Organizing the Organized. Structural Change, Organizing Strategies, and Member Participation in a Union Local of Service Workers. Laura Ariovich This dissertation studies the organizing local approach to labor renewal, a union model centered on organizing new workers. I examine the role of activists and what motivates them to participate beyond a rational evaluation of gains. Additionally, I establish the conditions for successful union reform, specifically, how to overcome inertial pressures

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... d how to maintain members' trust in the union. Finally, I study how union leaders balance a service focus with an organizing agenda, and examine the tensions between formal structures and informal patterns. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork at a union local of service workers, including participant observation at union events and 66 in-depth interviews with union personnel and active members. I compared two groups of activists: maintenance workers in residential buildings and janitors in commercial office buildings. Further, I studied the outcomes of internal reforms in three sections of the local. My analysis relied on four theoretical traditions: the scholarly and practitioner literature on organizational change, the sociology of work, anthropological analyses of reciprocity, and studies on informal exchange in socialist and postsocialist settings. My findings show how activists help to maintain the informal, reciprocity-based relationships that make member mobilization possible. Additionally, I reveal previously unstudied meanings of union participation: the importance of personal indebtedness to union 4 leaders, in the case of commercial activists, and the weight of moral obligation towards the next generation, in the case of residential members. Further, I identify the following conditions for successful union reform: the International union's intervention (confirming Voss and Sherman 2000), reformers' attention to workplace disputes and to members' definitions of union strength, and the new system's accommodation of preexisting informal relations and processes. More generally, my research shows informal and formal mechanisms to connect service to organizing. These include a process of informal exchange between leaders and activists, and a union campaign combining immediate assistance to workers with a longer-term strategy to transform the market. Moreover, my study warns against the unintended consequences of centralization, specialization, and formalization of union work, and calls for formal structures conducive to the use and preservation of what James Scott (1998) calls "local knowledge." Acknowledgements The dissertation involves much solitary work, but it is also, to an extent, a collective endeavor. I have been extremely fortunate to have a committee very much involved in the production process. Bruce G. Carruthers and Arthur L. Stinchcombe, in particular, were helpful beyond and above my highest expectations. In the final year of writing, Bruce, who was on a leave of absence, took time to read and discuss every chapter, soon after I would finish it. He offered invaluable input to define my core questions, sharpen my arguments, and build the structure of the dissertation. This dissertation would not exist without Art Stinchcombe. Art discussed with me at length the interview and observation data, and helped me tease out concepts and ideas to frame and organize the analysis. Also, with an incredible knowledge and understanding of my own findings, Art edited every chapter, suggesting relevant references, completing ideas, and clarifying explanations. Gary A. Fine guided me throughout my fieldwork, from the very start, when I was taking his field methods' class at Northwestern. He helped me write a magnificent letter to the union local's top officers, which facilitated my access to the field, advised me on preparing interview schedules for union leaders and activists, and had insightful comments on my work at key points in the writing process. Albert D. Hunter, in turn, contributed as an objective reader, with sharp questions and critical evaluations of my findings and explanations. Having reflected on Al's comments, I can be more confident about the final product. I am solely responsible, of course, for the project's flaws and shortcomings. On a personal level, I am deeply indebted to my husband, Erik Lee Kjeldgaard, for his emotional support, his kindness, and his enormous help taking care of our child, Alexander. Erik 6 stayed home with Alex countless nights and weekends for me to attend union meetings, training sessions, and rallies. Later on, he did the same for me to finish the long process of writing, revising, and editing the dissertation. Finding Erik and Alex at home, after days of "solitary confinement" in my library carrel, helped me to go on and made the process worthwhile.