Economy and Society

Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Muhammed Fazıl Baş

Introduction to Sociology
Economy and Society
• Economy: The social institution or network of social relationships
through which the production, distribution and consumption of goods
and services organized
• The basis of the economy: Work
• Mental work or physical work
• Voluntary or compulsary
• Voluntary: for material or moral benefit
• The result of work: production of material or symbolic needs of
individuals
Work
• The basic characteristics of working
• Gain
• Acquisition of skills
• Encountering with new experiences
• Temporal structure
• Social contacts
• Personal identity
Economic sectors
• The fields of working which emerge according to our relationship with
the nature, goods and services
• Primary sector: Activities by which we extract new materials from nature
• Secondary sector: Activities through which we turn raw materials extracted
from nature into manufactured goods
• Tertiary sector: Service sector (mental work, or labour which do not depend
on production process, the working field which prepares individuals to
consume goods
Economic sectors
• The population of single societies are divided among those three sectors
according to their needs and also capacities.
• Historically, we encounter with a shift of weight in the economic
activities from the first sector to the second and later to the tertiary
sector.
• A shift from basic to complex working process
• Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions are the main reasons of these shifts
• 1923, Turkey: %90 Primary, %3 Secondary, %6 Tertiary
• 2006, Turkey: %30 Primary, %20 Secondary, %50 Tertiary
• 2000s, World in general: %35 Primary, %22 Secondary, % 43 Tertiary
Economy and Society
• The emerging discussion of the 18th-19th century: Can we conceive economy as an independent field
with its own mechanisms and laws?
• According to Adam Smith: liberal thinking, reflection of rising economic sectors in the 17th and 18th
century, in short merchants: Economy is an independent field with its own mechanism and laws. An
understanding of economy focusing on economic activities of individuals.
• Wealth of Nations (1776)
• According to the classical sociologists of the 19. century, however, there was a close relationship
between social structuration and economic activities.
• The most peculiar characteristics of modern society is «division of labour»
• Fragmentation of single production process into phases
• The pin factory example by Adam Smith: One worker can produce 20 pins per day; but 10 workers can contribute to
the production of 4800 pins per dday thanks to the division of labour (480 pins per worker)
• Efficiency and effectiveness
• Enables mass production
• Production on assembly line
Taylorism & Fordism
• The scientification of working process / division of labour
• Frederick Winslow Taylor (1865-1915)
• Scientific investigation of working process
• Observation in the factory: production duration, and movements of workers
• Calculation of optimum level and duration of production
• Alienation of workers from the working process
• Labour of non-skilled worker
• The application of Taylorism into factory: Fordism
• Henry Ford (1863-1947), owner of Ford brand
• Application of assembly lines
• Mass production-mass consumption: Enabling a satisfactory salary for each worker so that they
can buy the produced cars
• The cycle of production and consumption
From Fordism to post-Fordism
• Fordism: The production style of the western industrialist societies from the end of the 19th century to 1970s
• A rigid system: Production on assembly line. To construct an assembly line is an expensive job, and it is not
easy to modify it for new products.  A limited range of goods
• During Fordism, the production was held in western industrialist countries. It was an economic activity resting
onn nation-states.
• Shift towards post-Fordism after 1960s
• Cheap labour in non-western countries
• The headquarters of the companies stayed in western countries, but the factories were transferred tto the
non-western societies  International division of labour
• From manufacturer dominated to retail dominated production: Formerly the production process in the
facroies were determining the economy, now the sale strategies
• Sweat-shops in non-western societies
• Thanks to information technologies, flexibility in production could be achieved.
• Mass customization
Sectoral change in western societies
• Fordism
• A huge mass of working class constitutes the core of the population. «Blue
collar workers»
• Bosses and supervisor above blue collar workers
• Life long workership
• Loyalty and commitment
• Fixed working hours
• Job security assisted by social policies and trade-unions
Sectoral change in western societies
• Post-Fordism
• The factories (factory workership, blue collar jobs) transferred to non-western societies
• The rising weight of the service sector after 1980s
• «White collar workers» working in the field of information technologies yuppies
(«young urban professionals»)
• From life long workership to temporary project based workership
• Low job security
• Flexible working hours (a new alternative: working at home)
• The white collar worker should follow innovations and be creative all the time (Fordism
was resting on non-skilled jobs; in post-Fordism, it is just the opposite)
• Loyalty, commitment, trustability are no more looked for
• Richard Sennett  «collusion of character»