This course has been constructed to permit the examination of work, leisure and consumption primarily as social and cultural relationships, but obviously as economic relationships as well. The central premise of the sociology of work -- once known as "industrial sociology" -- is that production relations make up the basic institutional frameworks that influence almost all other parts of people's lives. This is especially so in an economy where labor is organized through markets -- those not engaged in paid labor in such societies are either unemployed or perform non-paid labor (historically, a role performed primarily by women). Notice, how each of these latter categories immediately conjure up moral connotations as well. In modern market-based societies labor is not just a material imperative, it has also been one of our most idealized activities. The work ethic has long been one of the prized cultural possessions of the middle classes. Until the twentieth century, work's opposite -- leisure -- was deemed sinful by some, a luxury by others. The social and cultural changes that have occurred in the twentieth century with respect to work, leisure and consumption have been vast. How did the mechanization and bureaucratization of work change the experience and meaning of work? What made leisure and consumption activities more attractive and acceptable to people?
But just as scholars were proclaiming the US a post-industrial leisure society in the 1970s, the tides turned again and leisure time began a long-term decline for many people. A massive process known as "deindustrialization," began in the mid 1970s and resulted in the loss of the hallmark heavy industrial jobs such as steel production and machine building, and triggered the erosion of many relatively high-skill and thus, high-paying, jobs. At the same time, the aggregate economic importance of consumption has continued to expand. In fact, many areas that have been hard hit by the loss of industrial firms and skilled jobs have tried to replace these jobs with tourist-based or service-sector economies. Think also of how many cities there are where shopping malls and gallerias now dominate the urban landscape. Today, this process now known as "corporate downsizing," continues, as "lean and mean" corporations continue to reshape themselves to compete in world markets. But now it is getting difficult to annually coax sufficient Christmas purchases from consumers who are making less money as workers. What will the relationship be between our work identities and our consumer identities as we enter an age that some have labeled as "postmodern"?
Linked to downsizing and deindustrialization is the emergence of the "high-tech" economy driven by computers. How will the emerging computer technologies transform the social relations of work? Will telecommuting become widespread, literally changing the spatial arrangements of our cities? Some suggest these new technologies have the capacity to do away with the authoritarian and controlling relationships that have dominated workplaces for at least the past two centuries. Others point out that these new technologies are already being used to more closely monitor and surveill employees' work behaviors. How will the changing organization of workplaces in conjunction with new technologies alter income inequalities? Can these new technologies actually increase productivity enough to offset the loss of other industries?
Any syllabus makes choices, and hence must also leave out some major issues and relationships. Among those important areas not included in this syllabus are the critical importance of labor migration or the computerized monitoring of work activity or the relationship between work life and family life or the matter of labor unions. I trust that we will be able to raise these issues anyhow in our conversations and weave them into our journey.
Barbara Garson. All the Livelong Day: The Meaning & Demeaning of Routine Work. Revised edition. 1994. Penguin Books.Juliet Schor. The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. 1991. Basic Books.
The Project at Disney. Inside the mouse: Work and Play at Disney World. 1995. Duke University Press.
Leah Hager Cohen, Glass, Paper, Beans: revelations on the nature and value of ordinary things. 1997. Currency Doubleday.
Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work. 1996. Tarcher/Putnam.
We will begin with Barbara Garson's interviews and stories about the meaning and experience of people's worklives. We will then discuss what "work" has meant in our culture -- both as an idealized work ethic and as an alienating experience. Juliet Schor's overview of the shifting balance between work and non-work activities over the last century and a half gets us looking at a wide range of issues including the seemingly paradoxical relationship between labor saving devices for the home and the increasing time spent on household labor by women.
Next we will read just a little of Harry Braverman's pathbreaking analysis of the division of labor and his thesis concerning the twin processes of "the degradation of labor" and the "deskilling" of work in the twentieth century. In brief, Braverman's thesis is that new technologies have generally been organized so as to regulate control over the work site as well as control over wages. There is a vast literature on the everyday "politics" of the workplace and Braverman gets us looking at those questions. For those who are interested there are quite a number of articles that examine the Braverman hypothesis by looking at specific occupations.
C. Wright Mills writing at mid-century described the transformation to a white-collar society. Robert Reich, the recent Secretary of Labor, has written about the extension of the white collar worker into the next stage of occupational development which he calls the "rise of the symbolic analyst." The flip side of what Reich describes is documented by Maria Fernandez-Kelly in her study of how the new international division of labor depends more and more on low-wage female labor forces in maquiladora work. Again it is crucial to recognize that the ways in which work is organized and experienced vary dramatically by class, race and gender.
We will tackle the relationship between technology and the changing face of the workforce in our reading of Jeremy Rifkin's provocative book, The End of Work. Rifkin takes on some of the big questions about new relationships between technology and jobs.
The section on leisure and consumption begins by looking at our cultural history concerning the meanings of consumption. Beginning early in the 20th century, the reorganization of worklife along with dramatic growth in material production, brought about a revolution in leisure and consumption. As many authors have observed, there took place a shift from the work-based notion of 'character' to the leisure consumption notions of 'personality' and 'style.' Readings by Schor, Willis and Glassner bring us to current work/leisure arrangements and the kinds of selves and relationships they give rise to. One major theme of this section concerns questions about how we construct identities through consumption in the contemporary era.
The section on commodity chains is intended to get us thinking about the many linkages today between the realm of production and the realm of consumption. For example, we will look at Benetton and Nike in this regard. We will examine how the production of consumer-goods items is now often orchestrated from half a world away in the new global economy. The principal reading for this section will be the book by Leah Cohen Hager a she follows three objects through the relationships that get them to where we are.
The final section focuses on consumption, tourism and the spaces that have been corporately constructed for these activities -- malls and theme parks. Shopping malls and theme parks have emerged as important extensions of the media as spaces for organizing consumption. It thus seems appropriate to take up here questions concerning tourism and the construction of vast theme parks such as Disney World.
Your intellectual participation in this class is essential. That means both thought and action. Ultimately that is what I will have to evaluate you on. Grading has a heavy subjective element to it. After all, the grader is interpreting the action that s/he is witnessing and assigning a hierarchically ordered value to it, an A or B or C or F. Yeah, we usually justify this by saying that these matters make themselves known objectively. And truly, in some cases, it is real easy to assess the "facts" with confidence. For example, a student who misses eight classes, who bothers to write on Pacerforum only six or seven times over the semester, whose papers are sloppy and filled with spelling errors and grammatical errors, well, s/he will probably fail. This evaluation and reward aspect bears a striking similarity to the way in which work is judged and rewarded. All of this gives me considerable power over our "work place." But unlike the typical workplace we will try to maintain a self-reflective attitude about this aspect of our work lives.
Class attendance. A basic obligation of being in a class is attending that class, and coming prepared to be an active participant. Attendance is required. If you have been in class every time then it can only work in your favor when it comes time you evaluate your work! No grade points towards the final grade are gained from attendance; however, absences will count against the final grade. Here is how it works. Attendance will be taken each class day. Over the course of the term, five absences will be permitted. On the sixth absence however, the student will be docked one letter grade off their final course grade. And so on, for every additional absence off comes a half grade point.
A significant part of the course grade depends upon participation. You will be asked to form groups of four. Each group will then have their own electronic bulletin board on Pacerforum. Groups will be assigned in advance to help take responsibility for assisting in leading class discussions of the materials we have read, and most importantly, for formulating questions that might guide our discussions. These questions should be posted on our Pacerforum bulletin boards. Every one is responsible for responding to these questions on Pacerforum. The Pacerforum setting will enable considerable cross-dialogue and exchange on these questions. [Instructions on Pacerforum will be provided separately.] Most of the day to day writing on Pacerforum will be informal. However, on a few occasions I will pose more formal questions and ask that you write in more formal ways. You may handle these questions individually or work together collaboratively. However, I intend to encourage and reward those who find ways to work collaboratively.
Taken together, Pacerforum writings and classroom participation in discussion of readings and application of ideas will be weighted as 50% of your total course grade.
The other 50% of the total course grade will be based on several research projects and their translation into an Internet Web site: These will be weighted as. Two papers are required. You may select two out of three options presented here. Six to eight pages. Due dates are weeks 6 and 11.
1) Research how a technological change has altered the social conditions and relations of work in either a particular industry or in particular kinds of job.
2) Select a recent labor-management conflict ( a strike or a lockout -- e.g., the UPS strike) and research the root sources of the conflict as well as changes that occurred as a result.
3) Start with an object of consumption -- for example, a ball point pen, a shoe, an automobile, a computer, a skirt, a piece of luggage, etc. -- and then research the chain of production relations and distribution relations associated with that object before it reached you the consumer. You may also want to trace out the 'post-consumption' environmental relationships linked to the commodity object. Remember that most commodities have an "afterlife."
Work Relations
Barbara Garson, All the Livelong Day.
C. Wright Mills, "Work," pp.215-238 in White Collar. Oxford University Press, 1951.
Juliet Schor, The Overworked American.
Harry Braverman, Labor & Monopoly Capital in the Twentieth Century. Monthly Review Press, 1974.
C. Wright Mills, "The Managerial Demiurge," pp.77-111; "The Great Salesroom," pp.161-188 in White Collar. Oxford University Press, 1951.
Robert Reich, "The rise of the symbolic analyst," pp.171-195 in The Work of Nations. Vintage, 1992.
Maria Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, "Mexican border industrialization, female labor force participation & migration," pp.205-223 in June Nash & Maria Patricia Fernandez-Kelly (eds), Women, Men, and the International Division of Labor. State University of New York Press, 1983.
Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work.
Leisure and Consumption
Juliet Schor, The Overworked American.
Susan Willis, A Primer for Daily Life. 1991. Routledge.
Rob Shields, "Spaces for the Subject of Consumption," pp.1-20 in R. Shields (ed.), Lifestyle Shopping. 1992.
John Fiske, "Shopping for Pleasure: Malls, Power and Resistance," pp.13-42 in Reading the Popular. 1989
Commodity Chains -- linking consumption with production
Theme Parks -- Tourism and the Society of the Spectacle
The Project at Disney. Inside the mouse: Work and Play at Disney World. 1995.
Dean MacCannell, "Staged Authenticity," pp.91-107, in The Tourist. Schocken. 1976.
Readings that are not in the required books will be available on reserve in Watzek Library.
Select Bibliography of additional materials:
Applebaum, Eileen & Rosemary Batt, The New American Workplace: Transforming Work Systems in the United States. Industrial Relations Pr., 1994.Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West.
Montgomery, David. Workers Control in America. Cambridge Univ Pr., 1980.
- Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the
- United States. Ten volume set. International Publishers, New York City.
- Foner, Philip S. First Facts of American Labor. Holmes & Meier, 1984.
- Jacobs, Eve. Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics: Employment Earnings, Prices, Productivity and Other Labor Data. Bernan Press, 1997.
- Baxandall, Rosalyn & Linda Gordon, editors. America's Working Women: A Documentary History, 1600 to the Present. Revised edition. W.W. Norton, 1995.
- Boyer, Richard O. & Herbert M. Morais. Labor's Untold Story. Third Edition, United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, 1988.
- Brecher, Jeremy. Strike! Revised Edition, South End Press, 1997.
- Dulles, Foster Rhea & Melvyn Dubofsky. Labor in America: A History. Fifth Edition, Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1993.
- Foner, Philip & Ronald Lewis, editor. Black Workers: A Documentary History From Colonial Times to the Present. Temple University Press, 1989.
- Jones, Jacqueline. American Work: Four Centuries of Black and White Labor. W.W. Norton & Co., 1997.
- Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States. Oxford Univeristy Press, 1983.
- Kingsolver, Barbara. Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983. ILR Press, 1989.
- Montgomery, David. The Fall of the House of Labor. Cambridge University Press, 1987.
- American Social History Project. Who Built America? Working People & the Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture & Society. Pantheon, 1992. Vol.1,; Vol. 2.
- Cobble, Dorothy Sue. Women and Unions: Forging a Partnership. ILR Press, 1993.
- Glickman, Lawrence B. A Living Wage: American Workers and the Making of Consumer Society. Cornell University Press, 1997.
- Gutman, Herbert G. Power & Culture: Essays on the American Working Class. New Press, 1987.
- Kwong, Peter. Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor. New Press, 1997.
- Ross, Andrew, editor. No Sweat: Fashion, Free Trade, and the Rights of Garment Workers. Verso, 1997.
- Sweeney, John J. America Needs a Raise: Fighting for Economic Security and Social Justice. Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
- Ferriss, Susan. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers' Movement. Harcourt Brace, 1997.
- Fink, Leon. Upheaval in the Quiet Zone: A History of Hospital Workers' Union 1199. University of Illinois Press, 1989.
- Halpern, Rick and Roger Horowitz. Meatpackers: An Oral History of Black Packinghouse Workers and Their Struggle for Racial and Economic Equality. Twayne Publishers, 1996.
- Hoerr, John P. We Can't Eat Prestige: The Women Who Organized Harvard. Temple University Press, 1997.
- Santino, Jack. Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle: Stories of Black Pullman Porters. University of Illinois Press, 1989.
- Dubofsky, Melvyn. Labor Leaders in America. University of Illinos Press, 1987.
- Lichtenstein, Nelson. The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor. Basic Books, 1995.
- Mother Jones. The Autobiography of Mother Jones. Charles. H. Kerr Publications, Chicago, 1990.
- Painter, Nell Irwin. The Narrative of Hosea Hudson: The Life and Times of a Black Radical. Reissue edition. W W Norton, 1993.
- Salvatore, Nick. Eugene Debs: Citizen and Socialist. University of Illinois Press, 1984.