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SOCIOLOGY - WORK AND ECONOMIC LIFE
Marx - Alienation
Durkheim - DOL
The social significance of work:


Money or wage
...




Variety - provides access to contexts that contrast with domestic surroundings
...
While this may sometimes be oppressive, it provides a sense of direction in daily
activities
...




Personal identity - Work is usually valued for the sense of stable social identity it offers, especially
important for men
...
It is an extreme form of
inequality in which some individuals are owned by others as their property
...
T Hobhouse defined slave as a man whom law and custom regard

as the property of another
...

According to HJ Nieboer the basis of slavery is always economic because with it emerged a kind of
aristocracy which lived upon slave labour
...
Large-scale agriculture, livestock raising, mining and handicrafts developed
...



Two main types of slavery - ancient slavery and new world slavery
...
Here slaves were usually foreign prisoners of war
...




The slave was designated as the master's property and had no political and social rights
...


In India, both male and female servants and slaves performed specialized functions in domestic and nondomestic services of the privileged class
...
Payments to the
servants were very low
...
A woman slave for domestic
work cost from 5 to 12 Tanka; a concubine, 20 to 40; untrained slave boys, 7 or 8 Tanka; and trained slaves,
10 to 15 Tanka during Alauddin Khiliji’s reign
Manu mentions seven kinds of slaves - a captive of war, a slave of maintenance, a son of a female slave,
one purchased for money, a slave obtained as a present, a hereditary one, and one condemned to slavery for
any offence
...
Between the 17th and 19th centuries an
estimated 24 million Africans were enslaved
...

Feudal Society:
The term feudalism is derived from the institution of ‘fief’, which was a piece of landed property
...

The defining feature of the estate / feudal system, was that the position held in the society, depended entirely
in terms of ownership of land
...
People started using inanimate sources of energy, viz
...
The crafts advanced further, new implements and machines were invented
and old ones were improved
...

Nevertheless, these relations were more progressive than in slavery system, because they made the laborer
interested, to some extent, in their labor
...
Power was handed down through family lines, with peasant families serving lords for
generations and generations
...
Land grants were made by the Gupta emperors, their feudatories and private individuals
which created a class of powerful intermediaries between the king and the masses
...

Over the years, the term feudalism has also come to acquire a generic meaning and is frequently used to
describe the pre-modern agrarian societies in other parts of the world as well
...
The cultivating peasants have to show a sense of "loyalty" and obligation
towards their overlords
...
Example: In Tehri Garhwal district of Uttaranchal, a labourer,
usually belonging to the untouchable castes of Doms and Koltas borrows a small sum of money from a
landowner in order to get married and subsequently becomes bonded to his landowner-moneylender
...
Little or no surplus
...
Private ownership of MOP is absent
...
Innovation is rare and change is slow
...

HERBERT SPENCER has defined simple society as one which forms a simple working whole and
of which the parts cooperate for certain public ends
...

The occupational differentiation being limited primarily to birth, sex and age
...

the productive skills are simple and productivity is low therefore these societies cannot sustain large
population size-small population
...


There is little or no surplus so the social inequalities are not significant and economic interaction takes
place within egalitarian frame-work
...

The members lack high degree of achievement motivation as there is neither any intense preoccupation
on generation and accumulation o/ economic surplus
...
private
ownership of means of production is non-existent, there is no clear separation between domestic
economy and community economy as they overlap to varying degrees
...

religious ideas the innovation is rare and change is slow
...

Some forms of Simple Economic Exchange:
Barter System- It is direct form whether in return services or goods
Silent trade- It was an exchange system where the exchanging parties do not know each other personally
Jajmani system- It is system of economic and social relationship existing between various castes in
villages, the patron is known as jajmin and the service castes are known as Kamin
...
While the landowning high caste families receive services from lower castes and in return
members of the low castes receive grains
Ceremonial exchange- It is a type of social system in which goods are given to relatives and friends on
various social occasions
...

Potlatch-This term means Gift
...
It is based on the principle of reciprocity Through this system the host declares his status to
others
Multicentric economy -It is an economy using several media of exchange,
Kula -According to Malinowski it is a ceremonial exchange participated by the Inhabitants or a closed
circle or Trobriand Island
...
The system of exchange is regulated in
a kind of ring with two directional movements
...
Objects given and taken in Kula are never subjected any bargaining,

Industrial Capitalist Society:


Private ownership of means of production



Profit as incentive



Free competition for markets



Restless expansion and investment to accumulate capital

Giddens:


Highly complex division of labour and high degree of specialization - UK census lists some 20,000
distinct jobs in the British economy



Shift in location of work
...
Now in factories
...


Marx - Saw this dialectical as leading to alienation from product, process, society and self
...
Thus, organizational structure in
industries is used to perpetuate class divisions
...
Thus, some pieces of personality are given importance and in order to chase them, man
alienated himself from his true self
...
Leisure becomes a means of escape to refresh oneself
and get back to work
...
Hence, promote integration
...




He argued that this can be taken care by increased integration, moral education, encouraging

occupational associations and development of code of ethics
...

Fredrick W Taylor - proposed scientific time and motion processes which increased production manifold
...

Fordism is the name given to designate the system of mass production tied to the cultivation of mass markets
But fewer people work in factories than before as lot many new forms of occupations have come up
...
In the western
civilization the individual is given importance and the values and norms of the society uphold the
individual's rights, but in Japan, the 'individual' is subordinated to the society
...
Wages and salaries are paid according to the seniority of the
worker concerned and not so much by his qualifications
...

Economic system of complex societies (Industrial Society) – Modern Societies
The complex societies have high degree of division of Labor and consequently structural differentiation
...
g
...
the economic
organization can easily sustain a large population



complex societies due to their high productivity generate huge surplus
...
the
domestic units are the units of consumption and supply the manpower to the community
economy
...
economic activity is perceived in secular terms and is based on practical
rationality


high degree of specialization, rapidity of change, predominance of practical and excessive
mechanization of production needs to a state of anomie in society and alienate the worker from
the product of his labor



Market exchange: For money
...
Classes
in different Society can be described as follows:
Primitive - Communal System



No concept of private property



No Exploitation, no master slave - all were equal



Low production, no surplus was produced



It was classless society

Slave Owning Society



Tools were perfected



Large scale production through use of slaves



Concept of private ownership developed



Slaves were not interested in increasing efficiency



There were two classes represented by Masters and Slaves

Feudal Society



Land given by landlord in return of military services



Court by lord and taxes are levied by lord



Land owner maintain control over peasantry



No property right to peasant



Other sources of energy like wind and water was also used for production



Skill and craft specialization developed; however, they were obliged to surrender labour to lord



Make little effort to make labour interested



There were two classes - Feudal Lord and Serf

Capitalism



Vigorous growth of means of production



Proletariats legally free



Free labour has created conscious of class and they frequently organize for bargain

Communalism
Professional Associations in Modern Economy:
Functionalists points at integrative, educating and regulating role of professional associations
...

Baritz in “Servants of Power” states that these associations serve the ruling class
...
Thus, for him positional authority was
reinforced as it was flowing from expertise
...
Thus, there may be
a conflict between professional and bureaucratic authority
...


Technology and Work:
Robert Blauner wrote “Alienation and Power” and divides alienation into four dimensions:


Degree of control of workers on their work



Degree to which they are involved in their work



Degree of meaning and purpose they find in work



Degree to which they are socially integrated to their work

He suggests that as managers and workers discuss technical problems, alienation reduces
...

Goldthorpe & Lockwood in their study of affluent workers of Luton, find that instrumental orientation and
worker’s expectations out of work are more important factors than technology
Wedderburn found support to both Blauner’s & Goldthorpe ideas & found that men’s orientation towards
work was largely instrumental but at the same time workers who had more control over their work processes
were more satisfied from work
...


New Innovation of work Organization in Industrial Society
TAYLORISM AND FORDISM
Taylor's approach to what he called ‘scientific management’ involved the detailed study of industrial
processes in order to break them down into simple operations that could be precisely timed and
organized


Taylorism, (as scientific management came to be called) was not merely an academic study
...
one of the most
significant innovations was the introduction of the assembly line industry
...

he reasoned that if standardized commodities such as the automobile were to be produced on
an ever-greater scale, the presence of consumers who were able to buy those commodities
must be assured



Fordism is the name given to designate the system of mass production type to the cultivation
of mass markets
...
as such, collective bargaining agreements formal agreements negotiated
between forms and unions that specified working conditions such as wages rights and benefits and
so on closed a virtuous cycle that insured worker consent to automated work regimes and sufficient

demand for mass produced commodities
...
but firms in
countries where labor power is expensive find it difficult to compete with those where wages are
cheaper
...
jobs are set by
management and are geared to machines
...




this constant supervision however tends to produce the opposite of its intended result: the
commitment and morale of workers is often eroded because they have little say in the nature of their
jobs or in how they are carried out
...




Centralization v/s decentralisation



Order- Social (takes care of fluidity within orgn) and material (ensures safety & efficiency @ work)



Equity- employees must be treated kindly, fair and impartial manner



Stability of tenure of personnel



Initiative on part of individuals should be encouraged



Espirit de corps- Team spirit helps develop an atmosphere of mutual trust & understanding



Scalar chain- Clear line of authority & chain of command
...


Human relations school of work organization: Elton Mayo – Human Relation Approach
research research carried out by Mayo at the General Electric company in Chicago concluded that group
relationships and management worker communication were far more important in determining employee
behavior than physical conditions and The Working practices imposed by management
...
Some
commenters have suggested that taken collectively, these changes represent a radical departure from
the principles of Fordism; they contend that we are no operating in a period that can be best
understood as post Fordism



The phrase “Post Fordism” was popularized by Michael Piore and Charles Sabel in their book “the
second industrial divide, 1984” and describes a new era of capitalist economic production in
which flexibility and innovation are maximized in order to meet market demands for diverse,
customized products



despite the confusion surrounding the term, several distinctive trends within the world of work have
emerged

in

recent

decades

that

seemed

to

represent

a

clear

departure

from

earlier Fordist practices
...
they represent a break from the
assumptions of Taylorism, since they recognize that workers possess the expertise to
contribute towards the definition and method of the task, they carry out
o the positive effects of group production on workers can include the acquisition of new skills,
increased autonomy, reduced managerial supervision and growing pride in the goods and
services that they produce
o studies like Graham’s have led sociologist to conclude that while team-based production
process provides workers with opportunities for less monotonous forms of work, systems of
approval and control remain the same in the workplace



Flexible production and mass customization: one of the most important changes in the
worldwide production processes over the past few years have been the introduction of computer

aided design and flexible production
...
though workers do learn new skills and
have less monotonous jobs, flexible productions can create a complete new set of pressures
which result from the need to coordinate the complex production processes carefully and to
produce the results quickly
o Enthusiastic proponents argue that mass customization offers nothing short of a new
industrial revolution, a development as momentous as the introduction of mass production
techniques in the previous century


Global production: challenges in industrial production include not only how products are
manufactured but also where products are manufactured
...
in retail dominated production, firms such as they
Walmart which in 2000 was the world's second largest Corporation they buy products from
manufacturers, who in turn arranged to have their products made by independently owned
factories
o The American sociologist Edna Bonacich and Richard Appelbaum show that including
manufacturing, most manufacturers actually employ no garment workers at all
...
what we are witnessing is not a wholesale
transformation as advocates of post Fordism would have us believe, but the integration of some new
approaches into traditional Fordist techniques
...
Anna Pollert as
argued that Fordist techniques were never as entrenched as some would have us believe
...
according to her economic production has always been characterized by a diversity of techniques
rather than a standard, unified approach

Formal and informal organization of work
Organization is a group with an identifiable membership that engages in concerted collective action to
achieve common purpose
...

Workers in the formal sector are engaged in factories, commercial and service establishments and their
working conditions, wages and social security measures are legally protected
...
Moreover, a range of
labour laws, guaranteeing permanency of employment and provision for retirement benefits, protect their
jobs
Formal, informal = sociology
Organized, unorganized = economics

Formal Organization:
Formal organization is one that is rationally designed to achieve its objectives, governed by rules,
regulations and procedures
...
They are - Legal Status, Division of Work,
Primacy of Structure, Permanence and Rules and Regulations
...
It has authorities vested
with power
...

Formal organizations operate through impersonal, universalistic rules and procedures, which are
expected to be mobilized across the board impersonally
...




They exhibit patterns of social relations which are less taken for granted than those in nonformal organizations (such as family) and which organizational participants often seek to
coordinate and control
...


Early formal organizations were discussed in 2 contexts - factory and state
...

Groups that are organized to achieve goals efficiently
...
3 types:


Utilitarian organizations - serve some function for their members
...
Join to
pursue some goal they think is morally worthwhile
...




Coercive organizations - you do not have a say in whether you are a member or not
...


Ancient formal organizations - built pyramids, spread religion - difference between them and modern
organizations is between traditional and rational world views
...
Six things:


Members have specialized roles



Hierarchy



Formal, written communications



Technical competence



Impersonally



Rules and regulations

But organizational environment is changing - technology, political and economic trends and population
patterns
...

Manufacturing to service economy - more creativity, flat organizations, flexible time and place
...
(Bureaucracy is a formal organization)
Arguments against formal (rational) organization:
Ritzer - McDonaldization
...

Weber gave importance to formal relations within an organization
...
Informal networks bring life into the organizations
...
Mayo believed classical school
underemphasized socio-psychological aspects of informal organization
...
Norms of higher cooperation were established

because of them
...

Informal groups within work plant exercise strong social controls
...
have on morale), mass interviewing program - found that hearing
grievances alone may increase their morale
...

Critique of Mayo:

lacks scientific validity, Marxists find it just another way to exploit by de-emphasizing

economic factors, it ignored environmental factors (found that working conditions, rest hours etc
...

Formal
Organization

 Well defined jobs

Advantage:

Disadvantage:

 Deliberately created

 Fixation of responsibility

 Lack of initiative

 Official prescription

 Clarity of duties

 Ignore human element

 Performance oriented

 Unity of command

 Delaying in Action

 Formal channel of
communication

 Helpful in achieving

 Co-ordinated efforts

 objectives

Arguments against Bureaucracy:
Merton - Bureaucracy is rule ritualism which provides no space for creativity or own judgement
...
He talks about administrative bureaucracy as
functional, dysfunctional and non-functional to society
...
It is a system which can destroy itself from within and
hence, not entirely rational
...
He observes that inside a mine, supervisor and workers share an informal relation to
overcome hazards and maximize efficiency but in industry they follow a more rule bound and hierarchical
relationship
...

Burns and Stalker argue that a system should not be mechanistic like bureaucracy but organic
...

Robert Michel’s, in his political theory “Iron Law of Oligarchy” on bureaucracy and democracy says that
flow of power towards the top is an inevitable part of increasingly bureaucratized world
...
Thus, he equates organizations with oligarchy
...
Organizations need to be flexible and
restructure power in order to create a more participatory and adaptive structure
...
Latif Chaudhary in his study on corruption in SE Asia,
establishes that there are two kinds of bureaucracies - lower-level bureaucracy which is full of rent seekers
and higher-level bureaucracy which is made of policy makers and there lacks a coordination between the
two
...
In his prison studies, he shows the darker side of modernity
...
It is not possible to have a top-down
approach as size increases
...


Informal Organization:
According to Anthony Giddens, the term informal economy refers to transactions made outside the sphere
of regular employment, sometimes involving exchange of cash for services provided, but also often
involving the direct exchange of goods or services
...
Housework, do-it-yourself work, all are forms of work
...
One of the main features of this
convention is of maintaining a live register of home-based workers
...

In 1970, J
...

Another section of the informal sector is the street vendors
...
Street vendors can be found in almost all cities, in developed and less developed
countries
...

Most of these people are immigrants from less developed regions who have migrated in search of better life
chances
...

The total employment provided through street vending becomes larger if we consider the fact that it sustains
certain industries by marketing their products
...
These industries engage a large number of workers but they could
have hardly marketed their products on their own
...
Lower income groups spend a higher proportion of their
income in making purchases from street vendors mainly because their goods are cheap and thus affordable
...
5 per cent of the total labour force, the workers collectively
earned around 33 per cent of the country’s total wages and incomes (Davala 1995)
...
2 in Ahmedabad
...
She also points out that informal sector includes
significant category of people who were earlier employed in formal sector but were laid off because of
shutting down of factories example: Textile mills in Ahmedabad and Mumbai with popularity of
synthetic yarn
...
She says that as most women find their employment in informal sector, this has helped in increasing
their autonomy, but the work conditions are harsh and they usually face health issues
...
These are:


Low levels of skill - Workers in this sector have low levels of education and thus they have low

skills
...
Worker in the
formal sector have higher degree of skill and their position in the labour is better
...

Hart’s study shows that able-bodied person, irrespective of the skills possessed can become a day
labourer
...
The person need not have money to invest in a shop
...




Low paid employment - Because of the requirement of low skills and the easy entry, work in the
informal sector has low returns
...
In fact, the
biggest grievance against this sector is that the wages are many times below sustenance level
...
In this sense, children too may be
encouraged to join the labour force
...

Hart found that the informal sector worker in Ghana had come to the city from the rural areas
...
He hence included migrant status as a characteristic of the informal sector
...




Informal Employment - includes casual and contract laborer’s in formal economy as their
working conditions and wages are similar to that of informal sector
...
He describes
informal sector as a colorful arrangement of irregularly working people that scratches around for a living
close to or at bottom of the urban society, where life and work are both precarious
...
Trade unions and other collective
organizations are rarely visible in informal sector
...
Though
top and bottom of an urban economy can be easily distinguished, there is a diffusion zone where
formal and informal labour may be together and there is no dividing line
...

He classifies majority of the so-called self-employed as camouflaged wage laborers
...

Breman identifies certain distinct characteristics of informal sector:


Composed of heterogeneously composed categories of working people who have no formal training



No source of income apart from own labour



Much higher participation of women and children



Low status attached with informal self-employment



He divided informal sector into:
o Petty bourgeoisie - self-employment, brokers, contractors, agents
...

o Paupers - lumpen drags of society whose presence nobody values
...


He maintains that there is fluidity among the above class structure though drastic upward / downward
mobility is rare
...
The
organized sector gets inputs and components at cheaper rates from the unorganized sector while the latter
depends on the former for marketing its products
...
Though
the two sectors are linked to each other, their relationship is not on equal basis
...

Over the last decades there has been a shift to what is often called ‘flexible production’ and
‘decentralization of work’
...

Instead of mass production of goods at a centralized location (Fordism), we have moved to a system of
flexible production at dispersed locations (post-Fordism)
Trade Unions:
Trade unions, also known as labour unions are organizations that are primarily formed by workers that
work for the betterment of them and are representatives of their interests
...
Here, the determinant factor is the
occupation and not the workplace
...
For instance, Musician Unions
...
For example,
members of cement in Industry situated in Bihar can be members of a union that has its origins in Gujarat
...
For example, Jamshedpur Labor Union has members hailing from diverse occupations
...

Federations- This is an all-India aggregative union
...

White Collars Union- For the so-called ‘white-collar’ (professionals with a reputed job) people
performing the same or similar tasks across the country
...

Main objectives of trade unions
When a trade union is established, it has objectives that are agreed upon by every member of the group
...
Different trade unions have different objectives but some grievances are common to all trade
unions
...
The
prevalence of negotiating for a better wage is more in the organizing sector
...
The trade unions demand basic facilities such as lighting, ventilation, sanitation,
access to safe drinking water, and most importantly safety equipment when carrying out hazardous duties
...
Very often workers carry out their work in cramped up places with little or
no ventilation
...

Discipline- Apart from economic benefits that a trade union aspires to achieve, discipline is equally
important
...
It leads to victimization of
workers that are in the form transfers and even dismissals
...
The worker has
the backing of the union
...

Recruitment Policies- The union keeps an eye on the proper implementation of recruit that is based on
equality
...
For
example, caste and class
...
However, the hierarchy makes this scenario very challenging to
achieve
...

Functions of Trade Unions
Militant functions: Activities performed by trade unions leads to better opportunities for workers
...
It is important to know
that the demands put forth by the union aren’t always met easily
...
It
is because of these agitations, that it is termed as militant functions of a trade union
A striking example of the militant function is that of Maruti Suzuki Udyog Ltd
...
Within a couple of days, the company
fired all its workers, However, there were workers who were not part of the incident
...
The Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union have supported the
workers and represented their case in the state labour department
...
Boosting their morale and self-confidence are objectives that are at the top of the

priority list
...
Although, this depends on the funds it receives
and donations from outsiders
...
They also
undertake social activities and providing a variety of services to members
...
Furthermore, they also entail training of
women so that they become self-reliant
...
If workers feel that they get a higher wage they are motivated to
work resulting in efficiency and high productivity
...
It protects them exploitation
and other discriminatory practices exercised by the employer
...
It further ensures that the complaints of workers are considered and rectified at
the earliest
...
It demands legitimacy on the
recruitment process and assures zero-tolerance against discriminatory practices
...
Financial weakness hampers the development of a trade
union and that, in turn, affects the development of the workers
...
Lack of financial backing can make a union
very vulnerable
...
For instance, a union-backed by a political
party
...
This
gives a rise to the creation of many unions which eventually goes against trade unionism and the unity of
workers
...

All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)
Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC)

Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh
Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)
Hind Mazdoor Sabha
Self Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA)
Trade Union Coordination Center
All India Central Council of Trade Union

Labour and society
Man, according to Marx, is a creative being
...

Man can never get satisfied with the existing conditions and always look out for a change
...
Man
uses his labour which is the essence of human being
...
At this stage his work becomes a fully
satisfying activity, encompassing both himself and the community of fellow human beings
...
In the process man engages himself in social
production
...
as super structure
...
The mode of production includes the social relations of
production which are relations of domination and subordination into which human beings are either born or
enter involuntarily
...
Thus, human beings are also in the process of social
production which is a very wide concept including almost all the subsystems of society, culture, religion,
economic production etc
...

The factory was perceived as an archetype of an economic regimentation hitherto known only in barracks
and prisons
Prior to the development of industrial capitalism, work-rhythms were set by factors such as the period of
daylight, the break between tasks and the constraints of deadlines or other social duties
...
In addition, the clock injected a new urgency to work
...


Industrial democracy:


Industrial democracy is an arrangement which involves workers making decisions, sharing
responsibility and authority in the workplace
...

While business leaders extol the virtues of democracy on ceremonial occasions, often they would
be the last to think of applying them to their own organizations because of a peculiar attitude which
claims that democracy is a nice way of life for nice people, yet a kind of expensive and inefficient
luxury for managing an organization



Richard Hrymas advocated industrial sabotage as relationship which is directed towards
the owners of industry or the organization for three purposes I
...
,
o to show frustration
o to ease tension and work environment
o To Show power



Use of strike as a method of protest through trade unions
...




Workers today having voting rights in the political sphere, and there are established forms of
negotiations with the employers, by means of which economic benefits can be pressed for and
grievances be expressed



Ralph Miliband says strike has certain characteristics features, I
...
Global shocks can
also be one reason where unemployment rates increased and reduced the bargaining power of
workers
...
wikipedia
...


Women and workforce- historical view


For vast majority of traditional societies, productive activities and household activities were not
separate
...




Ann Oakley points out that much of this changed with the separation of workplace from household
...




She points that 25-40% of wealth created in industrial countries is because of unpaid labour
at home
...
Men, by account of being part of public sphere enjoyed more participation in
political and market affairs whereas women remain limited to boundaries of domestic work
...
First, because of increased demand of labour during
world wars
...




Reasons for reduced gap: Economic pressures, automation at home, nuclear families and more time,
personal ambition by women propelled by movements in 60s and 70s

Gender and inequalities at work:


Occupational segregation- traditionally part of poorly paid & routine work
...
Vertical- less authority jobs and horizontal- altogether

different kinds of jobs; Sex-role stereotyping have played a role in this segregation
...



Concentration in part-time work- are seen to be offering much more flexibility to employees than
full time work
...
But carries certain
disadvantage like low pay, job insecurity and limited opportunities for advancement
...
to
surveys, many women happily chose part- time work



Wage gap- Avg pay of women much lower than that of men
...




Egalitarianism in domestic work- Studies have shown that with full time working women in high
income families, domestic work sharing is more egalitarian but not full egalitarian
...
Now it is more of white-collar work in the service industry
...
Majority of popn is not engaged in physical
production of goods but in their design, development, technology, marketing, sale and servicing
...
In both skilled and unskilled work sectors, personal skills are highly valued
...




Homeworking-In high trust organizations, this is very acceptable
...


Critical Management Studies:
Critical management studies (CMS) is a loose but extensive grouping of theoretically informed critiques
of management, business and organisation, grounded originally in a critical theory perspective
...
They began to question the politics of managerialism and to
link the techniques of management to neo-liberalism
...
Later Feminism, queer theory, post-colonial theory,
anarchism, ecological philosophies, and radical democratic theory also had some influence
...
Although it is best known
for its controversial insistence on the capacity of nonhumans to act or participate in systems or networks or
both, ANT is also associated with forceful critiques of conventional and critical sociology
...
This is called principle of generalized
symmetry

Social Capital:
The fruits of organizational membership, the social knowledge and connections that enable people to
accomplish their goals and extend their influence is called social capital
...
It includes useful social networks, sense of
mutual obligation and trustworthiness and understanding of the norms that govern effective behaviour and
in general other social resources that enable people to act effectively
...
He also notes that strong
social capital encourages democracy
...

They affect the individual participants' activity level, strengthening of their self- perception and
sense of belonging
...



In developing countries, organizing poor into small thrift and created groups, called SHGs is thought
as an alternative credit institution to combat the crisis of petty credit requirements
...
They are encouraged to make voluntary
thrift on a regular basis
...




From Yojana: The process helps them imbibe the essentials of financial intermediation including
prioritization of needs, setting terms and conditions and accounts keeping
...
‘Cold (Outside) money’ gets added to the
own ‘warm money’ in the hands of the groups, which have become structures, which are able to
enforce credit discipline by being able to save and borrow regularly without many hassles
...
At
present, there are over 16 lakh SHGs operating all over the country, of them 90 percent being
women SHGs
...
Many SHGs have taken social issues
as well like anti-liquor movement etc
...
A case from Kerala, where a Dalit boy was not allowed to enter shiva temple, Dalit
women SHGs sat on dharna and prevented upper caste boys from visiting the temple too
...
The deep-rooted traditional mindset of banks which views poor, as credit
risks, is difficult to change
...




The NGOs in India have promoted microfinance through women SHGs
...
The interests of those MFIs and
SHGs conflict
...
The govt, banks and wholesale financing organizations now work with
NGOs that promote SHGs
...
According to Chamala, sustaining SHG
involves following considerations:
o Achieving the group task

o Developing the individual
o Building and maintaining the group


Gender angle: The “policies of exclusion” of the so-called patriarchal societies throughout the
world, especially in the Least Developed and Developing countries are primarily responsible for
marginalization of women, both covertly and overtly
...
Additionally, people can deepen their understanding of their own problems
by helping others in similar circumstances
...
According to UNO, “Development concerns not only man’s material needs, but also
improvement of social conditions of his life
...




Gunar Myrdal has pointed out six important factors affecting development:
o

output and income,

o

conditions of production,

o

levels of living,

o

attitude towards life and work,

o

institutions and

o

politics
...



From Ramesh Singh (economics)- human development debate

Impact of new global economy on work organization and family structure

Globalization has several dimensions: political, technological, human, environmental and cultural
...

Globalization is hardly a new force affecting India
...
The previous globalizers of India include the Aryans, Greeks,
Turks, Afghans, Muslims and most recently, the Europeans, Portuguese, French, Dutch and finally
the English


Nuclear families



Urbanization



Migration- Acculturation gaps



Shifting of values- individualism and collectivism



Women empowerment



Domestic threats



Health issues



Crime- illicit drug trades, organized crimes, cyber-attacks etc
...
At different phases of growth, the
processes of change have affected the various aspects of society
...




Family size is changing rapidly



Changes in functions of family:



Equality within family:



Change in recreational activities



Inclination towards private schools



rapid change can encourage fundamentalism, a desire for the past, and a loss of tolerance for
differences in religion and culture
...




Child labour: e
...
: Globalization most directly exploits an estimated 300,000 Indian children who
work in India's hand-knotted carpet industry, which exports over $300 million worth of goods
a year
...
points mentioned in modern societies done earlier
...
g
...




Paternity leaves etc
...




Difficulty to adapt, thus identity confusion-



Self-selected culture- can chose from among plater of cultures and many times revivalism

Globalisation and marginalization:
With millions of poor farmers, rural laborers, urban unemployed, slum-dwellers, 3 million refugees,
100 million street children, and the millions displaced by ‘the development’ projects, poverty in this
era of globalization has assumed new dimensions
...
wikipedia
...
This success was due
to the contributions of the “Suffrage Movement” in the early 1900s
...

Gender role is a theoretical construct involving a set of social and behavioral norms that, within a specific
culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex
...
The 21st century has seen a shift in gender
roles due to multiple factors such as new family structures, education, media, and several others
...

With the importance of education emphasized nationwide, and the access of college degrees (online, for
example), women have begun furthering their education
...
Fathers are also becoming more
involved with raising their children
...




According to Locke, property was originally owned in common by all men, however, men had a
natural rights to appropriate this common property for their own private use where they themselves
had laboured to create it
...




Utilitarians, like Hume, Private Property existed because it had become a social convention that
individuals obeyed, it being in their mutual interest and the general public utility to do so
...




According to Kant’s ‘Will Theory’, said basic concept of property is “an expression of will over

a thing against other
...

The same sort of debate, between individualism and society, goes on today over topics like welfare, social
security, gun control, and affirmative action
...
Jobs and benefits, or stock ownership, became just as important as land
...
As the
information age has evolved, we have seen additional changes in property
...
The framers of the Constitution could not have foreseen property
rights in Internet web sites, body parts, and fertilized human eggs, and yet we must adapt their ideas to fit
these new realities
Laws:
There are a number of laws governing work in the organized sector
...
There are a number of other
Acts such as the Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Bonus Act, Provided Fund Act, Employees State
Insurance Act etc
...

We can divide these legislations into two groups, one dealing with the regulation of work and the other
dealing with social security
...
Acts such as Payment of Bonus Act,
Employees Provident Fund Act, Employees Family Pension Scheme, Employees State Insurance Act,
Payment of Gratuity Act and another fall in the second category
...

Women - Equal Remuneration Act, Minimum Wages Act, Maternity Benefits Act
Increasing emphasis is now given to organization and mobilization of unorganized women workers in order
to give them voice and collective strength for the improvement of their working conditions and wages
...
SEWA is a trade union of over 40,000 poor women
workers in Gujarat
...
The revitalization of women's movement in the 1970s and

1980s, has resulted in an increasing awareness about women's rights and their participation in local and
larger struggles
...
There are
a few Acts which cover the workers in this sector (Contract Labour Regulation and Abolition Act, Equal
Remuneration Act, Minimum Wages Act etc
...

Michael Burawoy, an American sociologist worked for several months as a machinist in a Chicago factory
and wrote about the experience of work from the perspective of workers
...
They never treated him badly, they were friends with him, but they would never
go to his house
...
The funny thing is the Marathi
workers were unable to judge the caste of the North Indian workers
...
”
Veena Das conducted an ethnographic study of Indian Urban families through biographies
...
Her findings state that urban Indian men feel the “loss of masculinity” as urban
Indian women take on the traditionally masculine role of earning for the family
...
The presentday women are victims of the increasing crimes targeted towards them
...
It was
found that there has been an increase from 9
...
7% in 2015
...
3% to 84
...
3% to 110
...

The Indian Feminist Movement
Feminism is an advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes
...
This was the

beginning of the feminist movements in India where issues related to a woman’s status in society was
included in the social reform movement by reformers such as Rajaram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidya
Sagar, Annie Besant, M
...
Ranade and B
...
Tilak
...
However, a vital aspect of the Indian Feminist
movement which differentiated it from that of the West was the intersectionality of caste along with the
class
Prior to the partition and India’s independence from the British, the All India Women’s Conference (AIWC)
was the primary organisation that addressed social inequalities and sought a change in the treatment of
women as they were closely related to the Independence movement
...
Caste has been used as a meaning
of controlling resources and segregating labour
...
Dalits, the outcastes, are oppressed by the upper castes
...
Hence the Dalit
feminist movement is essential in unfolding the oppression faced by Dalit women and working towards
their upliftment
...
In reviewing second-wave feminism in India and the Dalit
movement, Datar (1999) recognises the importance of the anti-rape agitation but views sexual politics as a
‘stray tendency’ within feminism
...

Present-Day Feminism in India: The Indian feminist movement has led to the creation of several prowomen laws in India
...
The feminist movement and struggle have resulted in liberating women
in several ways, such as having women in positions of power, gaining access to higher education, creating
reservations for women in jobs
...

However, despite the feminist movement, women in India are still victims of domestic and sexual abuse
...
Women are still expected to conform to social

norms and have limited freedom compared to a man
...
Therefore, feminism will continue to be a need
to fuel the upliftment of Indian women

Vikas Ranjan – page – 24 to 30 – Informal sector in India –
Globalization
Examine the social impact of globalization on labour and society
...
In the age of rapid technical progression, many countries are unified and
transformed due to the process of globalization
...
Abundant theoretical studies demonstrated that
globalization intercedes in a cultural life of populace that raises numerous critical issues (Robertson,
1992)
...
Globalization is described by theorists as the process through which societies and economies
are integrated through cross border flows of ideas, communication, technology, capital, people,
finance, goods, services and information
Aspects of Globalisation in India
Cross country incorporation has several aspects and can be political, cultural, social and/or economic,
all which equal globalization
...

Economic integration involves developing a nation’s economy into an international economy
...
In fact, cultural and social integration
are even more than economic integration
...

Generally, globalization involves economies that are opening up to international competition and that
do not distinguish against international capital
...
But globalization also leads
to unemployment, increasing casual employment and weakening labour movements
...
The fervour of
globalization has even enforced Governments to be tuned to the merits of a Global economy
...
Fraser (2007) explained that
Globalization is a word on every commentator’s lips nowadays, but is very difficult to define
satisfactorily, for it arises in so many different contexts like economic, sociological, political, cultural
and environmental
...
Md, 2006 stated that globalization is the interconnectedness of
nations and regions in economic domain, in particular, trade financial flows and multinational
corporations
Concept of Globalisation
The concept of globalization means that the world is getting smaller as well as bigger
...
Md, 2006 described that globalization can contribute to develop pattern of cross
border activities of firms, involving international investment, trade and strategic alliances for product
development, production, sourcing and marketing
...
Other theorists stated that globalization is a social phenomenon that defines the
geographical boundary in terms of many different issues
...
ALI, 2015 explained the globalization as a process of rapid
economic, cultural, and institutional integration among countries
...
Globalization has reduced barriers between countries,
thus resulting in strengthening of economic competition among nations, dissemination of advanced
management practices and newer forms of work organization, and sharing of internationally accepted
labour standards
...
These stimulate driving or resisting forces toward the change of the status quo
...
There are
four factors that accelerate globalization
...


The resource imperative: Growing interdependence of nations and their activities on one another,
fostered by the depletion of natural resources, misdistributions of arable land, mineral resources, and
wealth, as well as overpopulation
...

The IT imperative: Modernizations in glob communications, science and technology contribute
toward universalization or planarization
...

India was main mover of globalization
...
As a result
of this, globalization of the Indian Industry occurred at large scale
...
The liberalization of the
domestic economy and enhanced incorporation of India with the global economy helped to step up
gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates which made good position in global scale
...
As a result, they boosted the Indian economy quite significantly
...
Also this helped to reduce the
level of unemployment and poverty in the country
...
Since last many years, there is an increase of skilled professionals in India employed by
both local and foreign companies to service customers in the US and Europe
...
The foreign companies brought in highly advanced
technology with them and this made the Indian Industry more technologically advanced
...
It
is recommended by researchers that India has to focus on five important areas to enhance its
economic status
...

In terms of export and import activities, Many Indian companies have expanded their business and
became famous at global level such as fast food, beverages, and sportswear and garment industries
...
In 2000-01, agricultural products valued at more than US$6 million were exported from the
country of which 23% was contributed to the marine products alone
...
Cereals (mostly basmati rice and nonbasmati rice), oil seeds, tea and coffee are the other prominent products each of which accounts for
nearly 5 to 10% of the countries’ total agricultural exports
...
The rich biodiversity of India has yielded many healthy
foods prepared from locally available entities
...

Technological and Cultural impact of globalization in India
With the process of globalization, there is an access to television grew from 20% of the urban
population (1991) to 90% of the urban population (2009)
...
In the cities, Internet facility is everywhere and extension of internet facilities
even to rural areas
...

Excessive Multiplex movie halls, big shopping malls and high rise residential are seen in every cities
...
After economic liberalization, Bollywood
expanded its area and showed a major presence in the global scale
...
In India, modernity is observed with the West
...
As these new cultural
messages began to reach the Indian population, Indian moviegoers were pushed to re-evaluate their
traditional Indian cultural ideology
...
Big international companies (Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Columbia
Pictures) are investing on this sector
...

Impact of globalization on education in India
There is immense effects observed in educational sector due to globalization such as literacy rate
become high and Foreign Universities are collaborating with different Indian Universities
...
The distinction
between formal, non-formal and informal education will vanish when move from industrial society
to information society takes place
...

It is observed in current Indian society that through globalization, women have gained certain
opportunities for job options and to recognize women’s rights as a part of the human rights
...
It is found that the growth of computer and
other technologies enabled women with better waged, flex timings, and capacity to negotiate their
role and status in home and at corporate level
...
Globalization
increased competition in the Indian market between the foreign companies and domestic companies
...
This reduced the amount of profit of the Indian Industry companies
...
The negative Effects of
Globalization on Indian Industry are that with the coming of technology the number of labour
required are decreased and this resulted increasing unemployment especially in the arena of the
pharmaceutical, chemical, manufacturing, and cement industries
...
There is an increased gap between rich and poor that
lead to some criminal activities
...
Another major
negative effect of globalization in India is that youngsters of India leaving their studies very early
and joining Call centres to earn fast money reducing their social life after getting habituated with
monotonous work
...
This has an adverse effect
on cultural aspect
...
There are more people
approaching divorce courts instead of maintaining marital life
...
Globalization has brought about raising a population who is
agnostic and atheist
...
Globalization has
reduced nationalism and patriotism in country
...
There are few
challenges for companies due to globalization such as Migration, relocation, labour shortages,
competition, and changes in skills and technology
...
In political field, globalization helps to eradicate poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy,
ill-health and fighting cross border terrorism and global terrorism
...
Globalisation benefits the schedule caste people in
promoting cultural homogeneity in the way of loosening of the ideas of pollution and purity and
eradication of untouchability and so many socio-cultural and economic disabilities associated with
them
...
A
consumerist mentality has been carefully fostered
...
Lastly, in Indian scenario, globalization
developed a consumer credit society
...
Credit cards have given boost to consumerism and pushed many households into
indebtedness
...

Currently, realistic coverage of events and happening doesn’t receive much importance because it
doesn’t determine the standing of a newspaper or TV channel
...

To summarize, the process of globalization has changed the industrial pattern social life of global
people and it has immense impact on Indian trade system
...
Previously, the pace of process was slow
...
With this process, there is a big market place
...
MNCs have established manufacturing plants all over the world
...
India is gaining international recognition and strengthening in
economic and political areas
...
Examine the statement
...

Describe the nature of social organization of work in industrial society
...
" Substantiate your answer
with suitable examples
...

Broadly defined, informalization of the labour market (or informalization of work) represents a
situation in which the ratio of the informal labour force to the formal labour force- or the share of
the informal labour force in the total labour force- increases over time
...


In developing countries, the term “informal sector” has been used to refer to employment in informal
enterprises (that is, unregulated and small enterprises)
...

Informal labour markets encompass rural self-employment, both agricultural and non-agricultural; urban
self-employment in manufacturing, trade and services; and various forms of informal wage employment
(including casual day-labourers in construction and agriculture, industrial outworkers, and more)
...
The most commonly cited categories of nonstandard work
in developed countries, for which official data are readily available, are self-employment, part-time work
and temporary work
...
There is a widespread assumption that the informal economy is countercyclical: that is, it expands during economic downturns and contracts during periods of economic
growth
...

In some countries, steady rates of economic growth are associated with an increase in informal
employment,

such

as subcontracted

and

outsourced

activities
...

Close to 81% of all employed persons in India make a living by working in the informal sector, with only
6
...
8% in the household sector
...
7%), with Bangladesh (48
...
6%) and Pakistan (77
...
In fact, formal employment in Bangladesh
is the highest in the region at 13
...
7%, says a report by
the International Labour Organisation
...

Trace the changing nature of organisation of work in capitalist society over the years
...

Discuss the nature of social organization of work in capitalist society with reference to the 'limits of
the working day'
...

The "reserve army of labour" - a term associated with those on the left of the political spectrum - is
disproportionately female
...

For instance, those who are deemed troublesome or unproductive in the workplace can always be
replaced by members from the reserve army of labour
...
Revealingly, the reserve army of labour is
disproportionately female
...
It is also a fact that
women disproportionally work in the five c’s (cleaning, clerical, caring, cashiering and catering)
...
This is particularly notable within third world
countries in which workers’ rights are suppressed by the agents of the state
...
That
said, such observations also apply to a relatively advanced capitalist economic system such as the
UK
...




---