People at Work
Life, Power, and Social Inclusion in the New Economy
Published on 1. March 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
344 pages
978-0-8147-2004-2 (ISBN)
Description
People at Work is noted sociologist Marjorie L. DeVault's groundbreaking collection of original essays on the complexities of the modern-day workplace. By focusing on the lived experiences of the worker, not as an automaton on an assembly line, but as an embodied human of flesh and bone, these essays offer important insight on the realities of the workplace, and their effects on life at home and in communities. With contributions from some of today's top scholars, each essay is a detailed case study of a different aspect of the working world.
Compelling, lively, and sometimes chilling, the contributors address issues from disability rights to immigrant labor, welfare reforms to budget cuts, competition to personal motivations. Each one valuable on its own, the essays in People at Work combine to illuminate the hurdles that workers of all backgrounds struggle with and, more broadly, the impact of change on workers' lives in the new, increasingly global, economy.
Compelling, lively, and sometimes chilling, the contributors address issues from disability rights to immigrant labor, welfare reforms to budget cuts, competition to personal motivations. Each one valuable on its own, the essays in People at Work combine to illuminate the hurdles that workers of all backgrounds struggle with and, more broadly, the impact of change on workers' lives in the new, increasingly global, economy.
Reviews / Votes
"DeVault's brilliant introduction transforms our understanding of work in contemporary North America. The collection as a whole, particularly the institutional ethnographies, expand and deepen her re-vision. A magnificent volume!" - Dorothy E. Smith,of Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People "DeVault has successfully organized these very diverse papers into a coherent collection that examines the way the everyday experiences of people are shaped by wider systems . . . the book is eminently readable and it makes a valuable contribution to professional as well as scholarly literature." (Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
478 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8147-2004-2 (9780814720042)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2008
New York University Press
€142.99
Available for download
E-Book
03/2008
New York University Press
€30.99
Available for download
Person
Marjorie L. DeVault is Professor of Sociology at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She is the author of Liberating Method: Feminism and Social Research and Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work.
Content
Acknowledgments Introduction Marjorie L. DeVault Ideologies of the Neoliberal Economy "Hell on My Face" Nancy Jackson and Bonnie Slade Institutional Technologies Alison I. Griffith and Lois Andre'-Bechely The Promises and Realities of U.S. Microenterprise Development Nancy C. Jurik Work, Disability, and Social Inclusion Rannveig Traustado'ttir Mobile Bodies Flexible Hiring, Immigration, and Indian IT Workers' Experiences of Contract Work in the United States Payal Banerjee Economic Restructuring and the Social Regulation of Citizenship in the Heartland Nancy A. Naples Part III The Fictional Worlds of "Unencumbered Workers" 7 Training for Low-Wage Work Brenda Solomon 8 Women's Lives, Welfare's Time Limits Ellen K. Scott and Andrew S. London 9 Personal Responsibility in Professional Work Catherine Richards Solomon 10 "Use What You Have, Be Thankful You Have It" Katrina Arndt Part IV Fiscal Discipline 11 Exploring Problematics of the Personal-Responsibility Welfare State Frank Ridzi 12 The "Textualized" Student Yvette Daniel 13 (Dis)continuity of Care Marie Campbell Conclusion Marjorie L. DeVault* References Contributors Index