WORK &

ECONOMIC
LIFE
Dr.NC VAMSHI KRISHNA
FACULTY FOR SOCIOLOGY
WHAT IS WORK?
• Carrying of tasks which requires
expending/ expenditure of mental
or physical effort with the sole
objective of production of goods
and services is called work.
• If a work is done in exchange of a
wage or salary, then it is called
occupation or job.
• There can be other forms of work
which are unpaid. It is either
voluntary (social service ) or
involuntary (Vetti / Bondage)
 • For earning our wages
• Self - esteem
• To acquire skill
• To build new social
contacts
• It forms an important
part of self identity
• It increase activity level
• It has a temporal role
(important part of our
routine)
• To minimise deviance
(idol mind is devil's
SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF workshop)

WORK
 • Тhe Marxist theory of
historical materialism
understands society as
fundamentally
determined by
the material
conditions at any given
time - this means the
relationships which
people enter into with
one another in order to
fulfill their basic needs.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF
WORK
 • Mode of production: - Where some have mastered over the
skills of hunting and gathering etc and others are enslaved by
them. The slaves are deprived of their means of production,
that is their labour.
• Low Division of Labour: - Low division of labour.
• The occupational differentiation is primarily limited to birth,
sex, age, these societies have no specialised economic
organization.
• Due to poor specialisation, productivity was also low and
hence, little surplus was there.
• Economic activities are not rationally organised. Religion
interference in economic interference in economic activities is
considerable.
• Also had elements of paternalistic relationships in some
SLAVE SOCIETY societies.
• Due to extreme regulation, suicide rates are high (Fatalistic
Suicides--Durkheim).
• Agriculture has became a dominant mode of production. Land
has become the most important asset.
FEUDAL SOCIETY
• Mode of Production: - Based on the control
over land.
• Division of Labour: - Three estates-nobles,
clergy, serfs.
• Markets started to emerge.
• Social mobility is very low.
• Religion was still important part of life and
family played a role in production.
• With mechanisation, there is growth in
industries.
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
• An Industrial society is one in which
technologies of mass production are used to
make vast amounts of goods in factories, and
in which this is the dominant mode of
production and organizer of social life.
• This means that a true industrial society not
only features mass factory production but also
has a particular social structure designed to
support such operations.
• Such a society is typically organized
hierarchically by class and features a rigid
division of labor among workers and factory
owners.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
OF WORK

• Organised on basis of
complex division of labour
• There is increase in
specialisation of work. eg:
(Doctors: MBBS à MD
(Ortho) àDM (Nerve)
• There is shift in location of
work.
• There are wages for work.
• There is both economic
expansion and economic
interdependence
• Capitalism thrives by increase in
productivity. Capitalism, thus is a system
of surplus value - Adam Smith in his book
“Wealth of Nations”.
• This concept of maximising productivity
was put into practise by Frederick
Winslow Taylor by the concept called
scientific management. He did a series of
experiments and published a scientific
work titled time-motion-study.
• He says productivity can be maximised if
operations can be broken down, organised
and precisely timed. It increases industrial
output.
FORD AND
ASSEMBLY LINE
• Used scientific management into
studies on a large scale in creation of
his iconic car called MODEL T.
• He introduced specialized tools and
machinery designed for speed,
precision and simplicity.
• He introduced assembly line inspired
by a slaughter house in Chicago.
• But soon Ford realised that increased
supply will only survive if there is
more demand. (Mass product
requires mass market). He raised
wages of his workers. Thus increasing
their standard of living. But David
Harry says this is to secure worker
discipline and compliance.
 • Fordism though increased productivity; it was
inherently degrading and de-skilling system.
• It was a low trust system which prevented innovation
(because of automation). It increased managerial
control.
LIMITATIONS
• There was no unionism in Fordism. Wages were
directly linked to productivity.
• It was also prohibitively expensive.
• Once it is established it is quite rigid to change. It can
only be possible when workers are in high supply.
• Soon, due to its internal contradictions, the system
"entropied " (death of the system), due to lack of
commitment from the workers which led to loss of
morale and constant absenteeism.
HOWEVER.....
Laurie Graham, in her study at the Toyota plant says even though there is less
managerial supervisors, there is relentless peer pressure. Even though the
hierarchy is changed, the power structure remains same.

This problem could be solved if assembly line production can be made flexible by
introducing customisation. (eg: new features in smart phone - lock system - Pride
of ownership to create new demand and keeping work force motivated.

Stanley Davis says, introduction of CAD/CAM (computer Aided Designing /

Manufacturing) developed both the economy and the workers.
Mass customisation only creates an illusion of choice, said Collins.

Anna Pollert says this concept of mass customisation is not post

Fordism but neo-Fordism (because workers are in constant pressure
of innovation – you need to innovate to create a want and survive)
POST INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

• Sociologist Daniel Bell made

the term "post-industrial"
popular in 1973 after
discussing the concept in his
book "The Coming of Post-
Industrial Society"
• LABOUR AND SOCIETY.
• CURRENT AFFAIRS