answer two of the three questions listed below in an essay format.
YYHZ
WorkIndustryandCanadianSociety7thchp1-4.pdf
Harvey J. Krahn I Karen D. Hughes I Graham S. Lowe
SEVENTH EDITION
SEVENTH EDITION
HARVEY J. KRAHN University of Alberta
KAREN D. HUGHES
University of Alberta
GRAHAM S. LOWE
The Graham Lowe Group Inc. and University of Alberta
NELSON ............. EDUCATION
CELEBRATE LIFELONG LEARNING
1914-2014: Nelson Education celebrates 100 years of Canadian publishing
NELSON EDUCATION
Work, Industry, and Canadian Society, Seventh Edition
by Harvey J. Krahn, Karen D. Hughes, and Graham S. Lowe
Vice President, Editorial Higher Education: Anne Williams
Executive Editor: Maya Castle
Marketing Manager: Terry Fedorkiw
Developmental Editor: Courtney Thorne
Permissions Coordinator: Sandra Mark
Production Project Manager: Jennifer Hare
COPYRIGHT © 2015, 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd.
Printed and bound in the United States 1 2 3 4 17 16 15 14
For more information contact Nelson Education Ltd., 1120 Birchmount Road, Toronto, Ontario, M 1 K 5G4. Or you can visit our Internet site at http://www.nelson.com
Production Service: Cenveo Publisher Services
Copy Editor: Kate Revington
Proofreader: Pushpa V. Giri
Indexer: BIM Publishing Services
Design Director: Ken Phipps
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transcribed, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, Web distribution, or information storage and retrieval systems without the written permission of the publisher.
For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at www.cengage.com/ permissions. Further questions about permissions can be emailed to permissionrequest@ cengage.com
Managing Designer: Franca Amore
Interior Design: Dave Murphy
Cover Design: Dave Murphy
Cover Image: © Boris Lyubner/lllustration Works/Corbis
Compositor: Cenveo Publisher Services
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
Krahn, Harvey, author Work, industry, and
Canadian society I Harvey J. Krahn, University of Alberta, Karen D. Hughes, University of Alberta, Graham S. Lowe, The Graham Lowe Group Inc. and University of Alberta.- Seventh edition.
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-17-653193-5 (pbk.)
1. Work Social aspects- Canada. 2. Industrial sociology Canada. I. Hughes, Karen D., author II. Lowe, Graham S., author Ill. Title.
HD6957.C3K72 2014 Every effort has been made 306.3'60971 C2014-903697-3 to trace ownership of all copyrighted material and ISBN-13: 978-0-17-653193-5 to secure permission from ISBN-10: 0-17-653193-9 copyright holders. In the event of any question arising as to the use of any material, we will be pleased to make the necessary corrections in future printings.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Harvey Krahn is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta, where he has served as Department Chair, Associate Dean of Arts, and Director
of the Population Research Laboratory. He teaches primarily sociology of
work and research methods courses. Dr. Krahn received his PhD from the
University of Alberta and his earlier degrees from Western University. Prior to that, he spent several years employed as a child-care worker. Along with the
sociology of work, Dr. Krahn's research interests include the sociology of edu-
cation, political sociology, immigration studies, and environmental sociology.
His most significant research accomplishment is a 25-year longitudinal study
(1985-2010) that has tracked Edmonton high-school graduates through their
transitions from school to work, from youth to adulthood, and into midlife (Dr. Graham Lowe was the co-investigator on this study from 1985 to 1999).
In 2009, Dr. Krahn received the Outstanding Contributions Award from the
Canadian Sociological Association.
Karen Hughes is a Professor of Sociology, and of Strategic Management and Organization, at the University of Alberta, where she teaches courses in the
sociology of work and gender diversity in organizations. She holds a PhD
from the University of Cambridge and has published widely on work-related
issues, focusing on women's entrepreneurship and non-traditional work, paid
and family caregiving, and work-family balance. Dr. Hughes is the author of Female Enterprise in the New Economy and a past recipient of the Social Science
and Humanities Research Council's Therese Casgrain Fellowship for leading
research on women and social change. Before becoming an academic, she held
many "good" and "bad" jobs in Canada's economy. The best included leading
trail rides in the beautiful Rocky Mountains as a university student. The worst
included mercifully short stints in retail and accounting many years ago.
Graham Lowe is president of The Graham Lowe Group Inc., a workplace consulting and research firm. He also is a Professor Emeritus at the University
of Alberta, where he was a member of the Sociology department from 1979
to 2003, and holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto.
NEL v
About the Authors
He has three decades of organizational, labour market, and employment
policy consulting experience across Canada and internationally. His books
include The Quality of Work: A People-Centered Agenda and Creating Healthy Organizations: How Vibrant Workplaces Inspire Employees to Achieve Sustainable Success. He regularly contributes articles to practitioner publications, such as Canadian HR Reporter, Canadian Business, Health & Productivity Management, HR Professional, and Healthcare Quarterly. As a "thought leader" on work issues, Dr. Lowe has given hundreds of conference talks and workshops, and is
a frequent media commentator. He is a recipient of the Canadian Workplace
Wellness Pioneer Award .
• VI NEL
BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Ancillaries ............................................... :xxv
I d . . ..
n tro uctton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :xxvttl
CHAPTER 1: Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s) ................ 1
CHAPTER 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day) ........ 21
CHAPTER 3: Canadian Employment Trends ............................ 57
CHAPTER 4: Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, No Jobs ............................ 93
CHAPTER 5: Labour Markets: Opportunities and Inequality ............... 133
CHAPTER 6: Gender and Paid Employment ........................... 173
CHAPTER 7: Household, Family, and Caring Work ...................... 219
CHAPTER 8: Organizing and Managing Work .......................... 245
CHAPTER 9: In Search of New Managerial Paradigms .................. 267
CHAPTER 10: Conflict and Control in the Workplace .................... 299
CHAPTER 11: Unions and Industrial Relations ......................... 327
CHAPTER 12: Alternative Approaches to Economic Organization .......... 373
CHAPTER 13: Work Values and Work Orientations ...................... 403
CHAPTER 14: Job Satisfaction, Alienation, and Work-Related Stress ....... 431
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
•• NEL VII
CONTENTS
List of Tables and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi Ancillaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
I d . . ..
ntro uctton ............................................ xxvttl
CHAPTER 1 Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s) ............. 1
In traduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Origins of Industrial Capitalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Early Capitalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Great Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Canada's Industrialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Work in Pre-industrial Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Industrial Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Decline of Craftwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Theoretical Perspectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Karl Marx on Worker Exploitation and Class Conflict .......... 10
Adam Smith: Competition, Not Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Diverse Perspectives on the Division of Labour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 " Emile Durkheim: Interdependence and Social Cohesion ......... 15
Max Weber on Bureaucratic Organizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Sounds of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
CHAPTER 2 Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day) ..... 21
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Changing Economies in the 20th and 21st Centuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
The Managerial Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Postindustrialism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Postindustrial Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Creative Economies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Industrial Restructuring and Precarious Work ................. 26 •••
VIII NEL
Contents
Global Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Globalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Canada and Free Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Rethinking Industrialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The East Asian Tigers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
The Rise of Capitalism in the BRIC Economies
(Brazil, the Former Soviet Union, India, and China) ......... 38
Neo-Liberalism and the Role of the State in Today's Economy ........ 41
Great Transformations Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Interactive Service Work, Caring Work, and Emotional Labour ... 44 Mobile Workers and Mobile Work .......................... 45
Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives .......................... 46
Michel Foucault on Surveillance and Self-Discipline at Work ..... 47
Pierre Bourdieu: Work, Practice, and Social Reproduction ........ 48
Ulrich Beck: The Risk Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Sounds of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
CHAPTER 3 Canadian Employment Trends ......................... 57
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Data Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
The Demographic Context of Labour Market Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Workforce Aging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Immigration and Greater Workforce Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
A Better-Educated Workforce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Labour Force Participation Trends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Gender Differences in Labour Force Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Age Differences in Labour Force Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Industrial Changes: The Emergence of the Service Economy . . . . . . . . . 7 4 Service-Sector Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4
Employment Diversity within the Service Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6
Gender and Age Differences in Service-Sector Employment ....... 77
NEL • IX
Contents
Occupational Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Blue-Collar, White-Collar, and Pink-Collar Occupations . . . . . . . . 79
The Canadian Labour Market: Regional Variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 5 Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Sounds of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 8
CHAPTER 4 Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, No Jobs . ........................ 93
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
What Is Job Quality?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Income Differences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 5
Other Employment Benefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Occupational Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 02
Nonstandard Work Arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Varieties of Nonstandard Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Part-Time Work ...................................... .
Temporary Employment ................................ .
Self-Employment Trends ................................... . Hours of Work and Alternative Work Arrangements .............. .
Unemployment Trends .................................... .
Counting the Unemployed .............................. .
Canadian Unemployment Rates over Time ................. .
Regional Variations in Unemployment ..................... .
Gender and Unemployment ............................. . Youth Unemployment ................................. .
Causes of Unemployment ............................... .
International Comparisons .............................. .
Conclusion ............................................. .
Discussion Questions ..................................... .
Additional Resources ...................................... . Work at the Movies ................................... .
Sounds of Work ...................................... .
Notes • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
X
105
109
110 113
115
115
117
118
119 120
122
124
126
127
128 128
128
129
NEL
Contents
CHAPTER 5 Labour Markets: Opportunities and Inequality . ........... 133
Introduction ............................................. 133
The Human Capital Model of Labour Market Processes ............ 135
Social Structure and Occupational Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 7 Equality of Educational Opportunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Economic Advantage and Cultural Capital ................... 140
Status Attainment Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Labour Market Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Dual Economies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Internal Labour Markets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Labour Market Shelters: Unions and Professions .............. 147
Barriers to Primary Labour Market Entry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Historical Patterns of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination. . . . . . . . . 150
Immigrants and Visible Minorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Aboriginal Canadians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 5 Disability and Age ..................................... 157
Changing Patterns of Social Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Postindustrial Class Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 9
Evolving Labour Market Segmentation in North America ....... 159
Labour Market Polarization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Rising Income Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Policy Responses to Labour Market Barriers and Growing Inequality . . 164
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Sounds of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
CHAPTER 6 Gender and Paid Employment ........................ 173
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Gender and Work in Historical Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Industrialization and Women's Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 The Family Wage Ideology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
• NEL XI
Contents
Gender and Labour Force Participation Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Influences and Intersectionality in Women's and
Men's Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Gender Segregation in the Labour Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Female Job Ghettos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Trends in Labour Market Gender Segregation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Gender Stratification within Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
The Wage Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Gender-Based Inequality of Earnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Accounting for Women's Lower Earnings .................... 200 Theoretical Perspectives on Work and Gender Inequality .......... 201
Human Capital and Labour Market Segmentation Models . . . . . . 202
Gender-Role Socialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Gendered Work and Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Achieving Workplace Equality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Employment Equity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Pay Equity ........................................... 211
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Sounds of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
CHAPTER 7 Household, Family, and Caring Work ................... 219
In traduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Households, Families, and Work .............................. 221 Conceptualizing Household and Family Work ................ 221
Changing Family Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Trends in Household and Caring Work ........................ 224
Housework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Childcare, Mothering, and Fathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Elder care. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Kin and Volunteer/Community Work ...................... 229
•• XII NEL
Contents
Balancing Work and Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Work-Family Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Consequences ofWork-Family Conflict .................... 233
Policies Supporting Work-Family Reconciliation ............. 234 Early Childhood Education and Care. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 7
Marketization of Care and the "Outsourced Family'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Sounds of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
CHAPTER 8 Organizing and Managing Work . ...................... 245
In traduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Understanding Bureaucracy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
The Problems of Bureaucracy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
The Informal Side of Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Bureaucracy and Fordism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Technology and Organizational Structure .................... 251
Technology and Social Inequality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 The Role of Managers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Scientific Management (Taylorism) ............................ 255
The Legacy of Scientific Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
The Human Relations Movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
The Hawthorne Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Assumptions Underlying Human Relations Theory ............ 261 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Sounds ofWork ....................................... 265
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 5
••• NEL XIII
Contents
CHAPTER 9 In Search of New Managerial Paradigms . ............... 267
In traduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Reconstructing Bureaucracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Japanese Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 The Japanese Employment System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
The Japanese Approach in North America ................... 272
Swedish Work Reforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 4
North American Quality-of-Working-Life Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
QWL Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 7 6 QWL Critiques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Total Quality Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Assessing the TQM Approach ............................ 281
Managing via Organizational Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Learning Organizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Flexible Work Organizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Lean Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Assessing Lean Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
High-Performance Workplaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Assessing High-Performance Workplaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Sounds ofWork ....................................... 296
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
CHAPTER 1 0 Conflict and Control in the Workplace ................. 299
In traduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 99 Marx on Employment Relationships within Capitalism ............ 301
The Labour Process Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
• XIV
Harry Braverman on the "Degradation of Work'' .............. 303
Models of Managerial Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Electronic Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 The Deskilling Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
NEL
Contents
Technology and the Labour Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Technological, Economic, or Social Determinism? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
When in Doubt, Downsize. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
New Managerial Paradigms: An Improved Labour Process? ......... 319 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Sounds of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
CHAPTER 11 Unions and Industrial Relations . ..................... 327
In traduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 27
Theoretical Perspectives on Organized Labour .................. .
Conflict and Cooperation in Union-Management Relations .... . U · "M f D. " ntons as anagers o tscontent ...................... . Business versus Social Unionism .......................... .
The Economic Impact of Unions ......................... .
History of the Canadian Labour Movement .................... .
Craft Unionism ...................................... .
Industrial Unionism ................................... . Quebec Labour ....................................... .
330
330 331
332
333 334
334
336
337 The Role of the Canadian State in Industrial Relations ......... 338 "C d. . . '' U . 340 ana tantztng ntons ................................ .
Union Membership Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
A Comparative Perspective on Unionization .................. 343
The Decline of U.S. Unions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 Canadian Union Membership Patterns ...................... 348
Canada's Largest Unions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Women and Unions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Management Opposition to Unions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Organized Labour and Collective Action ....................... 356
Joining and Becoming Active in a Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 Going on Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 59
Canadian Strike Trends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
A Comparative Perspective on Strikes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
NEL XV
Contents
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 5
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 Sounds of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
CHAPTER 12 Alternative Approaches to Economic Organization ....... 373
In traduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 73 Worker Militancy and Class Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 7 4
Comparative Perspectives on Working-Class Radicalism ......... 374
Unions and Politics in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 75
Unions, Social Movements, and Social Change ............... 377
Promoting Workplace Health and Safety ....................... 378
Risks to Personal Health and Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 78 Evolving Politics ofWorkplace Health and Safety .............. 380
The Labour Process and Workplace Health and Safety. . . . . . . . . . 384
Industrial Democracy: Rethinking Workers' Rights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Industrial Democracy in North America .................... 387
Institutionalized Industrial Democracy in Germany ............ 388
Sweden: Industrial Democracy as a National Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390 Workers Taking Over Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Employee Share Ownership Plans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Worker Buyouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Producer Co-operatives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 5
Conclusion .............................................. 398
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Sounds of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
CHAPTER 13 Work Values and Work Orientations . .................. 403
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Defining Work Values and Work Orientations ................... 404
• XVI NEL
Contents
Work Values across Time and Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
The Protestant Work Ethic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Work as Self-Fulfillment: The Humanist Tradition ............. 407
Manifest and Latent Functions ofWork ..................... 408 Cultural Variations in Work Values? ........................ 410
Time for New Work Values? .............................. 412
Work Orientations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Instrumental Work Orientations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Gender and Work Orientations ........................... 417
The Work Orientations of Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420 Welfare Dependency and an Emerging Underclass? ............ 423
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426 Sounds of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
CHAPTER 14 Job Satisfaction, Alienation, and Work-Related Stress .... 431
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Job Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432 The Prevalence of Job Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Age and Job Satisfaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Gender and Job Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Educational Attainment and Job Satisfaction ................. 437
Work Rewards, Work Orientations, and Job Satisfaction . . . . . . . . 438
Canadian Research on Intrinsic Job Rewards ................. 439 Consequences of Job Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Work and Alienation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
A Social-Psychological Perspective on Alienation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Robert Blauner on Alienation and Freedom .................. 446
Richard Sennett on the Corrosion of Character ............... 447
Work and Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 9 Defining Work-Related Stress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
The Incidence of Work-Related Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Causes and Consequences ofWork-Related Stress ............. 450
•• NEL XVII
Contents
The "Demand-Control" Model of Work-Related Stress ......... 452
The "Person-Environment Fit" Model ...................... 454
Conclusion: The "Long Arm of the Job" ........................ 455
Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458 Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Work at the Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Sounds ofWork ....................................... 459
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 59
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
••• XVIII NEL
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 2.1 Social and Economic Indicators for Selected Countries .... 36
Figure 3.1 Age Distribution of the Labour Force by Gender,
Canada, 197 6 and 2 0 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Figure 3.2 Educational Attainment of the Labour Force by Gender,
Canada, 1975 and 2012 ........................... 65
Figure 3.3 Labour Force Participation Rates by Gender, Canada,
1976-2012 ..................................... 68
Figure 3.4 Youth Labour Force Participation Rates by Gender,
Canada, 197 6-2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Table 3.1 Industry by Gender, Employed Population, Canada, 2012. 78
Table 3.2 Occupation by Gender, Employed Population, Canada, 1987 and 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Table 3.3 Industry by Region, Employed Population, Canada, 2012 . 84
Figure 4.1 Non-wage Benefits by Occupation, Full-Time/
Part-Time, and Union Status, 2005 .................. 101
Figure 4.2 Part-Time Employment by Age and Gender,
Canada, 197 6-2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Figure 4.3 Reasons for Part-Time Work, Canada, 1975 and 2012 ... 107
Figure 4.4 Unemployment Rates by Age and Gender, Canada,
19 7 6-2 0 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1
Figure 6.1 Labour Force Participation Rates in Nine Industrialized
Countries, Women Ages 15 and Older, 1975 and 2012 .. 179
Figure 6.2 Female and Male Labour Force Participation Rates
by Selected Characteristics, Canada, 2012. . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Figure 6.3a Employment Concentration ofWomen and Men, Canada, 2 0 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 5
Figure 6.3b Occupational Distribution ofWomen and Men, Canada, 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Table 6.1 Five Leading Female Occupations in Canada, 1901, 1951,2011 ............................... 189
• NEL XIX
List of Tables and Figures
Figure 6.4 Women as a Proportion ofTotal Full-Time
University Enrollment, by Degree and Program,
Canada, 1972-73, 1992-93, and 2006-7 ............. 191
Table 6.2 Top 20 Jobs for Women and Men, Canada, 2011 ....... 193
Figure 6.5 Average Earnings for Full-Time/Full-Year Workers,
by Gender, Canada, 1976-2011
(in 2011 Constant Dollars) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Table 6.3 Median Employment Income of Full-Time, Full-Year Workers in the 20 Highest-Paying Occupations,
Canada, 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Figure 7.1 Time Spent on Unpaid Childcare by Working
Arrangement and Age ofYoungest Child, Canada, 2010 .. 228
Figure 7.2 Flexible Workplace Options, Canada, 2011 ........... 235
Figure 11.1 Union Membership in Canada, 1911-2012 ........... 342
Figure 11.2 Unionization Rates in 18 Countries, 2010, and Absolute Change, 1970-2010 ...................... 344
Table 11.1 Work Stoppages (Strikes or Lockouts) Involving One or More Workers, Canada, 1976-2012,
Multi-year Averages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Figure 12.1 Time-Loss Work Injuries by Selected Industries, Age, and Gender, Canada, 2011 .................... 381
Figure 13.1 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Work Orientations,
Canadian Workforce, 2012 ........................ 418
Figure 14.1 Job Satisfaction by Age, Gender, and Education, Canada, 20 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 3
Figure 14.2 Work Orientations and Work Rewards, Canada, 2000 ... 441
XX NEL
PREFACE
In this seventh edition of Work, Industry, and Canadian Society, we have again drawn on the growing literature on work and employment, organizations, and management approaches to incorporate recent empirical findings, review new and ongoing theoretical and policy debates, and provide a more international perspective. In revisions of previous editions, the author team worked as equal partners. As individual careers unfold, however, changes in work collabora- tions are inevitable. Hence, this revision was largely completed by the first two authors, who continue to work at the University of Alberta. The third author, who now runs his own company, provided advice and resource material. Despite major revisions to this seventh edition, there continue to be many substantial sections originally written by the third author; after several decades, however, it is difficult to remember where or how specific ideas originated and took shape.
NEW TO THIS EDITION
In response to the changing contours of scholarship and public debate about work, we have significantly changed the book's structure. It now has 14 somewhat shorter chapters compared to eight long chapters in the sixth edition. In the Introduction, we outline the content of each of these new chapters. We believe this new format offers a more effective and engaging introduction to the field for students, highlighting existing themes as well as new developments in many areas, including globalization, inequality, gender and households, resistance and social movements, and theories of work. Material in all of the chapters has been substantially revised and reorganized. Because we follow the same sequence of topics, however, instructors will be able to easily adjust their teaching materials to fit with the new 14-chapter format. Almost all of the tables and figures have been updated, using the most current data available. We have incorporated nearly 400 new references (and deleted almost as many old ones). We have also added opening vignettes that personalize the topic of each chapter.
At the end of each chapter, along with Discussion Questions, we now include lists of songs and other forms of audio, and movies about work. This addition reflects our own changing work and learning environments. While
• NEL XXI
Preface
bringing media into the classroom was once a laborious exercise, involving
special film orders and tiny portable projectors, today's "smart classrooms" let
us easily stream films, music, and news clips in ways that can greatly enrich
student learning. To that end, we offer illustrative lists of resources we have used in our own teaching, that colleagues have recommended, or that we have
identified through research. We enjoyed compiling these lists, but recognize
that our selections of songs and movies may not suit all tastes. Valuing a broad
historical understanding of work as we do (and being of a certain demo-
graphic), our choices cover a broad span of time. Quite intentionally, we have
included traditional work songs and protest songs, as well as classic films, so that students learn about the historical relationship between work and popular
culture. Contemporary material is also there, but we know students (including
our own) will enjoy suggesting new and favourite songs and films to their
instructors. We note, too, that not all the content of these songs and movies
focuses exclusively on work, though work typically forms a strong theme. Nor is the content necessarily in line with our personal beliefs or values. In
choosing material, we have been struck by how many songs and films depict
work traditionally done by men or, if they feature women, place them in tradi-
tional roles. It quickly becomes apparent that the movie and music industries
remain highly gendered, just like many of the workplaces described in this
book. We have also been reminded that media production is a commercial activity, presenting work in often uncritical or stereotypical ways. Where pos-
sible, we have tried to identify both mainstream and independent productions,
balancing this with the goal of ensuring that material can be easily accessed.
Developing these lists has brought far more material to our attention than
we can include in this text. Recognizing that instructors and students may
wish to explore further, we note several valuable resources here. For movies and films, Tom Zaniello's compilations Working Stiffi, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff An Expanded Guide to Films about Labor (2003) and The Cinema of Globalization: A Guide to Films about the New Economic Order (2007), both published by ILR Press offer synopses of more than 500 films. Likewise, websites for the National Film Board (NFB), CBC's Doc Zone, Participant
Media, and Why Poverty? list many interesting short and long films on work-related topics. For music, several recent books examine the fascinating
relationship between music and work in particular, Marek Korczynski,
Michael Pickering, and Emma Robertson's (2013) Rhythms of Labour,
•• XXII NEL
Preface
Ted Gioia's (2006) Work Songs, and Archie Green's (1993) Songs about Work. Together, these volumes illustrate the rich history of songs at work, as they
offered rhythms to lighten loads, lift spirits, coordinate tasks, and forge bonds
of collective identity. Spinning, milking, cotton-picking, weaving, seafaring, mining, and farming were just a few of many activities accompanied by what
folklorists call "work songs." Industrialization silenced these work soundscapes
(to paraphrase Korczynski et al. 2013), with some employers disciplining and
fining workers for singing in an effort to "modernize production." Others
experimented with music, piping loud tunes into factories in attempts to
boost productivity, or developed company songs to inculcate corporate iden- tity. Of course, music played a central role in labour organizing and social
protest, as discussed in Ronald Cohen's (2010) Work and Sing: The History of Occupational and Labor Songs in the United States, and as illustrated in Utah Phillip and Ani DiFranco's album Fellow Workers. For those interested, these materials offer rich histories of songs at work and raise intriguing questions about the role of music in workplaces today.
Before beginning this revision, we received helpful comments from col-
leagues across the country. Their suggestions led to our decision to substan-
tially reorganize the text; we appreciate their input and hope they will enjoy
using this new edition in their classrooms. Along with Nelson Education Ltd.,
we would like to thank the following reviewers for their help in developing this seventh Canadian edition of Work, Industry, and Canadian Society: Greg Bird, University ofToronto; Cynthia Cranford, University ofToronto, Mississauga;
David Langille, York University; Erin Phillips, University of Lethbridge;
Detelina Radoeva, York University; Pamela Sugiman, Ryerson University; and
David Zarifa, Nipissing University.
We also acknowledge and thank Marcella Cassiano, Will Silver, and Ashley York, doctoral candidates in Sociology at the University of Alberta,
who were superb research assistants. They spent many hours locating new
scholarly sources and checking references, preparing tables and charts, and
compiling lists of relevant movies and songs. We also thank Statistics Canada
for continuing to make available data that we have mined extensively in all
seven editions of the text. We do lament the loss, however, of key data sources, such as the long-form census, and publications such as Perspectives on Labour and Income. At Nelson, Maya Castle encouraged us to take on another revi- sion and challenged us to consider a significant restructuring of the text as
••• NEL XXIII
Preface
well as the preparation of supplementary materials for instructors. She is a
great team leader and motivator. Courtney Thorne managed the editorial pro-
cess superbly. We have been fortunate to work with both of them. We would
also like to thank Jennifer Hare, the content production manager, and Kate Revington, our copy editor, for helpful editing suggestions that have improved
the text. Any errors and omissions are, of course, our own responsibility.
• XXIV
Professor Harvey J. Krahn, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta Professor Karen D. Hughes, Department of Sociology and Department of
Strategic Management and Organization, University of Alberta Professor Emeritus Graham S. Lowe, Department of Sociology, University of
Alberta, and The Graham Lowe Group Inc.
Edmonton and Kelowna, February 2014
NEL
ANCILLARIES
ABOUT THE NELSON EDUCATION engagementlassessmentlsuccess TEACHING ADVANTAGE NETA
NELSON EDUCATION TEACHING ADVANTAGE
The Nelson Education Teaching Advantage (NETA) program delivers research-based instructor resources that promote student engagement and
higher-order thinking to enable the success of Canadian students and educa-
tors. To ensure the high quality of these materials, all Nelson ancillaries have
been professionally copyedited.
Be sure to visit Nelson Education's Inspired Instruction website at http:/ I www.nelson.com/inspired/ to find out more about NETA. Don't miss the tes-
timonials of instructors who have used NETA supplements and seen student
engagement increase!
NEL
Planning Your Course: NETA Engagement presents materials that help instructors deliver engaging content and activities to their classes. NETA Instructor's Manuals not only identify the topics that cause students the most difficulty, but also describe techniques and resources to help students
master these concepts. Dr. Roger Fisher's Instructor's Guide to Classroom Engagement accompanies every Instructor's Manual.
Assessing Your Students: NETA Assessment relates to testing materials. NETA Test Bank authors create multiple-choice questions that reflect research-based best practices for constructing effective questions and
testing not just recall, but also higher-order thinking. Our guidelines
were developed by David DiBattista, psychology professor at Brock Uni-
versity and 3M National Teaching Fellow, whose research has focused on
multiple-choice testing. A copy of Multiple Choice Tests: Getting beyond Remembering, Professor DiBattista's guide to writing effective tests, is included with every Nelson Test Bank.
Teaching Your Students: NETA Presentation has been developed to help instructors make the best use of Microsoft PowerPoint in their classrooms.
With a clean and uncluttered design, developed by Maureen Stone of Stone-
Soup Consulting, NETA PowerPoints features slides with improved read- ability, more multimedia and graphic materials, activities to use in class, and
tips for instructors on the Notes page. A copy of NETA Guidelines for Classroom Presentations by Maureen Stone is included with each set of Power Point slides.
XXV
Ancillaries
INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
All NETA and other key instructor ancillaries are provided on the Instructor
Companion Site at www.nelson.com/workindustry7e, giving instructors the
ultimate tool for customizing lectures and presentations.
NETA Test Bank: This resource was created by Harvey Krahn, Karen Hughes, and Will Silver (all at the University of Alberta). It includes
more than 275 multiple-choice questions written according to NETA
guidelines. The Test Bank was copyedited by a NETA-trained editor.
Forty or more short-answer questions and a similar number of essay-style
questions are also included.
NETA PowerPoint: Microsoft Power Point lecture slides for every chapter have been created by Karen Hughes, Will Silver, and Harvey Krahn. There is an average of 15 to 20 slides per chapter, many featuring key figures and
tables from Work, Industry, and Canadian Society, Seventh Edition. NETA principles of clear design and engaging content have been incorporated
throughout, making it simple for instructors to customize the deck for
their courses.
Image Library: This resource consists of digital copies of figures and short tables used in the book. Instructors may use these jpegs to customize the NETA PowerPoint or create their own PowerPoint presentations.
NETA Instructor's Manual: This resource was written by Karen Hughes, Harvey Krahn, and Will Silver. Organized according to the textbook
chapters, it addresses key educational concerns, such as typical stumbling
blocks student face and how to address them. Other features include
suggested classroom activities to give you the support you need to engage
your students within the classroom.
DayOne: Day One Prof InClass is a PowerPoint presentation that instructors can customize to orient students to the class and their text at
the beginning of the course.
STUDENT ANCILLARIES
Nelson Education's Student Companion Website for Work, Industry, and Canadian Society, Seventh Edition, provides students with opportunities
• XXVI NEL
Ancillaries
to apply their knowledge and build their proficiency in critical analysis. The Companion Website at http://www.nelson.com/workindustry7e, to which students receive access with every new copy of the textbook, includes 10 multiple-choice questions per chapter, including higher-order thinking questions, providing students with immediate feedback.
•• NEL XXVII
INTRODUCTION
Work is undeniably an essential human activity. It is the basis for the economic survival of individuals and society. Beyond this, an individual's work activity structures much of her or his time and, one hopes, provides a source of personal fulfillment. An occupation also shapes identity and, in the eyes of others, largely determines an individual's status or position in society. Stepping back to gain a wider perspective, one sees that Canadian society and the quality of life we have come to enjoy are the historical products of the collective work efforts of millions of women and men. Thus, while the sociology of work and industry may, at first glance, seem as potentially boring as the part-time job you just quit at the shopping mall, it is not difficult to justify the subject's social relevance. We also believe that, once you begin reading, you will not find the subject matter boring!
A few brief definitions will be useful. First, work refers to activity that provides a socially valued product or service. In other words, through our work we transform raw materials as diverse as information, iron ore, and wheat into something that is needed or desired by all or part of society. The emphasis in this definition is on activity; action verbs such as cook, hammer, clean, drive, type, teach, sculpt, or serve are typically used to describe work. Obviously, such a definition is very broad: it includes both paid and unpaid work, and activities ranging from the legal to the illegal, from the highly esteemed to the undesirable and despised. Most of the material in this book focuses on paid work, recognizing the centrality of the employment relationship in modern capitalist societies; however, we also devote a whole chapter to household, caring, and community work, both because of its central importance in society and the economy and because of the many hours most Canadians spend in this unpaid, but highly valued activity.
In the last three editions of this book, which takes us back to the late 1990s, in each Introduction we began, as we do here, by commenting on the increasing pace and scope of change in Canadian workplaces, the national labour market, and the global economy. Even so, despite some remarkable developments in the local, national, and global employment contexts over the past several decades, the overall pattern of change is still best called evolutionary rather than revolutionary. When you read Chapter 1, which describes the massive social, economic, and political changes accompanying and following the Industrial Revolution, you will understand why we say this .
••• XXVIII NEL
Introduction
Nevertheless, at the level of national economy, we have seen substantial change since the beginning of this century. A decade of unprecedented economic prosperity in Canada came to a sudden halt in 2008 when the global financial system nearly collapsed, economies were pitched into one of the deepest recessions since the 1930s, and unemployment rates suddenly rose. By 2010, recovery had taken root, unemployment rates began to decline, and dire predictions of the collapse of capitalism and the need to "reset" the world economy had faded into the background. Still, the 2008-9 recession caused many individuals, families, and organizations to rethink their plans and goals a mood of caution and uncertainty still lingers. In 2014, we are still watching to see how all of this unfolds.
Some of the prominent trends documented in earlier editions have continued, most notably increasing social inequality in Canada and in many other countries around the globe. Similarly, we are seeing further global economic integration. On the other hand, we have also begun to see more grassroots opposition as individuals and groups in many countries have become actively involved in "Occupy" and other social movements that are putting transnational corporations and national governments under greater scrutiny. Internationally, some deadly workplace accidents the collapse of a clothing factory in Bangladesh in April2013, which killed 1,129 workers and injured several thousand others, being the most prominent example have drawn attention to how affluent consumers in countries like Canada benefit from the exploitation of workers in poorer countries.
New information and communication technologies continue to push the frontiers of work, both in how it is done and where, as many high-tech jobs have been outsourced to developing countries where labour costs are lower. In the manufacturing sector, China has become the new global economic powerhouse, overtaking some other Asian countries Japan and Korea, for example that were reshaping the world economy a decade or two ago. Today, China is flooding world markets with inexpensive but increasingly high-quality goods and showing an insatiable appetite for natural resources, including Canada's oil sands. India is also quickly establishing a global economic presence, in both traditional manufacturing and other high-tech industries. So is Brazil.
Unemployment was a leading public concern in Canada in the mid- 1990s. While unemployment rates are lower now than they were then, and appear very low compared to the situation in some struggling European
• NEL XXIX
Introduction
economies such as Spain, joblessness remains a serious concern in Canada. At
the same time, employers and policymakers have been voicing concerns about
labour shortages caused by the combination of a strong economy, an aging
workforce, and baby-boomer retirements. Canadian immigration policies have
been adjusted accordingly, with more emphasis being placed on labour market
needs compared to humanitarian concerns. The rapid growth in the number
of temporary foreign workers being brought into the country is the most
obvious example of this policy change. While the trend toward more non-
standard employment continues, it has levelled off in some respects. In other
ways described in the following chapters, though, employment is becoming
still more precarious. Consequently, labour market polarization continues,
and social inequality has increased. With this come signs of growing public
and political concern, as in the Liberal Party's current focus on the "shrinking
middle class." In the United States, Democrats see minimum wages as a key
electoral issue after recent "Fight for 15" walkouts in 100 cities across the nation by low-paid, fast-food workers demanding that the minimum wage
rise to $15 an hour. In this seventh edition, we once again examine these and other trends that
continue to influence the work opportunities and experiences of Canadians.
In particular, we are concerned with the consequences of different types of
work arrangements for both the individual and society. Diversity and flexibility
in jobs and work organizations remain prominent themes. As the book's title
suggests, a sociological analysis of work must be grounded in its industrial
context hence, our emphasis on the underlying economic forces that have
shaped and continue to shape work opportunities. But a comprehensive under-
standing of the world of work also requires us to consider other features of
society. For example, there are basic connections between a person's paid work
and her or his family responsibilities. Society-wide value systems influence the
work expectations of employees, as well as the behaviour of employers. The state
plays a pivotal role in determining the nature and rewards of work through its
employment standards and labour legislation, various labour market programs,
and the education system. Consequently, our discussion of work, industry, and
Canadian society frequently ranges well beyond the work site.
The sociology of work and industry is not a neatly defined area of
scholarship, a good thing, in our opinion. More than is the case for most
sociological specialties, we are forced to incorporate the insights of related
XXX NEL
Introduction
disciplines. Classic sociological theory, political economy, organization and
management studies, industrial relations, labour history, labour economics,
macroeconomics, gender studies and feminist theory, stratification, race and
ethnic relations, and social policy are some of the diverse literatures upon which we draw. Because of this scope, our coverage of the literature is far from
exhaustive. Instead, we selectively examine theoretical discussions and research
findings from all these areas in an effort to highlight key themes and debates
in the sociology of work and industry.
The relationship between employer and employee is the cornerstone of the
sociological study of work. By centring our analysis on workplace relations and the organizational and institutional structures in which these are embedded,
we are able to address many of the core themes of classical sociological theory,
including inequality and the distribution of scarce resources, power and how
it takes shape in authority relations, and the shaky balance between the ever-
present potential for conflict and the need for cooperation and consensus. A basic problem in all societies involves the distribution of wealth, power, and
prestige. Paid work is central to this dilemma of distribution. Put more con-
cretely, who gets the well-paying, interesting, and high-status jobs? Who is
most vulnerable to unemployment? How does cooperation among employees
and between management and employees occur? Are there inherent conflicts
of interest between employers and employees? Another key theoretical concern in research on the sociology of work and
industry is the interplay between the actions of individuals and the constraints
exerted on them by social structures. For us, the agency-structure debate trans-
lates into some basic and practical questions: How limiting and restrictive are
today's work organizations? How much can employee actions, individually
or collectively, reshape these structures? In addressing the obvious tensions between individual action and social structures, it is helpful to distinguish
between macro (social structure) and micro (individual) levels of analysis. At the
macro level, we focus on the changing global economy, labour markets, indus-
tries and occupations, bureaucracies, unions and professional associations,
and a variety of institutions that structure, or establish, regular and predictable
patterns of work activity in society. We must be careful, however, not to place too much emphasis on social structures, because in doing so, we risk losing
sight of the individuals who are engaged in performing the work and, some-
times, reshaping these structures.
• NEL XXXI
Introduction
As a counterbalance to this macro view, an individual-level, or micro,
perspective on work in Canadian society is needed. This we provide by asking
questions such as these: What types of work values are held by Canadians,
and what kinds of jobs do they want? How do individuals experience their
work situation? What are the ingredients of job satisfaction? Or, looking at
the negative side, what causes job dissatisfaction, alienation, and work-related
stress? Overall, what factors contribute most to overall quality of working life
as well as life away from work? In short, a micro-level analysis investigates how
people experience their jobs, how they adapt to working conditions that are
often far from ideal, and how, in some instances, they try to improve these
conditions (that is, exert agency) within the confines of what is possible given
existing work institutions.
To elaborate this point, while an individual's work options may be
limited by social structures, there is nothing inevitable about the daily work
routines, employment relationships, and legislative frameworks found in
capitalist societies. Thus, we will argue throughout the book that work can
be demeaning or rewarding and fulfilling, depending, in large part, on how
it is organized and who has authority. Further, we will highlight some of
the possibilities offered by more egalitarian and humanized forms of work.
However, we stop well short of advocating a utopian vision of work. Instead,
we approach the subject of work from a reformist perspective, arguing that even within the confines of postindustrial capitalism, the quality of working life can
be improved for many. We believe that through careful theoretical reasoning
and rigorous empirical research, sociologists can further the development of
enlightened employment practices and public policy and help individuals
create better workplaces for themselves.
It will quickly become clear that we are not presenting a strictly Marxist
analysis of work. Similarly, we go beyond a simplistic Weberian approach that
gives undue emphasis to employees' understandings of their work situations.
We certainly do not advocate a functionalist or Durkheimian model of the
work world that allows the need for social integration and stability to take
on a larger-than-life presence. To varying degrees we have been influenced
by these classical theoretical orientations but, as our discussion in Chapter 2
indicates, a number of influential 20th-century social theorists can also assist
us in understanding the changing world of work. More than anything, our
starting point is a conflict perspective on the social world. Thus, a Marxist or
•• XXXII NEL
Introduction
materialist perspective has informed the book's emphases on inequality, power, conflict, and control. The Weberian approach sensitizes us to the centrality of individual actors, and their beliefs and behaviours, in sociological analysis. The Durkheimian tradition reminds us that social integration, consensus, and stability within work organizations are the motivation for much management theory and practice.
Chapter 1 begins with an overview of the industrialization process and the rise of capitalism in Europe. This short history lesson provides a backdrop against which we can compare the somewhat later Canadian industrialization experience. This first chapter also introduces some aspects of the theoretical
""' writings of Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim. These social philosophers developed their assessments of the problems and prospects of work in industrial capitalist societies from their observations of how Europe was transformed during the Industrial Revolution.
But the global economy, the industrial structures of advanced capitalist societies, and the employment opportunities found within them have all changed dramatically since the mid-20th century, as we explain in Chapter 2. A different constellation of rapidly growing economies, primarily in Asia, has led to a reshaping of the international balance of power. Changing technolo- gies and expanding markets for new services have created demand for different skills and have shifted the locations where work is completed. In this chapter, we also discuss the writings of social theorists who have helped us understand the emergence of postindustrial society and the changing forms of work and work relationships within it.
In Chapter 3 our focus shifts from history and theory to a detailed empirical overview of the major industrial, labour market, and labour force trends in Canada. We begin by examining changes in the composition of the labour force over the past few decades: the workforce has become older and more educated, while immigration and a growing First Nations population have reshaped Canada's demographic profile. We then turn our attention to changing labour force participation patterns before documenting the emer- gence of a service-dominated economy with a very different distribution of industries and occupations than what we would have observed a century ago.
Chapter 4 introduces an evaluative component to our empirical overview, as we describe the varying quality of jobs within Canada's contemporary labour market. Central to this chapter is a detailed discussion of the rise of
••• NEL XXXIII
Introduction
nonstandard forms of work (temporary and part-time, for example) which has
led to a more precarious employment situation for many working Canadians.
In this chapter we also examine unemployment trends and patterns within
Canada and in other countries. Labour markets are central institutions in the contemporary work world,
basically determining who gets the good jobs and who ends up in the less
desirable ones. Chapter 5 examines how the Canadian labour market operates
by comparing recent research findings with the predictions of two competing
theories: the human capital model and the labour market segmentation
approach. This chapter also focuses directly on the problem of growing labour market polarization and increasing social inequality.
The growing labour force participation of women, clearly one of the most
significant social changes of the last five or six decades, has been woven into
our discussions in Chapters 3 through 5. Chapter 6 provides a more in-depth
analysis of gendered work, work organizations, and labour markets. This chapter outlines the transformation of women's economic roles over time and
explains how gender has become a source of entrenched divisions within the
labour market and within work organizations. It also examines theoretical
explanations of and policy responses to gender inequality in the workplace.
Chapter 7, new to this edition, focuses on household, caring, and com-
munity work, much of which is typically unpaid. Recent research on the household division of labour, on mothering, fathering, and eldercare, and
on volunteer work is discussed, as are studies of work-family balance. An
examination of different theoretical approaches to understanding caring work
helps link this discussion to themes discussed in other chapters that examine
primarily paid work.
The organization and management of paid work, and how they have changed over time, are the core topics in Chapters 8 and 9. In the first of these two chapters, we describe the emergence of large bureaucracies and
assembly-line factories in the early 20th century, along with the management problems they created. The "modern" solutions "scientific management" and
the "human relations" approach generated their own problems. Chapter 9
describes and critiques the variety of new managerial approaches that, over the past four or five decades, have been implemented to try to solve some of the
problems of bureaucracy, decentralize authority systems, and generally improve
working conditions, while increasing productivity and profits for owners .
• XXXIV NEL
Introduction
Chapter 10 is, in some ways, a debate with the mainstream management approaches. Our starting point is the labour process perspective, a much more
critical assessment of employer-employee relationships in capitalist society.
We examine different methods managers have used to control and gain compliance from workers, and ask whether, on average, workers today are
using fewer or more skills in their jobs than was the case a half century earlier.
We also discuss the link between changing technologies and shifts in skill use,
worker decision-making, and patterns of social inequality.
Unions receive some comment in earlier chapters, but Chapter 11 is devoted to this subject. We discuss various theories about the origins and functions of unions and document the development of the organized labour
movement in Canada as well as in the United States. We also describe the legal
framework the industrial relations system that has emerged for regulating
union-management relations. The chapter concludes by examining strike
patterns, over time and cross-nationally, to see how they are linked to changes in industrial structures, labour market processes, and management approaches,
as discussed in earlier chapters.
Chapter 12 invites readers to step back from the current pattern of labour-management relations and institutionalized conflict described in
previous chapters and look for alternatives. We begin by asking whether
unions represent a revolutionary or a reformist collective response by workers to the greater power of employers. We then describe current approaches to
addressing health and safety concerns in the workplace since, to some extent,
they require co-management by workers and management. We then go further
afield to discuss different forms of industrial democracy as well as examples of
worker ownership, arguing that these approaches to organizing and managing
work do have something to offer. The last two chapters of this book shift our attention from the largely
structural analysis in the previous chapters to an examination of how
individuals experience work. In Chapter 13, we discuss society-wide work values and how they vary across time and culture. We then examine work
orientations, asking what individual employees seek to obtain from their work.
Are their work orientations (or preferences) perhaps shaped by the work oppor- tunities available to them? Equally important, are we seeing the emergence of
new work orientations in response to growing employment insecurity and
income inequality? Chapter 14 presents summaries of the research literature
NEL XXXV
Introduction
on job satisfaction, a parallel social psychological approach to understanding alienation from work, and the large multi-disciplinary body of research on work-related stress. A major theme developed in this chapter is that negative work experiences can have serious and lasting effects on individuals.
Finally, in Conclusions, we raise important questions about the future of work in Canada. As the 21st century unfolds, a number of trends concern us. Corporate and public-sector downsizing, the outsourcing of jobs, and continued growth in some forms of nonstandard work mean that, for a large minority of Canadians, work is precarious and economic well-being is insecure. Unemployment rates remain unacceptably high. Some sub-groups of the Canadian population are much more likely than others to be unemployed, underemployed, or inadequately rewarded for their work. In short, social inequality is slowly increasing, as is polarization in the quality of working life. New human resource management strategies and new technologies hold out some possibilities for creating better and fairer workplaces. But they could just as easily have negative effects on the quantity and quality of work. We do believe, however, that we have some control over our destiny. In our opinion, what Canada needs is more public debate among employers, govern- ments, unions, and other collective organizations to determine how best to balance the interests of workers, who want both a decent standard of living and an improved quality of working life, with the economic growth sought by employers and government. Yet public debate is only the first step. We also need political leaders to put in place and maintain policies and legislation that will ensure that these goals are balanced. It is our job, as citizens, to push them to do so .
• XXXVI NEL
"Canada was a country that depended on workers .... How did our work-ancestors live a hun-
dred years ago? It is very hard to generalize across a century in which remarkable stability in
the value of money concealed enormous changes in every other economic and social factor.
An unskilled day-labourer in 1867 might earn a dollar a day for a ten-hour day, six days a week.
A highly skilled craftsman might earn three times as much. A woman's wage would be half that
of a man-as little as thirty-five to sixty cents a day. A child earned as little as twenty-five cents.
Employers offered no paid holidays, and they rarely felt obliged to make provision for sickness,
injury, or old age except to dismiss or reduce the wages of workers who were past their prime.
Until 1877, masters and servants acts allowed the courts to send disobedient or absentee
workers to jail at an employer's request. ... Working people in good times could afford to live in
a two- or three-room cottage with a pit privy outside but usually without running water. They
ate an adequate but monotonous diet heavily dependent on bread, potatoes, and cheese.
Any surplus was all too likely to be spent on liquor because Canadians were notoriously hard-
drinking people .... Everything depended on good times. A working-class family lived always in
the shadow of disaster. Work was heavy and often dangerous. Severe and crippling injuries
were commonplace in almost every trade."
Source: Desmond Morton. (2007). Working People: An Illustrated History of the Canadian Labour Movement, 5th ed. MeGill-Queen's University Press, pp. 1-6.
INTRODUCTION
In the early 1870s, John Henry Lincoln, known as Harry, travelled from his home and birthplace in Huntingdonshire in England to New Haven, Sussex, to attend the wedding of his sister to Fred Waters. There he met Fred's sister, Anne, and that was the beginning of it all, for they soon married. Harry was 23 and a master boot maker by trade. Anne was from a well-to-do family, and her desire to marry a craftsman caused something of a stir. After marrying, Harry set up his own boot-making and repair shop, while Anne devoted her- self to raising their family. Together, they would have 11 children.
NEL 1
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on "WOrk (1700-1950s)
In the early 1900s, the family left to homestead in Canada. Packing their
possessions into 10 trunks, they travelled two weeks by sea to Montreal, then
1, 700 miles by train to Manor, Saskatchewan. Once the family settled, a younger
son, Arthur, moved further west to Alberta, where he homesteaded, married, and
raised three children. A resourceful man, he survived two world wars and the Great
Depression, working in farming, sales, and then his own business. In the postwar
prosperity of the 19 50s, he saw his daughter move to the big city of Edmonton and
juggle a career, marriage, and motherhood at a time when few women did. Her
three baby-boom children would all go on to university, the youngest eventually teaching there and collaborating on the book you are now reading. 1
Reflecting on this story, it is hard not to be struck by the huge change that
has occurred in just a few generations. Families with 11 children are not the
norm. Farming has been replaced by factory work, and then again by white-
collar, retail, and knowledge-based jobs. Canada still relies on immigrants to
fuel its economy, but not primarily those from Britain as was once the case.
Although people still migrate for work, work itself is increasingly mobile, with
production being spread across the globe. This book examines these changes
and the types of paid work now done by Canadians. Today, most work for
wages or a salary in bureaucratic organizations. In most two-adult households,
both partners are employed outside the home. In a labour force of nearly
19 million individuals, three in four workers are in the service sector. Compared
to the past, fewer workers are full-time employees. More than one in four is
working in either a temporary or a part-time job; roughly one in six is self-
employed. For every 12 employed Canadians, one is unemployed.
These labour market realities become more interesting when we realize
that only a generation or two ago, some of these trends had just begun to
emerge. And going back over a century, as we have seen, the differences in
work patterns are huge. What social and economic forces led to the shifts
from agriculture to manufacturing, then to services? Why did bureaucra-
cies develop? Why has education become more important? Why are women,
Aboriginal people, and visible minorities underrepresented in better-paying
jobs and what are the social consequences? To answer these and many related
questions, we look back in history and at other societies to examine the com-
plex process of industrialization. This historical and comparative approach will
help us to understand present patterns and trends, assess their significance for
individuals and society, and respond to the future challenges they pose.
2 NEL
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s)
Industrialization refers to the technical aspects of the accumulation and processing of a society's resources. Capitalism is a term used to describe key aspects of the economic and social organization of the productive enterprise.
In an industrial society, inanimate sources of energy, such as coal or electricity, fuel a production system that uses technology to process raw materials. But
labelling a society "industrial" tells us little about the relationships among
the individuals involved in the productive process. In a capitalist system of production, a relatively small number of individuals own and control the means for creating goods and services, while the majority have no direct
ownership stake in the economy and are paid a wage to work by those who do.
Studying the rise of capitalism requires us to make sense of large, complex
processes spanning generations and leaving no aspect of daily life unaffected. " The theoretical writings of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and
Max Weber help us to explain, not just describe, the causes and consequences of
capitalist development. As we will see, the sociological concepts of power, control, inequality, and conflict that these early social scientists used to analyze changes in their times continue to be central to today's debates about the nature of 21st-
century postindustrial society. Therefore, this chapter provides vital history that
we can build on in subsequent chapters to address questions such as these: Has
the rise of knowledge-based, high-tech economies benefited some groups more
than others? How are new mobile technologies transforming the content and
organization of work? Is economic globalization increasing the power of trans-
national corporations at the expense of national governments? And with global
economic changes such as the rise of China and India, the collapse of the Soviet
Union and uneven transitions of Eastern European countries toward market-
based economies, and the changing prospects in many established economies, do
we need to rethink long-accepted explanations of capitalist development?
THE ORIGINS OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM
Capitalism and industrialization dramatically reshaped the structure of
European society economically, socially, and spatially. These changes occurred
over centuries, with a different pace and pattern in each country. While the
details of these changes differed internationally and regionally within coun-
tries, the result was profound change in how, where, for whom, and under
what conditions individuals worked.
NEL 3
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on "WOrk (1700-1950s)
The emergence of capitalism in Europe consisted of two basic periods: mercantile or commercial capitalism, which began in the 1500s, and industrial capitalism, which evolved somewhat later. 2 In the mercantile period, merchants and royalty in Spain, Holland, England, and France accumulated huge fortunes by trading internationally in a variety of goods, including spices, precious stones and metals, sugar, cotton, and slaves. An elaborate trading network evolved, linking Mrica, Asia, and the American colonies with Europe. This global trade and the pillage of cultures (slaves from Mrica, for example, and vast amounts of gold and silver from Central and South America) pro- vided wealth that would subsequently fuel the growth of industrial capitalism in Europe (Beaud 1983).
These early signs of capitalist commercial activity emerged out of a feudal society the Industrial Revolution had not yet begun. Most people still lived in the countryside. The class structure of these agrarian societies consisted of a relatively small aristocracy and merchant class, most of whom lived in the cities, a rural landowning class, and a large rural peasantry. Work typically involved peasants farming small plots of land they did not own. Landowners received rent, usually in the form of agricultural produce, little of which was sold for cash. Generations of peasant families lived and died on the same feudal estates.
Thus, feudal Europe was predominantly a pre-market economy in which the producer was also the consumer. It was also a pre-capitalist economy because wage labour was rare and a business class had not yet become domi- nant. Feudal lords accepted rent and expected services in the form of manual labour required for the upkeep of the estate. In return, they allowed historical tenancy relationships to continue and provided some protection, if necessary, for their tenants. Feudalism was thus built upon a system of mutual rights and obligations, reinforced by tradition. One's social position was inherited. The society was relatively stable, but it stifled economic progress.3
Did the decay of feudalism lead to the rise of capitalism, or was it the other way around? Scholars are divided on this question. Some argue that fac- tors internal to feudal society, such as growing rural populations, deterioration of land, and landlords demanding more rent, forced people off the land and into the cities where they could form an urban working class. Others counter that, as mercantile capitalism developed in urban areas and as the market economy slowly began to make an impact on rural life, cities began to attract
4 NEL
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s)
landless serfs. This debate is difficult to resolve, since the two processes influ- enced each other (Hilton 1976; Aston and Philpin 1985). What is undisputed is that capitalism brought with it an entirely new social order.
Early Capitalism
Industrial capitalism began to emerge in the early 1700s. The production of goods by artisans, or by the home-based putting out system in which merchants distributed work to peasant households, led to larger workshops (manufacto- ries) that made metal, cloth, glass, and other finished goods (Beaud 1983). By the late 1700s, various inventions were revolutionizing production techniques. James Hargreaves's spinning jenny transformed work in textile industries. Growth in trade and transportation, the construction of railways, and mili- tary demand for improved weapons encouraged new techniques for processing iron and other metals. Inventors also were devising ways of harnessing water and steam, as exemplified in James Watt's steam engine.
These early inventions facilitated a new form of work organization: the industrial mill. A technical breakthrough that involved harnessing many machines to a single inanimate energy source, the mill also had immense social implications, consolidating many workers under one roof and the con- trol of managers (Beaud 1983: 66-67; Burawoy 1984). A growing class of impoverished urban wage-labourers endured horrific working conditions in early industrial mills. Some workers resisted this trend, particularly artisans who previously had controlled their own labour. Episodes of destroying textile machinery occurred between 1811 and 1816 in a number of British com- munities. The unemployed craftsmen involved (called "Luddites") were not
unthinking opponents of technological innovations, but skilled workers frus- trated by changes that were making their skills obsolete. These uprisings were quashed by the state; some participants were jailed or deported, while others were hanged (Beaud 1983: 65; Grint 1991: 55).
The emergence of industrial capitalism also changed the gender-based division of labour. While women, men, and children had done different types of work in feudal times, much of it at home, they were often engaged in par- allel work activities (Middleton 1988). The putting out system, particularly in the textile industries, brought many women into the paid labour force along with men, since they could work out of their home and still carry out domestic
NEL 5
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on "WOrk (1700-1950s)
work and childcare. Early textile factories also employed men, women, and
children (Berg 1988). But as manufacturing developed and expanded, it
became the preserve of men. While a gendered division of labour had long
existed, it became more pronounced with the rise of industrial capitalism.4
The Great Transformation
In only a matter of decades, factory production dominated capitalist societies.
The urban landscape also changed as manufacturing cities grew to accom-
modate the new wage-labour force. Mechanization and the movement to
factory-based production proceeded even faster in the 1800s than it had in the
previous century. Manufacturing surpassed agriculture in its annual output.
Industrial production in Britain, for example, increased by 300 percent
between 1820 and 1860. The portion of the labour force employed in agricul-
ture in Britain, France, Germany, the United States, and other industrializing
countries declined, while employment in manufacturing and services rose
rapidly. By the end of the 19th century, industrial capitalism was clearly the
dominant system of production in Western nations.
According to Karl Polanyi, the great transformation that swept Europe with the growth and integration of capital, commodity, and labour markets-
the foundation of capitalism left no aspect of social life untouched. 5 The
struggle for democratic forms of government, the emergence of the modern
nation-state, and the rapid growth of cities are all directly linked to these eco-
nomic changes.
Along with new technologies, the replacement of human and animal sources
of energy with inanimate sources, and the emergence of an integrated market
system for finance, commodities, and labour, this era saw dramatic changes
in how work was organized. Over time, the relatively stable landlord-serf
relationships of feudalism were replaced by wage-labour relationships between
capitalists and labourers. Employers paid for a set amount of work, but also
determined exactly how, and under what conditions, work would be done.
Previously independent artisans lost out to the factory system. In the end,
the result was a higher standard of living for most residents of industrial-
ized countries. But the interrelated processes of change that created a market
economy also led to new problems of controlling, coordinating, and managing work central themes in this book.
6 NEL
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s)
CANADA'S INDUSTRIALIZATION
The process of industrialization in Canada lagged behind that in Britain and
the United States, and can be traced back to the mid-1800s.6 As a British
colony, Canada had been expected to provide raw materials, rather than to
produce finished goods that would compete on world markets with those
of the mother country. Canadian economic elites focused on traditional
activities, such as exporting staple products, including timber and fur, to sell on world markets, and developing transportation networks (particularly rail-
ways) that could link the resource-producing regions of the country with the
port cities involved in export trade.
Work in Pre-industrial Canada
The first half of the 19th century, then, was a pre-industrial economic era in
Canada. Canada still had a pre-market economy, since most production and
consumption took place in households. In fact, given the peculiarities of a
colonial economy dependent on Britain, even land was not really a marketable
commodity. By the mid-1830s, less than one-tenth of the vast tracts of land
that had been given by the French, and later British, monarchy to favoured
individuals and companies had been developed for agriculture.
At the same time, more people from Europe were arriving. Shortages of
land for small farmers, potato famines in Ireland, and dreadful working condi-
tions in many British factories fuelled immigration to the New World. Large
numbers of immigrants landed in Canada, only to find shortages in urban
factory jobs and little available agricultural land. As a result, most of these
immigrants sought employment in the United States, where factory jobs and
land were more plentiful (Teeple 1972).
Some of the immigrants who stayed in Canada were employed in building the
Weiland and Rideau canals the first of many transportation megaprojects in
the first half of the 19th century. The influx of unskilled workers created a great
demand for such seasonal jobs, which often involved 14 to 16 hours a day of hard
and poorly paid work. Consequently, poverty was widespread. In the winter of
1844, the St. Catharines journal reported that
NEL
the greatest distress imaginable has been, and still is, existing throughout
the entire line of the Weiland Canal, in consequence of the vast
7
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on "WOrk (1700-1950s)
accumulation of unemployed labourers. There are, at this moment,
many hundreds of men, women, and children, apparently in the last
stages of starvation, and instead . . . of any relief for them . . . in the
spring ... more than one half of those who are now employed must be
discharged. 7
The Industrial Era
By the 1840s, Canada's economy was still largely agrarian, even though
the two key ingredients for industrialization an available labour force
and a transportation infrastructure were in place. Prior to Confederation
in 1867, some of Canada's first factories were set up not in Ontario or
Quebec, as we might expect, but in Nova Scotia. Shipbuilding, glass,
and clothing enterprises were operating profitably in this region before
the Maritime provinces entered Confederation (Veltmeyer 1983: 103).
After 1867, manufacturing became centralized in Ontario and Quebec,
resulting in the deindustrialization of the Maritimes. A larger population base, easy access to U.S. markets, and railway links to both eastern and
western Canada ensured that the regions around Montreal and Toronto
would remain the industrial heartland of the country.
At the time of Confederation, half of the Canadian labour force was in
agriculture. This changed rapidly with the advance of industrialization. By
1900, Canada ranked seventh in production output among the manufacturing
countries of the world (Laxer 1989). The large factories that had begun to
appear decades earlier in the United States were now springing up in Toronto,
Hamilton, Montreal, and other central Canadian cities. American firms built
many of these factories to avoid Canadian tariffs on goods imported from the
United States. This initiative began a pattern of direct U.S. foreign investment
in Canada that continues today.
These economic changes brought rapid urban growth and accompanying
social problems. Worker exploitation was widespread, as labour laws and unions
were still largely absent. Low pay, long hours, and unsafe and unhealthy conditions
were typical. Workers lived in crowded and unsanitary housing. Health care and
social services were largely nonexistent. In short, despite economic development in
the decades following Confederation, poverty remained the norm for much of the
working class in major manufacturing centres (Copp 1974; Piva 1979).
8 NEL
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s)
The Decline of Craftwork
Traditionally, skilled craftworkers had the advantage of being able to determine their own working conditions, hire their own apprentices, and frequently set
their pay. Some worked individually, while others arranged themselves into
small groups in the manner of European craft guilds. But this craft control
declined as Canada moved into the industrial era. Factory owners were con-
scious of the increased productivity in American factories, where new tech-
nology and "modern" systems of management were applied. Dividing craft jobs
into many simple tasks allowed work to be performed by less skilled and lower-
paid employees. Mechanization further cut costs while increasing productivity.
As these systems entered Canada, the job autonomy of craftworkers was reduced, resulting in considerable labour unrest. Between 1901 and 1914, for
example, more than 400 strikes and lockouts occurred in the 10 most industrial-
ized cities of southern Ontario (Heron 1980; Heron and Palmer 1977). Although
these conflicts may look like working-class revolt, they are more accurately seen
as a somewhat privileged group of workers resisting efforts to reduce their occu-
pational power. While large numbers of skilled workers experienced the "crisis
of the craftsmen'' (Heron 1980), there were larger numbers of unskilled manual
labourers whose only alternative to arduous factory work was seasonal labour in
the resource or transportation industries, or unemployment.
There were, in fact, thousands of workers employed in the resource extrac-
tion industries throughout Canada, and many others worked on constructing
the railways. In The Bunkhouse Man, Edmund Bradwin estimates that up to 200,000 men living in some 3,000 work camps were employed in railway
construction, mining, and the lumber industry during the early 20th century.
These workers were from English Canada and Quebec, as well as from Europe
and China. Employers considered immigrants to be good candidates for such
manual work, as they were unlikely to oppose their bosses. This hiring strategy
often did ward off collective action, although immigrants sometimes were the
most radical members of the working class. 8
The creation of a transcontinental railway led to a high demand for coal.
Mines were opened on Vancouver Island and in the Alberta Rockies, with
immigrants quickly taking the new jobs. Mine owners tried to extract a lot
of work for little pay, knowing they could rely on the military to control
unruly workers. It has been estimated that, in the early 1900s, every 1 million
NEL 9
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on "WOrk (1700-1950s)
tons of coal produced in Alberta took the lives of 10 miners, while in British Columbia, the rate was 23 dead for the same amount of coal.9 These dan-
gerous conditions led to strikes, union organization, and even political action.
In 1909, Donald McNab, a miner and socialist, was elected to represent Lethbridge in the Alberta legislature. The same year, the Revolutionary
Socialist Party of Canada elected several members to the British Columbia
legislature (Marchak 1981: 106). Nonetheless, although the labour movement took root in resource industries, it never had the revolutionary spark that some
of its radical leaders envisioned.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
Now that we have some historical background on industrialization and capi-
talism, we can examine major explanations of the causes and consequences
of these changes. The next sections discuss classical theories of social and
economic change. In Chapter 2, we explore contemporary theories. After we have acquainted ourselves with the theorists and their analytic concepts, we
can apply their insights throughout the book when considering specific work • Issues.
Karl Marx on Worker Exploitation and Class Conflict
Karl Marx (1881-83) spent a lifetime critically examining the phenomenon of industrial capitalism. His assessment of this new type of society was presented
within a very broad theoretical framework. He called the overall system of
economic activity within a society a mode of production, and he identified its major components as the means of production (the technology, capital invest- ments, and raw materials) and the social relations of production (the relation- ships between the major social groups or classes involved in production).
Marx focused on the manner in which the ruling class controlled and
exploited the working class. His close colleague, Friedrich Engels, documented
this exploitation in his 1845 book, The Condition of the Working Class in England. Engels described one of London's many slum districts, noting that other industrial cities were much the same:
10
St. Giles is in the midst of the most populous part of the town,
surrounded by broad, splendid avenues in which the gay world of
NEL
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s)
London idles about .... The houses are occupied from cellar to garret, filthy within and without, and their appearance is such that no human being could possibly wish to live in them. But this is nothing in comparison with the dwellings in the narrow courts and alleys between the streets, entered by covered passages between the houses, in which the filth and tottering ruin surpass all description .... Heaps of garbage and ashes lie in all directions, and the foul liquids emptied before the doors gather in stinking pools. Here live the poorest of the poor, the worst paid workers with thieves and the victims of prostitu- tion indiscriminately huddled together. 10
It was from such first-hand observations of industrializing Europe that Marx developed his critique of capitalism.
Class conflict was central to Marx's theory of social change. He argued that previous modes of production had collapsed and been replaced because of conflicts among class groups within them. Feudalism was sup- planted by capitalism as a result of the growing power of the merchant class, the decline of the traditional alliance of landowners and aristocracy, and the deteriorating relationship between landowners and peasants. Marx identified two major classes in capitalism: the capitalist class, or bourgeoisie, which owned the means of production, and the working class, or proletariat, which exchanged its labour for wages. A third class the petite bourgeoisie comprising independent producers and small business owners, would eventually disappear, according to Marx, as it was incorpo- rated into one of the two major classes.
Marx argued that capitalism would eventually be replaced by a socialist mode of production. The catalyst would be revolutionary class conflict, in which the oppressed working class would destroy the institutions of capitalism and replace them with a socialist society based on collective ownership of the means of production.
Marx sparked ongoing debate on the nature of work and of class conflict in capitalist societies (Zeitlin 1968; Coser 1971). Ever since, social, political, and economic analysts have tried to reinterpret his predictions of a future worker-run socialist society. No capitalist society has experienced the revolu- tionary upheavals Marx foresaw. And the collapse of the Soviet communist system in Eastern Europe ended speculation that communism would evolve into true socialism. In fact, Marx probably would have been an outspoken
NEL 11
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on "WOrk (1700-1950s)
critic of the Soviet communist system, given its extreme inequalities in power
distribution and harsh treatment of workers. He would also have condemned
the inequalities in today's capitalist Russia.
Marx's critique of capitalism has also shaped research in the sociology of work and industry, as analysts try to refine or refute his ideas. First, Marx
emphasized how the capitalist profit motive is usually in conflict with workers'
desires for better wages, working conditions, and standards of living. Second,
Marx argued that the worker-owner relationship led to workers losing control
over how they did their work and, hence, to the dehumanization of work.
Third, Marx predicted that the working class would eventually organize to more actively oppose the ruling capitalist class. In short, Marx wrote about
inequality, power, control, and conflict. His enduring legacy for sociology was
this more general conflict perspective. He recognized that the relations of pro- duction in industrial capitalist society typically are exploitative, with owners
(and their representatives) having more power, status, and wealth than those who are hired to do the work. Almost all of the debates about better ways
of organizing workplaces and managing employees, the need for unions and
labour legislation, and the future of work in our society stem from this basic
inequality.
Adam Smith: Competition, Not Conflict
Adam Smith (1723-90) wrote The Wealth of Nations in 1776, during the early Industrial Revolution in England, extolling the wealth-producing benefits of
capitalism. Thus, he is often portrayed as the economic theorist whose ideas outlasted those of Marx who, writing some time later, predicted the eventual
downfall of capitalism. Even today, Adam Smith's ideas are frequently used
to call for less government intervention in the economy, the argument being that "the unseen hand of the market" is best left alone.
It is important to note, however, that Adam Smith did not condone the
exploitation of workers. He recognized that working conditions in the indus- trializing British economy were far from satisfactory and argued that higher
wages would increase the productivity of workers and the economy as a whole
(Weiss 1976; Saul 1995: 150). But Smith was clear about what he saw as a
key underlying principle of capitalism. Competition among individuals and enterprises, each trying to improve their own position, led to growth and the
12 NEL
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s)
creation of wealth. As he put it, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to
their own self-interest" (Smith [1776] 1976: Book 2, Chapter 2: 14). Thus, for Adam Smith, the "profit motive" was the driving force of capi-
talism. Individuals and firms in aggressive competition with each other produced
the "wealth of nations." Where Marx (some decades later) saw conflict, exploita-
tion, and growing inequality, Smith saw competition leading to greater wealth.
These different perspectives continue to underpin arguments for, on the
one hand, restructuring employment relationships to reduce inequality and,
on the other, eliminating barriers to competition that are perceived to be
holding back the creation of wealth. These counter-positions highlight a cen-
tral contradiction of capitalist economies. Many people like to believe that the
"marketplace" is best left unchecked if greater wealth is to be produced. At the
same time, it is clear that social inequality increases without labour legislation,
employment insurance, and other programs that smooth the rough edges of
capitalism. The question, then, is what kind of society do we want?
Diverse Perspectives on the Division of Labour
Human societies have always been characterized by a basic division of labour essentially, how tasks are organized and distributed among workers. In primitive societies, work roles were assigned mainly according to age and
gender. But with economic development, these roles became more specialized,
and the arrival of industrial capitalism further intensified this process. Once
a certain scale of production was reached, it was much more efficient to break
complex jobs into their component tasks.
Pre-industrial skilled craftworkers are often idealized. C. Wright Mills, for
example, emphasized the personal satisfaction derived from being involved in
all aspects of the creation of some product, being free to make decisions about
how the work should be done and to develop one's skills and abilities (1956:
220). Obviously, not all pre-industrial workers were fortunate enough to be craftworkers, but it is clear that such opportunities were reduced with the
growth of industrial capitalism. Part of the change was due to the loss of con-
trol over work that accompanied the spread of wage-labour. Equally significant
was the division of work processes into simpler and smaller tasks, each done
by an individual worker.
NEL 13
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on "WOrk (1700-1950s)
In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith identified the division of labour as a key to capitalism's success. Using the example of a pin factory, he described
how productivity could be greatly increased by assigning workers to specific
tasks such as stretching wire, cutting it, and sharpening it. Whereas individual workers might produce 20 pins a day each by doing all of the operations them-
selves, with a well-defined division of labour, 10 people could make 48,000 pins
a day. The greater productivity, Smith reasoned, came from the increased dex-
terity a worker could master in repeating a single task over and over again, the
time saved in not having to change tasks and shift tools, and the added savings
obtained from designing machines that workers could use to repeat the single task (Smith 1976; Braverman 1974: 76). The real advantage of this form of
work organization would be realized only when factories made large quantities
of a product precisely the goal of industrial capitalism.
In 1832, Charles Babbage translated Smith's principles into practical cost-
cutting advice for entrepreneurs. By subdividing tasks, he argued, less skill was required of any individual worker. Consequently, employers could pay less for
this labour. Workers with fewer skills cannot demand as high a reward for their
work (Braverman 1974: 79-83). The early history of industrialization is full
of examples of this basic economic principle at work. The advent of factories
with detailed divisions of labour invariably replaced skilled craftworkers with
unskilled factory workers who were paid less just the sort of outcome that Marx criticized.
Returning to Mills's description of the craft ideal, we can easily see some
of the problems. A central feature of craftwork was the degree to which one individual was involved in all aspects of the creation of some product. The
resulting sense of pride and self-fulfillment was an early casualty of indus-
trialization. Furthermore, the minute subdividing of tasks in an efficient mass-production factory or administrative system inevitably led to repetitious,
boring work. Little wonder, then, that many craftworkers actively resisted
factory-based production.
Marx's discussions of work in capitalist society focused on the negative
consequences of an excessive division of labour. For him, capitalism itself was
the source of the problem. The division of labour was simply a means to create greater profits from the labour of the working class. The development of huge
assembly-line factories in the early 20th century epitomized this trend. Henry Ford, the inventor of the assembly line, took considerable pride in recounting
14 NEL
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s)
how his Model T factory had 7,882 specific jobs. Ford calculated that about half
the jobs required only "ordinary men'' and 949 required "strong, able-bodied
men''; the rest, he reasoned, could be done by women, older children, or men
who were physically disabled. These observations do not reflect a concern for
workers with disabilities; instead, they highlight the extreme fragmentation of
the labour process, to the point that even the simplest repetitions became a job. 11
, Emile Durkheim: Interdependence and Social Cohesion
"" Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), an early French sociologist, provided an
alternative, conservative assessment of capitalist employment relations, par-
ticularly the division of labour. He noted that industrial societies contained
diverse populations in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, occupation, and
education not to mention differences in beliefs and values. Durkheim
pointed to evidence in European industrialization of group differences
creating conflict over how scarce resources should be distributed, over rights
and privileges, and over which beliefs and values set the standard. Durkheim
saw the division of labour as a source of social cohesion that reduced this
potential for conflict.12 He reasoned that individuals and groups engaged in
different tasks in a complex division of labour would recognize their mutual
interdependence. In turn, tolerance and social harmony would be generated.
Durkheim believed that individuals in modern society are forced to rely on
each other because of the different occupational positions they fill. In simple
terms, lawyers need plumbers to fix their sinks while plumbers need teachers
to educate their children. By the same logic, capitalists and their employees are
interdependent. Without cooperation between the two groups, the economy
would grind to a halt. We will see in later chapters how Durkheim's positive
assessment of the division of labour shaped management theories that assume
shared interests in the workplace. While Marx has influenced conflict perspec-
tives on work in modern society, the conservative assumptions of Durkheim's
general model are the backbone of the consensus approach.
Max Weber on Bureaucratic Organizations
Max Weber (1864-1920), a German sociologist writing in the early 20th
century, addressed yet another major change accompanying capitalist
NEL 15
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on "WOrk (1700-1950s)
industrialization: bureaucracy. Weber noted that Western societies were becoming more rational, a trend most visible in the bureaucratic organization of work. Informal relationships among small groups of workers, and between workers and employers, increasingly were being replaced by more formal, impersonal work relations in large bureaucracies. Rules and regulations were now determining workers' behaviour. Although Weber was concerned about the resulting loss of personal work relationships, he believed that this devel- opment was far outweighed by greater organizational efficiency. For Weber, bureaucracy and capitalism went hand in hand. Industrial capitalism was a system of rationally organized economic activities; bureaucracies provided the most appropriate organizational framework for such activities.
What defined Weber's "ideal-type" bureaucracy was a precise division of
labour within a hierarchy of authority (Weber 1946: 196-98). Each job had its own duties and responsibilities, and each was part of a chain of command in which orders could be passed down and rewards and punishments used to ensure that the orders were followed. But the power of the employer could not extend beyond the bureaucracy. The contract linking employer and employee was binding only within the work relationship. Also necessary for efficiency were extensive written records of decisions made and transactions completed.
Recruitment into and promotion within the bureaucratic work organiza- tion were based on competence, performance skills, and certifications such as educational credentials. Individual employees could make careers within the organization as they moved as far up the hierarchy as their skills and initiative would carry them. Employment contracts assured workers a position so long as they were needed and competently performed the functions of the office. In short, rationality, impersonality, and formal contractual relationships defined the bureaucratic work organization.
Yet bureaucracies were not unique to 19th-century capitalism. A some- what similar form of centralized government had existed in ancient China, and European societies had been organizing their armies in this manner for centuries. What was unique, however, was the extent to which workplaces became bureaucratized under capitalism. At the beginning of the 20th century, increased competition and the development of big, complex industrial systems demanded even more rationalized production techniques and worker-control systems. Large bureaucratic work organizations would become the norm throughout the industrial capitalist world. But bureaucracy also became the
16 NEL
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s)
norm during the 20th century in industrialized communist countries of the
former Soviet bloc. So, while closely intertwined, bureaucracy and capitalism
are, in fact, separate phenomena.
CONCLUSION
From feudalism to early capitalism to the rise of industrialization in Canada, we
have covered a lot of ground in this chapter. We began with a historical overview
of the origins and development of industrial capitalism, then considered various
theories that explain and evaluate the causes and consequences of this complex
process. As economies and societies continually evolve and the nature of work is
transformed, new social theories have emerged (see Chapter 2). Here, we have
highlighted the most important social and economic changes unleashed by the
Industrial Revolution in Europe. As feudalism gave way to capitalism, markets
grew in importance. A new class structure evolved, and a predominantly rural
society became urban. Factory-based wage labour became the norm, while craft-
work declined. Larger workplaces demanded new organizational forms and, in
time, bureaucracies evolved to fill this need. And while industrial innovations led
to substantial increases in productivity, it was some time before the standard of
living of the working class began to reflect this increase. These far-reaching social
and economic changes were the focus of early sociologists such as Karl Marx, "" Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber, as well as economists like Adam Smith. Many
of the key questions they raised over capitalism's capacity to generate inequality
and conflict, or greater prosperity and interdependence continue to be debated
today. Although late to industrialize, compared to Britain and the United States,
Canada faced many similar concerns. Having had a brief look at the changing
worlds that these social theorists were observing, we are now better equipped to
understand how their concerns and conclusions carry into the present day.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What is industrial capitalism, and how did it differ from previous ways of organizing work?
2. How did industrial capitalism develop in Canada? In what ways did
Canada follow the path of other countries, such as Britain? In what ways
was the Canadian experience unique?
NEL 17
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on "WOrk (1700-1950s)
""' 3. How did Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber
believe industrial capitalism would affect workers? What are some of the
main differences in their ideas?
4. How does the nature of work in early industrializing Canada compare
to work today? Thinking broadly, what would be some of the essential
similarities and differences?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
WORK AT THE MOVIES
• Margaret's Museum (directed by Mort Ransen, 1995, 114 minutes). Adapted from the book The Glace Bay Miners' Museum by Canadian Sheldon Currie, this film explores the impact of mining on individuals,
families, and communities in 1940s Cape Breton, as seen through the eyes
of Margaret MacNeil (played by Helen Bonham Carter).
• The Grapes ofWrath (directed by John Ford, 1940, 129 minutes). Based on John Steinbeck's novel, this film follows the Joad family who lose
their Oklahoma farm during the Great Depression and become migrant
workers in search of new opportunities.
• The Voyageurs (directed by Bernard Devlin, 1964, 19:50 minutes). This short historical film re-creates scenes of 19th-century fur-trade work in
Canada. It is available through the National Film Board of Canada: www.
nfb. ca/ film/ voyageurs.
• Why the Industrial Revolution Happened Here (produced by Charles Colville, 2013, 57:55 minutes). This BBC documentary examines the economic, social,
and political conditions that sparked the Industrial Revolution in Britain and
led to a massive transformation of the British economy.
SOUNDS OF WORK
• "Dust Bowl Refugee" (Woody Guthrie). Based, in part, on Guthrie's own
experiences in the American Dust Bowl in the 1930s, this song tells the
story of the travelling migrant workers of that era.
• "John Henry" (Traditional/Bruce Springsteen). Springsteen's rendition
helps preserve the legacy of American folk hero, John Henry, who per-
ished during the construction of a railroad tunnel.
18 NEL
Chapter 1: Historical Perspectives on Work (1700-1950s)
• "Peg and Awl" (Traditional). This tune conveys how the Industrial Revolution
brought new technologies that caused the demise of many pre-industrial crafts.
NOTES
1. Abridged from Joyce Doyle's (1980) Our Family History. 2. Beaud's (1983) history of capitalism is a major source for our brief discussion; see
also Grint (1991: 48-83) on pre-industrial and early industrial work patterns.
3. Over the centuries, however, technological innovations did lead to important
changes in work patterns. See, for example, White's (1962) detailed historical
analysis of the impact of draught horses and the wheeled plough on agriculture,
and of the effects of the invention of the stirrup on the practice of warfare.
4. Grint (1991: 69-73). Cohen (1988: 24) concludes that industrialization in
Canada did not lead to a sharper gender-based division of labour since (as was
not the case in England) such segmentation already existed.
5. Polanyi (1957). See Boyer and Drache (1996: 8-12) for an application of
Polanyi's ideas to the current era.
6. This discussion is drawn from a variety of sources, many cited individually below.
For a useful overview of this period in Canadian history, see Ryerson (1968),
Laxer (1989), Kealey (1995: Part 1), Palmer (1992), and the Canadian labour
studies journal, Labour!Le Travail. 7. Bleasdale, Ruth. (1981). "Class Conflict on the Canals of Upper Canada in the
1840s." Labour!Le Travail 7:9-39, p. 13. See Wylie (1983) on the building of the Rideau Canal.
8. Bradwin (1972); see Avery (1995) and Creese (1988-89) on strikes and radical
behaviour among immigrant workers.
9. Mine accidents that took the lives of many miners at one time are mainly
responsible for these high averages. For example, 189 miners died in a mine
explosion in Hillcrest, Alberta, in 1914. A memorial to these miners and
background on the disaster can be found at http:/ I coalminersmemorial. tripod. com/hillcrestminedisaster.html. See McCormack (1978: 9) on British Columbia
and Caragata (1979: 16-21) on Alberta coal miners during this era.
10. Engels, Friedrich. (1971). The Condition of the Working Class in England. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, p. 63. (Orig. pub. 1845.)
11. Toffler (1980: 50) provides the quote from Henry Ford.
12. Durkheim (1960) did allow that a "forced" division of labour, where individuals
have no choice over how they participate in the productive system, would not lead to
increased social solidarity. He argued, however, that this and other "abnormal" forms
of the division of labour would disappear as industrial capitalism matured further.
NEL 19
"A fire killed 1 0 people at a garment factory in Bangladesh about six months after a factory
building collapse that killed 1,100 people exposed the harsh and often unsafe conditions in
an industry that is the world's third-largest. Authorities and global clothing companies have
pledged to improve safety standards in Bangladesh's garment industry after the Rana Plaza
collapse and numerous other fatal accidents. The cause of the fire at the Aswad garment
factory in Gazipur outside Dhaka was not immediately known, but the government was
investigating .... "
"Another garment factory fire last November killed 112 workers in a building authorities
said did not have enough exits. Bangladesh earns $20 billion a year from garment exports,
mainly to the United States and Europe. The sector employs about four million workers,
mostly women."
Source: CBC News (2013, October 9). Used wrth permission of The Associated Press. Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
Today's global economy offers some starkly contrasting images of work. In cities such as Toronto, Vancouver, New York, and London, we can observe
well-dressed, mobile professionals streaming through bustling airports and gleaming office towers, working their cellphones while hailing cabs or boarding planes, en route to the next destination. Surrounding them, in fast- food courts, restaurants, hotels, and taxis, are legions of service workers- often youth or immigrants rustling up meals and scrubbing floors, all for minimum wage. Halfway around the globe, in countries such as Bangladesh and China, young workers typically women stitch the latest fashions or assemble laptops, working long days in poor conditions that eerily resemble the early factories and sweatshops just discussed in Chapter 1.
NEL 21
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
Such images highlight the dramatic, and uneven, changes taking place as a
result of innovative new technologies and the global flow of workers and work.
In recent decades, new occupations and ways of working have sprung up. New
economic regions and new forms of globalized production have also emerged, along with political arrangements favouring freer trade, globalization, and the
deregulation of labour markets. Together, these developments raise important
questions. How is the nature of work and inequality changing, both within
Canada and others nations, and between the global North and South? Are
we witnessing fundamental, "epochal" changes in the world of work? Or are
recent developments more incremental, mixing elements of continuity and change? Building on our historical discussions in Chapter 1, this chapter
examines developments from the 1950s to the present, including postindus-
trialism, globalization, economic restructuring, and the rise of new economic
regions. We also discuss new forms of work, such as interactive service work
and emotional work, and consider how more recent thinkers, such as Ulrich Beck, Pierre Bourdieu, and Michel Foucault, may help us understand contem-
porary workplace and economic change.
CHANGING ECONOMIES IN THE 20TH AND 21sT CENTURIES
The Managerial Revolution
Despite being a late industrializer, Canada had a strong resource- and
manufacturing-based economy by the early 20th century. Large corporations had also begun to dominate business affairs. Formerly, most manufacturing
enterprises had been owned and controlled by individuals or families. Then
came the joint-stock companies in which hundreds, sometimes thousands,
of investors shared ownership and profits. Such a diverse group of owners
obviously could not directly control the giant corporation in which they had
invested. Consequently, a class of managers who could run the enterprise became essential (Berle and Means 1968).
As this pattern spread, observers began to question the Marxist model of
industrial capitalism that portrayed the relations of production as a simple
two-class system: capitalists who owned and controlled the means of produc-
tion versus workers who had little choice but to exchange their labour for a
22 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
wage. An alternative model became popular. The managerial revolution theory predicted a new era of reduced conflict and greater harmony in the workplace (Burnham 1941). The theory held that managers, who were salaried workers and not owners, would look beyond profits when making decisions: the good of both the company and the workers would be equally important. Since ownership of the firm was now diffused among many individuals, power and control of the enterprise had essentially shifted to a new class of professional managers (an occupational group that has grown dramatically in size, as we discuss in Chapters 3 and 4).
Many decades of debate and research later, it is generally agreed that this perspective on industrial relations in capitalist society was overly opti- mistic and exaggerated the degree of change (Zeitlin 1974; Hill 1981). First, family ownership patterns may be less common, but they have not disappeared. In Canada, the prominence of names such as Molson, McCain, Bronfman, and Weston (as in Galen Weston Jr. in the Superstore commercials) demonstrate the continuing role of powerful families in the corporate sector. Furthermore, while ownership of corporations involves more individuals, many corporations are still controlled by small groups of minority shareholders. Individuals who serve as directors of major corpora- tions are linked in a tight network of overlapping relationships, with many sitting on the boards of several major corporations simultaneously. Another postwar trend has been the corporate ownership of shares. Concentration of ownership increased as a few large holding companies replaced individual shareholders. Thus, the belief that the relatively small and powerful capitalist class described by Marx has virtually disappeared is not supported by current evidence. 1
Advocates of the managerial revolution theory also must demonstrate that, compared with earlier capitalists, the new breed of managers is less influenced by the bottom line of profit. But research continues to show that senior managers and corporate executives think and act in much the same way as capitalist owners. They share similar worldviews, often come from the same social backgrounds as owners, and hold large blocks of shares in the corporation, where they frequently serve as directors, as well. In brief, the optimistic predictions of an era of industrial harmony brought on by new patterns of corporate ownership and management are largely unfounded.
NEL 23
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
POSTINDUSTRIALISM
Postindustrial Society
In the latter half of the 20th century, continuing social and economic change led some social scientists to argue that we had moved out of the industrial era into a postindustrial society. Daniel Bell, writing in the early 1970s, was among the first to note these transformations in the U.S. occupational structure. 2
The Industrial Revolution had seen jobs in the manufacturing and processing sectors replace agricultural jobs. After World War II, jobs in the service sector became much more prominent. The number of factory workers was decreasing, while employment in the areas of education, health, social welfare, entertainment, government, trade, finance, and a variety of other business sectors was rising. White-collar workers were beginning to outnumber blue- collar workers.
Bell argued that postindustrial societies would engage most workers in the production and dissemination of knowledge, rather than in goods produc- tion as in industrial capitalism. While industrialization had brought increased productivity and higher living standards, postindustrial society would usher in an era of reduced concentration of power (Bell 1973: 358-67). Power would no longer merely reside in the ownership of property, but also in access to knowledge and in the ability to think and to solve problems. Knowledge workers technicians, professionals, and scientists would become a large and important class. Their presence would begin to reduce the polarization of classes that had typified the industrial age. In contrast to the managerial revolution thesis, which envisioned a new dominant class of managers, Bell felt that knowledge workers would become the elite of the postindustrial age.
Creative Economies
In the early 2000s, Richard Florida (2002) has added to this line of thinking in The Rise of the Creative Class. Like Bell, Florida sees the shift from goods to knowledge production as a crucial change. But for Florida, knowledge and information are simply the tools and materials for what really drives growth in a postindustrial age creativity. Mapping the U.S. economy, Florida sug- gests there is an emerging creative class that accounts for roughly one-third of workers. At the top is a super creative core of scientists and engineers, poets,
24 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
professors, novelists, entertainers, and artists. A second layer includes creative professionals, who possess high levels of human capital and formal education, and work in a range of fields, such as business, finance, and law. According
to Florida, these workers are transforming the economy through a new work
ethic that places high priority on interesting work, flexible forms of organiza-
tion, and creative places in which to live.
But what about those left out of this elite group? Writing about this in
The Flight of the Creative Class, Florida (2005) acknowledges a growing divide between creative workers and a "service class" who provide cleaning, childcare,
and other services for them. Other writers such as Robert Reich (2000) in
The Future of Success have also noted that the knowledge economy offers great opportunities for well-educated, creative workers. But at the other end of the
economic spectrum, job quality has eroded sharply through declining pay and
job security and increased demands for continual effort. Reflecting on this
economic divide, Reich remarks, "Not for a century has America endured,
or tolerated, this degree of inequality'' (2000: 1 07). Likewise, Florida notes
that today the United States is the most unequal of all industrialized nations,
with inequality rates nearly double those of Sweden and Japan (2005: 186).
McGuigan (2009) also offers a critical perspective on creative economies in his
book, Cool Capitalism. Why the optimism in the early theories of postindustrial society? These
explanations of social and economic change were developed in the decades
following World War II, a time of significant economic growth in North
America.3 White-collar occupational opportunities were increasing, educa-
tional institutions were expanding, and the overall standard of living was
rising: hence, the optimistic tone of the social theories being developed. Yet, as
we discuss at various points in this book, other commentators paint a negative
picture of the rise of service industries and an expanding white-collar work-
force. These critical perspectives point to job deskilling, reduced economic
security, the dehumanizing impact of computers, and widening labour market
polarization trends that have become more pronounced since the early
1980s (Beck 1992, 2000).
These themes have also been revisited in debates about the new economy, which essentially refers to industries based on new information and communica-
tion technology, especially the Internet. As Don Tapscott (1996: 43) has argued, what distinguishes the old industrial economy from the new "digital economy''
NEL 25
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
is that the latter is "built on silicon, computers, and networks" and its main
inputs and outputs are information. Thus, the new economy is also a knowledge-
based economy. Taking stock of these trends, sociologist Manuel Castells (1996,
1998) concludes that a new technical-economic paradigm, or model, has
emerged: a networked society. As old boundaries imposed by time and space have broken down, opportunities to organize our collective and individual lives
in more flexible ways emerge, with profound implications for society. The big
unanswered question, of course, is who the winners and losers will be. There are
growing concerns about a "digital divide," based on social groups or communi-
ties that are included in or excluded from the technology and knowledge of the
new economy. Research continues to assess how information technology affects
working conditions and rewards (Hughes and Lowe 2000; Sciadas 2002), an
issue we return to later in this chapter and in subsequent chapters.
Industrial Restructuring and Precarious Work
Technological change continues to accelerate at a time when the global
economy is also undergoing dramatic change. In the early 1980s and early
1990s, economic recession, fierce international competition, multinational
free trade arrangements, and the spectacular growth of other economies had a
major impact on Canada. In the 2000s, Canada likewise felt the brunt of the
2008 global downturn, though to a lesser extent than many other countries
around the world. With growing economic interdependence, it is becoming
more difficult to think in terms of discrete national economies. In the words
of Robert Reich, "Money, technology, information, and goods are flowing
across national borders with unprecedented rapidity and ease" (1991: 6). This
globalization of economic activity continues to bring about fundamental read- justments in the Canadian economy and labour market, including plant shut-
downs, job loss through downsizing, corporate reorganization and mergers,
and the relocation or expansion of company operations outside Canada.4
But are these trends new? Writing in the early 20th century, economist
Joseph Schumpeter considered industrial restructuring a basic feature of capitalism. According to Schumpeter, this process of "creative destruction"
involves breaking down old ways of running industry and building up more
competitive, efficient, and high-technology alternatives. 5 North American
industry clearly is engaged in this process today. But while necessary for the
26 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
economy as a whole, industrial restructuring can also diminish the quality
and quantity of work for individuals. Job losses may be part of the process for
some, while others may experience reduced job security.
Industrial restructuring involves interrelated social, economic, and technological
trends. Crucial is the shift from manufacturing to services. Canadas service indus-
tries have rapidly grown in recent decades, compared with declining employment in
agriculture, resource, and manufacturing industries. Indeed, both Canada and the
United States have experienced deindustrialization. This concept refers to declining employment due to factory closures or relocation, typically in once-prominent
manufacturing industries: steel, automotives, textiles, clothing, chemicals, and plas-
tics. Once mainstays of the Canadian and U.S. economies, these industries are now
sometimes referred to as "sunset industries" because they have failed to adapt quickly
to shifting consumer demands. Factories have been sold off, shut down, or relocated
to areas such as Mexico, China, or other developing nations where labour is cheap
and employment rights and environmental standards are lax.
Canada has been vulnerable to processes of deindustrialization. In the
1990s, dozens of large multinationals, encouraged by the Canada-U.S. free
trade agreement, announced or implemented plant closures in central Canada,
seeking cheaper labour and fewer regulations. For example, after purchasing
the Bauer hockey equipment company, Nike announced in 1997 that it was
closing the Ontario factory. 6
But Canadian-owned firms have made similar moves. As Canadian corpo-
rate giants like Bombardier have become global competitors, they have shifted
more of their operations and, therefore, job opportunities out of the country
to low-wage countries such as Mexico and China. Today Canada's once-strong
manufacturing sector is increasingly vulnerable, with many workers facing
layoffs and unemployment (Bernard, 2009, Vrankulj, 2012).
GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS
Globalization
The term globalization has become part of everyday language, but what does it really mean, and can evidence document such a trend? The basic idea is not
new; in Canada's colonial past, the masters of the British empire no doubt
envisioned their reach as global. Yet searching for a definition of globalization,
NEL 27
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
one is struck by the great many meanings it conveys. Advocates of globalization
echo ideas discussed later in this chapter: notably, the "logic of industrialism"
view, which sees the spread of capitalist markets and national convergence
as inevitable. As Gordon Laxer explains, globalization typically refers to four
interrelated changes:
Economic changes include the internationalization of production, the harmonization of tastes and standards and the greatly increased
mobility of capital and of transnational corporations. Ideological changes emphasize investment and trade liberalization, deregulation and private enterprise. New information and communications technolo- gies that shrink the globe signal a shift from goods to services. Finally, cultural changes involve trends toward a universal world culture and the erosion of the nation-state. 7
Corporations and often governments promote globalization as a means
by which expanding "free markets" will generate economic growth and
elevate living standards. Signs of an increasingly global economy are visible
in multinational trade agreements, financial markets, and economic treaties.
Examples include the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the
European Union, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN);
international regulatory frameworks such as the World Trade Organization
(WTO); and the integration of financial markets through information
technology. Critics and there are many detect more sinister aspects of
globalization. For example, the protesters at the Summit of the Americas in
Quebec City in April 2001 (where government leaders from Canada, the
United States, and Central and South America discussed creating a free trade
area of the Americas by 2005) raised concerns that such treaties threaten
national cultures, workers' rights, the environment and ultimately, democ-
racy. In the 2000s, activists have organized through vehicles such as the World
Social Forum (WSF) and the Occupy movement to voice their concerns. Even
mainstream commentators such as Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph
Stiglitz recognize basic challenges (Stiglitz 2006, 20 12). Thus, as Thomas
Friedman writes in his book on globalization, The Lexus and the Olive Tree:
28
Any society that wants to thrive economically today must constantly
be trying to build a better Lexus and driving it out into the world.
But no one should have any illusions that merely participating in
NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
this global economy will make a society healthy. If that participation comes at the price of a country's identity, if individuals feel their olive tree roots crushed, or washed out, by this global system, those olive tree roots will rebel. 8
Community-based opposition is only one reason why a globally integrated economic system remains largely an ideal. In a truly global economy, corpora- tions would operate in a completely transnational way, not rooted in a specific national economy. But research suggests that there are few such corporations (Hirst and Thompson 1995). While McDonald's, IBM, and General Motors may do business in many countries, operating vast networks of subcontractors and suppliers, they remain U.S. based. The United States and the European Union still account for a significant part of world trade (both goods and services) through corporations located mainly in those countries, though China now plays a leading role (WTO 2012). While multinational corpora- tions account for 25 percent of the world's production, they employ only 3 percent of the world's labour force (Giles 1996: 6). Even so, computers, software, clothes, shoes, cars, and a vast range of other goods are produced by global business networks that span several continents. Some observers argue that large corporations' sustained power will depend on creating and controlling these networks or "business alliances" (Harrison 1997). However,
Anthony Giles (1996: 6) cautions, "Beyond the obvious technological, eco- nomic and logistical hurdles, there are a host of cultural, legal, political and linguistic factors which complicate the development of genuine globally inte- grated production systems."
It is much easier to imagine production systems spanning several conti- nents than it is to envision a largely global labour force. Despite expanding international markets for some goods and services, labour is still a local resource. According to Hirst and Thompson (1995: 420), '~part from a 'club-class' of internationally mobile, highly skilled professionals, and the desperate, poor migrants and refugees who will suffer almost any hardship to leave intolerable conditions, the bulk of the world's populations now cannot easily move." In fact, Canada plays an important role in this regard, being one of the few nations to accept relatively large numbers of immigrants annually.
Picking up on this theme, Saskia Sassen (2002) argues that mainstream accounts of globalization have overemphasized the export of low-wage work
NEL 29
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
to developing nations while ignoring the growing role migrant workers play
in the industrialized North. As Sassen points out, the managerial, professional,
and technical elite who live in global cities are increasingly dependent on low-
paid service workers to maintain the infrastructure that allows them to do their work. Office buildings need to be cleaned; young children and elderly parents
need to be cared for. Groceries must be purchased, meals made, and dishes
done. Much of this work, as well as other vital services, is done by migrant
women, many of whom have moved in search of work to support their own
families back home (see also Stasiulis and Bakan 2003; Zimmerman, Litt, and Bose 2006).
Although labour might not become part of a truly global market, glo-
balization may still have an impact on labour practices, notably through the
public's growing concern about the labour practices of nationally based firms
operating in developing countries (one could say the same about environ-
mental practices). Global media coverage has helped to raise North Americans' awareness. In the past, multinational corporations such as Nike and
Liz Claiborne have been the targets of public campaigns because of their global
labour practices. More recently, in response to devastating tragedies involving
garment workers for example, the 2012 fire in the Tazreen Fashion Factory
and the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, which, together,
claimed over 1 ,200 lives there is growing public and political pressure for compensation, improved working conditions, and stronger legal protection
of workers. Despite efforts of many organizations, such as the International
Labour Organization and the Clean Clothes Campaign, however, only a few
of the corporations involved in these tragedies have agreed to participate in
compensation funds set up for families of the victims. 9
Canada and Free Trade
Since the late 1980s, Canada's economy has been increasingly shaped by free
trade agreements. The 1989 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),
which included Mexico, committed Canada to a policy of more open, less
regulated markets. While claims of massive job losses directly from the FTA
and the NAFTA have not been borne out, the permanent factory closures
and job losses that occurred in central Canada in the early 1990s have been
30 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
partly linked to free trade. Nevertheless, new job creation and growth in Canada and the United States have offset these losses. Significant industrial restructuring was already taking place, but the FTA probably accelerated the process, allowing the individuals and communities negatively affected less time to respond. Between the first quarter of 1990 and the second quarter of 1991, Canada lost 273,000 manufacturing jobs, a decline of 13 percent in the industry as a whole. As the Economic Council of Canada (1992: 4) con- cluded, "Many of the jobs that were lost will not return." These issues are pre- sumably being monitored, since NAFTA includes both an accord on labour and a commission for labour cooperation, which is mandated to track labour market trends in the three NAFTA countries and to address complaints about workers' rights, collective bargaining, and labour standards.10
To put NAFTA in perspective, the three participating countries had a combined labour force of approximately 223.4 million in 2012, with about 70 percent in the United States (154.9 million), 22 percent in Mexico (49.7 million), and 8 percent in Canada (18.6 million) (United States Department of Labor 2013). In the early 2000s, all three countries had roughly similar levels of growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), ranging from 2.3 to 2.6 percent (see Table 2.1). In the post-2008 period, however, Mexico has had slightly higher rates of GDP growth. In the United States, the question of NAFTA became a point of debate in the 2008 U.S. Democratic Party primaries with then-senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both promising to reopen and renegotiate core provisions of the treaty, including existing side agreements on labour and environmental issues (Alexandroff, Hufbauer, and Lucenti 2008). Although Obama quickly backtracked on this issue in the primaries, he did voice concerns over the impact of free trade on the U.S. economy after becoming President: he argued for the need to increase U.S. exports in order to spur domestic growth and job numbers (Washington Post 2010). In the United States, a trend to "reshoring," or bringing back pro- duction to the United States from other countries, has emerged, though the share of jobs involved is small. For instance, firms such as GE have recently relocated some of their production from China to Kentucky (Economist 20 13).
What has been the impact of NAFTA? At the outset, the migration of jobs from Canada or the United States to Mexico was a major concern of NAFTA opponents. In the 1990s, there was little doubt that the maquila- dora factories along Mexico's northern border were booming; indeed, from
NEL 31
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
1990 to 2000, the number of maquila plants and employees saw dramatic growth, effectively doubling in numbers, though levels have tailed off since (Commission for Labor Cooperation 2003: 81; Scott, Salas, and Campbell 2006: 44). Were these "new" jobs or jobs relocated from high-wage countries, such as Canada or Japan? From available evidence, it seems that fewer jobs than expected have migrated south. 11 And much of the new foreign invest- ment in Mexico is due not just to NAFTA but to the proliferation of global trade and production, with firms based in Japan, East Asia, and Europe seeking a Mexican base from which to supply the North American consumer market. Over time, maquilas have also become more diverse, as auto and pharmaceutical manufacturers such as Volkswagen, Honda, Eli Lilly, and Mercedes Benz have set up operations.
Jobs may be migrating south, but only in some manufacturing industries, and if firms seek low wages, they will likely relocate to China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and other "low-cost" countries, not Mexico. There is just as much concern that competitive pressures from NAFTA in some manufacturing industries, such as auto and auto parts manufacturing, have accelerated the trend toward nonstandard or contingent work in the United States and Canada (Roberts, Hyatt, and Dorman 1996). This kind of work can be part time, temporary, or contract. Workers in Canada's resource industries have also benefited less than they could, given U.S. refusals to comply with NAFTA rulings on ongoing softwood lumber disputes.
Others would argue that the group most negatively affected by NAFTA is Mexican workers. While maquila workers' low pay, lack of rights, and working conditions may be deplorable by Canadian standards, they are part of an emerging middle class in Mexico and relatively advantaged compared to the majority of Mexicans: the rural poor. The Zapatista uprising in the rural state of Chiapas in 1994 briefly drew the world's attention to those who are not benefiting from NAFTA. Though maquila workers face an uphill battle, they have had some success organizing for better pay and benefits (Kopinak 1996: 199). More recently, they have worked with Canadian and U.S. labour and student groups to bring complaints about labour rights violations under NAFTXs labour side agreement. The Maquiladora Solidarity Network (MSN) in Canada and the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) are just two examples of emerging global solidarity networks that help monitor and chal- lenge labour violations.
32 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
RETHINKING INDUSTRIALIZATION
Contemporary changes, such as globalization, have prompted rethinking of
traditional ideas about industrialization. Although countries differ in the
timing, pace, and form of industrialization, there appear to be some similar
underlying dynamics and processes. Industrialized countries tend to be highly
urbanized; production typically takes place on a big scale using complex tech-
nologies; workplaces tend to be organized bureaucratically; and white-collar
workers make up most of the workforce. Citizens are reasonably well edu-
cated, and generally an individual's level of education and training is related
to her or his occupation. Such similarities led American social scientists in the
1950s to claim:
The world is entering a new age the age of total industrialism. Some
countries are far along the road, many more are just beginning the
journey. But everywhere, at a faster pace or a slower pace, the peoples of
the world are on the march towards industrialism. 12
This is the logic of industrialism thesis, a deterministic and linear argument about the immensity and inevitability of industrial technology. It contends
that industrialism is such a powerful force that any country, whatever its
original characteristics, will eventually come to resemble other industrialized
countries. In current debates about globalization, the same argument has been
restated as a thesis of economic, political and cultural convergence. Yet, as we will see in later chapters, comparisons of work patterns in various industrialized
countries do not support this prediction. For example, there are pronounced
cross-national variations in unemployment rates, innovative forms of work
organization, unionization and industrial relations systems, and education and
training. And as noted below, globalization also is not a standardized process,
but rather is playing out quite differently at national, regional, and community
levels.
Our historical overview in Chapter 1 illustrates that Canada's industriali-
zation occurred later and was shaped by its colonial status; that immigration was a
major factor in creating a workforce; and that resource industries played a central
role. Other countries such as Sweden and Japan also industrialized later, but their
experiences differed from Canada's. In recent decades, many nations have under-
gone rapid industrialization. For example, Central and South American nations
NEL 33
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
such as Mexico and Brazil have seen rapid industrialization as well as pronounced
inequality (Milanovic 2011; Stiglitz 20 12; Piketty 20 14). In each case, however,
the process has varied. Likewise, the experiences of the "tiger nations" of East
Asia, and the more recent and rapid expansion of China, India, and the former
Soviet Union, highlight significant diversity in how change unfolds, as we discuss
shortly. Other than at the broadest level of analysis, there does not appear to be
an inherent logic of industrialism (Rodrik 2007; Whyte 2009). This observation becomes clear when we compare the 23 countries pre-
sented in Table 2.1. Keep in mind that comparing nations at different phases
and levels of development presents challenges because perfectly comparable
data are lacking. However, the World Bank and other organizations have con-
structed basic comparative measures that are as precise as we can get, so we
use these in Table 2.1. Canada provides a useful benchmark for interpreting
the relative socioeconomic conditions in other countries. Mter noting which
countries are included in Table 2.1, scan each column to get a sense of the
huge differences in population, urbanization, per capita income, annual eco-
nomic growth, education, female labour force participation, and inequality
(measured by the GINI coefficient, where 0 is perfect equality and 100 is
maximum inequality). Keep in mind that, in many developing nations, sig-
nificant economic activity still occurs in informal sectors of the economy, so it
may not be captured in the official government statistics presented in Table 2.1
Qiitting and de Laiglesia 2009; Partes 2005). Still, these basic social and eco-
nomic development indicators raise a host of questions about the underlying
historical, cultural, and political contexts in which countries industrialize.
We should also be attuned to matters of timing and the changing fortunes
of national economies. For instance, in the period after World War II, Japan
attracted great attention due to its rapid growth the "Japanese miracle"-
and unique management practices. We discuss Japan in Chapter 9. In the
1980s, attention shifted to other countries, for example, the ''Asian Tigers,"
and more recently, China, India, Russia, and Brazil. We discuss these countries
here in order to highlight how processes of economic development differ.
The East Asian Tigers
In the final decades of the 20th century, one group of countries that attracted
significant attention from scholars, businesses, and politicians alike was the
34 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
Four Tigers of East Asia Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. In a short time span, these economies underwent rapid industrialization, either
surpassing or fast approaching per capita incomes in the major Western indus-
trial nations. While it took Britain 58 years (1780 to 1838) and the United
States 47 years (1839 to 1886) for per capita gross domestic product (the total
output of the economy) to double, it took South Korea only 11 years (1966 to
1977) (World Bank 1991). In the same region, another set of newly industrial- izing countries (NICs) Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia were following just behind the Four Tigers. The Four Tigers and the NICs exhibited impres-
sive economic growth rates through most of the 1990s, but a major financial
crisis in 1997-98 shook the foundations of many of these economies. Although
recovery and renewed expansion occurred as of 2000 for a decade, strong
economic growth was tempered by events such as the 2001 dot-com crash,
the devastation of the 2004 tsunami (which affected parts of Indonesia and
Thailand), and the 2008 global downturn (World Bank 2005b).
Signal features of the "East Asian miracle" were spectacular growth rates
and greater reductions in income inequality than in other developing nations
(World Bank 1993: 277). But other factors were important, too; these
included rising output and productivity in agriculture at the same time that
a manufacturing export sector was developing, steep declines in birthrates so
that population growth was constrained, heavy investment in human resources
through the expansion and improvement of educational systems, and a
bureaucratic state run by a career civil service.
But this summary overstates the similarities among these nations; in fact,
there are striking differences between them. For example, capitalism has taken
distinctive forms in the Four Tigers. 13 A few giant diversified corporations, called
"chaebol," have close ties to the state, dominating the South Korean economy.
Taiwan's dynamic export sector is sustained by a network of highly flexible
small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms with extensive subcontracting sys- tems that often extend into the informal sector of the economy. In Hong Kong (and also Taiwan), the main organizing unit of business is the Chinese family enterprise. These firms give utmost priority to the long-term prosperity and reputation of the family a very different concept than the rugged individu-
alism of North American capitalism. Singapore is set apart by the prominent role
of the state in setting the direction of industrialization, which has involved much
greater reliance on direct investment by foreign multinational corporations.
NEL 35
CN 0')
z m .-
TABLE 2.1 Social and Economic Indicators for Selected Countries
Urban Population GNI (PPP)
Population as% of per Capita Average Annual
in Millions Total in US$ GOP % Growthd
Country (2011}8 (2011)b (2011)C 2002-8 2009-12 2009 Only
Canada 34.5 81 39,710 2.4 1.2 -2.8 United States 311.6 82 48,820 2.3 1.1 -3.5 Brazil 196.7 85 11,420 4.0 2.7 -0.3 Mexico 114.8 78 16,720 2.6 2.0 -5.9 Chile 17.3 89 16,300 4.4 4.0 -1.0 India 1,241.5 31 3,620 7.4 7.1 8.5 China 1,351.2 51 8,390 11.0 9.2 9.2 Indonesia 242.3 51 4,500 5.4 5.9 4.6 Thailand 69.5 34 8,360 5.1 3.0 -2.3 Korea (Republic) 49.8 83 29,920 4.4 3.1 0.3 Singapore 5.2 100 59,380 6.4 5.1 -0.9 Japan 127.8 91 34,670 1.2 0.1 -5.5 Russian Federation 143.0 74 21,210 6.8 1.1 -7.8 Ukraine 45.7 69 7,040 6.7 -1.3 -14.8 United Kingdom 62.7 80 35,950 2.6 -0.6 -4.0 Germany 81.8 74 40,190 1.4 0.7 -5.1 Sweden 9.4 85 42,210 2.7 1.4 -5.0 France 65.4 86 35,910 1.6 0.2 -3.1 Switzerland 7.9 74 52,530 2.2 1.0 -1.9 Saudi Arabia 28.1 82 24,700 6.3 5.7 0.1
9 %of Labour ~ ~ Force with Adult Female
~
l\..)
Unemployment • • Tertiary (15 years+) GIN I ~ Coefficient Rate as % of Total Education Economic ~
~ Labour Forceh (Latest Activity Rate (Latest ~ Available)e (2012)f Available)g 2009 2012 ~ ~
47 62 32.35 8.29 7.33 ~ ~
22 58 37.82 9.28 8.23 ~ ~
9.3 60 50.10 8.08 6.00 ~ (I)
17 44 47.55 5.45 4.80 ~ ~ 26 47 49.40 10.83 6.64 ~ 10 29 33.38 ~
68 47.40 4.30 4.10 ~ ~ 7 51 34.10 7.87 6.20 ~
17 64 40.02 1.50 0.68 ~ 35 49 40.02 3.65 3.30 ;p
~ 28 57 47.80 3.03 2.13 ~ ~
~
41 49 32.92 5.05 4.51 ~
54 56 40.11 8.40 6.00 ~ 53 26.44 8.84 7.80
37 56 33.00 7.45 8.13 28 53 29.00 7.74 5.21 33 59 24.40 8.30 7.50 32 51 30.80 9.50 10.14 33 61 29.70 3.71 3.38
18 10.46
z m r-
CN .......
United Arab Emirates Egypt Nigeria
7.9 82.5
162.4
84 43 50
47,890 6,120 2,290
6.0 5.0
10.4
a: Source: World Bank. Available at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.
1.2 3.5 7.0
b: Source: World Bank. Available at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS.
-1.6 4.7 7.0
44 24 48
30.77 48.83 19.70
c: Source: World Bank. Available at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.PP.CD. Gross national income (GNI) per capita based on purchasing power parity (PPP). PPP GNI is gross national income (GNI) converted to international dollars using purchasing power parity rates. An international dollar has the same purchasing power over GNI as a U.S. dollar has in the United States. GNI is the sum of value added by all resident producers and any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output plus net receipts of primary income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad.
d: Source: World Bank. Available at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG. Annual percentage growth rate of gross domestic product (GOP) at market prices based on constant local currency. Aggregates are based on constant 2000 U.S. dollars. GDP is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products.
e: Source: World Bank. Available at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.TERT.ZS. Due to availability reasons, percentages refer to different years: percentages for Thailand, Singapore, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France, and Switzerland refer to 2011; the percentage for India refers to 201 0; percentages for Canada, Mexico, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, and Russia refer to 2008.
f: Source: United Nations Statistics Division, "Social Indicators" section, "Work" subsection. Available at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/socind/default.htm.
g: Source: World Bank, OECD, Eurostat, or National Bureaus of Statistics, depending on the country. The data for Canada, United States, Mexico, Chile, and Japan were compiled from the OECD data bank. Available at Fact Book, Country Statistical Profiles, 2011 edition section: http://stats.oecd.org/lndex.aspx?Queryld=26068. The data for Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Egypt, and Nigeria were compiled from the World Bank data bank. Available at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI. The data for United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France, and Switzerland were compiled from Eurostat. Available at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1 &language=en&pcode= tessi190&plugin=O. The data for Brazil was compiled from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). Available at http://saladeimprensa.ibge.gov.br/en/noticias?view=noticia& id=1 &busca=1 &idnoticia=2222. The data for Singapore was compiled from Statistics Singapore, "Key Household Trends Report 2012." Available at http://www.singstat.gov.sg/Publications/ publications_and_papers/household_income_and_expenditure/pp-s19.pdf. The data for China was produced by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and sourced from the People's Daily. Available at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90778/8101702.html. Due to availability reasons, GINI coefficients refer to different years: Canada (201 0), United States (2010), Brazil (2011), Mexico (2010), Chile (2010), India (2005), China (2012), Indonesia (2005), Thailand (2009), Republic of Korea (2009), Singapore (2012), Japan (2010), Russian Federation (2009), Ukraine (2009), United Kingdom (2011), Germany (2011), Sweden (2011), France (2011), Switzerland (2011), Egypt (2008), and Nigeria (2010).
h: Source: International Monetary Fund (IMF). Available at: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/01/weodata/index.aspx.
9 ~ ~ ~
l\.J • •
~ ~
~
~ ~
~ ~
~ ~ ~ to.)
~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ S? ~
~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ '-.::....
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
These variations in business systems account for diverse industrialization paths
and approaches to work organization within firms.
The Rise of Capitalism in the BRIC Economies (Brazil, the Former Soviet Union, India, and China)
Most recently, attention has turned to the most populous countries in the
world China and India as they undergo unprecedented economic and
social change. Media reports abound with stories of rich "peasants" in China
buying German luxury cars, India's thriving "Silicon Valley," and the gar-
ishly lavish lifestyles of Russia's new entrepreneurs. How is economic change
transforming these countries? Social scientists have examined this question,
seeking to understand the complex shifts occurring in "transitional econo-
mies." Recent research looks beyond markets in a narrow economic sense,
striving to present a more comprehensive explanation of what influences the
economic behaviour of individuals in these societies. Factors such as a society's
culture, norms, and customs, as well as existing social networks, state policies,
and work organization, all influence how markets take shape and how indi-
viduals pursue new opportunities within them (Basu 2004; Jha 2002; Rodrik
2007; Whyte 2009; Winters and Yusuf 2007).
China is a case in point. Since introducing market reforms in the late
1970s, the Chinese economy has grown at an astonishing rate of nearly 10 percent
per year (Economist 2009; World Bank 2005a). From 2002-8, China's average
annual GDP growth rate was 11.0 percent, vastly outpacing that of Canada,
the United States, and other industrialized countries (see Table 2.1). Even in
the post-2008 context, as Table 2.1 shows, growth averaged 9.2 percent from
2009-12. As the world's most populous nation, with 1.35 billion inhabitants, China is seen by corporations as a huge market to conquer. Its workers are also
being integrated into the global economy, especially in its "special economic
zones," which attract foreign firms such as Wal-Mart and The Gap. "Made in
China'' now appears on a growing number of consumer items that Canadians
buy. Indeed, China is a leading recipient of foreign direct investment by mul-
tinational corporations, with more than half of its trade now controlled by
foreign firms (Economist 2009; Whyte 2009). 14 It is also making significant
investments in the West, in particular, in the oil industry, including Canada's
resource sector.
38 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
Is communist China being overtaken by capitalist free enterprise? The short answer is no, and the democratic reforms many hoped would flow from economic change have not taken root. But remarkable social and economic transformations are occurring, especially in coastal industrial regions in the south. Notably, the Chinese version of an entrepreneurial spirit is deeply rooted, and it can be seen in the rich and powerful dynasties established by mainland Chinese families who migrated throughout Asia around a century ago (Economist 1996, March 9: 10). Chinese-style capitalism, influenced, of course, by the Western version, built Singapore, Taiwan, and the former British colony of Hong Kong, which has now reunited with mainland China.
Unlike the former Soviet Union, where privatization is now widespread, state ownership of property remains dominant in mainland China though changes are occurring here, too, as ownership rules open up in some sec- tors. Bureaucratic systems of state-run work units and the Communist Party remain important influences on income levels and access to housing for many workers. But some rules have changed: farming has shifted from collective farms to households, giving farmers full return on anything they produce over a set quota. And while state-owned enterprises are still prominent, at the local level, hybrid corporations straddling the state and private sector are permitted. Although the Communist Party and state institutions still strongly influence individuals' occupational rewards, market reforms have coincided with rising social inequality across occupational, urban-rural, and regional lines- sparking debate over the implications and causes of such change (Wu and Xie 2002; Feng 2008). Debate also continues to focus on whether economic reform may lead to political reform and the eventual emergence of a democratic state.
India is another country that has received enormous attention. Like China, it has a huge population: more than 1.2 billion. With its higher birthrate and growing life expectancy, India is projected to surpass China's population by 2035 (World Bank 2005a; Economist 2009). Despite high levels of poverty and illiteracy, India has invested heavily in computer engineering and science, creating a two-tiered economy where highly skilled, cutting-edge knowledge services sit alongside a subsistence agriculture sector that employs most of the country's poor. India's technological savvy has attracted great interest, fuelling rapid economic growth of 7.4 percent from 2002-8, and 7.1 percent from 2009-12 (see Table 2.1). White-collar outsourcing has been central to India's growth, whereas manufacturing has played a minor role (as compared to
NEL 39
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
China). In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman (2005) cites a litany of jobs now being done in India for North American and European firms from call-
centre work to software engineering, income tax preparation, and the reading
of CAT scans. India's attraction is not simply cheaper labour costs and time differences that facilitate 24/7 production, but a deep pool of highly skilled
technology workers and fluency in English as a legacy of British colonialism.
As in China, India's economic growth has come through conscious state
planning, especially in the mid-1980s under Rajiv Gandhi, who sought to
make India highly competitive in the high-tech sector. But because India is a
democratic society, with an increasingly fragmentary political system, there has been difficulty furthering reform, especially at the local level Qha 2002; Basu
2004; Parthasarathy 2004). Thus, companies such as Dell, Microsoft, and
IBM employ an elite group of knowledge workers in specially created "cam-
puses" or software technology parks (STPs). For example, at InfoSys campus,
the "jewel" of India's IT sector, employees enjoy a resort-size swimming pool, putting greens, restaurants, and a health club (Friedman 2005: 4). India is
also home to a burgeoning call-centre industry (Mirchandani 2012). Outside
the gates of InfoSys, however, other parts of the economy remain untouched.
Today a significant portion of the population continues to live in poverty, and
rates of adult literacy and life expectancy remain low.
Compared to China and India, the former Soviet Union has taken a much different course. As Robert Brym observes, a "strange hybrid of orga- nized crime, communism and capitalism grew with enormous speed in the
post-Soviet era'' (1996: 396). Private enterprise, or market liberalization-
introduced in the mid-1980s was a relatively chaotic process, ensuring that
competitive capitalism as we know it failed to emerge. The reason, in Brym's
view, is that the old Communist Party elite, along with organized criminal gangs that had prospered in the corruption of the Soviet economy, were well
placed to take advantage of any new opportunities. The result is a predatory
form of capitalism that has enriched a small elite, or oligarchy, while breeding
corruption and making life worse for ordinary Russians.
Despite an emerging private sector and successive state policies aimed at
reform, the Russian Federation has not seen the development of a vibrant, diversified, entrepreneurial sector or reductions in social inequality. This
reality is contrary to market transition theory, which was developed to explain
recent social and economic changes in China and the former Soviet Union.
40 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
Strong growth of 6.8 percent from 2002 to 2008 slowed abruptly to average
growth of 1.1 percent in 2009-12 (see Table 2.1). But this latter average
reflects a large drop in 2009 (-7.8o/o growth), followed by positive growth of
3-4 percent in recent years. Russia's economy relies heavily on oil and gas. Income inequality is a significant issue, as are demographic pressures sparked
by plummeting male life expectancy and an aging population (Economist
2009; Gerber and Hout 1998).
A broadly similar pattern is typical of other Eastern bloc nations. Former
Communist Party elites, who still control state resources and have good busi-
ness networks, continue to benefit in the post-Soviet era, while living standards for the majority have declined (R6nas-Tas 1994; Szelenyi and Kostello 1996).
Unlike earlier transitions to capitalism in Western Europe and North America,
what is occurring in the former Soviet bloc does not involve the rise of a new
economic elite or the creation of a working class both of which existed in different forms under communism. Thus, Polanyi's "great transformation"
from feudalism to a market economy in 19th-century Europe represented a
unique experience of social and economic change. Subsequent transformations
to market-based capitalism have taken some unexpected twists and turns.
NEO-LIBERALISM AND THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN TODAY'S ECONOMY
Clearly, the information technology revolution, industrial and labour market
restructuring, and economic globalization have proceeded in a political con-
text dominated by laissez-faire beliefs that advocate free markets with little or no government interference.15 In a sense, this political environment is also
a key determinant of Canadians' future employment prospects. These trends
have the potential to either improve employment opportunities for Canadians
or lead to further labour market disruptions. It is difficult to predict just what
their ultimate impact might be, but it is important to consider how these
forces could be shaped to our collective advantage. Public policy in other industrial countries in Europe and Asia has been more proactive in trying to
influence the course of technological, labour market, and economic change.
The FTA and NAFTA were negotiated by governments and have been
hotly contested political issues in all three countries affected. These trade
agreements underscore the evolving role of the state (or government) in
NEL 41
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
the economy and the labour market. The history of industrial capitalism is
replete with instances of different forms of state intervention. For example, in
the early Industrial Revolution, the French government forced unemployed
workers into factories in an effort to give manufacturing a boost. We noted in Chapter 1 that in the early 19th century the British government dealt harshly
with the Luddite protests against new technologies. And the Canadian gov-
ernment adopted its National Policy in 1879 to promote a transcontinental
railway and settlement of the West.
In fact, as Canada industrialized, the government heavily subsidized the
construction of railways in order to promote economic development. It also actively encouraged immigration to increase skilled labour for factory-based
production and unskilled labour for railway construction. At times, it pro-
vided military assistance to employers combating trade unionists and intro-
duced laws discriminating against Chinese and other non-white workers. But
the Canadian government also passed legislation that provided greater rights, unemployment insurance, pensions, and compensation for workplace injuries.
Although some might argue that these initiatives were designed mainly to
ensure industrial harmony and to create an environment conducive to busi-
ness, it remains true that these labour market interventions benefited workers.
A consensus, or compromise, was reached between employers and workers
(mainly organized labour) in the prosperous post-World War II period. Acting on Keynesian economic principles that advocated an active economic role for the
state, the Canadian government sought to promote economic development,
regulate the labour market, keep unemployment down, and assist disadvan-
taged groups in short, to develop a "welfare state." While the Canadian state
was never as actively involved in the economy and the labour market as some
European governments, it still played an important role. 16
But industrial restructuring has been accompanied (some would say
"facilitated") by conservative political doctrines based on free-market eco-
nomics (Marchak 1981; Saul 1995; Kapstein 1996). In the 1980s, Ronald
Reagan in the United States, Margaret Thatcher in Britain, and Brian Mulroney in Canada argued that economies would become more productive
and competitive with less state regulation and intervention. Public policy was
guided by the assumption that free markets can best determine who benefits
and who loses from economic restructuring. The ideas of Adam Smith were
used to justify the inevitable increases in inequality. High unemployment
came to be viewed as normal. In some jurisdictions, labour rights were diluted,
42 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
social programs of the welfare state came to be seen as a hindrance to balanced
budgets and economic competitiveness, and government-run services were
privatized: changes that directly or indirectly affected employment relation-
ships.17 As John Ralston Saul (1995) argues, these free-market ideologies erode
democratic freedoms, threatening to bring about what he calls "the great leap
backward." Similarly, with many rapidly developing economies, governments
routinely use economic imperatives to restrict individual and collective rights.
Thus, in today's economic climate of globalization and restructuring,
proponents of free-market economics seem to have more influence. But as we
noted when discussing the ideas of Adam Smith, an unchecked marketplace
generally leads to greater inequality. So, what kind of society do we want?
When answering this question, we will have to determine the role of the state
in achieving the desired society. Looking back, we can see that differing gov-
ernment policies have interacted with economic globalization to produce dif-
ferent effects at the local level. Looking forward, there is no fixed trajectory for
globalization. Political choices by citizens and their governments undoubtedly
will continue to shape the process in diverse ways. Canadians are concerned
about labour market inequalities, employment, workers' rights, and employers'
responsibilities to communities. The extent to which governments are held
accountable for these issues will determine the impact of global economic
forces on our daily economic lives.
GREAT TRANSFORMATIONS REVISITED
To this point our discussion has focused largely on economic and political
change. But equally important since the 1950s have been dramatic shifts
in gender, family, and household life. While we examine these changes in
greater depth in Chapters 6 and 7, a key point for our discussion here is that postindustrialism and globalization have unfolded alongside dramatic shifts in
women's paid work activity, as well as the growing "marketization" of house-
hold work (e.g., cooking, cleaning, caring). Speaking to this, U.S. sociologist
Arlie Hochschild (2009) argues that contemporary households offer another
example ofPolanyi's "great transformation," with family relationships coming
under the sway of market forces and new forms of paid work emerging as a
result (see also McDowell2009; Reich 2000; Lair and Ritzer 2009; Anderson
and Hughes 2010). Here we highlight some key consequences, returning to
these issues in later chapters.
NEL 43
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
Interactive Service Work, Caring Work, and Emotional Labour
Perhaps one of the most notable outcomes of this shift is the rise of interac- tive service work, which involves significant contact with clients or customers (McDowell 2009). Some work may be tightly routinized, requiring workers to follow scripts, while, in other cases, workers may have far more autonomy
and discretion (Leidner 1993). Many such jobs (though certainly not all) also
involve caring work activities necessary for the sustenance of human life. Serving meals, providing paid childcare, driving elderly seniors to appoint-
ments, and cleaning homes are all examples of such work (Hochschild 2009;
Lair and Ritzer 2009). A unique feature of these jobs is that many also involve emotional labour the management of one's emotions to conform with employer-defined rules (e.g., "service with a smile"). To the extent that emo-
tional control (often thought of as a private matter) becomes a requirement of
the job, it becomes work: hence the term, emotionallabour.18
One of the most influential, early studies on emotional labour Arlie Hochschild's (1983) The Managed Heart found that workers (in this case, flight attendants) used "feeling rules" to determine appropriate emotions on
the job, engaging in "surface acting" (simply projecting required emotions,
such as a smile) or "deep acting" (where they actively tried to change what
they were feeling). Of concern to writers such as Hochschild was whether
harnessing emotions for market purposes created "emotional dissonance," with workers developing a sense of distress or self-estrangement due to the
emotional demands of their job. Since then, many studies have examined the concept of emotional labour (now often called "emotion management") in
order to understand the extent to which service work and emotional labour
can be scripted or regulated; how different types of workers experience such
work; and how the nature of service, caring, or emotional work might vary across diverse sectors and work settings. For instance, some studies suggest
distinctions between an "emotional proletariat" (low-skilled jobs with high
emotional demands and little control) and "privileged emotional managers"
(high-skilled jobs offering autonomy); see Bolton (2005) and Wharton (2009)
for reviews of such work.
The rise of interactive service work also raises important questions about the growing role of customers in controlling worker behaviour, through
instruments such as customer feedback forms. Some writers contend that
44 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
the traditional dyad of employer-employee control has been replaced by a "triangle of power" comprised of customer, employer, and employee (for discussions, see Korczynski and Macdonald 2009) .19 Our purpose here is not to settle these debates we return to them in later chapters but simply to highlight the growing complexity of work in contemporary economies.
Mobile Workers and Mobile Work
Earlier we noted how globalized production practices have meant the out- sourcing of work to other countries. But this outsourcing is just one dimen- sion of increasing work-related mobility. Globally, we also see growing mobility of workers, both between and within countries, although we would emphasize that mobility remains the exception, not the norm. In Canada, the United States, and European countries, however, we do see a growing reliance on "transnational caregiving," where workers typically women, but also men migrate temporarily or permanently from the global south to work as nannies, personal care attendants, caregivers, or housekeepers in private homes, childcare centres, or long-term care centres (Zimmerman et al. 2006; Ehrenreich and Hochschild 2002). "Temporary foreign workers" have also
become more common in fast-food service, cooking, cleaning, health care, and agricultural work, prompting heated public debate (D. Thomas 2010). Professional workers are also increasingly global, although this remains a tiny elite (Elliott and Urry 2010). 20
Mobility is not simply global, however. Nationally, in Canada, we have strong interprovincial mobility for example, between Newfoundland and Fort McMurray where workers travel between a permanent home (where their family resides) and work sites (where they work 14 days and then have 7 days off). Capturing this trend, a CBC Ideas program profiled mobile workers in the oil sands. An ongoing project, On the Move, documents the growing range of employment-related mobility in the country. 21 Within local settings, some workers are highly mobile, either due to their occupation (e.g., couriers) or the need to travel to different employers to secure a full week's work (Vasko 2005). Of note, recent changes to Employment Insurance require workers to become increasingly mobile by accepting jobs within a one-hour commute from home, which is more than twice the average commuting time in Canada (Statistics Canada 2013g).
NEL 45
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
Beyond mobile bodies, mobile technologies are also altering how work is
done, allowing more "knowledge work" to be carried out, coordinated, and
monitored across geographical space. Some workers, for instance, no longer go
into the office but instead telecommute (working partly from home), hot-desk
(using desks at clients, suppliers, or employers), or work in virtual teams (where
members are spread across different cities, regions, or countries). Spurring this
trend are increasingly affordable, powerful laptops, iPads, and cellphones, as
well as a plethora of apps, that allow workers, managers, and customers to con-
nect with their data and with one another. As these technologies become more
common, some routine rituals of the workplace, such as face-to-face meetings
and water-cooler conversations, are replaced by Skype, Face Time, and Google
Chat. That said, such change also appears to be more selective and slower to
catch on than predicted (Noonan and Glass 2012).
We return to these issues in later chapters, but what is germane to our
discussion here is the way that virtual work extends both the temporal and
spatial boundaries of the workplace. Whereas the office tools of the mid- to
late-20th century for instance, typewriters or large mainframe computers-
stayed put at the end of the day, today's mobile technologies allow work to
be accessed anywhere, anytime. With this come demands for 24/7 availability,
as well as greater potential for work-family conflict (Perlow 2012), drawing
our attention again to the shifting boundaries between home and work.
Highlighting the benefits and downsides of virtual work, a study of 30,000
Canadian office workers found that while virtual work boosted productivity
and generated more interesting work, it also increased stress and workloads.
Work-life balance proved to be harder to maintain, with it being "easier" and
"too easy'' to work from home (Towers et al. 2006). Of note, some technolo-
gies, such as e-mail, may be more stressful for workers (compared to face-to-
face meetings or hallway conversations), since they accumulate regardless of
time or place, making workers feel mentally taxed and less in control (Barley,
Meyerson, and Grodal 2011).
CONTEMPORARY THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
Just as the rise of capitalism and industrialization sparked theoretical analyses
from early sociologists, such as Marx, Weber, and Durkheim (as discussed
46 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
in Chapter 1), ongoing economic change has captured the attention of more
recent thinkers. Casting an eye over a diverse range of theorists for example,
Jiirgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt
Bauman, and Anthony Giddens we see that many have engaged with central work-related themes, such as power, control, inequality, consensus, and conflict- albeit in new ways (Korczynski, Hodson, and Edwards 2006; Hancock 2009).
Thus, despite suggestions that sociology's attention has shifted largely to
questions of identity, culture, and consumption, it appears that sociological
thinking about work and economic issues remains alive and well. Below, we
offer a brief and selective sampling of contemporary ideas; those interested in reading further can consult a number of valuable books and discussions. 22 In
later chapters, we examine additional theories on specific topics, for instance,
feminist theory as it addresses gender and work (see Chapters 6 and 7).
Michel Foucault on Surveillance and Self-Discipline at Work
One writer who has influenced contemporary thinking about work and orga-
nizations is Michel Foucault (1926-84), a French theorist often associated
with postmodernist thought (though Foucault himself did not claim that
label) (Burrell 2006). While Foucault's primary interests were not explicitly on work and economic matters but rather, psychiatry, medicine, the penal
system, sexuality, and knowledge a unifying interest was in understanding
how power operates. Foucault's ideas on power are distinct; rather than
viewing power as a resource wielded by individuals or social groups, he
argued that power was diffused, operating through discourse and knowledge
to "produce" the reality of everyday life. His interest, then, was not in the "organization of production," but in the "production of organization" (Burrell
2006). Not surprisingly, some scholars have found his concepts of power, discipline, and surveillance highly relevant, using them to study issues of team work, electronic surveillance, and human resource management practices
(Burrell 2006; Townley 1994).23
One of Foucault's most important contributions comes from Discipline and Punish (1975), a historical examination of penal systems. Using the metaphor of the Panopticon, a prison design conceived by Jeremy Bentham,
a U.K. philosopher and social reformer, Foucault develops his ideas about
how power operates in society. Physically, the Panopticon is circular in
NEL 47
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
design, with a central watchtower, surrounded by concentric circles of cells (with windows facing outwards only). Because all prisoners fall under the gaze of a single guard, the Panopticon thus maximizes external surveillance. Moreover, because prisoners cannot see the watchtower or one another, they do not know if or when they are being observed. They thus control their own behaviour, becoming (to use Foucault's language) self-disciplining.
Applying these ideas to contemporary organizations, writers such as Sewell and Wilkinson (1992) examine teamwork (discussed in Chapter 9), showing how worker control is maintained through peer surveillance and self-discipline. Other writers use Foucault's ideas on discourse and the body. For instance, Townley (1993) shows how human resource management (HRM) can be seen as a discourse of what is "acceptable" and "unacceptable"
at work, thus producing workers who can be measured, analyzed, and com- pared against an "ideal." HRM practices such as job descriptions and perfor- mance appraisals operate to rank, discipline, and sequester workers. Studies of specific types of work, such as secretaries (Pringle 1989), show how HRM systems emphasizing "service with a smile" bring the body into the service of the corporation (Burrell 2006).
Pierre Bourdieu: Work, Practice, and Social Reproduction
Another influential thinker in discussions of work and social inequality is Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002), a French anthropologist and sociologist, and contemporary of Foucault's. Bourdieu's work is equally wide-ranging, but focuses more explicitly on work-related themes. Early in his career, Bourdieu carried out fieldwork in Algeria, leading him to move away from a purely philosophical approach to embrace sociological and anthropological methods. This, and subsequent work on education and social reproduction, as well as capital, class, and cultural distinctions, have led to many of his ideas being used to examine issues of workplace practices, organizational culture, and economic and social inequality (Everett 2002; Lizardo 2012).
Like Foucault, Bourdieu was interested in how power operates in society. But he came to his own distinct point of view. His most important concepts are field, habitus, and capital, which developed over the course of his career. Fields are sites of structured social relationships where struggles occur for position and access to resources (Everett 2002). Habitus is best described as
48 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
the dispositions, lifestyles, and values of social groups that are acquired as part of belonging to that collectivity. Applying these ideas, we can think of workplaces and organizations as fields, where individuals earn a living and build relationships, reputations, and careers. Likewise, we can see habitus as the commonsense idea of how things are done in a particular work setting. For instance, studies show how workers as diverse as servers at McDonalds and litigators in law firms come to understand expected workplace behaviours (Leidner 1993; Pierce 1995). Finally, capital is central for determining one's position in the field and for establishing habitus (or what can be thought as the rules of order).
For Bourdieu, there are several types of capital. Economic capital (mate- rial wealth such as cash, land, and other assets) is the most fundamental; however, it can be converted into other forms of capital specifically, social capital, cultural capital, and symbolic capital (Bourdieu 1986; Everett 2002). Social capital involves relationships and networks between individuals that generate resources. Here we can think of senior executives who work and golf together, exchanging information about business opportunities. Cultural capital involves cultural facility and knowledge, and ranges from formal cre- dentials and degrees (institutionalized cultural capital) to possessions such as books, paintings, and music (objectified cultural capital) to ways of speaking, dressing, and presenting one's self (embodied cultural capital). In some pro- fessions, such knowledge can be critical for moving ahead. Finally, symbolic capital comes through honours or recognition, such as winning an Oscar or Grammy. Together, these forms of capital operate to position individuals within a society, and within the workplace.
To date, scholars have taken Bourdieu's ideas in many directions. For instance, Bauder (2003) shows how the cultural capital of immigrant workers coming to Canada is devalued, leading them into lower-tier work. Likewise, Ross-Smith and Huppatz (20 1 O) show how female managers use gendered cap- ital to build their careers. In later chapters we return to Bourdieu, discussing some of his ideas further.
Ulrich Beck: The Risk Society
A final thinker who is important for understanding contemporary economic trends is Ulrich Beck (1944- ), a German social theorist born towards the
NEL 49
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
end ofWorld War II. Along with other prominent social theorists, including
Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, and Scott Lash, Beck has argued
that recent decades have seen a transition from a "modern society" to a "risk
society," where individuals increasingly navigate more complex and risky work
and life trajectories. 24 Central to these changes, as outlined in his book Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (1992), Beck sees two interrelated pro- cesses. The first involves the shifting relationship between capital and labour
that dramatically alters labour markets and economies. The second is greater
reflexivity and individualization, creating more varied paths through the once predictable life course from childhood to career, marriage, parenthood, and
• retirement.
With respect to the economic changes, Beck highlights as have other
writers a shift away from full-time, secure, "career" opportunities toward
more flexible labour markets, offering part-time, temporary jobs, with poorer
pay, career prospects, and security. Equally important is growing global com-
petition for jobs, heightened skill and credential requirements, and the erosion
of traditional social safety nets (e.g., unemployment insurance), along with
a decline of state- and employer-sponsored training (as evidenced by rising
tuition and decreased workplace training). Bundled together, these changes
operate both to heighten economic risk and download it onto workers thus
"individualizing" risk. In Western economies, Beck argues, the result is to
dramatically erode the quality of work, bringing it in line with poorer coun-
tries. Describing this in The Brave New World ofWork, Beck states:
Equally remarkable is the new similarity in how paid work itself is
shaping up in the so-called first world and the so-called third world;
the spread of temporary and insecure employment, discontinuity,
and loose informality into Western societies that have hitherto been
the bastion of full employment. The social structure in the heartlands
of the West is thus coming to resemble the patchwork quilt of the
South, characterized by diversity, unclarity and insecurity in people's
work and life. 25
Building on Beck's work, studies have explored questions about
growing risk and insecurity in a variety of settings, from youth labour
markets to freelance and manual workers: see Mythen (2005) and Fevre (2007) for valuable reviews and critiques. While some see great merit
50 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
in Beck's ideas, others suggest they overstate the degree of change. In
Chapters 3 and 4, we will have some opportunity to consider their merit
in the Canadian context.
CONCLUSION
From the managerial revolution to postindustrialism, globalization, and the
rise of new economic regions such as China and India, we have covered many
significant developments in this chapter. Our discussion has focused on trends
since the 1950s to the present, exploring how new technologies, trade agree-
ments, globalized production, and changing modes of work and family orga-
nization have reshaped economies and the nature of daily work. We have also
considered how some contemporary theorists, specifically Foucault, Bourdieu,
and Beck, add to our understanding of economic and workplace change.
Our overview highlights some key changes over the past half century and
more. Much larger workplaces, new technologies, a more complex division of
labour, growth in white-collar occupations, and a new class of managers were
among the changes observed as industrial capitalism matured in 20th-century
Canada. Once again, these changes generated new ideas and concerns about
the impact of technology, social inequality, skills, knowledge, and labour-
management cooperation and control. But the optimistic predictions of
reduced inequality and conflict in a postindustrial era have not been well sup-
ported by the data. Instead, as we will see in Chapters 3 and 4, contemporary
employment trends raise questions about a growing gap between more and
less advantaged workers with risk and insecurity being distributed unequally,
both on a national and a global scale.
We have also highlighted a number of global economic and technological
forces now re-shaping employment patterns. Like other advanced capitalist soci-
eties, Canada has become a service-dominated economy. New technologies are
having a major impact on both the quantity and quality of work in the Canadian
labour market, as are processes of industrial and labour market restructuring. The
eventual outcomes of these trends are still unclear. We will also have to confront
the limits to growth, as environmental sustainability becomes a more pressing
global problem (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987;
Gomez and Foot 2013). We may see a general improvement in the standard of
living and the quality of working life, or the benefits may go primarily to those
NEL 51
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
who already have better jobs, thus contributing to increased polarization in the
labour market and in society as a whole. In subsequent chapters, we will return
frequently to these fundamental questions.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What is meant by the "logic of industrialism" thesis? Using three countries discussed in the text, how would you evaluate the merits of this idea?
2. What is a postindustrial society? Based on material you have read in this chapter, would you characterize Canada as postindustrial? Why? Why
not?
3. Drawing on your reading in this chapter, discuss how free trade, globaliza-
tion, and industrial restructuring are re-shaping the Canadian economy.
What do you see as the most important changes taking place?
4. What are some new types of work that have emerged in Canada? What
has led to their development?
5. In your opinion, how do the contemporary theories of Beck, Foucault,
and Bourdieu explain current workplace trends in Canada and other
countries?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
WORK AT THE MOVIES
• El Contrato (directed by Min Soak Lee, 2003, 51:11 minutes). This NFB documentary outlines the experiences and working conditions of
people from Central Mexico who migrate each year to tend Ontario's
tomato farms. It is available through the National Film Board of Canada:
http:/ /www.nfb.ca/ film/ el_contrato.
• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (directed by John Madden, 2011, 124 min- utes). This British comedy about retirees in India explores a wide range of
themes, including the globalization of call-centre work, retirement, and
health care.
• For Man Must Work or the End ofWork (directed by Jean-Claude Burger, 2000, 52:01 minutes). Debates over the potential impact of globalization,
52 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
economic restructuring, and technological change are explored in
this NFB film, available through the National Film Board of Canada:
http:/ /www.nfb.ca/ film/ for_man_m ust_ work.
• Bombay Calling (directed by Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal, 2006, 70: 14 minutes). This NFB documentary explores globalization in India,
focusing on the call-centre industry. It is available through the National Film
Board of Canada: http:/ /onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/our-collection/?idfilm=52353.
SOUNDS OF WORK
• "Elf's Lament" (Barenaked Ladies). A lively take on globalization and
working conditions in the run-up to Christmas consumption.
• "My Home Town" (Bruce Springsteen). Springsteen's song laments the
impacts of economic downturn for small-town America.
• "Six Days on the Road" (Dave Dudley). Dudley sings about the realities
of mobile (trucking) work and the difficulties it creates for balancing work
and family. • "On the Move to Fort McMurray" (Ideas with Paul Kennedy, CBC
podcast, November 22, 2013). The episode looks into employment-
related geographical mobility in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Available
at http:/ /www.cbc.ca/ideas/ episodes/20 13/11/22/ on-the-move-to-fort-
mcmurray/.
NOTES
1. See Grabb (2009) and Carroll (2004).
2. Bell (1973). Additional perspectives on the postindustrial society are reviewed by
Krishnan Kumar (1995), Clement and Myles (1994), and Nelson (1995).
3. The managerial revolution perspective (Burnham 1941; Berle and Means 1968)
was developed earlier, during an era when corporate concentration in North
America was proceeding rapidly and when concerns about the excessive power of
the corporate elite were being publicly debated (Reich 1991: 38).
4. See Lowe (2000: Chapter 4) for a discussion of industrial restructuring and the
rise of the new economy in Canada. See also Boyer and Drache (1996) and Pupo
and Thomas (2010) for critical perspectives on restructuring, globalization, and the new economy.
5. Schumpeter's views are discussed in Bluestone and Harrison (1982: 9).
NEL 53
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on WlOrk (1950s to Present Day)
6. Drache and Gertler (1991: 12-13). See Heinzl (1997) on Nike's closure of the
Bauer factory. See also Mahon's (1984) analysis of restructuring in the Canadian
textile industry. 7. Laxer, Gordon. (1995). "Social Solidarity, Democracy and Global Capitalism."
Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 32: 287-313, pp. 287-88. 8. Friedman, Thomas L. (2000). The Lexus and the Olive Tree. New York: Anchor
Books, p. 42.
9. For information and reports on globalization and labour rights, see the Maquila
Solidarity Network (http:/ /en.maquilasolidarity.org/), Clean Clothes Campaign (http://www.cleanclothes.org/), and the International Labor Organization (ILO)
at www.ilo.org. See also the report on "decent work'' from the International
Labour Office (1999). 10. See Commission for Labor Cooperation (2003). For more recent information,
see the Commission for Labor Cooperation website (http:/ /www.naalc.org),
which monitors the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation. For
past assessments, see Adams and Singh (1997) and Gunderson (1998) on the
impact of NAFTA on labour policies and worker rights. Vasko (1998) contrasts
the different regulatory responses under NAFTA and the European Community
to the spread of temporary employment. For more recent discussions, see Schott and Hufbauer (2007), who consider employment impacts, and Kay (2011), who
examines labour cooperation across borders.
11. See Orme (1996: 13). Evaluations ofNAFTA continue to offer widely divergent views. For earlier assessments, see Arsen, Wilson, and Zoninsein (1996) and
Bognanno and Ready (1993). For more recent assessments, see Scott, Salas,
and Campbell (2006), Alexandroff, Hufbauer, and Lucenti (2008), and Hufbauer
and Schott (2005).
12. Kerr, Clark, J. T. Dunlop, F. H. Harbison, and C. A. Myers. (1973). Industrialization and Industrial Man. London, England: Penguin, p. 29.
13. See World Bank (2001), Holzer (2000), and Hsiung (1996) for accounts of
economic development in the region. The argument about the critical role of
a Weberian form of government bureaucracy is presented by Evans and Rauch
(1999).
14. Central to China's development has been a high level of foreign direct investment within manufacturing in the "special economic zones." For example, in 2007,
foreign investment accounted for 57 percent of all Chinese exports (Economist 2009; Whyte 2009). For valuable accounts of China's economic development, see Guthrie (2006), Sharman (2009), Whyte (2009), and Winters and Yusuf (2007).
15. See Saul (1995) for a critique of this ideology.
54 NEL
Chapter 2: Contemporary Debates on Work (1950s to Present Day)
16. See Olsen's (1999) comparative review of changes to Sweden's welfare state.
17. See Bamber, Lansbury, and Wailes (20 11) for a comparative analysis of how
employment relations and labour-management relations have developed in the
context of globalization.
18. For valuable discussions and reviews of interactive service work, or frontline
service work, see McDowell (2009), Korczynski and Macdonald (2009), and
Belanger and Edwards (2013), among others. On caring work, see Ehrenreich
and Hochschild (2002), Zimmerman et al. (2006), Yeates (2009), and Anderson
and Hughes (2010). For helpful reviews and discussions of emotional labour, see
Leidner (1993), Bolton (2005, 2009), Bolton and Boyd (2003), Brook (2009),
Cranford and Miller (2013), Grandey, Diefendorf£ and Rupp (2013), Lopez
(2006), Payne (2009), and Wharton (1993).
19. For early examples of work on this topic, see Fuller and Smith (1991) and Leidner
(1993). For more recent discussions, see Lopez (2010), Bolton and Houlihan
(2010), and others in a special issue of Work and Occupations; Belanger and Edwards (2013); and a special issue of Work, Employment and Society, edited by Korczynski (2013).
20. On transnational caregiving, see, for example, Ehrenreich and Hochschild
(2002); Spitzer et al. (2003); Parrefias (2001); Torres et al. (2012); Yeates (2009);
Zimmerman et al. (2006). For discussions on temporary foreign workers in
Canada, see Thomas (2010); Fuller (2011); Taylor, Foster, and Cambre (2012);
and Foster and Barnetson (2012). Elliott and Urry's (2010) Mobile Lives offers interesting discussions of professional work, among other topics.
21. A feature on mobile workers and the oil sands can be found on the
CBC Radio program, Ideas with Paul Kennedy, at http:/ /www.cbc.ca/ideas/ episodes/2013/11/22/on-the-move-to-fort-mcmurray/. The episode highlights
one of many projects on mobile workers in Canada undertaken through the
On the Move Project: see http:/ /www.onthemovepartnership.ca/. For a personal account of mobile work, see Wood (2013).
22. For students who want to know more about contemporary social theory, as well
as work, organization, and economic life, we suggest reading the collection of
articles in Social Theory at Work, edited by Marek Korczynski, Randy Hodson, and Paul Edwards (2006). Additional insightful discussions of work-related theorizing
are provided by Hancock (2009), who discusses critical theory traditions, and by
Burrell (2006), who discusses Foucault's reception by sociologists of work and
impact on the sociology of work, labour process theory, and organizational studies.
23. Despite Foucault's relevance to work and organizations, Burrell (2006) argues
that his ideas, as well as general currents in postmodern theory, have been taken
NEL 55
