Workers' Dilemmas Recruitment, Reliability and Repeated Exchange: An Analysis of Urban Social Networks and Labour Circulation

250 Pages·2022·14.664 MB·English

by  Margaret Grieco

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
WOMEN AND WORK
Volume 8
WORKERS’ DILEMMAS

WORKERS’ DILEMMAS
Recruitment, Reliability and
Repeated Exchange: An Analysis of
Urban Social Networks and Labour
Circulation
MARGARET GRIECO
First published in 1996 by Routledge
This edition first published in 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1996 Margaret Grieco
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-27038-8 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-032-32184-4 (Volume 8) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-32192-9 (Volume 8) (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-31328-1 (Volume 8) (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003313281
Publisher’s Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but
points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would
welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
WORKERS' DILEMMAS
Workers' Dilemmas analyses the management skills of those with least
resources, the women of the urban poor, and finds that there is an
abundance of evidence on the high levels of managerial competence
within this group. It is information which has largely been hidden from
history. This study of poor women's involvement in the world of work
corrects this missing record.
For over a century (1850-1960s), women and children travelled from
their urban homes in the East End of London to work in the hop picking
fields of Kent and Hampshire. The scale of the annual migration and the
complexity of neighbourhood and household organisation it required to
provide this volume of labour have escaped the literature. Drawing on a
variety of historical records and on oral history, this book explores the
high level of management and occupational skills possessed by the urban
poor in their construction of household survival strategies. Above all
this book highlights the key entrepreneurial role played by women in this
labour market and the importance of the financial support provided by
this regular seasonal labour for household survival.
Workers' Dilemmas provides a fresh look at how work patterns, family
structure and community networks interrelate and in the process chal-
lenges accepted ideas in the wider fields of anthropology and the sociology
of work.
Margaret Grieco was Research Professor of Sociology at the University
of Ghana, Legon, from 1992 to 1995. She is now Social Scientist on the
Gender Team, African Technical Department, World Bank.

WORKERS' DILEMMAS
Recruitment, reliability and repeated
exchange: an analysis of urban social
networks and labour circulation
Margaret Grieco
London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an International Thomson Publishing Company
© 1996 Margaret Grieco
Typeset in Times by Intype London Ltd
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ Press (Padstow) Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Grieco, Margaret, 1950-
Workers' dilemmas: recruitment, reliability and repeated exchange:
an analysis of urban social networks and labour circulation /
Margaret Grieco.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Women hop pickers—England—History. 2. Migrant agricultural
laborers—England—History. 3. Poor women—Employment—
England—London—History. 4. East End (London, England) I. Title.
HD6073.H58G75 1996
306.3'6—dc20 95-26466
CIP
ISBN 0-415-02577-X
This book is dedicated to those women of urban
London who annually transported their
cares and pleasures to the hopping fields of
Kent and Hampshire. To the memory of my
grandmother, Ciss Williams, and to her army
of family helpers who endured the discipline
of earning at the rough end of life and generated
out of it a culture of song and laughter.