Patrick Mcgovern
Biographic Data
| ID | 246335 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Patrick Mcgovern |
| GIVEN NAMES | Patrick |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcgovern |
| SIGNATURE | MCGOVERN P |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3984-2080 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 207 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The return of the state: How European governments regulate labour market competition from migrant workers
What is the role of the market economy and of the European Union in shaping policies that limit migrants’ access to the labour market? While much of the existing research has examined the development of border policies in Europe, less attention has been given to post-entry measures regulating the employment of Third Country Nationals. We examine the role of different market economies and the European Union in devising lesser-known measures that t…
In search of a Tawney Moment: Income inequality, financial crisis and the mass media in the UK and the USA
Has rising income inequality become a scandalous social problem as the English ethical socialist R. H. Tawney anticipated in an earlier era? We examine the salience and framing of income inequality within major UK and US newspapers over the period 1990-2015. Specifically, this includes the global banking crisis of 2008, which was the most significant financial crisis in capitalist economies since the Great Depression of 1929. Did this event trigg…
In search of theory? The workplace case study tradition in the 21st century
Workplace case studies have been valued by some for their ability to advance theory while others dismiss them as little more than descriptive stories. This paper presents a detailed content analysis of case study articles to assess the relative balance between theory, conceptual analysis and description. Drawing on a random sample of papers ( n = 173) published in leading journals, I find that fewer than one in seven are descriptive papers while …
Comparing Immigration Policies: An Overview from the Impala Database
This paper introduces a method and preliminary findings from a database that systematically measures the character and stringency of immigration policies. Based on the selection of that data for nine countries between 1999 and 2008, we challenge the idea that any one country is systematically the most or least restrictive toward admissions. The data also reveal trends toward more complex and, often, more restrictive regulation since the 1990s, as…
Measuring Immigration Policies: Preliminary Evidence from Impala
Measuring Immigration Policies: Preliminary Evidence from Impala
Measuring and Comparing Immigration, Asylum and Naturalization Policies Across Countries: Challenges and Solutions
Academics and policy makers require a better understanding of the variation of policies that regulate global migration, asylum and immigrant naturalization. At present, however, there is no comprehensive cross‐national, time‐series database of such policies, rendering the analysis of policy trends across and within these areas difficult at best. Several new immigration databases and indices have been developed in recent years. However, there is n…
Contradictions at Work: A Critical Review
Despite significant achievements in empirical research, considerable unease exists about the lack of conceptual and theoretical debate within the sociology of work. One potentially significant problem is the uncritical use of concepts that have their origins in Marxism and purport to explain the essential features of the employment relationship. Using evidence from a systematic review of four highly ranked British journals I chart the growing inf…
Inequalities in the (De‐)Commodification of Labour: Immigration, the Nation State, and Labour Market Stratification
In an era when globalization has supposedly challenged the ability of the nation state to manage economic affairs, I shall argue that the state not only still matters but that it also plays a major role in processes of labour market stratification for migrant workers. Using the organizing concepts of commodification and de‐commodification I review the growing comparative literature on government policies for economic migration to show how skill‐b…
HRM, Technical Workers and the Multinational Corporation
This book is the first major in-depth study of the impact of contemporary management practices on a rapidly expanding set of white-collar occupations, namely technical workers. It investigates whether HRM schemes such as employee appraisals and performance related pay have transformed technical work to such an extent that it can no longer be described as a 'service contract'. The book contains detailed examination of the nature of managerial cont…
Economic Sociology: A Systematic Inquiry - By Alejandro Portes
Coming in the Next Issue
A preview of some of the articles that will be published in the October issue
The young Lipset on the iron law of oligarchy: A Taste of Things to Come1
Lipset's 'Democracy in Private Government' was a remarkable publication for three reasons. It was his first attempt to challenge Michels' 'iron law of oligarchy' and would lead to a programme of research that that would culminate with the publication of the widely admired classic study Union Democracy. Second, the inspiration for this work came from Lipset's student days when he was a socialist activist trying to understand why leftist government…
Unequal Chances: Ethnic minorities in Western Labour Markets - Edited by Anthony F. Heath and Sin Yi Cheung
Market, Class, and Employment
Drawing on a range of employee and employer surveys, this study presents an examination of the conditions, attitudes, and experiences of British employees over the last twenty years. Based on the ‘Future of Work’ research programme this book aims to shape understanding of employment in Britain for the foreseeable future.
Immigration, Labour Markets and Employment Relations: Problems and Prospects
In this review essay, I argue that immigration presents employment researchers with a promising strategic research site because it raises a number of theoretically significant problems with mainstream economic approaches to labour and labour markets. Despite the tendency to view economic migrants as homo economicus personified, I argue that immigration brings the institutional nature of labour markets into sharp relief as it exposes, among other …
In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration - By N. Foner
The Trial of Scopes: Perestroika, Epic Political Theory, and the Dominance of Method
This work takes up where Vanessa Ruget's 2002 New Political Science article leaves off in discussing the nature of political science in light of the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Ruget argues that there is a clear “establishment” at work in the discipline, benefiting from various types of “capital” and other reproduction strategies. The Perestroika movement, she believes, seeks in part to expose the supremacy of certain approaches to political science…
Bad Jobs in Britain: Nonstandard Employment and Job Quality
The rapid growth in nonstandard forms of employment toward the end of the 20th century has fuelled claims about the spread of 'bad jobs' within Anglo-American capitalism. Research from the United States indicates that such jobs have more bad characteristics than do permanent jobs after controlling for workers' personal characteristics, family status, and occupation. We apply a version of the bad characteristics approach to British data and find t…
‘High‐performance’ Management Practices, Working Hours and Work–Life Balance
The effects of selected high‐performance practices and working hours on work–life balance are analysed with data from national surveys of British employees in 1992 and 2000. Alongside long hours, which are a constant source of negative job‐to‐home spillover, certain ‘high‐performance’ practices have become more strongly related to negative spillover during this period. Surprisingly, dual‐earner couples are not especially liable to spillover — if …
Rational Choice Theory, the 'New Economic Sociology' and Functionalism
Globalization or Internationalization? Foreign Footballers in the English League, 1946-95
This article challenges the idea that globalization is an inexorable free market process that fundamentally changes the nature of economic competition. Using evidence on hiring practices from the English football league (1946-95) it presents a case study of a labour market where globalization might reasonably be expected. In finding that the market is characterized by a process of internationalization, the article goes on to show how this process…
A Closed Community: Fredric Jameson and the Commodification of Political Science
In keeping with the spirit of the 1998 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, this paper's primary subject is community-specifically, political science as a closed, isolated community. The purpose of this paper is to examine the notion that political science has in the course of its development turned inward upon itself in an attempt to secure a scientific identity and maintain the viability of its own market values and exc…
Books Reviewed
The Irish brawn drain: English League clubs and Irish footballers, 1946-19951
This paper draws on world systems and resource dependency theories to show how the changing recruitment practices of English League clubs have deepened the brawn drain from Irish football, thereby compounding its underdevelopment. An analysis of the origins, method of recruitment and destinations of Irish players (North and South) who appeared in the English League between 1946 and 1995 shows that English clubs imported large numbers of Irish pla…
Bad Jobs in Britain: Nonstandard Employment and Job Quality
The rapid growth in nonstandard forms of employment toward the end of the 20th century has fuelled claims about the spread of 'bad jobs' within Anglo-American capitalism. Research from the United States indicates that such jobs have more bad characteristics than do permanent jobs after controlling for workers' personal characteristics, family status, and occupation. We apply a version of the bad characteristics approach to British data and find t…
Comparing Immigration Policies: An Overview from the Impala Database
This paper introduces a method and preliminary findings from a database that systematically measures the character and stringency of immigration policies. Based on the selection of that data for nine countries between 1999 and 2008, we challenge the idea that any one country is systematically the most or least restrictive toward admissions. The data also reveal trends toward more complex and, often, more restrictive regulation since the 1990s, as…
Globalization or Internationalization? Foreign Footballers in the English League, 1946-95
This article challenges the idea that globalization is an inexorable free market process that fundamentally changes the nature of economic competition. Using evidence on hiring practices from the English football league (1946-95) it presents a case study of a labour market where globalization might reasonably be expected. In finding that the market is characterized by a process of internationalization, the article goes on to show how this process…
The Managerial Career After Downsizing: Case Studies From the 'Leading Edge
This paper sets out to investigate whether the recent wave of organisational restructuring has contributed to the further decline of the internally promoted manager or produced a new model of managerial employment in large organisations. Our research, which is based on in-depth case studies of eight major British-based employers, finds no evidence of the kind of transformational change associated with the introduction of a new model. Instead, we …
The Irish brawn drain: English League clubs and Irish footballers, 1946-1995
This paper draws on world systems and resource dependency theories to show how the changing recruitment practices of English League clubs have deepened the brawn drain from Irish football, thereby compounding its underdevelopment.An analysis of the origins, method of recruitment and destinations of Irish players (North and South) who appeared in the English League between 1946 and 1995 shows that English clubs imported large numbers of Irish play…
Inequalities in the (De‐)Commodification of Labour: Immigration, the Nation State, and Labour Market Stratification
In an era when globalization has supposedly challenged the ability of the nation state to manage economic affairs, I shall argue that the state not only still matters but that it also plays a major role in processes of labour market stratification for migrant workers. Using the organizing concepts of commodification and de‐commodification I review the growing comparative literature on government policies for economic migration to show how skill‐b…
The Irish brawn drain: English League clubs and Irish footballers, 1946-19951
This paper draws on world systems and resource dependency theories to show how the changing recruitment practices of English League clubs have deepened the brawn drain from Irish football, thereby compounding its underdevelopment. An analysis of the origins, method of recruitment and destinations of Irish players (North and South) who appeared in the English League between 1946 and 1995 shows that English clubs imported large numbers of Irish pla…
Trust, Discretion and Responsibility: The Division of Technical Labour
This paper examines the role which multinational corporation (MNC) branch plants play in the development and maintenance of the boundaries between technical occupations in the Irish Republic. In doing so, it examines recent attempts to characterise such workers as incumbents of `high-discretion high-trust' work roles and also as `trusted workers'. This paper argues that such attempts are lacking in explanatory power because they fail to account f…
University of Pennsylvania Radiocarbon Dates Xxi
This date list includes most of the archaeologic and geologic samples dated in this laboratory since publication of our last date list (R, 1978, v 20, p 210–233), as well as some samples dated previously which lacked adequate sample information
In search of a Tawney Moment: Income inequality, financial crisis and the mass media in the UK and the USA
Has rising income inequality become a scandalous social problem as the English ethical socialist R. H. Tawney anticipated in an earlier era? We examine the salience and framing of income inequality within major UK and US newspapers over the period 1990-2015. Specifically, this includes the global banking crisis of 2008, which was the most significant financial crisis in capitalist economies since the Great Depression of 1929. Did this event trigg…
The young Lipset on the iron law of oligarchy: A Taste of Things to Come1
Lipset's 'Democracy in Private Government' was a remarkable publication for three reasons. It was his first attempt to challenge Michels' 'iron law of oligarchy' and would lead to a programme of research that that would culminate with the publication of the widely admired classic study Union Democracy. Second, the inspiration for this work came from Lipset's student days when he was a socialist activist trying to understand why leftist government…
The Industrial Craftsworker: Skill, Managerial Strategies and Workplace Relationships
This study of skilled workers in industry analyzes the linked and often apparently contradictory relationships between craftsmen and managers and craftsmen and non-skilled workers. It considers the alternative views of the craftsman as a status-striving labour aristocrat within the workforce and as a focus for radical and militant challenge to management, and shows how craft skill and craft control are an important dynamic force for technological…
The Trial of Scopes: Perestroika, Epic Political Theory, and the Dominance of Method
This work takes up where Vanessa Ruget's 2002 New Political Science article leaves off in discussing the nature of political science in light of the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Ruget argues that there is a clear “establishment” at work in the discipline, benefiting from various types of “capital” and other reproduction strategies. The Perestroika movement, she believes, seeks in part to expose the supremacy of certain approaches to political science…
The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power
Multinational firms and qualification inflation in a hi‐tech labour market
This article examines the role which elite MNC employers play in the process of qualification inflation within the Irish Republic. While these employers do not contribute towards inflation across technical occupations the tendency to select the most qualified within individual occupations has led to the emergence of a ‘graduate barrier’ between technicians and engineers/scientists
University of Pennsylvania Radiocarbon Dates Xxi
This date list includes most of the archaeologic and geologic samples dated in this laboratory since publication of our last date list (R, 1978, v 20, p 210–233), as well as some samples dated previously which lacked adequate sample information
Multinational firms and qualification inflation in a hi‐tech labour market
This article examines the role which elite MNC employers play in the process of qualification inflation within the Irish Republic. While these employers do not contribute towards inflation across technical occupations the tendency to select the most qualified within individual occupations has led to the emergence of a ‘graduate barrier’ between technicians and engineers/scientists
Trust, Discretion and Responsibility: The Division of Technical Labour
This paper examines the role which multinational corporation (MNC) branch plants play in the development and maintenance of the boundaries between technical occupations in the Irish Republic. In doing so, it examines recent attempts to characterise such workers as incumbents of `high-discretion high-trust' work roles and also as `trusted workers'. This paper argues that such attempts are lacking in explanatory power because they fail to account f…
The Industrial Craftsworker: Skill, Managerial Strategies and Workplace Relationships
This study of skilled workers in industry analyzes the linked and often apparently contradictory relationships between craftsmen and managers and craftsmen and non-skilled workers. It considers the alternative views of the craftsman as a status-striving labour aristocrat within the workforce and as a focus for radical and militant challenge to management, and shows how craft skill and craft control are an important dynamic force for technological…
Football, Nationality and the State
1. Introduction the game of nations. Section 1: Football Nations Within the State. 2. UK 4 FIFA 0: the result of football's early development. 3. Storming the Castile footballing nations of Spain. 4. Playing in the right language: football in Belgium. 5. Playing across the border football frontiers. Section 2: Football as an Extension of the State. 6. Read Star Dynamo Lokomotiv Torpedo FC: football in Eastern Europe. 7. Don't shoot me. I'm presid…
Socializing Capital: The Rise of the Large Industrial Corporation in America
The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power
The Managerial Career After Downsizing: Case Studies From the 'Leading Edge
This paper sets out to investigate whether the recent wave of organisational restructuring has contributed to the further decline of the internally promoted manager or produced a new model of managerial employment in large organisations. Our research, which is based on in-depth case studies of eight major British-based employers, finds no evidence of the kind of transformational change associated with the introduction of a new model. Instead, we …
A Closed Community: Fredric Jameson and the Commodification of Political Science
In keeping with the spirit of the 1998 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, this paper's primary subject is community-specifically, political science as a closed, isolated community. The purpose of this paper is to examine the notion that political science has in the course of its development turned inward upon itself in an attempt to secure a scientific identity and maintain the viability of its own market values and exc…
Books Reviewed
The Irish brawn drain: English League clubs and Irish footballers, 1946-19951
This paper draws on world systems and resource dependency theories to show how the changing recruitment practices of English League clubs have deepened the brawn drain from Irish football, thereby compounding its underdevelopment. An analysis of the origins, method of recruitment and destinations of Irish players (North and South) who appeared in the English League between 1946 and 1995 shows that English clubs imported large numbers of Irish pla…
The Irish brawn drain: English League clubs and Irish footballers, 1946-1995
This paper draws on world systems and resource dependency theories to show how the changing recruitment practices of English League clubs have deepened the brawn drain from Irish football, thereby compounding its underdevelopment.An analysis of the origins, method of recruitment and destinations of Irish players (North and South) who appeared in the English League between 1946 and 1995 shows that English clubs imported large numbers of Irish play…
Globalization or Internationalization? Foreign Footballers in the English League, 1946-95
This article challenges the idea that globalization is an inexorable free market process that fundamentally changes the nature of economic competition. Using evidence on hiring practices from the English football league (1946-95) it presents a case study of a labour market where globalization might reasonably be expected. In finding that the market is characterized by a process of internationalization, the article goes on to show how this process…
‘High‐performance’ Management Practices, Working Hours and Work–Life Balance
The effects of selected high‐performance practices and working hours on work–life balance are analysed with data from national surveys of British employees in 1992 and 2000. Alongside long hours, which are a constant source of negative job‐to‐home spillover, certain ‘high‐performance’ practices have become more strongly related to negative spillover during this period. Surprisingly, dual‐earner couples are not especially liable to spillover — if …
Rational Choice Theory, the 'New Economic Sociology' and Functionalism
Bad Jobs in Britain: Nonstandard Employment and Job Quality
The rapid growth in nonstandard forms of employment toward the end of the 20th century has fuelled claims about the spread of 'bad jobs' within Anglo-American capitalism. Research from the United States indicates that such jobs have more bad characteristics than do permanent jobs after controlling for workers' personal characteristics, family status, and occupation. We apply a version of the bad characteristics approach to British data and find t…
The Trial of Scopes: Perestroika, Epic Political Theory, and the Dominance of Method
This work takes up where Vanessa Ruget's 2002 New Political Science article leaves off in discussing the nature of political science in light of the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Ruget argues that there is a clear “establishment” at work in the discipline, benefiting from various types of “capital” and other reproduction strategies. The Perestroika movement, she believes, seeks in part to expose the supremacy of certain approaches to political science…
Market, Class, and Employment
Drawing on a range of employee and employer surveys, this study presents an examination of the conditions, attitudes, and experiences of British employees over the last twenty years. Based on the ‘Future of Work’ research programme this book aims to shape understanding of employment in Britain for the foreseeable future.
Immigration, Labour Markets and Employment Relations: Problems and Prospects
In this review essay, I argue that immigration presents employment researchers with a promising strategic research site because it raises a number of theoretically significant problems with mainstream economic approaches to labour and labour markets. Despite the tendency to view economic migrants as homo economicus personified, I argue that immigration brings the institutional nature of labour markets into sharp relief as it exposes, among other …
In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration - By N. Foner
Unequal Chances: Ethnic minorities in Western Labour Markets - Edited by Anthony F. Heath and Sin Yi Cheung
Coming in the Next Issue
A preview of some of the articles that will be published in the October issue
The young Lipset on the iron law of oligarchy: A Taste of Things to Come1
Lipset's 'Democracy in Private Government' was a remarkable publication for three reasons. It was his first attempt to challenge Michels' 'iron law of oligarchy' and would lead to a programme of research that that would culminate with the publication of the widely admired classic study Union Democracy. Second, the inspiration for this work came from Lipset's student days when he was a socialist activist trying to understand why leftist government…
Economic Sociology: A Systematic Inquiry - By Alejandro Portes
Inequalities in the (De‐)Commodification of Labour: Immigration, the Nation State, and Labour Market Stratification
In an era when globalization has supposedly challenged the ability of the nation state to manage economic affairs, I shall argue that the state not only still matters but that it also plays a major role in processes of labour market stratification for migrant workers. Using the organizing concepts of commodification and de‐commodification I review the growing comparative literature on government policies for economic migration to show how skill‐b…
Political science (23 works) · Economics (21 works) · Law (21 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Law (13 works) · Politics (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (10 works) · Business (9 works) · Immigration (9 works)