Dirty Work

Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America

The powerless do the dirty work, while the powerful reap the benefits.
Necessary work to keep society functioning is ignored or even reviled.
We pretend not to see it, but inequality is at its most dangerous.
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【Editor's Recommendation】
⭐A brutal narrative of contemporary society, observing new dimensions of inequality, exposing the moral costs borne by workers and re-examining indispensable yet morally questionable professions in society: slaughterhouse workers, prison guards, oil rig operators...
This type of work is considered dirty and despicable because of its violence and harm, causing those involved to suffer stigma, humiliation and mental trauma. However, the so-called "dirty work" is tacitly condoned by the public. In order to maintain a clear conscience, we would rather be kept in the dark.
These invisible workers are the forgotten one percent who do 100 percent of society's dirty work. They are victims of structural inequality, yet they are deprived of their innocence.
When work no longer enjoys dignity, poverty signifies moral failure, the powerless betray their consciences, and the powerful reap the benefits, do we have the option to exit?
The arrogance of the elite in a risk society exposes the collusion between capital, power, and technology, stripping the poor of their remaining conscience. After the oil spill, it was the oil-soaked pelicans, not the dead rig workers, that made headlines. When slaughterhouse safety scandals were exposed, diners worried about the meat on their plates, not the abused workers. Programmers illegally harvesting personal information are paid exorbitant salaries, rendering "don't be evil" a hollow slogan.
Civilization hides violence behind the scenes of social life. Social elites, standing on the moral high ground, exchange privileges for virtue and use consumerism to wash away their complicity in evil.
We live in a civilized country, yet we are accomplices to barbarism, seeing clearly the suffering in distant places but turning a blind eye to the evils in front of us.
This brilliant work of journalistic documentary, tenderly written by a sociologist, chronicles the lives of every worker who has been silenced and concealed, delving into the heart of America, exploring behind walls and on the geographical and social margins. The miners described by Orwell and the correctional inmates encountered by Dickens also reappear in this book.
The author uses non-fictional writing and a sociological perspective, based on several years of follow-up interviews, and reinterprets the contemporary implications of inequality with detailed data and social theories.
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【Recommended by all circles】
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our dependence on essential workers, but even before that, there were people doing work we might not want to think about. In this insightful, perceptive, and beautifully written book, Eyal Press explores the lives of those who do these jobs: prison officers, drone pilots, slaughterhouse workers. Without passing judgment, Dirty Work confronts a range of profound and thorny moral questions. It reveals the bonds of complicity, stories that belong to no one else but to each of us. This is a brilliant and important book.
—Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain In this rich and disturbing book, Eyal Press highlights the stigmatized and morally damaging jobs we ask our most vulnerable members of society to perform. Away from public view, prison guards, slaughterhouse workers, and drone operators perform society's "dirty work." This book challenges public reflection on inequality at work by revealing how we are all implicated in the dirty work we outsource to others.
—Michael Sandel, author of The Arrogance of the Elites “Dirty Work” is disturbing and necessary… Dirty Work exposes ugliness on nearly every page, yet its author nonetheless asks us to set aside our cynicism and pessimism and join him in finding ways to strengthen the moral bonds between us.
—The New York Times Book Review
It is not rose-colored glasses that prevent a clear understanding of the real situation; it is the gold-rimmed glasses of elite arrogance that blind the privileged and make them turn a blind eye to the lower classes of the population.
——American Scholar
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【Content Introduction】
Why do some jobs, though both unethical and dishonorable, still attract so many people? When work no longer enjoys dignity, do we have an option to exit? In this nonfiction book on the relationship between work and inequality, the author explores the concept of "dirty work," referring to essential but perceived dirty and menial tasks, such as migrant workers in slaughterhouses. These individuals are powerless, face constant uncertainty, and endure humiliation and pangs of conscience. Yet, the public prefers to remain in the dark. This book explores how capital, power, and technology collude behind "invisible work" to shape unequal power structures, revealing the hidden moral costs of work.

2023-11-01

广西师范大学出版社

mountain

400

9787559860286