Global economy according

to Bansky
http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/simpsonsB
anksy.mp4/view
Globalization, Economics, and Work Today
• Globalization refers to the cultural and economic changes resulting
from dramatically increased international trade and exchange in the
late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

2
Clinton signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement in October 1992
 What is Neoliberalism?
Neoliberalism is the idea that less
government interference in the free
market is the central goal of politics.
Neoliberals believe in a ‘small
government’ which limits itself to
enhancing the economic freedoms of
businesses and entrepreneurs. The state
should limit itself to the protection of
private property and basic law
enforcement.
Neoliberalism is most closely associated
with Thomas Hayek and Milton
Friedman, and the policies of Ronald
Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

Short video on neoliberalism:

https://youtu.be/dzLv3rfnOVw
• The state withdraws from all areas of social life.
• The welfare state and collective responsibility are destroyed.
• Self-help, self-responsibility of the individual for his or her problems, and the capability of the market to regulate itself without
human intervention are preached.
• Growth, productivity, and competition are presented as the only goals of human actions.
• Old ultraliberal ideas are presented as modern and progressive.
• Money and finance markets are homogenized under the dominance of a few nations.
• A kind of new social Darwinism puts across the message that only the strong and remarkable survive in society and on the
market.
• A permanent insecurity of wage and living conditions (“flexploitation”), an individualization of work contracts, and state
assistance and state subsidies for large corporations are all established and institutionalized.
• Neoliberal ideologies claim that the economy is independent from society, that the market is the best means of organizing
production and distribution efficiently and equitably, and that globalization requires the minimization of state spending,
especially on social security.
• These developments are presented as something inescapable, self-evident, and without alternatives.
• The neoliberal state creates the legal framework for flexible wages and flexible working times.
• Regulation is increasingly important on, and shifted to, the supranational, regional, and local levels, and
networks or links between cities, regions, and federal states are established (also on a cross-border basis).
• The state tries to facilitate capital investment and technological progress by subsidies,
research and development (R&D) programs, funds, and institutional support.
• Collective bargaining systems are increasingly superseded by systems at a sectoral, regional, or company
level.
• The state increasingly tries to activate entrepreneurial thinking by creating new forms of self-dependence
and self-employment, reducing unemployment benefits and welfare, tightening eligibility criteria, installing
sanctions and coercive activation programs (workfare, welfare to work).
• Pensions are increasingly cut and the retirement age lifted; private pension funds are encouraged.
• Universities are considered as enterprises, and cooperation between universities and corporations is
encouraged.
• Certain state functions are shifted to civil society (neocorporatism).
• Public enterprises and services are increasingly privatized and commercialized.
• Welfare is increasingly shifted from the private to the corporate level.
• Transnational corporations introduce increasingly flexible ways of producing commodities, and they
themselves are organized as globally distributed firms that are political as well as economic actors.
• The nation-state is transformed into a competitive state: there is competition for good conditions of
economic investment between nation-states, and, hence, nation-states are frequently forced to facilitate
privatization, deregulation, and the deterioration of wages, labour legislation, and welfare policies to attract
the interest of transnational capital. Whereas capital and transnational corporations operate at a global level,
the state is forced to enforce political action at a national level.
Keynesian Economics focuses on using active government policy to manage aggregate
demand in order to address or prevent economic recessions.
Keynes developed his theories in response to the Great Depression, and was highly critical
of classical economic arguments that natural economic forces and incentives would be
sufficient to help the economy recover.
Activist fiscal and monetary policy are the primary tools recommended by Keynesian
economists to manage the economy and fight unemployment.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/k/keynesianeconomics.asp
 Neoliberalism and Globalization

Really good, short video on the relationship between

neoliberalism and globalization
https://youtu.be/uwGgLfu5aGs
 The Modern Economy
• Multinational or Transnational
• Corporations
• Operate across national boundaries
• Exercise tremendous economic power
• Half of the 100 largest economic units are not countries, but privately owned
companies

The Corporation: Power Without Accountability:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcNepZEu9RY

Power at stake | Susan George | TEDxGeneva

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=25&v=JdnVFb1ju_8&feature=emb_logo
Corporations and power today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P4uvC2BFdU&list
=PLFA50FBC214A6CE87&index=21 - From corporation a
nd governments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJaKtRjqj2M&list=P
LFA50FBC214A6CE87&index=14 - Celebration florida

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI7_pwxcC6M&list=
PLFA50FBC214A6CE87&index=13 - Pfierhood
The Social Significance of Work

• What Is Work?
• Work is the carrying out of tasks that involve mental and
physical effort
• Objective is the production of goods and services
• An occupation is work done in exchange for a regular wage
• In all cultures, work is the basis for economy
The Social Significance of Work

• What Is Work? (cont)

• Several characteristics of work:
• Money
• Activity level
• Variety
• Structuring one’s time
• Social contacts
• Personal identity
The Social Organization of Work

• What Is Work? (cont)

• Division of labor (remember Durkheim?) means that work
is divided into different occupations requiring specialization
• We are all dependent on each other to maintain our
livelihoods—economic interdependence
The Social Organization of Work

• Low-Trust Systems Versus High-Trust

• Systems
• Low-trust systems:
• Management sets jobs
• Geared to machines
• Workers are highly supervised and have little control
• High-trust systems
• Workers have some control over pace and content of
work
• Usually concentrated at higher levels
 The Nature of Industrial and Post-Industrial Work
Before the Industrial Revolution, economic production took place
in the household—but the birth of the factory led to the
“workplace” and raised new work-related issues.

19
From Modern
Times
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHdmaFJ6W6M
The Social Organization of Work

• Taylorism and Fordism

• Taylorism divides work into simple tasks that can be timed
and organized
• Designed to maximize industrial output
• Fordism extends principles of scientific management to
mass production ties to mass markets
• Both are low-trust systems that maximize worker alienation
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/15/employee-privacy-is-at-stake-as-surveillance-tech-monitors-worke
rs.html
The Nature of Industrial and Post-Industrial
Work (cont’d)
• Karl Marx argued that when people lose control over their production
and the conditions of production, they become alienated and view
work as a means to survive rather than a rewarding activity.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ4VzhIuKCQ

26
Karl Marx: Alienation
Marx believed workers were alienated in four
ways:
– from the product of their labor
– from their own productive activity
– from their fellow workers
– from human nature
Marx thought human beings were meant to
create things with meaning and value to
them. Industrial production makes this
impossible for the worker.
Resistance Strategies: How Workers Cope
• Individuals and groups cope with their working conditions in a variety
of ways called resistance strategies (ways that workers express
discontent with their working conditions and try to reclaim control of
the conditions of their labor).

30
Collective Resistance Strategies:
How Workers Cope
• Collective resistance can include membership in a union (an
association of workers who bargain collectively for increased wages
and benefits and better working conditions).

31
The Social Organization of Work

• Labor Unions
• Union organizations and the right to strike are
characteristic of economic life in all Western countries
• Unions emerged as defensive organizations concerned
with providing some control for workers over their
conditions
• Union leaders often play important role in formulating
economic policies
• Union density and union activity have declined
dramatically in the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpWhy5krLXk
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/26/state-of-the-unions?utm_source=onsi
te-share&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE6e5HWH8II

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-
fi-mo-walmart-protest-ontario-20131129,0,1
616629.story#axzz2m4LUF9Q9

Restaurant workers union

http://campusprogress.org/articles/resta
urant_workers_demand_equal_pay_ap
pealing_to_restaurant_lobbyists_and_c/
- When:17:09:13Z
 Working for Apple in China

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/01/25/business/100000001313019/
made-in-china.html?scp=1&sq=foxconn&st=cse
The Changing Nature of Work

• How Has Work Changed?

• Major changes have occurred in occupational systems
during the century
• Increase in nonmanual occupations at expense of
manual ones
• Development of global assembly line (flexible
production systems)
• Information technology
Globalization and technology have led to transformations in the
economic
and work base of capitalism in the United-States.

Our economy is no longer based on manufacturing and the

industrial jobs that accompanied manufacturing.

The financial, information and service sectors now serve as the

economic base of capitalism in the United-States.

These industries provide high-paid, highly skilled jobs on one

end, and low skill, low-paid, non-union jobs on the other end.

There are few jobs in the United-States that both pay well and
require little formal training and education.

41
The Nature of Industrial and Post-Industrial
Work (cont’d)
• In a post-industrial economy, many workers do service work, which
often involves direct contact with clients, customers, patients, or
students by the workers.

42
The Nature of Industrial and Post-Industrial
Work (cont’d)
• Other workers in the post-industrial economy are involved in
knowledge work, which includes jobs that involve working with
information.

46
Alternative Ways of Working
• The modern economy is characterized by more diverse and
specialized jobs, and more temps and freelancers.
• In a capitalist society, we increasingly rely on the independent or third
sector, made up of nonprofit organizations that take care of necessary
but unprofitable social needs.

47
The Changing Nature of Work

• Work and Technology

• Automation, or programmable machinery, has sparked
debate over the effect of new technology on workers
• Computer technology has led to general increase in all
workers’ skills
• But has led to split workforce:
 Small group of highly skilled professionals and a large group
of clerical, service, and production workers
The Changing Nature of Work
• How Has Work Changed? (cont)
• Interpretation of these changes is disputed
• Some speak of portfolio worker—the worker who has
various skills and is ready to move from job to job
• For many people flexibility is more likely associated
with poorly paid jobs with fewer career prospects
Changes in the economy and work force
Deskilling of workers
Decline in manual labor and manufacturing work
Rise in white-collar and service work
Shift to knowledge economy
Increase in part-time work
Gig work

52
The Changing Nature of Work

• Unemployment
• Recurrent problem in the industrialized countries in the
twentieth century
• Work is a structuring element; unemployment can be
disorienting
• New technology seems likely to increase unemployment
rates