Nickel and Dimed: Discussion Questions
The Carolina Summer Reading Program is designed to introduce you to the intellectual life of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Expected of all new undergraduate students (first year and transfer), it involves reading an assigned book over the summer, and participating in a two-hour discussion session with select faculty and staff members. The goals of the program are to enhance students' participation in the intellectual life of the campus through stimulating discussion and critical thinking around a current topic, to enhance a sense of community between students, faculty and staff, and to provide a common experience for incoming students.
To prepare for your discussion session on Monday, August 25th, from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (locations to be announced upon your arrival in August), you are encouraged to develop your own questions as well as give thought to the questions below.
1. Have you or others you know worked in the service industries described in Nickel and Dimed? How do the stories you know or have heard compare to Ehrenreich's accounts?
2. Nickel and Dimed introduces concerns about health care, affordable housing, childcare, education, public transportation, and community support for low-wage workers. Who should take the lead in solving the problems of low-wage work in America? Low-wage workers? Business owners? Service Industry leaders? Politicians? Faith communities? Voters? Educators?
3. What do you think of Ehrenreich's representation of the businesses in which she participates? Are her reports fair? Accurate? Biased? What makes her account credible or questionable in your view? What are the limits of her research or what information did you feel was missing in her account? What ethical obligations must a researcher weigh in reporting about the experiences of others?
4. Ehrenreich took a personal and sociological approach to investigating low-wage work in America. How might you investigate the topic? Through history? Law? Health? Education? Political Science? Psychology? Geography? Anthropology? Literature? Business? Where might you look next to gain another perspective on this topic? What questions seem most important to you to answer?
5. Ehrenreich's account is a reflection of her own experience. How might her experience have been different if she were male? If she were a person of color? If she had little education? How do issues of race, class, or gender connect with low-wage work?
6. What does it mean to be an ethical employee or an ethical employer?
For more information about the Carolina Summer Reading Program, send email to read@unc.edu.
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Last revised: May 28, 2003.