Occupational folklife : an examination of the expressive aspects of work culture with particular reference to fire fighters

McCarl, Robert Smith (1980) Occupational folklife : an examination of the expressive aspects of work culture with particular reference to fire fighters. Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (58MB) [English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. (Original Version)

Abstract

The primary thesis of this work is that occupational culture is shaped by the work processes involved in producing a product or providing a service. All of the expressive forms of interaction in the work place are linked to and shaped by the ever changing work process and its effect upon work behavior. Using extensive examples from a number of occupational groups, particularly fire fighters' work culture, the forms and varieties of the expressive aspects of worker interaction are examined. These forms range from substantive to ceremonial work techniques; physical, social and ideological customary activities; as well as various forms of verbal expression from the basic naming of tools to group verbal critiques and narrative sessions and finally to the elaborated personal experience account. By arranging these expressive forms on a continuum from the most mundane term to the more recurrent central narrative sessions and finally to the more unusual individual narrative performances, it is possible to determine those expressive modes of interaction which form the critical center of a worker's occupational folklife upon which the bulk of worker interaction (verbal and non-verbal) is judged. An initial section places this model in a disciplinary and historical perspective and a concluding section details the preliminary results of an applied study of urban fire fighting culture based on the theories suggested in the dissertation.

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