For every person who reads this text on the printed page, many more will read it on a computer screen or mobile device. It’s a situation that we increasingly take for granted in our digital era, and while it is indicative of the novelty of twenty-first-century capitalism, it is also the key to understanding its driving force: the relentless impulse to commodify our lives in every aspect. Ursula Huws ties together disparate economic, cultural, and political phenomena of the last few decades to form a provocative narrative about the shape of the global capitalist economy at present. She examines the way that advanced information and communications technology has opened up new fields of capital accumulation: in culture and the arts, in the privatization of public services, and in the commodification of human sociality by way of mobile devices and social networking. These trends are in turn accompanied by the dramatic restructuring of work arrangements, opening the way for new contradictions and new forms of labor solidarity and struggle around the planet. Labor in the Global Digital Economy is a forceful critique of our dizzying contemporary moment, one that goes beyond notions of mere connectedness or free-flowing information to illuminate the entrenched mechanisms of exploitation and control at the core of capitalism.
In this long-awaited book, Ursula Huws brings together the results of decades of prescient research on labour market transformation to provide an authoritative overview of the impacts of technological, economic, social and political change on working life in the 21st century. Placing current upheavals in global labour markets firmly in their historical context, she debunks myths about the impacts of artificial intelligence on labour, pointing to the processes whereby new employment is created, as well as old jobs destroyed, while never underestimating the contradictory impacts of digitalisation on work organisation, resistance, adaption and innovation. This book is underpinned by a clear conceptual framework, that analyses the dynamics of the restructuring of capitalism and labour, taking full account of unpaid social reproductive work, and integrating a feminist analysis whilst also pointing to new forms of commodification that will shape the future. Labour in Contemporary Capitalism will be an invaluable resource and point of reference for students and scholars studying the sociology of labour, economic structures, technology, and globalisation.
In this long-awaited book, Ursula Huws brings together the results of decades of prescient research on labour market transformation to provide an authoritative overview of the impacts of technological, economic, social and political change on working life in the 21st century. Placing current upheavals in global labour markets firmly in their historical context, she debunks myths about the impacts of artificial intelligence on labour, pointing to the processes whereby new employment is created, as well as old jobs destroyed, while never underestimating the contradictory impacts of digitalisation on work organisation, resistance, adaption and innovation. This book is underpinned by a clear conceptual framework, that analyses the dynamics of the restructuring of capitalism and labour, taking full account of unpaid social reproductive work, and integrating a feminist analysis whilst also pointing to new forms of commodification that will shape the future. Labour in Contemporary Capitalism will be an invaluable resource and point of reference for students and scholars studying the sociology of labour, economic structures, technology, and globalisation.
For every person who reads this text on the printed page, many more will read it on a computer screen or mobile device. It’s a situation that we increasingly take for granted in our digital era, and while it is indicative of the novelty of twenty-first-century capitalism, it is also the key to understanding its driving force: the relentless impulse to commodify our lives in every aspect. Ursula Huws ties together disparate economic, cultural, and political phenomena of the last few decades to form a provocative narrative about the shape of the global capitalist economy at present. She examines the way that advanced information and communications technology has opened up new fields of capital accumulation: in culture and the arts, in the privatization of public services, and in the commodification of human sociality by way of mobile devices and social networking. These trends are in turn accompanied by the dramatic restructuring of work arrangements, opening the way for new contradictions and new forms of labor solidarity and struggle around the planet. Labor in the Global Digital Economy is a forceful critique of our dizzying contemporary moment, one that goes beyond notions of mere connectedness or free-flowing information to illuminate the entrenched mechanisms of exploitation and control at the core of capitalism.
This study forms part of the EMERGENCE project, which is designed to measure and map information and communications technology-related employment (eWork) relocation on a global level. Information collected by Eurostat and the United Kingdom Labour Force Survey were the primary sources of data analyzed. Twelve factors identified as influencing eWork location (relative service sector salaries; graduate availability; language; students studying abroad; time zone; telecommunications infrastructure; quantity of telecommunications traffic; telecommunications costs; trust or previous contact; Internet access and literacy; economic development and "openness"; and demographic factors) led to the identification of these six clusters of countries or characterizations of countries' eWork status: (1) eLeaders (those countries that define eWork and are the main sources of relocated employment, such as Australia, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States); (2) eCapables (smaller e-Leaders, including Austria and Belgium, among others); (3) eHares (small countries with historically poor telecommunications infrastructure but rapid recent growth, including Cambodia and Chile); (4) eTigers (large countries with good infrastructure, available human resources but also corruption, including China and Egypt, among others); (5) eMaybes (small population countries with good infrastructure and available human resources and that are considered trustworthy); (6) eLosers (countries, composing as much as 28 percent of the world's population, that have neither the infrastructure or human resources to benefit from eWork). (Two appendixes list employees in information technology occupations by countries and regions in 1999 and contents of the e-indicator database produced during the EMERGENCE project). (CL/KC)
The Respect project involved the development of guidelines, or codes, in a number of separate areas: data protection, intellectual property rights, research ethics, professional issues and professional competencies. Following consultation on these, an overall of code of practice was developed covering all these areas. This was accompanied by a user's guide to socio-economic research, designed for those who commission research, evaluate research proposals and review the results. This report addresses one aspect of the Respect project: the development of a set of ethical guidelines or a 'code' of standards to inform the conduct of socio-economic research in the European Union. These guidelines are aimed at all those involved in socio-economic research, whether commissioning, bidding for or managing projects, or working as part of a research team on a project.
Jane has a city adventure in this fourth book in legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin’s bestselling Catwings chapter book series, now with a new look! Jane, the youngest of the Catwings, thinks that life on the farm is absolutely boring. Looking for adventure, she takes to the skies to explore all the world has to offer. But when she flies through the window of a friendly-seeming human, Jane finds herself captured—and forced to make TV appearances as Miss Mystery, the fabulous winged cat. How can she possibly explore the world now? Is there anywhere Jane can be truly free?
The gems in this impressive collection have the same power to disconcert as her best novels' Martin Amis 'Her worlds have a magic sheen . . . she moulds them into dimensions we can only just sense. She is unique. She is legend' THE TIMES North to Orsinia and the boundaries between reality and madness ... South to discover Antarctica with nine South American women ... West to find an enchanted harp and the borderland between life and death ... and onward to all points on and off the compass. Twenty astonishing stories from acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin carry us to worlds of wonder and horror, desire and destiny, enchantment and doom.
“Ursula Le Guin is more than just a writer of adult fantasy and science fiction . . . she is a philosopher; an explorer in the landscapes of the mind.” – Cincinnati Enquirer The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and the Pushcart Prize, Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for her spare, elegant prose, rich characterization, and diverse worlds. "Things" is a short story originally published in the collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters.
Ursula Le Guin's beloved YA series gathered for the first time in a deluxe collector's edition for every reader This fifth volume in the definitive Library of America edition of Ursula K. Le Guin's work presents a trilogy of coming-of-age stories set in the Western Shore, a world where young people find themselves struggling not just against racism, prejudice, and slavery, but with how to live with the mysterious and magical gifts they have been given. All three novels feature the generous voice and deeply human concerns that mark all Le Guin's work, and together they form an elegant anthem to the revolutionary and transformative power of words and storytelling. In Gifts, Orrec and Gry will inherit both their families' domains and their "gifts," the ability to communicate with animals, or control a mind, or maim or kill with only a word and gesture. Both discover their gifts are not what they thought. In Voices, Memer lives in a city conquered by fundamentalist and superstitious soldiers who have made reading and writing forbidden. But in Memer's house there is a secret room where the last few books in the city have been hidden. And in the Nebula Award-winning Powers, the young slave Gavir can remember any book after reading it just once. It makes him valuable, but it also makes him a threat. Gav sets out to understand who he is, where he came from, and what his gift means. This deluxe edition features Le Guin's own previously unseen hand-drawn maps. Included in an appendix are essays and interviews about the novels, as well as Le Guin's pronunciation guide to the names and languages of the Western Shore.
“Ursula Le Guin at her best . . . This is an important collection of eloquent, elegant pieces by one of our most acclaimed contemporary writers.” —Elizabeth Hand, The Washington Post Book World “I have decided that the trouble with print is, it never changes its mind,” writes Ursula K. Le Guin in her introduction to Dancing at the Edge of the World. But she has, and here is the record of that change in the decade since the publication of her last nonfiction collection, The Language of the Night. And what a mind—strong, supple, disciplined, playful, ranging over the whole field of its concerns, from modern literature to menopause, from utopian thought to rodeos, with an eloquence, wit, and precision that makes for exhilarating reading. “If you are tired of being able to predict what a writer will say next, if you are bored stiff with minimalism, if you want excess and risk and intelligence and pure orneriness, try Le Guin.” —Mary Mackey, San Francisco Chronicle
Ursula K. Le Guin discusses her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry?both her process and her philosophy?with all the wisdom, profundity, and rigor we expect from one of the great writers of the last century. When the New York Times referred to Ursula K. Le Guin as America’s greatest writer of science fiction, they just might have undersold her legacy. It’s hard to look at her vast body of work?novels and stories across multiple genres, poems, translations, essays, speeches, and criticism?and see anything but one of our greatest writers, period. In a series of interviews with David Naimon (Between the Covers), Le Guin discusses craft, aesthetics, and philosophy in her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction respectively. The discussions provide ample advice and guidance for writers of every level, but also give Le Guin a chance to to sound off on some of her favorite subjects: the genre wars, the patriarchy, the natural world, and what, in her opinion, makes for great writing. With excerpts from her own books and those that she looked to for inspiration, this volume is a treat for Le Guin’s longtime readers, a perfect introduction for those first approaching her writing, and a tribute to her incredible life and work.
One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time The Newbery Honor–winning second novel in the renowned Earthsea series from Ursula K. LeGuin. In this second novel in the Earthsea series, Tenar is chosen as high priestess to the ancient and nameless Powers of the Earth, and everything is taken from her—home, family, possessions, even her name. She is now known only as Arha, the Eaten One, and guards the shadowy, labyrinthine Tombs of Atuan. Then a wizard, Ged Sparrowhawk, comes to steal the Tombs’ greatest hidden treasure, the Ring of Erreth-Akbe. Tenar’s duty is to protect the Ring, but Ged possesses the light of magic and tales of a world that Tenar has never known. Will Tenar risk everything to escape from the darkness that has become her domain? With millions of copies sold worldwide, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle has earned a treasured place on the shelves of fantasy lovers everywhere, alongside the works of such beloved authors as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
From multi-award-winning, literary legend Ursula K. Le Guin comes a speculative fiction classic, The Beginning Place. Fleeing from the monotony of his life, Hugh Rogers finds his way to "the beginning place"—a gateway to Tembreabrezi, an idyllic, unchanging world of eternal twilight. Irena Pannis was thirteen when she first found the beginning place. Now, seven years later, she has grown to know and love the gentle inhabitants of Tembreabrezi, or Mountaintown, and she sees Hugh as a trespasser. But then a monstrous shadow threatens to destroy Mountaintown, and Hugh and Irena join forces to seek it out. Along the way, they begin to fall in love. Are they on their way to a new beginning...or a fateful end? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Jane meets a new friend in this third book in legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin’s bestselling Catwings chapter book series, now with a new look! Fluffy, orange Alexander is the oldest, biggest, loudest, and strongest of all the Furby kittens. Everyone in his family thinks he’s so remarkable that they call him “Wonderful Alexander” and spoil him to pieces. But one morning, when Alexander bravely sets out to explore the world on his own, he finds himself stuck in a tree and unable to get down. It’s up to Jane, the youngest of the Catwings, to rescue him! Now if only Alexander could do something wonderful for her in return…
“Ursula Le Guin is more than just a writer of adult fantasy and science fiction . . . she is a philosopher; an explorer in the landscapes of the mind.” – Cincinnati Enquirer The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and the Pushcart Prize, Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for her spare, elegant prose, rich characterization, and diverse worlds. "The Good Trip" is a short story originally published in the collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters.
Ursula K. Le Guin is the one modern science fiction author who truly needs no introduction. In the half century since The Left Hand of Darkness, her works have changed not only the face but the tone and the agenda of SF, introducing themes of gender, race, socialism, and anarchism, all the while thrilling readers with trips to strange (and strangely familiar) new worlds. She is our exemplar of what fantastic literature can and should be about. Her Nebula winner The Wild Girls, newly revised and presented here in book form for the first time, tells of two captive “dirt children” in a society of sword and silk, whose determination to enter “that possible even when unattainable space in which there is room for justice” leads to a violent and loving end. Plus: Le Guin’s scandalous and scorching Harper’s essay, “Staying Awake While We Read,” (also collected here for the first time) which demolishes the pretensions of corporate publishing and the basic assumptions of capitalism as well. And of course our Outspoken Interview, which promises to reveal the hidden dimensions of America’s best-known SF author. And delivers.
This will help us customize your experience to showcase the most relevant content to your age group
Please select from below
Login
Not registered?
Sign up
Already registered?
Success – Your message will goes here
We'd love to hear from you!
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.