Identity and Economic Performance

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 568, S. 128-139

Abstract

Challenges the view that reductions in the employment of less-skilled Americans during recent decades are the result of a deterioration in work values. Rather, the key determinants have been deteriorating earnings opportunities & the poor's assimilation of mainstream values. Urbanization facilitates less-skilled workers' assimilation of preferences for high standards of living & egalitarian interpersonal relations found in advanced economic democracies. The rewards received in the competition for jobs become major affirmations or denials of the validity of self-perceptions. Demand for public respect induces people to avoid jobs perceived to be demeaning even as the proportion of such jobs increases. The discussion draws on scientific data as well as personal documents (autobiography & rap music) to construct subject-centered analyses of behavior. The data enrich the contextual basis for explaining behaviors of low-status men labeled the "malcontented.". 16 References. Adapted from the source document.