The meaning of work for working class men: Recasting the image of blue-collar work

This study addresses the meaning of work as defined by two distinct categories of blue-collar workers in open-ended, serni-structured interviews. It was found that work has meaning along a number of different dimensions. These definitions of blue-collar work make the performance of such labor a positive experience in many ways for the working class men. They regard white-collar work to be less desirable than blue-collar work. Attitudes and meanings of work were consistent across occupational categories (construction work and factory work) that have been recognized as different blue-collar experiences, lending support to the hypothesis that a common, working class subculture exists that defines blue-collar work similarly for working class men in general. The data show that working class conceptions of blue-collar work are not negative, contrary to many depictions in the social science literature. The identity of the researcher as a blue-collar worker, along with a research design that is amenable to multidimensional responses, is argued to account for conclusions that differ from previous research.