Originally published in 1996, Workers’ Dilemmas analyses the management skills of those with least resources, the women of the urban poor, and finds that there is an abundance of evidence on the high levels of managerial competence within this group. It is information which has largely been hidden from history. This study of poor women’s involvement in the world of work corrects this missing record.
For over a century (1850–1960s), women and children travelled from their urban homes in the East End of London to work in the hop picking fields of Kent and Hampshire. The scale of the annual migration and the complexity of neighbourhood and household organization it required to provide this volume of labour have escaped the literature. Drawing on a variety of historical records and on oral history, this book explores the high level of management and occupational skills possessed by the urban poor in their construction of household survival strategies. Above all this book highlights the key entrepreneurial role played by women in this labour market and the importance of the financial support provided by this regular seasonal labour for household survival.
Workers’ Dilemmas provides a fresh look at how work patterns, family structure and community networks interrelate and in the process challenges accepted ideas in the wider fields of anthropology and the sociology of work.
Author(s): Margaret Grieco
Series: Routledge Library Editions: Women and Work, 8
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 248
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Original Title Page
Original Copyright Page
Dedicaiton
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction and Outline of Central Themes
Anomie or Interdependency? Reputation, Reliability and Repeated Exchange
All Change? The Implications of Team Membership for Employment Choice: A Workforce Dilemma
The Nature of the Text
The Structure of the Book
2 Rural Skills in the Urban Occupational Repertoire: A Critique of 'Urbanist' Orthodoxy
Introduction: Occupational Repertoires, Skill Portfolios and Household Co-Ordination
Labour Circulation: A Communal Form of Migration
Social Networks and Labour History: Time for a Re-Examination
Individual Employment Choice or Household and Community Relocation: The Scale of the Migration
Conclusion
3 The Role of Urban Social Networks in the Organisation of Rural Employment
Introduction: Social Networks as Search and Synchronisation Structures
Neighbouring: A Local Analysis or a Migrant Practice?
Family Size and Household Organisation: Family Discipline or Work Group Control?
The Value of the Newly Migrant: Irish Labour in English Fields
Industrial Employment and Family Labour: Household Organisation and Reservoirs of Booster Labour
Conclusion
4 Organising the Household Finances: The Contribution of Women's Rural Wages to Urban Budgeting
Introduction: Casual Employment or Critical Competence – The Importance of Seasonal Earnings
A Sizeable Sum: Control Over Consolidated Earnings and Its Implications for Household Power
Credit or Debt: Rural Earnings as Security in Annual Budgeting
Buying on the Spot: The Preservation of Female Control Over Resources
Hopping – One Cog in a Wheel: The Female Cycle of Employment
Spreading the Risk: The Role of Matri-Local Structures
Conclusion
5 A Festival for Labour: Redressing the Damage of Urban Living
Introduction: Beyond 'The Smoke' – The Journey Into Fresh Air
A Fair Share of Country Fare: A Change in Women's Diet
Shed or 'Chalet'? The Quality of Rural Accommodation
Freedom to Breathe: The Space for Female Conviviality
Shared Cares: Collective Child Care
Girls' Talk: A Scheduled Break From the Time-Table of Marriage
Conclusion
6 Social Networks and the Transmission of Occupational Skills
Introduction: The Importance of Social Synchronisation for Productive Efficiency in the Workplace
The Case for Collective Skill: Some Clues in the Existing Literature
Collective Skill and Network Organisation: An Analytic Description of Labour Market Practice
Collective Skill at Work: Training and Work Practices on the Hop Fields
Collective Skill: A Dying Practice or an Unresearched Art? Some Likely Candidates for Investigation
Conclusion
7 Reproduction of the Urban Neighbourhood in a Rural Setting: The Commercial Dimension
Introduction: Commercial Travelling or Transported Commerce? The Journeying of Urban Traders to Rural Pastures
A Steady Trade: The Ties between Traders and Neighbourhood Business
Peak Purchasing and Quality Custom: The Role of Hop Earnings in Ensuring a High Volume of Trade
Discouraged Trade: Local Traders' Distrust of London Custom
'Neighbourhood Shops': Equipment for Cultural Continuity
Conclusion
8 Strengthening the 'Dangerous Classes' Stereotype: The Role of the Religious Missions
Introduction: The Construction of 'Dangerous Classes' Stereotypes
'Slums' or 'Small Commonwealths'? The Character of London Neighbourhoods
Moral Improvement: The Urban Programme of the 'Missions'
Following the Flock: The Presence of the 'Missions' on the Hop Field
Practical Services, Spiritual Objectives: Tea Carts, Baths and the Search for Redeemed Souls
Broom Jumping: A Tall Tale? The Moral Panic Around the Perceived Hedonism of the Hop Field
Conclusion
9 The Employers' Perspective: Securing a Reliable Source of Labour
Introduction: The Mass Demand for Labour and the Need for Prior Organisation
Family Discipline: A Double Control – Shifting the Costs of Disruptions in Production
Growing Up in the Trade: The 'Normalising' of Specialist Skills
A Working Package: Collective Work Groups and Tied Accommodation – Their Role in Reducing Turnover
The Hopping Letter: A Tool for Control
Breaking a Connection: The Shedding of Old Workers and Hiring of New
Social Hooligans, Disciplined Labour: Resolving the Paradox
Conclusion
10 Conclusion: Collective Skill – The End of a Tradition, The End of a Community?
Hopping: An Inventory of Workers' Dilemmas
Grape-Vine Training and Employment Recruitment Processes: The Importance of Making the Connection
Transportable Lives, Transportable Concepts?
The Search for New Forms of Collective Skill: Some Possible Locations
Collective Skill, Communication and Community: The Importance of Social Organisation within the New European Labour Market
Technological Tensions: An End to Mobility? The resurrection of the Working Neighbourhood
Bibliography
Index
