Occupational Books

Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs

Paul Willis

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Labor & Industrial Relations
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Still The Best Ethnography in Sociology 5 out of 5 stars.
24 of 26 people found this review helpful.

I came to Dr. Willis's Learning To Labor as a Ph.D. student at York University, Toronto. I was profoundly moved both theoretically and personally. Willis gives us a theoretical way of articulating macro and micro perspectives which shows how the two arise in dialectical fashion, e.g. class determines the working class lives of the lads through the very choices of the lads themselves! It was, and still is, a brilliant insight and contribution in relation to ongoing discussions of structure/agency and the whole question of determinism. Dr. Willis's work also touched base with my own life. I grew up in a cotton mill town in South Carolina. The local school was closely tied to the local manufacturing plants and the surrounding working-class, both in the fields and the mills. I saw the life of the lads as nearly identical with the life of the white, working class kids that I went to school with. Most of my high school friends saw going to college as a "waste of time" and for "sissies". Real work required real men! Most ended up in the local cotton mills. Many of these young men had promising lives that could have been realized, but at those structural moments choices were made that reproduced the local working-class. I have since written my own ethnographic work (Native Americans in the Carolina Borderlands: A Critical Ethnography, Carolinas Press, 2000) and I have to say that Dr. Willis's work was always a big help and resource for thinking through the relationship between reproduction and resistance. A must read for anyone on the verge of ethnographic research and for the general reader as well.

Editorial Review:

-- George E. Marcus

Mindfulness and Meaningful Work: Explorations in Right Livelihood

List Price: $18.00 By: Parallax Press Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $0.46

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Makes a great gift for Christmas, birthdays or friendship 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This book inspired me! It presents a wide range of views on the subject of right livelihood, from traditional Buddhist thinking to essays from well-known non-Buddhist writers. I was especialy impressed by the inclusion of essays on Amish economics, Islamic banking, and the scientific study of mindfulness founded by psychologist Ellen Langer at Harvard. In addition, the author's closing essay did a great job of describing the practical steps you need to take to find "right livelihood." And, the book happens to have a beautiful cover, which makes it a pleasure to give as a gift.

mindless explorations 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 10 people found this review helpful.

like any compilation, there are a variety of theories that are good, not so good and poor. most of the contributions sound good, but have no practical value. it would be nice to have jobs which help us be mindful, skillful and fulfilled. but let's face it. most jobs are low paying and unfulfilling no matter what frame of mind one should place themselves in. it's all nice ideologies from well-known (and successful) zen authors. this book does not help you explore right livelihood as much as mocks your efforts to try. this book is akin to those get rich infomercials which state "if i can do it, you can too". get this from the library or don't get it at all. don't like my review? check out how many used copies are for sale. i rest my case.

Editorial Review:

Mindfulness and Meaningful Work is a classic, providing a wealth of resources for investigating the challenge of integrating work with spiritual practice. It contains thirty-seven contributions by some of the leading thinkers and activists of our time, helping us to find work that is meaningful, life-affirming, and non-exploitive.

Working Knowledge: Skill and Community in a Small Shop

Douglas Harper

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Editorial Review:

A number of years ago, Douglas Harper moved to northern New York to teach in a small college. Upon his arrival there his department chairman noted his eight-year-old Saab and said, "You'll be meeting Willie." Haper spent the next years establishing not only a working relationship but a friendship with Willie. In Working Knowledge, he introduces us to Willie, a mechanic and jack-of-all-trades. With this engaging and insightful profile—part biography, part ethnography, and part photo essay—Harper documents what Willie does and how he does it. Harper's dignified portrait captures a disappearing feature of modern life—the essential human factor in the world of work.

Work-Family Role Choices for Women in Their 20s and 30s: From College Plans to Life Experiences

Cherlyn Skromme Granrose, Eileen E. Kaplan

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Social Psychology & Interactions

Editorial Review:

This study follows over 200 women making employment and family choices during their first decade after college graduation. Based on interview responses, the authors organize the women into four life choice categories: Careerists, Homemakers, Breadwinners, and Nesters. Using models of adult change as well as extensive quotes and empirical analyses, the authors identify the facilitators and barriers for each alternative. Women relate the consequences of each choice for themselves, their spouses, and their children. While each group faced unique problems, in all groups, women were satisfied with career and family aspects of their choices if they followed their individual values, found supportive friends, coworkers and spouses, and if they worked in those rare challenging jobs in family-supportive organizations. The book explores the ways women, spouses, counselors, and employers can facilitate satisfying life choices and how to anticipate the questions each group faces in their next decade.

Working: Sociological Perspectives (2nd Edition)

Robert A. Rothman

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Editorial Review:

Employing all major sociological perspectives, this book analyzes the field of work from the perspective of both individual workers and the organizations that employ them. Provides the reader with an understanding of the dynamics of social relations in the workplace, and the social and economic forces that are reshaping work as we approach the 21st Century. Covering all major types of work—professional, managerial, clerical, technical, blue collar, service—this book discusses sources of satisfaction, causes of dissatisfaction, and the career as a process from hiring to retirement.

Royal Blue: The Culture of Construction Workers (Case studies in cultural anthropology)

Herbert A. Applebaum

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Architects and Firms : A Sociological Perspective on Architectural Practices

Judith R. Blau

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Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Architecture -> Criticism
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Architecture -> General

Editorial Review:

For this book, sociologist Judith Blau surveyed 152 Manhattan architectural firms over a five-year period, interviewing more than 400 architects. Architects and Firms, the result of her investigation, vividly depicts the contradictions inherent in architectural practice and challenges many assumptions about the design professional.

Judith Blau is Associate Professor of Sociology at SUNY Albany and Research Scholar at the Center for the Social Sciences at Columbia University.

Work and Integrity: The Crisis and Promise of Professionalism in America

William M. Sullivan

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The Social Production of Technical Work: The Case of British Engineers (Suny Series in the Sociology of Work)

Peter Whalley

List Price: $29.50 By: State Univ of New York Pr Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $4.69

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