New Book: Free Labor: Workfare and the Contested Language of Neoliberalism

Posted by on July 13, 2009

[posted to Comm-Org listserve]

I would like to let you know about my new book, Free Labor: Workfare and the Contested Language of Neoliberalism (U. Chicago Press, 2008).

It is an analysis of efforts, including those by community organizations, in New York City, to oppose the workfare program implemented by Rudy Giuliani in the 1990s, and continued, in many respects (though not all) under Mayor Bloomberg.

The book has several chapters that may be of interest to an audience primarily interested in labor and poor-people’s organizing, and some (sometimes heavy-going) analysis of the ways in which these groups
managed to change the terms of debate over workfare locally, even in ways that were not always clear or obvious to them.

I apologize for the self-promotion, but I hope that others may find the ideas and approaches in my analysis useful for their own work.

Best,

John Krinsky

jkrinsky@ccny.cuny.edu