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The Clerk Deskilled: A Study in False Nostalgia
Author(s) -
ATTEWELL PAUL
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.1989.tb00019.x
Subject(s) - deskilling , prestige , reading (process) , period (music) , work (physics) , division of labour , perception , sociology , labour economics , aesthetics , political science , economics , epistemology , law , art , engineering , philosophy , linguistics , mechanical engineering
For some, the history of clerical work epitomizes the way in which technological change and the division of labor result in the deskilling and degradation of work. This paper argues that this perception of clerical deskilling is mistaken, the result of an inaccurate portrayal of traditional clerking, and of a theoretical tendency to (mis)read declines in the prestige and pay of an occupation as stemming from changes in skill. Focusing on Victorian clerks’ own descriptions of their work, and moving to the present period, the paper offers an alternative reading of clerical history and of the dynamics of occupational decline.