Abstract
Coerced: Work Under the Threat of Punishment by Erin Hatton brings together four seemingly distinct job types into a compelling argument focused on coerced labor. Methodologically interesting, the book follows the likes of Erving Goffman or Howard Becker who have compared radically different cases, identifying often surprising points of intersection (p. 18). Hatton uses interviews with prison workers, science-based PhD students, college athletes, and workfare workers to produce an analytical comparison that adds to our understanding of coercion.
Typically, the literature has focused on economic coercion whereby workers lack job security and stability. From a Marxist perspective, this type of coercion was fundamental to capitalist labor relations, “the fear of losing one’s job may compel—indeed, coerce—their compliance” (p. 11). While Hatton establishes that each of the chosen occupations are economically coerced, often in terms of economic precarity, the main contribution of the book extends the literature on coercion to include their status, that is, a person’s position within society.
The job types explored within the book do not occupy the status of a “worker.” They do not have the legal rights that a worker would normally have; instead, they have varying types and degrees of status. For the prison worker, status takes the form of being regarded as a good prisoner, someone who is obedient and well-behaved. In return, a good prisoner could receive benefits, such as maintaining relationships with friends and family or reduced custodial time. For workfare workers, being perceived as a good worker ensures continued access to welfare assistance. By contrast, for both college athletes and PhD graduates, a good worker receives high status credentials, experience, training, and access to future employment opportunities. In each job type, the potential punitive power of their boss is wide ranging and can have huge implications for a variety of statuses within society. For example, a prison worker can lose access to family visits or have an increased custodial sentence for “bad” behavior; a PhD student can be kicked out of the program for poor performance; a workfare worker can have the welfare assistance removed for arriving late to work; or finally, a Division 1 sports athlete can be given reduced playing time, and subsequently reduced professional opportunities, just for not getting on well with the coach. These are all compelling examples of status coercion discussed within the book that impact not only the economic rights of the workers but also their health, familial relationships, education, and therefore, status.
In Chapter 1, Hatton argues that a culture of immorality and irresponsibility dominate the narratives of prisoners and workfare workers. For workfare workers, Hatton argues, they are cured of their irresponsibility through work; similarly, for prison workers, work cures their immorality. This cultural belief contrasts starkly with PhD students and college athletes who, she argues, are dominated through a culture of privilege whereby they are seen as fortunate to be doing the job. As a result, it is a labor of love rather than work. In all cases, the culture of immorality, irresponsibility, and privilege provide a “cultural scaffolding for their bosses expansive punitive power over them” (p. 61) and can control workers through status coercion.
Chapter 2 illustrates that in all of the respective jobs, narratives of compliance and noncompliance are central to the respective labor regimes. For each job type, the worker is portrayed as being at the bottom of the hierarchy with those at the top wielding punitive control over their workers. For PhD students and sports athletes, their bosses are overly dependent on their labor. For the latter, athletes help to provide the results for the teams; for the former, PhD students provide the data for future publications. In both cases, the workers are required to be the good soldier, with noncompliance resulting in a reduction in their status. An athlete’s poor performance can result in a reduction in their scholarship; for PhD students it can result in the loss of academic credentials or future employment. Although the penalties for noncompliance of prison workers and welfare workers are starkly harsher, with solitary confinement a punishment for not serving a pizza slice that had been on the floor, or the removal of Medicaid because of having to do the school run, in all job types there is a narrative of (non) compliance. The chapter does an excellent job of portraying the labor process of these jobs whereby it is not just the acts of compliance but more so an ideology of compliance running through each labor regime (p. 99).
In Chapter 3, the author illustrates how all the job types are subjugated through different strategies, including body surveillance, degradation and abuse, othering, and dehumanization. Hatton does an excellent job in relating both Karl Marx and Michel Foucault to the notion of subjugation. She uses Marx’s framework of domination and exploitation. Both prison and workfare workers are dominated, highly controlled, dehumanized, and racialized. PhD students and college athletes are exploited and subjugated for increased profit. Hatton utilizes Foucault’s notion of surveillance as the main tool for state control over individuals. The chapter provides powerful examples of surveillance, not just the slave-like conditions of prison workers but also the surveillance and regulation of athletes’ bodies. The athletes are quoted as feeling like a performing monkey and are therefore also dehumanized and racialized.
Chapters 4 and 5 focus on the resistance of workers to the subjugation they experience through status coercion. Chapter 4 investigates the strategies workers deploy for resistance, including building on the late Randy Hodson’s “getting by” strategies in which workers are compliant but in an oppositional manner. For example, a welfare worker mentioned, “the only way they know I’m here is because my name is on the piece of paper, I stay out of the way” (p. 146). Comparatively, one athlete effectively described having a transactional relationship with the coach. Chapter 5 focuses on the ideologies of resistance with most workers ascribing to hegemonic definitions of work, for example, workfare workers not being perceived as lazy or athletes being given a gift to play football. However, most of the workers displayed counter-hegemonic beliefs through the desire to challenge for increased worker rights and pay.
Throughout the book is an underlying critique of neoliberalism. The job types all suffer from a lack of basic rights, which enables the workers to be coerced through status. While Hatton is quick to acknowledge that these are odious comparisons, it would be interesting to see how the comparisons manifest themselves within different political economies. The Conclusion of the book calls for collective action from the various subgroups to influence policy that will help their circumstances. While this is an admirable call, it might also be interesting to have future research explore different national institutional contexts in relation to variants of the aforementioned job types. These further comparisons could shed light on potential future change.
Coerced is an excellent read for anyone interested in the sociology of work and/or critical perspectives on neoliberalism. The volume has theoretical and empirical depth, which results in a compelling and deeply analytical piece.