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SOC101 Lecture Slides Week 10

This document summarizes a lecture on work and occupations from a sociology course. It discusses how work can be broadly defined as tasks that enable people to make a living, and occupations are work done in exchange for wages. Occupations are related to inequalities in class, status, gender, and ethnicity. In modern capitalist societies, private ownership and profit motivate competition in markets. The lecture notes that while capitalism has critics, it is now the dominant global economic system. It outlines several characteristics of work, including its role in providing income, structuring time, offering social contacts and personal identity. The document closes by flagging topics like global outsourcing and job insecurity for discussion.

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31 views12 pages

SOC101 Lecture Slides Week 10

This document summarizes a lecture on work and occupations from a sociology course. It discusses how work can be broadly defined as tasks that enable people to make a living, and occupations are work done in exchange for wages. Occupations are related to inequalities in class, status, gender, and ethnicity. In modern capitalist societies, private ownership and profit motivate competition in markets. The lecture notes that while capitalism has critics, it is now the dominant global economic system. It outlines several characteristics of work, including its role in providing income, structuring time, offering social contacts and personal identity. The document closes by flagging topics like global outsourcing and job insecurity for discussion.

Uploaded by

maisha.ayman.75
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SOC101: Introduction to Sociology

Week 10

Selim Reza, PhD


Associate Professor of Sociology
Department of Political Science and Sociology
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Inequalities
• Hunger/poverty
• Health
• Education
Working life
• Sometimes ‘work’ is conceptualised very narrowly as activities which
people do for a wage, salary or fee. At other times it is conceptualised so
broadly that almost any expenditure of effort is seen as a form of ‘work’.

• We can usefully compromise here by regarding work as the carrying out


of tasks which enable people to make a living within the social and
economic context in which they are located.

• Note that ‘making a living’ refers here to much more than earning money.

• Choices about work? Who decides?


Occupations
• Membership of an occupation involves engagement on a regular basis in
a part or the whole of a range of work tasks which are identified under a
particular heading or title by both those carrying out these tasks and by a
wider public.

• At the level of society, occupational patterns are closely related to class,


status, gender and ethnic inequalities.

• At the level of occupational membership there are implications:


• collectively when there is the possibility of the people engaged in a
particular occupation acting jointly, through trade union or ‘professional’
mobilisation, to defend or further shared interests,
• individually in terms of how they enter that kind of work, learn how to do
the tasks associated with it and advance their careers within their selected
type of work activity.
Work vs. Occupation
• Work can be defined as the carrying out of tasks that require the expenditure
of mental and physical effort; it has as its objective the production of goods
and services that cater to human needs.

• An occupation, or job, is work that is done in exchange for a regular wage, or


salary.

• In all cultures, work is the basis of the economic system, or economy.

• The economy consists of institutions that provide for the production and
distribution of goods and services.
Who chooses our
occupation?
Capitalist modern society
• Modern societies are capitalistic. Capitalism is a way of organizing economic life that is
distinguished by the following important features:

a) private ownership of the means of production;


b) profit as incentive;
c) competition for markets to sell goods, acquire cheap materials, and use cheap labor; and
d) restless expansion and investment to accumulate capital.

• Capitalism, which began to spread with the growth of the Industrial Revolution in the early
nineteenth century, is a vastly more dynamic economic system than any other that preceded
it in history.

• Although the system has had many critics, such as Karl Marx, it is now the most widespread
form of economic organization in the world.
Characteristics of work
1. Money: A wage or salary is the main resource many people depend on to meet their needs. Without such an income,
anxieties about coping with day-to-day life tend to multiply.

2. Activity level. Work often provides a basis for the acquisition and exercise of skills and capacities. Even where work is
routine, it offers a structured environment in which a person’s energies may be absorbed. Without it, the opportunity to
exercise such skills and capacities may be reduced.

3. Variety. Work provides access to contexts that contrast with domestic surroundings. In the working environment, even
when the tasks are relatively dull, individuals may enjoy doing something different from home chores.

4. Structuring one’s time. For people in regular employment, the day is usually organized around the rhythm of work.
Although work may sometimes be oppressive, it provides a sense of direction in daily activities. Those who are out of work
frequently find boredom a major problem and may develop a sense of apathy about time.

5. Social contacts. The work environment often provides friendships and opportunities to participate in shared activities with
others. Separated from the work setting, a person’s circle of possible friends and acquaintances is likely to dwindle.

6. Personal identity. Work is usually valued for the sense of stable social identity it offers. For men in particular, self-esteem is
often bound up with the economic contribution they make to maintaining the household. In addition, job conditions—such
as the opportunity to work in jobs that are challenging, not routinized, and not subject to close supervision—are known to
have a positive effect on a person’s sense of self-worth (Crowley, 2014).
GLOBAL OUTSOURCING
JOB INSECURITY
Any questions?

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