Chapter12 Flashcards
(10 cards)
capitalism
The economic system in which private individuals or
corporate groups own the means of production and
distribution. Capitalists invest capital to produce goods and services, which they sell for profit in a competitive free market.
socialism
An alternative economic and political ideology that flourished in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It favours the public ownership of the means of production and distribution, and the investment of public capital in producing goods and services.
bureaucracy
A large, complex organization employing highly specialized workers who work within the context of what Max Weber called a legal-rational authority structure.
social capital
Sociologists call having larger, more varied, and more powerful interpersonal networks ‘having greater social
capital’.
alienation
This experience involves feelings of powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, estrangement, and
social isolation in the workplace.
discriminatory unemployment
Unemployment resulting from discrimination against particular groups, such as ethnic minorities and women.
structural unemployment
Unemployment caused by social and economic
factors that affect workers equally across all groups, such as corporate downsizing, capital flight (caused by corporate
mergers and the move of operations to another geographic region—‘runaway plants’), and the automation of work
processes.
discouraged workers,
Those people who are not actively seeking employment.
Specifically, they are thought to have turned their backs on the traditional work system and to have abandoned any desire to be gainfully employed.
extrinsic rewards
When work rewards the worker with money, prestige, respect, and social recognition.
intrinsic reward
When work rewards the worker with the feeling of a ‘job well done’.
