Ethnicity At Work

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"This book deals with ethnicity in the workplace, illustrating the ways in which particular groups of people organise their working lives, the symbols by which they identify with their work and with each other, and the particular constraints to which each must adapt. The editor's introduction provides a framework for the ten original papers. Each of the first five case studies focuses on a single ethic group - English Gypsies, British Jews, Macedonians in Toronto's restaurant trade, Punjabis in British steel foundries and south Asian women in London. Each case demonstrates the extent to which the meaning and effect of ethnicity are specific to the context in which they are expressed. The book therefore moves away from the conventional view of ethnicity as a single and consistent identity with which the individual is fixed by birth or upbringing. It proposes instead that ethnicity is one of a cluster of identity options whose value is enhanced is some circumstances and denied in others. The second set of papers focuses on the formal structure of various kinds of work and examines the scope each offers to "informal" systems of organisation. Four specific work structures are explored : a local government bureaucracy; a multi-activity industrial company ; an individualistic business enterprise; and the casual labour market. The final chapter argues how complementary are formal and informal organisations. Together, the five papers underline the dynamics of opportunity and constraint by which systems of work and ethnicity are bounded. The volume as a whole provides a range of original material in ethicity in action, and throws new light on the "informal" :subverse" or "hidden" economics of late industrial society. It will be therefore ne of interest to economic practitioners - emmployers, managers and workers - as much as to students of contemporary social and economic form" - Publisher.