Choice reviews Communities of Work

A.A Hickey, Western Carolina University

This edited collection is unique in its breadth of topics and diversity of research methodologies. The central theme has to do with how employment can be conceptualized as communities organized around the cultures, values, and norms associated with different industries. The geographic and industrial settings vary from oyster harvesting in Louisiana to mining communities in Appalachia to farmers in Puerto Rico. The research frameworks include case studies (in one report of a single family), surveys, and secondary analyses of census and current population survey data. The real contribution of the collection is the idea that place matters, and that combining the concepts of work and community provides a picture of the changes that are occurring in rural areas caused by the restructuring of the US economy. The volume represents a unique set of research reports that reaffirms that globalization is, in the end, a local phenomenon. Those interested in community and the sociology of work will find this collection extremely insightful and useful. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division under-graduates and above.

Choice
September 2004