Retirement on the line : age, work, and value in an American factory / Caitrin Lynch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lynch, Caitrin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vita Needle Company.

Older people--Employment--Massachusetts--Needham.

Older people.

Retirement--Massachusetts--Needham.

Retirement.

Vita Needle Company--Employees.

Manufacturing industries--Massachusetts--Needham--Employees.

Manufacturing industries.

Employees.

Older people--Employment.

Massachusetts--Needham.

Physical Description:

ix, 228 pages ; 18 cm

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : ILR Press, 2012.

Summary:

Lynch (anthropology, Olin College, Needham, MA) examines how age is culturally constructed in the United States through a close, ethnographic study of Vita Needle, which employs elderly people. Divided into two parts, the study looks at how work processes and production create feelings of productivity, vitality, and community. Lynch also examines dynamics of exploitation in terms of labor flexibility and makes a case for "mutually advantageous exploitation." In the second part of the book she examines the media attention Vita Needle has received and how workers in turn feel about that. Lynch comes to generous conclusions about the nature of work and the meaning ascribed to it by workers under conditions that she admits would appear to some as exploitive, but also suggests that what her study reveals about work is noneconomic motives for doing it. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contents:

Introduction : making needles, making lives

Making money for Fred : productivity, people, and purpose

Antique machinery and antique people : the Vita Needle family

No chains on the seats : freedom and flexibility

Riding the gray wave : global interest in Vita Needle

Rosa, a national treasure : agency in the face of media stardom

Conclusion : Vita's larger lessons.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780801450266

0801450268

9780801477782

0801477786

OCLC:

757935754