Changes at the Intersection of Work and Family, Volume 1

出版者:Sage Pubns

作者:Riggio, Heidi R. 编

页数:124

价格:$ 25.93

装帧:Pap

isbn号码:9781412942119

具体描述

The largest social change in the last 50 years has been the increase in the number of women, especially mothers of young children, in the formal work force. The May 2006 and June 2006 volumes of American Behavioral Scientist look at how this powerful transformation has impacted the venerable foundations of work and family, and reflect on the changes needed in organizational practices, social and public policy, families, and society in general to adapt to the changing 21st century workforce. Changes at the Intersection of Work and Family: Organizational and Worker Perspectives, Volume 1 (May 2006), edited by Diane F. Halpern and Heidi R. Riggio, focuses on organizational and worker perspectives. Many studies have shown that there is a substantial and practical return-on-investment for employers that adopt and commit to policies that help employees better manage the needs of both work and family, including fewer missed days of work, fewer "come late" or "leave early" days, reduced employee turnover, improved morale, and a better commitment to the employer. Volume 1 emphasizes topics such as the need for improved work-life policies, successful and promising public policy approaches, long-term work-life case studies from IBM, the dual-earner 60-hour work week, work-family and obesity and other health issues, the real and perceived negative consequences of taking advantage of family-friendly policies, the differences between male and female caregivers, and a whole-life approach to managing work and family.Changes at the Intersection of Work and Family: Family Perspectives, Volume 2 (June 2006), edited by Heidi R. Riggio and Diane F. Halpern, highlights family perspectives and issues such as working parents' expanding need for child care, after-school care, elder care, and medical leave. The six articles in this volume examine how policymakers and organizations can help maximize working families' health, productivity and happiness. Volume 2 covers subjects such as maternal employment and healthy child and young adult development, how working affects mothers' self-identity and other positive factors, the stress of parents coping with after-school child care, why community programs and support such as after-school programs are so necessary to working families, and how dual-earning households mutually influence each others retirement planning. The same important point is made in all of the articles in both volumes: there are tremendous changes taking place in families and in workplaces, and social, organizational, and public policies must be better aligned to meet to the needs of and to benefits from the greater diversity in today s families and workforce. Written by outstanding scholars and researchers in public policy, economics, sociology, psychology, business, and family studies, including Barbara Gault, Vicky Lovell, E. Jeffrey Hill et al., Tammy D. Allen, Jeremy Armstrong, Robert Drago et al., Noelle Chesley, Stewart D. Friedman, Allen W. Gottfried, Adele E. Gottfried, Patricia M. Raskin, Rosalind C. Barnett, Karen C. Gareis, Marcie Pitts-Catasouphes, and Phyllis Moen, the articles in both volumes ask critical questions and offer some interesting and sensible solutions to the changing realities of work and family. These volumes should be in the library and in the classrooms of everyone interested in Public Policy, Business/Management, Psychology, Family Studies, Sociology, and Economics.

用户评价

阅读这本书的过程，体验就像是参与了一场精妙的辩论，作者像一位技艺高超的辩手，不断抛出挑战既有观念的论据。我原以为自己对“工作生活平衡”这个概念已经有了相当成熟的理解，但这本书立刻纠正了我的天真。它深入探讨了技术进步如何加剧了无时无刻不在的“待命”文化，这不仅仅是关于通勤时间的节省，更是关于心理带宽的无限延伸。书中引用的那些跨文化案例研究，展现了不同社会背景下，人们如何以截然不同的方式来构建和维护其核心身份——是作为“成功的专业人士”，还是“尽责的伴侣或父母”。这种比较研究的精妙之处在于，它剥离了那些看似普世的、实则充满文化偏见的“理想工作模型”，转而展示了适应性、韧性以及协商的重要性。对于那些身处职业生涯中段，正努力平衡多重角色压力的人来说，这本书提供了一种强大的理论框架，用以理解自己所经历的焦虑和矛盾，并将其从个人失败感中抽离出来，放置于更广阔的社会结构性挑战之中。其行文流畅，虽然探讨的主题严肃复杂，但丝毫没有晦涩难懂的感觉，显示了作者极高的学术沟通能力。

这本书给我的最大感受是其对“时间”这一核心资源的重新定义。在传统经济学中，时间往往被简化为可量化的投入，但在本书的框架下，时间成为了斗争和协商的战场，是稀缺的、带有强烈情感价值的资源。作者通过对现代沟通工具的深入考察，指出互联网带来的“永久可及性”如何侵蚀了个人留白的时间，这种留白是创造力、亲密关系和心理健康的基石。书中关于“时间贫困”的论述尤为震撼，它描绘了那些被迫在两份低薪工作中奔波的家庭，他们不是缺乏效率，而是被系统性地剥夺了自由支配时间，从而无法参与到提升社会资本和代际发展的活动中去。这种分析将贫困问题从单纯的收入水平，扩展到了“时间资源分配”的维度，提供了一个全新的分析视角。语言风格上，这本书展现出一种知识分子的坚韧和深情，它在坚持学术严谨性的同时，也流露出对那些在夹缝中生存的普通人的深切同情，使得严肃的理论探讨充满了人性的温度。

这部作品的叙事节奏掌控得极好，从一开始对历史变迁的宏观梳理，到中间对具体个体决策路径的细致描摹，再到最后对政策倡导的精准发力，层层递进，逻辑严密。我尤其欣赏作者在讨论性别角色固化问题时所采取的“去自然化”策略。它没有简单地指责个体选择，而是巧妙地揭示了制度性的激励和惩罚机制是如何在无形中引导人们做出那些看似“自然”的选择的。例如，书中对于男性在争取家庭时间时所面临的社会污名化现象的分析，是极具洞察力的，这超越了传统的“女性议题”范畴，将焦点扩展到了对所有性别角色的解放上来。整本书的论证风格充满了挑战性，它敢于直面那些被主流话语回避的“肮脏”真相，比如，部分工作灵活性是以牺牲底层劳动者的稳定性和福利为代价的。这种拒绝妥协的批判精神，使得这本书成为了一份严肃的学术贡献，而非仅仅是一本自助指南。它要求读者不仅要内省，更要起身行动，去质疑和重塑那些支撑着现状的规则体系。

这本著作的深度和广度令人叹为观止，它不仅仅是对当代社会结构变迁的简单罗列，更是一次对人类个体如何在剧烈动荡中重塑自我叙事的深刻洞察。作者以一种近乎人类学家的细致入微，剖析了那些隐形的、权力不对等的结构如何作用于日常生活的最小单元——家庭与职业的交汇点。书中对“弹性工作制”的批判性分析尤其发人深省，它揭示了这种看似进步的制度背后，往往隐藏着对员工边界的进一步蚕食，使得工作与家庭的界限彻底模糊，最终可能导致两种领域都无法得到应有的专注和滋养。我特别欣赏其中关于“照料经济”的论述，它有力地将那些长期被视为私人领域、不计入经济核算的劳动，置于宏观经济和政策制定的核心议题之下。这种将微观的家庭困境与宏观的社会经济模型相结合的写作手法，使得全书既有扎实的理论支撑，又不失鲜活的案例支撑。它迫使读者跳脱出传统的二元对立思维，去思考一个更具包容性、更可持续的未来工作形态应该是什么样的。全书的语调冷静而有力，既不陷入廉价的悲观，也拒绝空泛的乐观，提供了一种务实且富有远见的路线图。

读完此书，我感到头脑为之一振，它成功地将一个看似陈旧的议题——工作与家庭的关系——置于全新的技术、经济和文化背景下进行了彻底的解构与重建。作者对“组织文化”在塑造个体行为方面的力量的强调，是我认为全书中最具操作价值的部分。很多时候，我们只关注个人如何更好地管理日程，却忽略了组织本身才是设置时间规则和价值判断的真正权力中心。书中对那些勇于率先实践“真正以人为本”政策的创新型企业案例的分析，提供了清晰的蓝图，表明了在不牺牲竞争力的前提下，实现更具人性化工作环境的可能性。这些案例不仅仅是美好的愿景，而是建立在一套严谨的成本效益分析和员工敬业度数据之上的。这本书的结构是高度有机和互联的，每一章似乎都与下一章有着微妙的呼应和推进，使得阅读体验非常连贯和引人入胜。它不只是描述了“变化”（Changes），更是深刻地指出了这些变化背后的驱动力、代价，以及我们如何才能有意识地引导这些变化，走向一个更公平、更有意义的未来。