- 18 Mar, 2021
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Sociology – The Social World
This assignment is in two parts.
1. Brown argues that coal companies aimed for a “judicious mixture” (p. 43) in their labor force.
What does that mean? Why and to what effect did they rely on this policy (according to Brown)?
Main Reading: Brown, Karida L. 2018. Gone home: race and roots through Appalachia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Pages 1–73, 193–205. July 24
2. Mills argues that white-collar work “itself, as a set of activities, offers little chance for external
prestige claims and internal self-esteem” and that “prestige is […] often borrowed from the firm
or the company” (p. 243). What does that mean? What role does this observation play in
Jackall’s explanation for the prevalence of corporate inefficiency and corporate wrongdoing?
C. Wright Mills. 1951. White collar: the American middle classes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pages 239–258.
Robert Jackall. 2010. Moral mazes: the world of corporate managers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pages 1–43, 49–68, 106–126, 241–242.
Answer both parts. For each part, your answer should be between 1 page and 1.5 pages long, i.e.,
the entire assignment will run to between 2 and 3 pages.
• Use 12 point font, single-spaced.
• Use quotations sparingly.
• Use references copiously, e.g., During the so-called big purge at Alchemy corporation
(Jackall, pp. 27–28), managers …
• Only refer to the list of readings below (attached). Hence you do not need to and should not include a bibliography.
Michael Burawoy. 1979. Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pages 77–94 (“The Labor Process as a Game”).
Brown, Karida L. 2018. Gone home: race and roots through Appalachia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Pages 1–73, 193–205. July 24
C. Wright Mills. 1951. White collar: the American middle classes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pages 239–258.
Lauren A. Rivera. 2012. “Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms.” American Sociological Review 77(6):999–1022.
Robert Jackall. 2010. Moral mazes: the world of corporate managers. Oxford: