New Books in Sociology Michelle Jackson, "The Division of Rationalized Labor" (Harvard UP, 2025)
Feb 21, 2026
Michelle Jackson, Associate Professor of Sociology at Stanford and author of The Division of Rationalized Labor, studies how occupations changed over 150 years. She traces how science and probabilistic knowledge expanded tasks across medicine, policing, education, and manufacturing. She explores the paradox where task specialization and occupational boundaries diverge and reflects on complexity and possible roles for AI in work.
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Two Sides Of The Division Of Labor
- The division of labor covers both individual task specialization and occupational boundaries across society.
- Classical theories predict more specialization over time, but measurement across history is needed to test that claim.
Rationalized Occupations Grow Through Science
- A rationalized occupation defines work by ends and uses science to select means.
- As occupations embrace science, they import more knowledge and expand job tasks.
Science Expands Job Tasks
- Scientific growth in breadth and volume forces occupations to account for many causal factors.
- That influx creates new job tasks even as workers specialize in particular outputs.
