Sociology 117: The Sociology of Work
Brandeis University
Fall 2007
Instructor: Eva Fodor
Email: fodore@brandeis.edu
Office hour: Mondays and Thursdays, 10:30-11:30.
Office: Pearlman 66-208
Course Description:
Work matters. Not only does it determine one’s financial opportunities, it also shapes
identity, creates meaning and social prestige, and it is the major inter- and intragenerational contributor to someone’s class position. Thus the vast and ongoing
transformations in the social organization of work have profoundly changed the lives of
people all over the world. In this course we will focus on what happened in the United
States and discuss both the historical/macro –sociological aspects of these changes, as
well as the personal experience at the top and the bottom of the occupational hierarchy.
In this course we define work very broadly to include different types of paid and unpaid
forms labor and their relationship to each other: factory, blue collar as well as managerial
and professional work, but also emotional work, paid and unpaid domestic work, care
work, sex work, etc. Such conceptualization will highlight the multitude of activities we
do every day and the assumptions embedded in the definition of some as “work” to be
paid and others as not work, unpaid, done out of pleasure, love or altruism.
Please note that of the many possible angles a course on the sociology of work could take
this one will focus on social inequalities, and especially (although not at all exclusively)
on the construction of gender and gender inequalities. Through the lens of gender we will
explore, among other issues, changes or lack thereof, in the labor market, in what we call
a workplace, in job segregation, the work ethic, the work process as well as the time and
energy we spend doing “work”.
Course Requirements:
Grading will be based on the following:

Participation (20%)- attendance, contributions to class discussions, and 6
“reaction papers”.
This is a seminar –type, discussion based course, so you must read the assignments
before each of our meeting. Your participation grade will reflect your attendance, as well
as the quantity and especially quality of your contributions to the class discussions. In
addition, you are required to submit a “reaction paper” 6 times during the semester.
Reaction papers are not longer than a single, single spaced page, and include a 2paragraph summary of the readings, as well as 2 addition paragraphs of reflections and/or
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questions for discussion. You can pick any class meeting to write a reaction paper for, as
long as you submit the paper in hard copy by the time the class starts. No electronic
versions or late papers will be accepted.
 Take home exams (two, 25% each)
Halfway, and almost at the very end of the semester I will give you a set of essay
questions, which you will answer at home, in roughly 5-8 pages in length. This should be
a demonstration of how well you understood and synthesized the readings and discussion
material.
 Mini research paper (about 10 pages, 30%)
To be described in more detail on a separate sheet.
Required Readings:
Amy S. Wharton. 2006. Working in America: Continuity, Conflict and Change.
Mayfield Publishing Company. 3RD EDITION!!!!!!
Note: Almost 50% of the readings have been changed since the 2nd edition, so make sure you get the 3rd,
published in 2006.
Ruth Milkman. 1997. Farewell to the Factory: Auto Workers in the Late 20th Century. Berkeley, CA: UC
Press.
Barbara Ehrenreich. 2001. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Metropolitan/Owl Books.
Arlie Russell Hochschild. 1997. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work.
An Owl Book.
Christine Williams. 1995. Still a Man’s World: Men Who Do Women’s Work. Berkeley, CA: UC Press.
Jennifer Pierce. 1996. Gender Trials: Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms. Berkeley, CA: UC
Press.
Pierette Hondagneu-Sotelo 2007 (2nd edition). Domestica. Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the
Shadows of Affluence. Berkeley, CA: UC Press.
Readings marked with an * will be available on Web CT or distributed in class. The books are in the
bookstore.
Additional notes:
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
see me immediately.
If a student violates university policies on academic integrity as stipulated in
Section Three of Rights and Responsibilities, s/he could fail an assignment, the
course, and/or be suspended from the university. Please read the handbook or see
us for definitions of plagiarism.
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Detailed schedule of readings and topics:
Week 1: Introductions
Thursday (August 30)
No readings assigned
Theme 1: The transformations of blue collar work and the labor market since the turn of
the 20th c.
What is Fordism and Taylorism and what are the social consequences of Taylorist work
organization? How did this change over the years? We will explore transformations in
industrial production in the US economy in general and specifically in a prominent
industry: automaking. We will pay special attention to how these changes affect people’s
life experience and opportunities.
Week 2: Changes in production- early 20th century.
No class on Monday, Sept 3- Labor Day
Wednesday (Sept 5)
Read: Jacoby, “The Way it Was: Factory Labor Before 1915” in Wharton;
Crittendon, “How Mothers’ Work was “Disappeared” in Wharton;
Meyer, “The Evolution of the New Industrial Technology” in Wharton.
Thursday (Sept 6)
Read: Taylor, “The Principles of Scientific Management” in Wharton;
Braverman,”The Division of Labor” in Wharton.
Also, read about the “Hawthorne experiment” on the web.
Week 3-4: Automakers
Monday and Wednesday (Sept 10, 12)
We will watch and discuss Michael Moore’s documentary, “Roger and Me”
Read: Powell, “The Capitalist Firm in the 21st Century”, in Wharton
Start reading: Milkman, Farewell to the Factory
No class on Thursday, Sept 13 - Rosh Hashanah
Monday (Sept 17)
Read: Milkman, Farewell to the Factory, chapters 1-2, pp. 1-51
Wednesday (Sept 19)
Read: Milkman, Farewell to the Factory, chapter 4, pp. 93-137
Thursday (Sept 20)
Read: Milkman, Farewell to the Factory, chapter 5, pp. 138-182
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Week 5: The new workplace, new types of jobs
Monday (Sept 24)
Read: Zuboff, “In the Age of the Smart Machine” in Wharton;
Head, “On the Digital Assembly Line” in Wharton;
*Robin Leidner. “Meanings of Routinized Work” pp. 178-213 in Fast Food, Fast
Talk: Service Work and the Routinization of Everyday Life. Berkeley, CA: UC
Press, 1993.
Wednesday (Sept 26, Brandeis Thursday)
Read: Smith, “Structural Unemployment and the…” in Wharton;
Vallas and Beck, “The Transformation of Work Revisited” in Wharton.
No class on Thursday, Sept 27 - Sukkot
Theme 2: Broadening our notion of work
We will examine a variety of activities and question our traditional definition of “work”.
What work activities are not included in typical job descriptions? Is housework work? If
so, is it paid, and if not, should it be? What is prostitution and what are the
consequences of considering it as a legal work activity? These are the types of questions
we will address.
Week 6: Emotional work and job segregation
Monday, Wednesday (Oct 1, 3):
Read: Jennifer Pierce: Gender Trials, pp. 14-22, 50-102.
No class on Thursday, Oct 4 -Shemini Atzeret
Week 7. Carework, sex work, body work
Monday (Oct 8):
Read: Hochschild, “Love and Gold” in Wharton;
England and Folbre, “Capitalism and the Erosion of Care” in Wharton
Tuesday (Oct 9, Brandeis Thursday)
Read: *Marjorie DeVault. 1991. Feeding the Family, pp. 35-91, Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
Wednesday (Oct 10)
Read: * Naomi Wolf. 1992. “Work”, pp. 20-57. in Naomi Wolf. Beauty Myth. New
York, Doubleday.
Thursday (Oct 11)
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Read: *Carole Pateman. 1988. “What’s Wrong with Prostitution?” pp. 189-217, in
Carole Pateman.The Sexual Contract. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
*Denise Brennan. “Selling Sex for Visas: Sex Tourism as a Stepping/stone to
International Migration. Pp. 154-169 in Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Hochschild
(eds). Global Women: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy.
Metropolitan Books, 2003.
Theme 3. Inequalities at work
In the next few weeks we will examine the experience of work at the bottom and the top of
the occupational hierarchy and explore to what extent and how the institutions involved
reproduce social inequalities along the lines of class, race and especially gender.
Week 8. Does work pay? Work at the bottom?
Monday (Oct 15)
Read: Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed, pp. 1-50.
Optional: ibid, pp. 51-120 (You won’t be able to put it down anyway.)
Wednesday (Oct 17)
Read: Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed, pp. 121-227.
Thursday (Oct 18)
Read: Wilson, “Jobless Poverty” in Wharton;
Gowan, “American Untouchables”, in Wharton;
Henson, “Just a Temp”, in Wharton.
Week 9. Class and race inequalities at work
Monday (Oct 22):
Read: Jackall, “The Social Structure of Managerial Work”, in Wharton.
Wednesday (Oct 24) :
Read: Moss and Tilly, “Stories Employers Tell” in Wharton;
Collins, “Black Corporate Executives” in Wharton.
Thursday (Oct 25):
Read: Jennifer Pierce, Gender Trials, pp. 103-143.
Week 10. When men do women’s work: gender inequalities at work
Monday (Oct 29)
Read: Williams, Still a Man’s World, pp.1-49.
Wednesday (Oct 31)
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Read: Williams, Still a Man’s World, pp. 50-108.
Thursday (Nov 1)
Read: Williams, Still a Man’s World, pp. 109-189.
Theme 4: New developments in the word of work: globalization
In the last few weeks we examine what happens when the labor market expands beyond
the boundaries of a country. How do blue collar workers fare on what is now a global
assembly line? What is the experience and social consequence of immigrant domestic
work?
Week 11. The Global Assembly Line
Monday (Nov 5)
Watch the movie “The Global Assembly Line”
Wednesday (Nov 7)
Discuss the movie
Read: Firebaugh, “The New Geography of Global Inequalities” in Wharton;
*Ehrenreich and Fuentes. “The Global Assembly Line”. In Jaggar and Rothenberg
(eds) Feminist Frameworks. 2nd edition. NY, NY: McGraw Hill, 1993.
Thursday (Nov 8)
Read: Ehrenreich, “The Politics of Other Women’s Work” in Wharton.
Week 12: Working as an immigrant
Monday (Nov 12)
Read: Hondagneu- Sotelo. Domestica, pp. to be decided.
Wednesday (Nov 14)
Read: Hondagneu- Sotelo. Domestica, pp. to be decided.
Thursday (Nov 15)
Read: “Wells, “Unionization and Immigrant Incorporation…” in Wharton;
Bonacich and Applebaum, “Behind the Label” in Wharton.
Theme 5. New developments in the world of work: flexible, part time, family friendly?
In the last class meetings we study recent changes in the organization of the work place:
flexible work arrangements, family friendly policies, the emerging new work ethic and the
simple question of work hours.
Week 13: The Question of work time
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Monday (Nov 19)
Read: Hochschild, The Time Bind, pp.1-54
Also: look for statistics online on the average number of hours worked in different
countries.
Wednesday (Nov 21)
Read: Hochschild, The Time Bind, pp. 55-144
No class on Thursday, Nov 22- Thanksgiving
Week 14: The New Work Ethic
Monday (Nov 26)
Read: Presser, “The 24/7 Economy” in Wharton;
Hays, “Flat Broke with Children: Enforcing the Work Ethic” in Wharton;
Vallas and Beck, “The Transformation of Work Revisited: The Limits of
Flexibility” in Wharton.
Wednesday (Nov 28)
Readings to be distributed on family friendly policies
Thursday (Nov 29)
Read: Hochschild, The Time Bind, pp. 197-260
Week 15: Summary
Monday (Dec 3)
Read: Jacobs, Gerson and Gornick, “Amerian Workers in a Cross-National Perspective”
in Wharton.
Wednesday, Thursday (Dec 5, 6)
Summary- readings TBA
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