Power and Value

SOSC15001

Prof Wendy Olsen

2022-2023 WEEK 3
SOCIAL STATISTICS DEPARTMENT
DATA ANALYTICS HONOURS DEGREES

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Overview of this Lecture &
Quiz
Part Topics
1 Introduction, definitions, examples, Lukes
2 Theorising child labour
3 How the revised theory is then implemented in a new form of
‘Social Statistics modelling with social norms included’ by
progressive scientists (Kim, et al., 2022)
Quiz Briefly asks you to identify key terms from the lecture:
Child labour, forced labour, coercion, power-over, power-with,
and International Labour Office

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First some definitions of key
terms
“Child Labour” is also known as harmful forms
of child labour.

Forced labour involves exploitation, entrapment, and/or specific

means of removing the exit option from the worker.

Bonded labour arose historically as well as in the

modern commercial economies
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 Four examples of child labour – all
of them involve coercion of the child
1. Brick kiln workers in Meghalaya
A report on this used a questionnaire survey about villages’ occupations and
industries combined with interviews at workplaces and residences.

2. Cottonseed workers in Andhra Pradesh

Here, the high growth rate of the state of AP and Telangana did not eradicate the
child labour. Instead, more farms turned to seed-growing which is a higher-margin,
labour-intensive industry.

3. Domestic work as a maid or sweeper in another person’s home.

Very widespread in India, very damaging to the child.

4. Farming
A. with dangerous vehicles or chemicals
B. without training and with no health/safety guidelines or oversight
C. with long hours of work, making school impossible.

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 Four country scenes where child labour
is common – and in all 4, it is
normalised
1. Meghalaya and AP and Telangana, India
The norms of the adults are internalised by the children.
The norms of the social scene are contested.

2. Bangladesh Cotton and Garment Industry

The children are flagrantly emigrating out of villages to work in factories and live in barracks,
eating on the street from the age of 10 or 12, living with more public time and zero school time
from age 12 to 17. Public denial of this problem. Visible.

3. Pakistan: Migrants are treated badly in domestic work

As a maid or sweeper in another person’s home, the child migrant is usually of a
different lineage and language group. Their mother may share the work. (In Mumbai,
India, schools for the 2nd-language immigrants help bring children of bonded adult workers
into the local culture & markets.)
4. Nepal:
A. After vicious civil war, emigrants from Nepal work in India, Bangladesh.
B. Joined-up training of social workers and police by experts in child labour?
C. Once a family migrates, it becomes much harder to provide a safety net.
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Discerning child labour
The confirmatory approach uses
social theory to stipulate the
meaning of one of these terms:
◦ Force
◦ Coercion
◦ Entrapment
◦ Bondedness
In the approach of the United
Nations’ International Labour Office,
(ILO), the hazardousness of the
occupation is also another
determining factor.
VENN DIAGRAM WITH OR
The social constructivist approach
presumes less about what is
forced labour. Instead, it focuses
on listening to the voices of the
parents and/or the children.
From this we gain an
understanding of the various
forms and narratives of coercion.
It is located in daily social life.
The norms are internalised.
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Reading tasks
Your main task is to read carefully two works this week.
◦ LUKES, Steven (1974), Power: A Radical View, London: Macmillan Press, Series: Studies in
Sociology, Chapters 4-5, pages 21-33.
◦ WEBBINK carefully read this one journal article:
◦ Webbink, E., Smits, J., & Jong, E. (2015). Child Labor in Africa and Asia: Household and Context Determinants of
Hours Worked in Paid Labor by Young Children in 16 LowIncome Countries. The European Journal of Development
Research, 27(1), 84-98, URL DOI: 10.1057/ejdr.2014.19.

All the rest is optional.

Use the internet to google-search for ‘”child labour” harm violence’ or
‘”child labour” India forced ILO’
You will soon find many campaigns which aim to eradicate all child labour up to and
including age 16 or 17.
Politicised age boundary at both upper and lower bounds.
Policing can be used to limit child labour? “Criminalising it”

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 Causes of Child Labour
In Social Statistics, I use the confirmatory approach.
Rooted in structuralist ideas of social patterns which reflect macro causal
mechanisms.
These in turn are found in questionnaire surveys – even surveys of a mundane kind.
The Indian Labour Force Survey (National Sample Survey, Employment and
Unemployment Survey, Periodic LFS, and CMIE data all show up to 5% of children
age 6 to 15 in child labour – this is an average across different studies).

If we take ages 12-14 it is much higher than this average.

If we take ages 15-17 the labour-force participation rate is very high among boys.
In ages 15-17, among girls, it is {High if we allow for fulltime household chores ; or
Low if we allow only paid work and other-households’ domestic work}
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Research-Led Teaching in
Social Statistics
Table 1: Child Image of Summary Confidence Notes
Labour % by child statistic Interval
Country labour (Mean %)
Bangladesh Garment
workers,
16% of girls and 14%
of boys age 6 to 15
Not provided – a Ages 6 to 15 in table
1 of Webbink 2015,
weakness.
farming, maids, Source is MICS
etc.…
Bangladesh “ 25% of all children Not provided Ages 6 to 17, ILO-
SIMPOC
India Farming,
shepherding,
No data for 2013-
2020 in UNICEF
Why not Ages 6 to 17, No
MICS – use PLFS!
etc. index! provided
Pakistan Fishery helpers,
etc.
Boys 10%, girls 10% Source LFS Ages 6 to 17, 2017-8
data, UNICEF & ILO
calculations
Sources: MICS, IHDS, NSS, ILO-SIMPOC

Theory: We have a social

I am citing raw data.
structural basis for the
These data are micro-data.
marginalisation of certain
It is a fascinating complex job to
children… 9
interrogate these data.
Table 2: Hours Worked by Children in
“Child Labour”, 2011-2013 (MICS, ILO-
SIMPOC, harmonised hours per week)
*Among those Hours Worked for Informal and Other Domestic Work*
who worked Market* Work (goods)*

Bhutan 8 14 7

Nepal 16 11 12

Afghanistan 4 13 13

Pakistan 12 8 11
( Balochistan,
Punjab only)
Bangladesh 19 16 10

India 69 67 68

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 FIGURE 1 CHILD LABOUR IN MARKET WORK BY AGE, SOUTH
ASIA

These results were based on the

representative samples found in the
12.00%
UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster
10.00%
Surveys (MICS, www.childinfo.org).
8.00%

6.00%

4.00%

2.00%

0.00%
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Source: Combined harmonized data from Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan (Balochistan and Punjab),
Bangladesh, and India, 2010-2015 random samples. The pale blue zone is a 95% predictive interval from our main
multilevel probit model. The MICS are used for 4 countries, ILO SIMPOC for Bangladesh, and National Sample
Survey for India. Conference paper results presented to the ILO International Conference of Labour Statisticians,
2018, by Wendy Olsen and Giuseppe Maio.
July 7, 2021 11
 FIGURE 2: HOT SPOTS IN CHILD LABOUR ACROSS SOUTH ASIA
(VIZ MARKET WORK) (BY WENDY OLSEN AND GIUSEPPE MAIO,
2017)
Notes: All other regions of India and Bangladesh have lower levels of child labour in market work than those shown.

Percent of Children Age 5-17 in Child Labour in Market Work

I-Punjab
I-Gujarat
I-Orissa
I-Jharkhand
I-Bihar
I-Uttar Pradesh
I-Rajasthan
B-Barisal
B-Dhaka Percent
B-Sylhet
B-Rangpur
B-Rajshahi
B-Khulna
B-Chittagong
Pakistan(Punjab)
Pakistan(Baloch)
Afghanistan
Nepal West & Central
Bhutan July 7, 2021 12

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

The results were based on the representative samples found in the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS, www.childinfo.org).
 Webbinks’ Findings
(Econometrics)

Uses an explanatory mode but is

careful not to say any theory is
proven…
Uses regression
To explain the prevalence of
‘Working in harmful forms’

So what is the review of literature used Tests hypotheses within a broad,

for? multidisciplinary overview.
Background knowledge and induction.
Then we do ‘inference’ and ‘deduction’
when we test hypotheses. Webbink…
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Methods Used by Webbink
Their regression presents a model. Here, “hours worked” is the dependent
variable.
Children are the units in the data.
◦
Nested in their households – quite appropriately; nested in districts! 
X variables include the parents’ wealth, their occupations, the district
characteristics, and many other variables, including variables derived from
published academic literature on cultural explanations (Webbink, et al., 2015,
88, citing Lieten, 2003).
The results were based on the representative samples found in the e UNICEF
Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS, www.childinfo.org).
UNICEF is the official body of the United Nations representing the interests
and programmes for/about children. (UN Fund for Children)

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Findings in Webbink’s paper
Survey data about 169 000 children living in 16 countries.
The % of children in the child age-groups varies from 1% to 8%.
Children engaged in paid child labor work on average 13 hours in Africa
and 30–38 hours in Asia.
Poverty is a driving factor for the hours worked by these children.

Note: The ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations. Its

purposes are to advance social justice and promote decent work.

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These results minimise the role of cultural
factors. Why? They cover only ages 8 to
13 – why?

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17
Theorising Child Labour 1
After doing one paper or project on child labour, we try to re-theorise the
phenomenon.
Being original by re-theorising and then doing an explanatory model is doing
social science, also called “applied social statistics”.
[ Data analytics often refers to a different process, such as data-mining
or big-data interrogation. ]
In the theorising, we see the child as an agent of their own decisions and daily
movements.

But the economic theories of ‘neoclassical’ kinds see the parents as the agents,
and see the head of household as a decision maker on behalf of a unified
household. This is patriarchal.

Meghalaya: matriarchal households, tribal endogamous social structure.

Immigrants from nearby countries do bonded labour and child labour!

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Theorising Child Labour 2
In reviewing the literature on the economics of child labour, we become very
dissatisfied, so we turn to the politics literature on power of parents, power
of the labour-hirers. (Employers, farmers, cottonseed grower companies)
In Lukes’ book we have a theory of dyadic power.
Lukes also presents three kinds of dyadic power:
a) The power to make someone else do something,
b) The power to do something as a collective,
c) The power to adjust or create an agenda for strategic planning, which is
shared by a group.

Capacities is a better word than power in all 3 cases. Entities have tendencies
and capacities. (Critical realist approach to entities)
Entrapment is a tendency of all child labour; they miss school; lose exit options;
are stuck; and then we call it exploitation. The child’s voice is not heard, either.

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Theorising 3
Whose agency counts in the economic theories?
◦ Edmunds: parents. Krauss: social groups’ cultural norms.
◦ IBRD: employers. ‘the demand for cheap labour’.
◦ This presumes that the labour is sold in a market.
◦ It rests upon a whole lot of preconceptions about which social groups are available to engage in
work relationships outside the home, during childhood.
◦ In general we find marginalised groups doing child labour.
◦ In general we find marginalised groups doing forced labour.
◦ In general we find marginalised groups doing hazardous labour.
◦ In general we find marginalised groups doing bonded labour.

The parents are often subject to the same industrial hazards, same
employer-bonding and debt-bonding, same poverty trap of low wages, as
their children.
Brick kiln workers…no social capital? Can we change the situation?

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About Lukes in More Detail
CRITIQUE: IF SCIENTISTS ARE WE THEN HAVE A TRIAD, AND WITH
PROGRESSIVE, WE ARE FEMINIST EMPLOYER THAT’S 4 AGENTS:
Progressive social science is a Employer Employee
profession-based set of value Company, Parent 1, parent
positions, ie intra-occupational Farmer, 2, carer/contact
cultural norms. Cooperative 3, child 4, sibling
seed-buying 5
The social scientist is one of the enterprise… +Scientists
agents in the situation. Social Agents police, inspectors,
parliamentary assembly members,
But in Lukes, we usually see the mayor, NGO leader, members of
scientist as having a ‘God’s-Eye’ NGOs, workers’ union leaders…
View, which implies neutrality. Organisations have agency. Ignored in
most of social statistics.
I believe they/we are not neutral.

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Beyond Lukes To Social
Theory
Scientists STAKEHOLDER APPROACH
Employer Employee
Company, Parent 1, parent
NGO activists Farmer, 2, carer/contact
Cooperative 3, child 4, sibling
OECD seed-buying 5
enterprise…
Social Agents police, inspectors,
IBRD parliamentary assembly members,
mayor, NGO leader, members of
NGOs, workers’ union leaders…
ILO Organisations have agency. Ignored in
most of social statistics.
Feminist journals
Indian Journal of Gender Studies…
Professional societies of chemists and so on

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Cambridge Journal of
Economics (CJE)
CJE IS HETERODOX
It does not aim for a unified voice
or for 1 single theory
CJE IS COMMONLY USED FOR ANALYSING
DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS ISSUES
Krauss paper in CJE is superb
Understanding child labour
beyond the standard economic
assumption of monetary poverty
2017 DOI: 10.1093/cje/bew019
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 Lecture 3:
Buzz Question in Pairs
Suppose you want to work in the
ILO. Which department would you
prefer:
The data analytics department,
making international comparisons of
labour-force participation?

The strategy and policy

department, advising the overall
General Secretariat?

The programmes department,

integrating NGO actions with ILO
funding?

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 Lecture 3:
Buzz Question in Pairs
Suppose you want to work in the
ILO. Which department would you What kind of scientist are
prefer: you?

The data analytics department, An exploratory data-mining

making international comparisons of type of person?
labour-force participation?
• Politically neutral or
• Committed or
• progressive
The strategy and policy
department, advising the overall
General Secretariat? Well-read, offering ‘peer
reviewed literature’ insights to
your co-workers in the ILO?
(confirmatory approach)
The programmes department,
integrating NGO actions with ILO
funding?

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Our next steps in child-labour
research
We developed a Bayesian probability-based way to combine two datasets,
one with the sensitive child data, and the other from an official source.
We developed a social-norms analysis of the Indian scene, showing that
◦ Beneficence norms are associated with less child labour.
◦ Not clear what is causal here. (Kim, et al., 2022)

Adjustments were made for demographics, minorities, and key asset

variables.
◦ Gender norms that favour WOMEN WORKING FOR PAY were associated with
less child labour. (Kim, et al., 2022)
◦ Not clear what is causal here. NEXT: a Multiple Equations, Spatially adjusted
model.

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What is post-individualist theorising?
It allows for macro-social entities.
Social norms can be represented via data collected from individuals.

Cultural differences rest upon culturally-associated sets of values, which

we call ‘norms’. A norm is an evaluative position or a ‘Should-
statement’ which is commonly held and rests as a tacit given in some
social group.

Thus a cultural norm is one which we can explore empirically.

◦ Commonalities are the core of the norm.
◦ Exceptions and deviations can be explained by closer analysis of ‘errors’ or
‘residuals’.

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 Conclusions
In week 3, I showed that the definition of child labour was contested by many
stakeholders.
◦ The minimum age to work
◦ The maximum age to be a child pre-working age, were both contested by parents,
teachers, police and social workers.
The legislation in each country varies in the way this issue reached ‘the agenda’ (Lukes’ 3 rd
form of power). In India, children age 16-17 are legally allowed to work.
Each state also can write legislation to vary the rules on hazardous working.
The ILO gives advice on ‘hazardous occupations’ for children age 6 to 14. (5 page list)

We also looked at theories of child labour. Explanations.

We widened the agenda to include several agents and their agency. This was a
contestation of the ‘entities’ in the social sphere.
We also widened the agenda to include a progressive role for professionals.

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Quiz
Visible on the website “Blackboard”

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References added to Syllabus
Parsons, Talcott (1967), Sociological Theory and Modern Society, NY:
The Free Press, and London: Collier-Macmillan.
◦ It reproduces Parsons, Talcott (1963), On the Concept of Political Power,
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 107: 232-262.

That BOOK summarises and contains the text of Parson’s FAMOUS

JOURNAL ARTICLE.
PEER REVIEW happened at the journal-article stage.

Please see Blackboard for all the other referenced works.

This has a link to Reading Lists Online for rapid access to 5 items.

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*Key quote about type-2
power in Lukes, citing Parsons
Parsons is a well-known theorist of macro-social entities, and has been
famous also for middle-level theorising. Parsons also had one grand theory
that he promoted to explain social phenomena, making himself seem
somewhat grand. Later this ‘grandiose’ or grand theory narrative was
critiqued as macho and even patriarchal.
The key quote is in Lukes, 1974: 27:
*Power is… ‘the use of authoritative decisions to further collective
goals’. Lukes, 1974: 27, citing Parsons (1967).

Power in type 2 takes for granted which collective entity is being represented.
So type 2 is less individualistic than type 1 (dyadic power-over), but is not as
good as the agenda-setting approach with embedded social interests (Lukes’
type 3 power, and the one for which he is famous). See also the diagram on
page 32 and the 2-page summary in Chapter 6 of Lukes 1974.

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