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This chapter presents a new, post-bureaucratic research agenda in the new sociology of work derived from the sociological theory of artist activism. The agenda consists of three themes for future research. First is the generalizability of the Nashville model of artist activism across cities that differ in terms of their mix of art-production and -consumption activity and their levels and history of arts trade unionism. The second theme pertains to the influence of biographical pathways, risk orientations, and occupational socialization through intergenerational peer mentoring on the formation of the next generation of artist activists. The third theme is an assessment of the effectiveness of the several prevailing models of guild-like labor organizations for freelancers and artists on advancing individual and occupational professional and economic interests. The chapter concludes with policy implications for building and strengthening inclusive and expressive, urban occupational communities in an era of risk individualization and identity politics.

This chapter explores the standard neoinstitutionalist account, arguing that it borders on circularity if it relies on the putative prior existence of shared interests and it underestimates the degree to which associations treat solidarity as an end in itself. Building on neglected theories of occupational community, this chapter shows that a surprisingly widespread theme in business associations' activity and discourse expresses collective identities, normative and status orders, and camaraderie that would make little sense strictly considered as strategic economic action. An important part of what American business associations do is produce solidarity in collective identity. The chapter offers a new and counterintuitive view of American business associations and the cultural embeddedness of capitalist economic action. The picture of the solidarity in business challenges several fundamental assumptions about capitalist economic action. It challenges the broad assumption that all there is to business is strategic, self-interested action.

Building from the crisis experience, chapter 11, “Symbolic Boundaries: Distinction, Occupational Community, and Moral Work,” reveals how this system, riddled with variation, holds together as a system of interdependent parts in normal times and in crisis. It focuses on the structured status differences and inequalities that variation in airspace and place build into the system and how, nonetheless, controllers strategically construct symbolic boundaries that bridge status differences, forming a collective occupational community that binds them together, affirming their moral work and resisting the status and identity conferred on them by the social boundaries of the system. Integral to this process, they elevate their status across formal system boundaries and within facilities, on the basis of the distinctive qualities of the work at each place. An unintended consequence, controllers’ construction of symbolic boundaries enables both collective action and institutional persistence.

This introductory chapter begins with an assessment of the Empire’s dependence on the auxilia and distinguishes them from the better known legions. It reviews the history of research and addresses the difficulty of combining historical and archaeological material to analyse military communities in the Roman Empire. In so doing, it underscores the importance of understanding change within these communities in relation to the incorporation of diverse peoples into Roman provincial society. The chapter argues that the regimental communities that formed the auxilia offer a fascinating insight into changing conditions within the empire. These groups go from being non-citizen formations consisting almost exclusively of non-citizens at the beginning of this period to units made entirely of citizens at the end. Crucially, however, the change in their character is not simply concerned with the legal status of their soldiers; it is something that can be observed in their evolving cultural identity. The auxilia are presented as an important case study in the incorporation of both communities and individuals into imperial society.

This chapter examines how membership of certain occupational and residential communities could encourage evasion. With the exception of a handful of communities such as the criminal underworld, this did not construe an oppositional subculture that rejected the values of conventional society. Even members of the underworld, however, had to be fluent in the language of motive used by conventional society if they wanted a more lenient court sentence.

Trade unions are ostensibly democratic organizations, but they often fail to operate as democracies in practice. Most studies of Western trade union democracy have acknowledged that oligarchy is the norm among unions but have nonetheless examined exceptional democratic unions to understand how those unions defied the trend. My study inverts this approach and instead examines two known oligarchical unions, the Australian Workers Union (AWU) and the United Automobile Workers (UAW) in the United States. I argue that union oligarchy requires certain conditions to thrive. Both unions lacked democratic rules, close-knit occupational communities, local autonomy, rank-and-file decision making, internal opposition, equality between members and officials, and free communication, but these absences were expressed in different ways in each organization. Comparing a prominent US union with a prominent Australian union allows for assessment of the extent to which oligarchy was the result of national context. I argue that the experience of trade union oligarchy in the United States and Australia was more similar than different. National differences between the two countries were important, but they manifested primarily as different methods to achieve similar outcomes.

This chapter raises the question of rights: rights that will pertain to all irrespective of their individual locations in employment or familial relationships; rights that will provide some formal security against pressing everyday vulnerabilities as well as vulnerabilities that attend old age, ill health, and other forms of crisis. It looks at three crucial elements that signal possibilities of a positive change, namely policy, institutionalization, and collectivities. It looks at developments in other countries and other regions of India, but focuses on West Bengal. It argues that processes of both institutionalization and collectivity have been slow in coming to Kolkata. It explores recent attempts at creating collectives among domestic workers; we discuss current limitations and future possibilities.