Chapter 11 - Work & The Economy

Question 1

Why is work a social product?

Answer 1

The organization and structure of work is an outcome of social relationships

Question 2

How is work situated in the economy?

Answer 2

It’s a social institution in which people carry out the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services

Question 3

Are economic systems fixed?

Answer 3

No

Question 4

How are economic systems not fixed?

Answer 4

They are structured, contested and reshaped by people

Question 5

Are economic inequalities connected with social inequalities?

Answer 5

Yes

Question 6

What is an economic system based on private ownership and an exchange relationship between owners and workers?

Answer 6

Capitalism

Question 7

What is an economy driven by pursuit of profit?

Answer 7

Capitalism

Question 8

What was Marx’s view of capitalism?

Answer 8

System with 2 classes:

1) capitalist class - own means of production (bourgeoisie)
2) working class - sell labor to capitalist employers in exchange for wages (proletariat)

Question 9

What is an economic system based on free-market relations?

Answer 9

Capitalism

Question 10

Which economic system has a laissez-faire attitude?

Answer 10

Capitalism

Question 11

What is a specific process that has consequences for the nature and organization of work as well as for the division of labor?

Answer 11

Industrialization?

Question 12

What brought new forms of energy, machine technologies, and transportation?

Answer 12

Industrialization

Question 13

When did the early stages of industrial capitalism, defined as family capitalism happen?

Answer 13

Mid to late 19th century

Question 14

When did the movement of ownership from individuals/families to corporations and shareholders take place?

Answer 14

Late 19th to mid 20th century

Question 15

What phase of capitalism did the movement of ownership from individuals/families to corporations and shareholders happen in?

Answer 15

Corporate or monopoly capitalism

Question 16

What are different situations created by mergers?

Answer 16

1) Monopoly

2) Oligopoly

Question 17

What is a monopoly?

Answer 17

One corporation controls an entire market

Question 18

What is an oligopoly?

Answer 18

Several companies control an entire industry

Question 19

What context do transnational or multinational companies operate in?

Answer 19

Global

Question 20

What is the term for people around the world consuming the same cultural products?

Answer 20

Cultural homogenization

Question 21

What are the 4 major economic sectors?

Answer 21

1) primary and resource industries
2) manufacturing
3) service sector
4) social reproduction

Question 22

What work sector involves the extraction of natural resources from the environment?

Answer 22

Primary sector/resource industry

Question 23

What was the most common type of work for Canadians until the 20th century?

Answer 23

Primary sector/resource industry

Question 24

What work involves processing raw materials into usable goods and services?

Answer 24

Secondary or manufacturing sector

Question 25

What work involves services ranging from information management to making coffee?

Answer 25

Tertiary services sector

Question 26

What work often involves emotional labor?

Answer 26

Tertiary services sector

Question 27

Which work sector includes a host of essential services?

Answer 27

Tertiary services sector

Question 28

Which work sector has a great variation of workers?

Answer 28

Tertiary services sector

Question 29

What is the tertiary work sector characterized by?

Answer 29

Polarization of jobs 1) good jobs - high-skilled, well-paid 2) bad jobs - poorly paid, dead-end

Question 30

Which work sector is rapidly expanding?

Answer 30

Tertiary services

Question 31

Which work sector encompasses all socially necessary labor not done in exchange for money?

Answer 31

Social reproduction sector

Question 32

What encompasses work in the public world of the factory, office, school, and store, and involves monetary exchange?

Answer 32

Sphere of production

Question 33

What refers to the work that is not officially recorded as part of the economy, and where there is a direct economic exchange?

Answer 33

Social reproduction

Question 34

Why is the work in the social reproduction sector not always legal?

Answer 34

Barter system, and organized through personal relationships between bosses, workers and customers

Question 35

What consists of the range of economic activities not reported to the government?

Answer 35

Informal economy

Question 36

Why do individuals work in the informal economy?

Answer 36

Economic survival

Question 37

What is a factor leading to the rise of non-standard work?

Answer 37

New technologies

Question 38

What is the notion of numerical flexibility?

Answer 38

Involves the shrinking or elimination of core worker force

Question 39

How has the workplace in Canada grown in diversity?

Answer 39

More dual-earner families, increasing presence of indigenous Canadians and racialized people in Canadian cities, increased awareness of disabled workers and highly educated younger workforce

Question 40

When did participation of women in Canadian labor force begin to steadily increase?

Answer 40

1970s

Question 41

How is the social institution of work gendered?

Answer 41

Labor market segregated by sex, gender-based income gap, women over represented in non-standard jobs

Question 42

How are First Nations people disadvantaged in the labor market?

Answer 42

Higher rates of unemployment and over represented in the non-standard jobs market

Question 43

How are visible minorities disadvantaged in the labor market?

Answer 43

They earn less and immigrants are marginalized

Question 44

What are challenges faced by youth in the labor market?

Answer 44

Limited opportunities and face higher unemployment rates

Question 45

What enables middle class people to secure professional control?

Answer 45

Professionalization

Question 46

What theory suggests that professionals can be defined according to a checklist of characteristics?

Answer 46

Trait theory

Question 47

Which sociologist argued that professional status is linked to resources available to occupational groups?

Answer 47

Johnson

Question 48

What is an important form of collective action to secure rights and dignity in the workplace?

Answer 48

Unionization

Question 49

Why were unions formed?

Answer 49

Protect workers from long hours, dangerous conditions, low pay and favouritism

Question 50

What is the basic premise of organized labor movement?

Answer 50

Take collective action through process of bargaining a contract

Question 51

How many workers out of 3 are unionized?

Answer 51

1 in 3

Question 52

Which sex dominates the public service sector?

Answer 52

females

Question 53

How do unions benefit workers?

Answer 53

Better wages, work conditions, security, benefits, equalization of wages