S
ociology initially focused
its attention on the changes
to society that had been
brought about by industrialization.
A major aspect of modernity was
the changing nature of people’s
working lives: the dramatic shift
from agriculture and crafts in rural
communities to employment in the
new manufacturing industries.
Along with this came the growth of
capitalism, bringing prosperity to
at least some members of society.
Among the first to study the
implications of work in modern
industrial society were Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels, who saw the
emergence of two social classes:
an affluent bourgeoisie, or middle
class, and an oppressed proletariat,
or working class. But as well as the
exploitation of the working class,
the pair recognized that the
repetitive and soulless nature of the
work itself alienated the workers,
while the division of labor removed
any feeling of connection with the
finished product or pride in their
work. Later, Max Weber pointed out
how rationalization and the work
ethic combined to force people to
work for a specific economic end
rather than for the good of the
community as a whole. Traditional
communal values had been eroded,
and replaced with an emphasis on
material worth.Consumer society
For the working class, this
translated into a struggle to earn
the means to support a family, and
resignation to a life of work that
was unrewarding in every sense.
For the growing capitalist middle
class, it meant increased prosperityand leisure. The value that was
ascribed to material wealth meant
that a person’s social status was
judged by economic worth.
Toward the end of the 19th
century, sociologist Thorstein
Veblen pointed out that the
bourgeoisie could assert its social
status, whether real or not, by
conspicuous consumption—
spending not on goods and services
that were necessary, but luxuries
and leisure pursuits that would be
noticed. Colin Campbell was later
to liken the rise of a “consumer
society” in the 20th century to the
Romanticism that flourished in
reaction to 18th-century rationalism
and industrialization. Daniel
Miller saw the growth of material
consumerism as a potential source
of social cohesion—a means of
identifying with a social group.INTRODUCTION
1848
1899
1973
1974
1904–05
1964
In The Coming of Post-
Industrial Society: A Venture in
Social Forecasting, Daniel Bell
predicts the replacement
of manufacturing with
information and
service industries.Thorstein Veblen introduces
the concept of
conspicuous consumption
in his Theory of the Leisure
Class: An Economic Study
of Institutions.Max Weber describes
the religious roots
of modern capitalist
work in The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit
of Capitalism.Robert Blauner suggests, in
Alienation and Freedom: The
Factory Worker and His Industry,
that increased automation
helps reduce the alienation
felt by industrial workers.Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels
describe in The
Communist Manifesto
the exploitation and
alienation of workers.In Labor and Monopoly Capital:
The Degradation of Work in the
Twentieth Century, Harry
Braverman describes the
de-skilling of workers
through increasing automation.212