The Sociology of Housing Market Intermediaries

The housing market is replete with intermediaries—individuals whose work constructs, maintains, or expands a market. A sociology of housing requires analytic attention to these myriad housing market intermediaries since they affect whether and under what conditions individuals and households can access and maintain access to housing as well as help determine the affordability and quality of that housing. In this chapter we aim to show the utility of intermediaries as a wide category of analysis, particularly for understanding how housing inequality interacts with other forms of social stratification across axes such as gender, class, and race and ethnicity. We summarize recent research and unpack how the work of public and private-sector intermediaries—such as housing developers, building inspectors, real estate agents, mortgage lenders, appraisers, landlords, housing authority case workers, mobile home park operators, and property managers—leads to more or less stratification in the housing market.

Online labor platforms versus temp agencies: What are the differences?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare online labor platforms (OLPs) such as Upwork, Fiverr, YoungOnes and Temper with traditional temp agencies. At a first glance, OLPs and temp agencies strongly resemble each other while they aim to meet the need for short-term labor of organizations. The authors ask the question how these labor market intermediaries differ on issues such as information technology usage, ways how labor supply and demand are matched and working conditions (e.g. status, pay and social security of workers). Design/methodology/approach Next to a review of the academic literature, the authors conducted interviews with representatives of six OLPs and temp agencies in the Netherlands as well as a legal specialist in Dutch labor law. Findings The authors found that OLPs and temp agencies differ on several issues. First, although OLPs rely on online marketplaces for matching labor supply and demand, temp agencies generally rely on human matchmakers. Second, although OLPs enable workers and client organizations to initiate transactions themselves, temp agencies employ representatives that do the matching for workers and clients. Third, and as a result, OLPs afford client organizations to almost instantly hire workers on-demand, whereas the flexibility and speed that temp agencies can offer depend on availability and processing capacity of human matchmakers. Originality/value According to the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to compare OLPs and temp agencies and, in doing so, offers academics and practitioners an analytical framework to compare different types of labor market intermediaries.

Under the Umbrella: Goal-Derived Category Construction and Product Category Nesting

Categories are organized vertically, with product categories nested under larger umbrella categories. Meaning flows from umbrella categories to the categories beneath them, such that the construction of a new umbrella category can significantly reshape the categorical landscape. This paper explores the construction of a new umbrella category and the nesting beneath it of a product category. Specifically, we study the construction of the Quebec terroir products umbrella category and the nesting of the Quebec artisanal cheese product category under this umbrella. Our analysis shows that the construction of umbrella categories can unfold entirely separately from that of product categories and can follow a distinct categorization process. Whereas the construction of product categories may be led by entrepreneurs who make salient distinctive product attributes, the construction of umbrella categories may be led by “macro actors” removed from the market. We found that these macro actors followed a goal-derived categorization process: they first defined abstract goals and ideals for the umbrella category and only subsequently sought to populate it with product categories. Among the macro actors involved, the state played a central role in defining the meaning of the Quebec terroir category and mobilizing other macro actors into the collective project, a finding that suggests an expanded role of the state in category construction. We also found that market intermediaries are important in the nesting of product categories beneath new umbrella categories, notably by projecting identities onto producers consistent with the goals of the umbrella category. We draw on these findings to develop a process model of umbrella category construction and product category nesting.

Being Counted and Remaining Accountable: Maintenance of Quarterly Earnings Guidance by U.S. Public Companies

Organizations are often pressured to adopt and maintain institutionally supported practices. Why do some companies remain committed to these practices, despite high operational cost and widespread frustration with them? Although prior theorists have emphasized the importance of institutional pressure at the broader population level, less research attention has been paid to the abandonment of a practice as a result of resource dependence between a firm and market intermediaries. In this paper, we theorize intermediary coverage breadth and depth as two important structural indicators of resource dependence. Firms lacking in coverage breadth (as indicated by the degree of reporting by market intermediaries) and firms with deeper coverage (as evidenced by a prolonged relationship with market intermediaries) are less likely to abandon a practice due to an increase in power imbalance and mutual dependence within the firm-intermediary relationships. We also theorize how a firm’s resource dependence, as determined by coverage structure, moderates the firm’s sensitivity to (1) observed peer support for the practice, (2) the intermediary’s expectation regarding the continued use of the practice, and (3) performance deviations that fail to meet intermediary expectations. Our empirical study of the abandonment of quarterly earnings guidance by U.S. public companies during 2001–2010 provides overall support for our theoretical arguments.

Perceived Employability of Highly Skilled Migrant Women in STEM: Insights from Labor Market Intermediaries’ Professionals

While global economies are in a tremendous need for talented workers that could fill vacancies in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, available evidence shows that highly skilled migrants with a background in these fields are not protected from brain waste and deskilling. In this paper, we add to the previous literature on the employability of highly skilled migrant women from the specific—and under-investigated—perspective of labor market intermediaries. We specifically investigate what the barriers and resources are for employability of highly skilled migrant women in STEM, as perceived by labor market intermediaries’ professionals; and what the training needs are that labor market intermediaries’ professionals perceive to effectively work with this target group. We use unique explorative survey data collected in 2018 in five countries (Greece, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom) from professionals working in diverse labor market intermediary organizations. We find that these professionals perceive the employability of migrant women in STEM as rather low, and strongly determined by migrant women’s psychological capital. Professionals in Southern Europe perceive structural barriers as more important than those in other countries. Professionals display training needs related to ad-hoc mentoring and networking competences for this specific target group. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.

Artistic work intermediaries as industrial relations institutions: The case of musicians

In artistic and cultural work, where unions and formal industrial relations institutions have weak influence, market intermediaries often shape the terms of exchange for workers. Focusing on musicians and drawing mainly on examples from France, this article shows how these intermediaries shape employment relations, in particular the distribution of risks and surpluses. While intermediaries and musicians have many shared interests, there is also a structural antagonism between them, which could be exacerbated by digitalization.

Governing Capital Markets

This chapter applies competence–control theory to capital market governance. For much of the twentieth century, centralized market intermediaries such as the New York Stock Exchange and London Metal Exchange served as efficient platforms for capital formation and risk management. However, this pattern of good self-regulatory governance was displaced by socially unproductive rent-seeking and widespread distortions following the introduction of increased competition between fragmented exchange platforms and external statutory controls. The governor’s dilemma provides an elegant framework for explaining this deterioration in the quality of capital market governance, which confounds standard expectations about the salutary effects of competition and the presumed vices of self-regulation. Unpacking the changing modalities of governor control (cooptation versus delegation) and the impact of differences in market structure (centralization versus fragmentation), this chapter shows that good market governance was supported by soft control mechanisms and a radical attenuation of the competence–control tradeoff in centralized markets. This efficient equilibrium unraveled as growing goal divergence—induced by market fragmentation—encouraged harder governor controls that inadvertently eroded the competence of market intermediaries.

Factors Affecting the Innovative Paddy Cultivation and Marketing (Thanjavur District)

Paddy (rice) is the most important one, especially in countries like India. Indian States Tamil Nadu is majority states which cultivate paddy in Cauvery Delta Region. Thanjavur is one of leading district in paddy cultivation Since last decade has not shown any significant improvement. Results and finding :lack of awareness among the labours is first rank of identifying in the study area with gthe mean score of 65.44 because the workers are not skill with this new method are SRI method.next majour problem of weed control and strain in use of cono weeder with the mean score are 61.64 and 57.39 respectively describes that Demanding Sample paddy at Free of Cost and High Dominance of Market Intermediaries are the major factors influencing the Problems in market with the highest mean score of 63.08and 61.97 High Commission Charged 60.02 and Credit Sales 57.83 are identified as the next major reasons for Problems in market by Market Intermediaries and they are ranked third and fourth respectively. Reasons such us Lack of Consultation Before Price Fixation, Demanding paddy beyond Actual Weight are ranking fifth, sixth, respectively. The research paper concluded that cultivation of paddy is a profitable enterprises in the study area Around three percent of the harvested paddy was being lost at firm itself farmers realized higher profits when they sold their paddy produce through Governments direct procurement. centers , hence channel was more efficient that other channels. The major marketing constraints faced the producers (or farmers) in the study area were higher marketing cost , the distant location of DPC” and lack of awareness on market information and market intelligences services, services, Farmers should be educated and trained on post harvest operations that would greatly help them to reduce the post – harvest losses in rice, Further delay in weighing and payment are to be avoided in the Direct Procurement Centers (DPC) so as to encourage farmers to take up efficient production decision for the next season. The agro department organized most awareness and training program provided to farmers and develop innovative methods of paddy cultivation.