Unemployed Steelworkers, Social Class, and the Construction of Morality

This thesis explores the dynamics of economic relations and distributive outcomes according to displaced steelworkers' own accountings of deindustrialization and job loss. Whereas class analyses tend to investigate consciousness according to “true” versus “false” preferences and “post-class” sc...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Carruth, Paul Andrew
Format: Others
Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2142
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3141&context=etd
Description
Summary:This thesis explores the dynamics of economic relations and distributive outcomes according to displaced steelworkers' own accountings of deindustrialization and job loss. Whereas class analyses tend to investigate consciousness according to “true” versus “false” preferences and “post-class” scholars assert that “post-materialism” is replacing “materialist” social concerns, the author abandons these dualisms to demonstrate that workers use cultural codes of “purity” and “pollution” to represent and evaluate individuals, interests, and relations. The findings buttress the continuing relevance of social class for explaining social identity, consciousness, and antagonism.