Doctoral Dissertation Research: Working Class Transformation: Collective Action in Labor and Community Struggles

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

This study investigates how collective action affects group formation. While much previous scholarship has focused on the sources or causes of collective action, this project redirects attention to the consequences of different modes of collective action. In dialogue with a long theoretical tradition focused on the tension between workplace and community as sources of class formation, the central research question is: How do different forms (and sites) of collective action affect transformations in working-class consciousness and practice? To answer this question, my study examines three cases that are arrayed at theoretically relevant points along a continuum that delineates different logics-ranging from "economic" to "political"-of collective action. Through the use of in-depth interviews, along with supporting participant observation and archival materials, this project seeks to explicate how three modal types of collective action yield distinct forms of group consciousness and practice. This study promises to provide important insights for a number of scholarly fields. It intervenes in the long-standing debate among scholars of class about the importance of work versus community in working-class formation. It advances theories of collective action and social movements by conceptualizing a model of different logics of collective action and delineating a continuum along which action can be categorized. And it takes these theories in new directions by examining the consequences of action-specifically, how groups are transformed through the vehicle of collective action. For students of social change and sociologists generally this study contributes to our understanding of the different dynamics of economic and political movements, workplace and community struggles. Its broader impact derives from the fact that this study speaks directly to debates raging in the American labor movement today, particularly discussions of new organizing strategies involving labor/community relationships. In shedding light on this pressing strategic and organizational question, this study will help practitioners asses the impact of community-based organizing strategies on working-class organizations and the labor movement generally. It also speaks to contemporary economic and labor market trends as it investigates that segment of the labor force that has become the main target of unionization-low-wage workers in the service sector and light industry, especially African Americans and Latinos who have been underrepresented in the ranks of organized labor. In terms of both the cases involved and the concepts examined, this study thus has relevance for researchers, teachers, and organizers.