‘Everybody Here Is Just Trying to Make a Living’: The Personal Experiences of Maine’s Blue Collar Workers Dealing With Financial Responsibility, Injuries and Pride
Date of Award
5-2027
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Department
Social Sciences
First Advisor
Sprenger, Audrey
Area of Concentration
Liberal Arts
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to explore the lives of Maine Blue Collar workers including the injuries they’ve received while working in their occupation. Despite blue collar workers being in a career that regularly causes harm to their well-being, many remain in the occupation for their entire lives. It then begs the question: Why do blue collar workers in the state of Maine persist in their careers despite facing continuous injury? In order to answer this question I conducted semi-structured interviews with nineteen blue collar workers to hear first-hand experiences of labor injuries the individuals have faced through their careers and about their motivations for remaining in their careers and jobs. Including pre-existing scholarship about the experiences of other workers, as well as analytical data on the consistent brutality of labor, this thesis intends to analyze the significance of industrial work injuries to Maine blue collar laborers and why they persist in their jobs despite facing such injuries. It also intends to explore the themes and reasoning for the continued defiance within such a brutal occupation.
Recommended Citation
Pickens, Amanda, "‘Everybody Here Is Just Trying to Make a Living’: The Personal Experiences of Maine’s Blue Collar Workers Dealing With Financial Responsibility, Injuries and Pride" (2027). Theses & ETDs. 6894.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/6894
Rights
The author has not granted New College of Florida the nonexclusive right to archive, make accessible, and distribute for educational purposes this work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The copyright of this work remains with the author.