Perhaps more than any other quality, the ability to plan, organize, and collectively engage in work sets human beings apart from other species. Work occupies most of our waking hours; it is a crucial part of identities and influences life chances. At the same time, work creates problems in lives and, at its worst, it can become a sentence of grinding toil in jobs that offer few rewards. Our understanding that work can liberate but also enslave—and seeing both possibilities exemplified in the modern economy—inspired us to write this book. We wanted to take stock of work today—to consider the types of work opportunities available, chart how jobs emerge and disappear, and gauge the impact of workplace practices on and off the job. Beyond this, we wanted to reflect on how work could be organized so that it makes sense—so that it provides the resources people need and brings meaning to lives.
This chapter begins this discussion by considering the “contours of work.” These contours can be thought of as the terrain on which work opportunities are distributed and traversed. The metaphor of contours is useful because, like geographic topographies, work opportunities have been etched into the landscape by long-term historical forces. Some of these forces resulted in profound changes, wherein old ways of working were abandoned and new methods introduced. This type of radical transformation occurred in the Industrial Revolution of the early nineteenth century, and some argue that computer and communication technologies are having a similar effect today. Other forces, however, shape opportunity landscapes in more gradual, ongoing, and cumulative processes. Social divisions created on the basis of gender, with its constantly evolving meanings and practices, are one such force. So are race and social class divisions.
To consider the impact of social forces on work, we introduce here a shorthand distinction that we use throughout this book: the division between the old and new economies. This dichotomy helps us identify the very real changes that occurred in work in the latter part of the twentieth century, including the introduction of computer technologies, the expansion of a global economy, shifts in the composition of the workforce, new organizational and managerial paradigms, and other transformations that we consider in the chapters to come. The old economy represents the various ways of assigning and structuring work that developed in the wake of the Industrial Revolution through the mid-twentieth century. This economy operated with systems oriented to mass production, gendered divisions of labor, unionized labor, and a variety of other enduring workplace practices. It was also an economy in which the United States was a central and dominating economic force. The concept of a new economy is used to examine the question of whether the nature of work has changed and, if it has, the extent to which these changes are affecting lives on and off the job. Our primary frame of reference throughout this book is work as it occurs in the United States but also as it is connected to the distribution of opportunities in the global economy.
Though we use the term new economy, we have come to conclude that many of the present-day contours reflect the way work evolved in the old economy.1 Those arguing that there has been a “second industrial revolution” often ignore this. There are new jobs, new workers, and new work designs, and these are changing some of the ways work is performed, by whom, and the returns received. But many of the features introduced by the old economy remain. These “old” features are not simply vestiges destined to eventually die out; they are thriving and may be permanent features of the new economy that will continue to develop during the twenty-first century. Sometimes these old and new features are combined, for example, when low-skill factory work jobs are moved from the developed world to the emerging economies. The jobs may not have changed fundamentally, but the people who are performing them have. In Chapter 2, we consider the issue of production in the old and new economies in greater detail and assess the extent to which work in the new economy has changed and the extent to which it has remained the same.
Our discussion in this chapter is directed to identifying the dominant social forces that shape work opportunity. We organize this discussion by considering three interlocking concerns:
Culture: meaning systems that attach individuals to work, harness their commitments, and direct their efforts.
Structure: opportunities, as well as constraints, that shape what types of jobs can be pursued, by whom, and the returns received.
Agency: personal effort and discretion, whether as individuals or in groups, to direct actions and decisions.
To open this discussion, we consider the lives of six workers laboring in the new economy and the rewards, strains, and constraints work produces in their lives. As you read these examples of what work is like in the new economy, reflect on the ways current opportunity structures allocate resources needed and think about how work provides meaning but also disrupts lives. The challenge we explore throughout this book is finding ways to align culture, structure, and human initiative in pursuit of expanding, work opportunity. In other words, the goal is to reduce the incompatibilities between how jobs are arranged and what workers can bring to—and receive from—their work.
Scenes From the New Economy
The experiences of Meg, Tammy, Emily, Rain, Kavita, and Mike reveal how work lives on and off the job are being shaped by the contours of the new economy. All of these cases illustrate that the effects of historical change (in this case the transition to a new economy) can vary depending on its timing with respect to an individual’s biography, as well as to his or her gender, class, and race (Elder and Shanahan 2007; Moen 2001). The stories also reveal how careers unfold when new opportunities are introduced and old opportunities are dismantled.
Exhibit 1.1 Meg: A Successful Trader Strives to Manage a Demanding Career With a Child Who Has Special Needs
Meg started her career as a trader in the male-dominated world of the New York Stock Exchange. Although family connections and good fortune helped her gain entry to Wall Street, her early successes came from hard work, tough-mindedness, and interpersonal savvy. It also helped that she entered the world of Wall Street just as the stock market was to catapult to record high levels in the 1990s. By the age of twenty-five, Meg was promoted to head trader and received a remarkable salary. She also met her husband at the stock exchange.
To support her husband’s transition into a law career, Meg followed him to Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, Meg landed a position in a firm that was soon to manage one of the largest investment funds in the country, another remarkable leap in an already successful career. Along the way, Meg had two children and benefitted from flexible work arrangements, moving intermittently between part-time and full-time work as the children matured. However, when her third child was born with serious medical needs, Meg decided to take a career break to provide more intense care and supervision, and her employer agreed. However, when Meg tried to return to her job in a part-time capacity, her firm gave her a choice: return full-time or resign. She chose to resign.
Note: Based on Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home (pp. 28–30) by Pamela Stone, 2007, Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Exhibit 1.2Tammy: A Midcareer Manufacturing Worker Attempts to Salvage a Career and a Community
Tammy was born into a disadvantaged family in 1966 in Youngstown, Ohio. Early on, she was raised by her grandmother, who worked as a maid and companion to an elderly widow, but, at least for part of her childhood, she also lived with her mother, who was trying to recover from drug abuse. The city she grew up in entered a steep decline when she was a child; the steel mills began to close and the neighborhoods deteriorated as the people who lost their jobs left to find work elsewhere.
When she was fifteen, Tammy got pregnant; she broke up with the father and raised the baby on her own. She was determined not to drop out of school or be like many of the other girls around her, so she finished high school on time and later earned an associate’s degree. She worked for a while in a supermarket and hoped for a manager’s job, but nothing materialized. After a stint on welfare, she was able to find a job working in one of the region’s few remaining industrial establishments, the Packard Electric Plant in