Changing Contours of Work: Jobs and Opportunities in the New Economy / Edition 3

by Stephen A. Sweet, Peter F. Meiksins

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781483358253
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/22/2016
Series:	Sociology for a New Century Series
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

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.

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

Editorial Reviews

With a captivating dose of realism and critical inquiry, the authors have done an excellent job of introducing some of the most troubling labour market issues of our time. It is an excellent source for upper level undergraduate students and those trying to make sense of recent transformations in the world of work and beyond.

Employment and Society Work

Changing Contours of Work is an engaging text that is of significant value in courses on the sociology of work.

Journal of Family Theory & Review

Changing Contours of Work: Jobs and Opportunities in the New Economy provides numerous insights into the new world of work and is a prolific source of material for class discussion, further research, and written assignments.

Teaching Sociology

Changing Contours of Work inspires students to acquire a sociological imagination in the way they view the labor force, understanding the way that personal troubles with income or employment are linked to public issues.

Changing Contours of Work provides a thorough overview of the structure of the new economy and the way opportunities and rewards are unequally divided across the lines of class, gender, and race.Perhaps one of the greatest attributes of the book,however, is the ease by which Sweet and Meiksins integrate classical sociology with contemporary studies of stratification in a way that is extremely accessible to undergraduate students.”

William J. Scarboroughn Sociological Association

Changing Contours of Work inspires students to acquire a sociological imagination in the way they view the labor force, understanding the way that personal troubles with income or employment are linked to public issues.

Changing Contours of Work provides a thorough overview of the structure of the new economy and the way opportunities and rewards are unequally divided across the lines of class, gender, and race.Perhaps one of the greatest attributes of the book,however, is the ease by which Sweet and Meiksins integrate classical sociology with contemporary studies of stratification in a way that is extremely accessible to undergraduate students.”

American Sociological Association - William J. Scarborough

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

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

Placing notions of job fragility and risk at its core, the book speaks to this particular moment in history. With a captivating dose of realism and critical inquiry, the authors have done an excellent job of introducing some of the most troubling labour market issues of our time. It is an excellent source for upper level undergraduate students and those trying to make sense of recent transformations in the world of work and beyond.

Maria-Carmen Pantea