Description:
The Social and Spatial Ecology of Work is an important contribution to the Plenum
Studies in Work and Industry. It is a theoretically informed case study,
unique in that it takes full measure of the importance of physical space and
the built environment for the quality of people’s daily working lives and the
attainment of organizational goals. Rita Gorawara-Bhat provides us with a
theoretical framework for understanding how important space and environment
are for experiential aspects of work as they are contextualized in social
relations, linked to status and role, and embedded in organizational culture
and bureaucratic structure. Her framework is a creatively synthetic one that
draws notably from traditions in social psychology, symbolic interactionism,
dramaturgical sociology, and social ecology. Sociologists will find themselves
in comfortable surroundings; this is a case study of a major social science
research center affiliated with a prominent midwestern university.