SYMBOLIC ANALYST
Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2012,
Symbolic-analysts are those who engage in what Robert Reich calls symbolic-analytic services. Robert Reich, argues that the key "job of the future" is that of the "symbolic analyst"
Symbolic-analyst is Reich's third occupational category and refers to tasks such as problem-solving, problem-identification, and strategic brokerage services.
Symbolic-analytic services are all those jobs which involve the manipulation of symbols (data, words, oral and visual representations).
This is a way to talk about a particular form of service worker, which others might call ‘knowledge work’, and is seen as the area of substantial growth in the developed capitalist nations of the world.
Reich also believes that symbolic-analysts, due to the nature of their work, develop distinctive life styles and social attitudes and political beliefs.
The
Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism
According to Harvard economist Reich, author of The Resurgent Liberal ( LJ 8/89), we are
going through a historic transformation that is rearranging the politics and economics of
the 1990s and the 21st century. Economies are no longer simply national in scope but
global, rewarding the most skilled around the world with ever greater wealth while
consigning the less skilled to declining standards of living. He sees the global work
forces as already divided into three groups: routine producers (e.g., data processors),
in-person servers (e.g., librarians), and symbolic analysts who manipulate symbols for
large profits (e.g., financial wizards). In 1989, these analysts comprised about one-fifth
of the population of the United States, but they earned more than half the income. As the
rich get richer and the rest get poorer, Reich urges a national recommitment to the
productivity and competitiveness of all citizens. This is highly recommended for all
academic and public libraries.
- Jeffrey R. Herold, Bucyrus P.L., Ohio. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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The
Future of Success: Working and Living in the New Economy
"Reich is a big thinker and a great writer." The Washington Post
A valuable work. . . . Reich has a talent for mastering economic and social complexities
and making them easy for the layperson to grasp.- The Wall Street Journal
"A well-researched and documented analysis of the present state of working life in
America." The Plain Dealer
Reich writes in ways unusual for an economist; he is self-effacing, witty and more
interested in exploring the world's complexities than in uncovering unvarying laws. - The
New York Times
“Fast-Capitalism: Paraethnography and the rise of the symbolic analyst” Douglas R. Holmes with George E. Marcus. In Frontiers of Capital: Ethnographic Perspectives on the New Economy. Melissa Fisher and Greg Downey (eds). 2006 Durham: Duke University Press.
"You asked the question about is the knowledge worker the same as a visual intellectual. I would say no. I would say there are so many terms for that. I always like the obscure terms like symbolic analyst. Lawyers are symbolic analyst. Engineers are symbolic analyst. In other words the symbolic analyst is pretty much anybody who doesn’t make his living making steel." - CADRE Invitational Transcript - Peter Lunenfeld - Switch | Journal -- Issue 18 - switch.sjsu.edu
Supercapitalism:
The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Vintage)
In this compelling and important analysis of the triumph of capitalism and the decline of
democracy, former labor secretary Reich urges us to rebalance the roles of business and
government. Power, he writes, has shifted away from us in our capacities as citizens and
toward us as consumers and investors. While praising the spread of global capitalism, he
laments that supercapitalism has brought with it alienation from politics and community.
The solution: to separate capitalism from democracy, and guard the border between them.
Plainspoken and forceful, if somewhat repetitious, the book urges new and strengthened
laws and regulations to restore authority to the citizens in us. Reich's proposals are
anything but knee-jerk liberal: he calls for abolishing the corporate income tax and
labels the corporate social responsibility movement distracting and even
counterproductive. As in 2004's Reason, Reich exhibits perhaps too much confidence in
Americans' ability to think and act in their own best interests. But he refuses to shift
blame for corporations' dominance to the usual suspects, instead pointing a finger at
consumers like you and me who want better deals, and from investors like us who want
better returns, he writes. Provocatively argued, this book could help begin a necessary
national conversation.
From Booklist
Reich, professor of public policy and former secretary of labor, argues that as the U.S.
has grown stronger as a capitalist economy, it has grown weaker as a democratic nation.
Reich begins by looking at the political and economic history that has contributed to the
particular brand of capitalism and democracy practiced in the U.S. and how democracy is
threatened as more and more Americans are engrossed in their roles as consumers and
investors and less so as citizens. He recalls the "almost Golden Age" of the
1950s, a period of stability as large corporations, big labor, and government managed the
interests of consumers, workers, management, and investors for the "common
good." The spread of capitalism to a global level hasn't corresponded with a spread
of democracy throughout the world and has led to some negative social consequences at
home, including widening inequalities and a shrinking social safety net. Reich asserts
that although Americans dislike what lower wages are doing to us as a nation, when weighed
against lower prices or higher return on investments, we vacillate or look the other way.
Reich uses tables and charts and plain speech to describe how the economy has grown so
efficient and effective that the human equation is lost and how the democracy has become
less and less responsive to common values. As citizens, we need to "make our
purchases and investments a social choice as well as a personal one," Reich
maintains. Bush, Vanessa