Professor Ilana Gershon has published a new book "The Pandemic Workplace: How We Learned to Be Citizens in the Office" (The University of Chicago Press, 2024) that argues the workplace is where we learn to live democratically.
"The Pandemic Workplace" offers an ethnographic lens on how American workplaces responded to the pandemic in order to explore recent fundamental shifts governing others and being governed. In the context of the pandemic, many Americans began to interpret workplace interactions through classic social contract theory, returning to foundational questions about the sacrifices asked of individuals for the common good, and what democratic participation should look like in deliberative decision-making processes. The book has a new angle on how Americans learn what democracy is and how it functions, especially as the pandemic reshaped workplace expectations and commitments.
"The Pandemic Workplace" is available for purchase on The University of Chicago Press website.