SOC 100- Work and Economic Life

importance of work

• money

• purpose

• structure

• relationships

• personal identity

capitalism

an economic system in which property and goods are primarily privately owned

• private decisions determine investments

• competition in an unfettered marketplace determines prices, production, and the distribution of goods

fordism

the system of production pioneered by Henry Ford in which the assembly line was introduced

alienation

a condition in which people are dominated by forces of their own creation that then confront them as alien powers

• according to Marx, the basic state of being in a capitalist society

workers in a capitalist society

• lack ownership of the products they make

• are dehumanized by tedious and demanding labor processes

• find themselves in competition over scarce jobs

• Marx argued this was counter to human nature, which involved creativity, control over ones activities, and cooperation with others

family capitalism

capitalistic enterprises owned and administered by entrepreneurial families

managerial capitalism

capitalistic enterprises administered by managerial executives rather than by owners

welfare capitalism

the practice by which large corporations protect their employees from the fluctuations in the economy

institutional capitalism

consolidated networks of business leadership in which corporations hold stock shares in one another, resulting in increased concentration of corporate power

global capitalism

the current transnational phase of capitalism, characterized by global markets, production, finances

• a transnational phase of capitalist class whose business concerns are global rather than national

• transnational systems of governance that promote global business interests

corporation

a legal entity unto itself that has legal personhood distinct from that of its members—namely its owners and shareholders

national

activities, policies, or entities confined within a single country’s borders and pertaining to that specific nation

international

interactions, agreements, or relationships between two or more countries, crossing national borders

transnational

activities, entities, or processes that extend across multiple countries operating beyond the limitations of national boundaries

transnational corporation

a firm with the power to coordinate and control operations in more than one country, even if it does not own them

transnational corporations compared to companies

market capitalization

• total value of shares outstanding in a publicly-traded company

gross domestic product (GDP)

• measures the value of all goods and services produced by a country in an entire year

how global are TNCs

UNCTAD’s Transnationality Index

• foreign sales as % of total sales

• foreign assets as % of total assets

• foreign employment as % of total employment

market seeking

• locate inside market to serve it

• domestic market saturated

• overcome tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade

• provide rapid after-sales service

• respond to customer demands, tastes, and preferences

asset seeking

key resources are unevenly distributed

• knowledge and skills

• labor productivity

• labor controllability

• wage costs

offshoring

company moves or expands some or all of its operations and jobs to overseas locations

outsourcing

company buys goods or services once performed in-house from a supplier outside of the firm

offshore outsourcing

outsourcing of goods and services offshore

informal economy

• wide range of production and employment

• (in)visible manifestations

• term stems from early 1970s

dualist perspective

• marginal activites

• excluded from formal employment opportunities

• few links to formal economy income for the poor

• governments should create more jobs

legalist perspective

• daring micro-entrepreneurs

• more than mere survival

• hostile legal system leads self-employed to informality

• governments should simplify legal procedures

voluntarist perspective

• entrepreneurs choose to avoid regulations and taxation

• not because of cumbersome registration procedures

• weigh the costs of (in)formality

• create unfair competition for formal enterprises

structuralist perspective

• subordinated economic units that reduce labor costs

• capitalism drives informality

• formal/informal closely linked

• government should do more to regulate employment

linkages

• formal and informal economies linked

• sub-contracting and direct transactions

• day labor, contract workers, moonlighting

• myriad services that keep cities running