Laboring in the dream factory, part I

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Abstract
Beginning with the irony of the author, who as a part-time temporary faculty instructor attempts to support the dreams of a returning student seeking a new degree in hopes of better-paying employment, part I seeks to situate such experiences within a broader structural framework. The paper moves between the models of social class developed by Eric Olin Wright (1987, 1997) and a model of a flexible workforce discussed by David Harvey (1989) to suggest that social stratification now contains both vertical and horizontal dimensions. The horizontal dimensions of the new workforce make achieving the American Dream more difficult as part-time and temporary jobs erode the overall social well-being of even middle-class American workers. University professors too are part of this flexible workforce but have difficulty offering a critique of the system because their part-time and temporary jobs depend upon giving hope to university students that the students' goals will be fulfilled.

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