Net-works: Workplace Change in the Global Economy primarily discusses how sociology may be applied to the Global Net-Work Economy and the changing workplace. It demonstrates how the sociological perspective has both explanatory power and extraordinary practical applicability to the world of work and employment in the emerging global economy. Finkelstein argues that it is more accurate to think of work organizations as Net-Works, a new form of organization that links individuals, groups and organizations of all kinds in a vast web of relationships that may span locations around the world. Thus, the jobs of the future (and many of the present) will involve a new kind of work: Net-Work! In order to understand how Net-Works have emerged, Finkelstein assumes that the workplace is socially constructed, meaning that we should see jobs and work as the product of the decisions people have made throughout history and in particular social contexts. The book argues that we should not take current workplace arrangements as a given. This is why it offers a way to understand the world of work both critically and practically. Net-works presents alternatives to rigid bureaucracies and divisive hierarchies, and the practical steps that can be taken to create workplace change, arguing that such changes must not only be organizational but also societal and on a global scale.
About the Author: Marvin Finkelstein is professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He received his Masters Degree in Labor and Industrial Relations and Ph.D. in Sociology from Michigan State University. He was President of the Faculty Senate at SIUE and is Executive Director of the Labor Management Committee Southwestern Illinois. He developed an Applied Sociology Program in Employment Relations in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies at SIUE. He established the SIUE Problem Solving Center that helps groups solve problems more effectively using cutting edge computer software. He has been an advisor, consultant, and trainer for labor and management for over 20 years. He has coordinated the Construction Foreman Development Program at SIUE for five years and has been an instructor in that program since 1995. He has published several articles focusing on employment and workplace change in the global economy, and is the author of Workplace Change in the Global Net-Work Economy (forthcoming).