Work restructuring and changing craft identity: The Tale of the Disaffected Weavers (or what happens when the rug is pulled from under your feet)

TY - JOUR

T1 - Work restructuring and changing craft identity

T2 - The Tale of the Disaffected Weavers (or what happens when the rug is pulled from under your feet)

AU - Sayce, Susan

AU - Ackers, Peter

AU - Greene, Anne Marie

PY - 2007/3

Y1 - 2007/3

N2 - This article explores the changes in worker identity that can occur during manufacturing restructuring - specifically those linked to the declining status of craft work - through an in-depth case study of Weaveco, a UK carpet manufacturer. An analysis of changes in the labour process is followed by employee reactions centred on the demise of the traditional craft identity of male carpet weavers. The voices of the weavers dramatize the tensions involved in reconstructing their masculine identity, and we consider the implications this has for understanding gendered work relations.

AB - This article explores the changes in worker identity that can occur during manufacturing restructuring - specifically those linked to the declining status of craft work - through an in-depth case study of Weaveco, a UK carpet manufacturer. An analysis of changes in the labour process is followed by employee reactions centred on the demise of the traditional craft identity of male carpet weavers. The voices of the weavers dramatize the tensions involved in reconstructing their masculine identity, and we consider the implications this has for understanding gendered work relations.

KW - Carpet weavers

KW - Craft work

KW - Gender

KW - Identity

KW - Masculinity

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33847290343&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0950017007073618

DO - 10.1177/0950017007073618

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:33847290343

SN - 0950-0170

VL - 21

SP - 85

EP - 101

JO - Work, Employment and Society

JF - Work, Employment and Society

IS - 1

ER -