The Routledge Handbook of the Anthropology of Labor

The Routledge Handbook of the Anthropology of Labor
Author: Sharryn Kasmir
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 592
Release: 2022-06-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000571696

The Routledge Handbook of the Anthropology of Labor offers a cross-cultural examination of labor around the world and presents the breadth of a growing and vital subfield of anthropology. As we enter a new crisis-ridden age, some laboring people are protected, while others face impoverishment and death, as they work in unsafe conditions, migrate to gain livelihoods, languish in the unwaged sector, and become targets of law enforcement. The contributions to this volume address questions surrounding the categorization and visibility of work, the relationship of labor to the state, and how divisions of labor map onto racial, gendered, sexual, and national inequalities. In addition to the emotional dimensions and subjectivities of labor, the book also examines how laborers can articulate common experiences and identities, build organizational forms, and claim power together. Bringing together the work of an impressive group of international scholars, this Handbook is essential for anthropologists with an interest in labor and political economy, as well as useful for scholars and students in related fields such as sociology and geography.

The Scope of Anthropology

The Scope of Anthropology
Author: Laurent Dousset
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2012
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0857453319

Some of the most prominent social and cultural anthropologists have come together in this volume to discuss Maurice Godelier's work. They explore and revisit some of the highly complex practices and structures social scientists encounter in their fieldwork. From the nature-culture debate to the fabrication of hereditary political systems, from transforming gender relations to the problems of the Christianization of indigenous peoples, these chapters demonstrate both the diversity of anthropological topics and the opportunity for constructive dialogue around shared methodological and theoretical models.

The Anthropology of Labor Unions

The Anthropology of Labor Unions
Author: E. Paul Durrenberger
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2012-05-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1607320436

The Anthropology of Labor Unions presents ethnographic data and analysis in eight case studies from several very diverse industries. It covers a wide range of topics, from the role of women and community in strikes to the importance of place in organization, and addresses global concerns with studies from Mexico and Malawu. Union-organized workplaces consistently afford workers higher wages and better pensions, benefits, and health coverage than their nonunion counterparts. In addition, women and minorities who belong to unions are more likely to receive higher wages and benefits than their nonunion peers. Given the economic advantages of union membership, one might expect to see higher rates of organization across industries, but labor affiliation is at an all-time low. What accounts for this discrepancy? The contributors in this volume provide a variety of perspectives on this paradox, including discussions of approaches to and findings on the histories, cultures, and practices of organized labor. They also address substantive issues such as race, class, gender, age, generation, ethnicity, health and safety concerns, corporate co-optation of unions, and the cultural context of union-management relationships. The first to bring together anthropological case studies of labor unions, this volume will appeal to cultural anthropologists, social scientists, sociologists, and those interested in labor studies and labor movements.

Anthropology Put to Work

Anthropology Put to Work
Author: Les Field
Publisher: Berg
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2007-06-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1845206010

While some anthropologists have called for a new 'public' or 'engaged' anthropology, profound changes have already occurred, leading to new kinds of work for many anthropologists. The papers in this volume show that anthropology is put to work in diverse ways today.

From Anthropology to Social Theory

From Anthropology to Social Theory
Author: Arpad Szakolczai
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2019-01-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1108540171

Presenting a ground-breaking revitalization of contemporary social theory, this book revisits the rise of the modern world to reopen the dialogue between anthropology and sociology. Using concepts developed by a series of 'maverick' anthropologists who were systematically marginalised as their ideas fell outside the standard academic canon, such as Arnold van Gennep, Marcel Mauss, Paul Radin, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl and Gregory Bateson, the authors argue that such concepts are necessary for understanding better the rise and dynamics of the modern world, including the development of the social sciences, in particular sociology and anthropology. Concepts discussed include liminality, imitation, schismogenesis and trickster, which provide an anthropological 'toolkit' for readers to develop innovative understandings of the underlying power mechanisms of globalized modernity. Aimed at graduate students and researchers, the book is clearly structured. Part I introduces the 'maverick' anthropologists, while Part II applies the maverick tool-kit to revisit the history of sociological thought and the question of modernity.

Industrial Work and Life

Industrial Work and Life
Author: Massimiliano Mollona
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2020-12-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 100018210X

Industrial Work and Life: An Anthropological Reader is a comprehensive anthropological overview of industrialisation in both Western and non-Western societies. Based on contemporary and historical ethnographic material, the book unpacks the 'world of industry' in the context of the shop floor, the family, and the city, revealing the rich social and political texture underpinning economic development. It also provides a critical discussion of the assumptions that inform much of the social science literature on industrialisation and industrial 'modernity'. The reader is divided into four thematic sections, each with a clear and informative introduction: historical development of industrial capitalism; shopfloor organisation; the relationships between the workplace and the home; the teleology of industrial 'modernity' and working-class consciousness. With readings by key writers from a range of backgrounds and disciplines, Industrial Work and Life is the essential introduction to the study of industrialisation in different societies. It will appeal to students across a wide range of subjects including: anthropology, comparative sociology, social history, development studies, industrial relations and management studies. Includes essays by: E.P. Thompson, Aihwa Ong, Jonathan Parry, Thomas C. Smith, Harry Braverman, Michael Burawoy, Huw Beynon, Françoise Zonabend, James Carrier, Leslie Salzinger, Ching Kwan Lee, Ronald Dore, Tom Gill, Carla Freeman, Max Gluckman, James Ferguson, Chitra Joshi, Lisa Rofel, Geert De Neve, Karl Marx, Rajnarayan Chandavarkar, Robert Roberts, June Nash, Christena Turner.

Anthropologies of Unemployment

Anthropologies of Unemployment
Author: Jong Bum Kwon
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2016-09-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1501706683

Anthropologies of Unemployment offers accessible, theoretically innovative, and ethnographically rich examinations of unemployment in rural and urban regions across North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The diversity of case studies demonstrates that unemployment is a pressing global phenomenon that sheds light on the uneven consequences of free-market ideologies and policies. Economic, social, and cultural marginalization is common in the lives of the unemployed, but their experience and interpretation are shaped by local and national cultural particularities. In exploring those differences, the contributors to this volume employ recent theoretical innovations and engage with some of the more salient topics in contemporary anthropology, such as globalization, migration, youth cultures, bureaucracy, class, gender, and race. Taken together, the chapters reveal that there is something new about unemployment today. It is not a temporary occurrence, but a chronic condition. In adjusting to persistent, longstanding unemployment, people and groups create new understandings of unemployment as well as of work and employment; they improvise new forms of sociality, morality, and personhood. Ethnographic studies such as those found in Anthropologies of Unemployment are crucial if we are to understand the broader forms, meanings, and significance of pervasive economic insecurity and discover the emergence of new social and cultural possibilities.

Cheats at Work

Cheats at Work
Author: Gerald Mars
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2019-02-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0429670389

Originally published in 1982 Cheats at Work looks at occupations from an anthropological point of view, using a similar format to analysis of cultures in the study of anthropology. The author uses an extensive set of quotations drawn from over a hundred informants at all social levels. The interviews reveal a distinct set of ideologies and attitudes from various occupations. The book looks specifically at cheating, lying and deception in various occupations, and the interviews reveal how and why people cheat, and deceive their customers and clients, how they learn the concealed tricks and professions and how they justify this.

Shakespeare and Social Theory

Shakespeare and Social Theory
Author: BRADD. SHORE
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2021-08-23
Genre:
ISBN: 9781032017174

This book provides a bridge between Shakespeare Studies and classical social theory, opening up readings of Shakespeare to a new audience outside of literary studies and the humanities. Shakespeare has long been known as a 'great thinker' and this book reads his plays through the lens of an anthropologist, revealing new connections between Shakespeare's plays and the lives we now lead. Close readings of a selection of frequently studied plays - Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar and King Lear - engage with the plays in detail while connecting them with some of the biggest questions we all ask ourselves, about love, friendship, ritual, language, human interactions and the world around us. The plays are examined through various social theories including performance theory, cognitive theory, semiotics, exchange theory and structuralism. The book concludes with a consideration of how "the new astronomy" of his day and developments in optics changed the very idea of "perspective," and shaped Shakespeare's approach to embedding social theory in his dramatic texts. This accessible and engaging book will appeal to those approaching Shakespeare from outside literary studies, but will also be valuable to literature students approaching Shakespeare for the first time, or looking for a new angle on the plays.

In the Field

In the Field
Author: Prof. George Gmelch
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2018-05-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520964217

This book offers an invaluable look at what cultural anthropologists do when they are in the field. Through fascinating and often entertaining accounts of their lives and work in varied cultural settings, the authors describe the many forms fieldwork can take, the kinds of questions anthropologists ask, and the common problems they encounter. From these accounts and the experiences of the student field workers the authors have mentored over the years, In the Field makes a powerful case for the value of the anthropological approach to knowledge.