Society for the Anthropology of Work

ANGELA JANCIUS, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

New Program Co-Chair's Introduction
By Charles Menzies (SAW Program Co-Editor)

I am pleased to have this chance to introduce myself as one of the Program Co-Chairs (working with Sharryn Kasmir) for SAW's 2007 AAA conference contributions.

My research is based in two primary fields - the northeast coast of North America and Western Europe. In both locales I study coastal communities.
I am particularly interested in the ways in which people organize their participation in the production process and how this has "cultural"
manifestations. In my work on the northwest coast I have become increasingly focused on the role of local ecological knowledge as an alternative place to develop natural resource management models. In this domain I work closely with the Kitkatla community of northern British Columbia. My western European work shares a focus on costal communities, but relates more with the impact of globalization on the capacity of artisan fishers to survive. I am currently engaged in two primary collaborative and community based projects. One is in B.C. and the other is based in Le Guilvinec, France. Further details can be found at www.charlesmenzies.ca and www.ecoknow.ca. I look forward to working with the SAW team as we develop a program for the 2007 meetings.


Call for Invited Session Proposals
By Sharryn Kasmir (SAW Program Editor)

Sharryn Kasmir and Charles Menzies, program co-editors for the 2007 AAA meeting, are now soliciting proposals for SAW Invited Sessions. Panels that address next year's conference theme of "Difference, (In)equality, & Justice" through the lens of work are particularly welcome. Submit name(s) of organizer(s), session title and abstract, names and paper titles for all presenters, and name(s) of discussant(s) (if any) no later than February 15th to Sharryn.M.Kasmir@hofstra.edu and cmenzies@interchange.ubc.ca.
Good Work: A Review

By Jim Weil (SAW President)

While practitioners of the anthropology of work continue to investigate various themes in diverse settings, concern with meanings and values constantly arises. Even when they are not topics of research, such matters often come into focus during contemplation of ethnographic findings. Under prevailing economic and political conditions, many people question the purposes and implications of their work. They may even solicit opinions from anthropologists in the field (who engage in similar reflections about their own work).

Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and William Damon offer a useful and challenging framework for approaching the qualitative aspects of work.
Their book, Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet (Basic Books, 2001), examines what it means to carry out work skillfully and responsibly in a fulfilling way.

These three distinguished authors recognize the difficulties facing workers in times of drastic social change, especially under market pressures. They focus on and contrast the fields of genetics and journalism as case studies.
The book can be read for methodological guidelines as well as ethnographic insights. Their model for investigating the mission, the standards and the identity involved in these two realms of work is more widely applicable

Their concrete accounts of the embeddedness of work illustrate the principles espoused, beginning with a dilemma faced by Ray Suarez in commercial journalism-who was pressured to exaggerate and sensationalize his stories, before later joining National Public Radio. Another account illustrates how genetic engineers create new life forms in a dizzying world of commercialized science. Relatively few seem to be disturbed by the auspices and potential repercussions of their work.

Although not intended primarily as a source of practical advice, the book does offer guidelines. Within their critical project, the authors show how "doing good work feels good." For those who experience institutional and wider social conflicts leading to dissatisfaction in their work, they suggest strategies for "expanding the domain," "reconfiguring the field" and "taking a stand." What might they have concluded about the challenges and responses that characterize the profession of anthropology?

Forced Labor In Focus: Student Internship Opportunities in the Anti-Slavery Campaign

*Apply to the Polaris Project Fellowship Program and join the front lines of the grassroots anti-trafficking movement and one of the premier Fellowship Programs in Washington, D.C. (http://www.PolarisProject.org)

*The American Anti-Slavery Group offers full and part-time internships to individuals interested in advancing the anti-slavery movement.
(http://www.iabolish.com)

*Free the Slaves in Washington D.C. currently offers unpaid internships to both students and non students. (http://www.freetheslaves.net)

Send contribution ideas for the SAW column to Angela Jancius (jancius@ohio.edu).