For Work / Against Work
Debates on the centrality of work

Work, Self and Society: After Industrialism

by Casey, Catherine (1995)

Abstract

Despite recent interest in the effects of restructuring and redesigning the work place, the link between individual identity and structural change has usually been asserted rather than demonstrated. Through an extensive review of data from field work in a multi-national corporation Catherine Casey changes this. She knows that changes currently occurring in the world of work are part of the vast social and cultural changes that are challenging the assumptions of modern industrialism. These events affect what people do everyday, and they are altering relations among ourselves and with the physical world. This valuable book is not only a critcal analysis of the transformations occurring in the world of work, but an exploration of the effects of contemporary practices of work on the self.

Key Passage

The industrial legacy of the centrality of production and work in social and self formation hovers precipitously with the post-industrial condition in which work is declining in social primacy. Social meanings and solidarity must, eventually, be found elsewhere.” (p.2)

Keywords

Industrialism, Industrial Society, Industrialisation, Work Ethic, Psychology, Self

Themes

Post-Industrial Society

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