Due Sunday, October 2nd, by midnight. Word count: 400 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. If you paraphrase (which I encourage you to do) make sure to include the proper citation.

In Frederick Taylor’s work on “The Principles of Scientific Management,” he (1911:4) argues that it is a general quality of the working man that “instead of using every effort to turn out the largest possible amount of work, in a majority of the cases this man deliberately
plans to do as little as he safely can to turn out far less work than he is well able to do, in many instances to do not more than one-third to one-half of a proper day’s work. And in fact if he were to do his best to turn out his largest possible day’s work, he would be abused by his fellow workers for so doing, even more than if he had proved himself a ‘quitter’ in sport.”  In your own words, describe Taylor’s response to this problem, of obtaining the maximum output of men and machines.

Due Sunday, September 25th, by midnight. Word count: 400 words. Please note that you will not receive full credit if your assignment includes quotes. Make sure everything is in your own words. If you paraphrase (which I encourage you to do) make sure to include the proper citation.

In his writing on wage-labor, Marx argues that wages “are not a share of the worker in the commodities produced by himself.” From the text, use the example of the weaver that Marx points to in order to explain how he is characterizing the relationship of labor activity to the commodity that is produced.

Due Sunday, September 18th, by midnight. Word count: 400 words. Many of you included quotes in your writing assignment last week. Please note that you will not receive full credit if your assignment includes quotes. Make sure everything is in your own words. If you paraphrase (which I encourage you to do) make sure to include the proper citation.

In “The Making of the Working Class,” Harry Braverman (1975:15) explains that being a worker is primarily about the way that social relations qualify different kinds of work rather than a condition that we can attribute to the type of activity that a worker performs. Keeping this idea in mind, explain the distinction that Braverman is making between productive and unproductive work.

Due Sunday, September 11th, by midnight. Word count: 400 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. Do not include any quotes and if you paraphrase make sure to include the proper citation.

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber (:14-15) draws on the writing of Benjamin Franklin to describe the spirit of capitalism. Making reference to the passage from Franklin that Weber quotes at length, explain the connection Weber is underlining here, between rationalism and the spirit of capitalism.

Due Sunday, September 4th, by midnight.  Word count: 400 words.  Please make sure everything is in your own words.  Do not include any quotes and if you paraphrase make sure to include the proper citation.

Write an introductory post that tells the class who you are and about your interest in this class. Then, in no less than 400 words, write your own labor history by reflecting on the following questions: Do you work now? If so, where? How did your grandparents and your parents work? How do you think this history has affected your sense of what work is, the relationship of education to work, and your goal and hopes for the future? Given your understanding of what Weber means by an “ethic” of work, reflect on your sense of what work means to you.