“Workers Are Being Told to Shut Up and Work”
Capitalism runs on economic coercion, presenting most people with the choice to work or starve. But many workers, from prisoners to college athletes, face other types of coercion that exact a heavy cost for anyone who dares to tell the boss "no."
Prisoners from the Brevard County Jail in Florida work to fill sandbags for residents in preparation for Hurricane Irma on September 7, 2017. Brian Blanco / Getty Images
A prisoner ladling soup in the cafeteria bears little resemblance to a graduate student weighing samples in a university science lab. Likewise, a college athlete playing in a brightly lit stadium bears little resemblance to a welfare recipient fulfilling her work requirement by cleaning subway cars.
But in Coerced: Work Under Threat of Punishment, sociologist Erin Hatton argues that there are surprising connections between such seemingly disparate workers. In each case, Hatton argues, the worker is denied the protections afforded traditional workers, and bosses’ leverage over workers extends far beyond wages. When considered together, Hatton posits, a distinct pattern of coercion emerges, with its own power dynamics and rationalizations. By exploring the surprising connections between disparate groups of nontraditional workers, Coerced deepens our understanding of labor dynamics and the intimate power bosses have over their workers’ lives.
Jacobin’s Meagan Day spoke with Hatton about Coerced.
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