The Making of an African Working Class: Politics, Law, and Cultural Protest in the Manual Workers' Union of Botswana (Anthropology, Culture and Society)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.44 (978 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0745334954 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-05-29 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"Werbner makes good use of ethnographic vignettes, life histories, and biographies of individual unionists, giving the text an intimate feel despite its broad scope. This book represents a major contribution to political and legal anthropology."
I found the review if the "labor aristocracy" thesis particularly useful, clear and grounded ethnographically and I was impresse I've just finished reading the book. I found the review if the "labor aristocracy" thesis particularly useful, clear and grounded ethnographically and I was impressed by the scope of the relevant literature addressed in the text beyond the very compelling portraits cases and union meetings that are draw so clearly and meaningfully for the reader. It's not often one gets to consider Fanon, Foucault, Thompson, labor market segmentation, the poetics of internationalism, bricolage, critical-legal theory, the social production of the state, and factional intrigue all in one monograph. It's very dense, yet jargon-free. Certainl
In arguing for a radical public anthropology of worker identity, the book seeks to analyse the cultural, legal, ideological and experiential dimensions of labour activism often neglected in other labour studies. Thompson published his classic, The Making of the English Working Class. Pnina Werbner shows that by fusing cosmopolitan and local popular cultural forms of protest, unionists have created a distinctive, vernacular way of being a worker in Botswana: one that does not deny workers’ roots at home or in the countryside, while being cognisant of a wider world of cosmopolitan labour rights. The assertion of working class dignity, honour and respect, Pnina argues, is a powerful motivating force for manual workers. The Making of an African Working Class follows Thompson in exploring the formation of working class identity among low-paid African workers. Against legal-sceptical approaches, The Making of an Afric