SOC 116a Work, Employment and Unemployment: Sociological Approaches
Brandeis University
Instructor: Sara Chaganti
Spring 2016
Cell: (413)329-6929 Office: (781)736-4679
T, Th 2:00-3:20pm
Email: schagant@brandeis.edu
Kutz 132
Sara’s Office Hours: Th 10-12, Heller 360 or by appointment
TA: Samantha Leonard, sleonard@brandeis.edu
Sam’s Office Hours: Th 12-1, Pearlman 104 or by appointment
This course introduces students to sociological approaches to understanding work, employment
and unemployment in the US. The course will offer a broad overview of the role work has
played in society historically, and how work has been studied from a sociological
perspective. We will cover sociological analyses of work and employment grounded in classical
and contemporary social theories. And we will consider how the nature of work has changed in
the twenty-first century, the impact of employment policy on work, and the implications of these
forces for society as a whole.
Students will be expected to keep up with the readings and demonstrate understanding of the
concepts through regular class participation and posts to the course forum.
Learning Objectives: Students in the course will gain an understanding of the changing nature
of work throughout time, considering both sociological interpretations and implications of these
changes. And students will have the opportunity to analyze and critique current employmentrelated policies, and to propose policy solutions that they think will effectively address some of
the issues in the labor market, such as unemployment and discrimination. By the end of the
course, students should have an in-depth understanding of the central importance of work in
society both currently and historically, of how we think about ourselves and others in relation to
work, and of how work can impact every part of our individual and social lives.
Course Requirements:
 Readings listed for each class are due that day. Keeping up with the readings is very
important.
 Class participation: Regular class participation is expected. Students should come to class
prepared to make thoughtful comments on the readings voluntarily, engage deeply with
the week’s key concepts in discussion, and participate in small-group activities. (15%)
 Forum posts: Questions on the readings are listed for each class. You will answer ten
questions total throughout the semester before the class in which we discuss these
readings, and post your answer to the course forum. Other students’ responses will not
be visible until you post your response. You are responsible for distributing these as you
wish throughout the twelve weeks, but may do no more than two in one week. For each
question, write a response of between 50 and 150 words that engages at least one of the
readings for the week. Posts are due by 12pm the day of class (we will use the forum
responses in class discussion that day.) No late submissions will be accepted. (10%)
 Essays: The course will require three 5-6 page essays, each of which must make use of at
least two course readings plus an additional two or more external sources. Essay
questions for the first two essays will be distributed two weeks before the due dates. The
third essay is on a topic of your choosing and will be explained in class. (75% total, or
25% each)
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Opportunities for experiential learning and extra credit will be discussed in class
Required Books:
Burawoy, Michael. 1979. Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process under
Monopoly Capitalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hochschild, Arlie. 2012. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press
Volti, Rudi. 2012. An Introduction to the Sociology of Work and Occupations, 2nd Ed. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
OPTIONAL: Seidman, Steven. 2008. Contested Knowledge: Social Theory Today, 4th Ed.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
All other readings are posted on LATTE.
Academic integrity: You may only submit your own original work in this course. Please be
careful to cite precisely and properly the sources of all authors and persons you have drawn upon
in your written work. Please take special care to indicate the precise source of all materials found
on the web, indicating the correct URL address of any material you have quoted or in any way
drawn upon. Plagiarism (from published or internet sources, or from another student) is a serious
violation of academic integrity. Remember, you must indicate through quotations and citation
when quoting from any outside source (internet or print).
Please refer to Section 4 “Maintenance of Academic Integrity” of the Brandeis Rights and
Responsibilities booklet (p. 19): http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/srcs/rr/pdfs/RR%20201516.pdf.
Accommodations: If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis
University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please
contact me as soon as possible.
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Week 1: Introduction
Thursday January 14: Introduction to the Course
Readings:
1. OPTIONAL: Barry, Bruce. 2007. “Situation Comity: The Office.” Contexts 6(4): 75-77.
[We will be watching an episode of The Office in class.]
2. OPTIONAL: Vallas, Steven P. 2012. “Introduction.” Pp. 1-36 in Work: A Critique.
Malden, MA: Polity Press. (Note: this is a tough reading. Do the best you can with it.
You may want to refer back to it later in the semester.)
Week 2: Industrialization
Tuesday January 19: Pre-Industrial Work
Readings:
1. Volti Ch 1: Work Before Industrialization
2. Volti Ch 2: The Organization of Work in Pre-Industrial Times (skip pp. 23-29)
3. OPTIONAL: Sahlins, Marshall. 1972. “The Original Affluent Society.” Pp. 1-39 in Stone
Age Economics. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
1/19 Key Concepts:
 Hunting & gathering
 Agriculture
 Protestant revolution
 Time
 Guilds
 Ascriptive status
1/19 Reading Response Questions (choose one or two for a forum post):
1. What is work and why do we work?
2. What are the benefits of work? What are the costs?
3. What are some key differences between pre-industrial work and work today?
4. What is the significance of time in the organization of work?
5. What is the significance of the Protestant Revolution to work?
Thursday January 21: The Industrial Revolution
Readings:
1. Volti Ch 3: Industrialization and its Consequences
2. Jacoby, Sanford M. 2004 [1985]. “The Way It Was: Factory Labor Before 1915.” Pp. 1028 in Employing Bureaucracy: Managers, Unions, and the Transformation of Work in the
20th Century, Rev. ed. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
1/21/Key Concepts
 Market economy
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

Industrial revolution
Division of labor
Drive system
1/21 Reading Response Questions (choose one per forum post):
1. What were some of the benefits of industrialization, and who benefitted? What were
some of the downsides, and who suffered?
2. How could factory workers challenge managerial authority in the early 20th century?
Give a few examples.
Week 3: Taylorism & Marxism
Tuesday January 26: Scientific Management and Assembly Lines
Readings:
1. Taylor, Frederick Winslow. 1914. “Chapter 1.” Pp. 9-29 in The Principles of Scientific
Management. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.
1/26 Key Concepts:
 Scientific management
 Efficiency
 Soldiering
1/26 Reading Response Questions:
1. What is scientific management? What is the principal assumption behind it?
2. What does "soldiering" mean? Why do people soldier?
Thursday January 28: Marx & Alienated Labor
Readings:
1. Marx, Karl. 1978 [1844]. "Estranged Labour.” Pp. 70-81 in “Economic and Philosophic
Manuscripts of 1844," in The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by R. C. Tucker. New York:
W. W. Norton & Company.
2. Marx, Karl. 1978 [1932]. “The German Ideology.” Pp. 148-200 (skip pp. 163-172) in
The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by R. C. Tucker. New York: W. W. Norton &
Company.
3. OPTIONAL (for those with no background in Marxism): Seidman, Steven. Contested
Knowledge: Social Theory Today (4th edition), Ch 2 “The Revolutionary Theory of Karl
Marx”
1/28 Key Concepts:
 Labor, capital, capitalist
 Political economy
 Bourgeoisie & proletariat
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
Alienation
Ideology
1/28 Reading Response Questions
1. What is “alienated labor”?
2. Do you agree that all industrial work leads to alienation?
Week 4: The Labor Process
Tuesday February 2: Labor Process Theory
Readings:
1. Braverman, Harry. 1998 [1974]. “The Division of Labor.” Pp. 49-58 in Labor and
Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York:
Monthly Review Press.
2. Volti pp. 83-86 “Technology and Managerial Authority”
2/2 Key Concepts
 Labor process
 Managerial authority
2/2 Reading Response Questions:
1. Why is it important to study the labor process?
2. Braverman says that the division of labor "dismembers the worker" (p. 54.) What do you
think he means by this? Do you agree with him?
Thursday February 4: Manufacturing Consent
1. Burawoy, Michael. Manufacturing Consent. Ch 2 “Toward a Theory of the Capitalist
Labor Process” and Ch 4 “Thirty Years of Making Out”
2/2 Key Concepts:
 Shop floor, shop culture
2/2 Reading Response Questions:
1. What does Burawoy mean by “making out”?
2. What is the relationship between culture and control in the factory, according to
Burawoy?
Week 5: Organizations, Bureaucracy & Professions
Tuesday February 9: Bureaucracy
Readings:
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1. Volti Ch 4: Bureaucratic Organization
2. Ritzer, George. 2004. Selections from Chapters 1-2. Pp. 1-110 in The McDonaldization
of Society, Rev. new century ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
3. OPTIONAL Weber, Max. 1978. “Bureaucracy.” Pp. 956-963 in Economy and Society:
An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, edited by G. Roth and C. Wittich. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
4. OPTIONAL: Seidman, Steven. Contested Knowledge: Social Theory Today Ch 4 “The
Ironic Social Theory of Max Weber” esp. pp. 49-51
2/9 Key Concepts:
 Bureaucracy
 Management
 Flexibility
2/9 Reading Response Questions:
1. Briefly describe an experience you have had with a bureaucratic organization. Did it feel
efficient? Were there any negative aspects?
2. What does Ritzer mean by “The McDonaldization of Society?”
3. What is another example of a bureaucratic organization (besides the ones discussed in the
readings), according to Weber’s definition of bureaucracy? Why would Weber consider it
a bureaucracy?
Thursday February 11: Professions
Readings:
1. Volti Ch 9: Professions and Professionalization
2. Selections from Hughes, Everett Cherrington. 1994 [1951]. On Work, Race, and the
Sociological Imagination, edited by L. A. Coser. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3. US Census Industry and http://www.census.gov/people/io/ (click through to all links in
this section)
2/11 Key Concepts
 Professional status
 Autonomy
 Deprofessionalization
2/11 Reading Response Questions
1. What are some of the ways that professionals create and/or maintain the status of their
profession?
2. What is the difference between professions, paraprofessions, and occupations? Do you
think that this distinction is still relevant today?
3. Can you think of a field that has deprofessionalized? How do you know that this has
happened (based on the criteria listed in the readings)?
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MIDTERM RECESS FEBRUARY 15-19
--- ESSAY 1 DUE MONDAY FEBRUARY 22, 5PM --Week 6: Symbolic Interactionism & Emotional Labor
Tuesday February 23: Symbolic Interactionism
Readings:
1. Inglis, David. An Invitation to Social Theory Ch 5 “The Symbolic Interactionist
Paradigm.”
2. Hochschild, Arlie. The Managed Heart pp. 1-34
2/23 Key Concepts:
 Symbolic interactionism
 Emotional labor
2/23 Reading Response Questions:
1. According to Mead, what are the "I," the "Me" and the "generalized other"? Illustrate
with an example that is not used in the book.
2. What does Goffman mean by "front" and how is it connected to dramaturgy?
3. According to Hochschild, what are some of the important differences between producing
a material good and producing a service?
4. What is "emotional labor"? When have you performed emotional labor in your life?
Thursday February 25: Emotional Labor
Readings:
1. Hochschild, Arlie. The Managed Heart pp. 35-86
2/25 Key Concepts:
 Transmutation
2/25 Reading Response Questions:
1. What does Hochschild mean by “transmutation”?
2. What are some gendered and/or raced forms of emotional labor?
Week 7: Service Work & Workplace Culture
Tuesdsay March 1: Routinized Service Work
Readings:
1. Leidner, Robin. 1993. “Over the Counter: McDonald’s.” Pp. 44-85 in Fast Food, Fast
Talk: Service Work and the Routinization of Everyday Life. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press.
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2. OPTIONAL Buchanan, Edna. 2002. "Lives on the Line: Low-Wage Work in the
Teleservice Economy." Pp. 45-72 in Laboring Below the Line: The New Ethnology of
Poverty, Low-Wage Work, and Survival in the Global Economy, edited by F. Munger.
New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
3/1 Key Concepts
 Routinization
3/1 Reading Response Questions
1. Is working at McDonald's skilled work? Why or why not?
2. Burawoy discussed managers' manufacturing their employees' consent as a mechanism of
managerial control over workers. Do you see examples of manufacturing consent in the
McDonald's settings that Leidner describes? What are they? Are there other mechanisms
of managerial control at work?
Thursday March 3: Workplace Culture
Readings:
1. Volti Ch 8: Workplace Culture and Socialization
2. Fine, Gary. A. 2008. “The Commonwealth of Cuisine.” Pp. 112-137 in Kitchens: The
Culture of Restaurant Work. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
3/3 Key Concepts
 Idioculture
3/3 Reading Response Questions
1. Have you ever experienced or noticed an organizational culture? Please describe it.
2. What does Fine mean by the term “idioculture”?
Week 8: Culture, Control & Getting a Job
Tuesday March 8: Culture and Control
Readings:
1. Inglis, David. An Invitation to Social Theory Ch 3 “Marxist and Critical Theory
Paradigms”
2. Van Maanen, J. 1991. “The Smile Factory: Work at Disneyland.” Pp. 58-76 in
Reframing Organizational Culture, edited by P. J. Frost, L. F. Moore, M. R. Louis, C. C.
Lundberg & J. Martin. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
3/8 Key Concepts:
 Culture, organizational culture
 Subuculture
 Critical theory
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
Ideology
Cultural hegemony
3/8 Reading Response Questions:
1. What are potential benefits of organizational culture?
2. What are potential drawbacks of organizational culture?
Thursday March 10: Getting a Job
Readings:
1. Volti Ch 7: Getting a Job
2. Selection from Granovetter, Mark. 1974. Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and
Careers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
3/10 Key Concepts:
 Human capital
 Strong ties, weak ties
3/10 Reading Response Questions:
1. What is human capital?
2. What are weak ties? Why are they more useful than strong ties?
Week 9: Work & Inequality I
Tuesday March 15: Occupational Segregation
Readings:
1. Hughes, Everett Cherrington. 1946. “The Knitting of Racial Groups in Industry.”
American Sociological Review 11:512-519.
2. Piore, Michael J. 1970. "Jobs and Training." Pp. 53-83 in The State and the Poor, edited
by S. H. Beer and R. E. Barringer. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop Publishers, pp. 55-59
ONLY (on dual labor market)
3. Hamilton, Darrick, Algernon Austin, and William Darity Jr. 2011. "Whiter Jobs, Higher
Wages: Occupational Segregation and the Lower Wages of Black Men." Economic
Policy Institute, Washington, DC.
3/15 Key Concepts:
 Dual labor market
 Occupational Segregation
3/15 Reading Response Questions:
1. What is occupational segregation?
2. How is it related to the gender pay gap or the racial pay gap?
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Thursday March 17: Gender Discrimination
Readings:
1. Volti Ch 13 Diversity in the Workplace
2. England, Paula. 2010. “The Gender Revolution: Uneven and Stalled.” Gender & Society,
24(2): 149-166.
3/17 Key Concepts:
 Valuative discrimination
 Comparable worth
3/17 Reading Response Questions:
1. What is Title VII?
2. What is comparable worth?
3. How can public policy address occupational gender discrimination?
Week 10: Work & Inequality II
Tuesday March 22: Racial Discrimination
Readings:
1. Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. 2004. “Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than
Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination.” The
American Economic Review 94(4): 991-1013.
2. Selections (TBA) from Moss, Philip and Chris Tilly. 2001. “Employer Perceptions of
Race and Skill.” Pp. 85-155 in Stories Employers Tell: Race, Skill, and Hiring in
America. New York: Russell Sage.
3/22 Key Concepts:
 Race
 Skill
 Soft Skills
3/22 Reading Response Questions:
1. What is the relationship between human capital theory (see Volti Ch 7) and the Moss &
Tilly reading?
2. What are soft skills? Why are they important? (Note: There is not one clear definition of
soft skills, so use what is available in the readings for your definition)
Thursday March 24: Intersections of Race and Gender
Readings:
1. Macdonald, Cameron. L., & Merrill, D. 2009. “Intersectionality in the Emotional
Proletariat: A New Lens on Employment Discrimination in Service Work.” Pp. 113-134
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In Service Work: Critical Perspectives, edited by M. Korczynski & C. L. Macdonald.
New York: Routledge.
2. Pager, Devah. 2003. “The Mark of a Criminal Record.” American Journal of Sociology,
108(5): 937-975.
3/24 Key Concepts:
 Intersectionality
3/24 Reading Response Questions:
1. What is intersectionality, or an intersectional lens? (Note: Again, there is not one clear
definition of intersectionality, so use what is available in the readings for your definition)
2. Bertrand & Mullanaithan and Pager show clear evidence of discrimination in hiring. How
can public policy address this practice?
--- ESSAY 2 DUE MONDAY MARCH 21, 5PM ---
Week 11: Twenty-First Century Work
Tuesday March 29: Flexibility and Precarity
Readings:
1. Powell, Walter. 2001. "The Capitalist Firm in the Twenty-First Century: Emerging
Patterns in Western Enterprise." Pp. 33-68 in The Twenty-First-Century Firm: Changing
Economic Organization in International Perspective, edited by P. DiMaggio. Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press.
2. Kalleberg, Arne. L. (2009). “Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations
in Transition.” American Sociological Review 74(1): 1-22.
3/29 Key Concepts:
 New economy
 De-industrialization
 Flexibility
 Precarity
3/29 Reading Response Questions:
1. According to Powell, what are some of the characteristics of the "new economy" or
"decentralized capitalism"?
2. What is precarity/precarious work?
Thursday March 31: Unemployment & the Gig Economy
Readings:
1. Volti Ch 11: Life on the Job I: Work and Its Rewards, pp. 195-205 ONLY
2. Additional reading TBA
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3/31 Key Concepts:
 Unemployment
 Gig economy
3/31 Reading Response Questions:
1. What is the definition of unemployment? Who is not included in this definition?
2. What is “gig” work and how is it different from the traditional model of work?
--- TOPIC FOR FINAL ESSAY DUE FRIDAY APRIL 1, 5PM by EMAIL ---
Week 12: Workforce Development Policy & Globalization
Tuesday April 5: Workforce Development Policy
Readings:
1. Mangum, Garth. 2000. “A Thirty-Five-Year Perspective on Workforce Development
Programs.” Pp. 265-274 in Back to Shared Prosperity: The Growing Inequality of
Wealth and Income in America, edited by R. Marshall. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.]
2. Lafer, Gordon. 2004. “What is ‘Skill’? Training for Discipline in the Low-Wage Labour
Market.” Pp. 109-127 in The Skills That Matter, edited by C. Warhurst, E. Keep & I.
Grugulis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
4/5 Key Concepts:
 Labor market
 Employment policy
 Skills and skills gap
4/5 Reading Response Questions:
1. What is a "skills mismatch"?
2. Workforce development is the primary policy solution to unemployment. Can you
suggest an alternate policy solution to unemployment?
Thursday April 7: Globalization
Readings:
1. Volti Ch 6: Globalization
2. Firebaugh, Glenn. 2003. "Massive Global Income Inequality: When Did It Arise and
Why Does It Matter?" Pp. 3-14 in The New Geography of Global Income Inequality.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4/7 Key Concepts:
 Global labor market
 Income inequality
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4/7 Reading Response Questions:
1. What are some of the negative effects of globalization for the US? Are there ways that
policy can mitigate these effects?
2. According to Firebaugh, when and why did massive global income inequality arise?
Week 13: Globalization and the Future of Work; Wrapping Up
Tuesday April 12: Immigration and Work
Readings:
1. Choose one of the following:
a. Bonacich, Edna and Richard Appelbaum. 2000. “Introduction.” Pp. 1-25 in
Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
b. Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette. 2001. “Chapter 1: New World Domestic Order.” Pp.
3-28 in Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of
Affluence. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
4/12 Key Concepts:
 Globalization, Global corporation
 Immigration
 Inequality
4/12 Reading Response Questions:
1. According to Bonacich and Appelbaum, what are some of the reasons that sweatshops
have returned to the US?
2. What two reasons does Hondagneu-Sotelo give for the shift in domestic workers from
African-American to Latina?
Thursday April 14: Wrapping Up
Readings:
1. Volti Ch 15: Conclusion: Work Today and Tomorrow
No Key Concepts or Reading Responses today
Week 14: Makeup Class
Tuesday April 19: Makeup Day
Thursday April 21: BRANDEIS FRIDAY
PASSOVER AND SPRING RECESS APRIL 25-29
--- ESSAY 3 ON TOPIC OF YOUR CHOOSING DUE FRIDAY MAY 6 BY 5:00PM --13