Work

Much of our life involves working, preparing for work, searching for work, or thinking and worrying about work. Whether paid or unpaid, free or coerced, full-time, part-time, or zero-hours, work defines us and helps shape our behavior both on and off the job.
 
In this accessible book, leading labor economist Bruce Pietrykowski offers a highly engaging exploration of the history and contemporary organization of work under capitalism. His clear presentation of the theoretical debates is illustrated by real-world examples from across the globe and a skillful account of alternatives that point toward a post-capitalist future. Employing a progressive, worker-centered vision that goes beyond mainstream economics, he examines themes ranging from inequality, care work, and the gig economy to technological change and a universal basic income. His analysis emphasizes power, conflict, solidarity, and cooperation, interpreted through the lenses of class, race, gender, and place.
 
This comprehensive and highly readable book will be of interest to students of economics, sociology, labor studies, and politics seeking to learn more about work and workers in the global economy, as well as interested general readers.

List of contents

1: Introduction: The Unique Character of Work Work: A Political Economy Perspective
From Peasant Class to Working Class
The Unique Characteristics of Labor
Text box 1.1¿Are animals a part of the working class? Do fish resist?
Text box 1.2¿The interweaving of slavery and capitalism: cotton and seafood
Notes
2: Inequality at Work: Skills, Wages and Productivity
Income Inequality: The Rich and the Rest of Us
Critical Analysis: Human Capital Theory
Political Economy Critiques of Human Capital Theory
Text box 2.1¿Does my name make me less employable?
Notes
3: Gender at Work: Caring Labor
Identifying Care Work in the Economy
Who Performs Housework Around the Globe?
Bargaining and Power in the Household
Care Work: Paid and Unpaid, Inside and Outside the Home
Devaluation Thesis and Gender Bias
Care Work and Social, Emotional Skills
Household Labor and Social Reproduction: Past, Present and Future
Text box 3.1¿Emotional and aesthetic labor in the call center
Notes
4: Managerial Strategies: Low Road vs. High Road and Off-Road
Major Themes Defining Work Under Capitalism
Low-Road Workplace Strategies
From Low-Road to High-Road Strategies
Off-Road: The Rise of Precarious Work
Notes
5: Beyond Managerial Strategies: Worker Cooperatives
Origins of the Cooperative Movement
Worker Participation Versus Worker Control
Political Structure of the Workplace
Worker Control of the Firm Versus Worker Control of the Economy: Mondragon
Cooperative Work in Solidarity and Community Economies
Note
6: Technology, Automation and Skills: Restructuring the Workplace
The Technology Debate
Early Industrial Conflict Over Machine Production
Political Economy Approaches to Technological Change
Technology, Skills, Tasks and the Transformation of Work
Automation and Robots in the Workplace
Text box 6.1¿European Parliament Report on the Social and Economic Impact of Robots
Note
7: Conclusion: Future Worlds of Work
Notes
References
Index

About the author

Bruce Pietrykowski is Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan-Dearborn

Summary

Much of our life involves working, preparing for work, searching for work, or thinking and worrying about work. Whether paid or unpaid, free or coerced, full-time, part-time, or zero-hours, work defines us and helps shape our behavior both on and off the job.

In this accessible book, leading labor economist Bruce Pietrykowski offers a highly engaging exploration of the history and contemporary organization of work under capitalism. His clear presentation of the theoretical debates is illustrated by real-world examples from across the globe and a skillful account of alternatives that point toward a post-capitalist future. Employing a progressive, worker-centered vision that goes beyond mainstream economics, he examines themes ranging from inequality, care work, and the gig economy to technological change and a universal basic income. His analysis emphasizes power, conflict, solidarity, and cooperation, interpreted through the lenses of class, race, gender, and place.

This comprehensive and highly readable book will be of interest to students of economics, sociology, labor studies, and politics seeking to learn more about work and workers in the global economy, as well as interested general readers.

Report

"This bright, readable, and radical overview of labor economics points a smart finger at the work that goes on behind and beyond capitalist employment."
Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts
 
"This book provides a lucid and readable introduction to the political economy of work for students and non-economists. Drawing on Marxist, feminist, and Post-Keynesian schools of thought, and a wealth of historical examples, Pietrykowski provides a toolkit to break the intellectual fetters of mainstream economics. Starting with the question of what is special about labor, Pietrykowski's discussion covers labor-market inequality, work in the household, employer behavior, worker ownership, technological change, and much more."
Ian Greer, Cornell University
 
"Bruce Pietrykowski has written a sharp and nuanced critique of mainstream perspectives in labor economics that will broaden readers' understanding of what constitutes 'work' in the modern economy."
Journal of Labor and Society

Product details

• Authors: B Pietrykowski, Bruce Pietrykowski, Pietrykowski Bruce
• Publisher: Polity Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.03.2019
• EAN: 9781509530830
• ISBN: 978-1-5095-3083-0
• No. of pages: 180
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Economics; Soziologie, Volkswirtschaftslehre, Sociology, Politische Ökonomie, Economics, Ökonomische Soziologie, Sociology of Economics, Political Economics, Labor & Demographic Economics, Arbeits- u. Demographische Ökonomie