5th Edition

Working in America Continuity, Conflict, and Change in a New Economic Era

Edited By Amy Wharton Copyright 2023
328 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

328 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

328 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This leading, comprehensive text for courses on the sociology of work covers many vital new topics since the last edition (2015), just as it continues to offer foundational writings and discusses different types of jobs, inequality and intersectionality, work and family, and more. New to this edition: • The gig economy and new digital platforms and their effects on how work is organized. •... Read more

Part I: Conceptual Foundations

1. Alienated Labour

Karl Marx

2. Bureaucracy

Max Weber

3. Fundamentals of Scientific Management

Frederick Winslow Taylor

4. The Division of Labor

Harry Braverman

5. The Managed Heart

Arlie Hochschild

Part II: The New Workplace

6. The Rise of the Temp Economy in America

Erin Hatton

7. Beyond Carrots and Sticks: How Outsourcing Companies Manufacture Effort via "Permanent Pedagogy"

Jeffrey J. Sallaz

8. Work and Identity: How Precarious Workers Respond to ‘Personal Branding’ Discourse

Steven P. Vallas and Angèle Christin

9. Precarious Futures: How White-Collar Workers Experience Unemployment

Benjamin H. Snyder

10. Being Nowhere in the World: Indian Call Center Operators and the Transnational Service Economy

Kiran Mirchandani

Part III: On The Job

11. Algorithmic Control in Platform Food Delivery Work

Kathleen Griesbach, Adam Reich, Luke Elliott-Negri, and Ruth Milkman

12. Cool Clothes and Fun Times? Consumer Identity in Retail Clothing Work

Kyla Walters and Joya Misra

13. ‘I Can Never Be Too Comfortable’: Race, Gender, and Emotion at the Hospital Bedside

Marci D. Cottingham, Austin H. Johnson, and Rebecca J. Erickson

14. Creative Freelancers: Occupational Community and Crowdsourced Work

David Schwartz

15. The Portfolio Ideal Worker: Insecurity and Inequality in the New Economy

Megan Tobias Neely

Part IV: The Changed Landscape Of Opportunity

16. Mock Schedules and the Meaning of ‘Flexible Employment’ for Undocumented Workers

Brian W. Halpin

17. Working for Redemption: Incarcerated Black Women and Punishment in the Labor Market

Susila Gurusami

18. Moral Storytelling: Employers’ Use of Credit Reports in Hiring Decisions

Barbara Kiviat

19. How Does a Silicon Valley Company Approach Gender Equality Change?

Alison T. Wynn

20. How Much is Too Much? The High Pay of CEOs

Esra Burak

Part V: Work And Family

21. How Do Mothers Make Sense of Work-Family Conflict? A Cross-National Interview Study

Caitlyn Collins

22. Signaling Parenthood: Managing the Motherhood Penalty and Fatherhood Premium in the U.S. Service Sector

Sigrid Luhr

23. Returning to Work After a Job Loss: How Class and Gender Shape Workers’ Decisions

Sarah Damaske

24. The Gendered Pandemic: The Implications of COVID‐19 for Work and Family

Jill E. Yavorsky, Yue Qian, and Amanda C. Sargent

Biography

Amy S. Wharton is Professor Emerita of Sociology at Washington State University, USA.

"To my knowledge, there are no books that offer a wide and diverse set of readings on work experience in America."
Stephen Sweet, Ithaca College

"Working in America has been the backbone of my work courses since its publication. The articles and excerpts in this reader help my students understand work as a site where the inequalities of gender, race, class, and sexual orientation are recreated and perpetuated."
Kevin D. Henson, Loyola University Chicago

"The book offers a variety of materials that allow me the flexibility to offer a broad scope and challenging class."
William T. Clute, University of Nebraska at Omaha