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\"An insightful study in disaster anthropology, The Aftermath of the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami takes as its focus the fishing town of Otsuchi in Japan's Iwate Prefecture, one of the worst damaged areas in the mammoth 2011 tsunami. Here,1,281 of the pre-tsunami population of 15,000 were killed and 60 percent of houses destroyed. To make matters worse, the town's administrative organs were completely obliterated and fire ravaged the downtown area for three days, blocking external rescue attempts. Complete with vivid and detailed witness testimony collected by the author, this book covers the eighteen months since the first day of the disaster through the subsequent months of community life in the evacuation centers and the struggles between the citizens and local governments in formulating reconstruction plans. It particularly addresses community interactions within the post-disaster context, assessing locals' varying degrees of success in organizing emergency committees to deal with such tasks as clearing rubble, hunting down food, obtaining fuel, and inquiring into the sociological reasons for these differences. It also casts new light on administrative failings that significantly augmented the loss of human lives in the diaster, and are threatening to bring further damage through insistence on reconstruction centered on enormous sea walls, agains local citizens' wishes\"--Back cover.

AbstractAll over the world, farmers have to face up to increasing uncertainties (market and climate). They have to adapt their activity to the new contexts and challenges of livestock farming (producing more and better, and satisfying the expectations of society, consumers, and of downstream operators), while at the same time responding to their own expectations in terms of income, quality of life, and working conditions. In order to understand these changes and consider the future, work organization must be taken into account. The Work Assessment Method, developed by French livestock researchers, provides a framework able to capture work organization, taking into account the specifics of the livestock activity. Based on a comparative analysis of nine case studies that used the Work Assessment Method from six contrasted countries, this review (1) gives generic ideas on work organization indicators and their variation; (2) identifies four generic patterns of work organization which are not linked to the local context but marked by the workforce composition; (3) demonstrates that the relevance of the Work Assessment Method to tackle work issues, and its capacities to be adapted to a variety of livestock farming contexts throughout the world, is linked to the properties of its framework, which was developed by combining different disciplinary approaches; (4) highlights the principal limits of the method: lack of coordination with other dimensions of work (labor productivity; sense of the job), and limited characterization of the work organization flexibility; and (5) proposes some possibilities of change to better respond to the diversity of work situations and questions about work, and take better into account the evolutions of livestock farming systems.

\"Discover the magical places of the Harry Potter films in one-of-a-kind 3-D scenes. Revisit the magic of Harry Potter through four intricate, multilayered dioramas that capture beloved locations from the films. From Hogwarts to Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, and the Ministry of Magic, each paper scene is laser die-cut for precision and gorgeously detailed. Every scene is accompanied by essential information about these magical places and fun, behind-the-scenes facts from the films. Designed to thrill both seasoned Harry Potter fans and younger children, this volume is a treasured keepsake for the whole family.\"-- Publisher's description.

The focus of the following article is on the use of new robotic systems in the manufacturing industry with respect to the social dimension. Since “intuitive” human–machine interaction (HMI) in robotic systems becomes a significant objective of technical progress, new models of work organization are needed. This hypothesis will be investigated through the following two aims: The first aim is to identify relevant research questions related to the potential use of robotic systems in different systems of work organization at the manufacturing shop-floor level. The second aim is to discuss the conceptualization of (old) organizational problems of human–robot interaction (HRI). In this context, the article reflects on the limits of cognitive and perceptual workload for robot operators in complex working systems. This will be particularly relevant whenever more robots with different “roles” are to be increasingly used in the manufacturing industry. The integration of such complex socio-technical systems needs further empirical and conceptual research with regard to “social” aspects of the technical dimension. Future research should, therefore, also integrate economic and societal issues to understand the full dimensions of new human–robot interaction in industry today.

Crop-livestock integration exploits the synergies between cropping and livestock systems, mainly by using animal excreta as an organic crop fertilizer or using crop products as animal feed. From an environmental and economic point of view, crop-livestock integration is thought to increase system autonomy and resilience. However, little research has addressed its social impact and particularly the relationship between crop-livestock integration and work organization although, like most agroecological practices, crop-livestock integration was considered time-and labor-intensive. Here we used quantitative indicators based on the \"Qualification and Evaluation of Work\" method coupled with qualitative interviews with farmers to understand how implementation of crop-livestock integration practices is affected by work characteristics (perception, organization, duration, and arduousness). This framework was implemented on 14 farms selected from a typology of mixed crop-livestock systems in Guadeloupe (French West Indies), where high labor costs heighten the tension between work organization and agroecological practices. Our results show that three patterns of crop-livestock integration shaped work organization: family farms with strong crop-livestock integration (Pattern 1, n=6 farms), farms with moderate crop-livestock integration (Pattern 2, n=5 farms), and intensive productivity-driven farms (Pattern 3, n=3 farms). We also show for the first time that farmer perceptions of work, especially with animals, influences level of implementation of crop-livestock integration practices. In Pattern 1, work with livestock is done by the farmers themselves or by skilled and trusted persons from their inner circle. In Pattern 3, livestock was considered a source of on-farm income, and work with livestock, including crop-livestock integration practices, is readily delegated to employees or volunteers. Whatever the pattern, the time burden of collecting crop-products and excreta was cited as a primary barrier to further implementation. Actionable opportunities for further implementation of these patterns of croplivestock integration practices are discussed.

New models of collective agriculture have been developing in France over the past 10 years that could encourage the emergence of more diversified and sustainable systems. However, as such production systems are relatively more complex to manage, the involvement of more people may be required. This raises renewed questions concerning the collective organization of work. Our study’s main hypothesis is that the collective organization of work could encourage crop-livestock integration and underlying agroecological processes. To test this hypothesis, we implemented a participatory design approach in a case study in Camargue (France). We first used ecological network analysis to characterize flows of material between production units and assess associated biotechnical performances, namely, efficiency, resilience, productivity, and dependence. In a second step, we drew from the QuaeWork method, which we adapted to the study of collective farms, to characterize the organizational dimension. These two methods allowed us to generate quantitative indicators related to the performance of the system (expressed in kgN.ha −1 .yr −1 ) and to calculate and estimate the time spent on various types of work (h.yr −1 ). Using a participatory design approach, we then developed and assessed three scenarios with varying levels of integration between activities. The results indicate that the gradual substitution of external resources by internal resources leads to a broader range of flows within the system, generating performances that vary depending on the scenario. The design of the scenarios revealed the repercussions of the organization of work within production units. The two most integrated scenarios are more efficient and resilient than the scenario without integration between units, but they are less productive. Our research contributes novel insights into the impact of agroecological practices on the organization of work on collective farms. Our findings enable a deeper understanding of the complex link between the collective organization of production and the articulation of activities.

Division of labor in social insects has been explained by response threshold models which are based on differential responses to task-specific stimuli. In the present study, we argue that other types of stimuli, such as location-related cues, which are correlated with but not directly linked to task performance, may be significant. Using the black garden ant Lasius niger as a model, we focused on three groups of workers that performextranidal tasks: (1) scouts, which explore new and unmarked areas remote from the nest; (2) patrollers, which are not recruited by other ants, but nonetheless walk outside in the nest vicinity; and (3) recruits, which are temporary foragers whose exit is triggered by recruitment. We used standardized tests to investigate, in a contextindependent way, whether differences in task performance by these three groups could be correlated to intrinsic differences in their responsiveness to trail pheromone or to nest-related stimuli such as the presence of nestmates or colony odor. Overall, we found that the task profile of workers was correlated neither with their tendency to explore unmarked areas nor with their social attraction to nestmates. Scouts showed a lower attraction to colony odor and lower scores of trail following than recruits. Conversely, recruits were more attracted to colony chemical cues and showed lower response threshold to trail pheromone. Patrollers displayed behaviors between those of recruits and scouts. Our study thus shows that differences in ant responsiveness to location-related cues and recruitment trails contribute to the regulation of extranidal tasks in ants.

AbstractFarmers are being urged to change their practices in order to reduce agricultural pollution. These changes may affect working times and organization, and farmers often mention this to explain the difficulties they have in adopting a new practice. But little is known about the work-related changes (e.g., working time, organization, skills) engendered by a change of farming practice, or about the information that farmers need for deciding on and implementing a new practice. In order to design tools to help farmers when adopting more agroecological practices, the objective of this paper is to identify what work-related information is useful to them for changing their practices. We interviewed 16 farmers in France and we then characterized the types of work-related information they had applied. We focused both on changes that were systemic (reducing tillage or diversifying crops) or less systemic (low-volume spraying or mechanical weeding). We performed a qualitative analysis with an iterative method, alternating between gathering data from the farmers and theorizing about what happens on the work front. We then performed a quantitative analysis of the results, based on chi-squared tests, to identify which factors influence farmers’ work-related information needs. Our findings showed, for the first time, that farmers apply a wide range of information about work changes, concerning performance of new operations, resources used, work organization and competition between activities, and the arduous or rewarding nature of farm work. We showed that the types of information needed change during the process of introducing a new practice. In the first phase, farmers gather mainly generic information about the focal operation and the resources required. In the next phase, they run innovation experiments, producing their own information on how their work is changing and how to reorganize it. Based on these results, we suggest some paths for designing support tools.

The importance of a hired workforce for the competitiveness of livestock farms emerges in a context of a decreasing family workforce and increasing farm size. Farmers’ need for a regular workforce to perform labor-intensive tasks can conflict with the attractiveness of jobs and high rates of turnover among farm employees. Within farmers’ strategies to attract and retain employees, little attention has been given to understand the role of work changes over time during the careers of employees on farms. We thus developed a framework to understand how employees’ work organization on farms change over time since recruitment. Key concepts from human resource management and organizational change are the theoretical guidelines used to shape the framework. This conceptual base indicates what needs to be considered to understand changes in employees’ work. Empirical data were used to transform the concepts into practical variables to analyze changes in employees’ work. We interviewed 14 employees and 8 farmers (their employers) on dairy farms and collected data on work organization and changes over time, focusing on tasks performed by employees since recruitment, team composition, and farm history. The framework is composed of 8 variables that describe how work evolves according to changes in task assignments, changes in the way work is organized (versatility vs. specialization), and the level of autonomy afforded to workers. It also considers what drives these evolutions and the rhythm of evolution over time. The framework can be used by researchers to better understand trade-offs between labor management and farm changes over time. This is a new approach for analyzing work organization on livestock farms considering changes in work from the perspective of employees.

Large-scale dam and infrastructure projects remain common and controversial means toward development and poverty reduction in the Global South. Development authorities often promote employment of local people as part of development and as a promise made to “sell” projects locally. Are these promises of employment fulfilled? And what are the race, class, and gendered consequences of the employment practices implemented at the sites of large-scale development projects? How the social organization of work at the sites of large-scale development projects may create and constitute particular dynamics of inequality has been understudied. This article analyzes the social organization of work at one dam site of a large-scale multidam infrastructure development project, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in 1997 and 2000–2002 in two communities proximate to Katse Dam, I center my analysis on the social organization of work with two goals: first, I render visible the gendered, classed, and raced ways that bodies and labor are organized in the context of this megaproject, both producing and constituting global and local inequalities; and, second, I show how masculinities are mobilized hierarchically to privilege an international hegemonic masculinity over local masculinities, and how the gender order is largely maintained by excluding women from the “privileges” of development through keeping women second-class citizens. These conclusions raise critical questions regarding how work is organized at the sites of large-scale development projects, and suggest we give greater attention to how the sites of development may reproduce inequalities based in race, class, gender, and global status.