Work, Economy and Organizations Commons^™

Liquid Border, Yingfan Jia

Masters Theses

A River is a mighty and constantly-evolving force, leaving behind an intricately designed and constantly changing system. Not just a river, the Rio Grande stretches all the way from Colorado before intersecting with the US-Mexico Border in southern Texas - a point where the powerful forces of nature now merge with a clearly-defined political boundary. The outcome of this is a unique ecological niche, which may often go unnoticed despite its distinctiveness.

Texas is famous for its farms and ranches, and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas was once an agricultural hub. However, urbanization and the depletion of water …

Superstar Firms And The State: Amazon In The U.S. And France During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Priscilla Hernandez

Masters Theses

This article explores the relationships between superstar firms, states, and labor during a period of sharp challenge to normal functioning of capitalist societies. My working definition of superstar firms includes firms that have amassed a formidable economic power in their home markets, but also hold a large amount of social, economic, and political influence in societies more generally. They are powerful enough to maneuver within the global capitalist field to side-step challenges from the state and labor as well as market competitors. This paper is focused on superstar firm Amazon in the United States and France during the height of …

Automation, Work, And Ideology: The Next Industrial Revolution And The Transformation Of "Labor", Anthony Jack Knowles Ii

Masters Theses

Over the last several decades, scholars and commentators from a variety of different fields, expertise, and ideological positions have written on automation technologies and their potential to cause technological unemployment. As a sociological analysis and critical examination of how experts ideologically frame these issues, this thesis demonstrates that ideology plays a crucial role in the revived debate over automation and technological displacement. Weberian ideal types are developed to demonstrate how three major ideological positions—liberal, conservative, and radical—approach and frame the link between automation, technological displacement, and the potential for technological unemployment. The qualitative tools of ideal type construction and theme …

Young Adults And The Consequences Of Precarious Work, Aaron Robert Lemelin

Masters Theses

Despite the appearance of affluence attained by the community’s economic growth, the prevalence of service sector jobs have altered the employment structure of South County. Within this thesis, it is my purpose to answer two questions. First, how are young adults limited in their economic security due to precarious work? Second, how has precarious work disempowered young adults and altered their ability to respond to their immiseration? In order to answer these questions I conduct qualitative interviews with young adults within a region of Hillsborough County, Florida. These interviews help me elaborate on young adults and their experiences with precarious …

Revisiting Union Decline: An Analysis Of Organized Labor's Crisis, Nathan Meyers

Masters Theses

Abstract: I explore the sources of union decline from 1970-2008, inspecting the shifting prominence of different causes at different points in time. Using a relational approach which views labor and capital as actors that gain or lose power at the expense of each other, I find that U.S. union decline is the result of several institutional transformations that benefitted capital relative to labor. Capital was advantaged and labor was disadvantaged due to: 1) the financialization of the economy in the 1980s, 2) weakening protections of labor policy by the 1970s, 3) the reconfiguration of productive capital in the 1970s and …