SOCY 1101 - Intro to Sociology Assignment #7: Optimization of Work, Less Monetary risk and More Turnover

Explain how work for unskilled workers is organized in the low-wage service sector, drawing upon Ritzer's concept of McJobs and O'Neil's concept of software scheduling.

The unskilled work of the modern era has been optimized down to its smallest nitpicking. It has turned a large portion of the service industry from peoples to robots. Ritzer describes this transformation as McDonaldization of the work. The entire workforce from the top to the bottom is under corporate optimization. Everything from the lines said by the workers to the solutions presented by managers is controlled by the corporate policy. The work is optimized for a reason though, as turnover is high. Many of the workers are young and part-time workers that often leave as soon as a better job comes rolling around the corner. Optimization helps keep the business running by making sure that each worker is easily replaceable. Work is repetitive and easy to learn so new workers can easily pick up where the others left out.

All this optimization is great for growth. It ensures that despite changes in the labor force, the company can continue to conduct efficient business. However, it is hell for the worker. For the worker, flexibility and non-repetitive tasks allow for growth. Repetitive tasks done repeatedly bore the mind and burn out workers. The optimization also allows for finer tune movement of the scheduling of shifts. With dynamic computers, shifts can be changed on the fly and workers can even be forced into the dreaded clopenings roles. The worker is essentially optimized to the point where they are replaceable sacks of meat that can be easily swapped out. With the growth of apps and software, this is guaranteed to continue to expand to other job roles. 

Useful phone number to use to figure out you own phone number

 

A while back a Verizon IT support technician showed a neat little phone number that could be used to determine the phone number of the phone calling it. While it does sound weird to call another phone to determine the phone number of the physical phone in your hands, it makes sense when put into perspective. Our office was being moved to a different location, but for business purposes, we wanted to keep the same phone number. When the new phone line was set up, we wanted to make sure that we had the same phone number.

The tech called

1(800) 444 - 4444

The call went to a telecom company, MCI, that had its automated system read the phone number that was calling it. Pretty neat trick!

SOCY 1101 - Intro to Sociology Assignment #6: Immigration, Privatization of Risk, and Involuntary agency

 2) The two terms coined by the author to describe immigrants' Contingent Pathway to Legalization are privatization of risk and involuntary agency. Explain it.

Both privatization of risk and involuntary agency is a growing concern to modern society that has crept into everyday life. Both terms are highly linked together and will need to be parsed out to fully understand the difference. They disguised as freedom of choice and flexibility. In reality, it is all about throwing responsibility onto the individual. Privatization of risk is defined as shifting the cost of the burden from the system or organization to the individual. In the case of immigrants, as described by Professor Gonzalez, instead of the companies, immigrants are now responsible for finding a visa and navigating the complex legal system on their own. However, if I explain it in this manner, many nativists and extremely nationalists might not understand the concept. They will complain that immigrants should have to jump through hoops to get employed in this great land of opportunity. They will insist that immigrants should cater to this great and prosperous land and be happy with that they even have the chance to stand in the land of freedom. So I will explain the privatization of risk in a manner more pertaining to the current situation.

Privatization of risk is just of the main facets of the global historical push towards privatization that started in the 1980s with Regan. Facilities and services once considered public, that is to say funded by taxpayers, began to be contracted out to private ventures. Everything ranging from healthcare to water began to be managed by companies looking to make profits. The ideology was that private sector competitiveness and wealth generation, the hallmarks of capitalism, should be the solution to improve public facilities and services. Instead of education being funded by the state, it was paid by the individual through loans. Instead of healthcare being universal for all citizens, it was available only to those that could afford it or were eligible for state-run Medicaid programs. Instead of transportation services offered by a regulated single line of taxis companies, it was given to third-party app services like Uber and Lyft.

Privatization of risk refers to a new development in this trend of privatization to minimize company risk by passing it onto the individual where it is the employee or the consumer. One great example is employee turnover. Businesses with high turnover often struggle to retain old employees and train new employees. This is a significant risk and costs the company time and money. The solution: employees now must have the skills from the get-go with at least x amount of experience. In addition, training is now provided through an online portal with various videos that the employee must sit and watch through. The employee controls the speed and the rate of their “training.” Here is where involuntary agency comes into play. Involuntary agency can be best summed up as “its on you to figure it out.” The system does not care if you just graduated and don’t have any experience trapping you in catch 22 cycle of needing a job to get experience, but not having enough experience to get a job. No experience after graduating? SHAME ON YOU! You should have taken some internships or worked for free to get experience. Never mind the fact that you were rejected by 5 internship programs. Never mind the fact that some companies will say internship hours do not count towards work experience. Never mind that you have submitted 300 emails to various companies begging for some work of any kind. You missed your chance and messed up, your fault. With involuntary agency, the individual is responsible for “figuring it all out.” Never mind the vast inefficiencies of the system, the individual is the one whose time, money, and effort means nothing unless it makes a profit/wield some influence. Both the privatization of risk and involuntary agency come together to make the combination of 21^st century: individual opportunity at the individual’s risk.

SOCY 1101 - Intro to Sociology Urban Infrastructure Reading Notes

Urban Infrastructure

Matthew Desmond (2017). Evicted. Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2017

• Monograph Structure:

• 8 families (B&W families) involved with eviction process

• Author Opinion:

• Housing is the cornerstone of civic life

• Democracy relies on this love of home (one’s house)

• American Dream is failing due to increased rent burden

• Housing is foundation of psychological stability

• P. 299 - “Eviction is a cause, not just a condition, of poverty.”

• P. 306 - “There is a lot of money to be made off the poor.”

• Vocabulary:

• Rent burden = 30%+ on rent

• Material hardship = Varies depending on the index used, basically if families experience hunger or sickness because food or medical care is financially out of reach. + May include heat, electricity, or phone

• Quick facts:

• P. 296 “The likelihood of being laid off is roughly 15% higher for workers who have experienced an eviction.” 

• P. 297 “The year after eviction, families experience 20% higher levels of material hardship than similar families who were not evicted.”

• P. 302 “... but every year rental assistance programs lift roughly 2.8 million people out of poverty.”

• P. 302-303 “In 2013, 1% of poor renters lived in rent-controlled units; 15% lived in public housing; and 17% received a government subsidy, mainly in the form of a rent-reducing voucher. The remaining 67% … received no federal assistance.”

• P. 303-304 “In the 1963 landmark case Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court unanimously established the right to counsel for indigent defendants in criminal cases on the grounds that a fair trial was impossible without a lawyer.”

• P.311-312 “In 2013, the Bipartisan Policy Center estimated that expanding housing vouchers to all renting families below the 30th percentile in median income for their area would require an additional $22.5 billion, increasing total spending on housing assistance to around $60 billion.

• Historical References:

• P. 301 - Mentions Progressive movement that morphed into the push for public housing → Unfortunately, morphed into “projects” - crime ridden slums

• Middle class flight to suburbia

• P. 303 - 1963 Gideon v Wainwright → right of counsel for indigent defendants in criminal cases.

• P.306 - Exploitation of wealth in capitalism: labor movements in 1830s supported by landlords b/c possible future profits.

• Conflict between freedom to profit from rents v freedom to live in home

• 
  

• Rapid rise in number of evictions

• Enforced by law enforcement - Sheriff full time job

• Moving companies that specialise in evictions

• Turgid eviction courts → large # of cases, most tenants do NOT show up

• Data mining information use to record past tenant evictions and court filings

• “Informal evictions” - landlords encourage/coerce tenants to leave (similar to workplaces encouraging people leave instead of firing to avoid giving unemployment benefits)

• Exploitation by landlords of their tenants

• Relies on government support

• Subsidizes luxury condos

• Extra profits from government housing assistance

• Law enforcement used to remove tenants

• P. 313 “No moral code/ethical principle, … can be summoned to defend what we have allowed our country to become.”

• Related Economic and Social Struggles

• Soaring Housing costs (just take a look at Manhattan)

• Stagnate incomes

• Crime rates in economically impoverished neighborhoods

• Unsafe childhood development

• Generational inherited poverty

• Deteriorating Mental Health

• Clinical depression

• Risk of suicide

• High resident turnover hampers community growth

• Racial Disparities

• Color, Women demographic affected at higher rates

• Solutions and Improvements Implemented/Proposed

• Federally funded Housing Choice Voucher Program

• Renter covers 30% of rent

• Govt covers 70%

• Rental assistance programs

• Lawyers provided to tenants in eviction courts

• Would help reduce frivolous evictions and unchecked housing abuses

• Helps tenants from needing to show up in court, esp since most have jobs

• Building new public housing

• Very $$$

• Risk of new slums and discrimination

• Possible disincentive to work?

• Author - Benefits > possible loss

• Poor want to improve and move up too

• Expand housing voucher program to ALL low-income families

• Limiting rental prices - capping potential profits

• Landlords have the freedom to charge as much as they want

• Fighting against housing discrimination

• Race basis

• Income basis

Javier Auyero and Debora Swistun (2009). Flammable. Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown (Oxford University Press). Introduction.

• Argentina - Federally owned Yacimientos Petrol Fiscales (YPF)

• Plan Jefas y Jefes - unemployment subsidy $150/month

• Initiated after 2001 economic collapse

• Lead poisoning at the Flammable shantytown (Villa Inflamable at Dock Sud, Buenos Aires)

• Birth defects

• Learning disabilities

• Residents hear rumors about possible legal settlement for their health troubles

• Environmental pollution caused by the YPF facilities

• Invisible power structures that keeps the residents subordinate

• Symbolic violence

• Invisible elbows of external power forces

• Long history of toxic living conditions in US

• Common pattern:

• Irate housewives turned into activist

• EX

• Woburn, MA

• Love Canal

• Most account share classical Marxist model of consciousness

• Physically close and aggrieved people

• Overcoming false belief/persistent uncertainties

• Using tools of reflection and interaction

• Cognitive heuristics

• Availability - tendency of individuals to give excessive importance to info that grabs their attention

• Anchoring - tendency of individuals to give more emphasis or weight on first impression

• Author OP:

• How do people who are regularly exposed to toxic hazards come to terms about their surroundings?

• US “success” cases of Marxist vision

• Argentina confused and ignorance

• Temporal dispersions of contamination → relational anchoring of risk perceptions

• Mixed, contradictory government response → labor of confusion

• Using a local resident to talk to those that live in the neighborhood helps to remove sick front that residents put up for “tourists”

• Cubist Ethnography main lesson: the essence of an object is captured only by showing it simultaneously from multiple POVs

• Focus on environmental suffering - special type of social suffering caused by polluting actions by specific actors + factors that mold the experience.

Nadja Popovich and Christopher Flavelle. Summer in the City Is Hot, but Some Neighborhoods Suffer More

• Heat island effect - asphalt and buildings amplified heat making cities hotter than surrounding rural areas.

• Poor/minority neighborhoods often bear the brunt of the heat island effect.

• Baltimore

• Belt of high heat in downtown and east Baltimore

• Rowhouses

• Cooler near the historic neighborhoods and parks

• City attempts to ease heat burden

• Planting more trees - 40% tree canopy goal

• Turning vacant lots into permanent green spaces

• Community cooling centers

• Washington DC

• Hot areas Brookland, Columbia Heights, and LeDroit Park

• Cooler around affluent Palisades neighborhood

• City attempts to ease heat burden

• Planting trees - 40% tree canopy goal

• New development buildings must comply with city “green” regulations

• Richmond, VA

• Hot areas along Arthur Ashe Blvd and around the Fan district

• Overlaps areas of low income and communities of color

• Health consequences of heat island effect

• Highest heat-related ambulance calls/ER visits

• City attempts to ease heat burden

• Planting program fell drastically in 2016 - 2017

• Only 2 cooling centers in the city

• Portland, OR

• Hot areas around the Overlook neighborhood and industrial zone next to highways

• Cool areas next to the park (downtown) and across the river, West side

• City attempts to reduce heat burden

• New requirements for multifamily housing/apartment buildings to reduce pavement

• Limit for parking to 30% of total surface area

• Only 15% allowed to asphalt

• More green space between buildings and street 

• Albuquerque

• Hot areas around the downtown area esp next to central train station and bus stations

• Cool areas on city Northeast Heights area b/c high elevation

• City attempts to ease heat burden

• New requirements for roofing materials reflect sun energy

• Solar panel push

• 
  

Daniel Aldana Cohen. (2019). “A Green New Deal for Housing,”. Jacobin Magazine.  https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/green-new-deal-housing-ocasio-cortez-climate 

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal → mainly focuses on jobs

• Misses the main issue on the housing crisis

• Author OP:

• “Best way for Green New Deal to expand, decarbonize, and guarantee housing is to build 10 million new, public, no-carbon homes in 10 years. And again.”

• Climate movement has failed to better connect the two existential threats of the century

• Homelessness

• Climate change

• “It’s time to let go of tax credits and market nudges, and get real.”

• Unequal home ownership is the single most important factor in appalling wealth disparity

• 1968 Fair Housing Act - should in theory ensure adequate, affordable housing

• Market approach to housing problems would be disastrous

• Similar to 2008 housing crisis

• Building boom w/ tax credits

• Financing through predatory loans

• Main mechanism for federally financed affordable housing construction is Low-Incoming Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC)

• Subsidizes private developers

• Public-private partnership = bloated corporate giveaway

• Section 8 housing equally inefficient

• Concentrate poverty

• Leaves broken housing market intact

• Link between social housing and public power

 

SOCY 1101 - Intro to Sociology Assignment #5: Social Production of Confusion

 

5^th Assignment:

4) What do the authors mean by the social production of confusion?

The authors point to the mixed government response towards the plight of the Flammable Shantytown as an example of a new deceitful government tactic of labor of confusion. Here, the main goal is to not outright deny the allegations being lodged against the authorities, but to somewhat validate them while at the same time doing nothing. Similar to customer service at a retail job, the point is NOT to give free things or provide a service, but to keep the customers busy while they fume away. Sure they will launch every expletive under the sun towards you, but that's perfect. "Sorry Corporate policy" and "sorry unable to" are just some things to throw out so that the customer feels validated in their complaint.

 

However, this case takes the retail position to a much more nefarious level by making sure that there are actually some actors in play that actively support the inhabitants. Similar to a "good cop, bad cop" routine, where one actor appears to be on your side and the other one appears to be your enemy. The residents are encouraged by the support they receive from random lawyers pressing for a "possible" case against the Yacimientos Petrol Fiscales (YPF). Yet in reality, their troubles have been somewhat acknowledged, while at the same time being completely ignored.

 

This labor of confusion can also be seen in today's social media age. Often there are tons of varying opinions about a subject/topic online. Yet despite all the talk and the back and forth pledges of support nothing gets done. Perfect, just the way the establishment likes it. Lots of empty fluff discussion, but no real actual change.

5^th Assignment Discussions

Khan An Nguyen

I agree with the idea of misinformation being used as a weapon. With so many conflicting ideas on a topic, it can get confusing to try to fully understand the issue; Especially for folks struggling to make the bare ends meet. The confusion and misinformation becomes so confusing that often the result is inaction.

 

This mirrors a lot of online Internet forums where the topic becomes so muddle in different supporting opinions that the truth can be all, but impossible to discern.

Anthony Shurigin

This opens up the question of who is responsible for the resident's environmental condition. In the case of the Argentinian shanty town, there is a clear culprit of the petrol companies. However, in cases like hotspots around residental housing that is already decades old who is to bear the main burden? Of course, city government is supposed to step in to relieve the conditions. But, how else are the residents to extricate themselves from this harmful environment? Can't move, because of the risk of homelessness. Can't clean up the toxins or heat without funds.

 

What is to be done?

SOCY 1101 - Intro to Sociology Assignment #4: Welfare Myths

 

4^th Assignment:

Roberts points out the welfare reform that took place under Bill Clinton's presidency was shaped by ideological assumptions, which manifest in three myths when translated to black women's reproductive policies. Choose one of the three myths and explain it.

Roberts describes 3 myths often thrown against welfare initiatives:

Welfare induces childbirth

Welfare causes dependency

Marriage can end children's poverty

While these viewpoints are quite oversimplified to the point that it seems like a straw-manning of conservative ideals, the third viewpoint is the most interesting to discuss.

It is no hidden secret that divorce rates used to be very high in the US thanks to the introduction of no-fault divorces and other more liberal policies throughout the 20th century. They correlated with the rise in single-parent homes. Statistics from around the nation demonstrate that single-parent child-rearing has profound negative consequences on childhood development. Especially Black populations were hit hard by the 1980s Crack epidemics and the mass incarceration system, leaving many families with missing fathers. This phenomenon even started its own myth of the absent Black father often repeated/parroted by different news pieces.

 

The bad press surrounding single-parent families and missing fathers spawned a reactionary solution: marriage, a return to the "good old" roots of family. The basic knee jerk reaction is to return to the old days when families were solid and parents remained married for life. Unfortunately, this attempt to use marriage as a tool to stabilize society completely ignores the emotional reasons behind divorce and does nothing to attack the actual root cause of poverty. It is a narrow, short-sighted attempt to tackle an economic issue socially. Roberts attacks this misplaced notion of wealth through marriage by pointing out that Blacks in 2 parent households are more likely to be poor than white children in female-headed households.

 

In essence, the myth takes a look at the good statistical benefit of married, two-parent households and attempts to gain these mythical societal and economic benefits by encouraging people to marry. Roberts sees this as a manipulative attempt to punish rebellious, single Black mothers, whereas I see it more as the State's misplaced attempt to improve society. Whatever the true cause may be, marriage will definitely NOT end children's poverty.

4^th Assignment Discussions

Kevin Chen

Welfare's connection to increased fertility was tenuous at best, relying on stereotypes of welfare Queens to rile up the public. The reality does not quite pan out as America does not have many benefits at all to give. Compare the US to other EU countries with better healthcare coverage and benefits, does their better welfare system increase their fertility rates?

 

A resounding NO. Interestingly, high fertility rates are present in some of the world's poorest nations with no benefits whatsoever. Nations with great welfare systems seem to be struggling from quite the opposite, low fertility (such as Japan). Controlling birth rates itself is a daunting and complicated task done by various governments throughout the world with varying levels of success.

SOCY 1101 - Intro to Sociology Assignment #3: Transgender Identity and Etiology

 

3^rd Assignment:

Tey Meadow points out families with transgender kids use different mechanisms to reaffirm their kid's transgender identity. These mechanisms are secular spirituality, psychology, and medicine. Choose one of these mechanisms and explain it.

The biomedical concept of gender is a fascinating subject of interest for transgender children. On one hand, the biomedical approach is often seen as traditional and conservative. It focuses on the clear dichotomy between men and women since birth and presents the gender differences through indisputable scientific fact. On the other hand, science provides the same scientific findings and facts to explain why people are transgender, legitimizing the existence of transgender individuals.

 

In essence, the biomedical approach is a double-edged sword. While the approach provides the most concrete explanation for the existence of transgendered individuals through facts, it also places the status of transgender into the same category as medical disorders. Explaining transgender roles through such a mindset runs the risk of stigmatizing transgender children as "broken" or "sick" individuals that need to be "fixed." It is no wonder why the current LGBT movement views scientific institutions with suspicion.

 

In the case of the reading, Tey Meadow presents the case of Sarah and her child Sam. Sam preferred dresses and displayed feminine tendencies. However, the treatment of his celiacs disease led to a sudden shift in his behavior towards more masculine traits. Doctors linked the inflammation from celiacs to testosterone suppression causing said behavior in Sam. This case then raises the question: can transgender behavior be a result of an actual disease? If so to how many does this pertain to?

 

More conclusive evidence is needed besides this one example as there is still significant debate over whether or not transgender behavior is a result of innate genes or environment (nature v nurture debate).

3^rd Assignment Discussions

Khang An Nguyen

Sam's case also opens up the scientific discussion about the etiology of transgender children. Are the transgender actions a result of genetic dispositions (nature) or the result of environmental effects (nurture)? Of these environmental effects, how many are the result of "curable" diseases and how many are the result of psychological behavior. This further opens up another can of worms in regards to whether people are "born this way" or learn through social experience.

Satifa Plass

The psychological aspect of transgender identity touches on perhaps one of the most important differences between the biomedical model and the other models. Unlike the solid facts and indisputable truths of the biomedical approach, the psychological and spiritual approach takes into account the behavioral and social aspects of transgender life. They look to gain the trust of children so they can develop in peace without the constant strain of behavioral interactions. Sean was able to form a solid bond of trust with Michael allowing for improvements in mental health and overall improvements with behavior. Sadly, that was nearly completely destroyed by CPS when they forcibly took Michael away.