Sara James - Making a Living, Making a Life: Work, Meaning and Self-Identity

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Making a Living, Making a Life

In a world in which individuals will undergo multiple career changes, is it possible any longer to conceive of a job as a meaningful vocation? Against the background of fragmentation and rationalisation of work, this book explores the significance and meaning of work in contemporary life, raising the question of whether people continue to feel motivated to dedicate their lives to their work, or must now look to other areas of life for meaning. Based on rich, in-depth interviews conducted with workers of different ages and across a broad range of occupations in the major city of Melbourne, Making a Living, Making a Life reveals that work continues to be a source of pride, passion and purpose, the author shedding light on the ways in which cultural narratives, collective meanings and structural factors influence peoples feelings about work. An engaging and empirically grounded examination of the meaning and centrality of work to peoples lives in todays liquid modern world, this book will appeal to sociologists with interests in cultural sociology, social theory, ethics, the sociology of work and questions of identity.

Sara James is a Lecturer in the Department of Social Inquiry at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. She was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in Melbourne. Her main research interests are in the sociology of work and cultural sociology, with a particular focus on meaning and self-identity. Sara also undertakes research in higher education pedagogy, focusing on the first-year experience. She is co-author of Sociology in Todays World (3rd edition, 2014), an introductory text for sociology students.

Morality, Society and Culture

Visit the series webpage for a full list of titles: www.routledge.com/Morality-Society-and-Culture/book-series/ASHSER1429

The Morality, Society and Culture series publishes rigorous scholarly work exploring how moral questioning and action have been transformed in contemporary social relationships and by contemporary culture. Can cultural texts such as films, television broadcasts and art be vehicles for moral demands? Do we learn what it means to be good from soap opera and advertising? If cultural texts are forms of moral mimesis, then are the standards of the right and good dependent on external considerations of cultural visibility and social relevance and if so, how are some moral issues made visible or invisible, relevant or irrelevant?

Now that morality has become cultural and is amenable to sociological and cultural study as well as philosophical investigation, this series explores how and to what effect moral questioning, action and debate are inextricably entwined with contemporary social and cultural forms, texts and institutions. The books in this series offer new understandings of the connection of morality, society and culture, analyse key contemporary events, and establish new methodologies.

Series Editor

Keith Tester is Professor at the Thesis Eleven Centre for Cultural Sociology at La Trobe University, Australia and Senior Fellow at the Centrum Myli Jana Pawa II, Warsaw, Poland. He is the author of Humanitarianism and Modern Culture, Panic, Eric Rohmer: Film as Theology, Moral Culture, The Social Thought of Zygmunt Bauman, and Animals and Society, co-author of Conversations with Zygmunt Bauman and What Use is Sociology? and co-editor of Utopia: Social Theory and the Future.

Published

Making a Living, Making a Life: Work, Meaning and Self-Identity Sara James

Sociological Noir: Irruptions and the Darkness of Modernity Kieran Flanagan

Making a Living,
Making a Life

Work, Meaning and Self-Identity

Sara James

First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2018 Sara James

The right of Sara James to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: James, Sara (Sara Allen), author.
Title: Making a living, making a life : work, meaning and self-identity / Sara James.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. |
Series: Morality, society and culture | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017017976| ISBN 9781472484659 (hbk) | ISBN 9781315593241 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: WorkSocial aspects. | LaborSocial aspects. | OccupationsSociological aspects. | Identity (Psychology)
Classification: LCC HD4904 .J36 2017 | DDC 306.3/6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017017976

ISBN: 978-1-4724-8465-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-59324-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by HWA Text and Data Management, London

Contents

There are many people who contributed to this book that I would like to thank. I am especially grateful to John Carroll, who first sparked my interest in sociology and taught me how to read culture. I would also like to thank Chris Eipper and Ray Madden who, along with John, led me through the research that forms the foundation of this book.

I would like to express my gratitude to Keith Tester, the editor of this series, for his patience and guidance throughout the writing process. Thanks also to Neil Jordan at Routledge for supporting the project and for his assistance throughout.

I offer my sincere thanks to the many colleagues and friends at La Trobe University who read and commented on sections of the book, or joined me in various writing workshops and retreats. Melinda Turner deserves a special mention for her detailed and insightful feedback that has much improved the key chapters.

Special thanks to my familyReza, Julie, Paul and Andrewfor their encouragement and continued interest in my work.

I would also like to acknowledge the research participants who took the time to talk to me about their work and greeted me with enthusiasm. Without their candour and generosity, this book would not be possible. I am also grateful to the many friends and colleagues who introduced me to the participants.

The belief that hard work is an inherent social good and a sign of virtue in the individual is ingrained in Western culture. Max Weber famously argued that, while the Protestant origins of vocation as a path to salvation eventually died out, the idea of finding a calling and pursuing it devotedly haunts our lives like the ghost of once-held religious beliefs (2002: 313). But do workers today continue to be haunted by the work ethic? Is it possible to devote oneself to a calling when the companies of the new capitalism demand not loyalty but flexibility from their employees? What is the fate of the work ethic in a world increasingly shaped by neoliberalism and globalization? These are the questions I set out to answer in this book.

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