Charles Koeber

W/age bias in worker displacement: how industrial structure shapes the job loss and earnings decline of older American workers

Abstract This paper examines age differences in patterns of worker displacement and employment and earnings changes of displaced workers. Data from the 1998 Displaced Worker Supplement (DWS) of the Current Population Survey (CPS) indicate that older displaced workers possessed higher weekly wages than did younger workers at the time of their displacement. Moreover, older displaced workers suffered greater amounts of earnings loss than did younger displaced workers. Older workers, more often than younger workers, were displaced from jobs in the goods-producing sector. We attribute this age and industry difference in displacement to the higher earnings premium of older workers in the goods producing sector relative to the earnings premium of older workers in the service-producing sector. The age bias against older displaced workers may be viewed as part of social structural changes in the economy that have reduced the wage premium of the more expensive age segment of the workforce within industries that may economically benefit the most.

On the outside Teaching in: Using Internet Video-Conferencing to Instruct an Introductory Sociology Course from a Remote Location.

This study uses a quasi-experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of Internet videoconferencing technology. The instructor used a laptop, webcam, high-speed DSL connection, and Polycom™ Viewstation to teach a course unit of introductory sociology from a remote location to an experimental group of students in a large multimedia classroom. The same instructor taught a control group of introductory sociology students without videoconferencing. The groups were compared using exam scores, attendance, classroom observations, and student evaluations. The use of Internet videoconferencing did not affect exam scores or attendance. However, it substantially lowered student evaluation scores. In comparison to classroom-based instruction and due to problems with and limitations of the technology, students experienced greater difficulty communicating with the instructor, felt more separated, and were less engaged in the course. Therefore, they perceived the instructors teaching to be less effective, and evaluations reflected lower scores, thereby “punishing” the instructor. Symbolic interactionism is used to interpret the results. This research is compared and contrasted with a previous study conducted by one of the authors (Koeber 2005), also published in Teaching Sociology, which yielded opposite results. In Koebers study the instructor was rewarded with favorable student evaluations for the use of new technology that enhanced engagement. We conclude that when instructors choose whether or not to use Internet videoconferencing, they must weigh the potential benefits associated with bridging distance gaps versus potential costs associated with reduction in quantity and quality of symbolic interaction that may cause students to disengage.

Self-Service in the Labor Process Control and Consent in the Performance of “Consumptive Labor”

Consumers not only consume. They are increasingly being used by retail and service organizations to perform work-like tasks in the manner of quasi-employees. To explore this role of consumers in the labor process, we use the term consumptive labor and focus on one prevalent form of consumptive labor: self-service. Business organizations obviously benefit from self-service, primarily through increasing the amount of labor during the workday, without incurring additional labor costs. However, it is less apparent why consumers so willingly participate in self-service given that, unlike employees, they are not bound by a contractual agreement or compensated with a wage. What is the perceived benefit of self-service to consumers? We propose a theory of the labor process that synthesizes the works of Michael Burawoy and George Ritzer and suggests that organizations manufacture consent of consumers to self-service by appealing to their desires for a “McDonaldization” of consumer experience. From this theory, we derive and test hypotheses using data from a survey of 519 college students. Results lend support to this theory. The majority of the sample preferred to use self-service when it was available. Moreover, the stronger their belief that self-service enables them to put into practice the principles of McDonaldization, the stronger respondents’ preference to use self-service and the greater their actual use of self-service. We conclude by critically analyzing issues relating to self-service, illuminating problems and issues associated with the essence of the social relations of self-service but which consumers do not easily recognize in its ostensibly favorable appearance.

Consumptive Labor: The Increasing Importance of Consumers in the Labor Process

In this article I demonstrate that consumers not only consume, but the work-like tasks they perform while consuming constitute an increasingly important part of production. To theoretically explore the labor of consumers, I introduce the term consumptive labor and three ideal types of consumptive laborers: (1) consumer as quasi-employee, (2) consumer as quasi-supervisor, and (3) consumer as quasi-marketer/advertiser. Those espousing a management perspective argue that the use of consumers in the labor process improves customer service. Alternatively, using a labor process perspective, I demonstrate that organizations use consumptive labor to maximize the production of surplus value from paid employees and tighten control over the labor process. Although consumptive labor may yield benefits for consumers and especially business organizations, it also raises cause for concern. When organizations use consumers as quasi-employees, they may reduce the employment of service workers. By using consumers as quasi-supervisors, organizations may reduce supervisory employment and/or increase levels of stress in the work environment. When using consumers as quasi-marketers and advertisers, organizations perpetuate an excessively materialistic culture that values brands, products, and services over the well-being and needs of people.

Downsizing in America: Reality, Causes, and Consequences.By William J. Baumol, Alan S. Blinder, and Edwared N. Wolff. Russell Sage Foundation, 2003. 321 pp. Cloth,

In this comprehensive study of 1980s’ and 1990s’ downsizing, economists Alan Baumol, Alan Blinder, and Edward Wolff pursue the answers to three main research questions. First, they attempt to clarify to what extent firms reduced the size of their work forces. The authors argue that much of what ostensibly appeared as downsizing was, in reality, a “regression toward the mean”: larger firms and firms in shrinking industries downsized and smaller firms and firms in growing industries upsized. For instance, while downsizing occurred in large manufacturing firms, smaller retail and service firms experienced upsizing. Also, they argue that many have conflated downsizing with the “churning” of labor that occurs with the restructuring of a firm. While restructuring firms fire some types of workers, they hire others. Subsequently, the size of their overall work forces do not contract, and may even increase (upsize) over time. The second research question explores the consequences of downsizing. The authors bust some popular managerial myths. They argue that downsizing was not an effective strategy to increase competitiveness, nor did it improve productivity. Downsizing did increase profitability by virtue of reducing the cost of labor and “squeezing” savings in wages into profits. However, these profits did not translate into higher stock prices, as stock prices of downsizing firms tended to fall. Unfortunately, with regard to consequences for workers, rather than busting myths, the findings reinforce the reality of what many of the downsized already know: downsizing, restructuring, and churning all added up to increased turbulence in the labor market. Workers changed jobs and industries substantially more often than in the past. The third research question addresses the factors that influenced firms to downsize. Here the authors make their most important contribution to the literature, as studies of the causes of job displacement are lacking. To examine these influences the authors test six interrelated hypotheses:

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participation in Quebec over the period 197993. Their detailed analysis of welfare entries, exits, and duration marks an important contribution to our understanding of participation dynamics. Also on the topic of social assistance, Constantine Kapsalis studies how benefit rate changes affect the employment rate of lone mothers. This work is in response to significant changes in benefit rates in Ontario in recent years. The author finds that a

Manufacturing Advantage: Why High-Performance Work Systems Pay off

1,000 increase in benefit rates reduces the employment rate of lone mothers by 1-2%. The final essay in this volume, by MarieTherese Chicha, considers the impact of structural changes in the labor market on the effectiveness of laws promoting workplace gender equality. There are two such classes of legislation in Canada: employment equity legislation and pay equity legislation. By considering the challenges posed by labor market transformations for these policies, this essay greatly informs the policy debate surrounding such legislation. Overall, the breadth of topics considered in Women and Work makes it an important contribution to our understanding of the effect of labor market structural change on womens labor market outcomes. The book will be of particular value to those interested in the Canadian policy environment. However, researchers and policy-makers in other countries will also find Women and Work a valuable source of information on how womens labor market outcomes are affected by technological change, organizational change, and various institutions, especially unions. Finally, authors from all countries will find Women and Work a source of interesting case studies of womens experiences with social assistance programs.

Editors' Introduction: a Critical Sociology of Work, Past To Present'

The critical sociology of work has seen considerable growth over the past twenty-five years. The precipitant was the 1974 publication of Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital (LMC), which renewed and revitalized scholarly interest in the study and critique of work under capitalism. This pioneering book would become one of the most important in contemporary Marxist scholarship, as well as a respected alternative