Working to consume: consumers as the missing link in the division of labour

This paper argues that the work of consumers is a significant and constantly developing field of work, and proposes a conceptual framework for understanding consumption work as part of the division of labour. The labour associated with consumption is not new, but has been rapidly expanding in recent years as a consequence of both socio-economic change and technical innovation. Few goods or services are delivered ?complete? to consumers in the sense of being ready for use without further activity, yet the role of consumers in completing a system of provision is rarely acknowledged in theories of either work or consumption. Recognition of the interdependence between the work undertaken prior to and after the purchase of goods and services problematises any assumption that all post-purchase activity comprises consumption and calls for a conception of the division of labour that extends from the market and world of paid employment to encompass also the usually unpaid labour of the end user. Consumption work is defined as ?all work undertaken by consumers necessary for the purchase, use, re-use and disposal of consumption goods?. Its key characteristics are delineated using examples from everyday life, and the approach towards it is distinguished from the practices and theories of consumption, domestic labour, and co-production/prosumption. The paper draws on current international comparative research in three socio-economic fields of activity (the work of food preparation, the installation of broad band and household recycling of waste) to illustrate its main arguments and explore the varieties of consumption work, their shaping by prevailing systems of provision, and their place within the division of labour

Embodying labor, then and now

In her introduction to the new edition of Women on the Line, first published in 1982, Miriam Glucksmann notes that it had been written well before the body and embodiment had become an explicit focus of studies of work and employment. However, rereading Women on the Line reminds us that ethnographers have long paid attention to the embodied aspects of work, although few of them have written about them as eloquently as Glucksmann. In the original volume she was able to articulate how it felt to experience herself in relation to her environment, a phenomenological perspective made possible by her adoption of an autoethnographic writing style (a strategy linked to her rejection both of a narrowly academic approach and, in consequence, of the disembodied authorial voice that tended to go with it). Perhaps another reason why Glucksmann was able to write about her working on the line with such sensitivity to the embodiment of the experience is that she was new to assembly line work, so the embodied routines of factory life had not yet been submerged below the level of conscious articulation. It is useful therefore to summarize what she had to say and to think about how we can build on it

Comparative Morphology of the Penis and Clitoris in Four Species of Moles (Talpidae).

The penile and clitoral anatomy of four species of Talpid moles (broad-footed, star-nosed, hairy-tailed, and Japanese shrew moles) were investigated to define penile and clitoral anatomy and to examine the relationship of the clitoral anatomy with the presence or absence of ovotestes. The ovotestis contains ovarian tissue and glandular tissue resembling fetal testicular tissue and can produce androgens. The ovotestis is present in star-nosed and hairy-tailed moles, but not in broad-footed and Japanese shrew moles. Using histology, three-dimensional reconstruction, and morphometric analysis, sexual dimorphism was examined with regard to a nine feature masculine trait score that included perineal appendage length (prepuce), anogenital distance, and presence/absence of bone. The presence/absence of ovotestes was discordant in all four mole species for sex differentiation features. For many sex differentiation features, discordance with ovotestes was observed in at least one mole species. The degree of concordance with ovotestes was highest for hairy-tailed moles and lowest for broad-footed moles. In relationship to phylogenetic clade, sex differentiation features also did not correlate with the similarity/divergence of the features and presence/absence of ovotestes. Hairy-tailed and Japanese shrew moles reside in separated clades, but they exhibit a high degree of congruence. Broad-footed and hairy-tailed moles reside within the same clade but had one of the lowest correlations in features and presence/absence of ovotestes. Thus, phylogenetic affinity and the presence/absence of ovotestes are poor predictors for most sex differentiation features within mole external genitalia