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Dirty work : essential jobs and the hidden toll of inequality in America / Eyal Press.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021Copyright date: ©2021Edition: First editionDescription: 303 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780374140182
  • 0374140189
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction -- Behind the walls. Dual loyalties ; The other prisoners ; Civilized punishment -- Behind the screens. Joystick warriors ; The other 1 percent -- On the kill floors. Shadow people ; "Essential workers" -- The metabolism of the modern world. Dirty energy ; Dirty tech -- Epilogue.
Summary: "An urgent report from the front lines of "dirty work"-the work that society considers essential but morally compromised"-- Provided by publisher.Summary: Drone pilots who carry out targeted assassinations. Undocumented immigrants who man the "kill floors" of industrial slaughterhouses. Guards who patrol the wards of the United States' most violent and abusive prisons. Press offers a paradigm-shifting view of the moral landscape of contemporary America through the stories of people who perform society's most ethically troubling jobs. He shows that we are increasingly shielded and distanced from an array of morally questionable activities that other, less privileged people perform in our name. These burdens fall disproportionately on low-income workers, undocumented immigrants, women, and people of color--and are one of the hidden costs of inequality in America. -- adapted from jacket
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 331.7009 P935 Available 33111010749196
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A groundbreaking, urgent report from the front lines of "dirty work"--the work that society considers essential but morally compromisedDrone pilots who carry out targeted assassinations. Undocumented immigrants who man the "kill floors" of industrial slaughterhouses. Guards who patrol the wards of America's most violent and abusive prisons. In Dirty Work, Eyal Press offers a paradigm-shifting view of the moral landscape of contemporary America through the stories of people who perform society's most ethically troubling jobs. As Press shows, we are increasingly shielded and distanced from an array of morally questionable activities that other, less privileged people perform in our name.The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn unprecedented attention to the issue of "essential workers," and to the health and safety risks to which workers in prisons and slaughterhouses are exposed. But Dirty Work examines another, less familiar set of occupational hazards: psychological and emotional hardships such as stigma, shame, PTSD, and moral injury. These burdens fall disproportionately on low-income workers, undocumented immigrants, women, and people of color.Illuminating the moving, at times harrowing stories of the people doing society's dirty work, and incisively examining the structures of power and complicity that shape their lives, Press reveals fundamental truths about the moral dimensions of work, and the hidden costs of inequality in America.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [271]-284) and index.

"An urgent report from the front lines of "dirty work"-the work that society considers essential but morally compromised"-- Provided by publisher.

Introduction -- Behind the walls. Dual loyalties ; The other prisoners ; Civilized punishment -- Behind the screens. Joystick warriors ; The other 1 percent -- On the kill floors. Shadow people ; "Essential workers" -- The metabolism of the modern world. Dirty energy ; Dirty tech -- Epilogue.

Drone pilots who carry out targeted assassinations. Undocumented immigrants who man the "kill floors" of industrial slaughterhouses. Guards who patrol the wards of the United States' most violent and abusive prisons. Press offers a paradigm-shifting view of the moral landscape of contemporary America through the stories of people who perform society's most ethically troubling jobs. He shows that we are increasingly shielded and distanced from an array of morally questionable activities that other, less privileged people perform in our name. These burdens fall disproportionately on low-income workers, undocumented immigrants, women, and people of color--and are one of the hidden costs of inequality in America. -- adapted from jacket

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