{"title":"Marx, exploitation, and socioeconomic justice: Analytical and strategic possibilities","authors":"George Lafferty","doi":"10.1111/ajes.12561","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajes.12561","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Marx's concept of exploitation, developed in <i>Capital</i>, retains the laissez-faire premises of classical liberal political economy, whereby capitalist wage labor denotes a contract between formally free, legally equal, employers and workers. Marx, though, inserts the political-economic conflict between capitalists and workers over surplus value, rendering the concept distinctively ‘Marxist’. Both liberal economists and ‘free marketeer’ politicians had long since distanced themselves, to varying degrees, from the classical laissez-faire construction, during the debates and campaigns leading to the UK's series of Factory Acts (1802–1853). A dialogue of socioeconomic justice had emerged, driven primarily by public outrage over employment conditions in the textiles industry. In engaging with this dialogue, Marx's critique of capitalist wage labor extends beyond the parameters of his own, political-economic concept of exploitation, intersecting with other, moral-economic critiques of capitalist wage labor. This paper examines these points of intersection, going on to evaluate the possibilities of analytical and strategic pluralism. It concludes by assessing the contemporary relevance of Marx's concept of exploitation: to what extent and in what ways might it retain analytical and strategic relevance, with respect to the achievement of socioeconomic justice?</p>","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"83 5","pages":"925-933"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajes.12561","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139445944","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Alien merchant chambers and enterprise innovation: Evidence from China","authors":"Ran Zhou, Yali Zhao","doi":"10.1111/ajes.12559","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajes.12559","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Based on social capital theory, this paper aims to investigate the impact of member enterprises of alien merchant chambers on enterprise innovation, within A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges of China from 2010 to 2020. Additionally, the study seeks to explore the role played by social capital resulting from participation in these alien merchant chambers. Furthermore, we delve into the moderating effects of the number of alien merchant chambers and the degree of marketization in the enterprise's location. Moreover, we analyze the influence of heterogeneity in firm ownership and firm type. Our findings reveal that member enterprises of alien merchant chambers can increase their social capital and consequently promoting innovation; both the quantity of alien merchant chambers and the level of marketization in an enterprise's location positively influence this enhancement. Furthermore, the impact of state-owned enterprises and non-high-tech enterprises on enterprise innovation, following their engagement with alien merchant chambers, surpasses that of non-state-owned enterprises and high-tech enterprises. This research bridges the gap in understanding the corporate governance implications of alien merchant chambers, provides empirical evidence concerning Chinese alien merchant chambers, and addresses inquiries regarding the influence of merchant chambers' social capital. Additionally, it proposes a novel approach for listed companies to overcome resource constraints and to collaboratively pursue development, especially in light of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"83 3","pages":"527-554"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139155020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The exploitation of women: Narrative of oppressed women in movies","authors":"Iftekhar Alam, Seetha Lakshmi","doi":"10.1111/ajes.12558","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajes.12558","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The status of women in Indian society has been paradoxical emanating from a deeply embedded socially construed gender-based exploitation owing to historical and sociological reasons. Moreover, the intersectionality of gender and caste has made them one of the marginalized social groups who experience discrimination, exclusion, and exploitation. Plethora of Bollywood movies, and regional cinema narrate the humiliation and exploitation of women in various spheres of their life. Some of the recent Bollywood and regional cinema has successfully attempted to highlight the gender-based exploitation and exclusion. Therefore, drawing upon an Amazon web series ‘Dahad’ and a movie ‘Kathal-a jackfruit mystery’ the paper tries to explore the struggle, exploitation, discrimination, aspiration, and assertion of women against existing social oppression. Taking the inferences from these two movies, the paper endeavors to seek the answer to the following questions: What are the nature and pattern of gender and caste-based humiliation of women? How gender and caste intersect in their humiliation and social exclusion? How are women making their own struggle against gender oppression and exploitation in society? What is the tactic they use to negotiate gender discrimination? How are they asserting against gender-based discrimination? How are they asserting their ‘agency’ in patriarchal and hierarchical society? What aspire and motivate them to fight for their dignity?</p>","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"83 2","pages":"511-519"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139054077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Testimony of Marc H. Morial President and CEO, National Urban League Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs “Fairness in financial services: Racism and discrimination in banking” December 1, 2022","authors":"Marc Morial","doi":"10.1111/ajes.12550","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajes.12550","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"83 5","pages":"897-903"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138995273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measurement of innovation efficiency in logistic enterprises: Evidence from China based on the three-stage DEA-Malmquist index model approach","authors":"Guanglan Zhou, Yiru Xu, Fangping Zhang","doi":"10.1111/ajes.12545","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajes.12545","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Continuous improvement of technological innovation ability, adjustment of the development strategy, and enhancement of operational performance are of great theoretical and practical significance for logistics enterprises. This paper aims to analyze and evaluate the innovation efficiency of the logistics industry. The study utilizes the static three-stage DEA model and the dynamic Malmquist index model, considering a total of 12 indicators related to innovation input, output, and environmental variables. A dataset of 2940 entries from 49 listed logistics enterprises from 2017 to 2021 was calculated. The analysis provides insights into the innovation efficiency of logistics enterprises from a static perspective and the innovation total factor productivity from a dynamic perspective and decomposition terms. Based on the analysis of environmental variables by the SFA model, it was found that DEA inefficiency is the combined result of environmental factors and management inefficiency. Environmental variables have both positive and negative effects on innovation. The improvement of the economic development level will lead to excess R&D investment. Increased government simple fund subsidies are not conducive to the efficient allocation of innovation resources within enterprises. The expansion of enterprise scale will increase R&D personnel and investment in fixed assets. A thriving technology market can encourage enterprises to improve their own conversion rate of scientific and technological output and give full play to their innovation ability. The dynamic Malmquist model analysis reveals a recution in the overall innovation efficiency of listed logistics enterprises over 5 years. The changes in total factor productivity and technological progress efficiency of all listed logistics enterprises are synchronized, with most enterprises exhibiting higher technological progress efficiency compared to comprehensive technical efficiency. The total factor productivity of logistics enterprise innovation is mainly affected by comprehensive technical efficiency.</p>","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"83 2","pages":"331-381"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139220027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Workforce automation risks across race and gender in the United States","authors":"Ian P. McManus","doi":"10.1111/ajes.12554","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajes.12554","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although the effects of automation on the future of work have received considerable attention, little research has been conducted on the costs of this technological transformation for different populations of workers. This article makes an important contribution as one of the first to analyze the intersectional effects of workforce automation across race and gender in the United States. Multilevel survey data models are employed using two distinct measures of automation job displacement risk for over 1.4 million Americans across 385 occupations. This research demonstrates that the intersection of race and gender matters for individual automation risks. Education, age, disability, and nativity are also significant. These findings indicate that labor market outcomes of job automation will be based not only on differences in human capital but critically on socially constructed identities as well.</p>","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"83 2","pages":"463-492"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138510668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bhavneet Walia, Katherine McDonald, Joy Hammel, Lex Frieden, Michael Morris, Barry Whaley, Vinh Nguyen
{"title":"Economic equity and people with disabilities: Development and characterization of a novel index","authors":"Bhavneet Walia, Katherine McDonald, Joy Hammel, Lex Frieden, Michael Morris, Barry Whaley, Vinh Nguyen","doi":"10.1111/ajes.12553","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajes.12553","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Here, we develop two new social indices: the ADA PARC Absolute Economic Opportunity Index and the ADA PARC Relative Economic Opportunity Index. These indices allow us novel examinations of economic equity between people with and without disabilities within a U.S. state and between people with disabilities in different states using aggregations of multiple component economic indicators. These represent the first efforts to offer U.S. indices of this focus, an important development given the distinct economic needs of people with disabilities and the value in accounting for distinct national policies. The indices rely on U.S. Census and other data on economic opportunity by population. These indices provide comprehensive insight into economic disparities between people with and without disabilities and among people with disabilities in the United States. We find that state/territory values for the two indices are moderately positively correlated, suggesting that relative and absolute economic opportunity for people with disabilities arise from both common and distinct processes. Policy implications for low economic opportunity states are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"83 2","pages":"445-461"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajes.12553","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135185928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From indirect to direct rule? Transnational policy planning bodies and global governance in the COVID crisis","authors":"Kees van der Pijl","doi":"10.1111/ajes.12535","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12535","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The origins of contemporary supra-national power go back to the second British Empire, which, unlike the first, faced organized labor as a potential revolutionary force. The formation of the Rhodes–Milner Group was meant to better manage the formation of the public mood, and the Boer War in South Africa demanded close integration of imperial affairs. A central figure in the Rhodes–Milner Group, Lord Esher, was also the architect of the Committee of Imperial Defense, created to take up the latter task. Esher's idea of a secretariat confidentially preparing solutions to issues of the day before they emerged in the public domain was introduced into the structure of international organizations after World War I and the Russian Revolution. Escher also laid the foundations of today's model of transnational politics in which groups such as Bilderberg or the Trilateral Commission and many others, shape certain areas of consensus before the public is allowed to make its voice heard. In this process, the circumvention of democracy has assumed the nature of an outright assault on it. In the process the World Economic Forum, formally joining forces with the United Nations, has become the most visible supranational body applying direct rule.</p>","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"82 5","pages":"425-437"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134803840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Superman to Swordquest: Atari and early video game labor exploitation","authors":"James Fleury","doi":"10.1111/ajes.12551","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajes.12551","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Unionization efforts have only recently begun to address the exploitative conditions of working in video games. Despite such conditions dating back to the industry's origins, scholarship has tended to focus on contemporary labor issues over those of the past. To illustrate early forms of video game exploitation, I examine the history of industry pioneer Atari under the ownership of media conglomerate Warner Communications, Inc. (WCI) from 1976 to 1984. Soon after acquiring Atari, WCI installed a new CEO and pursued convergence initiatives. As a corporate ideal, convergence implies two cultures cooperating as they move toward becoming a single culture. I argue, however, that bringing together multiple media often creates conflict between different work cultures. Using the case studies of <i>Superman</i> (1979), <i>E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial</i> (1982), and the original <i>Swordquest</i> trilogy (1982–1983), I explain how WCI's convergence with Atari led to culture clashes, an exodus of talent, the rise of rival software companies, product saturation, and the transformation of the global video game market by the end of the 1980s. I conclude by considering how the conflict between WCI and Atari provides lessons for labor problems that continue to characterize the industry—both in isolation and in relation to older media industries.</p>","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"83 5","pages":"955-965"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135634268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Quantitative Analysis of the Belt and Road Initiative","authors":"Syed Murtaza Rizvi","doi":"10.47672/aje.1637","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47672/aje.1637","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose: The article aims to examine the effects of the Belt and Road Project (BRI) of China and its recent developments.
 Methodology: It does this by analyzing the effects Chinese investments have had on their largest beneficiaries. The article considers several factors such as transport, energy, and debt profiles of the countries after receiving aid under BRI.
 Findings: Through our analysis, we have found that the project is by far the most secure investment developing countries might have especially considering the diminishing aid of the USA and European countries. It is largely beneficial for both China and the beneficiaries encouraging economic growth. We have made our conclusions based on data reported through various research articles both domestic and international. These include but are not limited to papers from the SAIS-CARI website, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the World Bank, and the Boston University Energy Database.
 Recommendations: We recommend that in the future studies should be further conducted on the progress of BRI projects that have been started or planned in the future as well as the effects previous long-term investments are currently having on beneficiaries. Some research should also be conducted comparing the effectiveness of loans from the US and European countries when compared with Chinese counterparts","PeriodicalId":47133,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Economics and Sociology","volume":"64 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135221329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}