The Real World Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1 Chapter 12 The Economy, Work, and Working

The Real WorldCopyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

1

Chapter 12

The Economy, Work, and Working


2

Historical and Economic Changes The earliest form of economy in the Americas

was probably in pre-sixteenth-century Native American societies. Some were mobile hunting and gathering societies. Others were horticultural societies, which were based on the domestication of animals, farming, and generating a surplus of resources.


3

Historical and Economic Changes (cont’d) The Agricultural Revolution refers to the

social and economic changes, including population increases, which followed from the domestication of plants and animals and the gradually increasing efficiency of food production. Better farming and ranching techniques allowed larger groups to thrive and remain in one location for longer periods of time.


4

Historical and Economic Changes (cont’d) The Industrial Revolution refers to the rapid

transformation of social life resulting from the technological and economic developments that began with the assembly line, steam power, and urbanization. With this shift to a manufacturing economy, vast numbers of people migrated into cities in search of work.


5

Historical and Economic Changes (cont’d) The Information Revolution refers to 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. Other technologies associated with the Information Revolution include the Internet, computer networking, and all types of digital media and communications.


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Economic Systems: Comparing Capitalism and Socialism Capitalism is an economic system based on

the laws of free market competition, privatization of the means of production, and production for a profit, with an emphasis on supply and demand as a means to set price.


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Economic Systems: Comparing Capitalism and Socialism (cont’d) A capitalist economy encourages efficiency

through new technology, the expansion of markets, and cost cutting, which today means the privatization of basic human services and the tendency to move operations to other countries where labor and production costs are cheaper.


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Economic Systems: Comparing Capitalism and Socialism (cont’d) Socialism is 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.


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Economic Systems: Comparing Capitalism and Socialism (cont’d) Communism is a system of government that

eliminates private property and the most extreme form of socialism because all citizens work for the government and there are no class distinctions.


10

Economic Systems: Comparing Capitalism and Socialism (cont’d) All nations’ economies have both capitalist

and socialist aspects. For example, the capitalist United States has some socialist economic features, including business subsidies, market regulations, and public aid programs.


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The Nature of Industrial and Post-Industrial Work Before the Industrial Revolution, economic

production took place in the household—but the birth of the factory led to the “workplace” and raised new work-related issues.


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The Nature of Industrial and Post-Industrial Work (cont’d) Karl Marx identified the shift from household

production to factory work as the source of alienation for modern workers. He 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 in itself.


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The Nature of Industrial and Post-Industrial Work (cont’d) In a post-industrial economy, many workers

are involved in service work, which often involves direct contact with clients, customers, patients, or students by those rendering the service.


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The Nature of Industrial and Post-Industrial Work (cont’d) Other workers in the post-industrial economy

are involved in knowledge work, which includes jobs that involve working with information.


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Individual and Collective Resistance Strategies: How Workers Cope Individuals and groups cope with their

working conditions in a variety of ways called resistance strategies (ways that workers express discontent with their working conditions and try to reclaim control of the conditions of their labor). Individual resistance can include using work time to surf the web, sabotaging an assembly line, and personalizing a workspace with photos.


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Individual and Collective Resistance Strategies: How Workers Cope (cont’d) Collective resistance can include membership

in a union (an association of workers who bargain collectively for increased wages and benefits and better working conditions), strikes, walkouts, and work stoppages. After World War II, legal restrictions on strikes and work stoppages sharply restricted union power, as have more recent trends toward globalization.


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The Best of Corporate America From a Marxist perspective, we can see how

large corporations sometimes exploit their workers. Fortunately, not all corporations are evil, and sometimes we see major corporate players transcend self-interest and act with great altruism.


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Globalization, Economics, and Work 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. It has been fostered through the development of international economic institutions, innovations in technology, the movement of money and information, and the infrastructure that supports such expansion.


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Globalization, Economics, and Work (cont’d) Transnational corporations are another part of

the global economy that transcend national borders so that their products can be manufactured, distributed, marketed, and sold from bases all over the world.


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Globalization, Economics, and Work (cont’d) Companies’ search for the cheapest way to

produce goods often involves outsourcing (“contracting out” or transferring to another country the labor that a company might otherwise have employed its own staff to perform) or the use of a sweatshop (a workplace where workers are subject to below-standard wages, long hours, and poor working conditions).


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Alternative Ways of Working The modern economy is characterized by the

diversification of work and the increasingly specialized division of labor. The contingent workforce is growing every year as more businesses rely on temps and freelancers. In a capitalist society, we increasingly rely on the third sector, made up of nonprofit organizations that take care of necessary but unprofitable social needs.


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Concept Quiz1. The rapid transformation of social life resulting from

the technological and economic developments that began with the assembly line, steam power, and urbanization was called the:

a. Agricultural Revolution.

b. Industrial Revolution.

c. Information Revolution.

d. American Revolution.


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Concept Quiz2. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of

capitalism?

a. It is based on the laws of free market competition.

b. It is based on production for a profit.

c. It is based on privatization of the means of production.

d. It is based on government regulation of the economy.


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Concept Quiz3. Which of the following best describes the economic

system found in the United States?

a. The United States is purely a capitalist nation.

b. The United States is purely a socialist nation.

c. While the United States is a capitalist nation, it also has socialist elements.

d. Because the United States is so large, its economic system cannot be categorized.


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Concept Quiz4. The ways that workers express discontent with their

working conditions and try to reclaim control of the conditions of their labor are called:

a. bureaucratic constraints.

b. unions.

c. disembodied efforts.

d. resistance strategies.


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Concept Quiz5. The cultural and economic changes resulting from

dramatically increased international trade and exchange in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is called:

a. integration.

b. globalization.

c. exploitation.

d. knowledge work.

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The Real World Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1 Chapter 12 The Economy, Work, and Working