Non-academic Work Research Articles

'Dear Me, How the Boy Does Grow': Accommodation, Identity and Birmingham School of Commerce, 1898–1970

Commercial education has failed to attract the attention of educational historians. The principal institutions that provided such education for over seventy years, the colleges of commerce, were a significant alternative to the universities. This paper is an exploratory study of the history of one such institution, the Birmingham College of Commerce, from the late 1890s to its demise in 1970. The paper discusses the problems of definition that underlie any attempt at discussing commercial education and the colleges of commerce and outlines the main strands of the history of the college. There are five main themes of its history: the professionalisation of clerical and retail workers; expansion of non-academic work; increasing focus on higher level studies; lack of space; developing identity.

Special Interest Protectionism and the Antebellum Woolen Textile Industry

Abstract. Academic and nonacademic work focusing on special interest lobbying tends to ignore America's early history in favor of the 20th century, leaving the origins of the organized commercial lobby vague. Using the antebellum woolen textile industry as a case study, this article finds that this industry was one of the first to demonstrate the potential benefits of interstate, interindustry coalitions for rent‐seeking activities. Using pressure tactics frequently observed today, but innovative for the time, the industry was not only successful in obtaining relatively high legislated tariffs by 1828, it also altered the traditional congressional avenues for obtaining information from aggrieved parties. This article clearly demonstrates that organized and public lobbying by commercial interests has a longer history than is typically recognized.

Museum acrobatics: artistic intervention and the work of cultural studies

This paper responds to questions posed to the panel regarding intellectual work and the division of labour in the academic and non-academic work of cultural studies. Using examples of ‘failed attempts’ at producing change at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the paper re-frames notions of transmission in the project of cultural studies in relation to questions of participation to provide a framework for thinking about how cultural studies practitioners engage with the public sphere.

Structured College Internships in Geographic Education

An internship is academic credit awarded to students for supervised work obtained outside the standard classroom environment. The goal here is to present the format of a structured internship program and the tangible and intangible benefits to students, faculty, and the employing agencies. We define a structured internship as a university program that links classroom activities to the work outside the classroom. Classroom activities can include papers with internship objectives, resume and cover letter writing, journals of daily work tasks and oral presentations of work experiences. Students benefit from job-specific skills and career guidance as well as skills that are transferable to other jobs such as communication, office management, and problem solving. Faculty benefit through linkages to the non-academic work community. The employing agencies can complete small tasks, meet people who are possibly future employees, and better anticipate the skills of future employees.

Integrating Anthropologists into Nonacademic Work Settings

Integrating Anthropologists into Nonacademic Work Settings

A Sociologia quando "sai" da Universidade: ilustrações para um debate

This article is on the recent discussion about Sociology of Profissions, focusing the possibilities and limits of Sociology in trying to become a legitimate field or production and diffusion of knowledge in the non-academic work field. Recognizing the success of the institutionalization of Sociology in the universities, associations and scientific publications, we try to observe the challenge contained in the proposal which says that the social scientisit may be required, as the professional who has specific skills that distinguish him other careers, by various institutions to do research, planning and to work as consultants. We study four civil entities (in Rio de Janeiro) of great national expression in what concerns the requirement of this professional.

Three Kinds of Economists:

Abstract. The diversity of thought among American economistsis investigated using samples of the memberships of the American Economic Association, the Union for Radical Political Economists and the Association for Evolutionary Economics. Discriminant analysis reveals a complex web of theoretical and organizational integration and separatism involving theoretical orientation in economics, emulative economists, scholarly research focus, organizational membership, and political values. The modal radical economist espouses a radical political economic philosophy and pursues Marxist/radical scholarship in an academic setting. The modal neoclassical economist, radical in neither disciplinary nor personal political beliefs, is found, more often than the other types, in nonacademic administrative work. Marxist/radical and institutionalist scholarship are mutually exclusive. Other dimensions of the professional role, as well as a number of social and biographical background characteristics, do not differentiate between types of economists.

Is Sociological Theory Useful in Nonacademic Employment? The Views of Sociologists, Employers, and Former Students

This paper summarizes and critiques previous studies of the opinions of three groups (sociologists, nonacademic employers, and former sociology students) regarding the usefulness of sociological theory in nonacademic work. Existing studies show that: (1) most sociologists agree that sociological theory has much relevance to nonacademic employment; (2) nonacademic employers are somewhat skeptical and suspicious of the relevance of theoretical skills on the job; and (3) former sociology students have ambivalent opinions regarding the usefulness of theory to their careers. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the origins of employer suspicions concerning sociology and a call for truth in advertising when sociologists discuss the marketability of sociology degrees with students.

PA Comments

Over 100 practicing and applied anthropologists met at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Chicago and agreed to establish a new unit of the A practicing anthropology. It was decided that the unit will represent and serve all four sub-fields of anthropology. Goals of the unit will include: 1) to represent the needs of practicing anthropologists within the AAA, 2) to provide a network for communication among practicing anthropologists, 3) to disseminate information on employment and related issues in practicing anthropology, 4) to support, to the extent possible, the activities of already existing regional and special interest groups of practicing anthropologists, 5) to educate students of anthropology in the skills necessary for non-academic anthropological work, 6) to develop new strategies to serve the needs of practicing anthropologists.

World politics at the Open University

International Politics has been available as part of the Open University's programme of studies for the best part of ten years. During that time several hundred students have experienced this area of study in the unique form of learning and teaching that has come to be the hallmark of Open University courses. It would be interesting to know how the first generation of graduates with an International Politics course behind them respond to that experience, as they have studied a branch of the social sciences that is regarded as especially difficult and demanding in its scope, so much so that an earlier generation of scholars thought the subject to be unsuited to undergraduate study. We have come a long way since then, however, and the typical Open University student is rather different from the conventional undergraduate, bringing to his study more worldliness perhaps—no bad thing in the study of political matters—and a deeper appreciation of the subtleties of human behaviour But this advantage over the student coming straight into higher education from sixth form or college of further education has to be set against the disadvantages of a probable lack of method and discipline in study and of having to receive and assimilate complex ideas at the end of a day of full-time non-academic work, for Open University students are part-time and will do most of their study in the surroundings of their own homes. These circumstances influence the designers of Open University course. In the market place of adult education the consumer is sovereign. Certainly in large urban areas many different educational bodies compete for the adult student and Open University courses have to be designed with this competition in mind. Programmes of study must be carefully structured to provide for set amounts of material to be mastered in a limited period of time. There has also to be clear direction to courses, with signposts in the form of self-assessment exercises and suitable pauses built into course texts to allow for ‘digestion’ and to ensure that the right route is followed. To achieve these ends packages of learning materials are prepared by Open University staff and mailed to students in their own homes, supported usually by a course reader, some set books, and reinforced by the back-up of television and radio. This form of learning parallels conventional methods only in that periodical tutorials with groups of students are conducted by the Open University's part-time tutorial staff.

Sex and Race Differences in Nonacademic Wages on a University Campus

This study tests the hypothesis that, when other variables are taken into account, race and sex are not statistically significant in explaining wages in different occupations. The results, using data for the nonacademic work force of a large university campus, do not support the hypothesis. On the contrary, they show that sex and race influence the pattern of wage rates and earnings by occupation. Albeit the study has limitations, the results point to the conclusion that discrimination is a factor in determining rewards by occupation.

Job evaluation of nonacademic work at the University of Illinois.

Job evaluation of nonacademic work at the University of Illinois.