Work and its narratives

When I began writing, my work life divided in two. In one compartment, I wrote novels; in the other, sociology. The novel writing which interested me from the beginning made experiments in narrative -- stories which played with the indeterminate movement of events or created incoherence intentionall...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Sennett, Richard
Formato: Artículo revista
Lenguaje:Español
Publicado: Instituto de Investigación de Vivienda y Hábitat 2018
Materias:
Trabajo
Narrativas
Sociología
Capitalismo
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/ReViyCi/article/view/22785
Aporte de:
Vivienda y Ciudad de Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
id I10-R355-article-22785
record_format ojs
spelling I10-R355-article-227852018-12-18T12:48:20Z Work and its narratives El trabajo y sus narrativas Sennett, Richard Trabajo Narrativas Sociología Capitalismo When I began writing, my work life divided in two. In one compartment, I wrote novels; in the other, sociology. The novel writing which interested me from the beginning made experiments in narrative -- stories which played with the indeterminate movement of events or created incoherence intentionally. The masters of this kind of disruptive narrative in my youth were Jorge-Luis Borges and Italo Calvino; its great interpretative critic was Roland Barthes. The crafting of such stories exhilarated me, opening up the freedom of the unchartable. As a sociologist, I worked in another realm of time. When I began studying labor in the early 1970's, the life histories of the people I interviewed resembled well-made plots, determinate and constricted rather than experimental. The American manual laborers on whom I reported in The Hidden Injuries of Class (1972), for instance, served only a few employers during the course of their lives, and hoped to better themselves by small, incremental gains in salary and status. White collar employees higher up the job scale even more orchestrated their lives in order to a climb up a fixed corporate ladder. These real-life narratives were shaped by big, well-defined institutions: corporations with elaborate bureaucracies, powerful unions, an intrusive welfare state. Cuando comencé a escribir, mi vida laboral estaba divida en dos. En un compartimento escribía novelas y, en el otro, sociología. La escritura de novelas que me interesó desde el principio era aquella que experimentaba con la narrativa: historias que jugaban con el movimiento indeterminado de eventos, o que creaban incoherencias intencionalmente. Los maestros de este tipo de narrativa disruptiva, en mi juventud, fueron Jorge Luis Borges e Ítalo Calvino. Su gran intérprete crítico fue Roland Barthes. La producción artesanal de tales historias me entusiasmaba, abriéndose hacia la libertad de lo inexplorado. Como sociólogo, trabajé en otro reino del tiempo. Cuando comencé a estudiar, a principios de los ‘70, las historias de vida de las personas a quienes yo entrevistaba, se parecían a tramas bien construidas, determinadas y restringidas, más que experimentales. Por ejemplo, los trabajadores manuales americanos, a quienes me referí en Las heridas ocultas de la clase (1972), servían tan solo a unos pocos empleadores a lo largo de sus vidas, y esperaban mejorar su situación a través de pequeñas y paulatinas subas de salario y status. Los trabajadores no manuales -de “cuello blanco”- ubicados más arriba en la cadena del empleo, orquestaban todavía más sus vidas con el objetivo de ascender por la escalera corporativa. Estas narrativas de la vida real estaban moldeadas por instituciones grandes y bien definidas: corporaciones con elaboradas burocracias, poderosos sindicatos, un intrusivo Estado de bienestar. Instituto de Investigación de Vivienda y Hábitat 2018-12-18 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion application/pdf https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/ReViyCi/article/view/22785 Vivienda y Ciudad; Núm. 5 (2018); 5-15 2422-670X spa https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/ReViyCi/article/view/22785/22373 Derechos de autor 2018 Richard Sennett
institution Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
institution_str I-10
repository_str R-355
container_title_str Vivienda y Ciudad
language Español
format Artículo revista
topic Trabajo
Narrativas
Sociología
Capitalismo
spellingShingle Trabajo
Narrativas
Sociología
Capitalismo
Sennett, Richard
Work and its narratives
topic_facet Trabajo
Narrativas
Sociología
Capitalismo
author Sennett, Richard
author_facet Sennett, Richard
author_sort Sennett, Richard
title Work and its narratives
title_short Work and its narratives
title_full Work and its narratives
title_fullStr Work and its narratives
title_full_unstemmed Work and its narratives
title_sort work and its narratives
description When I began writing, my work life divided in two. In one compartment, I wrote novels; in the other, sociology. The novel writing which interested me from the beginning made experiments in narrative -- stories which played with the indeterminate movement of events or created incoherence intentionally. The masters of this kind of disruptive narrative in my youth were Jorge-Luis Borges and Italo Calvino; its great interpretative critic was Roland Barthes. The crafting of such stories exhilarated me, opening up the freedom of the unchartable. As a sociologist, I worked in another realm of time. When I began studying labor in the early 1970's, the life histories of the people I interviewed resembled well-made plots, determinate and constricted rather than experimental. The American manual laborers on whom I reported in The Hidden Injuries of Class (1972), for instance, served only a few employers during the course of their lives, and hoped to better themselves by small, incremental gains in salary and status. White collar employees higher up the job scale even more orchestrated their lives in order to a climb up a fixed corporate ladder. These real-life narratives were shaped by big, well-defined institutions: corporations with elaborate bureaucracies, powerful unions, an intrusive welfare state.
publisher Instituto de Investigación de Vivienda y Hábitat
publishDate 2018
url https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/ReViyCi/article/view/22785
work_keys_str_mv AT sennettrichard workanditsnarratives
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first_indexed 2024-09-03T22:20:20Z
last_indexed 2024-09-03T22:20:20Z
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