Jones's Minimal: Low-Wage Labor in the United States(SUNY series in the Anthropology of Work)

This book addresses the ways employers in American industries use race, gender, ethnicity, and institutions of the state and the church to manipulate workers' networks and communities, and ultimately, to control the supplies and characteristics of their labor. Griffith focuses on the labor processes in the seafood and poultry processing industries, paying particular attention to the growing use of new immigrant workers, women, and minority workers. He traces relationships between capitalist expansion overseas in peasant and tribal societies and evolving labor practices of "advanced" capitalism in the United States. As such, his work offers a critique of conventional, neoclassical economic approaches to the study of labor.

Table of Contents:
Tables and Figures Acknowledgments Part I. Introduction 1. The Growth of Low-Wage Labor in the Production of Food Theoretical, Methodological, and Empirical Contributions of the Current Work Methodological Considerations Seafood Processing, Poultry Processing, and Agriculture Within the Culture and Political Economy of the Rural South Conclusion 2. An Anthropology of Labor under Advanced Capitalism Theoretical Background: Relationships Between International and Domestic Labor Processes Conclusion Part II. Industry Organization: A Comparative Overview 3. Seafood Processing in Eastern North Carolina: An Overview Introduction General Concerns of the Industry Perceived Problems: Welfare, Low Wages, and the Labor Supply Influences of Levels of Regional Development on Seafood Processing Domestic Production and Labor Market Dynamics Work Settings Organization of Work Work Organization, Recruitment, and Dependence on the Seafood Industry Conclusion 4. The Poultry Industry in the Southeast United States Changes in the Poultry Industry: The 1940s to Today The Influence of the Local Economy on the Poultry Industry Wages, Benefits, and Union Activity in the Four Regions Work Organization in the Industry Conclusion: A Comparative Discussion of Seafood and Poultry Production Part III. Household and Community in Patterns of Labor Control 5. Shucking Shellfish, Picking Crab: A Profile of North Carolina Seafood Processing Workers Patterns of Work and Unemployment in Seafood Processing Workers' Households Skilled and Unskilled in Workers' Households: Comparisons of Ethnicity and Seasonality Recruitment Household Complexity Conclusion 6. Foundations of Divergence Within the Seafood Processing Labor Force The Seafood Processing Labor Force: An Exercise in Classification Labor Force Implications of Limited Entry and Coastal Development Conclusion 7. Family, Community, and the Construction of Labor Markets in the U.S. Poultry Industry Sexual and Ethnic Compositions of Plant Work Forces Changes in Labor Force Compositions Over Time Network Recruitment North Georgia and North Carolina Revisited: 1988 to 1989 Conclusion 8. Swollen Hearts, Swollen Hands: Labor Relations in the U.S. Poultry Industry Occupational Injury as a Reflection of Labor Relations Injury, Worker Productivity, and Labor Control The Developing Role of New Immigrants in Industry Labor Control Strategies Formal Organizations, Worker Organization Among Immigrants, and the Overlap Between Agriculture and Processing Plant Labor Markets Native Workers' Responses to New Immigrants in the Plants Conclusion Part IV. Conclusion: Case Studies in Theoretical Perspective 9. Towards a Theory of Low-Wage Labor Under Advanced Capitalism Introduction Background to the Development of Legal Imported Labor Conclusion 10. Networks, Reproductive Labor, and the Manipulation of Community in the Formation of Low-Income Populations Theoretical Representations of Labor Reconsidering Notions: An Anthropology of Low-Wage Labor Under Advanced Capitalism Conclusion Appendix A Notes References Index

About the Author :
David Griffith is Associate Scientist at the Institute for Coastal and Marine Resources and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, East Carolina University.

Review :
"I like the way the author tied changes in the international division of labor to changes and growth in low wage labor in the United States, the way he related the anthropological literature on development in the Third World to theoretical considerations that pertain to 'marginal' employment in the United States, and the way he examined various dimensions (for example, household structure, the organization of work, economic development, physical/ecological constraints) to give a complete picture of changes in the labor process in the three cases examined. "One of the most valuable insights the book offers is it shows how low wage labor in the United States was integrally related to changes in the international economy. The author makes a lucid and convincing argument that low wage labor is a central part of our 'advanced' economy, regardless of the predictions of ideologues about the bright future of our high technology economy. His careful analysis, however, paints no simple picture, and leaves the reader with a clear sense of the complexity of the problems addressed." - Max J. Pfeffer, Rutgers University "This is a superb book that combines good ethnography with interventions in several important theoretical debates. There are not very many good ethnographic treatments of the work of laboring classes, and this book will quickly take its place as a major addition to the handful that exist. It gives a feel for the experience of low waged work in the industries it describes, it shows the interconnectedness of workplace and family/community relations, it describes the implications of new immigration patterns and the 'unfree' forms of labor associated with their recruitment. The topic is extraordinarily significant and the author has done a wonderful job with it." - Jane Collins, University of Wisconsin, Madison