Abstract
An occupational community is a bounded work culture characterized by common norms, values, work practices, and conceptions of identity closely related to work. Most occupational community studies are developed as case studies of workers in a particular setting. In this article we adopt a comparative case study approach to understand commonalities and differences within two pulp and paper mills. The mills differ in demographic setting (metropolitan and non-metropolitan) and corporate structure, factors that we argue qualitatively affect the nature of occupational community as experienced by the workers themselves. The article contributes to the literature on the culture of work and workplace in manufacturing ubiquitous products (paper) from an important natural resource, timber.
Acknowledgments
The research reported upon here was funded by a grant from the USDA-CSREES National Research Initiative Competitive Grant Program, grant 2000-01938.