Research on music and work
While we spend around 40 hours a week at work, a key form of popular culture – pop music – rarely refers to work. It is this strange juxtaposition that has led Marek to explore various aspects of the connections and disconnections between music and work.
In Rhythms of Labour, he has charted, with colleagues, the historical story of the widespread singing at work cultures that used to exist in the UK prior to industrialisation, the silencing of those cultures in the industrial revolution, and then the controlled introduction of broadcast music in some workplaces. Additionally, he has conducted an ethnographic study exploring how workers hear music and what it means to them in the context of repetitive factory work, For further insights, listen to Thinking Allowed on Radio 4.
Research on social theory and work
In 2006, Marek collaborated with two leading sociologists of work, Professor Paul K Edwards and Professor Randy Hodson, to edit Social Theory at Work. In 2009, he co-edited the book,Service Work: Critical Perspectives, which analysed different theoretical frames for understanding the nature of contemporary service work.
His 2024 book, The Sociology of Contemporary Work, provides a comprehensive theoretical narrative, addressing key concepts and debates within the field. Recently, he has worked with Dr Andreas Wittel, in applying the concepts of commons and commoning to forms of worker self-organisation in The Workplace Commons. Additionally, their article - After-Progress: Commoning in Degrowth – looks at ways of organising against the destruction of the planet by the current economic system.
Further reading:
Books:
Human Resource Management in Service Work
Rhythms of Labour – Music at work in Britain
Social Theory at Work
The Sociology of Contemporary Work
Journals:
Work, Employment and Society
Customer abuse to service workers: an analysis of its social creation within the service economy
Research:
Communities of Coping: Collective Emotional Labor in Service Work
The Workplace Commons: Towards Understanding Commoning within Work Relations
Articles:
After-Progress: Commoning in Degrowth