Hidden Knowledge: Organized Labor in the Information Age

Offering an original contribution to understanding an often-ignored aspect of our much-heralded knowledge-based economy, this book decisively explodes the dual myths that working-class adults have inferior learning capacities and that talented youths naturally leave blue-collar careers. Livingstone and Sawchuk document the genuine learning practices of working-class people in unprecedented detail, using richly textured accounts of prior school experiences; current adult education course participation; and a wide array of learning resources in paid workplaces, households, and community settings. Criticizing dominant theories, the authors develop a powerful alternative explanation of working-class adult learning. Their analysis, grounded in the specific practices of everyday life, includes workers' own practical recommendations for changes in learning and work relations.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction: Dimensions of learning and Work in the Knowledge Society: Starting with Workers and Researching the Hard Way (with D'Arcy Martin) Chapter 2 Beyond Cultural Capital Theory: Hidden Dimensions of Working Class Learning Chapter 3 Auto Workers: Lean Production and Rich Learning (with Reuben Roth) Chapter 4 Building a Workers' Learning Culture in the Chemical Industry Chapter 5 Learning, Restructuring, and Job Segregation at a Community College Chapter 6 Divisions of Labor/Divisions of Learning in a Small Parts Manufacturer Chapter 7 Garment Workers: Learning under Disruption (with Clara Morgan) Chapter 8 Household and Community-Based Learning: Learning Cultures and Class Differences beyond Paid Work Chapter 9 Surfacing the Hidden Dimensions of the Knowledge Society: The Struggle for Knowledge across Differences

About the Author :
D. W. Livingstone is head of the Centre for the Study of Education and Work and professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, the University of Toronto. Peter H. Sawchuk is professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, the University of Toronto.

Review :
An important and valuable academic look at knowledge and learning. It is a reference that labor educators will no doubt use over and over again. It shows that, as working people, we are all virtual sponges for learning throughout our lives and deserve to be recognized for the knowledge and skills we acquire at work, at home, and at play. This exciting book will change the debate on knowledge-based production. Hidden Knowledge demonstrates that the main barrier to 21st-century workforms stems from managements' continued insistence on control over workers and refusal to rely on worker intelligence and ingenuity. Policy makers and workplace advocates need to read this study! Livingstone and Sawchuk explore ethnographically the opportunities, longings, and achievements of working-class women and men as adult learners in various contexts, as well as their disjunctures with what is valued by employers. We learn too about related class, gender, and race inequities. This book makes new discoveries and is the beginning of a new direction that will lead to more. Hidden Knowledge concludes that workers are more than someone else's human resources. It is a much-needed counterpoint in a field dominated by a 'human capital' training orthodoxy. In approaching the issues of skills, learning, and knowledge by first talking to workers and through workplace case studies, the authors explore both the richness and importance of informal learning. Hidden Knowledge is an excellent study that I highly recommend; in my opinion, it should be read by anyone doing or planning to provide worker education, whether in the union or in the academy. Hidden Knowledge goes to the very heart of the claims of a knowledge-based economy and demonstrates the realities and depth of workers' knowledge in powerful ways. This is a major contribution to our understanding of the real connections between knowledge and power in our societies.