Sociology of Work and Occupations

Economic sociology is said to be “[a] sociological perspective applied to economic phenomena” (Smelser and Swedberg 1994, n. 1). But to what extent is work an “economic phenomenon”? Of course, there are 135 million people in the American paid labor force. But in addition, nearly all American adults do housework on a regular basis, and tens of millions of them take care of children and other relatives. About half of adult Americans do some charity work in a given year, and nearly two-thirds do some home improvement. But other than the wage work, none of this immense effort appears in