ABSTRACT
This chapter is an introduction to the Handbook of Working-Class Studies section on work and community. The chapter examines how the field of working-class studies emerged out of the crisis in Fordism during the 1970s and 1980s with the collapse of many working-class jobs in traditional industries. It discusses how many of the older ideas about working-class communities were embedded in particular types of work, often performed by white working-class men. Deindustrialisation both gave birth to the field of working-class studies and presented a powerful challenge in that those particular gendered and racialized identities are problematic in the face of increasing heterodox workplaces and communities. This chapter discusses these issues and then provides summaries of the five distinct chapters in the section. These deal with deindustrialisation, health, safety and occupational disease, and the impact of job loss on individuals and communities. The chapter ends by looking at how working-class work is being transformed by the new economy and the idea of gig work, AI (artificial intelligence) and other new forms of employment in the gig economy.
