Critical Study Of Work

Two broad developments reshaped work at the end of the twentieth century. The first was the implosion of the Soviet Union and the worldwide triumph of market capitalism. The second was the increasing use of computer-based production technologies and management command-and-control systems. How do we make sense of these important developments? The editors have assembled a collection of provocative, original essays on work and workplaces throughout the world that challenge the current celebration of globalization and new technologies. Building on labor process analysis, individual case studies venture beyond factory and office to examine "virtual" workplaces, computer-era cottage work, and emotional and household labor. The settings range from Indian and Irish software factories to Brazilian supermarkets, Los Angeles sweatshops, and Talwanese department stores. Other essays seek to make theoretical sense of increasingly de-centered production chains, fluid work relations, and uncertain employment. Individually and collectively the authors construct a new critical study of work, highlighting the connections between geography, technology, gender, race, and class.They offer an accessible and flexible approach to the study of workplace relations and production organization - and even the notion of work itself.

“"This volume presents innovative, comparative case studies of work and the politics of labor around the world. Moving the field of labor process studies onto new conceptual terrain, The Critical Study of Work should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand globalization and how it shapes and connects work experiences in offices, retail establishments, homes, and factories." -Vicki Smith, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Davis, and author of Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy"[A]n important contribution to the literature on labor, labor relations, labor process, labor value, globalization and technology and work." -Anthropology of Work Review”

"This volume presents innovative, comparative case studies of work and the politics of labor around the world. Moving the field of labor process studies onto new conceptual terrain, The Critical Study of Work should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand globalization and how it shapes and connects work experiences in offices, retail establishments, homes, and factories." --Vicki Smith, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Davis, and author of Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy "[A]n important contribution to the literature on labor, labor relations, labor process, labor value, globalization and technology and work." --Anthropology of Work Review

Rick Baldoz is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaii. Charles Koeber is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Wichita State University. Philip Kraft is Associate Professor of Sociology at SUNY Binghamton.

Essays that challenge the benefits of globalization and new technologies

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