2009 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
A survey into an emerging pattern of labor instability and uneven
global development
Is job insecurity the new norm? With fewer and fewer people working in
steady, long-term positions for one employer, has the dream of a secure
job with full benefits and a decent salary become just that--a dream?
In Nice Work If You Can Get It, Andrew Ross surveys the new
topography of the global workplace and finds an emerging pattern of
labor instability and uneven development on a massive scale. Combining
detailed case studies with lucid analysis and graphic prose, he looks at
what the new landscape of contingent employment means for workers across
national, class, and racial lines--from the emerging "creative class" of
high-wage professionals to the multitudes of temporary, migrant, or
low-wage workers. Developing the idea of "precarious livelihoods" to
describe this new world of work and life, Ross explores what it means in
developed nations--comparing the creative industry policies of the
United States, United Kingdom, and European Union, as well as developing
countries--by examining the quickfire transformation of China's labor
market. He also responds to the challenge of sustainability, assessing
the promise of "green jobs" through restorative alliances between labor
advocates and environmentalists.
Ross argues that regardless of one's views on labor rights,
globalization, and quality of life, this new precarious and "indefinite
life,&" and the pitfalls and opportunities that accompany it is likely
here to stay and must be addressed in a systematic way. A more equitable
kind of knowledge society emerges in these pages--less skewed toward
flexploitation and the speculative beneficiaries of intellectual
property, and more in tune with ideals and practices that are fair,
just, and renewable.
