Are Trade Unions and Their Members “Populist”?

If in contemporary parlance “populism” stands for a social or political movement embodying otherwise unorganized and atomized anti-elite sentiment, then trade unionism is not populist. Labor organizations are anti-elitist, but they have a concrete program, a sense of social solidarity, a reasonably democratic leadership structure, and the capacity to exist once the fever or the election season has passed. Little of this is true of political campaigns and social insurgencies, including those of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, which have played such a prominent role in recent American life. A survey of some recent U.S. strikes, including those of blue-collar whites in heavy industry and white-collar teachers of multicultural hue, demonstrates the validity of this thesis.Si, dans le langage contemporain, le « populisme » représente un mouvement social ou politique qui incarne un sentiment anti-élite non organisé et atomisé, alors le syndicalisme n'est pas populiste. Les organisations syndicales sont anti-élitistes, mais elles ont un programme concret, un sens de la solidarité sociale, une structure de leadership raisonnablement démocratique et la capacité d'exister une fois la fièvre ou la saison électorale passée. Cela ne vaut guère pour les campagnes politiques et les insurrections sociales, y compris celles de Bernie Sanders et de Donald Trump, qui ont joué un rôle si important dans la vie américaine récente. Un survol de certaines grèves récentes aux États-Unis, y compris celles des cols bleus de l'industrie lourde et des enseignants cols blancs de couleur multiculturelle, démontre la validité de cette thèse.Si en el lenguaje contemporáneo el "populismo" representa un movimiento social o político que encarna un sentimiento antielite no organizado y atomizado, entonces el sindicalismo no es populista. Las organizaciones sindicales son antielitistas, pero tienen un programa concreto, un sentido de solidaridad social, una estructura de liderazgo razonablemente democrática y la capacidad de existir una vez que haya pasado la fiebre o la temporada electoral. Poco de esto se aplica a las campañas políticas y a las insurgencias sociales, incluidas las de Bernie Sanders y Donald Trump, que han desempeñado un papel tan prominente en la vida estadounidense reciente. Una encuesta de algunas huelgas recientes en Estados Unidos, incluyendo las de los blancos obreros en la industria pesada y las de los maestros obreros de tono multicultural, demuestra la validez de esta tesis

A Rejoinder

It is a pleasure and a challenge to engage these commentaries on my recent book, State of the Union: a Century of American Labor. The pleasure is there because this author, like almost every other, is deeply appreciative of the kind of critical attention, and sheer energy, to which his work is subject. The commentators assembled by Jean‑Christain Vinel understood with remarkable precision the main line of argument I was trying to advance, which has not always been the case on the American sid..

A new revolutionary practice: operaisti and the 'refusal of work' in 1970's Italy

The social protest that engulfed Italy in the 1970s found a theoretical analysis in the work of the operaisti. Through a series of concepts, they outlined a new revolutionary practice that aimed to return to a more authentic reading of Marxism. This article focuses on the notion of ‘refusal of work’ and the ancillary concept of ‘appropriation’ and examines how these theoretical tools emerged out of radical protest in factories and were put forward by the operaisti as a central plank of a revolutionary strategy for the working clas

The Long Exception: Rethinking the Place of the New Deal in American History

The Long Exception examines the period from Franklin Roosevelt to the end of the twentieth century and argues that the New Deal was more of an historical aberration—a byproduct of the massive crisis of the Great Depression—than the linear triumph of the welfare state. The depth of the Depression undoubtedly forced the realignment of American politics and class relations for decades, but, it is argued, there is more continuity in American politics between the periods before the New Deal order and those after its decline than there is between the postwar era and the rest of American history. Indeed, by the early seventies the arc of American history had fallen back upon itself. While liberals of the seventies and eighties waited for a return to what they regarded as the normality of the New Deal order, they were actually living in the final days of what Paul Krugman later called the interregnum between Gilded Ages. The article examines four central themes in building this argument: race, religion, class, and individualism

Unambiguous detection of nitrated explosive vapours by fluorescence quenching of dendrimer films

Unambiguous and selective standoff (non-contact) infield detection of nitro-containingexplosives and taggants is an important goal but difficult to achieve with standard analyticaltechniques. Oxidative fluorescence quenching is emerging as a high sensitivity method fordetecting such materials but is prone to false positives—everyday items such as perfumeselicit similar responses. Here we report thin films of light-emitting dendrimers that detectvapours of explosives and taggants selectively—fluorescence quenching is not observed for arange of common interferents. Using a combination of neutron reflectometry, quartz crystalmicrobalance and photophysical measurements we show that the origin of the selectivity isprimarily electronic and not the diffusion kinetics of the analyte or its distribution in the film.The results are a major advance in the development of sensing materials for the standoffdetection of nitro-based explosive vapours, and deliver significant insights into the physicalprocesses that govern the sensing efficacy

Interpreting the role of de novo protein-coding mutations in neuropsychiatric disease

Pedigree, linkage and association studies are consistent with heritable variation for complex disease due to the segregation of genetic factors in families and in the population. In contrast, de novo mutations make only minor contributions to heritability estimates for complex traits. Nonetheless, some de novo variants are known to be important in disease etiology. The identification of risk-conferring de novo variants will contribute to the discovery of etiologically relevant genes and pathways and may help in genetic counseling. There is considerable interest in the role of such mutations in complex neuropsychiatric disease, largely driven by new genotyping and sequencing technologies. An important role for large de novo copy number variations has been established. Recently, whole-exome sequencing has been used to extend the investigation of de novo variation to point mutations in protein-coding regions. Here, we consider several challenges for the interpretation of such mutations in the context of their role in neuropsychiatric disease

In Search of the High Road: Meaning and Evidence

This article is the first in a series to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the ILR Review. We will be highlighting important research themes that have been featured in the journal over its many years of publication. In this article, Paul Osterman reviews research on the quality of jobs and recent debates over “High Road” and “Low Road” approaches to employment practices. Scholars and policy advocates frequently utilize the distinction between High Road and Low Road firms as a framework for efforts to improve the quality of work in low-wage employers. This article assesses the logic and evidence that underlies this construct. The author provides a definition of the concept and examines the evidence behind the assumption that firms have a choice in how they design their employment policies. He then takes up the assertion that firms that adopt a High Road model can “do well by doing good” and adds precision to this claim by reviewing the evidence that a profit-maximizing firm would benefit from following the High Road path. The article concludes by suggesting a research agenda and providing a framework for policy that flows from the conclusions drawn from the existing research base

O Efeito da Sinalização de Qualidade no Contexto de Serviços

Signaling theory states that signals are firms’ actions that communicate information about the quality of a product. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of signal quality in a service context, through the investigation of the signaling effects of price and responsiveness in a service context. Perceived behavior control, regarded as an individual's perception of the ability to perform a behavior, was proposed as a moderator between signaling variables and perceived quality. Two experimental studies with factorial and inter-subject designs were conducted in order to test the hypotheses formulated from the literature review. Results from both experiments show that signaling quality through price and responsiveness can affect perceived quality. The second experiment supports the hypothesis of perceived behavior control moderation between price as a signaling variable and perceived quality, but not between responsiveness and perceived quality. These results and their implications are discussed in the final section of the paper