Archive: WCP
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WCP: Middle-Class Influence vs. Working-Class Character
Children start learning the culture of their social class early on, and those lessons shape not only their own behavior and opportunities but also the way others respond to them. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective, Jack Metzgar reviews Jessica Calarco’s book on how middle-class children learn to negotiate for better opportunities, while working-class children are taught to be deferential.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Labor’s Day, More or Less?
The U.S. labor movement is facing bitter legal and political attacks. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective Wade Rathke asserts that the talk of unions dying off is greatly exaggerated. Rathke points to a surge of worker-led organizing across the country and the ability of unions in other parts of the world to thrive in even harder circumstances than the ones set by Janus.
Categories: Bargaining for the Common Good, Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Sorry to Bother You: A Spectacle That Teaches
Among labor activists, summer movie-going wasn’t defined by another high-budget action film or carefree 70’s themed musical, but by Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You. In this week’s Working-Class perspectives, Kathy M. Newman reviews the film and discusses how its production is reflective of a changing Hollywood that is becoming more accepting of pro-union politics.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Real Government Help for Working-Class People
n the wake of the Great Recession, many analysists have come to praise current unemployment statistics, but unemployment numbers do not represent underemployment. In this week’s Working-Class Perspectives, Michelle M Tokarczyk argues for the creation of a federal jobs program designed to place recent college graduates, especially graduates from working-class communities, into jobs that reflect their education.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Black Working-Class Voices Doing It for Themselves
For many working-class people of color it can be difficult, if not impossible, to find mainstream narratives that reflect their experiences. In Working-Class Perspectives, Adjoa Wiredu explores her experiences growing up in an environment lacking these narratives, and describes the work being done to create and popularize independent black narratives.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Iowa’s Next Election: Bridging the Urban-Rural and Class Divide
Since the 2016 election of Donald Trump, many pundits have speculated about exactly what role rural and working-class voters had in his victory. In Working-Class Perspectives, Christopher R. Martin examines those theories in his home state of Iowa, and explores how education, income, and geography are correlated with counties that turned towards Trump in 2016.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Working-Class Pride: Promise or Peril?
Unions, theologians, and many cultural icons have sought to portray working-class jobs as a source of pride, but that pride has often been turned into a weapon. In this week's Working-Class Perspectiv
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: This Is Your Daughter’s Labor Movement
As the challenges facing the labor movement continue to change, so does the composition of the labor movement itself. In this week’s Working-Class Perspective’s, Lane Windham discusses how women are leading the labor movement and creating innovative strategies to address the movement’s future.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Relocating the Dream: Working-Class History as History and Spectacle
As affordable urban housing becomes increasingly inaccessible for working-class families, working-class housing can be portrayed as a thing of the past. In Working-Class Perspectives, David Nettleingham investigates the case of the Robin Hood Gardens to illustrate how placing once iconic working-class housing in museums relegates the ideal of affordable housing to the past, rather than a goal for the future.
Category: Visiting Scholars
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WCP: Class at the Forefront: 2018 Working-Class Studies Association Awards
Popular media often portrays working-class identities without the nuance and depth inherent to working-class lives. In Working-Class Perspectives, Michele Fazio highlights the works from multiple disciplines that earned the 2018 Working-Class Studies Association Awards.
Category: Visiting Scholars