Transcript Modern Capitalism

April
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nd
22
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Last Day to Drop with a “W”
Quick Writing
Lecture 12: Work in the Post-Industrial
Society
Homework:
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Introduction to Sociology: Chapter 19
HMWK #4
Quick Writing: 5-10 minutes
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Write your name on a piece of paper, since
you will hand this in.
(1)
Explain your worst work experience
(2)
Explain your best work experience
Lecture 11
Work in the Post-Industrial Economy
Social Organization of Work
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As our society becomes more
interdependent, the ways in which we
organize the production and consumption of
goods becomes more complex
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The advent of industrialization brought about
a new type of economic organization that we
call capitalism
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Modern capitalism has both encouraged
globalization and has been intensified by
globalization
Modern Capitalism
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Modern Capitalism is an economic system
based on private property where goods are
bought and sold on a market and prices are
determined by supply and demand
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Profit incentive, free competition to buy goods,
drive to accumulate capital ($)
Capitalism is driven by rational thinking &
organization with the goal of finding the most
efficient means to gain profit
Working in a Corporate Society
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As a global corporate society grows, we can
ask: How does it affect workers and the
social organization of work?
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To begin to answer this question we want to
examine how labor is socially reproduced
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The wages, working conditions, and social
relations of work are determined by economic,
social, and political contexts (social structure)
Selling Our Labor
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Capitalism creates an institution of wage labor
that forms the foundation of our social structure
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One sociologist, Karl Marx, spent his life examining capitalism
and its affect on workers and society as a whole
According to Marx, in an industrial society our
labor is no longer voluntary, but forced
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What do you think he means by this?
Modern Capitalism: Alienated Labor
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According to Marx, workers in Industrial
society (the many who do not own the means
of production) become alienated since they
are required to sell their labor
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They become alienated in three ways
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From themselves
From the labor process
From other people
Alienated from ourselves
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Marx believed that work is the essence of humanity
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When workers must sell their labor they are
alienated from their own labor power, creativity, and
the products they make
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The ability to produce for ourselves is what makes us
human
“the worker cannot use the things he produces to keep
alive or to engage in further productive activity....”
The more productive workers are the cheaper they
become
Alienated from the labor process/products
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According to Marx, when we must sell our labor we
(in general) lose control over how we will labor
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We have no say over the conditions in which we
work and how our work is organized, and how it
affects us physically and mentally
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Through the rationalization of the labor process
(deskilling) workers become “a mere appendage of
flesh on a machine of iron”
Alienated from fellow humans
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We are alienated from those that control our labor and
those who produce goods for us
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The commodities of each individual producer appears in
depersonalized form, regardless of who produced them, where,
or in what specific conditions
Alienated form fellow workers
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According to Marx, since we must sell our labor we are forced to
compete with other workers for jobs
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*Think about how globalization affects competition for jobs*
Creates false consciousness vs. class coconsciousness
Rational Organization of Labor
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Capitalist economies rationally organize production
to find the most efficient means to achieve profit
accumulation
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Therefore, corporations (the dominant organizations) look
to find the cheapest inputs possible for profit maximization
– including labor
However, the cost of labor is socially reproduced
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As companies seek out the cheapest labor on the market
they encounter social, political, and economic contexts
that determine the cost and conditions of labor/work
Using the case studies from the book
Threads we can examine the social
reproduction of labor by looking at the
organization of rational production changes in
from a period of industrial apparel production
with the Tultex corporation to a more
globalized apparel production with the Liz
Claiborne corporation
Tultex & Fordist Organization of
Production
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Fordism is defined as a system of mass production
tied to mass consumption; in others words workers
needed to be paid enough to buy the goods that are
being produced in the economy
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A fordist style of economic organization requires:
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A stable workforce – workers generally worked for one
company their whole loves
Automation technology and deskilling – the creation of the
assembly line
High level of unionization – where workers were able to
bargain for high wages and benefits
Industrial Economic Growth
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The fordist style of economic organization created
significant economic growth, a large middle class,
and the birth of the consumer economy in American
society
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With automation technology, workers become more
productive and earned high enough wages to consume the
goods produced
However, a capitalist system creates increasing
competition among corporations and therefore they
are looking for ways to cut the cost of their inputs
including labor
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One of these ways was to look for workers who did not
need to consume at the levels that American workers had
become accustomed to
Liz Claiborne Corporation
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The Liz Claiborne corporation started in the apparel
industry when industrial production started to
expand around the globe and they were able to take
advantage of this globalization
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During this period of time the social organization of
production and work can be labeled post- fordism,
whereby the global economy is organized for mass
production of goods at various stages in different
part of the world, but the mass consumption of
goods takes place in only a few parts of the world
Post-Fordism
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Post-fordism is defined as the social organization of production
based on flexibility and innovation being maximized to meet
market demand
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A fordist style of economic organization requires:
 A contingent workforce – workers are generally hired for short
periods of time
 Automation technology and deskilling – the creation of the
assembly line, but around the world
 Information technology – allows corporations to make decisions
in one location and hire labor in other locations
 No unionization – workers are not able to bargain for high wages
and benefits or improved working conditions
Changing organization of labor; changing
cost of labor
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The previous two case studies demonstrate how the
cost of labor is socially reproduced buy the type of
organization of production
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With fordist organization, automation and the assembly
created a demand for deskilled labor and therefore reduced
the cost of labor, however workers still needed to earn high
enough wages to purchase the goods produced in this type
of economy
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With post-fordism this changes with information technology
which makes it possible to move around the world and
utilize automation technology to find workers who do not
need to earn wages to consume at the level of American
workers
Cheap people or Cheap Labor ?
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What we want to remember is no one’s labor is
cheaper than someone else’s labor – it is the social
organization of a society that makes ‘cheap labor’
possible
 There are no ‘cheap’ people, just ‘cheap’ wages
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When thinking about cheap labor, ask yourself: “How
is my labor socially reproduced in this society to be
more expensive that the labor of workers in Mexico,
China, Jamaica, etc?”
 For example, some of the political policies that make
American labor more expensive are: minimum wage,
unemployment insurance, medical leave, workplace
safety, etc.
Increasing Alienation?
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To conclude, we can think about how
globalization and post-fordist organization of
production affects the alienation of workers
that Marx discussed
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Do you think that globalization increases the
alienation of workers?
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From themselves?
From the labor process?
From other people?