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sofijakryz 's review for:
I expected a little bit more. Don't get me wrong, the book is well researched and written, but I felt quite a lot of problems and failures of the society were something I heard or read about before, so I did not learn as much as I would have liked. There may be a reason for that - I do consume a lot of media reports on society and its failures, but still...
The book covers four fields of dirty work:
- prisons (mental health specialists and prison guards)
- drone operators (war being conducted remotely)
- slaughterhouses (operators at every link of the processing chain within)
- energy (petrol, etc)
Tech industry also briefly discussed but more in terms of why a lot of people there, in the author's opinion, are not considered dirty workers.
The strengths of the book include stories and first-hand experiences of representative workers or other agents within the fields discussed. Those stories were often raw, touching and rousing sympathy. The representatives were quite diverse, e.g., the prisons part includes mental health specialists, guards, prisoners, families and friends of prisoners. Which provides a broader overview of what dirty work is, what makes it dirty and how all parties involved suffer from being involved.
What I found lacking was that, as I mentioned before, a lot of problems discussed in the book, have been out there for decades if not, depending on the field discussed, centuries. We know these problems, some of their causes, and associated issues: e.g. which sociodemographic groups are at risk, what costs dirty work incurrs to those involved, what socioeconomic factors and human beliefs contribute to the issue dirty work. We all have probably heard about human exploitation in farms, warehouses, factories; mistreatment of refugees or the poor; issues associated with military. The author cites Upton Sinclairs "Jungle" but I feel that if that book is the foundation of social criticism of dirty work, this book is but a decorative brick on a wall. The most interesting chapters were probably about drone operators because that was something I knew less about.
There are fields or professions that were ignored by the book - e.g. sex industry is evidently dirty work, isn't it? How about fintech - money laundering and people literally forced to look for loopholes in laws for someone' s financial or other benefits? Issues like long work hours, abuse of interns or junior staff, people doing rounds of all-nighters, suicides among stock brokers and financiers? Why does that not qualify for dirty work? The author touches tech but from the perspective of technologies used for surveillance and argued tech people can quit their jobs and go work something else, implying this makes tech not qualifying as dirty or less dirty. WTF? How about those guys on Facebooks and Reddits that proofread/watch the reported/flagged material - e.g. all sorts of beheadings, people blowing their brains out while livestreaming etc etc? I definitely know there was at least one litigation case against Meta for traumatization of their staff who does this proofreading/proofwatching so their content is safe. I'm sure there are more cases like that. How is that not dirty?
Conclusion - the definition of and criteria for dirty work could be worded more clearly as I now remain puzzled as to why some fields were ignored.
There are also few proposals of how dirty work could be made less dirty and how stigmas associated with dirty work could be overcome within given field. Or if not proposals - then examples on how we are faring at the moment. I can't believe no progress was made in the last two centuries. Yes, America, lack of regulation. But they do social activism...
Finally - and I know it's because of the topic - the book is depressive AF. I had to take breaks from it. Yes, that (depression) was expected but not the level.
Overall, I think it is a worthy read if you do not read much social non-fiction and want to get out of your comfort bubble and learn how sad life can be. It is important to talk about these things even if we feel powerless to change something. If you are interested anyway, you won't learn much you haven't known before.
The book covers four fields of dirty work:
- prisons (mental health specialists and prison guards)
- drone operators (war being conducted remotely)
- slaughterhouses (operators at every link of the processing chain within)
- energy (petrol, etc)
Tech industry also briefly discussed but more in terms of why a lot of people there, in the author's opinion, are not considered dirty workers.
The strengths of the book include stories and first-hand experiences of representative workers or other agents within the fields discussed. Those stories were often raw, touching and rousing sympathy. The representatives were quite diverse, e.g., the prisons part includes mental health specialists, guards, prisoners, families and friends of prisoners. Which provides a broader overview of what dirty work is, what makes it dirty and how all parties involved suffer from being involved.
What I found lacking was that, as I mentioned before, a lot of problems discussed in the book, have been out there for decades if not, depending on the field discussed, centuries. We know these problems, some of their causes, and associated issues: e.g. which sociodemographic groups are at risk, what costs dirty work incurrs to those involved, what socioeconomic factors and human beliefs contribute to the issue dirty work. We all have probably heard about human exploitation in farms, warehouses, factories; mistreatment of refugees or the poor; issues associated with military. The author cites Upton Sinclairs "Jungle" but I feel that if that book is the foundation of social criticism of dirty work, this book is but a decorative brick on a wall. The most interesting chapters were probably about drone operators because that was something I knew less about.
There are fields or professions that were ignored by the book - e.g. sex industry is evidently dirty work, isn't it? How about fintech - money laundering and people literally forced to look for loopholes in laws for someone' s financial or other benefits? Issues like long work hours, abuse of interns or junior staff, people doing rounds of all-nighters, suicides among stock brokers and financiers? Why does that not qualify for dirty work? The author touches tech but from the perspective of technologies used for surveillance and argued tech people can quit their jobs and go work something else, implying this makes tech not qualifying as dirty or less dirty. WTF? How about those guys on Facebooks and Reddits that proofread/watch the reported/flagged material - e.g. all sorts of beheadings, people blowing their brains out while livestreaming etc etc? I definitely know there was at least one litigation case against Meta for traumatization of their staff who does this proofreading/proofwatching so their content is safe. I'm sure there are more cases like that. How is that not dirty?
Conclusion - the definition of and criteria for dirty work could be worded more clearly as I now remain puzzled as to why some fields were ignored.
There are also few proposals of how dirty work could be made less dirty and how stigmas associated with dirty work could be overcome within given field. Or if not proposals - then examples on how we are faring at the moment. I can't believe no progress was made in the last two centuries. Yes, America, lack of regulation. But they do social activism...
Finally - and I know it's because of the topic - the book is depressive AF. I had to take breaks from it. Yes, that (depression) was expected but not the level.
Overall, I think it is a worthy read if you do not read much social non-fiction and want to get out of your comfort bubble and learn how sad life can be. It is important to talk about these things even if we feel powerless to change something. If you are interested anyway, you won't learn much you haven't known before.