Sociology of Work and Organisations

Drawing on affect theory and research on academic capitalism and 11 international case studies, this book examines the contemporary crisis of universities, from the coloniality of academic capitalism to performance management and the experience of being performance-managed.

This book offers insights into the argument that capitalist society damages human health and well-being. Drawing on and bringing Marx’s theory of alienation forward to the present day, it uniquely links it to well-being.

Igniting a new field of scholarly inquiry, this pioneering book introduces cybernetic thinking to politics and organizational studies to explore the continuing development of the radical idea of participatory democracy within organizations.

Spanning the UK, North America and Australia, this comparative study brings maternal workers’ politicized voices to the centre of contemporary debates on class, work and gender.

The book illustrates why social reproduction needs to be at the centre of a critical theory of work, care and mothering for post-pandemic times.

This important book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Drawing on 200 interviews across four case studies - television, accountancy, architecture, and acting – it explores the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile.

Based on field material collected from 2020 to 2022 in Sweden, this book tells a composite story of the everyday work of public sector workers that maintained the welfare infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is impossible to view the news at present without hearing talk of crisis: the economy, the climate, the pandemic. This book asks how these larger societal issues lead to a crisis with work, making it ever more precarious, unequal and intense. Experts diagnose the nature of the problem and offer a programme for transcending above the crises.

This book conducts an in-depth investigation of one of the largest and longest-established insurance industries in Europe: British life insurance. The author draws on over 40 oral history interviews to trace how the sector is changed since the 1970s, a period characterised by rampant financialisation and neoliberalisation.

This book traces the transition to the graduate labour market of a cohort of middle-class and working-class young people. Using personal stories and voices, it provides fascinating insights into their experience of graduate employment and how their life-course transitions are shaped by their social backgrounds and education.

Written by academics from different disciplines and backgrounds, this book offers an international practical guide to doing diversity in the social sciences.

Drawing on a comparative study with individuals who migrated to Singapore and Tokyo in 2010s, this book demonstrates how migration to Asian business centres has become an alternative to a middle-class life in Europe and how the perceived insecurities of life in the crisis-ridden EU result in these migrants’ prolonged stay in Asia.

The word ‘precarity’ is widely used when discussing work, employment or social classes. However, there is no consensus on the precise meaning of the term or how it should best be used to explore social changes. This international and interdisciplinary book offers a distinctive and critical perspective approach to an important topic.