The Relationship between Jobs and Social Cohesion : Some examples from Ethnography

This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link employment and social cohesion. For example, despite harsh working conditions, retail garment manufacturing contributed to the transformation of gender relationship in Bangladesh by giving women the oppor...

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Main Author:	Dudwick, Nora
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:	garment industry joblessness industrial retrenchment bad jobs
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12144

id	okr-10986-12144
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-121442021-04-23T14:02:59Z The Relationship between Jobs and Social Cohesion : Some examples from Ethnography Dudwick, Nora garment industry joblessness industrial retrenchment bad jobs This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link employment and social cohesion. For example, despite harsh working conditions, retail garment manufacturing contributed to the transformation of gender relationship in Bangladesh by giving women the opportunity to acquire skills, control over resources, and greater independence. Conversely, the downsizing of industries in the US, Argentina, Bulgaria, and Guyana not only hurt households financially; it undermined their sense of dignity, self-worth, and trust in institutions, and severely weakened social ties within their communities. Chronic unemployment and underemployment does more than erode social cohesion—in the Arab Spring, it helped catalyze a broad-based social movement that overturned regimes; in the UK, a pervasive sense of exclusion from economic life provoked a disorganized and violent reaction. Since the relationship between jobs and social cohesion is mediated by institutions and policies, policy makers should be more proactive in considering policies to help cushion the impacts of changing labor markets and/or joblessness in the interests of maintain social stability and cohesion. 2013-01-18T20:01:58Z 2013-01-18T20:01:58Z 2012-10 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12144 en_US Background Paper for the World Development Report 2013; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Working Paper Publications & Research North Africa Middle East ARGENTINA Bangladesh Bulgaria Guyana United Kingdom UNITED STATES
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	garment industry joblessness industrial retrenchment bad jobs
spellingShingle	garment industry joblessness industrial retrenchment bad jobs Dudwick, Nora The Relationship between Jobs and Social Cohesion : Some examples from Ethnography
geographic_facet	North Africa Middle East ARGENTINA Bangladesh Bulgaria Guyana United Kingdom UNITED STATES
relation	Background Paper for the World Development Report 2013;
description	This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link employment and social cohesion. For example, despite harsh working conditions, retail garment manufacturing contributed to the transformation of gender relationship in Bangladesh by giving women the opportunity to acquire skills, control over resources, and greater independence. Conversely, the downsizing of industries in the US, Argentina, Bulgaria, and Guyana not only hurt households financially; it undermined their sense of dignity, self-worth, and trust in institutions, and severely weakened social ties within their communities. Chronic unemployment and underemployment does more than erode social cohesion—in the Arab Spring, it helped catalyze a broad-based social movement that overturned regimes; in the UK, a pervasive sense of exclusion from economic life provoked a disorganized and violent reaction. Since the relationship between jobs and social cohesion is mediated by institutions and policies, policy makers should be more proactive in considering policies to help cushion the impacts of changing labor markets and/or joblessness in the interests of maintain social stability and cohesion.
format	Publications & Research :: Working Paper
author	Dudwick, Nora
author_facet	Dudwick, Nora
author_sort	Dudwick, Nora
title	The Relationship between Jobs and Social Cohesion : Some examples from Ethnography
title_short	The Relationship between Jobs and Social Cohesion : Some examples from Ethnography
title_full	The Relationship between Jobs and Social Cohesion : Some examples from Ethnography
title_fullStr	The Relationship between Jobs and Social Cohesion : Some examples from Ethnography
title_full_unstemmed	The Relationship between Jobs and Social Cohesion : Some examples from Ethnography
title_sort	relationship between jobs and social cohesion : some examples from ethnography
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2013
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12144
_version_	1764419187046875136

The Relationship between Jobs and Social Cohesion : Some examples from Ethnography

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