Books in brief
The Division of Rationalized Labor
Author: Michelle Jackson
"Marshaling rich historical and statistical data, Michelle Jackson shows how this paradox of specialization emerges today in education, law enforcement, medicine, and manufacturing. Jackson argues that the development of probabilistic science provided the foundation for growing job complexity. As researchers learned which levers to pull in order to maximize productivity in a given industry, they created new tasks for the workers who specialized in producing industry outputs. As researchers developed the capacity to predict bad outcomes—criminality, low test scores, poor health—they left police, teachers, doctors, and nurses responsible for increasingly complicated preventive work. Analogous situations arise throughout the labor force, ensuring that workers across the occupational structure are overworked and overwhelmed."
Jackson is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology.
