The Meaning of Work
Religious Studies 2400/ FaithWork 2400/ Philosophy 2750
Spring 2005

Meeting Times: MWF 10-11:15am Meeting Place: CC 24
Professor: Darby Kathleen Ray Office: CC 16
Office Hours: MW 1:00-2:00pm, or by appointment
Phone: (601) 974-1337 (office)
Email: raydk@millsaps.edu (This is the best way to reach me.)

Course Description
The question of the meaning of work is probably as old as human existence. It stretches across time and continents and engages a wide range of philosophical, theological, social, psychological, and organizational themes and theories. Most of us spend most of our waking hours working, yet we rarely pause to consider what it’s really about, or should be about. This course is intended to be such a pause--a moment to stop and reflect on the phenomenon that is arguably at the foundation of human civilization and the human psyche.

When we do stop to think about work, we may find ourselves overwhelmed by questions and issues: What is work, anyway? And why do we do it? If we had the choice, would we prefer not to work? Do some or all of us have that choice? Is work a primal curse, a saving grace, a neutral necessity? Are certain kinds of work or ways of working better, or more meaningful, than others? Is work necessary for healthy self-esteem and social well-being? Who should benefit from work? Can work be organized and valued to enhance workers’ fulfillment and the health of the planet? Does capitalism necessarily alienate workers from meaning and self-fulfillment? Is it on a collision course with nature? Can everyone have meaningful work, or must some of us settle for less? Are we called to certain kinds of work by our gifts and talents and/or by God? Do we have a responsibility to serve a greater good than mere self-interest with our work? The list goes on. . .
A one-semester course cannot hope to answer all the questions, but we’re going to give it our best shot! Toward that end, we will read and discuss books, present new ideas to each other, explore our own work history, identity, and hopes, watch films, and engage in a cost of living experiment. In other words, we will sample materials from an array of sources and perspectives in our attempt to understand the significance of work in human life. In particular, we will explore the varied ways in which work and American life/identity co-determine each other. Throughout this process, we will work to develop our analytical and rhetorical skills by reading carefully, summarizing accurately, making arguments, marshaling evidence, and expressing our positions eloquently and persuasively. You and I will be partners in learning as we traverse a wide-ranging set of texts, ideas, and experiences. I hope you’re ready to work on work. I know I am!

Required Texts
These texts are available for purchase in the Millsaps bookstore:
Working in America, edited by Robert Sessions and Jack Wortman
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Soul of Capitalism by William Greider
Additional readings will be available electronically.

Expectations/Requirements*
I hope you will throw yourself into this course and reap the rewards of passionate engagement. At the very least, I expect you to give the course your serious attention. In particular, I expect you to attend to the requirements listed below.
(1) Attendance (0%)
I expect your regular and punctual attendance at all class meetings. Absences in excess of three will result in the lowering of your final grade by one-third letter grade per absence. Did you read that previous sentence? In addition, significant and/or repeated tardies will each be treated as one-half an absence.

(2) Daily Class Participation (10%)
Depending on the teaching method used, different kinds of class participation are appropriate. For instance, lectures should elicit active listening and/or note-taking; alternatively, group work requires a commitment by each individual to serve the good of the group; finally, class discussion calls for respectful listening and informed and thoughtful oral contributions.
In addition to my own evaluation of your class-time performance, you will be required to complete a self-evaluation at mid-semester and at semester’s end in which you reflect on your own contributions to class time and give yourself a corresponding grade. I will use your self-evaluation to help me arrive at your Daily Class Participation grade.
Students interested in earning a grade of C or better in this category should come to each class meeting with:
* the assigned text for the day;
* a readiness to articulate at least one substantive point or question in relation to the assigned reading for the day;
* any written or oral work assigned for the day.

(3) Daily Writing (10%)
There are ten short Daily Writing assignments designed to force you to complete assigned readings before class. The main criterion for these is thoughtfulness: Are you making a thoughtful attempt to complete the assignment? A secondary criterion is quality of thought and expression. You get one free pass on these (one to drop or not to complete at all–with no penalty).

(4) Exam (30%)
There will be one exam designed to test your ability to recall, synthesize, and reflect critically on the content and import of material covered in assigned readings and in lectures and discussions. Your work on the exam will be evaluated in terms of command of material, clarity and organization of ideas, persuasiveness of argument, complexity of thinking, and creativity of thought.

(5) Paper (30%)
At the end of the semester, you will write a 5-7 page paper in which you attempt to interrogate the character of capitalism as an economic system with profound social, political, and moral ramifications. You will present an argument and marshal evidence in support of your argument.

Source materials for this paper will be limited to class readings, presentations, and discussions. Unless explicitly authorized by the instructor, use of outside sources will be considered a violation of the Millsaps Honor Code and will be handled accordingly. Specific instructions regarding this paper will be distributed at a later date.
You are strongly encouraged to engage in a process of draft writing and revising as you complete your paper, using the resources of the Writing Center where appropriate. Only the final draft will be submitted for a grade.

(6) Film Analysis Project (5%)
The world of film offers many thoughtful depictions of the meaning and meaninglessness of work. In small groups, you will view and analyze one film with an eye to its rendering of work. You will present your analysis in oral form, along with a short clip from your film, to the class. Each group will submit a brief written analysis for a grade.

(7) Practicum: “Getting Real in Jackson, MS” (15%)
In conjunction with our study of Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel and Dimed, you will complete a group project intended to test Ehrenreich’s experiences and conclusions against the reality of Jackson, Mississippi. In your group, you will undertake a similar mission as Ehrenreich did–attempting (in theory) to pay for housing, transportation, food, clothing, taxes, and health care with the salary from a job you will “find.” Further instructions will be forthcoming.

Groups will be constituted by the instructor after receiving preference narratives from each student.
Grades for this project will be based on the following: (1) the timely completion and submission of the project in assigned intervals; (2) a detailed account of work completed by each group member, signed by each group member; (3) an in-class presentation to present your findings and learnings; (4) a final written project report including summary of work completed, analysis of data, final learnings, and appendix (appendix to include supporting materials such as resume, job and housing advertisements, grocery list, etc.) (5) a self-evaluation written and submitted by each individual student and including a proposed grade for the student’s project.

Note: In general, written work will be evaluated in terms of command of material, clarity and organization of ideas, persuasiveness of argument, complexity of thinking, creativity of thought, elegance of expression, and grammatical correctness. Specific writing skills to focus on include Diction, Evidence, and Documentation, as well as Synthesis. For definitions of these terms, refer to the Millsaps College Writing Pyramid (last page of this syllabus).

The Millsaps Honor Code
All work completed in this course should comply with the letter and the spirit of the Millsaps Honor Code. Suspected violations of the Code will be forwarded to the Honor Council for consideration.

If at any point in the semester you or anyone you know has questions about the Code or its relation to a given assignment, please do not hesitate to contact me. Ignorance and the absence of malice are not acceptable excuses for violating the Honor Code.

Daily Schedule*

1/11 Introduction to each other and the course
Due next class are: work history/identity exercise and assigned reading

1/13 Work History & Identity Exercise
Gregory Pence, “Towards a Theory of Work”

I. Formative Notions of Work

1/18 Hesiod, from “Works and Days,” in Working in America (henceforth: WIA), 169-171.
Plato, “On the Myth of the Ring and the Economics of the City” in The Republic
Plato from The Republic (WIA 174-184)
Aristotle, from Nicomachean Ethics and from The Politics
Due: A one-page analysis of Plato’s conception of work based on the two essays by him (above).

1/20 Genesis 1:1 - 4:16; Exodus 16:1-30 and 20:8-11; Ecclesiastes 1:2-5, 2 and 3 (WIA, 30-32)
Excerpt from Wayne Muller’s Sabbath

1/25 Matthew 19:16 - 20:16; Matthew 25:14-30 (WIA, 46-47); Luke 10:25-42; 1 Thessalonians 4:10b-12; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12; 1 Corinthians 7:17-24
Small group work

1/27 John of Salisbury, “The Feet of the Commonwealth” (WIA, 186-187)
Martin Luther, from “Freedom of A Christian”
John Calvin, from Institutes of the Christian Religion

2/1* William Perkins, “A Treatise of the Vocations or Callings of Men”
James Fowler, “You Bet Your Life”
6:30pm - View film, “The Insider” - AC 215 (recommended but not required)

2/3* Class at 11:30 today: Attend luncheon program on ethics in the workplace - Leggett Center
6:30pm - Attend keynote address by Dr. Wigand, subject of “The Insider” - Leggett Center

II . Revolutions/Devolutions: Industrialization, Capitalism, and Problems for Workers

2/8 Adam Smith, from Wealth of Nations (WIA, 218-226)
“Capitalism” encyclopedia entry

2/10 Karl Marx, “Alienated Labor” (WIA, 253-259)
Frederick Taylor, from The Principles of Scientific Management

2/13* Dinner at my house: Values Clarification Exercise and Myers-Briggs Interpretation
2/15 Exam

2/17 Peter Laslett, from The World We Have Lost (WIA, 288-296)
Alexis de Tocqueville, “That Aristocracy May Be Engendered by Manufactures” (WIA, 325-328)
Charles Dickens, from Hard Times (MIA, 368-371)
Film Analysis: “The Grapes of Wrath” or “Time Out”
Due: One-paragraph summaries of the Laslett and de Tocqueville essays

2/22 Thomas Cochran and William Miller, from The Age of Enterprise (WIA, 303-313)
Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth” (WIA, 315-319)
Tillie Olsen, “I Stand Here Ironing” (WIA, 139-145)
Interview with Mike Lefevre, Steelworker, from Working by Studs Terkel (WIA, 41-45)
Film Analysis: “The Bicycle Thief” or “Dirty Pretty Things”
Due: One-paragraph reflections on the Cochran/Miller and Carnegie essays

2/24* No morning class. Get started on Nickel and Dimed.
7:30pm - “An Evening with Madame F” - AC Recital Hall

2/25* 12:30pm - “Identity, Expression, Vocation” - AC 215

III. Getting Real in Jackson, MS

3/1 Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed and “Getting Real in Jackson, MS” project
Film Analysis: “Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town”

3/3 “Getting Real” - small group work
Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb, from The Hidden Injuries of Class (WIA, 347-351)
Due: A one-paragraph reflection on Sennett and Cobb’s essay
Film Analysis: “Matewan” or “Norma Rae”

3/8 “Getting Real” - small group work
Richard Sennett, from The Corrosion of Character
Film Analysis: “Boiler Room” or “Office Space” or “Working Girl”

3/10 The Soul of Capitalism, 1-48
Due: A one-paragraph summary of the argument presented in this section of the book and a one-paragraph comment on that argument.
Film Analysis: “Wall Street” or “Swimming with Sharks”

3/15 The Soul of Capitalism, 49-93
Due: A one-paragraph summary of the argument presented in this section of the book and a one-paragraph comment on that argument.

3/17* No class at 10:00am.
11:30am - Lunch program with ethicist William May - Leggett Center

SPRING BREAK

3/29 “Getting Real” presentations

3/31 “Getting Real” presentations

4/5 “Getting Real” presentations

IV. Novel Possibilities

4/7 The Soul of Capitalism, 94-152
Film Analysis: “Pushing Tin” or “Glengarry Glen Ross”
Due: A one-paragraph summary of the argument presented in this section of the book and a one-paragraph comment on that argument.

4/12 The Soul of Capitalism, 153-204
John Kavanaugh, “Challenging a Commodity Culture”
Due: A one-paragraph summary of the argument presented in this section of the book and a one-paragraph comment on that argument.

4/14 The Soul of Capitalism, 205-262
Film presentation: “The Big Kahuna” or “Ikuru”
Due: A one-paragraph summary of the argument presented in this section of the book and a one-paragraph comment on that argument.

4/19 The Soul of Capitalism, 263-337
Due: A one-paragraph summary of the argument presented in this section of the book and a one-paragraph comment on that argument.

4/21 Wrap-up. “Getting Real” final written projects due.
Chittister, “Work: Participation in Creation”
Botton, “Workers of the World, Relax”

5/1 Paper due in my office by 2:00 pm

* Assignments are subject to change at instructor’s discretion.

Please see me asap if you have a learning disability requiring accommodation.