David M. Gordon advanced labour economics with his theory of labour market segmentation, in which jobs rather than the marginal productivity of individual workers were the unit of…
Abstract
David M. Gordon advanced labour economics with his theory of labour market segmentation, in which jobs rather than the marginal productivity of individual workers were the unit of analysis. He advanced economic historiography and macroeconomics by conceptualising social structures of accumulation – a framework built on the foundation of his institutionalist training and enriched by his study of Marxist economics. By appropriating methods from other social science disciplines into econometrics, he augmented empirical analysis in economics. He was a founding member of the Union of Radical Political Economics and its journal, the Review of Radical Political Economics – that advanced and promoted heterodox, radical, and Marxist economists in the United States. His contributions to economics, to organised labour, and to the New School for Social Research, where I studied with him, were stunning.
Part 1 lays out some context about the New School Graduate Faculty where Gordon taught. Part 2 explores what historical forces, including his family, led to his expansive creativity. Part 3 summarises how he expanded labour economics to include the relations as well as the technology of production, linked his understanding of the production process to a historical materialist view of labour in the United States, then extended that to econometric analyses of the US macroeconomy. Part 4 presents a bibliometric analysis to provide some idea of the impact of his work. I end with some concluding remarks.
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Keywords
- David M. Gordon
- labor market segmentation
- social structures of accumulation
- New School for Social Research
- United States
- B. History of economic thought
- methodology and heterodox approaches
- C. mathematical and quantitative methods
- J. labor and demographic economics
- N. economic history
- economic development
- innovation
- technological change and growth
Gordon Grant and Paul Ramcharan
Prior to the launch of Valuing People (DH, 2001), Gordon Grant and Paul Ramcharan were appointed by the Department of Health as co‐ordinators of the Learning Disability Research…
Abstract
Prior to the launch of Valuing People (DH, 2001), Gordon Grant and Paul Ramcharan were appointed by the Department of Health as co‐ordinators of the Learning Disability Research Initiative (LDRI). The LDRI was a £2m research initiative, funded through the Department of Health's Policy Research Programme, linked to the implementation of Valuing People. The LDRI was brought to a conclusion in November 2007 with a final conference at which an overview report and accessible summary of the findings were launched (Grant & Ramcharan, 2007a, 2007b). In this paper we summarise the main findings of the LDRI with reference to Valuing People's main principles of rights, choice, inclusion and independence. In conclusion we consider how to build on the evidence base.
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Gordon Grant and Paul Ramcharan
Prior to the launch of Valuing People, Gordon Grant and Paul Ramcharan were appointed by the Department of Health as co‐ordinators of the learning disability research initiative…
Abstract
Prior to the launch of Valuing People, Gordon Grant and Paul Ramcharan were appointed by the Department of Health as co‐ordinators of the learning disability research initiative People with Learning Disabilities: Services, Inclusion and Partnership, which was intended to inform the implementation and outcome of the White Paper Valuing People during its crucial early years. In this paper they describe the genesis of the research initiative, the research commissioning process and intentions for a research communication strategy.
Gordon Pask worked with the author at the Open University and became his friend as well as colleague. Here are some recollections.
Abstract
Gordon Pask worked with the author at the Open University and became his friend as well as colleague. Here are some recollections.
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Patrick Lo, Robert Sutherland, Wei-En Hsu and Russ Girsberger
Paul Ramcharan, Gordon Grant, Beth Parry‐Jones and Catherine Robinson
BASED ON TWO POSTAL surveys in 1995 and 1997 of care management practitioners in Wales, this paper examines practitioners' perceptions of change in work roles and tasks over time…
Abstract
BASED ON TWO POSTAL surveys in 1995 and 1997 of care management practitioners in Wales, this paper examines practitioners' perceptions of change in work roles and tasks over time. Assessment tasks are taking up increasing amounts of care management practitioner time leading to a corresponding decrease in the time set aside for arranging services and for direct work with clients. The results are claims of de‐skilling and the likelihood of a more administrative style of working.
Morag McGrath, Gordon Grant, Paul Ramcharan, Kerry Caldock, Beth Parry‐Jones and Catherine Robinson
Based on a postal survey in 1995 of all front‐line staff in Wales with an assessment and/or care management role, findings are reported about how tasks and roles were…
Abstract
Based on a postal survey in 1995 of all front‐line staff in Wales with an assessment and/or care management role, findings are reported about how tasks and roles were operationalised following the full introduction of the new community care in April 1993. Further information was obtained by interviews with managers in health and social services. Only a fifth of social services posts were designated or titled as care management posts. The majority of these workers were located in services for elderly and physically disabled people. Although few had a specific budget, the majority considered that they had greater control over financial resources than before April 1993. The analysis of tasks undertaken by front‐line staff shows that there remains a broad overlap between the roles of care managers and social workers. The results highlight the nature of increasing demands on staff and raise issues about the impact of increased workloads and administration on service quality. They also highlight tensions between care management and traditional professional roles. Some pointers for continuing debate are provided.
Morag McGrath, Paul Ramcharan, Gordon Grant, Beth Parry‐Jones, Kerry Caldock and Catherine Robinson
This paper describes how front‐line workers in Wales experience care management. A minority of workers felt that the aims of community care were being achieved whilst few of the…
Abstract
This paper describes how front‐line workers in Wales experience care management. A minority of workers felt that the aims of community care were being achieved whilst few of the core tasks of care management were felt by a majority of respondents to be working well. Lack of time and resources were viewed as major constraints upon good care management practice and infrastructure supports were found to be inadequate. The findings raise key questions over the structure and practice of care (case) management and point to a number of areas in which policy and practice might be improved.
Raza Mir, Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee and Ali Mir
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the phenomenon of knowledge transfer within multinational corporations (MNCs), and how the imperatives of thought and action that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the phenomenon of knowledge transfer within multinational corporations (MNCs), and how the imperatives of thought and action that constitute new knowledge are received in the terrain that constitutes the MNC subsidiary.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs an ethnographic approach, and juxtaposes primary data collection with a variety of secondary data sources.
Findings
The data are analyzed in light of the theoretical construct of hegemony, and three themes theorized that underlie the process of knowledge transfer. These include knowledge loss at the local level, the coercive practices that ensure knowledge transfer, and the invocation of imperial subjectivities by the headquarters of the MNC when dealing with subsidiaries from poorer nations.
Originality/value
This paper goes beyond the mainstream approaches into organizational knowledge transfer, by analyzing these issues in light of political economy, and the changing landscape of industrial accumulation. It offers in some measure, the building blocks of a different organizational theory, one that is sensitive to those subjects who are consigned to the periphery of mainstream organizing.