What’s in a Name: Towards a Framework for Theorizing Boundary Categories of Work

• In Event: 256 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 08. Job Insecurity and Precarious Employment III

Abstract

The sociology of work implicitly categorizes jobs and workers into one of two primary categories: formal and informal. The former captures those employment relations that are officially recognized by the state and which (ideal typically) provide all of the protections and guarantees included therein – e.g., federally mandated wage standards, collective bargaining rights, and regulated labor markets. The latter category typically includes those laborers who freely trade in illicit goods and services, thereby operating outside of the boundaries of formal employment, the standard economy, and occasionally the normative bounds of appropriate social behavior. Both of these categories of work bring their own benefits and challenges for employees. This paper advances a third category of work which captures the multitude of jobs that do not cleanly fit in the aforementioned dichotomy. These jobs – termed boundary categories of work – exhibit characteristics of formal as well as informal work, yet often lack the benefits of each while possessing many of the burdens. In this work, I propose a seven-point framework for analyzing boundary categories of work. I then apply this framework to an empirical example in order to illustrate its applicability. Through this, I aim to expand sociology’s conception of the classification of work with implications for both the discipline and workers themselves.

Author

• Michael Gibson, University of Arizona