C15 Lecture Outline

January 12, 2017

1. Introduction to WES
a. Exercising the sociological imagination: you and work and employment
b. Basic definitions of work, employment society
c. Classical sociology: Marx, Durkheim & Weber on work and employment
Are intricately connected (Venn diagram) (you touch one, it hits on the other)
The way you organize work and employment, is fundamentally related to the way society is
organized
Marx and Durkheim as structural thinkers > think about the structure of society that shapes the way
work and employment are organized.
Marx:
o Bourgeoisie and proletariats (class relation). One owns the means of production, the other
gives of their labour for a wage.
o The way we organize the goods we have and the way we produce the goods we need, is the
means the production and is what determines the relations of production.
o What is the basis of the relationship between the two classes? Employment relationship
o Bartering across people who have different things that they can exchange for things that they
dont have.
o Alienation: our estrangement from ourselves as producers of useful things, from the products of
our labor.
Work becomes meaningless because we become estranged from our ability to exercise our
labour power, the things we produce. (assembly line system: only contributing to a very
small piece of the final product).
Durkheim:
o Sees the world through its division of labour > Society goes from a simple to a more complex
DoL. As it becomes more complex, he introduces the concept of Anomy.
o Anomy: The loss of social bonds among individuals. To gauge the meaningfulness of work.
o Anomy from the nature of work: work should be meaningful, should give you sense of pride in
what you are doing, should give you relations with the others with whom you are doing it with.
As work becomes more fragmented and deskilled, we experience anomy.
I am a professor that gives a lot of meaningfulness to the professor and the people that
hear it > its and important job. However, most jobs are eroded of that meaningfulness.
Weber:
o Bureaucratic management: there are formal rules guiding us in how we do jobs, has significant
impact on the organization of work. All organizational structures shape the experience and the
meaning of work.
o We derive both a class position and a status position from our jobs
Class has to do with our relation to the means of production (do you own it or do you use it
to get a wage?). Is an objective measurement of access
Status is about society conferring a certain dignity to some jobs and not others (Professor at
uoft is a status job) (in the social hierarchy, stacking shelves at old navy isnt). Its
considered acceptable to do it in your 20s, but society does not think there is dignity in
working at old navy in your 30s, 40s, or 50s. Associate with students and youth. Normative
approach.
Can be very conflicting, because socially there can be tension between what you derive as
meaningful and what society grants as meaningful and worthy and respectful.
2. First Read of Basok Preface Chap 1 & 9
a. Review TOC & Chapter headings
A structural necessity: Mexican workers and lower wages. Is it worth it?
o Workers (non-citizen), Employers, Canadian and Mexican government
o Deals with agriculture in Leamington Ontario
Vulnerable labour: workers dont know their rights and need the jobs more than citizen workers
therefore are more vulnerable to mistreating.
Captive labour: to be a prisoner to be held to something
Migrant Syndrome:
b. Research questions:
c. main arguments to be developed in book
d. key concept(s)

3. Second Read of Basok Preface Chap 1 & 9

a. The origins and development of the research project (Preface)
b. Chapter 1 arch of conceptual argument