Our Daily Bread
Wages, Workers, and the Political Economy of the American West
Geoff Mann
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 09/2012
Pages: 264
Subject: Social Science, Political Science, Business and Economics
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78E+12
eBook ISBN: 9781469606705
DESCRIPTION
Combining a fresh analysis of radical political economy with a critical assessment of the role of white men in North American labor politics, Mann addresses the issue of class politics and places the problem of "interests" squarely at the center of political economy. Rejecting the idea that interests are self-evident or unproblematic, Mann argues that workers' interests, and thus wage politics, are the product of the ongoing effort by wage workers to focus on quality in a socioeconomic system that relentlessly quantifies. Taking three wage disputes in the natural resources industry as his case studies, Mann demonstrates that wage negotiation is not simply emblematic of economic conflict over the distribution of income but also represents critical contests in the cultural politics of identity under capitalism.