Sociology chapter 11

Symbolic Interactionist

We are intensely identifies with our work, both by ourselves and others. Every profession/workplace has a different form of socialization and culture of work

Conflict theorist

A stratified labor market creates inter-group conflict in which wealthy capitalists exploit less-powerful workers

Nature of work, Karl Marx

argued that when people lose control over their production and the conditions of production, they become alienated and view work as a means to survive rather than a rewarding activity

Agricultural Revolution

included social and economic changes, population increases, and increased efficiency of food production.

Communism

is a system of government that eliminates private property and its the most extreme form of socialism because all citizens work for the government and there are no class distinctions

Socialism

is an economic system base on the collective ownership of the means of production, collective distribution of goods and services, and government regulation of the economy

Capitalism

is an economic system based on: 1) free market competition 2)privatization of the means of production 3)production for a profit, with an emphasis on supply and demand as a means to set price

Sweatshop

a workplace where workers are subjected to below-standard wages, long hours, and poor working conditions

Resistance strategies

are ways that workers express discontent with their working conditions and try to reclaim control of the conditions of their labor

Outsourcing

"contracting out" or transferring to another country the labor that a company might otherwise have employed its own staff to perform; from manufacturing to customer service to surrogate parenthood

Structural functionalist

Different types of work, even low status/low pay, are necessary to the economy and to maintain social order

Individuals and groups cope with their working conditions in a variety of ways

called resistance strategies

Collective resistance

can include membership in a union

Individual resistance

can include using work time to surf web, sabotaging an assembly line, and personalizing a workspace with photos

Marxist critique of capitalism

conflict perspective, argued for the proletariat to rise up against bourgeoise, to form more just societies

Before the industrial revolution

economic production took place at home in the household, on the farm, among the craftsmen

Karl Marx believed Alienation occurred in four ways

from the product of their labor from their own productive activity from their fellow workers from human nature

Industrial revolution

rapidly transformed social life through technological and economic developments, including the assembly line, steam power and urbanization

Globalization

refers to the cultural and economic changes resulting from dramatically increased international trade and exchange in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries

Information revolution

refers to the recent social revolution made possible by the development of the microchip in the 1970's which brought about vast improvements in the ability to manage information