Drawing on a year-long ethnography at a non-profit bottle and can redemption center, this study examines the mismatched meanings ascribed by recyclers (or “canners”) and redemption center management to recycling work. Canners primarily make sense of the work for the money it puts in their pocket and for its autonomous work conditions. By contrast, management imbues canning with moral meaning, linking recycling to social, environmental, and spiritual good. I argue that disputes over organizational policies can arise simply from mismatched interpretations of the work’s meaning, and not necessarily from overt coercion from management nor resistance from canners. In addition, canners and management view their relationship divergently: canners view their role as employees and management as their employers, while management see themselves as social service providers and canners as service recipients. I suggest that the relationship between canners and management is thus ambiguously constructed by both parties, leading to unintended consequences in opposition to the non-profit’s mission.

中文翻译：

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五美分的价值：在瓶子和罐头赎回中心不匹配的意义

本研究利用在非营利瓶罐回收中心进行的长达一年的民族志研究，考察了回收商（或“罐头制造商”）和回收中心管理层对回收工作的不匹配含义。罐头制造商主要是根据他们口袋里的钱和自主的工作条件来理解工作。相比之下，管理赋予罐头以道德意义，将回收与社会、环境和精神利益联系起来。我认为，关于组织政策的争议可能只是源于对工作意义的不匹配解释，而不一定是来自管理层的公开胁迫或罐头制造商的抵制。此外，罐头制造商和管理层对他们的关系有不同的看法：罐头制造商将他们的角色视为雇员，而管理层则视为他们的雇主，而管理层将自己视为社会服务提供者，而罐头商则将自己视为服务接受者。我认为罐头制造商和管理层之间的关系因此由双方模棱两可地构建，导致与非营利组织的使命背道而驰的意外后果。