The Sociology of Work: Structures and Inequalities - Essay Example

Contemporary Globalization Globalization was an integration and interaction process among the people, industries/companies, and the governments of different nations across the globe. Investment and international trade was the key driving factors of globalization. It was further aided by information technology, which created awareness, advocated, or denounced certain changes in the nation’s position in trade. It served as a mirror that the modern day people used to tell where the world stood. The globalization thing had effects on people’s culture as they interacted and exchanged values and ideas across the world. The environment was also affected by this in terms of waste materials from the production processes, carbon footprints that were associated with global warming and increase in hazardous wastes, which risked even the lives of people. National politics was also affected by this as the government was bent into luring potential investors into their Nation. In the developing and underdeveloped countries, this was very much pronounced as the foreign investors dictated the political states of these Nations before they could move in and invest or participate in trade on the same platform. The prosperity of a Nation and its economic development relied very much on globalization. This enabled the Nation to participate in international trade platforms where it could generate foreign income for its nationals from exporting what it could produce in surplus. The nation also stood to enjoy access to goods and services that it could not produce by importing from other Nations, example being like the case of crude oil. The economy of a country could either be elevated or downsized depending on the difference between their imports and exports. Globalization also had a pronounced effect on peoples physical well being in communities across the globe. This was as a result of better living standards coming directly and indirectly from the salary and wages in the international trade, access to social amenities and improved infrastructure that came as a result of increased investment in a society. Negative effects were also possible in cases where the incoming foreign companies compromised the society’s morals, cultural practices and the environmental cleanliness. Increase in the level of Technology and the current policies had led to increased trade, migration, and investment across the borders. Technology had played a very important role in the globalization. (Vallas, 2009, p.33) Development in information technology gave a platform for interaction between buyers, brokers, sellers, agents, owners, and all sorts of people to interact and do business across the world without necessarily having to travel. Transactions involving transfer of assets and business dealings with far business partners could be accomplished easily at the comfort of one’s home. The platform also allowed one to know about business opportunities across the world and large corporations and companies could set out a foreign subsidiary or an outlet through collaborating with foreign companies. Contemporary globalization was deeply controversial with proponents arguing that it allowed poor and undeveloped nations and their citizens to develop in their economies and improve their living standards. Consequently, the opponents asserted that the globalization and international trade only served to benefit the large international corporations, mostly of the Western World at the expense of the local enterprises, people’s culture, and the rights of the common people. The resistance to globalization based on these two different schools of thought has taken shape, both at the ground level and at the government level (Vallas, 2009, p.368). This has resulted as the people and the government attempt to manage the flow of capital, goods, labour, and also the ideas that made up the globalization wave. The people were divided with workers on one side, the employers on the other, the community, and the Government as the stakeholders. The workers had alleged claims of exploitation and the Government had responded by setting laws and regulations protecting the workers as well as taking into consideration the welfare of the employers whose revenues provided taxes that sustained and helped run the Government. The general health of the community and the environment was also at risk owing to some production processes that was unfriendly to the environment, destabilizing the ecological niches, and causing degradation and pollution. The government enacted laws governing the production processes and the manner in which businesses were to be conducted to curb this problem. Globalization had arisen mostly due to demand and its rapid development was facilitated by increased in information technology and developed trade policies in the international platform. Improved infrastructure, means and modes of transport was also a key driving factor to contemporary globalization. Nations were able to benefit from goods and services that otherwise would have been economically challenging to produce by themselves through imports. It also enjoyed foreign income from the exportation of the goods and services that it produced cheaply and could not consume to a ready and available market at an economical advantage to other Nations. This strengthened the bond between Nations, corporations, and multinational companies who participated in the trade and led to improved economic and social welfare of the participants. The fast, cheap, and far globalization had opened avenues for fast channelling of goods, capital and labour across the globe. The society was set to benefit in this in many ways. Skilled personnel’s who lacked a position to utilize their skills in their Nations could seek to render their services in other Nations. The National Governments had set platforms for these exchange programs where they exported or imported skilled labour as demanded by their industrial requirements. Large corporations and multinational companies were not left behind. They had their workers to work anywhere in the world where they had their businesses and interests. This was mostly based on the choice of the workers though sometimes it worked against the workers where a worker had no option but to comply with the job transfers, either within the same nation or to another country. This affected the social lives of the workers and their family lives whereby a wife could be working in Europe, the husband in Russia and their son in Africa. However, the Government had put into place regulations that tried to safeguard the interest of the employer but to some extent, such scenarios were inevitable. In such scenarios, the family institution was compromised, and this has contributed to single parenthood in America. The social lives and rights of the workers were also compromised as sometimes their careers was so demanding leaving them with little or no time for social activities. Marriage and raising a family was no longer a priority as people struggled to build up their careers, climb the corporate ladder, attain a financial stability that came with it before they could settle for marriage, and raise a family. More often, this did not happen and they ended retiring very late in life, having saved nothing and they had to rely on compensation schemes, life insurance schemes and pension schemes which were barely enough to see them through their retirement lives. Globalization had also taken a path that was gender biased. Certain fields of work seemed to favour one gender over the other. Research found that the people’s aspirations were shaped by their perception about their competence in the particular field. These competencies were gender biased. Globalization had many benefits to the society and nations. It had led to increased in better living standards, self reliance and financial independence. Better standards of living had led to an increase in the life expectancy level. The rapid growth in economy had led to better and improved infrastructure, better provision of social amenities, security, and better health care by the government to its subjects. The workers also tended to benefit by having an opportunity to sell their skills and services across nations where their skills and services were high in demand and they could get a better returns for them than in their countries. In developing and underdeveloped nations, they enjoyed the benefit of rapid industrious growth as a result of foreign investment and business transactions (Vallas, 2009, p 370). They could also export their labour to countries where it was most needed and this increased their revenues in income taxes. At the family level, it had led to more independent and financially stable families. In some cases, the wife could decide to be the homemaker and tackle the family matters and social life while the husband was the breadwinner. In some cases, both the spouses would be career oriented and this put the family life at a risk as they struggled to balance between work, family and social life. In most of these cases, the family opted to postpone having children in the marriage until they had satisfactorily excelled in their careers (Vallas, 2009, p.54). Reference " Vallas, Steven P, William Finlay, and Amy S. Wharton. The Sociology of Work: Structures and Inequalities. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print. Read More