A World of Work

Imagined Manuals for Real Jobs

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Pub Date Jun 05 2015 | Archive Date Jun 23 2015

Cornell University Press | ILR Press

Nonfiction (Adult) | Professional & Technical

Description

Ever wondered what it would be like to be a street magician in Paris? A fish farmer in Norway? A costume designer in Bollywood? This playful and accessible look at different types of work around the world delivers a wealth of information and advice about a wide array of jobs and professions. The value of this book is twofold: For young people or middle-aged people who are undecided about their career paths and feel constrained in their choices, A World of Work offers an expansive vision. For ethnographers, this book offers an excellent example of using the practical details of everyday life to shed light on larger structural issues.Each chapter in this collection of ethnographic fiction could be considered a job manual. Yet not any typical job manual—to do justice to the ways details about jobs are conveyed in culturally specific ways, the authors adopt a range of voices and perspectives. One chapter is written as though it was a letter from an older sister counseling her brother on how to be a doctor in Malawi. Another is framed as a eulogy for a well-loved village magistrate in Papua New Guinea who may have been killed by sorcery.Beneath the novelty of the examples are some serious messages that Ilana Gershon highlights in her introduction. These ethnographies reveal the connection between work and culture, the impact of societal values on the conditions of employment. Readers will be surprised at how much they can learn about an entire culture by being given the chance to understand just one occupation.Contributors: Lovleen Bains, Mumbai; Chiwoza Bandawe, University of Malawi; Joshua A. Bell, Smithsonian Institution; Michelle Bigenho, Colgate University; Warren Chamberlain, Vita Needle Company, Massachusetts; Melissa Demian, Australian National University; Ilana Gershon, Indiana University; Kathryn Graber, Indiana University; Graham M. Jones, MIT; Amanda Kemble, University of Michigan; Briel Kobak, University of Chicago; Corinna Kruse, Linköping University, Sweden; Joel Kuipers, The George Washington University; Carrie Lane, California State University, Fullerton; Jean Lave, University of California, Berkeley; John Law, Open University; Heather Levi, Temple University; Marianne Elisabeth Lien, University of Oslo; Caitrin Lynch, Olin College; Loïc Marquet, Paris; Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Indiana University; Chris Swift, Leeds Teaching Hospitals; Claire Wendland, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Clare Wilkinson-Weber, Washington State University Vancouver; Helena Wulff, Stockholm University

Advance Praise

"I read with real pleasure and enjoyment this imaginative collection of essays produced mostly by established anthropologists, and a few others who are practitioners of their crafts, on a quirky diversity of jobs. Charmingly, Ilana Gershon offers this collection as 'a graduation gift to my students, a bouquet of possibilities so that you can start thinking in concrete detail about what you need to know to do many different kinds of unusual jobs.' A very valuable gift indeed for the sorts of job markets that a highly cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse college student body faces today. I was charmed by its imaginative and readable format, and A World of Work is also quite a deep collection on the nature of work in a number of specializations. It is for anyone who enjoys the drama, humor, and achievement of applying learned skills in everyday life."—George E. Marcus, Director of the Center for Ethnography, University of California, Irvine, coauthor of Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary

"This delightful book takes the reader into the everyday work lives of people all over the world. What is it like to be doctor in Malawi, a magician in Paris, a crime scene investigator in Sweden? Each chapter is unexpected and engaging. You'll discover your own work and cultural underpinnings by experiencing how different life is for others. This is the most interesting and entertaining job-oriented book I’ve read in a long time."—Nicholas Lore, bestselling author of The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success

"I read with real pleasure and enjoyment this imaginative collection of essays produced mostly by established anthropologists, and a few others who are practitioners of their crafts, on a quirky...

Available Editions

EDITION	Other Format
ISBN	9780801456855
PRICE	$19.95 (USD)

Additional Information

Average rating from 5 members

Featured Reviews

Darren I, Media/Journalist

This is a quite strange book, filled with humour and quite intriguing, interesting text that looks at the world of work by creating instruction manuals for many different jobs. It is a lot better than you first may fear.

Do you fancy learning how to play a piano without a piano in Bolivia? How about being a magician in Paris? A ballerina in London? All this and more – a total of 14 different jobs – await. The book’s publicity material has some highbrow explanation for it: “The value of this book is twofold: For young people or middle-aged people who are undecided about their career paths and feel constrained in their choices, (the book) offers an expansive vision. For ethnographers, this book offers an excellent example of using the practical details of everyday life to shed light on larger structural issues.”

The TL:DR version: Interesting, obscure, fascinating read about stuff you might never have thought you wanted to know about.

There is the serious side to the book, such as it conveying jobs in culturally specific ways through a range of voices and perspectives, as in an older sister counselling her brother on how to be a doctor in Malawi. The less-serious side is the promise of a humorous, informative and credible read. The astute reader may also take away many interesting points that could possibly be shoehorned into other situations.

As the book notes: “Think about the work you have done. You generally need a complicated mix of skills to do any of it well. You often have to learn some tacit knowledge and have some direct training, you need to show social competence and master some physical skills -- all specific to that particular occupation. To be a magician in Paris, you need to know how to perform tricks without much room to manoeuvre because you might have to do it in a restaurant. But you also need to know how to negotiate with a French government bureaucrat so that you can get a government stipend for being a creative artist. Some of what you need to know can be taught through books, some you can learn only after observing and practicing on the job itself, and some you learn from your mentors and co-workers.”

When this reviewer first saw this book he expected to hate it or, at the very best, believe it would be so-so with the occasional bit of humour and interest. Yet it turned out to be a lot, lot better than that. A splendid curiosity that may appeal to the discerning reader.

A World of Work, edited by Ilana Gershon and published by Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801456855. YYYY