Rubric: Same as with paper #1
Some prompts for freewriting:
Themes:
The treatment of any of these themes will give you the opportunity to "put to the question" a socially-accepted norm about "making a living."
1) Work as either a path to success or as something that uses up your "labor-time" in the service of an owning class, as per Marx. Which one do you experience more? What is your understanding of the problem of destructive labor, and how can it be solved? (Ehrenreich, Blue & Naden, Dalton, Alger, Cheney, Mantsios)
2) Advnacement as ideologicla entry into a "New Class" per Gouldner, Hodges, etc. Many of you are students, and as such, you are considered as people who are to recieve knowledge as a sort of "capital" which will allow you to obtain the privileges of "professionals." What is your experience as people preparing for entry into a "professional class"? Have you been prepared to accept a particular "professional" ideology, in defense of the status quo? Or have you accepted the ideology of an activist, who works for a vision of a changed society? (Schmidt, Dalton, Alger, Blue & Naden, Garland)
3) Social background: what in your upbringing and early life, for you, counts as an opportunity, and what counts as a barrier? (Mantsios, Garland, Anyon)
4a) Aspirations: Some people talk about "using resources," looking at people as gateways to things. Others talk about "getting ahead," looking at people as actors within a system. For the former, politics is business. For the latter, business is politics, and it's "who you know" that counts. Which way of seeing society makes sense to you, and why? (Mantsios, Schmidt)
4b) Some people talk disdainfully about "supporting freeloaders," whereas others talk about "giving back to the community." How has your attitude been shaped, and how did it change after you left school and joined the working world? (Terkel)
5) The nature of work itself. Perhaps you are one of those who believes that you should "do what you live, the money will come." Such an ideology is, of course, formed through contact with a world of work that contains numerous examples of alienated labor, labor as commodity, Taylorism, deskilling, and downsizing. Explain your understanding of the world of work in a way that expresses an encounter with these problems. (Schleuning, Kohn, Schmidt)6) Some roles in modern society are concerned with production; others with society's reproduction. Explain your encounter with a) unpaid labor, b) preparing the next generation (i.e "raising children".) (Schleuning) and compare your work with that of paid laborers.
7) Consumption