Inheritance and Hegemony
-How the American Workforce is structured by who you know not what you know
I am working on Inheritance and Hegemony because I want to find out how labor is allocated in the DC/Baltimore Metropolitan area in order to help my reader better understand their place within the American workforce.
In a George Lipsitz comments in his article How Racism takes place that 80-90 percent of jobs in America are not announced in any forum. Obviously this means that 80-90 percent of workers in America have their current position because they have an in, a relationship that allowed them to cut the proverbial jobs line and garner employment. What makes this investigation so important is that the American people have lived under the veil of the “meritocracy” concept for far too long. How can people traverse the workforce if they are constantly being acculturated with false ideal of how labor is dueled out in American society? As far as my personal interest in this topic it stems simply form the fact that every job I have had so far in my short life has come from a contact or connection not applying and interviewing.
Historically inheritance in the labor force has just been accepted as the status quo, sons took over for their fathers, if you father was a businessman, you were a businessman, if your father was a fisherman, you were a fisherman. After the industrial revolution and urbanization this line became blurred. Ideals arose, like meritocracy, where the poor started to believe they could go from rags to riches, especially in America. My focus will be looking at current hiring practices, most likely no older than a decade, so 2000-2010. Further I will be looking exclusively in the DC/Baltimore metropolitan area and expect to look at data for both private and public sector labor.
American Studies is an interdisciplinary field, it is important then to look at both subjective and objective data when researching. I want to look at objective data on the division of labor, who is getting what jobs, what do the numbers say, etc. I also want to attempt to find some subjective data, data from interviews or anything that can reveal how real people in America feel about labor. I want to know if people think there a glass ceilings that their class, race, gender, etc. create that keep them down or on the other hand that allow them to succeed.
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ReplyDeleteI like how you are planning to look at your topic from a very current time period. This makes your paper current and relevant which alone enhances your "so what statment".
ReplyDeleteAs far as your research topic, I agree. It's nice to say that is unfair and this shouldn't the way the labor works but this is the truth. I mean let's be real, if you have the connections you are going to use them, and this holds true in more then just the job market. The education system, politics, and the economy all operate from this, "It's not what you know, it's who you know" policy. It kind of makes me think this whole higher education system, i.e college, it a waste of time.
Once again, I am unsure as to how to comment on what you are researching. So instead I'm going to disagree with Jessica's thought that higher education is a waste of time in the "It's not what you know, it's who you know" policy. I believe that throughout college you can use every professor and faculty member in any and every field that you are interested in to be able to "rub elbows" with different types of people who are hiring people in the fields you want.
ReplyDeleteExample: My brother wants to become a chemical engineer, and one of his professors has an "in" with a company in Texas and found out about a great job opportunity for my brother to apply for.
I believe you know in order to decide who will be a benefit to you and who will bring you down.
I think the ideas are really great in the paper, but when you do your counterargument, you may want to include how people use/don't use others to get jobs, etc. From my personal experience, I've always interviewed for everything I've done and I happen to be a great interviewer...I wouldn't make a generality that it's necessarily who you know. Some people actually have skill, but I do agree it's easier to get an "in" if you know someone (providing you're friends with them, not knowing them from some horrible experience!).
ReplyDeleteI could not watch the video, I'm not sure what the problem is. I think you have a great topic. I actually found that article to be very interesting. I think it is so sad how some things still haven't changed. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteYou make the topic of inheritance and hegemony interesting for me. I guess I never really thought about it that much but it exists and it is harder to make it in the workforce without those connections. I wonder about hiring practices today and what really makes or breaks a person's chances of getting hired.
ReplyDeleteThis is a topic I have really never thought too much about. It is also nice that it connects with an article that we have read recently. It is interesting how you put "DC/Baltimore metropolitan area" because we were discussing in my hip-hop class, whether or not Baltimore was considered in the DMV
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting. It is very true how so many people have to stay in the same types of jobs for a long time until they prove themselves, just because they don't know a higher up. I've seen it in my job, in my family, and just in general it's an unfortunate truth. This will be very interesting to learn more about and see what you find.
ReplyDeleteI support historic inheritance except in the instance where the goals during it's origin are lost by greed. This is something seldom explored; from what I know, and everyone deals with it in someway. Equality is the spoken goal, but someone wants to be the exception. This paper can shed light on the problems of inheritance and demonstrate positive accounts of inheritance that benefits all.
ReplyDeleteI think the workplace is a very skewed and off-centered world that never really sticks to it's word. I have learned from sociology classes even throughout high school that many employers discriminate against certain people for reasons that don't even need to be acknowledged simply because it doesn't matter, but I think that these things need to change. I am interested as to what your research will end up showing us because I think that many people need to realize that there is more to getting a job than just going through the steps of higher education and expecting something great.
ReplyDeleteInheritance is a very frustrating topic to me. I have torn feelings about the matter so I am really looking forward to seeing what you come up with. It would be nice to see factual, unbiased information.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is so especially important, and narrowing it to the DC/Baltimore area will be very useful for us about to graduate. Inheritance has been the main control in determining the opportunities one will have in life, seeing how other structures contribute to these opportunities will allow people to realize and hopefully be able to improve their own circumstances.
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ReplyDeleteAs your brother in Sociology, I know I'm offering Durkheim's Division of Labor theory not new information but rather as a friendly reminder. Establish your take on functional/conflict systems. You could also discuss formal and informal economies, whats respected and whats deviant.
ReplyDeleteNow to make your topic more an American Studies...study. I suggest you focus on the meaning of meritocracy in American culture. The veil of meritocracy and the hidden oppressive practices of the established powers and cooperation have been a long standing them in American literature, art, and film. Pick a few examples from cultural pieces, give em an individual interpretation and use em to bolster the objective percentages and statistics.