Hochschild, Jennifer2019-09-132017-06-05Hochschild, Jennifer. 2017. Race, Class, Politics, and the Disappearance of Work. Ethnic and Racial Studies 40, no. 9: 1492-1501.0141-98701466-4356http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41364232“When Work Disappears” has shaped research agendas on poverty, racial hierarchy, and urban social and economic dynamics. That is a lot for one article, yet two issues warrant more analysis. They are the ways in which socially defined “race” – rather than or in combination with class – explains the impact of sustained joblessness, and the political behaviours that may emerge in response to work’s disappearance. I point to evidence showing that both race and class have independent associations with the loss of work in poor African-American communities, as well as interactive effects. In the political arena – too often neglected by sociologists studying poverty – sustained, community-wide joblessness or underemployment are associated both with withdrawal from political engagement and with the recent resurgence of right-wing populism. Even after several decades of intensive research, we have more to learn about the interactions of race, class, politics, and the disappearance of work.en-USJournal Article2019-09-1310.1080/01419870.2017.1300300