reading

Table of Contents

Cover

Series page

Title page

Dedication

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

End User License Agreement

The right of Bruce Pietrykowski to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2019 by Polity Press

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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3083-0

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3084-7 (pb)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Pietrykowski, Bruce, author.

Title: Work / Bruce Pietrykowski.

Description: Medford, MA : Polity, 2019. | Series: What is political economy? | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018041115 (print) | LCCN 2018052080 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509530861 (Epub) | ISBN 9781509530830 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509530847 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Work. | Equality. | Income distribution. | Economic policy. | BISAC: POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Economic Policy.

Classification: LCC HD4904 (ebook) | LCC HD4904 .P54 2019 (print) | DDC 331–dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018041115

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