Pressestimmen
"Why--after a century of labor activism and a half-century of environmental advocacy--is the workplace still dangerous to our health? "The Point of Production" is a valuable guide to the political economy of the work environment and occupational health and regulation. Whether you work for a living, or study work for a living, "The Point of Production" has fresh insight into the utter failure of advanced industrial societies to design and promote healthy and safe work." --Elaine Bernard, PhD, Executive Director, Harvard University Trade Union Program
"This thorough, scholarly work offers deep understanding of the specific problems and broad issues of worker health and safety. Its special strength is an analytical framework clearly linking these issues to the worldwide, class-driven political economy. The book is especially appropriate for public health and labor leaders and advanced students in industrial hygiene, nursing, and related specialties. It will also serve well in discussion workshops for worker health and safety trainees." --Ray Elling, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Medical Sociology, University of Connecticut Health Center
Kurzbeschreibung
How do science and politics interact in the definition of work-related injury and disease? How is worker safety affected by the overall power relations within society? The world today faces bewildering new choices about technology use, the organization of work, and methods of production. Far from taking place in a vacuum, these choices have life-and-death implications for working people and communities. This book integrates theory, data, and case examples to analyze workplace health and safety battles and the roles of such key players as labour, public health professionals, management, regulatory bodies, and the state. It examines the point of production where raw materials are fashioned into products situating issues of occupational and environmental health within their political, economic and social context. Providing an alternative to classical economic explanations, the authors also take a fresh look at the point of production: what is the rationale that guides industrial decision-making, and how can we ameliorate its human costs?
