{"product_id":"9780745334967","title":"The Making of an African Working Class: Politics, Law, and Cultural Protest in the Manual Workers' Union of Botswana","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt is now 50 years since E.P. Thompson published his classic, \u003ci\u003eThe Making of the English Working Class.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Making of an African Working Class\u003c\/i\u003e follows Thompson in exploring the formation of working class identity among low-paid African workers. In arguing for a radical public anthropology of worker identity, the book seeks to analyse the cultural, legal, ideological and experiential dimensions of labour activism often neglected in other labour studies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePnina Werbner shows that by fusing cosmopolitan and local popular cultural forms of protest, unionists have created a distinctive, vernacular way of being a worker in Botswana: one that does not deny workers’ roots at home or in the countryside, while being cognisant of a wider world of cosmopolitan labour rights. The assertion of working class dignity, honour and respect, Pnina argues, is a powerful motivating force for manual workers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAgainst legal-sceptical approaches, \u003ci\u003eThe Making of an African Working Class\u003c\/i\u003e argues that in challenging the government - their employer - in court, manual workers’ protests and mobilisation are deeply embedded in ethics, social justice and the law.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pluto Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47025461526768,"sku":"9780745334967","price":125.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780745334967_p0.jpg?v=1763636390","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780745334967","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}