting the period′s dominant norms for class and gender. By combining an interpretation of the visual representation of (...) labour in European insect studies with an examination of written sources about natural history practices from about 1680 to 1810, this article decodes the often‐codified frontispieces and other more symbolic illustrations to offer new insights into the labour of natural history. Those who identified as scholars and artisans (or both) conceptualised their own intellectual and practical engagement with natural history within the semantic field of work. Some seemed to have even envisioned a new social role for academics as well as artisans. This article analyses the diversity of the “productive forces” in insect studies as they changed over time and it reconstructs what I will call the social imaginaries of participation. (shrink)

Any theory of practical irrationality necessarily imposes a division of labour between an account of the agent's intentional states and how these are formed, and an account of how these intentional states get applied in particular circumstances to choose a particular action. Nevertheless, questions that concern the content of the agent's beliefs and desires are still routinely lumped together with questions that deal with the way the agent chooses in the light of these beliefs and desires. This generates a (...) number of pseudoproblems. Seeks to clarify some of them, by considering the internal structure of decision theory. (shrink)

The Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania was enacted on 4 June 2002. However, the practice of ten years has shown that even the systematisation of this branch of law by means of codification could not help avoiding gaps in labour law. The Lithuanian labour law system balances on the brink of flexibility, liberalisation and stability. The purpose of this article is to examine the legal side of this problem and to evaluate the quality of (...) legal regulation of labour relations, also to propose instruments and means to improve them. The main aim of the article is to show the difference between gaps in labour law and some similar (contiguous) legal phenomena that will also be discussed in the article. (shrink)

Does private regulation of workers’ rights in global value chains improve working conditions on the factory floor? Drawing on one of the first systematic longitudinal studies of supplier compliance with multinational corporation (MNC) codes of conduct, this paper finds—in contrast to previous research—substantial improvements over time. While in 2004, the four examined Chinese toy suppliers violated most of the evaluated code of conduct criteria and consciously decoupled the code of conduct policy from actual practices, by 2009 they had recoupled policy (...) and practice and complied with nearly all examined criteria (except working hours). The paper contributes to the private regulation literature by challenging previous research claims, identifying factors that could make private regulation effective, and outlining a research method for empirically studying the effects of codes of conduct over time. The paper also contributes to new institutional theory by discussing how recoupling could be influenced by two factors not identified in previous research: (i) trusting relationships between the organization and the stakeholder exerting pressure and (ii) factors unrelated to main external pressures leading to “accidental” recoupling. (shrink)

Certification of banana plantations is widely used as a device for protecting and improving socio-economic conditions of wageworkers, including their incomes, working conditions and—increasingly—voice [related to labour relations and workplace representation]. However, to date, evidence about the effectiveness of certification in these domains is scarce. We collected detailed field data on (1) economic benefits for improving household income, (2) social benefits for labour practices, and (3) the voice of wageworkers focusing on identity and identification issues amongst wageworkers at (...) Fairtrade certified banana plantations and comparable, non-certified plantations in the Dominican Republic. We used different types of regression models to identify significant relationships. Econometrical analysis of survey results complemented by field observations and outcomes from in-depth stakeholder interviews indicate that the impact of Fairtrade certification on wageworkers’ economic benefits is rather limited. However, the impact on the voice of wageworkers (job satisfaction, sense of ownership, trust), is more evident. On Fairtrade certified plantations workers are more satisfied with the course of life and better represented. Thus while the additional value of Fairtrade certification on primary wages seems limited, Fairtrade has relevant positive effects on the labour force, particularly by delivering in-kind benefits, offering a sense of job-security, improving voice and enabling private savings. Benefits of (Fairtrade) certification, but also other interventions with a similar purpose, might therefore not be discerned in terms of economic benefits such as wages or basic labour conditions that are under direct control of (inter)national law, but they should be identified in terms of social benefits and improved norms of conduct for wageworker engagement. (shrink)

As architecture intersects with computer science to engage with large-scale data sets and informational systems, this demands new skills, competencies and commitments. Informed by the findings of an online survey, this article explores how, who and to what extent those in the profession of architecture are investing in technology knowledge and skills, and under what material conditions this occurs. Survey data collected from five large-scale architecture practices in Sydney, Australia finds that while technology-related skills are highly valued in the profession, (...) more men than women are engaging with computationally intensive software and technology skills building remains a largely unstructured and often self-directed enterprise. Drawing on feminist technology studies and digital labour perspectives, it is argued that the drive to computationalise the profession of architecture rests heavily on discretionary, aspirational and invisible labour practices that disadvantage employees with lesser reserves of economic and social capital, and particularly women. This further contributes to revealing neo-liberalism’s influence on the concrete practices of the architecture workplace and highlights how the diminished structural role of employers breeds uneven opportunities and inequitable working conditions. (shrink)

As Bhaskar (1989:1) argues, we need to take philosophy seriously because it underwrites both what constitutes science and knowledge and which political practices are deemed legitimate. At present, the field of educational research internationally is witnessing a pragmatist trend, whereby practical education research is carried out without reference to ontological and epistemological concerns. For David Reynolds, a leading UK school effectiveness academic, '[p]recisely because we did not waste time on philosophical discussion or on values debates, we made rapid progress' (1998:20). (...) Equally, for Teddlie, '[t]he orientation of many in the US is to do rather than to reflect […] In reality many practitioners are currently interested in what could work at their school […rather…] than in ruminations about social inequalities associated with different socioeconomic classes' (Teddlie and Reynolds 2000:27). The purpose of this chapter is not only to reclaim critical realist social philosophy for educational research, but also to reclaim reality from the positivist and statistical methodology that underpins School Effectiveness Research (SER) and to make clear the difference that realism makes by virtue of its critical explanatory power in unmasking the ideological nature of SER and its adoption by New Labour. (shrink)

If practical philosophy is the area of philosophy that concerns itself with the study of practical reason, in the broadest sense, it may seem obvious and innocent to think of this as indicating a division of labour of the following kind. Just as the field of epistemology, say, concerns itself with a certain area of reality (roughly, the area occupied by cognitively relevant mental states), so practical philosophy also studies a certain part of reality: namely, that which is occupied (...) by agents, the mental states that constitute their reasons, and the processes through which, from time to time, the latter give rise to bodily movements—movements about which we can then go on to ask whether they are, e.g., free, rational, or moral. On this understanding of the philosophical division of labour, then, practical reasons and action appear as just some of the things or events that make up the ‘furniture of the world’, and are to be subjected to analysis as such. Now although we will not attempt to argue for it here, we believe this picture of the division between different philosophical domains to already be mistaken when it comes to epistemology. Here we only want to suggest that it is mistaken when it comes to practical philosophy, and that this confusion obscures the possibility of a very different understanding of the domain of practical philosophy—one that, as we will go on to explain, this volume is meant to draw attention to, and which is exhibited by the various contributions to it. (shrink)

The South African demographic statistics echo the global trend of an ageing population. This fact poses challenges to the country's labour supply, to health care, retirement and intergenerational relations. The elderly are faced with specific challenges such as negative views regarding older people, discrimination and prejudice based on age, changing roles, the loss of a support system when children emigrate, financial problems, abuse and neglect, emotions of fear and depression, and the struggle to find meaning in life and suffering. (...) The field of study that concerns ageing and older adulthood is called gerontology. Joan Erber defines it as 'the study of the biological, behavioural, and social phenomena that occur from the point of maturity to old age.' It is an interdisciplinary field where different disciplines seek to address the problems associated with ageing. Biologists focus on the biological processes of ageing, psychologists focus on aspects like mental abilities, personality and behaviour, whilst sociologists study the social roles, group behaviour and status of older people. The question may be asked what is being done regarding the spiritual and emotional needs of the elderly. This is the niche of practical theology, as indicated by one definition of practical theology that it is 'a place where religious belief, tradition and practice meet contemporary experiences, questions and actions and conducts a dialogue that is mutually enriching, intellectually critical, and practically transforming' according to Pattison and Woodward. The aims of this exploratory article are (1) to investigate to what extent research in practical theology has addressed the spiritual and emotional needs of the elderly and (2) to identify opportunities where practical theology may provide service in the field of gerontology. (shrink)

This article applies Charles W. Mills’ notion of the domination contract to develop a Kantian theory of justice. The concept of domination underlying the domination contract is best understood as structural domination, which unjustifiably authorizes institutions and labour practices to weaken vulnerable groups’ public standing as free, equal and independent citizens. Though Kant’s theory of justice captures why structural domination of any kind contradicts the requirements of justice, it neglects to condemn exploitive gender- and race-based labour relations. Because (...) the ideal of civic equality must position all persons as co-legislators of the terms of political rule, the state must dismantle exploitive race- and gender-based labour relations for all persons to command political power as civic equals. (shrink)

Approaching labour as an object of inquiry in light of the New Reading of Marx’s theory of the value-form, this chapter analyses how what goes on in the workplace relates to what goes on in the market. Value assumes a succession of what Richard Gunn calls ‘modes of existence’ in the valorisation process, of which the labour process is just a carrier. This procession of forms is hard to capture in applied social research focused on labour alone. (...) The chapter evaluates how two methods for studying labour and economic life capture value’s ‘non-empirical reality’ – the Italian workers inquiry tradition, and the feminist ‘life trajectory of the commodity’ approach. Encapsulating production and circulation, Chris Arthur’s conceptualisation of ‘practical abstraction’ is proposed as an alternative. (shrink)

This article argues that productive work represents a mode of human flourishing unfortunately neglected in much current political theorizing. Focusing on Habermasian critical theory, I contend that Habermas’s dualist theory of society, with its underpinning distinction between communicative and instrumental reason, excludes work and the economy from ethical reflection. To avoid this uncritical turn, we need a concept of work that retains a core emancipatory referent. This, I claim, is provided by Alasdair MacIntyre’s notion of ‹practice’. The notion of (...) ‹practice’ is␣significant in suggesting an alternative conception of human productivity that is neither purely instrumental nor purely communicative, but rather both simultaneously: a form of activity which issues in material products and yet presumes a community of workers engaged in intersubjective self-transformation. However, we can endorse MacIntyre’s notion of ‹practice’ only if we reject his totalizing anti-modernism and insist on the emancipatory potentialities of modern institutions. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In contemporary societies, governance is becoming governance by experts or under expert advice. This paper offers a survey of the basic conceptual schema that underlies some legal and political uses of knowledge, which has been traditionally based on a two-fold principle of distribution of epistemic labour between public officials and experts. Building on the example of the European system of comitology and, particularly, on the European experiences in the field of nanotechnology regulation, where expert advice has proved to (...) be particularly controversial, I will argue that the principal-agent logic that has been conventionally placed at the core of the relationship between public authorities and experts must be enhanced or specified. Facing situations of qualified uncertainty, when epistemic privilege of experts tends to decline because of the absence of conclusive evidence, the standard division of epistemic labour becomes blurred and crucial questions of justice come to the fore. Moreover, I will show that, at that point, the demand for lay people participation becomes increasingly compelling. The underlying context of this discussion is the understanding that both politics of knowledge and politics of ignorance are already playing a crucial role in the governance of our increasingly ungovernable democracies. (shrink)

B a c k g r o u n d. The study focuses on the academic philosophical culture in Ukraine during the late 1960s and 1970s, particularly the legacy of scholars affiliated with Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, who are known as the "Kyiv School of Philosophy" and are recognized as a significant part of Ukraine's intellectual history. The research's object is the specific interpretation of the (...) human being developed by this school, with special attention to the role of practice within it. This emphasis is driven by the fact that the Kyiv School is more commonly associated with worldview and anthropological issues rather than gnoseological or logical ones. However, contemporary scholars tends to concentrate on their post-Soviet legacy, which influences the overall assessment of Kyiv thinkers' contributions. Accordingly, reconstructing the content of their Soviet-era work remains an incomplete task. M e t h o d s. A descriptive methodological approach was employed to analyse how representatives of Ukraine's academic philosophical culture in Kyiv during the late 1960s and 1970s interpreted the practical essence of the human being. This approach made it possible to reconstruct the meanings attributed by Kyiv thinkers to the concepts of "human being" and "practical essence,"as well as to delineate the scope and limits of their application. R e s u l t s. In the late 1960s and 1970s, representatives of the Kyiv School, guided by Marxist doctrine, recognised practice as a fundamental factor in the formation of the human being. They considered it the precondition for self-consciousness and awareness of the surrounding world, which forms the foundation for a person's relation to themselves as a subject and to the world as an object. Individuals gain selfhood and freedom through practice. Thus, the human being shapes themselves through practical activity, and since the forms and methods of practice are constantly changing, the human being is inherently flexible. Accordingly, representatives of the academic philosophical culture in Ukraine during the Soviet period viewed the human as a historical being, rejecting the notion of the immutability of human nature. They contended that historical transformations in modes of activity result not only in improved working conditions and the emergence of new forms of labour but also in the qualitative enrichment of human nature–an "accumulation of the human in the human,"and a continual "refinement" of human essence and its definitions. Furthermore, the Kyiv School of Philosophy expanded the Marxist understanding of human creativity and activity to encompass a form of nature's self-development of the world rather than merely a transformation of nature, into the concept of the human being as the "evolutionary core" (centre) towards which all of nature converges in the course of the history of its development. C o n c l u s i o n s. Despite their attempts to address anthropological and existential issues, the Kyiv School's conception of the human as a synthesis of the natural and social, and of individuality as a product of social practice, reduced the individual to the social. This is also evidenced by their concept of self-consciousness as one that is realised in "socially significant forms" and mediated through "collective relations,"as well as their conception of freedom not as an individual quality but as the liberation of society and even humanity from natural necessity. Clearly, the limitations imposed by Marxist doctrine prevented them from providing satisfactory answers to the questions they raised. Thus, eventually, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, their core concepts were critically reassessed. Furthermore, their view of human activity as a component of the world's selfdevelopment aligned with the Soviet model of unrestrained industrialisation, which regarded nature and its resources as subordinate to human needs and capabilities. This interpretation of human-nature unity was later reevaluated in the post-Soviet period by former representatives of Ukraine's academic philosophical culture from the late 1960s–1970s, through studies on the "dialectics of the modern age,"particularly the ecological crises resulting from human practical activity and creativity. (shrink)

By taking the practical relevance of coordinated epistemic standards into account, Dogramaci and Horowitz (2016) as well as Greco and Hedden (2016) offer a new perspective on epistemic permissiveness. However, in its current state, their argument appears to be inconclusive. I will offer two reasons why this argument does not support interpersonal uniqueness in general. First, such an argument leaves open the possibility that distinct closed societies come to incompatible epistemic standards. Second, some epistemic practices like the promotion of methodological (...) heterogeneity in epistemic communities could be best explained by epistemic permissiveness. (shrink)

This paper theorises and exemplifies the place of audience labour in the propagation of Discourse and discourses. Audience labour is simply the work of people engaged in mediation processes as they gather themselves into groups defined by specific media events (sport, music, news, movies and so on). It compares the environments and practices of the mass media era and those of the current era to show that the most economically valuable work in media is done by audiences, and (...) that that work is becoming more direct in its orientation and effects, even as it gets cheaper for advertisers and more immersive for audience members. A social media view of audience labour shows up the intensely intimate nature of personal commodification: feelings, attitudes, opinions, outrages, general states of mind and being are all grist for the digital economy mill. Outrage systems are especially profitable. They provide grounds for what I call ‘discourse industrial sectors’, or, those groups of people making a living and sometimes a fortune fighting on one side or another of the so-called culture wars. I argue for a conception of rhetorical purpose as a guide for analysing current media environments that depend on social media. (shrink)

In this paper, we empirically and conceptually examine how distributed human–machine networks of labour comprise a form of underlying intelligence within Artificial Intelligence (AI), considering the implications of this for Responsible Artificial Intelligence (R-AI) innovation. R-AI aims to guide AI research, development and deployment in line with certain normative principles, for example fairness, privacy, and explainability; notions implicitly shaped by comparisons of AI with individualised notions of human intelligence. However, as critical scholarship on AI demonstrates, this is a limited (...) framing of the nature of intelligence, both of humans and AI. Furthermore, it dismisses the skills and labour central to developing AI systems, involving a distributed network of human-directed practices and reasoning. We argue that inequities in the agency and recognition of different types of practitioners across these networks of AI development have implications beyond RAI, with narrow framings concealing considerations which are important within broader discussions of AI intelligence. Drawing from interactive workshops conducted with AI practitioners, we explore practices of data acquisition, cleaning, and annotation, as the point where practitioners interface with domain experts and data annotators. Despite forming a crucial part of AI design and development, this type of data work is frequently framed as a tedious, unskilled, and low-value process. In exploring these practices, we examine the political role of the epistemic framings that underpin AI development and how these framings can shape understandings of distributed intelligence, labour practices, and annotators’ agency within data structures. Finally, we reflect on the implications of our findings for developing more participatory and equitable approaches to machine learning applications in the service of R-AI. (shrink)

In the philosophical works of the Athenian elite, wage-labour was scorned for being incompatible with personal freedom and the practice of virtue. This line of thinking, however, economic historians recently exposed as idiosyncratic, since wage-labour in Athens has been shown to be extensive and potentially a source of high prestige. Considering the importance of specialization (tekhnê) in labour, this article focusses on the social status of a category that is usually overlooked—namely, those wage-labourers who would be (...) deemed unspecialized. Through a close examination of popular literature, it is argued that the attitudes of elite and non-elite Athenians partially converged, since the latter looked with disdain not upon wage-labour in general but upon unspecialized wage-labour in particular. (shrink)

The article deals with the impact of the recent jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the German labour law practice. After a brief introduction of the general importance of the jurisprudence of the ECHR for the German labour law (I.), the authors illustrate the German and the ECHR’s jurisprudence on the duty of loyalty towards the ecclesiastic employer (II.) and whistle blowing (III.). Analysing this jurisprudence, the authors come to the conclusion that the (...) ECHR approved the principles of the German jurisprudence in these cases. Therefore, its impact on the practice will be rather marginal as it does not obtain such a far-reaching significance that a change in the jurisprudence regarding dismissals is to be expected. The judgements merely raised the awareness for the set of problems in the context of ecclesiastic employers and whistle blowing. In this regard, the article will try to provide the reader with basic directions on how to deal with this jurisprudence. Finally, the authors argue that concerns, the ECHR could evolve into a further instance reviewing all German judgements not only regarding the question if there is a violation of the Convention or not but regarding the correctness of the findings are unfounded. On the other side, the article addresses the problem that – apparently – applications have been declared admissible by the ECHR despite Art. 35 para. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights because the final decision on the national level – dismissing the complaint as inadmissible – did not reveal the reason why the application did not succeed. (shrink)

Sensory and tracking technologies are being introduced into workplaces in ways Taylor and the Gilbreths could only have imagined. New work design experiments merge wellness with productivity to measure and modulate the affective and emotional labour of resilience that is necessary to survive the turbulence of the widespread incorporation of agile management systems, in which workers are expected to take symbolic direction from machines. The Quantified Workplace project was carried out by one company that fitted sensory algorithmic devices to (...) workers’ computers and bodies, which, this article argues, identify workers’ so-called agility and reveal management practices that track affective and emotional labour, categorized in the project as stress, subjective productivity and wellbeing. Capital’s accelerated attempts to capture more areas of work and workers’ capacities facilitate the conversion of labour power into a source of value but also results in alienation and abstraction. Participants’ resistance to participation in the Quantified Workplace reveals tensions in the labour process when affect is measured in processes of corporate change. (shrink)

Many approaches to addressing labour injustices—shortfalls from minimally decent wages and working conditions— focus on how governments should orient themselves toward other states in which such phenomena take place, or to the firms that are involved with such practices. But of course the question of how to regard such labour practices must also be faced by individuals, and individual consumers of the goods that are produced through these practices in particular. Consumers have become increasingly aware of their connections (...) to complex global production processes that often involve such injustice. For example, activist campaigns have exposed wrongful harm in factories producing clothes, shoes and mobile phones and farms producing coffee, tea and cocoa. These campaigns have promoted the message to ordinary people that by becoming connected to unjust labour practices through their purchasing behaviour, they acquire special additional moral responsibilities to contribute to reforming such practices, or to address the hardships suffered by the victims of the wrongdoing that result from them. The moral significance of the responsibilities of individual consumers has not, however, received much analytical scrutiny. Why should we believe that there are such responsibilities? And if there are such responsibilities, what are their grounds? How stringent are the responsibilities triggered by such connections? Finally, what are the implications of such responsibilities—the courses of action that they prescribe or proscribe? The activists who assert special ethical responsibilities for consumers have promoted many particular courses of action, but have seldom articulated the grounds of these responsibilities or explained why they should be taken to be stringent. And moral and political theorists have not devoted much focussed attention to this issue. For the consumer who is concerned to act in a morally permissible way, this presents a troubling practical challenge regarding the goods they may (or may not) purchase, and the moral relevance of their consumption choices more generally. While we cannot address all of these pressing questions in this chapter, we try to make some headway with them by discussing two general approaches to the question of how individuals should conceive of their responsibilities with respect to such practices, taking as our starting point the recent work of the late Iris Marion Young—the most sustained treatment of this topic by a prominent political theorist. In a series of influential articles and a posthumously published book, Young articulated an approach to conceiving of individual responsibilities to address labour injustices—the social connection model—at home and abroad. She also argued that an alternative model—the liability model—which she claimed had dominated discourse on this topic, suffered from very serious flaws. In a critical vein, we will argue that Young’s arguments against the liability model are not convincing, and that the alternative she proposes is itself vulnerable to some damaging objections. We also find, however, that the liability model would need to be extended in various ways to provide an adequate account of individual responsibility to address shortfalls from minimally decent wages and working conditions, and we begin the task of sketching an extended framework. (shrink)

Although the terminology of Big Data has so far gained little traction in economics, the availability of unprecedentedly rich datasets and the need for new approaches – both epistemological and computational – to deal with them is an emerging issue for the discipline. Using interviews conducted with a cross-section of economists, this paper examines perspectives on Big Data across the discipline, the new types of data being used by researchers on economic issues, and the range of responses to this opportunity (...) amongst economists. First, we outline the areas in which it is being used, including the prediction and ‘nowcasting’ of economic trends; mapping and predicting influence in the context of marketing; and acting as a cheaper or more accurate substitute for existing types of data such as censuses or labour market data. We then analyse the broader current and potential contributions of Big Data to economics, such as the ways in which econometric methodology is being used to shed light on questions beyond economics, how Big Data is improving or changing economic models, and the kinds of collaborations arising around Big Data between economists and other disciplines. (shrink)

When queer characters are erased or denied closure on screen, fans mobilise not only for representation but to reconfigure memory and rehearse queer world‑making. This article develops the concept of mnemonic fan labour, theorising it as queer fan practices through which grief, endurance and creativity contest heteronormative rhythms of media storytelling, as exemplified by collective activist interventions. Drawing on memory studies, queer theory and fan studies scholarship, I foreground queer fandom as a potent site of vernacular memory‑making. A tripartite (...) framework is developed to theorise queer fandom as mnemonic labour: (1) chrono‑affective labour, manifested through collective endurance in waiting rituals that anchor fans in global queer histories of resilience; (2) transmedia‑memetic labour, exemplifying remediation as fans remix tropes and circulate hybrid archives of memory across platforms and cultures; and (3) speculative labour, exemplifying pre-mediation, as fan‑made alternative endings and utopian world‑making rehearse futures beyond unsatisfying narrative closures. These modalities are exemplified in the ‘YaoTing’ fandom of the long-running Taigi soap opera Sè-kan-tsîng (世間情; 2013–2015). Through a digital ethnography and qualitative analysis of 3199 fan‑generated threads posted between 2014 and 2015 on PTT, Taiwan’s largest online forum, the article traces how audiences enact mnemonic practices to resist queer erasure and forge new queer memories. Therefore, theorising fan labour as mnemonic labour opens imaginative pathways towards queer belonging and futures. The article theorises that fans’ mnemonic labour emerges as radical world‑making: a queer memory practice reclaiming time, remaking genre and rendering queer life liveable, again and anew. (shrink)

Interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of action in the last few decades has tended toward an intellectualist position, according to which reason is in charge of setting the goals of action. This position has recently been criticized by the revival of anti-intellectualism (particularly from J. Moss’ work), according to which character, and not reason, sets the goals of action. In this essay I argue that neither view can sufficiently account for the complexities of Aristotle’s theory, and propose an intermediate account, which (...) I call indirect intellectualism, that preserves the merits of both traditional interpretations and is able to dispel the problems that trouble each. There is very strong textual evidence for the claim that goal-setting is the task not of reason but of character (and in this anti-intellectualists are right); but reason is able to set goals indirectly by carefully shaping the processes of habituation that constitute a person’s character (and in this intellectualists are right). I argue for this position through a study of the division of labour between character and reason, and through a reconstruction of Aristotle’s conception of habituation. (shrink)

As the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated capital’s inherent carelessness, notions of ‘care’ continue to underpin political struggles and invigorate the Marxist tradition. This article examines how we might conceive of care and the labour of care – carework – in a present defined by intersecting economic, ecological and epidemiological crises. What might a historical-materialist concept of care reveal about contemporary capitalism? Does such a concept have any emancipatory potential? Care or the absence of care suffuses the myriad labour-processes (...) that make ourselves and our world. Recognising the ‘dual nature of care as relation and labour’ is politically and theoretically imperative. How broad care’s remit is, and how and where it intersects (or does not intersect) with Marxist theory and practice, are vital contemporary debates within the historical-materialist tradition. This article argues that just as social-reproduction theory represents a necessary extension of historical materialism, ‘care’ likewise represents a necessary extension of social-reproduction theory, an extension that also addresses theoretical gaps within Marxism. Contemporary social-reproduction theory involves ‘decentring housework … and foregrounding the contradictions posed to capital by the reproduction of life’. In this article, I will argue that the very root of life’s reproduction is care. More than merely a means of decentring housework, care is both the ontological ground of human relationality and ground zero for radical action and thought. (shrink)

In this article, I use a Marxist feminist methodology to map the organisation of migrant sex workers’ socially reproductive paid and unpaid labour in one city and country of arrival, London, UK. I argue that unfree and ‘free’ labour exists on a continuum of capitalist relations of production, which are gendered, racialised, and legal. It is within these relations that various actors implement, and migrant sex workers contest, unfree labour practices not limited to the most extreme forms. (...) My analysis reveals that many migrant sex workers have very limited ‘freedom’. This is in stark contrast to the classical liberal claim of sex worker rights activists and academics that the vast majority of migrant sex workers are free, and therefore not coerced, exploited or trafficked. I then consider whether the emerging labour approach to trafficking could help achieve ‘freedom’ for migrant sex workers. Advocates argue that anti-trafficking efforts must, and can, be refocused on extending minimum labour and social protections to all vulnerable workers. I argue that this approach is disconnected from material interests and history. Rather, migrant sex workers, sex worker rights activists, and all migrant and citizen workers and activists globally must collectively organise against ‘labour unfreedom’ and hence for meaningful control over their labour and lives. (shrink)

This article addresses the embodied nature of laboratory human—animal practices in order to understand the notions of care that take place within an institution of domination — the apparatus of animal experimentation. How is it possible to both love and harm in this context? Building on animal studies and feminist ethics, the theme of emotionality is explored in the section ‘loving animals’. Here it is demonstrated that empathy and affection for individual animals, as well as species, are strong components of (...) an experimental ethos expressed by the informants. The second empirical section deals with the issue of ‘killing well’. The good kill is supposed to be done with care: quickly and compassionately. This is performed by way of bodily measures of care, technological refinement and personal skills and, sometimes, with the help of a division of labour. In the concluding section, the empirical findings are read through the framework, where the feminist theoretical analysis of love, dependency and care from an embodiment perspective understands the dialectics of instrumentalisation and exploitation of — and care for — animals, not as something that goes on above or outside of relations, but rather as something that can be understood from within. ‘Mortal love’ is the attempt to capture and theorise this dialectic, arguing that emotions of love and friendship are not mere justifications for the harm and killing performed, but rather intrinsic dimensions of the embodied animaling of experimental human—animal relations. (shrink)

Many of the activities of clinical practice happen to, with or upon vulnerable human beings. For this reason numerous nursing authors draw attention to or claim a significant moral domain in clinical practice. A number of nursing authors also discuss the emotional involvement and/or emotional labour which is often experienced in clinical practice. In this article I explore the importance of emotion for moral perception and moral agency. I suggest that an aspect of being a good (...) nurse is having an emotional sensitivity to other human beings (patients), because this emotional sensitivity allows the nurse to perceive more accurately the context and perspective of the patient. It is thus important to the moral agency of the nurse and to morally sensitive clinical practice. As such education of the emotions should be a feature of the moral education of the nurse. A useful conception of the role of educated emotion in the moral life can be discovered in Aristotelian ethics. (shrink)

The process of economic globalization has over the years accelerated the pace of labour policy convergence. In the Indian context, labour law since 1991 has witnessed a paradigm shift while embracing a policy of global integration. The ambit of labour relations is now being related with private practice or the informal settings, leading to multiple concerns over labour justice and security. In compliance with global standards, the continuous emphasis upon labour flexibility characterised by flexible (...) labour employment, performance based remuneration, increasing portion of casual labour, has raised several concerns. This paper is an attempt to highlight the attempted and achieved labour law policy convergence in India, coupled with a few suggestions for balance in global national comittments towards labour welfare. (shrink)

What role does the organisation of labour relations play in the health of a democratic society? Axel Honneth’s major new work is devoted to answering this question. His central thesis is that participation in democratic will formation can only proceed from a transparent and fairly regulated division of labour. The social world of work – where we spend so much of our time – is almost unique in being a space in which we have experiences and learn lessons (...) that we can use to influence the attitudes of a political community. Therefore, by shaping working conditions in a particular way, we have a prime opportunity to foster cooperative forms of behaviour that benefit democracy, both by making mental room for these to flourish and by using the workplace as a rehearsal for democratic interaction in wider society. A job cannot be so tiring that a worker cannot think about political events; a job cannot pay so little that one cannot engage in political activity in his or her free time; a job cannot demand subordination which inhibits deserved criticism of one’s superiors: economic independence, intellectual and physical autonomy, reduction of strain and crushing boredom, sufficient free time, self-respect and the confidence to speak up, and the chance to practice democratic interaction are all things which we must encourage in order to unblock access to democratic participation. Honneth argues that the reality of labour today increasingly undermines this participation – and he sets out the conditions necessary for a reversal of this injustice. Tracking the development of labour conditions since the birth of capitalism, this important book engages with a vital topic that has been neglected in democratic theory. It will be of great interest to students and scholars in philosophy, sociology, politics and the humanities and social sciences generally. (shrink)

This paper examines the new forms of labour exploitation introduced by delivery platforms and proposes key insights for interpreting the exercise of power in the digital economy. Additionally, it explores the repertoire of democratic counter-conducts that gig economy workers have deployed in Spain and other parts of Europe to counteract the deterioration of their working conditions: practices of ‘savage’ democracy, cooperative associations, and legal struggles for the formalisation of their labour activity. The aim is to apply the conceptual (...) tools from social philosophy and democratic theory to understand one of the most emblematic manifestations of contemporary labour precarity, as well as to dignify the precarious revolutions that attempt to confront it. (shrink)

This paper examines Ilyenkov’s views on the relationship between language, practical activity, and the ideal. It addresses three key aspects of this relationship: 1) the distinction between philosophy and the sciences that study language; 2) the dialectical relationship between labour and language and its role in the production of the ideal; and 3) the significance of this understanding of the relationship between language, practice, and thought in the psycho-pedagogical approach of cultural-historical activity theory. The main argument advanced in (...) the paper can be summarized as follows: for Ilyenkov, philosophy is the study of the objective laws of cognition of reality, which cannot be discovered or deduced through the analysis of language. Philosophy is not linguistics. Nevertheless, language plays a necessary role in Ilyenkov’s account of philosophy’s true object, the ideal: language is an internal mediation of human activity in its transformation of the material world. Language is not the producer of meaning, but human practice, which has labour as its elementary form. Language itself is a consequence of labour, but the relationship between the two is dialectical: the consequence becomes the cause, and vice versa. Once language emerges as a product of practice, it elevates this activity to a new level by enabling a greater detachment (and thus further control) not only from the object but also from the schema of our activity toward it. This, along with its social-historical mnemonic role, is the fundamental function of language according to Ilyenkov’s conception of the ideal as an essential component of human activity. Therefore, in abstraction from practical activity, language ceases to be a medium of the ideal and becomes a purely material or psychological (non-specifically ideal) phenomenon. Then, far from being a tool for cognition and the formation of the mind, it becomes an obstacle, a fetish. (shrink)