HCCW: Changing Work, Changing Workforce

Steven McKay
Sociology
UC Santa Cruz

The working group explored the relations between the changing economy, changing meanings of work, and the changing labor force by addressing a central animating question: how does who does the work affect the conceptions of work itself? The group examined the topic by focusing on a particular type of work (immigrant work), and a particular locus of labor (immigrant workers in California). The working group explored immigrant work and workers across a broad range of historical periods in California from multiple disciplinary perspectives and methodologies. Most generally, the working group addressed the theme of the humanities and changing conceptions of work by highlighting the roles work and the workplace play in the quest for human dignity.

The Working Group held a workshop in October in UC Santa Cruz on the theme of immigrant labor. They also developing a website and contributed a post—”Highlights from Immigrants and Working Group”—to the Humanities Forum blog.