Part II

Work

Defined as earning a living, “work” is an economic pursuit. But viewed in a sociological context, work becomes a system of social interrelations governed by rules and directed toward a given goal.

Anthracite mining was a collective productive system involving “a technological process carried on by a production organization, with a reward system, in a social setting.”¹ Every industry must have a function; it must fulfill a socially determined need. To fulfill its function an industry employs technology and organizes its labor force around the technology. A reward system insures the smooth operation of the resulting system. Functioning within such a productive system, the anthracite mine workers confronted problems derived from both the technological process and the reward system while they simultaneously discovered that the social relations inherent in the organization of work conditioned their response to the problems.