The book covers the period of the currently ruling al-Khalifa dynasty since 1783. The emphasis is upon the economic conditions in the island state. Bahrain’s economy underwent two major transitions during this period. The first was the decline of the long-established pearl fisheries and their replacement by oil extraction during the 1930s. As Bahrain’s rather scant oil resources started to become depleted by the 1970s, its economy went through a second transition and diversified, turning the island state into a financial hub.
The rather pristine title of this book suggests a study on topics like the shift from face-to-face interaction to virtual teams; how employees find meaning in their work; or the challenges of unemployment. But, as the subtitle indicates, the scope of this book is much more ambitious: an in-depth theoretical analysis of the concept of work/labor, followed by a bird’s eye view of different kinds of work relations from the 13th century until today. The theoretical framework follows the Modern World-System approach. The volume is a translation of the German-language version published in 2014