Description
Not hired housekeepers, but people who are employed in the electronics industry but work at home. Distinguishing such practice from the earlier forms of labor such as the putting-out system, Dangler (sociology, State U. of New York) traces the history of industrial homework from its 19th-century origins, and examines its role in the contemporary restructuring in manufacturing and service industries. Then she widens her scope to consider its influence in world economic development, labor market segmentation, and informal sector activities. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
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This book combines a case study of industrial homework in the electronics industry with a world-systems approach to understanding the role of home-based work in economic development. It spans the period from the nineteenth-century origins of industrial homework to the important role played by home-based work in current strategies of economic restructuring in manufacturing and service industries. The author draws a clear distinction between industrial homework and earlier forms of domestic labor, such as the putting-out system. She also clarifies the important differences between various forms of contemporary home-based work: waged homework in industrial and service occupations, professional telecommuting, home-based self-employment.<br><br>Moving from the lives of homeworkers themselves to macro-level analyses, Dangler's case study provides a vantage point from which to examine theories of world economic development, theories of labor market segmentation, and recent analyses of the importance of informal sector activities in the modern economy.
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