Revaluing Work(ers): Toward a Democratic and Sustainable Future (LERA Research Volume)

About this book

How can we build a future of work that meets pressing challenges and delivers for workers? Contemporary societies are beset by interrelated ecological political and economic crises from climate change to democratic erosion and economic instability. Uncertainty abounds about the sustainability of democratic capitalism. Yet mainstream debates on the evolution of work tend to remain narrowly circumscribed exhibiting both technological and market determinism. This volume presents a labor studies perspective on the future of work arguing that revaluing workthe efforts and contributions of workersis crucial to realizing the promises of democracy and improving sustainability. It emphasizes that collective political action and the collective agency of workers in particular is central to driving this agenda forward. Moreover it maintains that reproductive worklabor efforts from care to education that sustain the reproduction of societycan function as a crucible of innovation for the valuation and governance of work more broadly. Contributors: Robert Bruno University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; J. Mijin Cha Occidental College; Dorothy Sue Cobble Rutgers University; Sheri Davis-Faulkner Rutgers University; Victor G. Devinatz Illinois State University; Alysa Hannon Rutgers University; William A. Herbert Hunter College; David C. Jacobs American University; John McCarthy Cornell University; Joseph A. McCartin Georgetown University; Heather A. McKay Rutgers University; Michael Merrill Hudson County Central Labor Council; Yana van der Meulen Rodgers Rutgers University; Saul A. Rubinstein Rutgers University; Erica Smiley Jobs With Justice; Marilyn Sneiderman Rutgers University; Joseph van der Naald City University of New York; Michell Van Noy Rutgers University; Naomi R Williams Rutgers University; Joel S. Yudken High Road Strategies LLC; Elaine Zundl Harvard Kennedy School