SOCY221 Study Unit 3: The Changing World of Work (Part 1)

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key sociological concepts, theorists, historical phases, and workplace developments in SOCY221 Study Unit 3 Part 1.

Work (Sociological Definition)

Any activity involving effort for survival, obligation, or income, encompassing both waged employment and unpaid activities.

Social Reproduction

Unpaid household work (such as childcare, cleaning, and emotional support) that is essential for sustaining society and maintaining the labour force.

ilima System

A traditional collective work party practice among amaXhosa where neighbours gather to assist each other with ploughing or harvesting.

The Great Transformation (Polanyi)

The historical transition described by Karl Polanyi from economies embedded in social relations to societies embedded in market economies.

Alienation (Marx)

The subjective estrangement of workers under capitalism from the product created, the process of labor, fellow workers/employers, and their own species-self.

Pyramid of Capitalist System

A structural visual model depicting Marxist conflict theory, illustrating how ruling elites, religious figures, and military forces are supported by the labor of the working class at the base.

Rationalisation (Weber)

The replacement of social institutions grounded in tradition and values with systems based on individual and instrumental interest, efficiency, and bureaucracy.

Disenchantment (Weber)

A profound spiritual void and crisis of meaning experienced by individuals resulting from pervasive rationalisation and bureaucratic control.

Anomie (Durkheim)

A state of normlessness and loss of moral regulation occurring when rapid industrialisation breaks down traditional community ties.

Soldiering

A practice of systematic output regulation where workers deliberately withhold information and restrict production speed because management lacks precise knowledge of task completion times.

Scientific Management (Taylorism)

A management theory pioneered by Frederick Taylor that breaks work down into measurable parts to maximize efficiency, shifting control to management and deskilling workers.

Fordism

An industrial organization system (1920s–1960s) utilizing continuous assembly line production, extreme task specialization, deskilling, mass production, and mass consumption.

Functional Flexibility

A post-Fordist workplace strategy that removes rigid job descriptions, enabling workers to perform a variety of tasks through multi-skilling and multi-tasking.

Numerical Flexibility

A post-Fordist labor strategy that alters the size of the workforce according to demand through temporary, contract, casual, or part-time employment without job security.

Emotional Labour

The employer-directed regulation of a worker's physical body, facial expressions, and feelings in service jobs, encompassing exploited, disciplined, mirroring, and communicating body dimensions.

Non-Standard Work

Contingent or 'just-in-time' labor arrangements (such as casual, contract, or part-time work) that depart from standard full-time, permanent employment.

Standard Work Model

An employment model born during industrial capitalism characterized by full-time, permanent, highly regulated, and collectively negotiated work based at a site separate from home.

Global Value Chain

An international production structure where different stages of bringing a product to market (design, manufacturing, assembly, and sales) are divided across multiple countries.

Outsourcing and Offshoring

Outsourcing is contracting specific business operations to an outside company; offshoring is relocating company operations to another country to cut costs.

Dual Labour Market

A divided labor structure composed of a high-skilled core of knowledge workers in advanced economies and a precarious non-core in export-processing zones or low-skill service roles.

Representational Gap (Webster)

The gap identified by Edward Webster where new forms of precarious and non-standard work emerge faster than trade unions and labour laws can adapt to represent workers.

Social Drama of Work (Hughes)

A symbolic interactionist framework examining how workers navigate job situations, manage interactions, and maintain their identity within organizations.

Negotiated Order (Strauss et al.)

The concept that organizational order is not permanent or static, but continuously constructed through negotiation and adjustments among participants.

Migrant Labour System

A South African labor system under colonialism and apartheid that drew Black men into mining centers while keeping families in rural homesteads, enforced via pass laws and compounds.