This book presents an accessible and fascinating account of theoretical
debates around identity and work, recent empirical trends and
methodological arguments concerning the role of oral testimony and its
interpretation. Focusing on three occupational sectors in particular
teachers, bank workers and the railway industry it also presents an
argument that is both more general than this and theoretically and
analytically wide-ranging. The book explores some important questions:
how are workers, both in the past and the present juncture, socialised
into work cultures? What are the cultural and structural differences
with regard the world of work across class, gender, and generation? What
are the historical conditions of which these differences play a part?
How is the idea of work found in a range of representations, from
artistic production to sociological discourse expressed and explored?
The development of concepts such as 'structures of feeling' and affect,
and the weaving in of historical and visual material, make the book
important to a wide range of readers including ethnographers, cultural
sociologists and narrative researchers. In turn, this book offers an
authoritative and sophisticated summary and analysis of work and
identity and is an important intervention into mainstream sociology
concerns.