Sociology - Chapter 14: Work and Economic Life

Alienation

The sense that our own abilities as human beings are taken over by other entities. The term was originally used by Marx to refer to the projection of human powers onto gods. Subsequently he used the term to refer to the loss of workers' control over the nature and products of their labor.

Automation

Production processes monitored and controlled by machines with only minimal supervision from people.

Capitalism

An economic system based on the private ownership of wealth, which is invested and reinvested in order to produce profit.

Corporations

Business firms or companies.

Division of labor

The specialization of work tasks, by means of which different occupations are combined within a production system. All societies have at least some rudimentary form of division of labor, especially between the tasks allocated to men and those performed by women. With the development of industrialism, the division of labor became vastly more complex than in any prior type of production system. In the modern world, the division of labor is international in scope.

Economic interdependence

The fact that in the division of labor, individuals depend on others to produce many or most of the goods they need to sustain their lives.

Economy

The system of production and exchange that provides for the material needs of individuals living in a given society. Economic institutions are of key importance in all social orders. What goes on in the economy usually influences other areas in social life. Modern economies differ substantially from traditional ones, because the majority of the population is no longer engaged in agricultural production.

Entrepreneur

The owner/founder of a business firm.

Family capitalism

Capitalistic enterprise owned and administered by entrepreneurial families.

Flexible production

Process in which computers design customized products for a mass market.

Fordism

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

Global outsourcing

A business practice that sends production of materials to factories around the world. The components of one final product often originate from many different countries than the one in which the product is ultimately put together and sold. Factories from different countries must compete with each other to obtain business.

High-trust system

Organization or work setting in which individuals are permitted a great deal of autonomy and control over the work task.

Informal economy

Economic transactions carried on outside the sphere of orthodox paid employment.

Institutional capitalism

Capitalistic enterprise organized on the basis of institutional shareholding.

International division of labor

The interdependence of countries or regions that trade in global markets.

Knowledge economy

A society no longer based primarily on the production of material goods but based instead on the production of knowledge. Its emergence has been linked to the development of a broad base of consumers who are technologically literate and have made new advances in computing, entertainment, and telecommunications part of their lives.

Low-trust systems

Organizational or work settings in which people are allowed little responsibility for, or control over, the work task.

Managerial capitalism

Capitalistic enterprises administered by managerial executives rather than by owners.

Monopoly

A situation in which a single firm dominates in a given industry.

Multinational corporations

Business corporations located in two or more countries.

Occupation

Any form of paid employment in which an individual regularly works.

Oligopoly

The domination of a small number of firms in a given industry.

Portfolio worker

A worker who possesses a diversity of skills or qualifications and is therefore able to move easily from job to job.

Post-Fordism

A general term used to describe the transition from mass industrial production, characterized by Fordist methods, to more flexible forms of production favoring innovation and aimed at meeting market demands for customized products.

Strike

A temporary stoppage of work by a group of employees in order to express a grievance or enforce a demand.

Taylorism

A set of ideas, also referred to as 'scientific management,' developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, involving simple, coordinated operations in industry.

Technology

The application of knowledge of the material world to production; the creation of material instruments (such as machines) used in human interaction with nature.

Transnational corporations

Business corporations located in two or more countries.

Union density

A statistic that represents the number of union members as a percentage of the number of people who could potentially be union members.

Welfare capitalism

Practice in which large corporations protect their employees from the vicissitudes of the market.

Work

The activity by which people produce from the natural world and so ensure their survival. Work should not be thought of exclusively as paid employment. In traditional cultures, there was only a rudimentary monetary system, and few people worked for money. In modern societies, there remain typws of work that do not involve direct payment (e.g., housework).