Sociology - Real World - Ch 11: Globalization Issues
The social and economic changes, including population increases, that followed from the domestication of plants and animals and the gradually increasing efficiency of food production (page 325)
Agricultural Revolution
What are the benefits of telecommuting?
Businesses get increased productivity and fewer sick days.
Where did the Industrial Revolution begin?
England
The fact that almost all of the small electronics used in the United States are made in Asia is an illustration of:
Globalization
Why would anyone want to buy virtual goods for an online computer game like World of Warcraft, rather than gaining them by playing the game?
Having virtual goods isn't just a matter of personal achievement, but also a matter of reputation and status in the community.
In 2003 Evan Williams, the owner of the Internet firm Blogger, sold his company to Google; in the process he became a Google employee, along with his six employees. Why might Karl Marx suspect that this move would leave Williams feeling more alienated than before?
He no longer had control over what he produced.
How are strictly controlled workers within bureaucracies different from robots?
Human workers can resist and undermine the bureaucratic restraints that limit their autonomy.
How is service work different from manufacturing work?
In service work, unlike manufacturing work, it is common for workers' expectations to conflict with those of customers.
How is service work different than manufacturing work?
In service work, unlike manufacturing work, it is common for workers' expectations to conflict with those of customers.
The part of the economy composed of nonprofit organizations; their workers are mission driven, rather than profit driven, and such organizations direct surplus funds to the causes they support (page 353)
Independent (or Third) Sector
The rapid transformation of social life resulting from the technological and economic developments that began with the assembly line, steam power, and urbanization (page 326)
Industrial Revolution
rapid transformation of social life resulting from the technological and economic developments assembly line, steam power, and urbanization. Migration to cities
Industrial Revolution
The recent social revolution made possible by the development of the microchip in the 1970s, which brought about vast improvements in the ability to manage information (page 327)
Information Revolution
social revolution made possible by the development of the microchip in the 1970s, Other technologies associated with the Information Revolution include the Internet, computer networking, and all types of digital media and communications.
Information Revolution
During the 1912 textile mill strikes in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the striking workers' slogan was "bread and roses." What did the slogan mean?
It emphasized that the workers needed more than wages barely sufficient to keep them alive.
Edward Brent, a professor of sociology at the University of Missouri, has invented a piece of software called Qualrus, which he uses to grade students' papers. He claims this saves him at least 200 hours of grading every year. Why is using a computer program to grade a particularly capitalist technique?
It encourages efficiency through technological innovation.
How has the Information Revolution changed the nature of work and the economy?
It has shifted the economy toward the production of knowledge and services.
What effect did the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 have on unions?
It instituted limits on secondary strikes and boycotts.
According to Robin Leidner's Fast Food, Fast Talk, what are the consequences of scripting workers' interactions with customers?
It is damaging to workers and suppresses their real selves.
In 2000 Ken Loach made a film called Bread and Roses. The film was set in Los Angeles. Given what you know from Chapter 11, what is the film about?
It's about the struggle of janitors, most of them immigrants, to unionize.
Why would a company outsource or contract out labor they might otherwise employ their own staff to perform?
It's cheaper
The theory that the capacity of microchips will double every 18 months is called:
Moore's Law
According to critics of globalization, what disadvantages result from increased international trade?
Multinational corporations will increasingly shape the policies of governments.
The tendency in capitalism is to move operations to other countries where labor and production costs are cheaper.
Outsourcing
What do you think that Barbara Ehrenreich would say about efforts to reform welfare that tried to move people off welfare rolls and into minimum wage jobs?
She would disapprove because she thinks that low-wage work is demeaning and insufficient to survive on.
How could telecommuting increase worker productivity?
Telecommuters must provide a concrete measure of their accomplishments, not just show up.
Why was the successful UPS strike of 1997 relatively unique and unlikely to be repeated?
The jobs in question could not be moved overseas and he striking workers had good rapport with customers.
Why did Karl Marx believe that workers in a capitalist economy experience alienation?
They are paid for their labor but do not own the things they produce.
How are 'gold farms' different than traditional sweatshops?
They exploit workers to produce virtual goods instead of material goods.
Thanksgiving is one of the busiest days of the year for many soup kitchens and other groups that provide food to the homeless and poor. It's also one of the biggest days of the year for volunteers, as many more people decide to donate their time and efforts, making them, even if just for the day, part of the:
Third Sector
opening runaway shops.
When manufacturing firms move to other countries to take advantage of cheap labor and lax environmental laws, it is called:
Which of these workers would be most typical of the economy in America today?
a 30-year-old woman who works as a customer service representative for a cell phone company
Someone who works primarily with information and develops or uses knowledge in the workplace is called:
a knowledge worker
Workers at a large retail outlet are required to wear green aprons with nametags on them, which often leads customers to address them by their first names. Sometimes employees alter their name tags in humorous ways (changing "Asagi" to "Soggy") and then try to convince management that it is a valid name change ("It's what my parents call me"). What is this an example of?
a resistance strategy
Someone who gives acupuncture to dogs in order to relieve their stress is:
a service worker
Which of the following would be an example of a contingent worker?
a stripper who is considered to be an independent contractor and therefore exempt from minimum wage laws
According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, an employer that violates more than one federal or state labor law concerning wages, overtime, child labor, safety and health, or industrial regulation is classified as:
a sweatshop
What is a sweatshop?
a workplace with poor working conditions, below standard wages, and long hours
Workers in large department stores usually are paid commissions, which means that they are in direct competition with their fellow employees. According to Karl Marx, this makes them:
alienated
American workers often describe themselves as "working for the weekend," a sentiment that is also expressed in the phrase "thank god it's Friday." Karl Marx would say that these sentiments say something about our relationship to work and indicate that we are:
alienated for human nature
How are workers' situations different in socialist, as opposed to capitalist, economies?
all answers are correct
What change was associated with the Industrial Revolution?
all possible answers are correct
In Great Britain, the government owns the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, which is the world's largest television and radio broadcasting service. This tells you that Great Britain is:
at least partially socialist
The ability to direct one's individual destiny is:
autonomy
Why was the successful UPS strike of 1997 relatively unique and unlikely to be repeated?
both A and D answers are correct
An economic system based on the laws of free market competition, privatization of the means of production, and production for profit, with an emphasis on supply and demand as a means to set prices (page 330)
capitalism
an economic system in which natural resources and the means of producing goods and services are privately owned
capitalism
Welfare agencies run by for-profit firms are an example of:
capitalism shaping human service institutions
Welfare agencies run by for-profit firms are an example of:
capitalism shaping human service institutions.
Workplaces where all of the employees must be members of a union are called:
closed shops
What are networks of corporations, manufacturers, distributors, and consumer outlets that create products called?
commodity chains
A system of government that eliminates private property; the most extreme form of socialism, because all citizens work for the government and there are no class distinctions (page 331)
communism
What is the most extreme form of socialism called?
communism
One way that you can tell medical doctors are part of the capitalist economy is that they have to:
constantly retrain and learn new skills
Corporations whose decision-making, production, and distribution operations are spread all over the world are characteristic of:
deep integration
You want to discover who made the comforter on your bed. You notice that one tag says, "Made in the USA from imported materials" and another tag says, "Shell made in China." Eventually you do some research and discover that the cotton for your comforter was grown in Egypt, the thread made in Thailand, the shell woven in China, and the down harvested in South America, before the comforter was assembled in the United States. What is this an example of?
deep integration
the social institution that organizes a society's production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
economy
What did Wal-Mart do when the butchers at the Supercenter in Jacksonville, Texas, voted to unionize?
eliminated meat cutting in all of its Texas stores
economic activity that crosses national borders
global economy
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri wrote Empire to express their concern that nation-states are increasingly losing control and being replaced by an international "empire" that is not under any one person's control, but that follows a logic of exploitative capitalism. Given what you know about changes in the economy, what do you think they are concerned about?
globalization
The cultural and economic changes resulting from dramatically increased international trade and exchange in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (page 341)
globalization
The cultural and economic changes that result from dramatic increases in international trade and exchange are called:
globalization
The fact that almost all of the small electronics used in the United States are made in Asia is an illustration of:
globalization
Think about the process by which athletic shoes are made. Which part of the global commodity chain for these shoes would you be most surprised to find in Indonesia?
he advertising firm that scripted the commercial
In September of 2001, doctors conducted the first ever telesurgery, operating on a patient in France from an office in downtown Manhattan. According to an account of the surgery, "By means of a wizardly mixture of high-speed fiber optics and surgical robots—in this case, a setup known as the Zeus Telesurgical Robotic System—the surgeons in New York were able to navigate around the patient's abdomen with precision." What feature of contemporary society is this an illustration of?
he greatly diminished importance of place
Hunting and gathering societies, Horticultural societies, Pastoral Societies, The Agricultural Revolution, Neolithic Revolution, The Industrial Revolution, The Information Revolution
historical changes in economics and work
based on the domestication of animals, farming First surpluses
horticultural societies
Given that the greater the division of labor in a society, the greater the degree of inequality, which type of economic system would you expect to be the most equal?
hunting and gathering
How did the Industrial Revolution create "work" in the modern sense?
in a traditional economy, work took place at home
When office workers hang pictures in their cubicles or waste time daydreaming while on the clock, it is an example of:
individual resistance
Edward Brent, a professor of sociology at the University of Missouri, has invented a piece of software called Qualrus, which he uses to grade students' papers. He claims this saves him at least 200 hours of grading every year. Why is using a computer program to grade a particularly capitalist technique?
it encourages efficiency through technological innovation
Why would a company outsource or contract out labor they might otherwise employ their own staff to perform?
it is cheaper
According to Robin Leidner's Fast Food, Fast Talk, what are the consequences of scripting workers' interactions with customers?
it is damaging to workers, and suppresses their real selves
What does Karl Marx believe is the natural human attitude toward work and productive activity?
it is human nature to seek out work
The economic system in place in industrialized nations during the first half of the twentieth century is often called "Fordism" by sociologists. It is a system characterized by the increasingly efficient mass production of goods. Why do you think that this system is called "Fordism"?
it is named after Henry Ford, who is credited for inventing the assembly line
What does Karl Marx believe is the natural human attitude toward work and productive activity?
it's human nature to seek out work
Advertising, engineering, marketing, product design, and web design are all examples of
knowledge work
Advertising, engineering, marketing, product design, and web design are all examples of:
knowledge work
Someone who works primarily with information and develops or uses knowledge in the workplace is called:
knowledge worker
Someone who works primarily with information and develops or uses knowledge in the workplace is called:
knowledge workers
Those who work primarily with information and who create value in the economy through their ideas, judgments, analyses, designs, or innovations (page 327)
knowledge workers
What career is NOT a category of contingent work?
knowledge workers
How has union membership changed in recent years?
membership has steeply declined
According to Barbara Ehrenreich, what do workers with minimum-wage service jobs need to do to get ahead and move up in the world?
nothing; there's no way for them to move up in the world
When manufacturing firms move to other countries to take advantage of cheap labor and lax environmental laws, it is called:
opening runaway shops
"Contracting out" or transferring to another country the labor that a company might otherwise have employed its own staff to perform; typically done for financial reasons (page 345)
outsourcing
In 2009 the British government announced that it was cutting costs by eliminating many jobs and transferring others to India, including more than 100 jobs involving finance and information technology. What is this an example of?
outsourcing
n 2009 the British government announced that it was cutting costs by eliminating many jobs and transferring others to India, including more than 100 jobs involving finance and information technology. What is this an example of?
outsourcing
According to Karl Marx, where does surplus value come from?
paying workers less than the value of what they created
Which of the following social problems might be alleviated if more Americans were encouraged to telecommute?
pollution
a productive system based on service work and computer technology
postindustrial economy
the part of the economy that draws raw materials from that natural environment
primary sector
Which of the following is one of the primary principles of capitalism?
privatization of the means of production
When someone first takes a job as an aesthetician they have to learn how to use wax to remove unwanted body hair from customers. Though certain skills have to be mastered to do this well, new employees also have to learn from their coworkers about how to talk to customers about parts of the body that are usually very private, an example of:
professional socialization
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." This slogan could only be fully realized with:
pure communism
Tactics that let workers take back some degree of control over the conditions in which they work are called:
resistance strategies
Ways that workers express discontent with their working conditions and try to reclaim control of the conditions of their labor (page 336)
resistance strategies
the part of the economy that transforms raw materials into manufactured goods
secondary sector
Those whose work involves providing a service to businesses or individual clients, customers, or consumers rather than manufacturing goods (page 327)
service workers
When Japanese cars that are made entirely in Japan are imported into the United States to be sold to Americans, and American jeans made in the United States are exported to Japan to be sold to Japanese, it is an example of:
shallow integration
When liquor stores in the United States import wine made entirely from French grapes and bottled in France or beer brewed from grain and hops grown in Holland, it is an example of:
shallow integration
You probably have a cell phone in your pocket. If you do, then you could (if you wanted to) buy a ringtone version of a song in just a few seconds. This means that somewhere there is a paid worker, sitting at a computer, using software to edit a digital copy of the original song into a 20-second ring tone. What can you say about this worker?
she is a knowledge worker
a major sphere of social life, or societal subsystem, organized to meet human needs
social institution
An economic system based on the collective ownership of the means of production, collective distribution of goods and services, and government regulation of the economy (page 330)
socialism
The economic system based on collective ownership of the means of production and collective distribution of goods and services is called:
socialism
an economic system in which natural resources and the means of producing goods and services are collectively owned
socialism
A workplace where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including below-standard wages, long hours, and poor working conditions that may pose health or safety hazards (page 342)
sweatshop
Working from home while staying connected to the office through communications technology (page 334)
telecommuting
the part of the economy that involves services rather than goods
tertiary sector
New innovations in farming like mechanized seed spreaders and new techniques of crop rotation were part of what macro-level social change?
the Agricultural Revolution
In 2008 and 2009, the United States government initiated a large-scale economic bailout of the banking and auto industries, in which the government invested enormous amounts of money, becoming the majority shareholder in some corporations. This means that:
the United States is a capitalist nation with a degree of socialism in government subsidies to businesses.
Think about the process by which athletic shoes are made. Which part of the global commodity chain for these shoes would you be most surprised to find in Indonesia?
the advertising firm that scripted the commercial
How are strikes different from acts of resistance like daydreaming on the job?
the are collective
If you are ever unlucky enough to have someone steal your credit card, you will have to call a hotline and talk to a customer service representative, who can remove fraudulent charges from your account. Lately, that customer service representative is likely to be in India. Which of the following terms applies to this phenomenon?
the death of distance
What economic change has made it more difficult for workers to strike effectively?
the ease with which manufacturing firms can move operations to another country
In September of 2001, doctors conducted the first ever telesurgery, operating on a patient in France from an office in downtown Manhattan. According to an account of the surgery, "By means of a wizardly mixture of high-speed fiber optics and surgical robots—in this case, a setup known as the Zeus Telesurgical Robotic System—the surgeons in New York were able to navigate around the patient's abdomen with precision." What feature of contemporary society is this an illustration of?
the greatly diminished importance of place
What changes in the economy would be associated with travel agents hiring inmates in minimum security prisons to take calls and schedule vacations for customers?
the growth of information technology
How has the Information Revolution changed the nature of work?
the importance of place has greatly diminished
Cuba's communist government has recently introduced reforms that make it easier to attract tourists, and many skilled professionals have started working in the tourism industry to earn more money, regardless of their degree. What is this a sign of?
the increasingly important role that capitalism plays in Cuba
What technological development is associated with the Information Revolution?
the microchip
The economy is not just about money but about:
the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
The economy is not only about money, but also about:
the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
In 1995 the Philippines passed the Special Economic Zone Act, which established certain areas where corporations could set up factories, import raw materials without paying duties or tariffs, and in some cases avoid paying any taxes for a number of years. What is this an example of?
the race to the bottom
What new technology was integral to the Industrial Revolution?
the steam engine
What change caused people to migrate into cities from rural areas?
the switch to a manufacturing economy
Alienation refers to separation. Which of the following does Marx NOT argue that workers are separated from?
their families
In 2005 teaching assistants at the University of Oregon went on strike. What feature of their job made it easier for them to strike than most American workers?
their jobs cannot be moved overseas
In a capitalist system, what do workers have available to sell?
their own labor
How are strikes different from acts of resistance like daydreaming on the job?
they are collective
Firms that purposely transcend national borders so that their products can be manufactured at sites all over the world are called:
transnational corporations
An association of workers who bargain collectively for increased wages and benefits and better working conditions (page 338)
union
Who led campaigns to end child labor and increase workplace safety?
unions
Karl Marx believes that we feel "freely active" only in our "animal functions of eating, drinking, and procreating" and feel like animals when we engage in activities that should be truly human. What are activities that should be truly human?
work, vital activity, and productive life
Karl Marx believes that we feel "freely active" only in our "animal functions of eating, drinking, and procreating" and feel like animals when we engage in activities that should be truly human. What are activities that should be truly human?
work, vital activity, productive life
Which of the following groups of workers would be LEAST likely to strike successfully?
workers who make microchips at a Silicon Valley plant
