Handbook on the Sociology of Work
Will be published approx. on 9. December 2025
Book
Hardback
522 pages
978-1-0353-0236-9 (ISBN)
Description
This comprehensive Handbook presents an overview of current research and thinking within the sociology of work. The contributors examine how the organisation and experience of work are shaped by the evolution of global capitalism, trends in political economy, and rapid technological developments.
The Handbook explores varied forms and experiences of work - from factory, informal, and agricultural work, to more recent developments like platform work, coworking, neo-craft work, and emotional labour. Contributing authors also reflect on social inequalities in the workplace, interrogating the interplay between class, identity, race, gender, and age, and they address important policy issues, such as the climate crisis, digitisation and artificial intelligence, modern slavery, and the future of work. Each chapter critically evaluates core sociological concepts and theories while also identifying potential future research agendas.
The Handbook on the Sociology of Work is a vital resource for scholars and students of sociology, political science, employment studies, and business and management. Practitioners and policymakers will also benefit from the in-depth coverage of such a wide range of contemporary topics in the field.
The Handbook explores varied forms and experiences of work - from factory, informal, and agricultural work, to more recent developments like platform work, coworking, neo-craft work, and emotional labour. Contributing authors also reflect on social inequalities in the workplace, interrogating the interplay between class, identity, race, gender, and age, and they address important policy issues, such as the climate crisis, digitisation and artificial intelligence, modern slavery, and the future of work. Each chapter critically evaluates core sociological concepts and theories while also identifying potential future research agendas.
The Handbook on the Sociology of Work is a vital resource for scholars and students of sociology, political science, employment studies, and business and management. Practitioners and policymakers will also benefit from the in-depth coverage of such a wide range of contemporary topics in the field.
Reviews / Votes
'This Handbook includes an excellent set of cutting-edge contributions that deftly summarize and critically dissect the rich sociological scholarship on work and labor in the 21st century. Theoretically sophisticated, and at the same time deeply rooted in the empirical literature, this volume will be equally valuable for students and for seasoned scholars.' -- Ruth Milkman, City University of New York Graduate Center, USAMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cheltenham
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 169 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0353-0236-9 (9781035302369)
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
Persons
Edited by Chris Rees, Professor of Employment Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London, OEduel Bozkurt, Professor of Work and Employment, University of Sussex Business School, UK, Stephanie A. Limoncelli, Professor of Sociology, Loyola Marymount University, USA and Jonathan Preminger, Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations, Cardiff University, UK
Content
Contents
Sociology of work: conceptual legacies, contemporary issues xvi
Jonathan Preminger, Stephanie Limoncelli, OEduel Bozkurt and Chris Rees
PART I CONTEXT AND DIMENSIONS OF WORK
1 Financialisation and work: disconnected capitalism, new corporate
governance, and the future of labour militancy 2
Pau Lopez-Gaitan and Giorgos Gouzoulis
2 Marketisation, contracting out and the regulation of labour 17
E.K. Sarter
3 Towards a sociology of labour regulation and enforcement in the context of
the modern fissured workplace 31
Andrew B. Wolf, Michael Piore, Hana Shepherd, Janice Fine and Jacob Barnes
4 The changing practice and sociological study of management control 46
Ian Roper
5 A multi-level perspective on employee voice and silence 61
Emma Hughes
6 Is alt-labour really "alternative"? Worker activism and representation
beyond trade unions 76
Gretchen Purser and Sergio Saravia
7 The sociology of work and resistance: concepts and cases from the goods
movement industry 90
Ellen Reese, Abe Walker and Teke Wiggin
PART II INEQUALITIES AND DIVISIONS AT WORK
8 Classed inequalities at work: understanding culture, closure and capitalism 107
Louise Ashley
9 The limits of corporate diversity management: toward new models of
workplace justice 122
Rana Abulbasal and Christy Glass
10 Gender, family and work: mechanisms for the reproduction of gender
inequality in the workplace 138
Elizabeth A. Kiester
11 Race matters at work: contemporary workplace dynamics of racial and
ethnic inequality 153
Eli R. Wilson
12 Age and ageing in the contemporary workplace: an opportunity for
sociological understanding and analysis 166
Cara Reed and Katrina Pritchard
13 The sociology of youth employment, unemployment and employability 180
Rachel J. Wilde
PART III FORMS AND EXPERIENCES OF WORK
14 Factory work: the making, remaking, and reimagining of the factory
system of work 194
Daina Bellido de Luna and Miguel Martinez-Lucio
15 Agricultural work: unfreedom and resistance 209
Kathleen Sexsmith and Rebecca Tarlau
16 Craft as an ambivalent future of work: from deskilling and nostalgia to
neo-craft fetishism and the gentrification of labour 224
Chris Land
17 Dissolving the Cartesian body-mind division: current conceptualisations of
the embodiment of knowledge work 238
Hanne Vesala and Markku Sippola
18 Corporal control: aesthetic labour as an employer strategy 254
Chris Warhurst
19 Emotional labour: the management of feeling and display in the workplace 267
James Frederick Green
20 From workplaces to workspaces: the rise of coworking and independent
modes of work 281
Janet Merkel
21 Informal work: definitions, drivers, agency 298
Chris Tilly
22 A critical theoretical narrative of inequality in precarious work 313
Valeria Pulignano
23 The spectrum of platform labour: conditions and agency across location-
and web-based platforms 327
Sarrah Kassem
24 Traditions and paradigms in domestic labour research 342
Man-Yee Kan and Wei Wang
PART IV THEMES AND ISSUES IN WORK
25 Skill, time, ethics and care: applying a migration lens to the sociology of
work 357
Leah Williams Veazey and Anna Boucher
26 Making good and bad jobs visible: grading jobs and occupations in social
science research 372
Mark Williams
27 Work and climate crisis - sociological analysis in demand 387
Vera Trappmann, Jo Cutter and Felix Schulz
28 Form follows function? The twisted encounters of technology and work 402
Kendra Briken
29 Unfree labour: how modern is modern slavery? 416
Jean Jenkins
30 Critical perspectives on work, health and wellbeing: past, present and
future 430
Ulla Forseth
31 Love, death and robots: envisaging the future of work 445
Edward Granter, Mickael Peiro and Jeremy Aroles
Sociology of work: conceptual legacies, contemporary issues xvi
Jonathan Preminger, Stephanie Limoncelli, OEduel Bozkurt and Chris Rees
PART I CONTEXT AND DIMENSIONS OF WORK
1 Financialisation and work: disconnected capitalism, new corporate
governance, and the future of labour militancy 2
Pau Lopez-Gaitan and Giorgos Gouzoulis
2 Marketisation, contracting out and the regulation of labour 17
E.K. Sarter
3 Towards a sociology of labour regulation and enforcement in the context of
the modern fissured workplace 31
Andrew B. Wolf, Michael Piore, Hana Shepherd, Janice Fine and Jacob Barnes
4 The changing practice and sociological study of management control 46
Ian Roper
5 A multi-level perspective on employee voice and silence 61
Emma Hughes
6 Is alt-labour really "alternative"? Worker activism and representation
beyond trade unions 76
Gretchen Purser and Sergio Saravia
7 The sociology of work and resistance: concepts and cases from the goods
movement industry 90
Ellen Reese, Abe Walker and Teke Wiggin
PART II INEQUALITIES AND DIVISIONS AT WORK
8 Classed inequalities at work: understanding culture, closure and capitalism 107
Louise Ashley
9 The limits of corporate diversity management: toward new models of
workplace justice 122
Rana Abulbasal and Christy Glass
10 Gender, family and work: mechanisms for the reproduction of gender
inequality in the workplace 138
Elizabeth A. Kiester
11 Race matters at work: contemporary workplace dynamics of racial and
ethnic inequality 153
Eli R. Wilson
12 Age and ageing in the contemporary workplace: an opportunity for
sociological understanding and analysis 166
Cara Reed and Katrina Pritchard
13 The sociology of youth employment, unemployment and employability 180
Rachel J. Wilde
PART III FORMS AND EXPERIENCES OF WORK
14 Factory work: the making, remaking, and reimagining of the factory
system of work 194
Daina Bellido de Luna and Miguel Martinez-Lucio
15 Agricultural work: unfreedom and resistance 209
Kathleen Sexsmith and Rebecca Tarlau
16 Craft as an ambivalent future of work: from deskilling and nostalgia to
neo-craft fetishism and the gentrification of labour 224
Chris Land
17 Dissolving the Cartesian body-mind division: current conceptualisations of
the embodiment of knowledge work 238
Hanne Vesala and Markku Sippola
18 Corporal control: aesthetic labour as an employer strategy 254
Chris Warhurst
19 Emotional labour: the management of feeling and display in the workplace 267
James Frederick Green
20 From workplaces to workspaces: the rise of coworking and independent
modes of work 281
Janet Merkel
21 Informal work: definitions, drivers, agency 298
Chris Tilly
22 A critical theoretical narrative of inequality in precarious work 313
Valeria Pulignano
23 The spectrum of platform labour: conditions and agency across location-
and web-based platforms 327
Sarrah Kassem
24 Traditions and paradigms in domestic labour research 342
Man-Yee Kan and Wei Wang
PART IV THEMES AND ISSUES IN WORK
25 Skill, time, ethics and care: applying a migration lens to the sociology of
work 357
Leah Williams Veazey and Anna Boucher
26 Making good and bad jobs visible: grading jobs and occupations in social
science research 372
Mark Williams
27 Work and climate crisis - sociological analysis in demand 387
Vera Trappmann, Jo Cutter and Felix Schulz
28 Form follows function? The twisted encounters of technology and work 402
Kendra Briken
29 Unfree labour: how modern is modern slavery? 416
Jean Jenkins
30 Critical perspectives on work, health and wellbeing: past, present and
future 430
Ulla Forseth
31 Love, death and robots: envisaging the future of work 445
Edward Granter, Mickael Peiro and Jeremy Aroles