Ever wondered what it would be like to be a street magician in Paris? A fish farmer in Norway? A costume designer in Bollywood? This playful and accessible look at different types of work around the world delivers a wealth of information and advice about a wide array of jobs and professions. The value of this book is twofold: For young people or middle-aged people who are undecided about their career paths and feel constrained in their choices, A World of Work offers an expansive vision. For ethnographers, this book offers an excellent example of using the practical details of everyday life to shed light on larger structural issues.

Each chapter in this collection of ethnographic fiction could be considered a job manual. Yet not any typical job manual-to do justice to the ways details about jobs are conveyed in culturally specific ways, the authors adopt a range of voices and perspectives. One chapter is written as though it was a letter from an older sister counseling her brother on how to be a doctor in Malawi. Another is framed as a eulogy for a well-loved village magistrate in Papua New Guinea who may have been killed by sorcery.

Beneath the novelty of the examples are some serious messages that Ilana Gershon highlights in her introduction. These ethnographies reveal the connection between work and culture, the impact of societal values on the conditions of employment. Readers will be surprised at how much they can learn about an entire culture by being given the chance to understand just one occupation.

About the Author

Ilana Gershon is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University. She is the author of The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media and No Family Is an Island: Cultural Expertise among Samoans in Diaspora, both from Cornell. Jean Lave is Professor of Education and Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Cognition in Practice, coauthor of Understanding Practice and Situated Learning, and coeditor of History in Person.

Reviews
"I read with real pleasure and enjoyment this imaginative collection of essays produced mostly by established anthropologists, and a few others who are practitioners of their crafts, on a quirky diversity of jobs. Charmingly, Ilana Gershon offers this collection as 'a graduation gift to my students, a bouquet of possibilities so that you can start thinking in concrete detail about what you need to know to do many different kinds of unusual jobs.' A very valuable gift indeed for the sorts of job markets that a highly cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse college student body faces today. I was charmed by its imaginative and readable format, and A World of Work is also quite a deep collection on the nature of work in a number of specializations. It is for anyone who enjoys the drama, humor, and achievement of applying learned skills in everyday life." -- George E. Marcus, Director of the Center for Ethnography, University of California, Irvine, co,-author of Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary
"This delightful book takes the reader into the everyday work lives of people all over the world. What is it like to be doctor in Malawi, a magician in Paris, a crime scene investigator in Sweden? Each chapter is unexpected and engaging. You'll discover your own work and cultural underpinnings by experiencing how different life is for others. This is the most interesting and entertaining job-oriented book I've read in a long time." -- Nicholas Lore, best-selling author of The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success


Awards
Winner of Honorable mention, Society for the Anthropology of Work Book Prize (SAW Prize) 2017.



Book Information
ISBN 9780801456855
Author Ilana M. Gershon
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 18mm