Work, employment and society sans frontières: extending and deepening our reach

Abstract

Work, employment and society Editorial Team, University of Leicester, UKWork, employment and society (WES ) was launched in 1987 in a period in which a number of features of British society were changing rapidly. The vibrancy and the optimism of the 1960s looked increasingly remote and sociology and the study of work reflected the more straitened times that came with the social transformations wrought by Thatcherism. The early 1980s had seen savage deflation, a consequent sharp contraction of the manufacturing industry and a series of set piece confrontations with unions (in the print and steel industries and on the docks) culminating in the defeat of the miners' union after a year-long strike . A further result was rapid contraction of the numbers of trade union members and the demoralization of those that remained. One focus of industrial sociology, shopfloor trade unionism epitomized by Beynon's (1984) study of Ford's Halewood plant, became difficult if not impossible to repeat. The differences to and implications for the current sociology of work are discussed in the recent WES book review symposium of Beynon's study. Richard Brown's editorial introduction to the first issue drew upon these societal developments to explain the rationale for the journal. Reviewing the sociology of work he noted that it had traditionally focused on male, manual workers in manufacturing industries and to a lesser extent on those who supervised and managed them, exactly the constituency hit hardest by the ongoing changes. The limitations of the focus on one gender, in one predominantly UK-based sector, became obvious with the relative and absolute decline in UK manufacturing and the new international division of labour; the growth of unemployment; the increase in women's employment; and employer attempts to establish more flexible patterns of employment.The limitations of more traditional approaches were also heightened by developments in other areas of social science with broader concerns. The persistence of unemployment and the increasing North-South divide, along with entrenched patterns of low pay, had expanded interest in labour markets; discrimination against women and minorities was made more visible; and, following the impact of Braverman's Labor and 613747WE S0010.1177/0950017015613747Work, employment and societyEditorial research-article2015

A discipline at the crossroads? Using a gender-inspired paradigm to reposition the sociology of work and employment

“…But regardless of whether this gender-inspired framework is agreed upon and taken up by other scholars, we hope that this article has at least furthered the debate. As a recent Work, Employment and Society editorial stated, good disciplinary health is dependent on commitment to this kind of ongoing critical engagement with its conceptual basis, institutional location and future directions (Beck et al, 2016: 217).…”

Solidarities In and Through Work in an Age of Extremes

“…The renewed interest in solidarity has also been matched by a reignited debate, led by Bourdieu and Burawoy (Brook and Darlington, 2013), over the importance of academic scholars working in explicit solidarity with labour and other social justice movements. This resurgence of public sociology in recent years, a tradition within which WES locates itself and seeks to foster (Beck et al, 2016), includes encouraging scholars’ active participation in labour and social justice struggles as scholar activists (Routledge and Driscoll Derickson, 2015) or committed scholars , to use Bourdieu’s term (Brook and Darlington, 2013). By adopting such a standpoint, the resulting scholarly work takes a partisan position on the side of the disadvantaged and oppressed while maintaining a critical distance (Beck et al, 2016).…”

“…This resurgence of public sociology in recent years, a tradition within which WES locates itself and seeks to foster (Beck et al, 2016), includes encouraging scholars’ active participation in labour and social justice struggles as scholar activists (Routledge and Driscoll Derickson, 2015) or committed scholars , to use Bourdieu’s term (Brook and Darlington, 2013). By adopting such a standpoint, the resulting scholarly work takes a partisan position on the side of the disadvantaged and oppressed while maintaining a critical distance (Beck et al, 2016). Such situated solidarity by scholars of work can evolve into a deep, enmeshed practice, which Burawoy calls organic public sociology , where the scholar activist becomes a Gramscian-style organic intellectual for a labour or social movement having won the trust of their co-activists to be a spokesperson, educator or analyst, even a strategist, for the group or movement in which they participate (Brook and Darlington, 2013).…”

Intern Labour as Regenerative Precarisation in the Cultural and Creative Industries

“…Directing our sociological gaze to the conditions and experiences of this burgeoning rite of passage, and the predominantly entry level workers that are subjected to it, is important if we are to gain a greater understanding of the future of work, employment and society. Entry level workers and the youth are disproportionately affected by informality and precarious work conditions (Beck et al 2016).…”

“…This article builds on this perspective by critically analysing the internship and intern labour in the CCI as a potent form of precarisation, (re)producing distinct drivers and patterns that normalize and perpetuate the phenomenon. This article extends the reach of the work, employment and society dialogue by analysing internships in the creative economy, in turn directing our sociological gaze towards youth and early career experiences of work, employment and precarisation (Beck et al 2016). The internship represents one of the more extreme cases of precarious work.…”