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Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do (Peregrine Bks.)
by Studs TerkelA Pulitzer Prize winner interviews workers, from policemen to piano tuners: &“Magnificent . . . To read it is to hear America talking.&” —The Boston Globe A National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestseller Studs Terkel&’s classic oral history Working is a compelling look at jobs and the people who do them. Consisting of over one hundred interviews with everyone from a gravedigger to a studio head, this book provides a &“brilliant&” and enduring portrait of people&’s feelings about their working lives. This edition includes a new foreword by New York Times journalist Adam Cohen (Forbes). &“Splendid . . . Important . . . Rich and fascinating . . . The people we meet are not digits in a poll but real people with real names who share their anecdotes, adventures, and aspirations with us.&” —Business Week &“The talk in Working is good talk—earthy, passionate, honest, sometimes tender, sometimes crisp, juicy as reality, seasoned with experience.&” —The Washington Post
Working Bodies
by Valorie A Crooks Sharon-Dale StoneWhile significant research has been produced in the field of disability studies, little attention has been paid to experiences of chronic illness. Working Bodies emphasizes the workplace as an important site for understanding such experiences, as employment status has an enormous impact on social and economic standing in Canadian society. The essays in this collection examine the perspectives of both workers and employers, painting a disturbing picture of the challenges that people with chronic illness face in an already demanding labour market. The focus on the Canadian workplace allows for an in-depth understanding of this context and for meaningful comparisons between populations and across workplace environments. Contributors include scholars and practitioners in disability studies, health sciences, geography, occupational therapy, sociology, and labour relations, their expert knowledge ranging from the imperatives of employers, to lived experiences of chronic illness, to the application of workplace policy. By combining research-based chapters with personal reflections on work and chronic illness, Working Bodies grounds itself in existing scholarship while opening up new avenues of discussion. Contributors include Terri Aversa, Andrea Black, Keri Cameron (McMaster University), Nicolette Carlan (University of Waterloo), Vera Chouinard (McMaster University), Valorie A, Crooks (Simon Fraser University), Julie Devaney, Le-Ann Dolan, Adam Gilgoff, Nancy Hutchinson (Queen's University), Vicki Kristman (Lakehead University), Terry Krupa (Queen's University), Rosemary Lysaght (Queen's University), Margaret Oldfield (University of Toronto), Michelle Owen (University of Winnipeg), Melissa Popiel, Wendy Porch, William S. Shaw (University of Massachusetts), Corinne Stevens, Iffath Syed (York University), Joan Versnel (Dalhousie University), and Kelly Williams-Whitt (University of Lethbridge).
Working Bodies: Chronic Illness in the Canadian Workplace
by Sharon-Dale Stone Valorie A. CrooksWhile significant research has been produced in the field of disability studies, little attention has been paid to experiences of chronic illness. Working Bodies emphasizes the workplace as an important site for understanding such experiences, as employment status has an enormous impact on social and economic standing in Canadian society. The essays in this collection examine the perspectives of both workers and employers, painting a disturbing picture of the challenges that people with chronic illness face in an already demanding labour market. The focus on the Canadian workplace allows for an in-depth understanding of this context and for meaningful comparisons between populations and across workplace environments. Contributors include scholars and practitioners in disability studies, health sciences, geography, occupational therapy, sociology, and labour relations, their expert knowledge ranging from the imperatives of employers, to lived experiences of chronic illness, to the application of workplace policy. By combining research-based chapters with personal reflections on work and chronic illness, Working Bodies grounds itself in existing scholarship while opening up new avenues of discussion. Contributors include Terri Aversa, Andrea Black, Keri Cameron (McMaster University), Nicolette Carlan (University of Waterloo), Vera Chouinard (McMaster University), Valorie A, Crooks (Simon Fraser University), Julie Devaney, Le-Ann Dolan, Adam Gilgoff, Nancy Hutchinson (Queen's University), Vicki Kristman (Lakehead University), Terry Krupa (Queen's University), Rosemary Lysaght (Queen's University), Margaret Oldfield (University of Toronto), Michelle Owen (University of Winnipeg), Melissa Popiel, Wendy Porch, William S. Shaw (University of Massachusetts), Corinne Stevens, Iffath Syed (York University), Joan Versnel (Dalhousie University), and Kelly Williams-Whitt (University of Lethbridge).
Working Capital: Life and Labour in Contemporary London
by Peter Hall Michael Harloe Ian Gordon Nick Buck Mark KleinmanFor decades the cities of the developed world were seen as problem-beset relics from times of low mobility and slow communications. But now, their potential to sustain creativity, culture and innovation is perceived as crucial to success in a much more competitive global ecomony. The vital requirement to secure and sustain this success is argued to be the achievement of social cohesion.Working Capital provides a rigorous but accessible analysis of these key issues taking London as its test case. The book provides the first substantial analysis of key economic, social and structural issues that the new London administration needs to deal with. In a wider context, its critical assessment of the bases of the new urbanism and of the global city thesis will raise questions both about the adequacy of urban thinking and about the capacity of new institutions alone to resolve the fundamental problems faced by cities.
The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning: The Fraud of Education Reform Under Capitalism
by Jack Barnes"Schools under capitalism are not institutions of learning but of social control, aimed at reproducing the class relations and privileges of the prevailing order," Jack Barnes explains. "Until society is reorganized so that education is a human activity from the time we are very young until the time we die, there will be no education worthy of working, creating humanity. That is the historical truth".
Working-Class Formation: Ninteenth-Century Patterns in Western Europe and the United States
by Ira Katznelson & Aristide R. ZolbergApplying an original theoretical framework, an international group of historians and social scientists here explores how class, rather than other social bonds, became central to the ideologies, dispositions, and actions of working people, and how this process was translated into diverse institutional legacies and political outcomes. Focusing principally on France. Germany, and the United States, the contributors examine the historically contingent connections between class, as objectively structured and experienced, and collective perceptions and responses as they develop in work, community, and politics. Following Ira Katznelson's introduction of the analytical concepts, William H. Sewell, Jr., Michelle Perrot, and Alain Cottereau discuss France; Amy Bridges and Martin Shefter, the United States; and Jargen Kocka and Mary Nolan, Germany. The conclusion by Aristide R. Zolberg comments on working-class formation up to World War I, including developments in Great Britain, and challenges conventional wisdom about class and politics in the industrializing West.
Working Class Formation in Turkey, 1946-1962: Work, Culture, and the Politics of the Everyday (New Directions in Turkish Studies #1)
by Barış Alp ÖzdenThe political identities of the Turkish working class began a transformative journey that started during a period of industrialization following World War II and continued until the military interventions of 1960. Working Class Formation in Turkey addresses common, structural generalizations to recover the complex history of developing political, recreational, familial, residential, and work-related lives of Turkish workers. Drawing on a wide range of historical sources, this volume brings the concept of “everydayness” to the fore and uncovers the local contexts that fostered class solidarity, examines labor practices that fueled radicalism, and analyzes the shifting dynamics of industrial discipline that impacted working class identity and culture.
The Working Class from Marx to Our Times (Marx, Engels, and Marxisms)
by Marcelo Badaró MattosThis book reviews Marx's contributions to the debate on the working class. The first part of the work presents the synthesis of the main contributions of Marx and Engels (and 20th century Marxist writers) to the understanding of social classes, the class struggle, and the working class. The remaining parts present exercises of dialogue between Marx's and Marxists’ discussions on the working class, presented in the first part, and empirical elements of class reality today, as well as debates in the social sciences and historiography on the same issues. The thesis defended in the book is simple: the "working class,” also called the "proletariat,” as it appears in the work of Karl Marx, had and has validity as an analytical category for the understanding of social life under capitalism. Nevertheless, Marx’s discussion on the issue is complex and the category “working class” in his approach is wider than many Marxists have presented it.
Working-Class Heroes: A History of Struggle in Song: A Songbook
by Mat CallahanWorking-Class Heroes is an organic melding of history, music, and politics that demonstrates with colorful evidence that workers everywhere will struggle to improve their conditions of life. And among them will be workers who share an insight: in order to better our lot, we must act collectively to change the world. This profusely illustrated treasury of song sheets, lyrics, photographs, histories, and biographical sketches explores the notion that our best hope lies in the capacity of ordinary working people to emancipate ourselves and all of humanity. Featuring more than a dozen songwriters, from Joe Hill to Aunt Molly Jackson, Working-Class Heroes delivers a lyrical deathblow to the myth that so-called political songs of the 20th century were being written by intellectuals in New York. The songs collected here have a striking relevance to current affairs and invite us to explore the historical conditions that inspired their creation: systemic crisis, advancing fascism, and the threat of world war. These working-class songwriters showed courage and heroism that is immortal, and such heroes and their work should be celebrated still today. The heroes featured in this collection include Sarah Ogan Gunning, Ralph Chaplin, Woody Guthrie, Ella May Wiggins, Joe Hill, Paul Robeson, John Handcox, Aunt Molly Jackson, Jim Garland, Alfred Hayes, and Joseph Brandon.
Working Class History: Everyday Acts of Resistance & Rebellion
by Working Class HistoryHistory is not made by kings, politicians, or a few rich individuals—it is made by all of us. From the temples of ancient Egypt to spacecraft orbiting Earth, workers and ordinary people everywhere have walked out, sat down, risen up, and fought back against exploitation, discrimination, colonization, and oppression. Working Class History presents a distinct selection of people's history through hundreds of "on this day in history" anniversaries that are as diverse and international as the working class itself. Women, young people, people of color, workers, migrants, indigenous people, LGBTQ people, disabled people, older people, the unemployed, home workers, and every other part of the working class have organized and taken action that has shaped our world, and improvements in living and working conditions have been won only by years of violent conflict and sacrifice. These everyday acts of resistance and rebellion highlight just some of those who have struggled for a better world and provide lessons and inspiration for those of us fighting in the present. Going day by day, this book paints a picture of how and why the world came to be as it is, how some have tried to change it, and the lengths to which the rich and powerful have gone to maintain and increase their wealth and influence.
The Working Class in Weimar Germany: A Psychological and Sociological Study
by Erich Fromm&“The analysis unveils a sociotypology of [the working class] on the eve of the Third Reich, its potential for resistance as well as seduction.&” —Political Psychology Building upon Fromm&’s 1929 lecture &“The Application of Psycho-Analysis to Sociology and Religious Knowledge,&” in which he outlined the basis for a rudimentary but far-reaching attempt at the integration of Freudian psychology with Marxist social theory, this study is an attempt to obtain evidence about the systemic connections between &“psychic make-up&” and social development. Originally an investigation of the social and psychological attitudes of two large groups in Weimar Germany, manual and white-collar workers, a questionnaire was developed to collect data about their opinions, lifestyles, and attitudes—from what books they read and their thoughts on women&’s work to their opinions about the German legal system and the actual distribution of power in the state.The Working Class in Weimar Germany can ultimately help us understand the establishment of fascism after 1933—that despite all the electoral successes of the Weimar Left, its members were not in the position, owning to their character structure, to prevent the victory of National Socialism.
Working Class Inclusion: Evaluations Of Democratic Institutions In Latin America
by Tiffany D. Barnes Yann P. Kerevel Gregory W. Saxton
The Working Class Majority
by Michael ZweigIn this memoir of the Hudson River and of her family, Susan Fox Rogers writes from a fresh perspective: the seat of her kayak. Low in the water, she explores the bays and the larger estuary, riding the tides, marveling over sturgeons and eels, eagles and herons, and spotting the remains of the ice and cement industries. After years of dipping her paddle into the waters off the village of Tivoli, she came to know the rocks and tree limbs, currents and eddies, mansions and islands so well that she claimed that section of the river as her own: her reach. Woven into Rogers's intimate exploration of the river is the story of her life as a woman in the outdoors¿rock climbing and hiking as well as kayaking. Rogers writes of the Hudson River with skill and vivacity. Her strong sense of place informs her engagement with a waterway that lured the early Dutch settlers, entranced nineteenth-century painters, and has been marked by decades of pollution. The river and the communities along its banks become partners in Rogers's life and vivid characters in her memoir. Her travels on the river range from short excursions to the Saugerties Lighthouse to a days-long journey from Tivoli to Tarrytown and a circumnavigation of Manhattan Island, while in memory she ventures as far as the Indiana Dunes and the French Pyrenees. In a fluid, engaging voice, My Reach mixes the genres of memoir, outdoor adventure, natural and unnatural history. Rogers's interest in the flora and fauna of the river is as keen as her insight into the people who live and travel along the waterway. She integrates moments of description and environmental context with her own process of grieving the recent deaths of both parents. The result is a book that not only moves the reader but also informs and entertains.
The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism
by Henry OlsenIn this sure to be controversial book in the vein of The Forgotten Man, a political analyst argues that conservative icon Ronald Reagan was not an enemy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal, but his true heir and the popular program’s ultimate savior.Conventional political wisdom views the two most consequential presidents of the twentieth-century—FDR and Ronald Reagan—as ideological opposites. FDR is hailed as the champion of big-government progressivism manifested in the New Deal. Reagan is seen as the crusader for conservatism dedicated to small government and free markets. But Henry Olsen argues that this assumption is wrong.In Ronald Reagan: New Deal Republican, Olsen contends that the historical record clearly shows that Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal itself were more conservative than either Democrats or Republicans believe, and that Ronald Reagan was more progressive than most contemporary Republicans understand. Olsen cuts through political mythology to set the record straight, revealing how Reagan—a longtime Democrat until FDR’s successors lost his vision in the 1960s—saw himself as FDR’s natural heir, carrying forward the basic promises of the New Deal: that every American deserves comfort, dignity, and respect provided they work to the best of their ability. Olsen corrects faulty assumptions driving today’s politics. Conservative Republican political victories over the last thirty years have not been a rejection of the New Deal’s promises, he demonstrates, but rather a representation of the electorate’s desire for their success—which Americans see as fulfilling the vision of the nation’s founding. For the good of all citizens and the GOP, he implores Republicans to once again become a party of "FDR Conservatives"—to rediscover and support the basic elements of FDR (and Reagan’s) vision.
Working-Class Utopias: A History of Cooperative Housing in New York City
by Robert M. FogelsonOne of the nation’s foremost urban historians traces the history of cooperative housing in New York City from the 1920s through the 1970sAs World War II ended and Americans turned their attention to problems at home, union leaders and other prominent New Yorkers came to believe that cooperative housing would solve the city’s century-old problem of providing decent housing at a reasonable cost for working-class families. Working-Class Utopias tells the story of this ambitious movement from the construction of the Amalgamated Houses after World War I to the building of Co-op City, the world’s largest housing cooperative, four decades later.Robert Fogelson brings to life a tumultuous era in the life of New York, drawing on a wealth of archival materials such as community newspapers, legal records, and personal and institutional papers. In the early 1950s, a consortium of labor unions founded the United Housing Foundation under the visionary leadership of Abraham E. Kazan, who was supported by Nelson A. Rockefeller, Robert F. Wagner Jr., and Robert Moses. With the help of the state, which provided below-market-rate mortgages, and the city, which granted tax abatements, Kazan’s group built large-scale cooperatives in every borough except Staten Island. Then came Co-op City, built in the Bronx in the 1960s as a model for other cities but plagued by unforeseen fiscal problems, culminating in the longest and costliest rent strike in American history. Co-op City survived, but the United Housing Foundation did not, and neither did the cooperative housing movement.Working-Class Utopias is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the housing problem that continues to plague New York and cities across the nation.
The Working Classes and Higher Education: Inequality of Access, Opportunity and Outcome (Routledge Research in Higher Education #20)
by Amy E. Stich Carrie FreieWithin the broader context of the global knowledge economy, wherein the "college-for-all" discourse grows more and more pervasive and systems of higher education become increasingly stratified by social class, important and timely questions emerge regarding the future social location and mobility of the working classes. Though the working classes look very different from the working classes of previous generations, the weight of a universal working-class identity/background amounts to much of the same economic vulnerability and negative cultural stereotypes, all of which continue to present obstacles for new generations of working-class youth, many of whom pursue higher education as a necessity rather than a "choice." Using a sociological lens, contributors examine the complicated relationship between the working classes and higher education through students’ distinct experiences, challenges, and triumphs during three moments on a transitional continuum: the transition from secondary to higher education; experiences within higher education; and the transition from higher education to the workforce. In doing so, this volume challenges the popular notion of higher education as a means to equality of opportunity and social mobility for working-class students.
Working Conditions in a Marketised University System: Generation Precarity
by Krista Bonello Lena WånggrenThis book provides an in-depth qualitative report on casualised academic staff in the UK, mapping shared experiences and strategies for resistance. Bringing together testimonial data spanning five years, it offers evidence of how precarious labour conditions have persisted, shifted and intensified. The book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars in the fields of education, human resources management, labour studies and sociology, as well as trade unionists and university policymakers.
Working Congress: A Guide for Senators, Representatives, and Citizens (Media and Public Affairs)
by Robert MannIn 1964, as the polarizing Civil Rights Act made its way through the House and Senate, and Congress navigated one of the most tumultuous eras in American history, a Harris Poll put the institution's approval rating at 60 percent. Why then, fifty years later, has the public's approval of Congress eroded to an all-time low of 10 percent? Working Congress: A Guide for Senators, Representatives, and Citizens seeks to isolate the reasons for Congress's staggering decline in public opinion, and to propose remedies to reverse the grave dysfunction in America's most important political institution.Aided by the input of retired members of Congress from both major parties, editor Robert Mann and his fellow contributors identify paralyzing partisan rancor as perhaps the most significant reason for the American public's declining support of its main representative body. The lack of mutual trust within Congress reflects (and creates) the suspicion and animosity of the great majority of Americans. Working Congress argues that members of Congress must find a path to cooperation if they are to function as the representative institution the Founders intended.Trenchant chapters by Mickey Edwards, Ross K. Baker, Frances E. Lee, Brian L. Fife, Susan Herbst, and Mark Kennedy analyze the problems and challenges facing Congress and suggest solutions to counteract partisan gridlock. Though these scholars and former members share a conviction that men and women of good will can and should work together, they do not assume that their solutions will herald a bipartisan utopia. Instead, they recognize that Congress is, and will always be, a work in progress.
Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy
by Joshua Bloom Ruth Milkman Victor NarroWorking for Justice, which includes eleven case studies of recent low-wage worker organizing campaigns in Los Angeles, makes the case for a distinctive "L. A. Model" of union and worker center organizing. Networks linking advocates in worker centers and labor unions facilitate mutual learning and synergy and have generated a shared repertoire of economic justice strategies. The organized labor movement in Los Angeles has weathered the effects of deindustrialization and deregulation better than unions in other parts of the United States, and this has helped to anchor the city's wider low-wage worker movement. Los Angeles is also home to the nation's highest concentration of undocumented immigrants, making it especially fertile territory for low-wage worker organizing. The case studies in Working for Justice are all based on original field research on organizing campaigns among L. A. day laborers, garment workers, car wash workers, security officers, janitors, taxi drivers, hotel workers as well as the efforts of ethnically focused worker centers and immigrant rights organizations. The authors interviewed key organizers, gained access to primary documents, and conducted participant observation. Working for Justice is a valuable resource for sociologists and other scholars in the interdisciplinary field of labor studies, as well as for advocates and policymakers.
Working for Respect: Community and Conflict at Walmart (The Middle Range Series)
by Adam Reich Peter BearmanWalmart is the largest employer in the world. It encompasses nearly 1 percent of the entire American workforce—young adults, parents, formerly incarcerated people, retirees. Walmart also presents one possible future of work—Walmartism—in which the arbitrary authority of managers mixes with a hyperrationalized, centrally controlled bureaucracy in ways that curtail workers’ ability to control their working conditions and their lives.In Working for Respect, Adam Reich and Peter Bearman examine how workers make sense of their jobs at places like Walmart in order to consider the nature of contemporary low-wage work, as well as the obstacles and opportunities such workplaces present as sites of struggle for social and economic justice. They describe the life experiences that lead workers to Walmart and analyze the dynamics of the shop floor. As a part of the project, Reich and Bearman matched student activists with a nascent association of current and former Walmart associates: the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart). They follow the efforts of this new partnership, considering the formation of collective identity and the relationship between social ties and social change. They show why traditional unions have been unable to organize service-sector workers in places like Walmart and offer provocative suggestions for new strategies and directions. Drawing on a wide array of methods, including participant-observation, oral history, big data, and the analysis of social networks, Working for Respect is a sophisticated reconsideration of the modern workplace that makes important contributions to debates on labor and inequality and the centrality of the experience of work in a fair economy.
Working for the State
by Susan Corby Graham SymonThis book examines the impact of public sector reforms and reorganisations on the experiences of the UK public sector's six million workers and those employed in the private sector but providing public services. Chapters bring long-standing topics up-to-date, such as worker representation and reward.
Working, Housing: Urbanizing
by Jennifer Robinson Allen J. Scott Peter J. TaylorThis book presents an incisive outline of the historical development and geography of cities. It focuses on three themes that constitute essential foundations for any understanding of urban form and function. These are: (a) the shifting patterns of urbanization through historical time, (b) the role of cities as centers of production and work in a globalizing world, and (c) the diverse housing and shelter needs of urban populations. The book also explores a number of critical urban problems and the political challenges that they pose. Empirical evidence from urban situations on all five continents is brought into play throughout the discussion.
Working in Adversarial Relationships
by Aryanne OadeA highly practical and insightful book; it will help you to perform more effectively in a workplace which requires you to function effectively in predominantly adversarial relationships. Whether you work for a small, medium or large organization this book will enable you to get things done effectively in prevailingly oppositional relationships.
Working in China: Ethnographies of Labor and Workplace Transformation (Asia's Transformations)
by Ching Kwan LeeAfter a quarter of a century of market reform, China has become the workshop of the world and the leading growth engine of the global economy. Its immense labour force accounts for some twenty-nine per cent of the world's total labour pool but all too little is known about Chinese labour beyond the image of workers toiling under appalling sweatshop conditions for extremely low wages. Working in China introduces the lived experiences of labour in a wide range of occupations and work settings. The chapters of this book cover professional employees such as engineers and lawyers, service workers such as bar hostesses, domestic maids and hotel workers, and industrial workers in a variety of factories. The mosaic of human faces, organizational dynamics and workers' voices presented in the book reflect the complexity of changes and challenges taking place in the Chinese workplace today. Based on extraordinary and thorough field research, this book will have a wide readership at undergraduate level and beyond, appealing to students and scholars from a myriad of disciplines including Chinese studies, labour studies, sociology and political economy.
Working in Hollywood: How the Studio System Turned Creativity into Labor
by Ronny RegevA history of the Hollywood film industry as a modern system of labor, this book reveals an important untold story of an influential twentieth-century workplace. Ronny Regev argues that the Hollywood studio system institutionalized creative labor by systemizing and standardizing the work of actors, directors, writers, and cinematographers, meshing artistic sensibilities with the efficiency-minded rationale of industrial capitalism. The employees of the studios emerged as a new class: they were wage laborers with enormous salaries, artists subjected to budgets and supervision, stars bound by contracts. As such, these workers--people like Clark Gable, Katharine Hepburn, and Anita Loos--were the outliers in the American workforce, an extraordinary working class. Through extensive use of oral histories, personal correspondence, studio archives, and the papers of leading Hollywood luminaries as well as their less-known contemporaries, Regev demonstrates that, as part of their contribution to popular culture, Hollywood studios such as Paramount, Warner Bros., and MGM cultivated a new form of labor, one that made work seem like fantasy.