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Rifkin, Jeremy. (1995). The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era. 350 Pages. Hard cover (ISBN 037477-7793).
Wilson, W. J. (1996). When Work Disappears: The Work of the New Urban Poor 322 Pages. Hard cover. (ISBN 0-394-57935-6).
Economic transformations of the United States labor market have been particularly devastating to certain segments of the working population. Thousands have been displaced as the result of the shifting nature of labor. This has important implications for leisure studies as issues concerning increasing amounts of discretionary time are sure to arise. Rifkin, a political economist who specializes in urban and environmental issues, and Wilson, a sociologist who is known for his works concerning the urban underclass, describe these shifting transformations, the subsequent restructuring of labor, and the effects of these phenomena on labor, primarily on the AfricanAmerican labor sector. Both authors provide policy recommendations as to how negative economic changes might have a lessened impact on this community. The authors begin by summarizing the devastation that occurs when work is not available in a community. Rifkin suggests that as automation becomes more sophisticated all sectors of the current labor force are in danger of displacement. He introduces the concept of a "workless world" in which millions will be permanently displaced from the economic labor process due to entire segments of the labor force being shrunk, restructured, or eliminated. Rifkin provides a summary of the current technological revolution and describes how labor-saving mechanisms, initially created to increase productivity and create leisure time, have contributed to the reduction of wages and the threatening of livelihoods. He discusses the efforts of previous economic transformations and emphasizes that though these were devastating to certain segments of the labor force, other sectors of the economy were able to open and absorb the displaced workers. In the face of advancing automation, Rifkin argues, all sectors of the labor force are struggling for continued existence.
Building on Rifkin's ideas, Wilson (1980, 1987) argues that the disappearance of work and the consequences thereof are largely responsible for the blight experienced by the residents of present-day inner-cities. Due primarily to economic transformations in the labor sector, the current epidemic of joblessness has had devastating effects on the...