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The Changing Nature and Meanings of Manual Work

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Precarity and Vocational Education and Training

Abstract

This chapter examines the changing nature and meanings of manual work, with an emphasis on two poles: craftsmanship and precarious work, which are used as ‘ideal types’. The first part defines craftsmanship as ‘an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a job well for its own sake’ (Sennett, The craftsman. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008). It links craftsmanship with a sense of vocation, described as a practice that incorporates a personal dimension (the ‘calling’), and a social, public facet (Hansen, Educ Theory 44:259–275, 1994; Billett, Vocational education. Purposes, traditions and prospects. Springer, Dordrecht, 2011). The second part looks at several transformations in the world of work (notably de-skilling) that threaten the notion of craftsmanship as vocation and, implicitly, people’s sense of identity, pride and sociality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Sennett’s notion of ‘mental craftsmanship’ expressed, for instance, in the effort of writing clearly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Maria-Carmen Pantea

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  1. Maria-Carmen Pantea
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Pantea, MC. (2019). The Changing Nature and Meanings of Manual Work. In: Precarity and Vocational Education and Training. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02689-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02689-9_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02688-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02689-9

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