This article explores processes and possibilities for critical learning in the workplace, with a focus on workers laboring in what are often exploitive and dehumanizing conditions. The argument is based on a study of work-life learning of women, mostly new immigrants, employed long-term at an Alberta garment manufacturing plant. It is argued that…

This article examines the meaning of exploitation with specific reference to industry and business. The authors contend that the concept of exploitation--"the unjust or improper use of another person for one's own profit or advantage"--should be studied to improve understanding of the dynamics of the workplace. (Author/CT)

The hidden curriculum of industrial education is the culture of the industrial workplace. Socialization into unions and accepted workplace behaviors are a product of racial, class-bound, and gendered assumptions in a male culture of work and must be taken into account by industrial educators. (SK)

Studies the presence of carcinogenic substances in the workplace and of the personnel profession's apparent lack of awareness on the subject. Examples are taken from the petrochemical, asbestos, and chemical industries. Personnel managers are urged to inform and educate employees about the risks of contracting cancer on the job. (CT)

Discusses how workers at manufacturing firms acquire knowledge and how much training the company should provide. Looks at a study on learning activities and learning cultures to identify traits of a "teaching firm," one in which teaching and learning are firmly embedded in the organization. (JOW)

Discusses new organizations which monitor production of apparel and other items under possible sweatshop conditions in the context of institutional policies concerning production of licensed products with college/university logos (such as sweatshirts). Reviews controversy concerning the competing organizations, the Fair Labor Association, and the…

Special issue includes "Creativity at the Workplace" (Donnelly); "Creativity Revisited" (Iandoli); interviews with 16 people who work in or teach industrial engineering, software, and graphic design; "On Creativity and Schooling" (Coppola, Iandoli); and "End Notes: What I Learned" (Iandoli). (SK)

Includes "Chemicals: Benefits and Dangers" (Obadia); "Jobs, Development and Environment" (Bhalla); "Improving the Urban Work Environment" (Miller); "Learning to Manage Tomorrow's World"; and "Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development" (Doohan). (JOW)

Explores ways in which working identities are discursively constructed in contemporary workplaces, arguing that the construction of new kinds of working identities is a primary function of the contemporary workplace, a function mandated by global discourses of quality management and mediated by workplace educators at local sites. (Author/VWL)

The wide range of reproductive hazards encountered by university employees in a variety of job classifications are outlined, and the legal issues raised by possible employment discrimination claims and potential tort liability for reproductive injuries are discussed. Employer responses to the problem and public policy concerns are also examined.…

This document contains the texts of 10 panel discussions presented at a seminar designed to give the media an opportunity to learn about occupational health problems. Discussed first were protecting the American worker, and disease on the job. Personal testimony on worker health and a case study of the effects of asbestos were presented. Also…

This congressional report contains testimony given at the first of a series of comprehensive hearings on the impact of automation on employment and the workplace. Included among those agencies and organizations represented at the hearing were the following: the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; the American Federation…

The traditional systems used to produce goods and services in this country are being challenged by evolving alternatives. The focus of these new alternatives is on the human element in the work force. Studies in adult work attitudes indicate that a more humanistic system is needed to promote productivity. Inherent in the human condition is the…

This book, which is based on a 7-month ethnographic study of working conditions and employment practices at a biomedical electronics factory, examines the impact that high tech has had on the relationship between management and workers in the manufacturing industry. The following are among the topics discussed in the book's 10 chapters: (1) the…