Describe the main types of work during different technological epochs
Overview
OER Text Material
The Development of Modern Society
Work and Labor in the United States
Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World: 5.2.1; 13.4.1. Chapter 5.2.1 reviews hunting-and-gathering, horticultural and pastoral, agricultural, industrial and postindustrial societies. Each type of society is discussed in relation to the organization of their economy and use of technology. Chapter 13.4.1 Focuses on U.S. worker history and relationships between workers and managers after industrialization, including the importance of labor unions.
Supplementary Material (Videos and Reading)
“Inequality and the Growth of Bad Jobs” by Matt Vidal
Contexts, Vol. 12, Issue 4, pp 70-72 (Available via OhioLINK). Abstract: “The share of jobs that are low-skill declined by 15% from 1960 to 2005, yet low-wage jobs have made up an increasing share of total job growth over that period. Scholar Matt Vidal discusses how the manufacturing-based, nationally bound economy of the postwar years allowed employers to pay decent wages for low-skill jobs, but in today’s postindustrial, internationalized economy, wage-based competition has returned with a vengeance.”
Triangle Returns (Video)
Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, Published Mar 22, 2011. This video explains the horror and importance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the trajectory of the American labor movement. It compares the Triangle fire to a modern day textile factory fire in Bangladesh, noting the poorer wages and more severe working conditions of global factory workers that support U.S. consumption. The video is a call to action to protect global workers’ rights. This video includes graphic depictions of death, dying and police brutality.
Child Labor in America 1908-1912
The History Place; photographs by Lewis W. Hine. This site provides pictures and details of working days for child workers prior to the Fair Labor Standards Act. Children are depicted in factories, coal mines, seafood workers, and a variety of other work. Lewis W. Hine’s original captions are beneath each photoset.
Data
50 Years of Shrinking Union Membership, In One Map
NPR, February 23, 2015. Animated map demonstrates state-by-state union membership from 1964-2014, and shows the striking decline in union membership.