Because American workplaces in the 1990s have become full of turmoil and uncertainty, workers have been attempting to adjust by retooling themselves, says UC Davis sociologist Vicki Smith. The sociology professor, who studies contemporary trends in employment relationships and work experiences, says new forms of work organization simultaneously have created opportunity, instability and risk for workers. "As we head into the 21st century, policy-makers and scholars need to understand how different groups of workers are being empowered or disadvantaged by these new arrangements," she says. Smith studied employed and unemployed workers in four sites for her forthcoming book, "Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy" (Cornell University Press). Her case studies include temporary workers at a high-tech company in Northern California; unemployed managers, technical workers and professionals at a job-search club in Sacramento; nonunionized white-collar workers at a photocopy-service firm in Philadelphia; and unionized blue-collar workers at a timber products plant in Montana. "The workers I studied represent a broad cross-section of American workers -- they assemble the computers we work on, photocopy and deliver our papers and packages, and manufacture the wood products used to build our homes," Smith says. In the course of looking at how companies downsized, restructured and used contingent workers, Smith documented workers' struggles to acquire new skills and make themselves employable in the long run. She argues that employees are using worker participation programs to gain more control over their employment prospects.