Sociology of Family and Work Contexts

Introduction to Sociology for Business and Public Life

• This course, EMA1313, is for first-year B.COM students.
• The notes are a supplementary resource for studying.
• The notes should be used in conjunction with lecture materials, lecturer guidance, syllabus, and class notes for the best learning outcome.
• These notes are not a substitute for lectures.

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Organisational Behaviour

• Employability: Employment can be categorized into: employed (fixed or ongoing contract), underemployment (not using full potential), and underground economy (unreported income + tax avoidance).
• Employment types include professions (white-collar, theoretical, client-based authority) and self-employment (independent work).
• The dual labour market involves a primary market (high benefits & interesting work) and a secondary market (minimal benefits & repetitive work).
• Orientations to Work: These are categorized into three different approaches: instrumental (work for a living), bureaucratic (work as a pursuit), and solidaristic (work and personal fulfillment).
• Marxist Perspective: Alienation is a key concept rooted in capitalist systems, where workers are alienated from their work, the final product, their coworkers, and their human potential. Conflicts like low productivity, absenteeism, health and safety issues, and discrimination can exist in the workplace.
• HR Management: The development of employees is a key focus for achieving business objectives, using integrated HR approaches (vertical and horizontal integration).

Organisational Development

• Definition: Planning and implementation of programs to improve effectiveness.
• Management Factors: Efficiency, economy, and effectiveness are key elements of management.
• Uniformity: Standardisation and common procedures are important in organisations.
• Max Weber's perspective: Focuses on rationality, rules, and bureaucracy as central aspects of organizations.
• Conflict Perspective: Distinguishes between functional (encouraging work) and dysfunctional (sabotage) conflict.
• Culture: Collective programming of the mind that distinguishes groups, involving espoused values and artefacts. Key aspects include power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs collectivism, and masculinity vs femininity.
• Force Field Analysis: A strategic tool for understanding and managing change (unfreezing, changing, refreezing).

Industrial Revolution

• Industrial Revolution: A period of profound economic, technological, and social change marked by the emergence of factories.
• Key Aspects: Significant change in family structures, division of labour, efficiency gains, and the development of machinery.
• Stages: Initial focus on the cotton industry and later expansion into metal production (railways, increased iron use).
• Innovations: Improvements in steam engine technology lead to wider industrial use for production and transport.
• Industrialism: A shift from pre-industrial societies relying on agriculture towards industrialized societies with factories, machinery, mass production, urbanisation, and class conflict.
• Key Theorists: Fernand Braudel, James Watt, August Comte, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber all contributed to understanding the process of industrialization.

Industrial Societies

• Characteristics: Factories, mechanisation (large quantities), division of labour, bureaucracy, and urbanisation.
• The Babbage Principle: tasks should be fragmented into skill-based components.
• Taylorism: techniques to optimize and simplify jobs, increasing productivity.
• Fordism: Assembly line method in production, inflexible and hierarchal.

Urbanisation

• First Recorded Cities: Jericho, Palestine
• Urbanisation Causes: Fertile land, agricultural surplus, and the decline of the Roman Empire spurred urbanization.
• Gemeinschaft vs. Gesellschaft: Ferdinand Tonnies' theory contrasts pre-modern communities (Gemeinschaft) with modern industrial societies (Gesellschaft), identifying differences in relationships, intimacy, and values.
• Chicago School: Two streams - urban ecology (plants analogy for cities competing) and urbanism (weakening kinship bonds).

Capitalism

• Capitalism: An economic system based on market exchange, characterized by capital (assets), labour contracts, commodity production & profit.
• Key Figures: Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations – considered the Bible of Capitalism).
• Mercantilism: Economic system focused on state control through wealth extraction (taxation, trade, reserves).
• Capitalism: The dominant system (based on wealth accumulation, competition, and free markets).
• Marxian Perspective: Focuses on social conflict and struggle over resources.

Dialectical Change

• Hegel: Developed the idea of dialectical change with three stages - thesis, antithesis, synthesis.
• Marx's View: Dialectical materialism is Marx's approach by applying Hegelian dialectics to material conditions.
• Stages of Societal Development: Primitive communism, ancient civilisation (master-slave), feudalism, capitalism (bourgeoise vs proletariat), and socialism.
• Alienation: A key concept that involves workers being estranged from their productive activity, the final product, their fellow workers, and their human potential.

Liberal Democracy

• Definition: A form of democracy (rule by the people) characterized by individual rights (free speech, protection of minorities), democratic governance, and representative democracy (universal suffrage and election).
• Development: Historical context, including periods of monarchical rule & divine right, and the emergence of liberal democracy.
• Fukuyama's Theory: The end of ideology; the collapse of communism and the achievement of a global political vision for society (liberalism).

Postmodernity

• Key Aspects: Focus on cultural and ideological shifts, globalization, post-industrial/post-capitalist society, knowledge-based economics, and information society.
• Key Theorists: Foucault, Baudrillard, and Lyotard.
• Modernization: Societal transition from pre-modern to modern societies – as identified by Lee and Newby.
• Enlightenment: The 18th-century philosophical movement emphasizing reason, empiricism, and science – viewed through a postmodern lens.

Culture and Religion

• Culture: A set of learned behaviours, values, beliefs, and ideas within particular societies.
• Religion: A complex social institution with various interpretations across perspectives.
• Perspectives: Conflict theory, functionalism, and symbolic interactionism.

The State and Politics

• Economic Models: Planned economy & free market economies.
• Political Spectrums: Left-wing (favoring government intervention) and right-wing (favoring limited government) views.
• Political Contexts: Keynesian economic thought & neo-classical economics.
• Social & Political Movements: Political parties, trade unions, social/political groups, and interest groups.

Economic Growth and Inequality

• Inequality Measurement: The Gini coefficient & inflation.
• Categories of Risk: Economic risks for different groups - children, women, elderly.
• Poverty Types: Absolute – lack of basic necessities – & Relative – lower standards of living.
• Statistical Indicator: EU-SILC – used to measure income distribution & poverty.

Migration and Multiculturalism

• Migration: Immigration & emigration (legal & illegal).
• Internal Migration: Movement of people within a country.
• Refugees & Asylum Seekers: Individuals seeking sanctuary from persecution.
• Multiculturalism: Focus on cultural diversity within communities/societies.

Work Identity, The Family, and Work-Life Balance

• Values like consumption, self-expression shift and how they affect work.
• Traditional family models are compared with industrial & post-industrial contexts.
• The complexities of work-life balance.

Globalization and Neoliberalism

• Globalisation: Interconnected flow of people, things, and information throughout the world.
• Neoliberalism: Philosophical and economic belief system that favors the free market with minimal government intervention.

Gender Equality and the Labour Market

• Gender Issues: Discrimination and inequality stemming from gender roles (sex vs gender).
• Feminist Theories: Different types of feminism (liberal, Marxist, radical).
• Critical Race Theory: Aims to transform unequal relationships between ethnic groups.

Race and Ethnicity

• Prejudice and discrimination in the context of race & ethnicity
• Various definitions of race & ethnicity.
• Institutional racism.

Theorising Social Class

• Marxist Perspective: Focuses on the conflict between capitalists and the proletariat.
• Weber's Perspective: Expands on class to include status and political dimension.
• Different types of classes, mobility (vertical, lateral), generation-wise, mobility aspects.

This quiz explores key concepts in sociology related to family structures, work culture, and the impact of industrialization. It delves into theoretical perspectives from Durkheim and Tonnies, focusing on urban ecology and social solidarity. Test your understanding of these fundamental sociology themes.