Combined Methods for Physical and Mental Workload

This chapter presents information about the methods that combine physical and mental workload/fatigue during ergonomic evaluation. The methods were identified through a systematic literature review. The search criteria were done through a literature search in databases like SciFinder, SciELO, ScienceDirect, etc. As result, the following methods are described: Global Load Scale, Multivariate Workload Assessment, Subjective Fatigue Symptoms Test, Fatigue Assessment Scale, Scale of Recovery for Exhaustion of Occupational Fatigue, Scale of Estimated Fatigue-Energy Points, Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory, NASA-TLX, Combined Cognitive and Physical Assessment, Laboratory Method of Economics and Sociology of Work, OWL Method, Ergonomic Checklist Method, RENAULT Method, Joyce Method, NERPA Method, ARBAN Method, and MAPFRE Method. As a conclusion, it is possible to affirm that there are some evaluation methods that provide better elements for an accurate evaluation, and others lack basic elements, which causes an incomplete/not accurate evaluation.

Private Sphere in the Age of Digital Communication

Examining the interpretations on the “U.S. observation case,” I am trying to answer the question of which contemporary theory may serve as the adequate context for telling the story of the birth of our right to privacy and the modern power structures endeavoring to oppress this right. Relying on the relevant literature, I have attempted to reconstruct twopossible theories in light of the strength of the relationship between privacy and power: the paradigm rooted in the sociology of work; and one judicial approach based on human dignity. The analysis of the two privacy paradigms in contrast with each other highlights their advantages and disadvantages. I also attempt to outline normative points of viewrelevant when analyzing the relationship between power and privacy in the digital age.

Haken conference interpreters in Japan: Exploring status through the sociology of work and of professions

This article investigates the professional status of conference interpreters in Japan, by focusing on interpreters employed as haken, that is, dispatched temporary workers. Combining the perspectives of interpreting studies and the sociology of work, it addresses both internal and external factors upholding interpreters’ status: expertise, autonomy, and authority, on one hand, and social and market dynamics, on the other hand. It provides a thick empirical analysis of status-related factors by drawing on fieldwork data in Japan, including 46 interviews with interpreters and 7 interviews with agency managers. The findings show that internal and external factors intertwine in limiting or upholding interpreters’ status recognition. Despite their expertise and qualifications, conference interpreters in Japan have limited control over their work, because of clients’ expectations of subordination. Furthermore, the monopoly of agencies in the Japanese market constrains their professional visibility. Last but not least, interpreters’ employment as temporary workers and the disproportionate feminisation of the category contribute to societal perceptions of interpreting as an insecure and unrewarding occupation. The findings bear practical implications for the advocacy of interpreters’ status and its betterment in Japan.

Adaptation Trajectories of Dismissed Workers: A Critical Case Study of the Lithuanian Radio-Electronics Sector

This article explores why some dismissed workers adapt successfully to the changing structure of an economy, while others remain trapped in low-quality jobs and experience deskilling. The associated case study relies on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 50 former employees of four bankrupt radio-electronics factories in Lithuania. It is found that workers with ‘inherited’ skills that are deep and technical are able to enter high-quality jobs when new firms emerge, recombining the physical, financial and human assets of destitute factories for new productive uses. However, if such economic opportunities are scarce, workers with inherited broad skill sets are relatively more successful in transitioning to services from manufacturing. Further, in line with the literature of the sociology of work, women and older workers are found to face more acute challenges in adapting to the economic shock associated with dismissal.

The return of the labour process: race, skill and technology in South African labour studies

From its beginnings, the sociology of work in South Africa has been preoccupied with three enduring themes: skill/deskilling, racism in the workplace, and Fordism/racial Fordism. With the advent of democracy in the 1990s there was a shift away from studying the labour process. We argue in this article that there has been a return to taking seriously the ways new forms of work in this postcolonial context pose new questions to the global study of work. A central preoccupation in the study of work has been the racialised reinscription of post-apartheid workplace orders, now in the context of new dynamics of externalisation and casualisation of employment. Another important theme is the shift away from studies of the formal sector workplace and toward the broader implications of the precarianisation and informalisation of labour. This focus coincided with the growth of new social movements by mostly unemployed (black) township residents around state services provision. This includes studies on working-class politics more broadly, with attention focusing on questions of organising and mobilising. More recently this interest in precarious labour has grown into studies of the gig economy, returning to earlier themes of technology and skill, as well as new forms of waged labour and wagelessness. We argue for the ongoing salience of labour process studies for understanding the specific issues of the securing and obscuring of value, and through the articulations of ‘racial capitalism’ offered by the long tradition of labour studies in South Africa.

Otherness in the Workplace among Highly Skilled Labour Migrants: Swedes in Germany and the UK

The conditions for intra-European labour mobility have changed significantly during recent decades, mainly due to the European Single Market. Despite this, internationally mobile and highly skilled intra-EU migrants from West to West have not received enough attention in the sociology of work. The present article focuses on highly skilled labour migrants with a university degree from Sweden, currently working in Germany or the UK. Swedish migrants feel they challenge specific norms related to hierarchies in the workplace, behaving according to their own ‘taken-for-granted’ norms concerning the ways in which work is organized and tasks are assigned. Their privileged position as educated Swedish migrants is an important part of their self-image and enables them to challenge norms. Furthermore, they also deal with self-perceived otherness while making sense of their experiences of contradictions and norm-breaking. The findings highlight their self-definitions, according to which they are simultaneously (by default) insiders and/or (superior) outsiders.

Data Scientists’ Identity Work: Omnivorous Symbolic Boundaries in Skills Acquisition

Drawing on theories from the sociology of work and the sociology of culture, this article argues that members of nascent technical occupations construct their professional identity and claim status through an omnivorous approach to skills acquisition. Based on a discursive analysis of 56 semi-structured in-depth interviews with data scientists, data science professors and managers in Israel, it was found that data scientists mobilise the following five resources to construct their identity: (1) ability to bridge the gap between scientist’s and engineer’s identities; (2) multiplicity of theories; (3) intensive self-learning; (4) bridging technical and social skills; and (5) acquiring domain knowledge easily. These resources diverge from former generalist-specialist identity tensions described in the literature as they attribute a higher status to the generalist-omnivore and a lower one to the specialist-snob.