SOSC 3240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Unfree Labour, Deskilling, Scientific Management

• School: York University
• Department: Social Science
• Course: SOSC 3240
• Professor: Ryan Toews

Document Summary

Features of work under capitalism: "free" waged and "unfree" labour, market dependence, technology dynamic and mechanized production, technological and organizational change lead to deskilling and reskilling, taylorism scientific mgmt, alienation & distancing. Conflict over conditions and anti-oppression: struggles over access to and equality in the workplace. Henry fords /8 hr day: higher wages were needed because of the resistance of workers to assembly line work. Mass production and the assembly line: taylorism and sci mgmt, both the reskilling and deskilling of labour, economy of scale, standardized product, mass consumer culture, increasingly mechanized production the worker as an appendage of the machine. Fordism 2 linked to keynesian state intervention to regulate demand and the business cycle at the national level. Creates a relatively privileged section of workers in the global north and a particular model of business unionism: relatively high wages, standard work arrangement and long term employment by the same firm, extensive non-wage benefits.