Sociology Work Final
What are the laws prohibiting workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity? (there are no federal laws; legal in majority of states to discriminate)
-1962 - Illinois was first state legalized homosexual activity -Punishments - Idaho: Life Sentence & Michigan: 15 Year Sentence, life sentence if repeated -1990: No longer an illness (World Health Organization) -2003: Supreme Court legalizes homosexual activity (sodomy laws) -Sodomy: Non-procreative sex; referred largely to homosexual sex and bestiality -14 states had still considered it illegal Discrimination Protections -2003: Supreme Court legalizes homosexual activity (Sodomy laws) -Sodomy: Non-procreative sex; referred largely to homosexual sex and bestiality -21 states prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity -1 state prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation only -7 states prohibit discrimination against public employees based on sexual orientation and gender identity -4 states prohibit discrimination against public employees based on sexual orientation only
What is meant by welfare capitalism and what is an example?
-A company has an obligation to take care of their workers, monitoring, $5 Day -Workers should be able purchase products
How does the hiring process in sense work differ from aesthetic labor?
-Aesthetic labor is all about hiring those who already possess the cultural knowledge, sense work hire people who fit the aesthetic but train for cultural knowledge -Cultural capital ends with aesthetic, sense it continues to shape and train
What are the three principles of scientific management?
-Close monitoring by supervisors -Select and train workers to particular tasks -Replace rule of thumb with scientifically based methods
What two ways does Braverman critique scientific management?
-Deskills workers and the execution is to give the knowledge to management -It's not scientific, it's in favor of management
According to England and Folbre, how is care work different than emotional labor?
-Emotional labor is a mask, care labor is genuine and empathetic
What are the 2 most recent waves of capitalism?
-Industrial Democracy -Shareholder Primacy/Democracy
What are the games that Burawoy outlined? What are the the main components?
-Making Out, manufacturing consent -Goldbricking (putting extra, easier jobs), kitty (use the goldbricking to compensate on harder jobs), educated new workers on system -Managers loved it, production still went on
What are the strategies that are utilized to enforce a particular kind of masculinity? Why were they interested in examining this population?
-Network Hiring System - Using 3 Separate Interviews to weed out potential employees that are gay -Probationary Period - train people under current employees that can question their family life, banter them and judge their performance of masculinity
How do unions get their power? Who was Mother Jones (Mary Harris) and the Ludlow Massacre and know how they represent labor pre-union power?
-Organization of workers that organizes collective bargaining with the employer -Challenges imbalance of power through how solid the labor force is -Collective Bargaining - employee negotiating of terms and conditions of employment while being backed by the union -Results in contracts that are better for workers than they would get if they only represented themselves individually Mary Harris Jones (Mother Jones) -Started dressmaking business but lost it all to Great Chicago Fire of 1871 -Spent rest of life as labor organizer around the country: first with United Mine Workers & specialized in organizing wives and children of laborers -Went on trial for ignoring disjunctions banned meetings by striking miners -Put child labor on front page of national news and national agenda -Influenced child labor protections in Pennsylvania which had long been considered worst in country Ludlow Massacre -Workers started demanding compensation based on enforcing an 8-hour work day, payment for dead work, right to choose own doctors and use any store, enforcing mine safety rules -April 20, 1914: Colorado National Guard and Mine Guards set up machine guns outside of camp & set fire to entire camp -26 killed, included 11 children on first day: mostly died hiding in pits, burnt or suffocated -75 killed over 10 days -No demands met, 400 miners arrested
Why is there an expansion of home-care aides for, predominately, elder care? How do England and Folbre argue for more value of care work?
-Part of larger strategy in service work to offload paid work for consumer -Changes in healthcare policies to provide more benefits that incentivize homecare and discourage institutions -Lowers insurance costs of institutionalization/hospital stays -Trend of patients going home "sicker and quicker" -Rise of home healthcare technology industries/market Elder Care Specifically -Average American couple has more parents living than children -Women now spend more years providing care for elderly parents than for dependent children -Caring for a parent impacts wage gap
What are the intersections of production and consumption and how does this relationship change from Fordism to Post-Fordism? What is meant by presumption?
-Post-Fordism is a direct confrontation with the rigidities of Fordism -With rapidly changing global and economic context (high speed computing, transportation, immediate communication) large scale production facilities were unable to adapt and maintain dominance -Post Fordist economy has flexibility built in, not only in the organization of firms/organizations, but also in consumption practices Post-Fordist Production -Industrial production -Small-batch production, overabundance of choice -Subcontracting -Accelerated pace and rapid innovation -Highly-specialized, small-scale niche markets -In Post-Fordism, the division of producer and consumer is less clear than in Fordism -Came out of DotCom boom, meaning production by consumers -If Post-Fordism is characterized by small, niche markets and intertwined with identity - prosumers are embodiments of brands or lifestyles
What is the difference between pull and push production?
-Push: vendors push products onto retailers -Pull: retailers pull products from vendors
Identify the three responses Connell discusses in "Pride and Professionalism"
-Splitting, Knitting & Quitting
What is the name of legislation to allow unions to collectively bargain?
-Wagner Act, National Labor Relations Act also
Drive System
-When workers constantly pushed to work harder and faster through any means necessary -Result of research on increasing productivity in plantation system
What is aesthetic labor? How is aesthetic labor raced, classed, and gendered? What is "habitus," and how does it relate to aesthetic labor?
-Workers' style, accent, voice, and attractiveness that helps shape the brand identity -Occurring most often in high-end retail chains -The right aesthetic is middle class, conventionally gendered and typically white -Maintains and reasserts traditional boundaries of class, gender identity, and race Manufacturing Consent in Aesthetic Labor -Offering discounts instead of wages or benefits -Employees spend checks at store & display product and extend brand aesthetic Habitus -Mannerisms that are acquired in childhood that are difficult to alter later in life -Based on what income-class you grow up with that makes it second-nature -Often used to reinforce class inequality, by forming ideas of beauty and traditional gender normativity -Hiring off the sales floor ensures the right size
What is hiring based on someone's habitus?
Aesthetic Labor
What is Connell's article on "Pride and Prejudice and Professionalism"? What are the three main categories of how gay teachers balance the demands of pride and professionalism? How is professionalism infused with heteronormativity (including Acker's concept of "inequality regimes")?
Connell's Article -Straight teaches can talk about their spouses and lives that can impact their students in ways that gay teachers usually can't 3 Categories -Splitting, knitting and quitting Professionalism with Heteronormativity -Inequality Regimes -Heterosexuality (alongside whiteness, maleness and middle-class status) is an under cover but essential part of the day-to-day rules, practices, policies and interactional norms of most organizations
What are Braverman's critiques of Taylorism? How does he argue that laborers are alienated from their "species-being" through Taylorism?
Critiques of Taylorism -Not scientific, in interest of employers -Deskills workers- transfers power from labor to owners -Limits bargaining power, encourages replaceability -Believed that Taylorism (and Fordism) were examples of despotic forms of control, characteristic of capitalist marked as outlined by Marx
How did Sallaz explain employee resistance in blackjack dealers? Why did he say that they tipping system regulates the labor of dealers?
Dealing blackjack -Extremely routinized and regulated by official rules -Diverging Interests -Corporate managers: speed, security, service -Pit bosses: Nightly profit -Dealers: Tipping systems Sallaz-Blackjack Dealers -Worker autonomy and non-compliance is rational for floor managers and dealers, but corporate rules are subverted -Tipping employees-loss of labor control for company -But this means lowered casino costs (tipped employees-loss of labor control for company) -This also means lowered casino costs (tipped employees paid less) -Tipping system served as effective mechanism of product customization -Good service to locals-highly prized customers
What is deindustrialization? What are the key factors in deindustrialization?
Deindustrialization -Decline in manufacturing sectors share of total national employment -Not necessarily a decline in total output/productivity Produces extreme shift in short period of time -Massive growth of low-paying jobs -Decline in middle-income jobs -Increase in highest paying jobs
What is meant by dependent deindustrialization? What are the impacts of deindustrialization (know generally how it impacted wages and why? Why did Dudley say that deindustrialization was not only economic, but was a socio-cultural problem?
Dependent Deindustrialization -Midwest (Rust Belt) cities totally reliant on manufacturing for health of cities Impacts of Deindustrialization -Automobile workers who lost their jobs found 2 years later to make 43% less on average -Only top 20% of family income saw gains in income; 40% experienced declines To Cope: -Rise in use of credit, increase in average total hours worked, wave of women entering workforce
The example of Flint, MI was used to introduce what concept?
Dependent deindustrialization
What are the current discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community? What is Embrick's study on boundary creation in a predominately white, working class environment?
Discrimination Protections -2003: Supreme Court legalizes homosexual activity, allowing Sodomy sex to happen -Sodomy: Non-procreative sex; referred largely to homosexual sex and bestiality Embrick's Study -Looked at how white working class men enforce social boundaries of hetero-masculinity and keep heterosexuality within the workforce ----- keeps certain privileges for white race, male gender, & hetero sexuality -Lots of research was done on boundaries enforced between race and gender in the workforce, but not on sexuality
Workers were pushed to work harder and faster by foreman through what management style?
Drive System
What are Hochschild's major contributions based around emotion management and emotional labor? How are emotions commodified?
Emotion Management -Routinely managing our emotions based on our own choosing -Creating how we feel about everything Emotional Labor -Managing our feelings to create a display based on our facial expressions of how all employees are for that company -Bought by paying workers, has exchange value just like a material good Transmutation of Emotional Systems -Our traditionally private management of emotions now falls under the control of large organization and the profit motive
According to Bott's in scripting interactions, when employees cut off the script, what kind of resistance is this?
Everyday resistance, done in the moment to maintain dignity
What is Fordism? What is the impact of Ford assembly line and what does it mean to shift focus from product to production?
Fordism 1914-Deindustrialization -Production: Few, large factories with moving assembly lines; mass manufacturing, standardization -Used machines to supplant skill -Consumption: large supply/widely accessible, relatively cheap, few options -Altered public display of social class -Previously, only elite could afford multitude of products, now everyone had access -Rise of conspicuous consumption Ford Assembly Line -Shifted focus from product to production: how to simplify and make more efficient -Workers were stationary; jobs came to them -Dictated worker pace -Assemblage time fell from 13 hours to 90 minutes Ford Model T-Assembly Line -Model T Ford: $360 in 1916, Pre-Assembly Line: $825 -Along with assembly line, Ford introduces "vertical manufacturing" -All materials enter factory and are all made into parts used in making Model T's -Prior to assembly line, "horizontal manufacturing" -Integrated parts produced from other manufacturers
Who is Frederick Winslow Taylor and what was his influence on USA industrialization? What are the elements of scientific management? What is soldiering?
Frederick Winslow Taylor -Machine shop laborer at Midvale Steel, moved up to chief engineer -Good work and brother-in-law was part owner -Became GM and consulting engineer Manufacturing Investment CO. in Philadelphia -Spent rest of career writing, consulting, and lecturing -Honorary Doctorate from UPenn; Prof. at Dartmouth Business -Published Principles of Scientific Management in 1911, although he'd already been lecturing in consulting in its methods -Sought to improve industrial efficiency and was one of the first management consultants Scientific Management -Existing organizational structures assume antagonism between employers and employees -Need to organize around common interest of prosperity -Theoretical Motivation: Maximizing Efficiency and Productivity breed Maximum Prosperity for employer and employee -Replace rule-of-thumb methods with scientifically based methods Soldiering -Protect their bodies, prevent burnout, physical, emotional harm -Maintain autonomy or control over work -Claim a greater sense of power and fulfillment
What do they mean by "free riders" on the labor of care workers, and what is the "care penalty"? What do they say about the difference between care work and emotional labor? Be familiar with their discussion on caring and capitalism.
Free-Riders -Benefits that provide positive impacts outside of immediate care -Arguing there's a higher economic value of these positions Care Work & Emotional Labor Differences -Emotional labor is a mask but care work is genuine and empathetic Caring & Capitalism -Care may flow from affection, but it is also a lot work -Requires personal attention, services that are normally provided face-to-face or first-name basis, often for people who cannot clearly express their own needs -Care givers are expected to provide love as well as labor -Need to care for people while also caring about them
What is Burawoy's concept of "games" as a form of resistance? How did the game of "making out" work? Why does foreman allow it?
Games -How workers display competence in their work -Creates system of rewards and semblance of resistance to management control Foreman Allowed -Argued that allowing laborers the Illusion of control in ability to play games is a form of manufacturing consent -Provides workers with sense of agency, while ultimately increasing productivity and limiting class consciousness Making Out -Produce between 100% and 140% (workers self-imposed upper limit)
What is the hiring process of aesthetic labor? How does aesthetic labor reinforce traditional boundaries of identity and inequality? What is consumer fetishism and how does it relate to aesthetic labor?
Hiring Process -Examining creative talents even without requiring creativity on the job -Hiring off the floor -Prolonging interviews to weed out those actually in need of a job Consumer Fetishism -Finding meaning and value in material things instead of people -Seeing workers represent the lifestyle of the brand that is purchased -Consumers are buying material products that will contribute to their identity
What two main revolutions produced the ideal worker model?
Industrial and Market
Acker refers to __ which means heterosexuality, whiteness, maleness and middle class status is embedded in most organizations / institutionalized
Inequality Regimes
Define Deindustrialization
Loss of manufacturing sector employment, not a decline in production and output
Security cameras and secret shoppers are used in what kind of management strategy?
Panoptic management
How does Burawoy disagree with Braverman (regarding types of power/control)? What does Burawoy mean by manufacturing consent?
Power/Control -Workers are paid based on "piece rate" system -Believes that it's one form of hegemonic control -Pay based on amount produced gives laborer sense of false control over their wages Manufacturing Consent -Argued that allowing laborers the Illusion of control in ability to play games is a form of manufacturing consent -Provides workers with sense of agency, while ultimately increasing productivity and limiting class consciousness
Production and consumption practices are integrally related, in post Fordism what is the name of this relation coming from 1990's and rose from then?
Prosumption, Production of Consumers
What are the main take-aways from Quadlin's audit study and how do they relate to the ideal worker model? Why do women who have higher academic achievement face more trouble on the job market than women or men who have lower academic achievement?
Quadlin's Audit Study -2000 Fictional Applications sent in to 1000 Real Job Openings -They Experimentally Manipulated 3 Categories: Gender, Achievement, Field of Study -Use 2 resumes, each with distinct set of application materials - overall callback rate didn't vary much by gender -Men's GPA had little impact on callback rate & women's GPA increased significantly with each GPA level (highest achieving women got fewer callbacks than lowest achieving men) -Men received callbacks at same rate with all GPA's -Women received callbacks more with B range GPA's than A range GPA's -Basically women were penalized for higher educational achievement -Men more likely offered interviews when they were competent and committed -Women more likely offered interview when they were likeable -Implies that moderate achieving women are perceived as competent enough and but high GPA achieving women are bossy, cold, & unrelatable -Makes women limit achievement to maximize their likeability
What did Taylor call the intentional slowing down of work?
Soldiering
What are the main strategies that service laborers use to identify mystery shoppers? Why do employers attempt to script employee interactions? Why does scripting of interactions often fail?
Strategies to Identify Mystery Shoppers -Noticing repeat shoppers & recognizing how they interact differently than regular customers Employers Attempt to Script Employee Interactions -Making employees gives customers the same greeting so they all get a positive experience that is the same -Making employees suggest products to try and boost sales Why It Fails -Customers recognize scripts -It can seem like it's ignoring customers and doesn't make much sense -If employees drop the script, they can risk punishments like losing pay
How does Braverman conceptualize "de-skilling"? How does he argue that Taylorism deskills laborers? What are the effects of deskilling?
Taylorism Deskilling Workers -Transfers power from labor to owners -Limits bargaining power, encourages replaceability Deskilling & Effects -Scientific Management Deskills Workers -Management holds knowledge of labor process -Train new employees to fit needs of scientifically managed labor process -Increases available labor power: Decreases scarcity -Affect social valuation of work -Less skill and decreased scarcity makes it easier to pay less
Tacit Skills
These aren't always articulated in formal rules/regulations (not always acknowledged by management) -Work satisfaction -Pride/dignity -Smooth production -Free time/autonomy over work -Relaxing and enjoyable work
What is meant by the ideal worker? What are the two major revolutions, identified by Davies and Frink, that shaped the ideal worker model?
Two Major Revolutions -Market Revolution- redefined work as only tasks that earned money -Industrial Revolution- further separates home and work physically and mentally by introducing factory time
Vertical and Horizontal Manufacturing
Vertical -All materials are made in house, Ford wanted this type of manufacturing for the assembly line for making cars -Along with assembly line, it introduced all materials to enter factory and are all made into parts used in making Model T's Horizontal -Prior to assembly line, it integrated parts produced from other manufacturers -All materials/parts produced from other manufacturers and has to be brought in
What was the importance of the Wagner Act and how did it exist within a system of Jim Crow? Why have we seen a decline in unionization rates and what are the impacts of union decline?
Wagner Act -National Labor Relations Act -Gave rights to elect how to organize with no input from employers -Started collective bargaining -Gave right to strike -Developed National Labor Relations Board -Oversaw elections and monitored employer union-busting activities Within Jim Crow -Unions in segregated South further enforced racial segregation are were largely unintegrated -When a shop became a union, black workers were often pushed out -The protections from the Wagner Act weren't given to African Americans until Civil Rights Act of 1964 -Outlawed discrimination on basis of race and ethnicity Decline in Unionization Rates -Relocated assembly goods to other countries -1980s Rise of Neoliberalism, Socio-Political Paradigm Shift -Created more individualism -Unions spoke out negatively if there was an interference in a free market -Caused anti-shareholder capitalism Impacts -Unionized jobs pay, between 15-30% more than non-unionized jobs, depending on job sector -Local unions impact local non-union wages- pressures them to increase wages that compete with union jobs or they might be threatened by an own worker unionization
What are the waves of USA capitalism especially primarily "Industrial Democracy" and "Shareholder Democracy/Primacy"? What kind of an impact did this have on laborers, rights and wages?
Waves of USA Capitalism INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY -A system in which bosses decided "the hours men and women worked, the wages they received, the conditions of their labor amounted to dictatorship" -Response to Great Recession, income inequality -Corporations run for all stakeholders - time of organized labor, corporate pension programs, charitable gifts from companies to their communities, research focused on community growth -FDR, 1936: "A small group has concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor - other people's lives" SHAREHOLDER DEMOCRACY/PRIMACY -Milton Friedman - "profits-as-purpose" -What does it mean to say that business has responsibilities? -Businessmen who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decisions
What is welfare capitalism and the Ford Sociological Department? What was revolutionary about $5 day and why did Ford implement it?
Welfare Capitalism -1914: Instituted a $5 wage/day -More than twice what Ford workers were previously paid -Ford called "the wage motive" -He believed that a worker's incentive to work is tied to receiving better wages $5 -10k laborers applied the next day -Drew in best laborers in Detroit -Increase in expertise led to higher production, lower costs by reducing turnover and need for training Ford Sociological Department -Extended control from factory to home -Believed that America's industrial elite should guide "the spiritual and moral well-being of heathen American workers" -Guiding in the factory and the home will lead to greater efficiency and a more enjoyable and productive workplace Ford Sociological Department -Kept a file on each employee to monitor their habits -Ford Savings and Loan Bank: monitored employees to make sure they were thrifty -Required savings plans -Promoted "proper living" -A determinant of profit-sharing eligibility -Sobriety, cleanliness of home and person, good habits (Christianity), monitored church attendance
