SOCIOLOGY OF WORK

1. SOCIOLOGY OF WORK 4 ISSUES

2. The World of Work in Canada

3. ISSUES Tonight • TRENDS IN WORKFORCE • WOMEN AND WORK • Consumerism • INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

4. PERSPECTIVES • STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONAL-consensus, cooperation, function • Conflict-power, domination • Symbolic Interaction-status dynamics • Feminist-patriarchy • Post Modern-fragmentation

5. McCauley • See…Theoretical Foundation for Work and Professions in Jacobs and Bosonac eds., The Professionalization of Work

6. Current data:Canada • Women in 2005 earned just 70½ cents • Compare this to the 72 cents women in the 1990s

7. WAGE GAP EXPLANATION • FIVE KEY: • Patriarchy, • Status Dynamics, • Power at work, • Interaction, • Glass ceiling, objectification..

8. Work in Canada • THREE PHASES: • EARLY INDUSTRIALISM • FACTORY INDUSTRIALISM • POST INDUSTRIALISM

9. A HISTORY OF WORK IN CANADA I • The first Industrial Revolution began in Britain in late 18thc. • Turned peasants (serfs)into wage-earning factory workers (proletariats)..see K. Marx.

10. Trends in the Workforce: • INFORMAL Work • UNDEREMPLOYMENT • TWO TIERED ECONOMY • Less Standardized work • DE-INDUSTRIALIZATION

11. :Women and Work • From the expressive homemaker to double day of labour. (I.e. Meg • See Luxton’s, More than a Labour of Love (1980)

12. Nancy Bonvillian- • Women and Men: Cultural Constructs of Gender (3rd ed). • THESIS:Women and Work-modernization increases women’s oppression

13. From Agriculture to Manufacturing • While in the early 1900’s most jobs were in manufacturing and agriculture,

14. By the 20th century.. • Women’s work increasingly became secondary supplement to man’s income. • WOMEN WORK…is the invisible labour in the home..

15. Social Development • Hunter and Gathering • Horticulture – • Agriculture – • Industrialism and capitalism-

16. Important material change: The Type writer • INCREASED WOMAN’s OPPRESSION • W. F. Ogburn, Social Change (1933) • -Material culture affects non- material culture.

17. 20th century stages in women’s work • 1900-1914-Cult of Domesticity • 1946-Late 1950’s -Domesticity returns • 1960’s- Second Wave Feminism • 1970s and 1980’s-women work still a supplement to man’s income.

18. Women work - • BECOMES LESS VALUED, MORE INVISIBLE…but MORE CRUCIAL.. • Post World War Two and particularly following economic booms and busts

19.   Since 1960s : • More women in the labour force • Pill and the sexual revolution • Second Wave feminism • Third wave feminism

20. Dual Income Families Vital • As fertility declines following the introduction of the pill in 1963, we see a corresponding rise in female labour force participation

21. CONSUMERISM and Capitalism

22. 2. Consumerism • A term used to describe the effects of equating personal happiness with purchasing material possessions and consumption.

23. Commodity Fetishism • It is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Karl Marx and Thorstein Veblen • Karl Marx calls capitalistic consumption-Commodity Fetishism

24. Veblen.Commodities as Veblen goods • Consumerismcan also refer to economic policies that place an emphasis on consumption. • The value of a commodity increases with its price…see `COOL THREADS’ VIDEO

25. Consumer Sovereignty? • …should dictate the economic structure of a society (cf. Producerism, especially in the British sense of the term).

26. Theory of consumer choice • In a liberal, democratic society, which is the institutional framework ofa marketor "capitalist" economic system, • This translates into an ideology of CONSUMER SOVEREIGNTY.

27. Consumerism, Conflict theory and Hegemony • Consumerism- is part of the general process of social control and hegemony • Consumerism is part of bourgeois `false consciousness’

28. ECHO CONSUMERS • Canadians under the age of twenty—the "Echo Generation," as they're often called—make up a quarter (26 per cent) of the country's population.

29. ECHO GENERATION-Y • Once an ignored demographic for advertisers, • ECHO GENERATION- • Now the most marketed-to generation in history

30. MENTAL LIFE • Constant bombardment of marketing messages that have become a ubiquitous force in MENTAL LIFE • SEE WOODSTOCK 1 vs. 2

31. Consumer culture • There has been a rise in consumer culture affecting all including children. • THIS IS: The Branding of Culture

32. The Averages: Two year old child can name products I. ByFour years, they can evaluate a product II. By Six years old they can distinguish products by brand.

33. Brands as Symbols Expensive brands better, • III. By age eleven has a child started to perceivedeceptive advertising, • IV. By Sixteen years can/or not make a reliable judgment about qualities of product and truthfulness of sales pitches.

34. Consumerism=More Work • Studies show that in 1992, UK labour force survey • 60% working-people spend more andmore of their lives at work…

35. ISSUE FOUR 3. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

36. Morgan, 1994. • By the late 1980s… • The social welfare consensus that marked the post-war period in North America was beginning to come apart • The end of Keynesian Economics…

37. Internet (1992) • In G8 countries' a new political culture there emerged: • An ideology of information technology (IT) that challenged the concept of universal access –universality erodes..

38. Ideology of information technology • THE FREE MARKET: • Gained hold of the IT sector by the early 1990s… • FIRST PIZZA SOLD=1994.

39. Three IT Forces • Drew upon the conservative (right wing) politics, • Classical liberal laissez-fairefree market values, • Technological determinism (Birdsall, 1996; Birdsall, 1997) See McLuhanism..

40. Neo-liberal Knowledge based economy • The raw material or basic commodity of this society is information. • KNOWLEDGE =POWER?

41. Knowledge-based economy • Only the marketplace should determine which goods and services are produced and how they are generated; there are no "public goods."

42. 21st century ISSUES: • Increased competition • Attract capital • Generating employment • Find sources of tax revenues • Widening inequalities between cities, • Discrepancies in the level of essential services provided to citizens

43. The Digital Divide • The phrase "digital divide" has emerged as a public policy issue in Canada.

44. 2. Communications Technology • There is an increasing for need knowledge • However, access and information available to those who can afford computers and time to understand how to extract information • DIGITAL DIVIDE

45. Statistics Canada • Statistics Canada reported that in 1998, about 36 per cent of Canadian households were connected (Dickinson and Ellison, 1999). • Private sector surveys put this figure over 50 per cent in 1999.

46. IDEOLOGY Question –conflict theory vs. functionalism • Does information technology increase or decrease social stratification?

47. Work and Identity see Interactionism • Work and Identity the concern of this class. • Work defines: opportunities, incomes and lifestyles.  • Work believe it or not, still occupies half of ourwaking hours.. • In a lifetime, one spends one year having sex, one year on the toilet…30 years working.

48. Summary • WORK is a central part of post industrial society • Work has changed since the feudal age… • Capitalism=early, mid and post modern stages. • Areas-women, consumerism, and information..