Pub Date : 2021-05-26DOI: 10.1177/07308884211017623
Phillipa K. Chong
Scholars have observed workers combining multiple work roles to earn a living to cope with the vicissitudes of the labor market. In studies of creative labor markets, this trend of workers broadening of their skills is termed “occupational generalism”. Previous scholarship has focused on the structural factors that push and pull workers into generalizing and combining multiple work roles. But we lack an understanding of the subjective experience of work as a generalist. I introduce the concept of dilemma work: a form of problem-solving wherein workers who have generalized their work portfolios, attempt to rationalize their professional practices to overcome conflicts that arise from occupying multiple work roles. Drawing on in-depth interviews with professional writers who also freelance as book reviewers, I find that these generalists use three dilemma work strategies: anchoring another role to guide action in the current one; incorporating multiple roles under a higher role or purpose; and compartmentalizing roles in order to act exclusively within a single identity. I propose the general value of a typology of dilemma work for understanding workers’ experience both within artistic labor markets, and beyond.
{"title":"Dilemma Work: Problem-Solving Multiple Work Roles Into One Work Life","authors":"Phillipa K. Chong","doi":"10.1177/07308884211017623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884211017623","url":null,"abstract":"Scholars have observed workers combining multiple work roles to earn a living to cope with the vicissitudes of the labor market. In studies of creative labor markets, this trend of workers broadening of their skills is termed “occupational generalism”. Previous scholarship has focused on the structural factors that push and pull workers into generalizing and combining multiple work roles. But we lack an understanding of the subjective experience of work as a generalist. I introduce the concept of dilemma work: a form of problem-solving wherein workers who have generalized their work portfolios, attempt to rationalize their professional practices to overcome conflicts that arise from occupying multiple work roles. Drawing on in-depth interviews with professional writers who also freelance as book reviewers, I find that these generalists use three dilemma work strategies: anchoring another role to guide action in the current one; incorporating multiple roles under a higher role or purpose; and compartmentalizing roles in order to act exclusively within a single identity. I propose the general value of a typology of dilemma work for understanding workers’ experience both within artistic labor markets, and beyond.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"48 1","pages":"432 - 469"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2021-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/07308884211017623","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43104166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-04DOI: 10.1177/07308884211008208
J. Lamare
tional pathways for corporate occupations in order to strengthen their control of corporate leadership. And education became “the chief public policy to address problems of work and employment” (p. 180). Groeger’s book provides a fascinating historical lens into understanding America’s current educational/occupational structure. Groeger comes from a background in history, and her scholarly criticisms are mainly levied against economists. As a sociologist, I believe her critique could have benefited from a deeper knowledge of sociological scholarship. While Groeger regularly critiques the human capital model, an explicit discussion of cultural capital is noticeably absent. Despite mentions of particular forms of cultural capital— e.g. “flawless and perfectly accented English, tact, sociability, neatness, appropriate dress, trustworthiness, and character” (p. 7)—the terms “cultural capital” or “social capital” are never used in the book. There is a long tradition of sociological critique emphasizing the role of formal education in legitimizing and reproducing class structures (most notably, Bourdieu and Passeron; Lamont and Lareau) that might have added another layer of depth to Groeger’s critique of the human capital and credentialist models. Though she does not make the connection to cultural capital herself, for contemporary followers of the Bourdieusian tradition, Groeger’s rigorously collected data can provide useful insights into the history of the legitimation of the “great equalizer” ideology and contemporary class structure in American society.
{"title":"McKersie, R. B. (2018). A Field in Flux: Sixty Years of Industrial Relations","authors":"J. Lamare","doi":"10.1177/07308884211008208","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884211008208","url":null,"abstract":"tional pathways for corporate occupations in order to strengthen their control of corporate leadership. And education became “the chief public policy to address problems of work and employment” (p. 180). Groeger’s book provides a fascinating historical lens into understanding America’s current educational/occupational structure. Groeger comes from a background in history, and her scholarly criticisms are mainly levied against economists. As a sociologist, I believe her critique could have benefited from a deeper knowledge of sociological scholarship. While Groeger regularly critiques the human capital model, an explicit discussion of cultural capital is noticeably absent. Despite mentions of particular forms of cultural capital— e.g. “flawless and perfectly accented English, tact, sociability, neatness, appropriate dress, trustworthiness, and character” (p. 7)—the terms “cultural capital” or “social capital” are never used in the book. There is a long tradition of sociological critique emphasizing the role of formal education in legitimizing and reproducing class structures (most notably, Bourdieu and Passeron; Lamont and Lareau) that might have added another layer of depth to Groeger’s critique of the human capital and credentialist models. Though she does not make the connection to cultural capital herself, for contemporary followers of the Bourdieusian tradition, Groeger’s rigorously collected data can provide useful insights into the history of the legitimation of the “great equalizer” ideology and contemporary class structure in American society.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"48 1","pages":"502 - 504"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2021-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/07308884211008208","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41866542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-20DOI: 10.1177/07308884211003652
P. Sheehan
In recent years, sociologists have examined unemployment and job searching as important arenas in which workers are socialized to accept the terms of an increasingly precarious economy. While noting the importance of expert knowledge in manufacturing the consent of workers, research has largely overlooked the experts themselves that produce such knowledge. Who are these experts and what kinds of advice do they give? Drawing on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork conducted at three job search clubs, the author develops a three-fold typology of “unemployment experts”: Job Coaches present a technical diagnosis that centers mastery of job-hunting techniques; Self-help Gurus present a moral diagnosis focused on the job seeker’s attitude; and Skill-certifiers present a human capital diagnosis revolving around the job seeker’s productive capacities. By offering alternative diagnoses and remedies for unemployment, these experts give job seekers a sense of choice in interpreting their situation and acting in the labor market. However, the multiple discourses ultimately help to secure consent to precarious labor markets by drawing attention to a range of individual deficiencies within workers while obfuscating structural and relational explanations of unemployment. The author also finds that many unemployment experts themselves faced dislocations from professional careers and are making creative claims to expertise. By focusing on experts and their varied messages, this paper reveals how the victims of precarious work inadvertently help to legitimate the new employment regime.
{"title":"Unemployment Experts: Governing the Job Search in the New Economy","authors":"P. Sheehan","doi":"10.1177/07308884211003652","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884211003652","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, sociologists have examined unemployment and job searching as important arenas in which workers are socialized to accept the terms of an increasingly precarious economy. While noting the importance of expert knowledge in manufacturing the consent of workers, research has largely overlooked the experts themselves that produce such knowledge. Who are these experts and what kinds of advice do they give? Drawing on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork conducted at three job search clubs, the author develops a three-fold typology of “unemployment experts”: Job Coaches present a technical diagnosis that centers mastery of job-hunting techniques; Self-help Gurus present a moral diagnosis focused on the job seeker’s attitude; and Skill-certifiers present a human capital diagnosis revolving around the job seeker’s productive capacities. By offering alternative diagnoses and remedies for unemployment, these experts give job seekers a sense of choice in interpreting their situation and acting in the labor market. However, the multiple discourses ultimately help to secure consent to precarious labor markets by drawing attention to a range of individual deficiencies within workers while obfuscating structural and relational explanations of unemployment. The author also finds that many unemployment experts themselves faced dislocations from professional careers and are making creative claims to expertise. By focusing on experts and their varied messages, this paper reveals how the victims of precarious work inadvertently help to legitimate the new employment regime.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"48 1","pages":"470 - 497"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2021-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/07308884211003652","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49026475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-08DOI: 10.1177/0730888421997518
Anthony Rainey, S. Melzer
The impact of harmful social relations in the workplace, such as workplace bullying, has become abundantly clear to the social sciences. However, data limitations have prevented researchers from fully examining the organizational component of workplace bullying. Using a sample of linked-employer-employee data collected from the German working population, this paper shows how the interaction of organizational attributes and individual characteristics of workers (specifically, gender) is associated with how workplace bullying manifests itself. A series of diversity/equity and work-family policies are examined. Results show that some programs, but not all, are associated with workplace bullying. More frequent organizational use of mentoring programs for women is associated with higher levels of supervisory bullying, while more frequent use of work-family policies is associated with higher levels of supervisory bullying in cases where the employee and supervisor are different genders.
{"title":"The Organizational Context of Supervisory Bullying: Diversity/Equity and Work-Family Policies","authors":"Anthony Rainey, S. Melzer","doi":"10.1177/0730888421997518","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888421997518","url":null,"abstract":"The impact of harmful social relations in the workplace, such as workplace bullying, has become abundantly clear to the social sciences. However, data limitations have prevented researchers from fully examining the organizational component of workplace bullying. Using a sample of linked-employer-employee data collected from the German working population, this paper shows how the interaction of organizational attributes and individual characteristics of workers (specifically, gender) is associated with how workplace bullying manifests itself. A series of diversity/equity and work-family policies are examined. Results show that some programs, but not all, are associated with workplace bullying. More frequent organizational use of mentoring programs for women is associated with higher levels of supervisory bullying, while more frequent use of work-family policies is associated with higher levels of supervisory bullying in cases where the employee and supervisor are different genders.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"48 1","pages":"285 - 319"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2021-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0730888421997518","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49012805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-04DOI: 10.1177/07308884211000408
M. Dixon
Why did the U.S. auto industry crumble while its Japanese competitors rose and remained strong? Conventional wisdom points to the excessive demands made by U.S. workers and the United Auto Workers union. Class conflict is also at the forefront of Joshua Murray and Michael Schwartz’ new book Wrecked, but not in terms of U.S. workers resisting givebacks in the 1980s. Instead, they place the blame at management’s feet and go back much further to document the incredible innovation in the industry prior to World War II and where it went wrong. The history is fascinating. The argument is provocative, and the problem remains timely. Wrecked is worth the read. Labor itself is found wanting as an explanation of the Big Three’s (Ford, GM, and Chrysler) dramatic slide in the late twentieth century. Labor costs accounted for just a quarter of the price advantage for Japanese vehicles during their rise in the 1980s. Most of it stemmed from the benefits of flexible or lean production. As perfected by Toyota, this includes flexible machinery, just-in-time delivery, and long-term supplier relationships based on trust. It also requires significant buy-in from workers. Together this fosters innovation by allowing for more trial and error experimentation—often with the involvement of production workers—and the introduction of new parts in a cost-effective manner. Notably, Murray and Schwartz show that U.S. producers were not averse to flexible production and indeed utilized it before Toyota, who drew from the U.S. model. GM’s Chevrolet pioneered the use of Book Reviews
{"title":"Murray, J., & Schwartz, M. (2019). Wrecked: How the American Auto Industry Destroyed Its Capacity to Compete.","authors":"M. Dixon","doi":"10.1177/07308884211000408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884211000408","url":null,"abstract":"Why did the U.S. auto industry crumble while its Japanese competitors rose and remained strong? Conventional wisdom points to the excessive demands made by U.S. workers and the United Auto Workers union. Class conflict is also at the forefront of Joshua Murray and Michael Schwartz’ new book Wrecked, but not in terms of U.S. workers resisting givebacks in the 1980s. Instead, they place the blame at management’s feet and go back much further to document the incredible innovation in the industry prior to World War II and where it went wrong. The history is fascinating. The argument is provocative, and the problem remains timely. Wrecked is worth the read. Labor itself is found wanting as an explanation of the Big Three’s (Ford, GM, and Chrysler) dramatic slide in the late twentieth century. Labor costs accounted for just a quarter of the price advantage for Japanese vehicles during their rise in the 1980s. Most of it stemmed from the benefits of flexible or lean production. As perfected by Toyota, this includes flexible machinery, just-in-time delivery, and long-term supplier relationships based on trust. It also requires significant buy-in from workers. Together this fosters innovation by allowing for more trial and error experimentation—often with the involvement of production workers—and the introduction of new parts in a cost-effective manner. Notably, Murray and Schwartz show that U.S. producers were not averse to flexible production and indeed utilized it before Toyota, who drew from the U.S. model. GM’s Chevrolet pioneered the use of Book Reviews","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"48 1","pages":"498 - 500"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/07308884211000408","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44376202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-04DOI: 10.1177/07308884211000401
H. Ingersoll
debatable. The consequences of its abandonment are not. Dispersed parallel production led to an inflexible system that could only compete on labor costs and ensured deindustrialization. With so much sunk into this model, U.S. manufacturers resorted to half measures, like the GM-Toyota joint plant in California or Saturn in Tennessee. Yet these efforts occurred in the context of significant cuts and no trust was gained in the process. The results were devastating, particularly in the industrial heartland—something neither the Obama-era bailout nor Trump-era push for American manufacturing, however real, could reverse. As Murray and Schwartz demonstrate, flexible production is not sustainable when workers do not trust management. Lean and untrustworthy will not cut it.
{"title":"Groeger, C. V. (2021). The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston","authors":"H. Ingersoll","doi":"10.1177/07308884211000401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884211000401","url":null,"abstract":"debatable. The consequences of its abandonment are not. Dispersed parallel production led to an inflexible system that could only compete on labor costs and ensured deindustrialization. With so much sunk into this model, U.S. manufacturers resorted to half measures, like the GM-Toyota joint plant in California or Saturn in Tennessee. Yet these efforts occurred in the context of significant cuts and no trust was gained in the process. The results were devastating, particularly in the industrial heartland—something neither the Obama-era bailout nor Trump-era push for American manufacturing, however real, could reverse. As Murray and Schwartz demonstrate, flexible production is not sustainable when workers do not trust management. Lean and untrustworthy will not cut it.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"48 1","pages":"500 - 502"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/07308884211000401","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42145029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-20DOI: 10.1177/0730888421996787
Patrice M. Mareschal
ers in isolation from workers with more power and stable employment? An implication of the analysis is that precarious labor is better situated when workers organize more broadly. This could be wall-to-wall, employer-wide, industry-wide, or community-wide. The Sidhu story can be seen as a cautionary tale about organizing migrant workers only, and peeling off their interests as separate. The study leaves us with the pressing question: How can citizens and migrants organize together? If the union had succeeded in its original plan for a wall-to-wall bargaining unit, how might things have played out differently? Perhaps deportation can only be stopped when citizen-workers refuse to let their migrant co-workers be deported, with threats of job actions and strikes. The labor story here, as always, is one of solidarity.
{"title":"Osterman, P. (2017). Who Will Care for Us? Long-Term Care and the Long-Term Workforce","authors":"Patrice M. Mareschal","doi":"10.1177/0730888421996787","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888421996787","url":null,"abstract":"ers in isolation from workers with more power and stable employment? An implication of the analysis is that precarious labor is better situated when workers organize more broadly. This could be wall-to-wall, employer-wide, industry-wide, or community-wide. The Sidhu story can be seen as a cautionary tale about organizing migrant workers only, and peeling off their interests as separate. The study leaves us with the pressing question: How can citizens and migrants organize together? If the union had succeeded in its original plan for a wall-to-wall bargaining unit, how might things have played out differently? Perhaps deportation can only be stopped when citizen-workers refuse to let their migrant co-workers be deported, with threats of job actions and strikes. The labor story here, as always, is one of solidarity.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"48 1","pages":"388 - 390"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2021-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0730888421996787","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44935345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-18DOI: 10.1177/0730888421996788
Elizabeth Klainot-Hess
{"title":"Katz, S. (2019). Reformed American Dreams: Welfare Mothers, Higher Education, and Activism","authors":"Elizabeth Klainot-Hess","doi":"10.1177/0730888421996788","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888421996788","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"48 1","pages":"391 - 393"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2021-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0730888421996788","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44092612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-01DOI: 10.1177/0730888420979845
Yongren Shi
{"title":"Bian, Y. (2019). Guanxi: How China Works","authors":"Yongren Shi","doi":"10.1177/0730888420979845","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888420979845","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":"48 1","pages":"104 - 106"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0730888420979845","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46729213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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