Overview

The authors are proud sponsors of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop. Changing Contours of Work is an exploration of the American workplace in the larger context of an integrated global economy. Presented with engaging vignettes and rich data, this Fourth Edition shows the reader how the ""old economy"" is now operating within the ""new economy"" and how that integration shapes the development of work opportunities. Authors Stephen Sweet and Peter Meiksins use an international comparative perspective, revealing the historical transformations of work and identifying the profound effects that these changes have had on lives, jobs, and life chances. This text supports the reader′s understanding of the origins of current problems confronting working people in the new economy, and contributes to a much-needed dialogue about the strategies for liberating workers from poverty, drudgery, discrimination, stress, and exploitation.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stephen A. Sweet ,  Peter F. Meiksins
Publisher:   SAGE Publications Inc
Imprint:   SAGE Publications Inc
Edition:   4th Revised edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.80cm
Weight:   0.450kg
ISBN:  

9781544305691

ISBN 10:   1544305699
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   14 November 2020
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

List of Exhibits About the Authors Preface to the Fourth Edition Acknowledgments 1. Mapping the Contours of Work Scenes From the New Economy Culture and Work Structure and Work Class Structures Job Markets and Job Demands Demography and the New Labor Force Agency and Careers Conclusion 2. New Products, New Ways of Working, and the New Economy A Postindustrial Society? The End of Mass Production? New Skills? Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace High-Tech Work New Cultures of Control? Technological Change and a Jobless Future? Rigid Jobs or Flexible Jobs? The End of Organized Labor? A New Global Economy? Conclusion 3. Economic Inequality, Social Mobility, and the New Economy Are Economic Divides Narrowing or Widening in the United States? Are Career Pathways Opening or Closing? Missing Rungs in the Ladder Entry Points: Securing the Good Job in Young Adulthood Exclusion Owing to Criminal Conviction Is the Global Economy Becoming More Flat or Bumpy? Conclusion 4. Whose Jobs Are Secure? Risk and Work: Historical and Comparative Views How Insecure Are Workers in the New Economy? The Costs of Job Loss and Insecurity Old and New Careers Risk, Well-Being and Retirement The Dawn of the Gig Economy Conclusion 5. A Fair Day’s Work? The Intensity and Scheduling of Jobs in the New Economy Time, Intensity, and Work How Much Should We Work? Comparative Frameworks Why Are Americans Working So Much? Nonstandard Schedules: Jobs in a 24/7 Economy How Americans Deal With Overwork Conclusion 6. Gender Chasms in the New Economy When Did Home Work Become Nonwork? Women’s Participation in the Paid Labor Force in America Gender Inequalities in Compensation Socialization, Career Selection, and Career Paths Interpersonal Discrimination in the Workplace Structural Dimensions of Gender Discrimination The Devaluation of “Women’s Work” How Job Designs Discriminate Strategies to Bridge the Care Gaps: International Comparisons Conclusion 7. Race, Ethnicity, and Work: Legacies of the Past, Problems in the Present Histories of Race, Ethnicity, and Work African American Exceptionality The Immigrant Experience Magnitude of Racial Inequality in the New Economy Intergenerational Transmission of Resources Race, Ethnicity, and Economic Capital Race, Ethnicity, and Human Capital Race, Ethnicity, and Social Capital Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Capital Geographic Distribution of Race and Work Opportunity Racial Prejudice and Discrimination Racialized Jobs Race, Ethnicity, and Work: Social Policy Organizational Strategies Affirmative Action Immigration Policy Conclusion 8. Reshaping the Contours of the New Economy Opportunity Chasms Class Chasms Gender Chasms Racial and Ethnic Chasms International Chasms Agents of Change Individuals Activist, Advocacy, and Interest Groups Unions and Organized Labor Employers Government International Organizations and International Controls Conclusion Appendix: Legislative and Regulatory Time Line of Worker Rights and Protections in the United States References Index

Reviews

We adopted it as a department because it had the best overall coverage of contemporary issues explored by our major, was reasonably priced, and was quite readable. --Paula B. Voos Review This insightful book offers a clear, concise, and comprehensive introduction to the history, present, and future of work in the U.S. I appreciate the accompanying graphs and charts, as well as it's engagement with race, class, and gender. The comparisons, both to work conditions in European nations and the global South, are important and eye-opening for my students. --Hinda Seif Review A thorough book, which is one of the best fits for this current course. I believe this book is well organized. I often get positive feedback on my course surveys referring to the text. --John Castella Review

A thorough book, which is one of the best fits for this current course. I believe this book is well organized. I often get positive feedback on my course surveys referring to the text. --John Castella This insightful book offers a clear, concise, and comprehensive introduction to the history, present, and future of work in the U.S. I appreciate the accompanying graphs and charts, as well as it's engagement with race, class, and gender. The comparisons, both to work conditions in European nations and the global South, are important and eye-opening for my students. --Hinda Seif We adopted it as a department because it had the best overall coverage of contemporary issues explored by our major, was reasonably priced, and was quite readable. --Paula B. Voos

Author Information

Stephen Sweet is Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology at Ithaca College and formerly the associate director of the Cornell Careers Institute, a Sloan Center for the Study of Working Families. He has written a number of articles on the challenges confronting working families, focusing on the issues of concern to dual career couples across the life course. His studies have appeared in a variety of publications, including the New Directions in Life Course Research, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Innovative Higher Education, The International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Journal of College Student Development, and Community, Work, and Family. Stephen’s other book with SAGE is The Work-Family Interface. He has also published The Handbook of Work and Family with co-authors Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes and Ellen Ernst Kossek;  Managing Careers in the New Risk Economy, with co-investigator Phyllis Moen; College and Society: An Introduction to the Sociological Imagination, and Data Analysis with SPSS: A First Course in Applied Statistics. Stephen has been the recipient of a Sloan Officers Grant to study the effects of corporate downsizing on dual earner couples. Peter Meiksins is a Professor of Sociology at Cleveland State University. He is the author of many articles on the sociology of work, including studies of the work experiences of engineers and part-time work in professional technical occupations and essays on labor process theory, professional work in comparative perspective, and contemporary labor relations. His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Work and Occupations, Theory and Society, Economic and Industrial Democracy, Work, Employment and Society, and Sociological Quarterly. He is the author of Putting Work in Its Place: A Quiet Revolution (with Peter Whalley) and of Engineering Labour: Technical Workers in Comparative Perspective (with Chris Smith). Peter’s other books are Rethinking the Labor Process (with Mark Wardell and Tom Steiger) and Rising From the Ashes: Labor in the Age of Global Capitalism (with Ellen Wood and Michael Yates). He and co-investigator Peter Whalley received a major grant from the Sloan Foundation to study “Flexible Work for Technical Professionals.” Peter’s current research concerns the sociology of design work (a study of the work of graphic designers, industrial designers and interior designers). This research has been supported by a Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline grant from the American Sociological Foundation.

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