The Employment Footprints of Nations

Alsamawi, Ali; Murray, Joy; Lenzen, Manfred

doi:10.1111/jiec.12104

Cited by 117 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…producing machines or agribusiness retail work. Here, comprehensive LCA studies with wider system boundaries or approaches using economic input-output models [26,27] are more suited to assess trade-offs between on-farm and off-farm labour requirements for food production.…”

Section: Limitations Of Our Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

How Much Time Does a Farmer Spend to Produce My food? An International Comparison of the Impact of Diets and Mechanization

2016

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Abstract:Work is one of the main inputs in agriculture. It can be performed by humans, animals, or machinery. Studies have shown strong differences throughout the world in labour required to produce a kilogram of food. We complement this line of research by linking these data to food consumption patterns, which are also strongly different throughout the world. We calculate the hours of farm labour required to produce a person's annual food consumption for four scenarios. These scenarios are comprised of two extreme cases for production systems and diets, respectively, that illustrate prevailing global differences. Our results show that the farm labour requirements differ by a factor of about 200 among production systems, and by a factor of about two among consumption patterns. The gain in farm labour efficiency with mechanization is enormous: only 2-5 hours of farm labour are needed to produce the food consumed by a person in a year. This value is much lower than the time an average person spends on buying food, cooking, or eating.

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Section: Limitations Of Our Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

How Much Time Does a Farmer Spend to Produce My food? An International Comparison of the Impact of Diets and Mechanization

2016

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“…Our work provides another tool that can assist businesses, government and non-government organizations to identify areas of responsibility and take action to make the world a better place. Figure S1 Some examples of Lorenz curves calculated from income and employment quintiles or deciles to determine the Gini index of nations (circles represent the data [1,2,8,9,12] and the lines represent the power function approximation we used (these data populate I and P in section 3. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Inequality Footprints of Nations; A Novel Approach to Quantitative Accounting of Income Inequality

Alsamawi¹,

McBain²,

Murray³

et al. 2017

The Social Footprints of Global Trade

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In this study we use economic input-output analysis to calculate the inequality footprint of nations. An inequality footprint shows the link that each country's domestic economic activity has to income distribution elsewhere in the world. To this end we use employment and household income accounts for 187 countries and an historical time series dating back to 1990. Our results show that in 2010, most developed countries had an inequality footprint that was higher than their withincountry inequality, meaning that in order to support domestic lifestyles, these countries source imports from more unequal economies. Amongst exceptions are the United States and United Kingdom, which placed them on a par with many developing countries. Russia has a high within-country inequality nevertheless it has the lowest inequality footprint in the world, which is because of its trade connections with the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe. Our findings show that the commodities that are inequality-intensive, such as electronic components, chemicals, fertilizers, minerals, and agricultural products often originate in developing countries characterized by high levels of inequality. Consumption of these commodities may implicate within-country inequality in both developing and developed countries.

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“…There have been efforts to embed industrial ecology in social relations (Boons and Howard-Grenville 2009 ). Some work has been done relating IE to fair employment (Alsamawi et al 2014 ), legal considerations (Slone in Cohen-Rosenthal and Musnikow 2003 ) and the role of consumer culture and ethics (Hertwich 2005b ;Ehrenfeld 2008 ;Sahakian and Steinberger 2011 ), but these aspects have not been suffi ciently theorized to date. The work of the late E. CohenRosenthal on environmental, labour and social issues is a key contribution in this area.…”

Section: What Are the Conceptual Links Between Sse And Ie And The LImentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social and Solidarity Economy: Why Is It Relevant to Industrial Ecology?

Sahakian

2016

Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology

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The goal of this contribution is to illustrate the linkages between industrial ecology (IE) and the social and solidarity economy (SSE), an economic paradigm that is robust in terms of conceptual and historical developments, and active around the world as a social movement. The SSE includes a range of activities, such as fair trade, community currencies and some forms of peer-to-peer sharing, to name but a few. The links and tensions between SSE and IE are considered fi rst conceptually, by uncovering the theoretical frameworks attached to each fi eld. Three 'solidarity' practices are then discussed in relation to industrial ecology activities, namely: aspects of the sharing economy, community currencies and forms of crowd-funding. A main fi nding is that the two fi elds of research and practice are compatible, as neither focus on economic growth and specifi cally profi t as an ultimate aim; yet IE prioritizes biophysical considerations, whereas the SSE places more emphasis on people and power systems, as expected. One insight gleaned through this process is that more attention could be placed on labour conditions, power relations and governance systems in industrial ecology, building on previous and ongoing work in this area.Four main fi elds of inquiry emerge: understanding whether 'solidaristic' cooperatives and enterprises could be more receptive to industrial ecology approaches and more adept at embracing resource exchanges such as in industrial symbiosis; ascertaining to what extent companies already involved in symbiotic relations might

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The Employment Footprints of Nations

Cited by 117 publications

References 14 publications

How Much Time Does a Farmer Spend to Produce My food? An International Comparison of the Impact of Diets and Mechanization

How Much Time Does a Farmer Spend to Produce My food? An International Comparison of the Impact of Diets and Mechanization

The Inequality Footprints of Nations; A Novel Approach to Quantitative Accounting of Income Inequality

The Social and Solidarity Economy: Why Is It Relevant to Industrial Ecology?

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