Schedule
September 5
Introduction.
US gross domestic
product
US
income
September 7
Friedman, The World is Flat.
Global
foreign direct investment (FDI), 1995.
Concepts |
Questions |
| Productivity |
Mode of production vs. mode of development
|
| Value-added |
Supply chains |
| Commoditization |
Outsourcing |
| Offshoring |
Insourcing |
| Economic upgrading |
Foreign direct investment (FDI) |
|
| What is the new economy (this time?) |
| What has technology "flattened"?
|
| How does technology diffuse, according to
Friedman? |
| What is Friedman's paradigm? |
|
September 12
Friedman, The World is Flat.
Recommended: A.J. Jacobs, "My
Outsourced Life: Call centers do it. IT firms do it. Manufacturers are doing
the hell out of it. Even the CIA does it. So why can't I?" [available
only on Blackboard: Readings]
September 14
Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society,
pp. ix-c.
September 19
Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society,
pp. 3-33, 112-164, 174-177, 188-195, 212-265.
Mario
Savio, Berkeley Free Speech Movement (1964)
Students
for a Democratic Society, Port Huron Statement
Engine
vs. motherboard
Bureau
of Labor Statistics: May 2004 National Occupational Employment
Concepts |
Questions |
| Social relations vs. techne |
| Techno-economic, political, and cultural realms |
| Codification of theoretical knowledge |
| Professional estates and situses |
|
| How do Bell's concepts refine/challenge Friedman's analysis? |
| How are major debates surrounding the new economy framed by
the conceptual integration vs. disjunction of (a) social structure,
politics and culture and (b) within social structure, social relations
and techne? |
| What does growth of service sector portend for unions and wages? |
| How does the post-industrial society transform education and
the university? |
|
September 21
Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society,
chaps. 4-6.
| Questions |
Concepts |
| Does the 21st century corporation continue to
move toward the “sociologizing” mode? |
Economizing mode vs. sociologizing
mode |
| Why should technological and economic innovation
be socially planned? Is it? |
September 26
selection from Daniel Bills, The Sociology
of Education and Work [hand-out].
| Questions |
Concepts |
How does educational attainment affect wages
and occupations
in the post-industrial society? |
Human capital |
| Can social mobility be explained solely by educational
attainment? |
| How does knowledge create a new social hierarchy?
|
|
September 28
FIRST TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE.
Film: "Secrets of Silicon Valley".
October 3
Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class
(chaps. 1-11).
| Questions |
| Does "creativity"
categorize a different economic class than "codification of theoretical
knowledge"? |
| How does
creativity add value to the economy? |
| What are
the institutional settings for creativity? |
| How does
the labor market organize the creative class? |
| How has
the creative economy mainstreamed the Bohemian lifestyle? |
October 5
Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class
(chaps. 1-11).
Head, New Ruthless Economy.
Recommended: Richard
Florida, "The World Isn't Flat: It's Amazingly Spiky." [PDF
download]
| Questions |
| How do the dimensions of creativity reflect the conditions of "caring sweatshop"? |
| How has the use of time changed in the creative economy? |
October 10
Head, New Ruthless Economy.
Watermill, Ashington, West Sussex, England
Henry Ford's factory
White Castle: Drive-Thru vs. frozen hamburgers
Drive-Thru Event Timer System
| Concepts |
Questions |
| Taylorism |
How does the traditional perspective on manufacturing vs. services ignore the changes in work? |
| Reengineering |
What makes the "industrialization of services" possible? |
| Enterprise resource planning |
Is the "rise of the creative class" reconcilable with the "new ruthless economy"? |
| Labor control |
How does information technology enable labor control? |
| Technological rationality |
|
October 12
Head, New Ruthless Economy.
Nicholas Lehman, "The Kids in the Conference
Room" [hand-out].
October 24
Krishan Kumar, "Fordism and Post-Fordism"
[hand-out].
Fordism and Post-Fordism
Vintage views of IBM people
Robert Reich on labor's decline and division (Washington Post, July 31, 2005)
Apple's 1984 commercial
Ford to close plants after posting loss (Yahoo News, October 20, 2005)
| Concepts |
Questions |
| Fordism vs. Post-Fordism |
How does the consumer economy drive post-Fordism? |
| Reproduction of social relations |
What was so bad about Fordism? What is so good about post-Fordism? |
| Disorganized Capitalism |
What was so good about Fordism? What is so bad about post-Fordism? |
| Is Fordism gone? |
October 26
Ofer Sharone, "Engineering Overwork: Bell-Curve
Management at a High-Tech Firm" [hand-out].
| Questions |
| How does post-Fordist management individualize labor relations? |
| Is the market a fair mechanism to evaluate and allocate resources to public institutions? Is it an efficient mechanism? |
October 31
Richard Sennett, "The New Work Ethic"
[hand-out].
Sociology of the New Economy (2003) flexible team websites
| Questions |
| How do flexible teams create value in ways the hierarchical office did not? |
| How does the collaborative workplace transform authority? |
| Why does the post-Fordist workplace value youth? |
November 2
INTERVIEW ASSIGNMENT DUE.
Manuel Castells, "e-Business and the New
Economy" [hand-out].
| Concepts |
Questions |
| E-business |
Why is the work of the network enterprise essentially project-based? |
| Network enterprise |
How does the stock market provide a flexible system for innovation investment? |
November 7
Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class
(chaps. 12-17).
| Questions |
| How do the weak ties that creative workers prefer correspond to the needs of the network enterprise? |
| How does the geographic sorting that Florida describes comprise an important setting for post-Fordism? |
November 9
Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class
(chaps. 12-17).
November 14
SECOND TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE.
Film: "Frontline: The Persuaders".
November 16
Hosoya & Schaefer, "Psychogramming"
[hand-out].
Sze-Tsung Leong, "Ulterior Spaces"
[hand-out].
Patagonia: Don't Buy This Shirt Unless You Need It
For a G.M. Family, the American Dream Vanishes (New York Times, November 19, 2005).
Claritas: MyBestSegments
Interview with Clotaire Rapaille (from website for Frontline: The Persuaders)
| Concepts |
Questions |
| Consumption |
What is anthropologically essential about consumption? What is historically specific to modern society? |
| Instrumental vs. expressive shopping |
How has consumer research evolved in its understanding of human nature? |
November 21
IN ADDITION TO REGULARLY SCHEDULED CLASS, attend campus lecture at 4:30 pm in Taylor 203:
James McQuivey, Boston University: "Accidental Big Brother: How Technology Inadvertently Tracks and Monitors Us."
James McQuivey, "RFID and Consumer Demand,"
"Can't Keep My Eyes Off You," and "Big Brother Comes to a Backpack
Near You" [download from Blackboard].
Recommended: review Friedman, pp.
128-136.
November 23
Bauman, Work, Consumerism and the New Poor.
| Questions |
| How does (the illusion of) choice frame the consumer identity? |
| How does a consumer society symbolically construct the poor? |
Is there a post-Fordist social contract?
If so, how does it involve work, consumerism, and individual responsibility? |
November 28
Bauman, Work, Consumerism and the New Poor.
November 30
Brende, Better Off.
December 5
Brende, Better Off.
"A New Game at the Office: Many Young Workers Accept Fewer Guarantees" (New York Times, December 5, 2005).
| Questions |
| What is the relationship of "technological dependence" to consumer society? |
| How does collective voluntary simplicity challenge the centrality of the post-Fordist market? |
| To what extent is Brende's Minimite way of life driven by individual choice? |
December 7
THIRD TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE.
