Revisiting divisions of labour is a reflection on the making of a modern sociological classic text and its enduring influence on the discipline and beyond. Ray Pahl's 1984 book is distinctive in the sustained impact it has had on how sociologists think about, research and report on the changing nature of work and domestic life. In this timely revisiting of a landmark project, excerpts from the original are interspersed with contributions from leading researchers reflecting on the book and its effects in the ensuing three decades. The book will be of interest to researchers, students and lecturers in sociology and related disciplines.

‘A reassessment of a modern sociological classic, Revisiting divisions of labour provides a fascinating account of how a classic study continues to resonates with and inform subsequent debates and research.’
Dr Wendy Bottero, University of Manchester


'This volume brilliantly conveys the prescient understandings, original approaches, inventive analyses and excitement of Ray Pahl’s ground breaking 1984 study of the social relations of work and home on the Isle of Sheppey. All renowned experts in their respective fields, the authors reveal the long-term significance of changes in the old order and subsequent evolution of emergent developments originally detected by Pahl – the changing shape of inequalities, new class relations and social polarisation, women’s work and employment, deindustrialisation, and household strategies, to name a few. Starting out from the original, they move far beyond it in their own analyses of contemporary divisions of labour and their comments on the role of sociology in the current period.'

Professor Miriam Glucksmann, University of Essex

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Graham Crow is Professor of Sociology and Methodology at the University of Edinburgh

Jaimie Ellis is Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Southampton