New forms of work: new occupational identities

Ursula Huws, Simone Dahlmann

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)

Abstract

This essay looks at the impacts of the restructuring of global value chains on skills, occupational identities, class position and class consciousness. The codification of tacit knowledge and standardisation of work processes are both preconditions for restructuring and triggers of further restructuring. This leads to a modularisation of skills and work processes enabling them to be reconfigured spatially and contractually and results in a fracturing of traditional occupational identities. The resulting difficulty in pinning down stable occupational descriptions is illustrated from the work of the STILE[1] project on occupational classification in an international comparative perspective. The paper then draws on qualitative research among workers involved in telemediated employment carried out as part of the EMERGENCE and WORKS projects in order to tease out what this means for individual perceptions of occupational and class identity.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInterrogating the 'New Economy'
Subtitle of host publicationRestructuring Work in the 21st Century
EditorsNorene Pupo, Mark Thomas
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press
Pages65-92
Number of pages27
ISBN (Print)978-1-4426-0057-7, 1442600551, 978-1-4426-0055-3
Publication statusPublished - 2010

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