Economies, Work and Consumption

Lecture 16Foundation Society & Culture

The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without oneOscar Wilde

Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice and needVoltaire

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPSzPGrazPo

Aims• What counts as work?

– Definitions of work– Work’s social significance

• The experience of paid employment (theoretical and empirical)– Transforming the social organisation of work– Globalization and Post-Fordism

• Women and economic work– Theoretical and policy issues of female participation in the labour force

• Changing career trajectories– The rise in job insecurity– Unemployment

Agricultural Revolution

• The earliest societies were hunters and gatherers with no distinct economy.

• Four factors that made the economy a distinct social institution:– Agricultural technology

– Job specialization

– Permanent settlements

– Trade

The Economy

• The economy operates in a predictable manner.• Goods: – Commodities - necessities to luxury items

• Services: – activities that benefit others

• The economies of modern high-income nations are the result of centuries of social change.

The social institution that organizes a society’s production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services

The Industrial Revolution 18th – 19th C1. New sources of energies– Steam-fueled machine operation

2. Centralization of work in factories– Impersonal factories replaced cottage industries.

3. Manufacturing and mass production– Turning raw materials into a wide range of

products

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The Industrial Revolution 18th– 19th Century

4. Specialization– Diverse division of labor and lower overall skill

requirements

5. Wage labour– Working for strangers with intense supervision

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WHAT COUNTS AS WORK?

Defining Work

The carrying out of tasks requiring the expenditure of mental and physical effort,

which has as its objective the production of goods and services that cater to human needs

(Giddens 2006:886)

What is Work?

• Work doing tasks with mental and physical effort: aim is production of goods and services for humans

• Occupation work done in exchange for money, regular wage or salary

• Economy institutions providing for production and distribution of goods and services

• Informal economy outside reguar employment: direct exchanges; stolen good; hidden cash transactions; DIY; volunteering; charity work (Gershuny & Miles 1983)

A global view

• Agriculture is main source of employment in developing countries

• Small proportion of industrialized countries’ people work in agriculture

• Louie (2001) comparison:– health and safety laws, workers’

rights, unions etc in developed countries,

– sweatshops, little health and safety regulation in developing countries

IS WORK…

• Only what happens in business, agriculture and industrial manufacturing?

Ann Oakley (1974 a, b)• Two books:

– The Sociology of Housework– Housewife

• Key ideas:– Housework is a result of industrialization– ‘Work’ moved outside of the home and family– ‘home’ becomes place of consumption NOT place for production

of goods– Domestic work becomes invisible– ‘real work’ is work which receives a wage– Women (housewives) did most of domestic tasks– Men earned the ‘family wage’

Ann Oakley (1974 a, b)

• Inventions provided by industrialization bring eficiency:– Hot and cold water– Piping of electricity and gas into homes

• But:– Amount of time spent on chores has not declined

markedly– New tasks replaced old tasks:

• Time spent on childcare• Purchasing• Meal preparation

Ann Oakley (1974 a, b)

• Unacknowleged and unrewarded hourwork provides free services on which those in paid work depend

• Experience of full-time domesticity can be:– Isolating– Lonely– Monotonous– Self-imposed psychological standards to meet (cleanliness;

orderliness), feel like externally imposed rules– Cannot leave workplace at the day’s end– Idea of ‘being your own boss’ is an illusion:

• Men work fixed hours and avoid domestic duties• Women’s hours are extended by caring for sick relative, children,

partners, as they are seen as ‘natural carers’

What counts as work?

• Try to identify aspects which might be considered work and others which seem less so.

• Which of the following would you regard as work and why?– Taking a friend or partner a meal in bed;– Attending a lecture on the sociology of work;– Reading in your newspaper about an item which is relevant to

your degree course;– Baby-sitting for a neighbouring couple;– Washing your best clothes before a night out with friends;– Attending a dinner in a posh hotel the night before a job

interview, along with the panel and other candidates. 16

Informal Economy

Nigeria• Street hawking, mini bus,

market trading• 40-45% of GDP is informal

economy• Informal economy is the

backbone

Ann Oakley (1974b)• 2nd Wave feminism asked what

is relationship between paid work and domestic tasks?

• Due to industrialization, domestic work became invisible, ‘natural’ domain of women, ‘real work’ is the domain of men

• Unacknowledged and unrewarded work props up the rest of the economy

THE EXPERIENCE OF PAID WORK

key terms

• Division of labour since industrialization:– work has become more and more specialized due to modern

industrial production, – Division between the home and the workplace

• Mass production :– Trained to perform specialized task– Techniques for productivity – Discipline/performance

• Economic Independence:– Modern societies are characterised by dependence on other

workers (who made your jeans?!)

Marx and Alienation

• Division of labour influences people’s experiences of work

• Development of modern industry will make work dull and uninteresting

• Alienation of people from their work:– Feelings of indifference or hostility– To work – To whole of industrial capitalism and productions

• Industrial work is only carried out to receive wage; it is inherently unsatisfying

Durkheim

• Division of labour and resulting speciliazation of roles leads to:– Strengthened solidarity within communities– People are linked through mutual dependency– Functional relationship– However, in times of quick change, this can result

in anomie

Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations (1776)

• Division of labour can increase productivity.• A person working alone in a pin

factory can make 20 pins per day.• Breaking down the worker’s task

into specialized jobs can produce48,000 pins per day.

Taylorism: Scientific Management• Frederick Winslow Taylor (1865-1915)– Detailed study of industrial processes– Aim: break down into simple operations – Knowledge and control placed in management’s

hands • the deskilling and

degradation of labour: (Braverman 1974)

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Fordism: Henry Ford (1863- 1947) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQhgC2vIqFQ• Michigan, 1908

– Single product, the Model T

– Specialized tools and machinery

– Moving assembly line– Applied principles of Taylorism to car

manufacturer– Raised wages at plant for everyone – to

cultivate mass markets (Harvey 1989)

• Fordism: the system of mass production tied to mass markets 24

Critical thinking: ask your partner• Factors influence the individual’s experience of work

• Think about the application of scientific principles to the work process:– In what sense is such a division of labour scientific – In what sense is it rational?

• Place yourself in the position of:– (a) a production manager– (b) an assembly line worker. – From each perspective, write down some brief reflections on the

strengths and limitations of a Fordist system.

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Why did Fordism collapse in certain areas?

• Fordism is only appropriate for standardized products• Expensive to set up• Expensive to alter• Difficult to compete with countries with lower wage labour• Low-trust system Continuous monitoring leads to:

– erosion of morale and commitment– High dissatisfaction– High absenteeism– Industrial conflict common

• High trust system– Workers can control pace/content of work (within frame)– More common in recent decades

WOMEN AND ECONOMIC WORK

Women and Work I

• Big story of the 20th century in Europe• 35-60% of women aged 16-60 hold paid jobs• Three quarters of these in low-paid, part-time

work in the five ‘C’s:– Clerical, cashiering, cleaning, caring and catering

(UK Equal Opportunities Commission 2007).• The historical picture saw the separation of

home and work: women in the former• Smaller families; automation of housework

Result of women’s full-time devotion to domestic tasks

• Boredom• Psychological rewards from meeting externally imposed standards;

externally imposed rules• ‘being own boss’ is illusory; women don’t make sharp division

between work and leisure time• Unequal power relationship as women are dependent on male

partners

• Criticism;– Neglection of differences between working-class and middle class homes– Gershuny (1992) amount of housework by men is increasing – Sullivan (2000) women’s domestic duties have reduced by 1/5, the more

women worked, the lower was domestic tasks time– Things are more positive!

What’s happening now?

•Crompton et al (2005)

•Economic pressures push require longer hours from workforce (mostly male)•Process of equalization has halted•Attitudes = less traditional•Practices = reverted to more traditional pattern

•Needs more comparative research

Part time work and segregation• based on ideas about ‘men’s work’ and ‘women’s

work’: – Rake 2000 more than 45% of women earn less than

£100 pw, compared to 20% of men. 10% of men earn more than £500 pw, compared to 2% of women.

• Hakim (1996) there are different ‘types’ of women: those who want to work, those who do not(!!)

• However, in a sense, women have little choice:– Prime responsibility of childrearing (socio- cultural

stereotypes)• Domestic division of labour has become more

egalitarian, especially among younger couples

Division of labour

• However, now, women often work a ‘double shift’, at home and in paid employment.

• Vicious circle:– National minimum wage may have

given pay rise of approx. 30% to 2 million people in 1999

– A woman with a relatively well-paid job may be financially crippled by paying for childcare

– Working part time leads to loss in benefits/ pensions that full-time workers receive (Giddens 2006:909) 32

CHANGING CAREER TRAJECTORIES

The portfolio worker

• Portfolio workers:– Skill portfolio– A number of different skills and credentials– Several different jobs– Several different kinds of jobs

• Handy (1994) positive, not stuck in same job for years, creativity

• Does flexibility mean job insecurity?

On the Edges of Work: Job insecurity

• Rise in job insecurity: now highest in Britain since 1945• Job insecurity: a sense of apprehension felt about the

future safety of jobs and workplace roles. • Unemployment: kept historically low after WW2 by state

intervention• This broke down in the 1980s and has declined since mid-

1990s.• Unemployment concentrated in ethnic groups and youth• Burchell et al (1999) job insecurity is more than fear of

redundancy. Transformation of work itself, effects of that transformation on employees health and personal life.

The Social Significance of Work

• Continued social significance:– Money (wages and salaries are key resource)– Activity level (opportunity to acquire and exercise

skills and capacities)– Variety (contexts that contrast with the home

setting)– Temporal structure (rhythm of working life)– Social contacts (friendships and networks)– Personal identity (social standing and self-esteem)

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Conclusions• Modern societies represent the division of labour and specialization• Industrial production was made more efficient with Taylorism and

Fordism• Unions emerged as ways for workers to defend themselves over

conditions of labour• Fordist practices have recently been replaced by more flexible terms• Women in the most recent generation have benifited from legislation

passed in the 1970s, byt the pay divide remains substantial over a lifetime.

• Unemployment is a constant problem in the industrialized world• Job insecurity can be as negative a feeling as actually being unemployed