Industrialization continued to
spread across the world in the
20th century, and technological
advances led to an increase in
automation—in agricultural
and traditional crafts as well
as in manufacturing industries.
Societies, in the industrialized
West at least, became more
materially prosperous, and
fostered the rapid growth of mass
consumerism, but sociologists
disagreed about the effects of
automation on the workforce.
Robert Blauner forecast that
automation would free people from
mindless tasks and reduce their
feelings of alienation. On the other
hand, Harry Braverman argued
that automation meant workers
were no longer required to develop
professional skills, had less control
over their working lives, and felt
yet more alienated. Somewhere
between these two views, however,
Michael Burawoy suggested that
workers reconcile themselves to
ultimately dull and oppressive work
by recognizing its positive aspects.Post-industrial work
In the 1970s, around 200 years after
the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution, the nature of work
looked set to change yet again.
Daniel Bell predicted that
mechanization would take people
out of manufacturing industries,
and they would be employed
predominantly in the information
and service industries. To a large
extent, in the affluent world at
least, this has proved correct.
Another change that became
apparent in the latter part of the
20th century is that work was nolonger seen as a male preserve;
more women than ever before are
in paid employment.
One effect of the shift into what
is now known as the post-industrial
world has been identified by Arlie
Hochschild. Service industries
are more emotionally demanding
than manufacturing; in effect,
they commercialize emotion, to the
extent, she argues, that people can
associate their feelings with their
work rather than their home lives
and leisure. The social effects of
these recent changes to the nature
of employment have yet to be fully
studied; it is too early to tell whether
work in the service economy will
prove to be any more rewarding, or
conducive to social solidarity, than
manufacturing work—or if gender
inequality will be reduced because
more women are in the workforce. ■WORK AND CONSUMERISM
1979
1979
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1987 2010
2007
Arlie Hochschild’s
The Managed Heart
suggests that the
service economy has
commercialized
human emotions.In Patriarchy at Work:
Patriarchal and Capitalist
Relations in Employment,
Sylvia Walby highlights
gender inequalities in
the workplace.In The Romantic Ethic
and the Spirit of Modern
Consumerism, Colin
Campbell echoes Weber
to examine the links
between Romanticism
and consumerism.Daniel Miller argues in
Stuff that material
consumption is a
positive force in the
establishment of
personal identity and
social cohesion.In Manufacturing
Consent, Michael
Burawoy examines how
workers develop ways
to deal with
unsatisfying jobs.Pierre Bourdieu
reworks Veblen’s idea
of conspicuous
consumption in
Distinction: A Social
Critique of the
Judgment of Taste.In Assembling Women:
The Feminization of Global
Manufacturing, Teri Lynn
Caraway examines the
effects of more women
entering employment.213