ABSTRACT
This brief account captures much of what we have learned about the importance of local places in Worcester for structuring opportunities and decisions that create distinctive patterns of work and ways of life. What is judged to be possible and what is actually available as employment depends on the local place. Our knowledge of places and opportunities is learned and understood through social relationships, which for many are also rooted in place. In his openended interviews with 30 young men living in three Boston neighborhoods, Wial (1991) learned that what is considered a “good” job and what is considered “appropriate” work for (in the context of his study) adult men are defined locally. The casual acquisition of skills (such as those related to house and car repair), as well as job search methods, personal contacts, job information, and, in fact, the gendering of jobs are all likely to be dependent on the local context. In Fernandez Kelly’s words (1994:99, 101), “Learnings originate in circumscribed spaces”; “This is what I mean by embodied knowledge.”
