Ofer Sharone
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226073361
- eISBN:
- 9780226073675
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226073675.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
American white-collar job seekers engage in the “chemistry game,” a set of job search practices premised on the idea that getting hired requires more than presenting one’s skills; it requires ...
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American white-collar job seekers engage in the “chemistry game,” a set of job search practices premised on the idea that getting hired requires more than presenting one’s skills; it requires presenting oneself––the person behind the skills––and establishing interpersonal fit. The focus on chemistry is not inherent to white-collar job searching in advanced economies. Israeli workers looking for similar jobs under similar economic conditions engage in a very different “specs game,” which focuses on presenting one’s skills and credentials and requires masking the person behind the skills. These job-search games are the products of different labor market institutions, and they generate different unemployment experiences. Unemployed American white-collar workers are vulnerable to highly personalized forms of self-blame and often end up feeling deeply flawed, while unemployed Israeli workers often report feeling dehumanized and invisible. Losing at the chemistry game produces self-blame; losing at the specs game produces system-blame. American blue-collar job seekers engage in yet another distinct job search game, focused on displaying their diligence, which generates a distinct unemployment experience. Stepping back, the book shows that understanding the experience of unemployment requires looking beyond global economic forces or national cultures and closely examining the specific institutions that structure the day-to-day activities and strategies of job searching. At a broader level, this book develops a theory of the mechanisms that link the objective structures and subjective experiences.Less
American white-collar job seekers engage in the “chemistry game,” a set of job search practices premised on the idea that getting hired requires more than presenting one’s skills; it requires presenting oneself––the person behind the skills––and establishing interpersonal fit. The focus on chemistry is not inherent to white-collar job searching in advanced economies. Israeli workers looking for similar jobs under similar economic conditions engage in a very different “specs game,” which focuses on presenting one’s skills and credentials and requires masking the person behind the skills. These job-search games are the products of different labor market institutions, and they generate different unemployment experiences. Unemployed American white-collar workers are vulnerable to highly personalized forms of self-blame and often end up feeling deeply flawed, while unemployed Israeli workers often report feeling dehumanized and invisible. Losing at the chemistry game produces self-blame; losing at the specs game produces system-blame. American blue-collar job seekers engage in yet another distinct job search game, focused on displaying their diligence, which generates a distinct unemployment experience. Stepping back, the book shows that understanding the experience of unemployment requires looking beyond global economic forces or national cultures and closely examining the specific institutions that structure the day-to-day activities and strategies of job searching. At a broader level, this book develops a theory of the mechanisms that link the objective structures and subjective experiences.
Rachel Weber
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226294483
- eISBN:
- 9780226294513
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226294513.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This book unpacks the urban development process, identifying the players and processes that contribute to periodic construction booms. Debunking the notion that booms occur to accommodate growth or ...
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This book unpacks the urban development process, identifying the players and processes that contribute to periodic construction booms. Debunking the notion that booms occur to accommodate growth or are propelled by a natural process of creative destruction, it develops novel theories about how real estate markets are “performed” through historically and locally-specific professional practices. The book focuses on three main causes of overbuilding in commercial real estate: financial instruments and regulatory changes that boost liquidity in global capital markets; the practices of local intermediaries that help construct demand for new assets; and local government policies that provide incentives for development while simultaneously removing the detritus from earlier waves of expansion. To illustrate the interplay between these dynamics, the book documents the case of Chicago's downtown during the “Millennial Boom,” roughly 1998 through 2008. Relying on market data and interviews, it shows how the city's recovery from the recession of the early 2000s was a relatively jobless one and did not upend the secular trend of population loss. Moreover, modest innovations in building technology did not suddenly afflict older buildings with a case of mass obsolescence. This period of frenzied commercial construction was instead a response to the availability of public and private finance validated by the brokered and subsidized preferences of existing occupants for more modern premises. The book ends with policy proposals to slow capital circulation and alter the professional practices associated with speculative overbuilding.Less
This book unpacks the urban development process, identifying the players and processes that contribute to periodic construction booms. Debunking the notion that booms occur to accommodate growth or are propelled by a natural process of creative destruction, it develops novel theories about how real estate markets are “performed” through historically and locally-specific professional practices. The book focuses on three main causes of overbuilding in commercial real estate: financial instruments and regulatory changes that boost liquidity in global capital markets; the practices of local intermediaries that help construct demand for new assets; and local government policies that provide incentives for development while simultaneously removing the detritus from earlier waves of expansion. To illustrate the interplay between these dynamics, the book documents the case of Chicago's downtown during the “Millennial Boom,” roughly 1998 through 2008. Relying on market data and interviews, it shows how the city's recovery from the recession of the early 2000s was a relatively jobless one and did not upend the secular trend of population loss. Moreover, modest innovations in building technology did not suddenly afflict older buildings with a case of mass obsolescence. This period of frenzied commercial construction was instead a response to the availability of public and private finance validated by the brokered and subsidized preferences of existing occupants for more modern premises. The book ends with policy proposals to slow capital circulation and alter the professional practices associated with speculative overbuilding.
Megan Rivers-Moore
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226373386
- eISBN:
- 9780226373553
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226373553.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This book is about the meanings that are made through the purchase, sale, and regulation of sexual services in the tourism district of a Latin American city. It explores how various kinds of mobility ...
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This book is about the meanings that are made through the purchase, sale, and regulation of sexual services in the tourism district of a Latin American city. It explores how various kinds of mobility operate in the sex industry by looking at three key spheres that define sex tourism: the experiences of sex workers, sex tourists, and the state. The story of sex tourism in San José could be told relatively easily as the exploitation of poor Costa Rican women by privileged North American men in a position to take advantage of the geopolitical inequalities that make Latin American women into suppliers of low-cost sexual labor. Through ethnographic participant observation and in-depth interviews with female sex workers, their male clients, state agents, and nongovernmental organization workers in San José’s main sex tourism neighborhood, the book tells a more nuanced story, demonstrating that all the actors intimately entangled in the sex tourism industry use it as a strategy for getting ahead. The book demonstrates how the experiences of sex workers and sex tourists are connected to local, national, and transnational patterns that are quite specific to Costa Rica but that also provide a lens for looking at the varying impacts of neoliberalism on differently situated subjects that shift significantly according to space and context. It also argues that the story of sex tourism in Costa Rica is very much about how gender, sexuality, and sex tourism work are projects of class formation and social mobility in a neoliberal context.Less
This book is about the meanings that are made through the purchase, sale, and regulation of sexual services in the tourism district of a Latin American city. It explores how various kinds of mobility operate in the sex industry by looking at three key spheres that define sex tourism: the experiences of sex workers, sex tourists, and the state. The story of sex tourism in San José could be told relatively easily as the exploitation of poor Costa Rican women by privileged North American men in a position to take advantage of the geopolitical inequalities that make Latin American women into suppliers of low-cost sexual labor. Through ethnographic participant observation and in-depth interviews with female sex workers, their male clients, state agents, and nongovernmental organization workers in San José’s main sex tourism neighborhood, the book tells a more nuanced story, demonstrating that all the actors intimately entangled in the sex tourism industry use it as a strategy for getting ahead. The book demonstrates how the experiences of sex workers and sex tourists are connected to local, national, and transnational patterns that are quite specific to Costa Rica but that also provide a lens for looking at the varying impacts of neoliberalism on differently situated subjects that shift significantly according to space and context. It also argues that the story of sex tourism in Costa Rica is very much about how gender, sexuality, and sex tourism work are projects of class formation and social mobility in a neoliberal context.
David Brody
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226389097
- eISBN:
- 9780226389264
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226389264.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
In this book, author David Brody asserts that hotel workers, and by extension all workers, need to be considered as more than just facilitators of the consumer experience and need to be integrated ...
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In this book, author David Brody asserts that hotel workers, and by extension all workers, need to be considered as more than just facilitators of the consumer experience and need to be integrated into the design process. Brody describes how service workers’ labor can make or break a guest’s stay at a hotel, but when management disregards employees’ needs, the ramifications on individual workers’ lives and bodies can become catastrophic and the impact on business can lead to unintended disadvantages. Brody argues that if hotel service employees had more say about design, the industry would change for the better, instances of labor strife would be less frequent, the physical consequences of hotel work would be less harmful, and hotels would become even more cost effective for their owners. To further this argument, Brody incorporates elements of theory, historical sources, examples from hotel management pedagogy, instances of hotels implementing sustainability practices, and portrayals of hotels in popular culture, as well as his own interviews with housekeeping workers at the Hyatt Regency Chicago and at various Starwood properties in Hawaii. Brody explores the many ways in which hotel service workers are often overlooked or overshadowed, especially in terms of design and management decisions. In this examination of the hidden world of hotel service work, Brody sheds light on wide-reaching issues and offers co-design as a potential solution.Less
In this book, author David Brody asserts that hotel workers, and by extension all workers, need to be considered as more than just facilitators of the consumer experience and need to be integrated into the design process. Brody describes how service workers’ labor can make or break a guest’s stay at a hotel, but when management disregards employees’ needs, the ramifications on individual workers’ lives and bodies can become catastrophic and the impact on business can lead to unintended disadvantages. Brody argues that if hotel service employees had more say about design, the industry would change for the better, instances of labor strife would be less frequent, the physical consequences of hotel work would be less harmful, and hotels would become even more cost effective for their owners. To further this argument, Brody incorporates elements of theory, historical sources, examples from hotel management pedagogy, instances of hotels implementing sustainability practices, and portrayals of hotels in popular culture, as well as his own interviews with housekeeping workers at the Hyatt Regency Chicago and at various Starwood properties in Hawaii. Brody explores the many ways in which hotel service workers are often overlooked or overshadowed, especially in terms of design and management decisions. In this examination of the hidden world of hotel service work, Brody sheds light on wide-reaching issues and offers co-design as a potential solution.
Matthew Desmond
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226144085
- eISBN:
- 9780226144078
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226144078.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This rugged account of a rugged profession explores the heart and soul of the wildland firefighter. Having joined a firecrew in Northern Arizona as a young man, the author relates his experiences ...
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This rugged account of a rugged profession explores the heart and soul of the wildland firefighter. Having joined a firecrew in Northern Arizona as a young man, the author relates his experiences with intimate knowledge and native ease, balancing emotion with analysis and action with insight. The book shows that these firefighters are not the adrenaline junkies or romantic heroes they are so often portrayed to be, providing an account of how young men are able to face down wildfire, and why they volunteer for such an enterprise in the first place. Along with the risks and sorrow, the author also presents the humor and camaraderie of ordinary men performing extraordinary tasks.Less
This rugged account of a rugged profession explores the heart and soul of the wildland firefighter. Having joined a firecrew in Northern Arizona as a young man, the author relates his experiences with intimate knowledge and native ease, balancing emotion with analysis and action with insight. The book shows that these firefighters are not the adrenaline junkies or romantic heroes they are so often portrayed to be, providing an account of how young men are able to face down wildfire, and why they volunteer for such an enterprise in the first place. Along with the risks and sorrow, the author also presents the humor and camaraderie of ordinary men performing extraordinary tasks.
Robert A. Beauregard
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226297255
- eISBN:
- 9780226297422
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226297422.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
City and regional planners talk constantly about the things of the world from highway interchanges, retention ponds, and affordable housing units to zoning documents, conference rooms, and ...
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City and regional planners talk constantly about the things of the world from highway interchanges, retention ponds, and affordable housing units to zoning documents, conference rooms, and consultants’ reports. The material world of planning is acknowledged but insufficiently theorized. In Planning Matter, Robert Beauregard offers a new materialist perspective on planning practice that relies heavily on actor-network theory and science and technology studies to reveal the many ways in which the non-human things of the world mediate what planners say and do. In order to emphasize the importance of planners constantly imagining themselves “in the world,” the argument is illustrated with numerous empirical examples from planning practice in the United States. The result is a theoretical approach that recognizes the vibrancy of non-human matter and the fact that planners neither act alone nor solely with other human beings.Less
City and regional planners talk constantly about the things of the world from highway interchanges, retention ponds, and affordable housing units to zoning documents, conference rooms, and consultants’ reports. The material world of planning is acknowledged but insufficiently theorized. In Planning Matter, Robert Beauregard offers a new materialist perspective on planning practice that relies heavily on actor-network theory and science and technology studies to reveal the many ways in which the non-human things of the world mediate what planners say and do. In order to emphasize the importance of planners constantly imagining themselves “in the world,” the argument is illustrated with numerous empirical examples from planning practice in the United States. The result is a theoretical approach that recognizes the vibrancy of non-human matter and the fact that planners neither act alone nor solely with other human beings.
Lyn Spillman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226769561
- eISBN:
- 9780226769554
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226769554.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
Popular conceptions hold that capitalism is driven almost entirely by the pursuit of profit and self-interest. Challenging that assumption, this study of American business associations shows how ...
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Popular conceptions hold that capitalism is driven almost entirely by the pursuit of profit and self-interest. Challenging that assumption, this study of American business associations shows how market and non-market relations are actually profoundly entwined at the heart of capitalism. This book draws on documentary archives and a comprehensive data set of more than four thousand trade associations from diverse and obscure corners of commercial life to reveal a busy and often surprising arena of American economic activity. From the Intelligent Transportation Society to the American Gem Trade Association, the book explains how business associations are more collegial than cutthroat, and how they make capitalist action meaningful not only by developing shared ideas about collective interests but also by articulating a disinterested solidarity that transcends those interests. Deeply grounded in both economic and cultural sociology, the book provides rich, lively, and often surprising insights into the world of business, and leads us to question some of our most fundamental assumptions about economic life and how cultural context influences economics.Less
Popular conceptions hold that capitalism is driven almost entirely by the pursuit of profit and self-interest. Challenging that assumption, this study of American business associations shows how market and non-market relations are actually profoundly entwined at the heart of capitalism. This book draws on documentary archives and a comprehensive data set of more than four thousand trade associations from diverse and obscure corners of commercial life to reveal a busy and often surprising arena of American economic activity. From the Intelligent Transportation Society to the American Gem Trade Association, the book explains how business associations are more collegial than cutthroat, and how they make capitalist action meaningful not only by developing shared ideas about collective interests but also by articulating a disinterested solidarity that transcends those interests. Deeply grounded in both economic and cultural sociology, the book provides rich, lively, and often surprising insights into the world of business, and leads us to question some of our most fundamental assumptions about economic life and how cultural context influences economics.
Living Up to Death
The Mountain
Objects As Actors
The Second Birth
The Mystic Fable, Volume Two
Hegel'S theory of Intelligibility
Second-Best Justice
Lineages of Despotism and Development
Citizens, Cops, and Power
