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A systematic and original approach to the intimate link between the micro-structures of households and the structures of the capitalist world-economy.
List of contents
Preface Joan Smith and Immanuel Wallerstein; 1. Household as an institution of the world-economy Immanuel Wallerstein and Joan Smith; 2. The United States Kathie Friedman Kasada; (a) The Detroit Story: the crucible of Fordism Kathleen Stanley and Joan Smith; (b) New York City: the underside of the world's capital Kathie Friedman Kasada; (c) Binghamton: the secrets of a backwater Randall H. McGuire and Cynthia Woodsong; (d) Puerto Rico: from colony to colony Maria Del Carmen Baega; 3. Mexico Lanny Thompson; (a) Mexico City: the slow rise of wage-centered households Lanny Thompson; (b) Central Mexico: the decline of subsistence and the rise of poverty Lanny Thompson; 4. Southern Africa Mark Beittel; (a) The Witwatersrand: black households, white households Mark Beittel; (b) Lesotho: the creation of the households William G. Martin; 5. Core-periphery and household structures Immanuel Wallerstein and Joan Smith; Postscript on method Joan Smith and Jamie Sudler; Bibliography.
About the author
Joan Smith is an English novelist, journalist and human rights activist born in 1953. Smith was educated at a state school before reading Latin at the University of Reading in the early 1970s. After a spell as a journalist in local radio in Manchester, she joined the staff of The Sunday Times in 1979 and stayed at the newspaper until 1984. Smith is probably best known for the Loretta Lawson series of crime novels which were published between 1987 and 1995, however, she also writes non-fiction as is a keen political activist, scornful of popular culture and displaying a commitment to atheism and feminism. Smith was appointed the Executive Director of Hacked Off in late May 2014, but stood down in 2015 to resume her writing career full-time
Summary
This book, first published in 1992, examines the intimate link between the micro-structures of households and the structures of the world-economy at a global level. It seeks to explain differences in wage levels for work of comparable productivity by examining the different structures of households as 'income-pooling units'.
