Author Description

Tinker, Tailor, and Textile Worker is the first of a new generation of studies that promises to enrich the history of the Egyptian working class by situating it not only within the conceptual terrain of the best recent theoretical work on labor politics but also in an explicitly comparative perspective. Specifically, the book draws upon the analyses of shop-floor relations proposed by Michael Burawoy, authority structures within the firm advanced by Richard Edwards, and workers' efforts to cope with disadvantageous job opportunities offered by Charles Sabel in an effort to address two overarching questions: "What is the relation between work and politics and what in particular are the politics of an emerging 'working class' likely to be?"