WELCOME Labour Studies 1C03

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WELCOME!Labour Studies 1C03

• Johanna Weststar
• weststj_at_mcmaster.ca

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Some Definitions of Social Class

• Empirical socio-economic measures
• Occupation occupational status
• Educational attainment
• Income
• Wealth
• Marx
• Control over the means of production
• Capitalists (bourgeoisie) versus wage workers
  (proletariat)
• Class consciousness inherent conflict between
  workers and employers/managers

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For Exampleby control

• Owners and self-employed
• Managers
• Professionals and Technical workers
• Service and Office workers (white collar)
• Industrial workers (blue collar)
• Manual labourers

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CLASS

• Distinction between employers and employees
  managers and workers
• Maintenance of class separation due to
  institutional structures
• Breaking down class consciousness?
• Employee empowerment, team work, stock ownership
• Unions creators of the middle class
• Erosion of middle class?

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RACE/ETHNICITY/COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

• Globalization
• Industrial development of the global south
• Competition from emerging nations (China, India)
• Immigration
• Migrant labour
• Jobs become defined by the racial/ethnic
  characteristics of the dominant group
• wage, status, competition with other groups

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GENDER AND WORK

• Women in the labour force is a new and
  influential phenomenon
• Wage disparity pay equity
• Female enclaves womens work
• Work-life balance, child care, flexibility,
  precarious work
• Sexual harassment and discrimination
• GLBT rights
• Benefits packages

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How to Read for this Course

• Skip or skim methods sections
• Write a short paragraph about the
  message/argument
• Note the things you dont understand, dont agree
  with, need more information about
• Note how the messages of the articles relate to
  each other
• Note how the messages relate to your experience

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Race Relations

• Message
• Our choice of language and our common discourse
  about issues shapes how we interpret and respond
  to those issues
• Many key social problems have been occluded
  because of this (true for class, gender as well
  as race)
• Clear language and a recognition of systemic and
  institutional entrenchment will let us get to the
  real issues and move beyond blame

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Immigration Equation

• Thematic Points
• Jobs quickly become associated with the workers
  who do that job
• Immigrants take low-status, low-wage jobs, but
  also jobs that immigrants take or create become
  low-status, low-wage
• Workplaces and labour markets are composed of
  clusters of similar workers - therefore community
  and resistance groups are also often segregated
• Therefore whole groups can be pitted against each
  other people on the inside and people on the
  outside