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Understanding Diverse Outcomes for Working-Class Learning: Conceptualising Class Consciousness as Knowledge Activity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Peter H. Sawchuk
Peter H. Sawchuk*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology & Equity Studies in Education, University of Toronto
*
*E-mail: psawchuk@oise.utoronto.ca
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Abstract

This article poses the question: Why is it that work/life teaches some workers resistance and militancy while it seems to teach others despondency, withdrawal or manic careerism? The significance of this question lies in the decline of working-class community. The question is answered through an exploration of ways of conceptualising working-class learning that account for a diversity of outcomes in terms of class consciousness. The article briefly reviews key dimensions of learning theory, and then, by drawing on two empirical illustrations, it argues that the workplace must be conceptualized as an ensemble of work/life spheres. The argument confirms the prospect for a better understanding of the complex nature of work-learning relations with an emphasis on artifact mediation (i.e. the role of tools and ideas) and participatory structures (i.e. activity systems). Here the content and structural location of working-class cultural practices and dispositions (i.e. habitus) within activity systems are deemed central.

Type
Meeting Report
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , April 2007 , pp. 199 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2007

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