Q&A talks about the changing nature of work in Connecticut with Stuart Parnes, executive director of CT Humanities, which is running a statewide traveling program called Working Past, Present & Future.
Q: The CT Humanities Council is involved in a major initiative looking at the past, present, and future of “working” in Connecticut. What is the project and why is the humanities council tackling this topic?
A: This is a statewide initiative that kicked off with a conference at Wesleyan University last month, and will combine exhibits, public programs, community discussions and documentary projects throughout 2014.
A central element of the initiative is a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution, called The Way We Worked. This collection of historic photographic images drawn from the National Archives broadly traces the many changes that have affected the American workforce and workplace over the past 150 years. During 2014, CTH will tour the show to seven Connecticut locations: New Haven, Torrington, Hartford, Waterbury, Coventry, Stamford and Groton. Each venue will use the exhibit as a jumping-off point for public programs offered by CTH, or for projects that they create to explore the unique work traditions and futures of their regions. While the industrial mill history of the Waterbury/Torrington region is dramatically different from the agricultural traditions of Coventry or the maritime heritage of Groton/ New London, they are all essential chapters in the story of Connecticut and her people.
Q: Why has Connecticut Humanities chosen work as the subject of a year-long initiative?
A: We selected the theme of work because of its fundamental influence on all our lives past and present and because this is a humanities theme with real urgency. Work is more than employment statistics, more than gross domestic product, more than economics. Work is pride, human dignity, usefulness, self-esteem. Work binds us into communities, unites us in common service, develops our skills and tests our creativity. Work can also degrade, numb, de-humanize and cripple, and the loss of work can weaken our state, undermine our communities, and destabilize our families. Work is a story of people, not just products and profits.
Q: How have things changed over the years?
A: The changing face of Connecticut’s work and workers is nothing new. Long before the Great Recession decimated the state’s workforce, the ebb and flow of Connecticut’s fortunes have been carried on the backs of its workers. From farms to mills, shipyards to offices, classrooms to firehouses to laboratories, Connecticut’s residents and immigrants have built their lives around their work here.
What is different today is the tremendous acceleration in the pace of changes to the workplace. We are in the midst of a dramatic redefinition of what “work” is and what it means to our economy and to our lives.
Whereas our parents likely held just one or two jobs over a lifetime, our children will likely face multiple changes in work and workplace. This truly is a paradigm shift, and its ramifications are rippling all through our society. It has, for instance, given rise to serious questions about the role of higher education today. Just how best do we prepare the next generation for such a dynamic future where they need an understanding of the world around them as much as they need specific job skills?
Q: What is unique about work in Connecticut?
A: The history of work in Connecticut is truly extraordinary. It is not an exaggeration to claim that Connecticut can be seen as a microcosm of the entire nation. We drew workers across the seas to our fields and factories, and shipped our products back to every corner of the globe. We were arguably the first “Silicon Valley” — the nation’s center of invention and hub of precision manufacturing. Today, we have rebranded ourselves as “Still Revolutionary” in the hopes of recapturing that leadership. Time will tell.
Q: What is surprising about Connecticut’s workforce?
A: Connecticut remains a state of stark contrasts. We boast some of America’s wealthiest communities, and some of its poorest cities. We host some of the world’s leading colleges, universities and medical centers, yet too many of our children are in failing health and failing schools. We are home to hugely profitable corporations, yet for too many Connecticut workers, their paychecks cannot lift them out of poverty. The quality of life here in Connecticut is high, but not for all our citizens.
Q: Why does this matter so much?
A: As long as our lives and our futures are shaped by the work we do, this is a subject definitely worth thinking about and talking about. As our economy recovers and evolves, we (as individuals, as a state and as a nation) are facing difficult choices about the future of work and the value that we place on work. Those choices require serious discussion, which we are hoping to spark with CT at Work.
