This volume is a collection of subject-oriented studies on paid work.
Each chapter refers to the social structures that form conditions for
peoples' working contexts and interprets workers' and employees'
narrations on work. Work appropriation-a process of formation of
subjectivity, in which workers and employees relate to the social status
of their occupations and the use-value of their work in actively dealing
with the work's content and conditions-serves as a comprehensive concept
for each varying subject-oriented approach in the volume.
'Work Appropriation and Social Inequality' focuses on social inequality,
understood as the distribution of life chances that privilege some and
discriminate others and reveals the unequal conditions for, and outcomes
of, work appropriation. By analyzing work appropriation, it uses a
broader concept than that of 'meaning of work' or 'meaningful work' as
it includes the practice and processes of working. The volume's
subject-oriented approach to work differs from the stream
'subjectivation' in going beyond individuals' desires for
self-realization in work and to companies' requirements of accessing
emotional and personal dimensions of their workforce.
The volume contains three parts: the first lays out basic approaches to
work appropriation and social inequality, the second analyses current
threats to work appropriation in the UK and Germany, and the third
consists of a philosophical outlook on work in the Anthropocene.
The book's impact lies in pushing forward the debate on how work
appropriations are linked to unequal social structures. It will
therefore appeal to social scientists interested in social inequality,
sociology of work and organization, as well as students and teachers at
the undergraduate and graduate level in the areas of social sciences.
