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The Future of Work in Massachusetts.
Dignity, Pride, Care.Man Looking at Films.

Research and Book

One of the central goals of the Future of Work project is to advance the state of our knowledge about work and its future in Massachusetts. With this in mind, we commissioned twelve pieces of original research covering a wide range of topics. The findings from this research will be presented at our statewide conference in Boston in April. They will also be gathered in an edited volume to be published by the University of Massachusetts Press. Drafts of the papers are available below.

The Future of Work in Massachusetts

Tom Juravich (editor)

  • Tom Juravich. “Introduction: The Future of Work in Massachusetts.”

Part I: An Overview of the Economy, Work, and the People Who Do It

  • Mark Brenner. “The Massachusetts Economy: A Growing Divide with Uneven Prospects.”
    read paper
  • Xiaogang Deng and Lening Zhang. “The Historical Patterns of Occupational Attainment of Racial Minorities in Massachusetts: An Analysis of the 1974-2002 Current Population Survey Data.”
    read paper
  • Marlene Kim. “Low-Wage Women Workers in Massachusetts.”
    read paper
    view tables

Part II: Massachusetts in the Global Economy: Production Shifts, Outsourcing and Deindustrialization

  • Stephanie Luce and Kate Bronfenbrenner. “Capital Mobility and Job Loss in Massachusetts: A Look at Corporate Restructuring, Production Shifts, and Outsourcing.”
    read paper
    view figures
    view tables
  • Robert Forrant. “Greater Springfield Deindustrialization: Staggering Job Loss, Shrinking Revenue Base, and Grinding Decline.”
    read paper
  • Daniel Georgianna and Corinn Williams. “The New Division of Labor in Massachusetts.”
    read paper
    view figures

Part III: Beyond the Massachusetts Miracle: The Future of High-Tech

  • Sarah Kuhn and Paula Rayman. “Software and Internet Industry Workers in Massachusetts: Findings and Implications for the Future of Work.”
    read paper
  • William Lazonick and Steven Quimby, “Transitions of a Displaced High-Tech Laborforce.”
    read paper

Part IV: On the Job: The Changing Nature of Work and the Workplace in Massachusetts

  • Dan Clawson, Naomi Gerstel, and Dana Huyser. “Doing, Negotiating, and Contesting Work Time: A Preliminary Analysis of Class and Gender in Four Medical Occupations.”
    read paper
  • Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessin. “Call Centers and the Postal Service: Looking at the Future of Work in Massachusetts.”
    read paper
  • Randall P. Wilson. “Career Ladders in the Massachusetts Long-term Care Sector: Prospects for Job Mobility in the New Economy.”
    read paper

Part V: More Than a Paycheck: Work and Family in Massachusetts

  • Maureen Perry-Jenkins, Heather Bourne, and Karen Meteyer. “Work-Family Challenges for Blue-Collar Parents.”
    read paper
  • Randy Albelda and Alan Clayton-Matthews. “Love’s Labor’s Lost?: The Costs and Benefits of Paid Family and Medical Leave in Massachusetts”
    read paper
    view tables

A Joint Project of the Labor Centers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, and Lowell.

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Labor Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst

© 2005 University of Massachusetts Amherst
website design by Gravity Switch | photography by Paul Shoul | website coordinator Tom Juravich