ABSTRACT
Historians studying work as culture could work comparatively if they shared theoretical framework and vocabulary for what sociologists have dubbed “the social drama of work.” The actors include the practitioner of the occupation; clients who consume products or services; colleagues in the same occupation; coworkers in the same workshop; and laypeople, or other members of society. Persons in these roles learn how to express and negotiate the particular aspects of trust and distrust, conflict and cooperation, communication and miscommunication that arise from technique and object of technique. As practitioners move from apprentice to master in the hierarchy of the occupation, they learn both technique and the culture of the occupation: their proper place in the social drama of work.
