SOCI2323 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Bionics, Making Money, Industrial Revolution
The Sociology of Work
January 9, 2018
Work- activity that provides a socially valued product or service OR any activity that produces a
product or service for immediate use or exchange (doesn’t necessarily involve money)
Job- bundles of tasks packaged together to allow for “effective” work (for the desired activity to
be accomplished)
The importance of jobs
1. We depend upon jobs and the labour market for our economic well-being, evident given
high levels of labour force participation (LFP: % of working age population that is in the
labour force, either working (“employed”) or unemployed but actively seeking work).
Evident given most people’s reliance on employment income
2. Jobs help to define our experience of the “life course.” (entering adulthood, extending
“youth”, “retirement”)
3. Jobs provide a source of meaning, personal identity…yet, the value attached to work in
the West has changed over time (drudgery, divine punishment for original sin, calling,
indicator of salvation aka you will go to heaven). There is value attached to work:
-a dominant view from sociology: “human beings develop their individual
potential and enter into social relationships through their labour” (Marx’s (early)
view: productive work as essential to human being… but denied under
capitalism)
-a dominant view from economics: work as a disutility, a depravation of leisure
time, endured to gain income in order to consume
January 11th, 2017
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work?language
=en
Dan asks the question “why do we work?” He gives several examples as to why people want
meaning out of the work they do instead of just money. He gives the examples of the bionics,
the letter patterns, and more, showing that when people’s work is acknowledged it feels more
worth-while to them. We can assume that this concept exists on a greater scale with work in
general. I definitely think that this is true and that there are different motives for work than just
pay.
https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_the_way_we_think_about_work_is_broken
Barry speaks of how, with the industrial revolution (mass production, division of labour), work
in general has lost its meaning and has become, more-so than anything else, just a way of
making money. I agree with this though I also think there are exceptions.
Common indicators of how well work is working for workers such as GDP and unemployment
rate do not tell the whole story. For example, someone could have a low income but be very
Document Summary
Work- activity that provides a socially valued product or service or any activity that produces a product or service for immediate use or exchange (doesn"t necessarily involve money) Job- bundles of tasks packaged together to allow for effective work (for the desired activity to be accomplished) Evident given most people"s reliance on employment income: jobs help to define our experience of the life course. (entering adulthood, extending. Youth , retirement : jobs provide a source of meaning, personal identity yet, the value attached to work in the west has changed over time (drudgery, divine punishment for original sin, calling, indicator of salvation aka you will go to heaven). A dominant view from sociology: human beings develop their individual potential and enter into social relationships through their labour (marx"s (early) view: productive work as essential to human being but denied under capitalism)
