Sociology 2169 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Simpletech, State Capitalism, Wage Labour
8 Feb 2017
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A careful analysis of a work situation written by a knowledgeable observer: limited to a small work groups during a specific period. Gain intimate everyday familiarity of job content and interactions: weakness. Only study a limited range of jobs, somewhat subjective. Non participant observation: useful when you cant be participants, weakness - hard to win confidence of workers, workers may be aware of observers influencing behaviour. Not really seeing the power dynamics in a workplace. Asks a uniform set of questions to a systematic sample of respondents: face to face, telephone, self administered questions. Cross sectional vs. longitudinal study: cross: go in get data and then you leave, long: over time, beneficial, tracking people overtime. Strengths: generalizes (but can be problematic, economical, less labour, cost effective. Draw on several perspectives to understand work issues - view of supervisors, union leaders, suppliers, customers etc. Wider in scope and use more types of data and various methods.
