Episode Overview

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: New Books
Guest: Michelle Jackson
Episode: "The Division of Rationalized Labor" (Harvard UP, 2025)
Date: February 21, 2026

This episode features an in-depth conversation with sociologist Michelle Jackson about her new book, The Division of Rationalized Labor. The discussion explores how labor and occupational tasks have evolved over the past 150 years, focusing on the intersection of specialization and rationalization. Jackson explains how science and changing ideas of rationality have transformed professions, resulting in what she terms the "paradox of specialization" — a process whereby increasing rationalization leads not to narrower jobs, but to work that is broader and more complex. The episode illustrates these concepts through detailed case studies of medicine, policing, education, and manufacturing, and considers the implications for individuals and societies confronting contemporary complexities.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining the Division of Labor

• Division of labor has multiple meanings: specialization of individual workers vs. the overall structure of occupations (02:44).
• Traditionally, theorists like Adam Smith, Durkheim, and Marx have predicted increasing specialization for efficiency and productivity.
• Specialization improves performance by reducing time spent on task switching and leveraging skill through repetition.

Notable Quote:
"The division of labor is fundamental in a way that I think everyone would acknowledge, but it's actually not one of those topics that we very frequently take on in and of itself."
— Michelle Jackson (07:38)

2. Personal and Theoretical Motivation

• Jackson was inspired to write about the division of labor since its direct study is rare.
• Expected to find increasing specialization, but historical research revealed a trend towards more, not fewer, job tasks for individuals.
• Led to the central insight: specialization at the occupational level is not the same as at the task level.

Notable Quote:
"I had really been absolutely convinced that I was going to find increasing specialization over time. But... it seemed like actually people were taking on more tasks rather than fewer."
— Michelle Jackson (08:26)

3. Core Concepts: Rationalization & The Paradox of Specialization

Rationalized Occupation (12:15)

• Drawing on Weber, rationalization describes increasing focus on ends-means calculations/bureaucratic structures.
• Occupations become "rationalized" by aligning more closely with scientific knowledge and methods.
• In a rationalized society, defining work by goals/outputs, not just tasks, makes more sense.

Paradox of Specialization (18:00)

• As occupations specialize in certain outputs, they integrate more scientific knowledge, broadening job complexity.
• Growth of scientific knowledge intensifies this process; everything from psychology to social sciences feeds into job tasks.
• More specialization in outputs paradoxically leads to more tasks, not fewer, for individuals.

Notable Quote:
"It's by virtue of specializing in a given output that all of this stuff then becomes more important to me and I have to take it into account. So... the job tasks follow precisely because I'm specializing..."
— Michelle Jackson (18:31)

4. Case Studies: How the Theory Plays Out

a. Medicine (22:40)

• Medicine shows a clear narrative of rationalization: doctors aligning more with science, especially public health and prevention.
• Shift from monocausal explanations (single disease→single cure) to multicausal, probabilistic models (influenced by sociology, psychology, public health).
• Expansion from cure-oriented to prevention-oriented practice; doctors’ roles now include broad social and behavioral assessments.
• The scope of medicine grows, and so does the breadth of physicians’ tasks.

Notable Quote:
"If you look at the top 10, 20 prescribed drugs in this country, they are largely to stop bad things happening. They're not to cure a disease..."
— Michelle Jackson (29:36)

b. Policing and Law Enforcement (34:46)

• The trend from “catching criminals” (abnormal psychology, removing from society) toward “preventing crime” (social, community interventions).
• Policing has resisted occupational specialization, resulting in officers with an immense, unspecialized task load.
• Movements like Defund the Police focus on division of labor, calling for redistribution of tasks to other professionals.

Notable Quote:
"Defund the Police... is a social movement built on the idea that the police are doing too much. They're doing tasks that don't belong in that occupation..."
— Michelle Jackson (35:04)

c. Manufacturing (43:30)

• Traditional example of division of labor (Taylorism, scientific management).
• Early 20th-century rationalization didn't involve much science; focused more on process optimization.
• Over time, as science of workers (psychology, team dynamics) grows, tasks diversify: from repetitive machine work to social/team-building functions.
• Welfare capitalism and place-based effects (e.g., towns deeply affected by factory closures, emotional attachment to firms).

Notable Quote:
"Manufacturing... shows you what can happen if you do indeed get kind of machinery that can increase productivity without increasing work tasks. You do see this decline in work tasks. But then as you see the science develop... now the number of job tasks increases over time."
— Michelle Jackson (48:30)

d. Education (touched upon, less detailed)

• Parallels in rationalization and the shift toward prevention (e.g., supporting learning holistically) with increased complexity for teachers.

Additional Memorable Moments & Quotes

• Contrasts between different sectors: Medicine diversifies toward prevention, policing accumulates tasks without tighter specialization, manufacturing moves from simplification to new complexities as science and rationalization catch up.
• The emotional impact of deindustrialization:
  "This type of, the kind of loss of self to this kind of imaginary company that can then rescue you — there's something incredibly sad and moving about it."
  — Michelle Jackson (53:50)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:27 – Introduction and book overview
• 02:44-10:58 – Defining the division of labor, classical theory, initial research questions and discoveries
• 12:15-19:29 – Rationalization, the paradox of specialization, and the growing role of science
• 21:01-33:20 – Case study: Medicine; expansion of medical science, prevention vs. cure
• 33:20-42:00 – Case study: Policing; prevention, task overload, issues of occupational boundaries
• 43:30-50:11 – Case study: Manufacturing; splitting rationalization and science, role of place
• 50:11-54:50 – Place, deindustrialization, emotional impacts on workers
• 55:50-end – Future directions: AI, complexity, crisis of division of labor, and concluding thoughts

Reflections, Future Research & Societal Relevance

• Jackson connects growing societal discomfort — both personal and political — to the complexity generated by this evolving division of labor.
• Contemporary issues like artificial intelligence may both intensify and help manage this complexity.
• Ongoing and future research includes deeper analysis of place-based effects and the lived experience of these labor changes.

Notable Quote:
"I think that we're actually in kind of the special moment at this point in time — a slight crisis moment. And I do think actually AI might be helpful in dealing with some of that. So I think that there is potential for AI to help us deal with some of that complexity."
— Michelle Jackson (56:10)

Conclusion

The Division of Rationalized Labor offers a new perspective on how modernization, science, and rationalization have not necessarily simplified occupations, but instead made them more complex. This podcast episode brings these insights to life with vivid case studies, highlighting both the promise and the pitfalls of our increasingly specialized — yet paradoxically more demanding — world of work. Listeners are left equipped to ponder not only the shape of their own working lives, but the structures that organize society as a whole.