My ARIA project was about the origins of the 1970s workers strike wave in the US. What makes this event sociologically interesting is that it was brought about in a very unlikely way: It was middle-class socialist college students who provided the momentum for a ·É´Ç°ù°ì±ð°ù’s strike. Indeed, socialist students left their campuses to take up blue-collar jobs in America’s industrial heartlands with the expressed purpose of radicalizing those workers to engage in strikes.
The reason behind it is this: Leftist college students needed a worker uprising to have a socialist revolution, but workers in the 1970s were a largely conservative, entrenched group with little desire for industrial action. So, young socialists decided to become workers to radicalize them from the inside. Therefore, this event provides us with a fascinating example of an effective social movement that was organized across class lines (middle-class activists and workers). More broadly, then, this project asked: How does a social movement overcome internal class differences? How can the middle- and working-class form a joint social enterprise through shared ideals? How do ‘class outsiders’ become ‘insiders’?
Obviously, these are far-reaching questions, but I believe that this ARIA project got us closer to some of the answers. Indeed, by interviewing these socialist activists, we found common strategies used to bridge the class divide. For instance, many underscored the importance of living in working-class neighborhoods and becoming active community members there. Also, they said it was crucial to show one’s ‘usefulness’ to fellow workers on the factory floor; for example, by helping them with their tax returns or other bureaucratic tasks so that they come to see one’s ‘value’ to the community. Then, they became more open to hearing about one’s ideas for industrial action.
This ARIA project was interesting to me because I wanted to experience the research process. I am considering going to graduate school and therefore wanted to see whether I enjoy doing research. Fortunately, I can say without doubt that the research experience I had this summer was thoroughly positive and has cemented my interest in enrolling in a research-based master after my undergraduate. The research’s subject matter has also been of great interest to me. So much so even that I am staying on as a research assistant to my supervisor, Prof. Barry Eidlin, next semester.
My learning objective for the ARIA project beyond the general ‘research experience’ was also to learn some hard research skills. Here again, the ARIA did just that. For example, I learned how to ‘qualitatively code’ interviews using advanced software. This is a common qualitative research technique where one highlights certain keywords and themes in interview transcripts to see whether they emerge in other interviews as well. This helps researcher identify patterns in their data. Having already learnt this skill will undoubtedly serve me well in graduate school.
In addition to the skills this ARIA project has provided me, there were also some more subtle joys to it. For instance, when identified a new pattern in our data or made some other breakthrough, I felt excited. Because I had been spending so much time thinking about the project, I developed a personal involvement with it. Another positive element of the ARIA project was the personal relationship I was able to develop with my supervisor. Indeed, it was nice to interact with a professor knowing that they did not have to assign me a grade at the end of the semester. In other words, the ARIA project allowed for a much more personable and relaxed relationship between my supervisor and me.
This less formalized relationship, however, also created some challenges. For example, my tasks were assigned on a weekly basis, but I would often finish them early in the week, leaving me with a lot of free time thereafter. The challenge there was to identify additional tasks that need doing to keep myself occupied during the week. Initially, I struggled with this because I was unfamiliar with the research topic and methods. However, as time went on, I began to read around the literature on labor unions in the 1970s to develop a fuller picture of the research project. This helped me think about how our findings could add to this literature.
Lastly, I would like to thank the donor of the Undergraduate Experiential Learning Opportunities Support Fund for their generous contribution to make this ARIA experience a reality for me. Because of it, I have spent a wonderful summer researching, writing, and learning about a topic of immense interest to me.
