The Sociology of Occupations at Cambridge

Samenvatting

What has been called the Cambridge school of industrial sociology has recently been the center of interest for its emphasis on orientations to work as an alternative to primary group pressures or the sociotechnical organization of work in the attempt to explain worker attitudes. In a study of manual and clerical workers in 3 firms in Luton, England, a Cambridge research team was particularly interested in the manual workers' instrumentalism as the reason why they chose motor car production jobs. Their social position rather than the work itself generates their alienation. This research was set in the discussion of the effect of affluence on the wc. More recently another Cambridge research team has been using the concept of orientation to work in the study of union membership (especially with regard to white collar workers) among whom a large minority of their organizations are 'company unions'. Thus in spite of a complete change of personnel at Cambridge some continuity in conceptualization is noticeable, although it is perhaps too early yet to talk of a Cambridge school. AA