Soc 210 Test 1

• Work


  Any activity that requires effort and serves a purpose, whether contributing to society or achieving personal goals
• What people consider work differs based on society's expectations, cultural beliefs, and individual perspectives
• Factors that influence how we perceive work

  • Temporal factors (time of day, season)
  • Spatial factors (location, setting)
  • Cultural norms
• Labor


  The physical activity we do to survive immediately, like farming for food or making things by hand
• Work


  Involves using our hands or skills to change things in the world around us, transforming nature into something useful or meaningful
• Occupation


  What people do to earn money in society, a job or profession, which may or may not involve physical labor or transformative work
• Even when individuals are unemployed, they still have an occupation within society
• Grint & Nixon criticise governments for labelling people as "economically active" or "economically inactive" based solely on formal job status and tax payments, overlooking the valuable contributions of individuals, especially women, who fulfil essential caregiving roles
• Karl Marx's theory of work

  • Capitalism impacts society, workers are exploited by business owners, class struggle between the rich (bourgeoisie) and the working class (proletariat)
• Emile Durkheim's theory of work


  • Effects of industrialization on social cohesion, division of labor and its impact on social integration
• Max Weber's theory of work

  • Rationalisation of society, bureaucracy and its impact on modern organizations, concept of "disenchantment"
• Sociology looks at both small interactions between people and big communities, focusing on how people interact in workplaces, and tries to understand why things are the way they are
• Sociology combines different theories to study work in real-life situations, using an approach called grounded theory
• Sociologists' definition of work

  Activities that transform nature or raw materials into something useful or valuable, typically occurring within social contexts and involving interactions with others
• What counts as "work" varies depending on specific social circumstances and how it's perceived by those involved
• Unpaid care work, like taking care of children or elderly family members, may not be recognized as work in some contexts, even though it's essential for society
• Societies often have different perceptions of the unemployed, some may view them as lacking contribution or value, while others may recognize structural issues like economic inequalities or lack of opportunities
• Social construct


  Something that exists because humans agree that it exists, not because it has an objective reality
• Work is a product of human interaction and societal agreements rather than an inherent, natural phenomenon
• Societies create meanings around work based on their beliefs, values, and systems of power, influencing how work is perceived and valued
• The feminization of jobs, where traditionally female-dominated roles are undervalued, illustrates how gender norms and power dynamics influence the status and recognition of different types of work
• Divisions based on factors like race, nationality, citizenship, and caste also influence the status and recognition of jobs, reflecting broader power relations in society and contributing to inequalities
• The status of jobs and who performs them are linked to power relations within a society, where occupations predominantly held by marginalized groups may be undervalued or unrecognised
• Industrialisation


  The process of transforming the economy of a nation or region from a focus of agriculture to reliance on manufacturing
• Industrial Capitalism


  A system where businesses use machines to make things in large quantities to sell for profit, starting during the Industrial Revolution
• Feudalism


  A medieval system where kings and lords owned land, granting it to vassals in exchange for loyalty and military service, with peasants working the land
• Capitalism


  An economic system where private individuals and businesses own and control the production and distribution of goods and services for profit
• Industrialisation began in the 18th century in Britain due to innovations in agriculture and technology, leading to the growth of factories and mass production, and later spreading to other parts of Europe and North America in the 19th century
• Industrialization caused big changes in society and the economy, including the growth of cities, the decline of small farming communities, and the rise of new inventions and technologies
• According to Marx, in capitalist societies, dividing work into small, repetitive tasks alienates workers from the final product and from each other
• Marx distinguishes between the general or social division of labor, which is necessary for a functioning society, and the detailed or technical division of labor, which is imposed by capitalists to increase their surplus extraction and leads to alienation
• Technological advancements have played a vital role in shaping how industrial societies function, but they can also threaten the livelihood and autonomy of workers, leading to potential exploitation
• The factory system increased employer control over workers, enforcing strict discipline to maintain continuous machine operation and maximise profits
• Differences between pre-industrial and industrial societies

  • Different work ethic (Protestant work ethic vs. traditional cultural frameworks)
  • The use of socially constructed units of time (natural rhythms vs. standardized schedules)
  • Lack of distinction between work and non-work in pre-industrial societies
• Emile Durkheim's perspective on societies, the division of labor, and industrialization

  • Transition from "mechanical solidarity" in traditional societies to "organic solidarity" in modern, industrialized societies
  • Specialization and interdependence in the division of labor in industrial societies
  • Concerns about the weakening of social togetherness and the focus on materialism in industrial societies
• Critics argue that Durkheim's ideas about modern societies are too simple, and that they should also consider how work is divided among different jobs in society based on power and control
• Adam Smith's perspective on the division of labor

  • Breaking tasks into specialized, repetitive stages boosts productivity and economic growth
• Charles Babbage's perspective on the division of labor

  • Assigning tasks individually can help businesses make more profit, but it can also lead to discriminatory wage differences based on factors like gender or ethnicity
• Taylorism


  A systematic approach to organising work developed by Frederick Taylor, emphasizing principles like developing scientific methods, selecting and training workers based on scientific principles, promoting cooperation between management and workers, and dividing work and responsibility equally
• Despite its limitations, Taylorism left a lasting control system for organising production processes and contributed to the bureaucratisation of production, though it was insufficient on its own to fully address the complexities of human labor