Work and Unemployment

Question 1

Work and Unemployment Primary Literature

Anne Oakley, The Sociology of Housework (1974)

Answer 1

• Feminist critique of mainstream sociology.
• Writes about the feeling of household work - borrows from psychoanalysis to discuss personal fulfilment - way that people talk about expectation in a new and powerful way - monotones, fragmented, too excessive
• Most unskilled factory of social work
• Women become scripted to traditional gender roles
• Feel self-reward
• Explicitly writes that freud provides a framework to understand women’s place in society - Freud offers a lot to understand current conditions
• Mainstream society - internal malignancy which needs to be destroyed
• Housework a relation of production
• Mode of reproduction - reproducing entrenchment of role as housewife
• Agreeing with klein and Myrdal - MC women have less attachment to the role of housewife -WC feel more attachment
• Struggles of women lib - 8 of 40 women had not heard of women lib - many had adopted mainstream line - reading list covers this
• Like male hair discussion/ university - some backlash from tabloids - arguments against burning bras become entrenched
• Ultimately - second wave movement - social movement - increasingly difficult to organise - in a way, produce a language and a way of talking of gender roles which can be implanted in culture

Question 2

Work and Unemployment Primary Literature

Ray Pahl, Divisions of Labour (1984)

Answer 2

• 1948-1966 - unemployment below 1.7%. 1972-5 - 5.9%. 1982 - 10%
• In the introduction of Ray Pahl’s book he recognises that ‘the final form of this book is substantially different from the plans and ideas that I began to formulate in the mid-1970s. Inevitably, the interaction between ideas and context is constantly changing’. (page 2)
• when he wrote to the Nuffield Foundation to apply for funding in 1978 he identified three motivating factors for the research:
  
  • ‘first, I see high levels of unemployment continuing;
  • second, I see a continued growth in the informal economy as a source of income;
  • and, finally, I see changes occurring in how the work of sustaining the domestic unit gets done’. (page 9)
• By the time of publication his views had changed, and he confessed so, as noted above. He was more concerned with the effects of the greater unemployment.
• In the 1950s and 1960s sociologists of class investigated the divisions between classes based upon affluence
• In the 1980s, Pahl was concerned by the new divisions appearing among the working class community – a concern with the difference between those in work and on the dole
• Chapter 11 (‘Polarization of Workers’ Lives’) of Divisions of Labour features two families to make this point:
• The account of Linda and Jim is an account of those who have lost out as a consequence of unemployment, as they confess themselves.
• Linda: ‘I don’t remember them [the times] ever being worse than they are now’. At this point Jim had been unemployed for two years and there were increasing financial strains
• George was a dockworker in permanent full-time employment, part of what Pahl described as the ‘labour aristocracy’ on the island, while his wife, Beryl, worked as a part-time cook. Pahl makes clear ‘they go on holiday most years’, compared to Jim and Linda who have never been on holiday.
• Pahl noted ‘the contrast between the contented, relaxed life of Beryl and George and the tense, anxious, and struggling life of Linda and Jim could hardly be greater’.
• *Impact of Unemployment**
• Increasing divisions amongst ordinary people
• Pahl notes that ‘In contrast to our talks in 1978, Linda was, in 1980, rather more resentful of the labour aristocracy on the island.’
• Linda said: ‘I don’t think It’s right, ‘cos even now in this dock if there’s not many ships in you see the dockers go down to work and you see them come home just after 9 but then they’re on pay all that time. They’re home and then you’ve got other men that’ve got to work solid eight hours, you know, do a really hard day’s work, and don’t get as much money as they do for it.’
• Pahl writes one ‘household has multiple earners and has a surplus of income which poses the pleasant problem of how to spend it in new ways; next door may be a household with growing children under five, who cannot go out because their parents cannot afford to them shoes’. (309)
• Withdrawal from informal market
• Wider point, not made specifically about Linda and Jim but made in the conclusion of the book is that unemployment excludes people from the informal economy as well as the formal one. Only those still in work are able to benefit from the informal economy.
• Reliance on the state (and the implications of that on the individual/family)
• ‘the household was permanently embattled with the State, struggling with the rules, regulations and the niceties of the arithmetic necessary to work out how to get by best’. (301)
• ‘both Linda and Jim feared and resented the probing and questioning that applying for supplementary benefit support entailed’. (299)
• Six interviews were conducted with Linda and Jim over a 7 year period, as well as contact between interviews.
• The observer drives the interview, making long politically related questions which explains things to the respondents.

Interview 6, Feb 1983:

• Pahl: Do you think people have got more selfish [since unemployment became an issue]?
• Linda: I think so
• The interview blurs the line between interview and friendship/support. He gets involved In the case quite extensively.
• Generally he comes across as defending the small person – people are constantly let down by the government’s policies. It prevents entrepreneurialism and also criticises government work policy
• Message to the right was clearly that the free market was not providing for those, who through no fault of their own, were left behind
• But there was also a message for the left: the account highlight the importance of individualism and autonomy.

Question 3

Work and Unemployment Primary Literature

Ken Loach ‘Talk About Work’ 1971

Answer 3

• Working title of ‘Vocational Guidance’, but less clear-cut and optimistic than what may have been wanted by the Central Youth Employment Executive.
• Gendered life and work.
• Importance of education and educational opportunities even through work.
• Work-place satisfaction.
• These films demonstrated his compassion for the dilemmas of young people, which would suggest him as an ideal choice for a film such as Talk about Work.
• Loach objected to the final film, following editing by civil servants.
• Henderson’s department store in Liverpool; the Ford Motor Works at Halewood; a farm; a clothes factory - is presented with Loach’s trademark realism and sympathetic handling of working-class subjects. Similarly characteristic is the plentiful humour in the direct speech of the young people, as well as an open acknowledgment that work is often ‘boring’. It’s easy to speculate that such directness contributed to the “other reasons” for the film’s initial rejection by the sponsor.

Question 4

Work and Unemployment Primary Literature

Richard Brown’s ‘Shipbuilding Workers on Tyneside’ Workplace ethnography [1968-69]

Answer 4

• The project examined shipbuilding workers on Tyneside as a particular occupational category and compared their attitudes and behaviour with those of workers in other industries. It also examined the technology and organisation of production in a “craft” industry and the “orientation to work” of workers from traditional working-class communities.
• 1967-73
• Emphasises the role of pub as communal meeting point- the Jungle.
• Racial stereotyping - against the Irish, ‘the blacks’
• Connection of car, masculinity and sexual conquest.
• Socialisation, Racism and the other. Increased thoughts of what a worker should be entitled to. Casualism. Masculinity and gender roles. Individuality.

Question 5

Work and Unemployment Primary Literature

Goldthorpe - Affluent Worker in the Class Structure - 1969

Answer 5

• See secondary.
• See Goldthorpe and Lockwood.
• Details ‘monotony’ of the affluent worker - ‘affluence had been achieved at a price: that of accepting work which affords little in the way of intrinsic rewards and is likely to be experienced essentially as labour - as the expenditure of effort motivated simply by the extrinsic reward of payment.
• Pay-packets of £20+ came from a working week nearer to 50 than 40 hours. Sites ran a double day-shift programme.
• ZWEIG - ‘concluded that industrial work is now far more positively evaluated by those who perform it than ever before, and that the majority of men on the shop floor are ‘enjoying or liking, or good humouredly tolerating their job’.
• Stress on expectations.
• ‘One clear-cut difference between our affluent workers and most men in white-collar jobs lies in the fact that among the former, serious aspirations for promotion were held by only a small minority, with one important reason being the view that promotion -to supervisory level - was simply not worth while.
• Later 1967 paper: Cites affluent worker in Marx

Question 6

Work and Unemployment Primary Literature

Ian Coulter - Britain’s Austin Worker: Closed shop, a new semi and his first new car - 1962

Answer 6

• 1962
• Sunday Times; with anxieties around the German Wirtschaftwunder compared to Britain’s comparative lag. Stresses the power of Volkswagen compared to UK companies; with more pay, less strikes and fringe benefits - compared to B.M.C ‘empire’. Stresses desire to join Europe.
• Details pride in vehicle - the Austin A.60. Exudes confidence in British vehicles in the face of VW; which the magazine puts down to variety available (probably part of downfall).
• BMC: Formed in 1952, merger between Austin and Morris. Merged with Jaguar in 1966. Merged with Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968.
• 1955 - five companies produced 90% of UK motor output: BMC, Ford, Rootes, Standard-Triumph and Vauxhall. 1960 - dropped for world’s second largest motor producer to 3rd (4th by 1966).
• UK Vehicles expensive due to labour-intensive manufacturing techniques; esp. Compared to Europe, Japan and US.
• Ford Cortina - cheaper, more reliable - vied for most popular car.
• Standard Triumph’s attempt to rationalise almost led to bankruptcy in 1960.
• 1960s saw market penetration of VW (Beetle was initially vandalised but became popular). Renault was also making headway.
• 1970s saw rise in Japanese vehicles.
• 1986 - Nissan opens factory in Sunderland; arguably for favourable access to the common market.

Question 7

Work and Unemployment Primary Literature

Garth England, Murdered By Straight Lines

Answer 7

• Made in Hengrove Lodge care home between 2006 and 2013. About Bristol, specifically the city’s suburban south: in Knowle West, Hengrove, Bedminster and Totterdown.
• Occupations: paperboy, a telegram boy, a milkman and, finally, a railwayman.
• Published in 2016 as a result of Future Perfect, a public art programme.
• Work provided sense of community. Captions illustrated conflict between neighbours, whilst also interweaved with humour. Personalised, not governed by politics.
• Pride in first car, 1955.

Question 8

Work and Unemployment Primary Literature

Alva Mydral and Viola Klein, Women’s Two Roles: Home and Work​

Answer 8

• Mydral - Swedish sociologist, diplomat and politician. Viola Klein was a British sociologist who found objective facts about womanhood to be socially constructed; specifically from the industrial revolution on.
• M+K marginal figures in sociology.
• 1947-51 - +710,000 women in the workforce; due to sufficiently wide ranging jobs, and new household conveniences.
• Olive Banks - ‘There is no doubt in the minds of thesr two authors that women’s two roles are not in the long run incompatible’. ‘A mental revolt will be needed’. Details adjustments in the labour market, policy and opinion needed to integrate women into the world of work. Stats are not as precise as they could be, and little original data was added. Designed for popular audience.
• Zweig - worked in Whitehall, advising policy on motherhood - influenced state provision of nursery provision and childcare
• Pre-figures second wave feminism.
• 1947-51 - 710,000 women in workforce +
• Two factors driving this - existence of sufficiently wide range of jobs, new improved household conveniences
• Middle class view of opportunities
• Brings paradoxes - more pressure placed on women

Question 9

Work and Unemployment Secondary Literature

Summarise the findings of Mike Savage - Sociology, Class and Male Manual Work Cultures

Answer 9

• 1960s sociology - interacts with concepts of class consciousness, collective male labour. Famous study - Coal is Our Life - how mining created collectivism.
• ‘Rugged individualism’ - we need to avoid counterposing individual and class identities - which has led to developed individual awareness being tied up to weak class awareness.

Question 10

Work and Unemployment Secondary Literature

Summarise the findings of Sara Connolly - Women and Work since 1970

Answer 10

• Connolly discusses the experience of inequality faced by women in the workplace. Signposting that lower educational attainment until 1989 was inhibiting, and that the 1970 Equal Pay Act was a false dawn. 1983 EC forced Britain to recognise equal worth rather than equal job - as latter made a class of female only jobs.
• Employment Protection Act, 1975 - provided maternity leave. Despite de jure change, striking a balance between work aspirations and needs of home and family remain drawbacks.