Work and the Economy

1
Work and the Economy

• Social relationships of work, and their
  consequences

2
The Nature of Work

• Premises
• Work remains central to our existence
• It is necessary for survival of most people. The
  demise of work has not happened
• Work is a social product
• The way in which work is presently organized is
  not inevitable. It can be questioned and
  transformed
• People seek meaning in their work
• Quality, not quantity

3
Hunting and Gathering Societies

• Subsistence economy for immediate consumption
• No accumulation of surplus therefore minimal
  exchange
• No private accumulation of wealth
• Simple (gendered) division of labour

4
Agricultural Societies

• Increase in productive power
• Accumulation of surplus
• Therefore establishment of market exchange
• Family economy
• Household as place of work and residence

5
Capitalism

• Based on
• Private ownership over means of production
• Exchange relationship between owners and workers
• Economy driven by profit motive
• Competitive market relations

6

• Profit motive demands specific organization of
  production
• Maximum efficiency
• Minimum wages
• Extraction of maximum labour within a working day

7
Industrialization

• Factory system of production facilitated
  capitalist production, shaping the way people
  worked and lived
• Movement of work from homes and workshops to
  factories
• Time discipline
• More specialized division of labour
• Departure of men from homes and families

8
Corporate (or Monopoly) Capitalism

• Change in ownership from individuals and families
  to corporations
• Legal separation of enterprise from people who
  own and control it
• Protects owners and executives from personal
  liability

9

• Monopoly exclusive control of the market by one
  corporation
• Legally restricted, as it restricts consumer
  choices
• Oligopoly control of an industry by several
  corporations
• Oligopoly ensures profits at the expense of
  industrial development and employment

10
Welfare Capitalism

• Economy is market-based, but government
  intervenes (regulations, controlssome in the
  interest of corporations)
• State-sponsored programs (health care, education)
  address needs of different groups
• Means of production are owned both by private
  individuals and by the state

11
Socialism

• Socialized economy public ownership of the means
  of production
• Under communism, the division of labour would be
  radically different
• Command economy of the USSR was unable to adapt
  to changes in global economy
• Former socialist countries now pursue capitalist
  economy

12

• Capitalism carries social costs
• Inequality
• War
• Environmental degradation

13
The Global Economy

• Transnational corporations pursue cheap labour,
  low-cost infrastructure, and absence of labour
  regulation
• Labour in developing countries
• Legally unprotected and non-unionized

14

• Negative consequences of globalization
• Homogenization of culture
• Intensification of divisions of labour (by
  region, class, sex, and race)
• Consequences for workers in Canada
• Weakening of the political power of workers and
  unions

15
Four Major Economic Sectors

• Primary resource industry
• Extraction of natural resources from the
  environment
• The largest growth area in Canada in the 18th and
  the 19th centuries

16

• Manufacturing processing of raw materials to
  usable goods and services
• Its decline in Canada since the 1950s is caused
  by
• Technological change
• Relocation of production to low-wage areas

17

• Service sector is linked to
• Information-based economy
• Strong consumer culture
• Polarization of work
• A few highly skilled and well-paid jobs
• Many low skilled, poorly paid jobs

18

• Low-end service work is characterized by low
  trust between workers and bosses (close direction
  and surveillance)
• This creates high stress among workers

19

• Social reproduction socially necessary labour
  that is not done in exchange for money
• Usually done in family households, by women
• Not officially recorded as a part of the economy
• Capitalist system benefits from this unpaid labour

20

• Informal economy
• Economic activity not reported to government
• May be legal or illegal
• Exists in every economy
• Very prevalent in Africa, in answer to
  contracting opportunities in the formal economy

21
Managerial Strategies of Control

• Scientific management
• Early human relations school

22
Scientific Management

• A method of organizing work and controlling
  workers, introduced by F.W. Taylor
• Work is broken into simple tasks
• Workers do not understand the process of
  production
• Separation of mental and manual labour
• Deskilling of workers

23

• Technical control control of workers by a
  machine, instead of direct supervision
• Problems
• Low wages (contrary to Taylors original idea)
• Overlooks workers need for intrinsic
  satisfaction

24
Early Human Relations School

• Recognizes workers social needs
• Promotes discourse of cooperation with the
  management
• Problem
• There is no real redistribution of power and
  control between management and workers

25
Organization of Work Today

• Revolutionary new technology
• Expectations from a knowledge society
• Opportunity
• Increase in leisure time
• Positive work experience
• Technology has created inequalities by
  eliminating and deskilling jobs
• Skilled technological work requires continuous
  learning
• Workers with higher educations get more training

26
Flexible Work

• Numerical flexibility
• Shrinking of core workforce (permanent,
  full-time) and by non-standard (or contingent)
  employment (part-time, seasonal, contracted,
  self-employed)
• Employment relationship is tenuous
• Flexible specialization (or functional
  flexibility)
• Involves multi-skilling, job rotation,
  organization of workers into teams for purposes
  of changing production

27
Numerical flexibility

• Non-standard labour is the fastest growing type
  of employment in Canada
• Non-standard workers tend to be women and young
  people
• Similar to the reserve army of labour (Marx)
• Self employment
• Long work hours
• Same earnings as regular employees
• More pronounced gender gap in earnings

28

• Increase in overtime for regular employees.
  Reasons
• Downsizing
• Survival of the fittest corporate culture

29
Flexible Specialization

• It uses employees knowledge of their work
• It increases workers responsibility, diminishes
  need for supervision, but it does not provide
  added authority for workers
• e.g., Teleworking is a growing flexible
  specialization
• Consequences of flexibility
• Polarization of jobs
• Increasing uncertainty in the labour market

30
Gendered Work

• Labour market segregation by sex
• The majority is concentrated in female-dominated
  occupations (retail trade, secretary, nurse,
  elementary school teacher)
• Overrepresentation of women in precarious
  employment
• Pay gaps
• Jobs ands organizations are gendered
  bureaucratic rules may be based on gender-biased
  assumptions

31
Racialized Work

• Women, people of colour (visible minorities), and
  Native people suffer discrimination in the labour
  market
• Also experience higher rates of unemployment and
  lower average earnings
• Henry and Ginsberg, Who Gets the Work?
• What occupations have become to be racialized?

32
Annual Earnings of Racial Groups in Canada
33
Youth and Work

• Many young people have withdrawn from the labour
  market because of the contraction of the labour
  market
• Many young workers feel that they are
  overqualified for their jobs
• Youth labour market is useful for the managerial
  goal of flexibility
• Because they anticipate future job changes, young
  workers are more pliable and passive

34
Professions Negotiating Control

• Professions are occupations that
• Possess a body of esoteric knowledge
• Rely on specialized technical language
• Associations control entry and membership through
  licensing, accreditation, and regulation
• Ability to define an occupation as a profession
  depends on the groups resources (i.e., its
  position in relationships of power and control)

35
Labour Unions

• In spite of dominant media representation,
  strikes are rare in Canada
• Rate of union membership in Canada is higher than
  in the US and Japan, and lower than in most
  Western European nations
• Full-time workers are more likely to be unionized

36

• The union advantage
• Wage increase in traditionally low-paid jobs
• Unionized part-time workers work more that
  non-unionized ones
• Gains of unions spill over into the wider society
• Employment standards
• Unemployment insurance
• Health benefits
• Sick leave