Introduction — Reflections on Work

Grant Michelson and Shaun Ryan
Additional contact information
Grant Michelson: Edith Cowan University
Shaun Ryan: Deakin University

A chapter in Just Work, 2014, pp 1-6 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Actor, broadcaster, oral historian and prize-winning author, Studs Terkel, was well known for his books that addressed the lives of ordinary people. In 1974, he published a book called Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. In contrast to research that treats workers as objects, this book simply and yet powerfully gave voice to the subjective experience of work and working. Based on over 100 edited interviews with workers across a variety of occupations in the USA (largely centred around Chicago), Terkel highlighted the meaning of, and attitudes towards, work, skilfully capturing dreams and disappointments often in quite moving accounts. These accounts were historically grounded in the milieu and specificities of American working life in the early 1970s.

Keywords: Subjective Experience; Employment Relation; Future Aspiration; Participant Talk; Iconic Status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-35016-9_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137350169

DOI: 10.1057/9781137350169_1

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().