Embedding Organizations

The widely discussed ‘globalization’ of economic activities has given rise to a renewed interest in the relations between such tendencies, the nature and demarcation of societies, and the nature and strategies of various actors and organizations within and cross-cutting societies. One approach to capture and express these themes has been Societal Analysis, initially developed above all to confront the internationally comparative study of work, organization, education and training, industrial relations, business and industrial structures.After twenty-five years of practising and developing Societal Analysis, this book serves to systematize and redefine the approach, and to react to criticism and newly arising issues. It brings together proponents, sympathizers and critics of Societal Analysis. It enters new fields, and contributions are clustered around the enterprise, the economy, theoretical and methodological aspects, public policy and gender issues. The message stressed and demonstrated by the editors and various authors, is that the ‘societal space’ of social, economic political interdependencies is not being obliterated but complexified, and therefore a topical, useful and indeed necessary explanatory framework.