Discourse Tokens of Value and the Coordination of Internship Labor: Analyzing How Employers Talk about College Internships. WCER Working Paper No. 2022-2

Autor/inn/en	Wolfgram, Matthew; Pasqualone, Alexandra D.
Institution	University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER)
Titel	Discourse Tokens of Value and the Coordination of Internship Labor: Analyzing How Employers Talk about College Internships. WCER Working Paper No. 2022-2
Quelle	(2022), (23 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Internship Programs; College Students; Employers; Employer Attitudes; Value Judgment; Ideology; Discourse Analysis; Higher Education + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Berufspraktische Ausbildung; Collegestudent; Arbeitgeberinteresse; Werturteil; Ideologie; Diskursanalyse; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen
Abstract	This paper analyzes how employers use discourse to ideologize the value of college internships--a historically emergent form of contingent, temporary, educational labor which has rapidly become a major feature of both higher education and labor relations in the United States (Frenette, 2015). The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with employers (n=38) in firms and organizations across a range of sectors who supervise and coordinate the work of college student interns from two public universities and two technical colleges located in different economic regions within the same U.S. Midwestern state. Using the anthropological theory of value (Graeber, 2001), we develop an analysis of how employers use discourse to ideologize and coordinate internship labor. Employers use three discourses of value to ideologize 1) the individual intern as the primary beneficiary of the internship ("entrepreneurial discourse of value"); 2) the organization or firm as the primary beneficiary of the internship ("corporate efficiency discourse of value"); and 3) the community, industry, or society in general as the primary beneficiary of the internship ("community service discourse of value"). The article develops the concept of a "discourse token of value"--discursive forms that (like cash) mediate value--as a central concept of the analysis of emergent forms of education and labor. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wisconsin Center for Education Research. School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1025 West Johnson Street Suite 785, Madison, WI 53706. Tel: 608-263-4200; Fax: 608-263-6448; e-mail: uw-wcer@education.wisc.edu; Web site: https://www.wcer.wisc.edu/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01