SOCIOLOGY 346
Work & Occupations
Course Description -- Required
Readings -- Grade Requirements --
WEB Reading Schedule -- Course
Outline -- Labor Links
Course Description and Objectives:
Approaches to the study of work and occupations vary
substantially. Unlike a course oriented toward the management of
human labor, this course will be minimally concerned with human capital
and human relations theory. Further, this course is not designed
to develop a taxonomy of occupations in the U.S. (this is available at
career planning and placement), but rather to develop a critical conceptual
map of the institutional structure and processes that envelop and shape
the experience of work. This will require some historical exploration
as well as sociological analysis.
We begin with an exploration of the meaning of work;
the history of the labor process and the way in which human labor is connected
to technologies of power. As we will see, work is involves
very different experiences across social groups, regions, and over time.
Yet, there also seems to be a generalized, alienated experience of work.
We will observe how the locus of control in the labor process has moved
from the "scientific management" of workers’ physical motion, characteristic
of the industrial production, to new experiments in the technological-cultural
control of workers’ self-identity in the burgeoning service sector.
Further, we will examine the structural changes
in the U.S. and global economy that have transformed the manufacturing
sector into a "Rust Belt", leaving high levels of un- and under-employment
in the centers of America’s large cities. Meanwhile, modern factory
systems, built to move easily, are being constructed around the world alongside
the shantytowns, slums, townships, and favelas that house a new working
class. These economic changes are far from stable and produce deep
social conflict. Additionally, these changes are not uniform in their
effects on people. The rise of a dual service sector (split by low
wage, part-time jobs and salaried, information intense jobs) is being built
upon preceding structural inequalities in employment, largely shaped by
income, race/ethnicity, gender, and region. As an overview
of the sociology of work, we will compare several approaches to the study
of work and occupations, then assess major trends (such as those discussed
above) in the world of work, corporations, labor unions, and the distribution
of jobs and employment.
Consequently, this course assumes some background
experience with social science courses in general or sociology in particular.
The amount of reading is not light, averaging about 100 pages per week.
It is important that you keep up with this reading and do your best to
complete the assigned section before the respective lecture times, as there
will be close links between the lectures and readings. In addition,
I will indicate readings and lectures that should receive greater attention
on your part. Finally, since we will be meeting for 3 hours per week,
with this much reading, it would be a benefit to all if we raise questions
and comments in class. Participation in classroom discussions will
be recognized.
Required Readings
1) Leidner, Robin. 1993. Fast Food, Fast Talk: Service Work
and the Routinization of Everyday Life.
2) Wharton, Amy. 1997. Working in America: Continuity,
Conflict, and Change.
3) Moody, Kim. 1997. Workers in a Lean World: Unions
in the International Economy.
4) WEB pages below.
Grades
Your course grade will be based on attendance, two exams and two 3-page
summaries of course readings. First, 15% of your total grade will
be determined by your attendance and participation in class. Each day accounts
for .5% of your grade, so be sure to attend and sign the role sheet.
Of course, absences may be justified and I will always consider your situation
– as long as you inform me of the circumstances. Secondly, the midterm
exam (30%) will be given in class on May 6 (wed). The final
exam (30%) is scheduled for Wed. June, 10, at 1:00pm. These dates
are set, so please plan to attend. The tests will consist of both
essay and multiple choice. Your reading summaries, which must cover
two-weeks of course materials (including Web-readings) are due the Monday
that follows the readings you summarize. You may choose two of any
of the 2-week blocks to summarize. Each of these summaries will account
for 15% of your grade (both, 30%). Additional instructions for these
will be given in class.
Course Web-Reading Schedule:
Special Links
on current strikes and other labor movement matters.
Course and Reading Outline
I) The Social Organization of Work and the Division of Labor (Week
1, 2)
A) Introduction to the course. What is Work?
B) The Labor Process: Technical-Bureaucratic Control of Labor
and the Regulation of Social Life
II) The Double-edge of Gender & Work: Household Reproduction
and the Gendered Commodification of Labor (Week 3 & 4)
A) Service Work and Gendered-Time
B) Regulating the Self: From Technical to Cultural Control of
the Work Process
C) Emotion-Work: Masculinity and Feminity on the Job
D) Work and Family Life
III) Work, Inequality and Racism: The Consequences of Split Labor
Markets (Week 4 & 5)
MIDTERM in Class (Wed., May 6)
IV) Capitalism and the International Wage-labor Market: (some
might call this globalization of work – week 6)
V) Lean Production and the New, Global Working Class (weeks
7-8)
VI) Class Politics at the End of the Millennium (weeks 9-10)
June 5: REVIEW MAJOR THEMES
FINAL EXAMINATION: Wed. June, 10, at 1:00pm.
Copyright © Michael Dreiling, 1998. All rights reserved.