1.
alienation: The sense that our own abilities as human beings are taken over by other entities. The term was originally used by Marx to refer to the projection of human power onto gods. Subsequently, he used the term to refer to the loss of workers' control over the nature and products of their labor.
2.
automation: production processes monitored and controlled by machines with only minimal supervision from people.
3.
capitalism: an economic system based on the private ownership of wealth, which is invested and reinvented in order to produce profit.
4.
corporations: buisiness firms or companies
5.
division of labor: specialization of work tasks, by means of which different occupations are combined within a production system. All societies have at least some rudimentary form of this, especially between the tasks allocated to men and those performed by women. With the development of industrialism, the division of labor become vastly more complex than in any prior type of production system. In the modern world, this is international in scope.
6.
economic interdependence: the fact that in the division of labor, individuals depend on others to produce many or most of the goods they need to sustain their lives.
7.
economy: The system of production and exchange that provides for the material needs of individuals living in a given society. Institutions of this are of key importance in all social orders. What goes on in this usually influences other areas in social life. Modern forms of this differ substantially from traditional ones, because the majority of the population is no longer engaged in agricultural production.
8.
entrepreneur: the owner/founder of a business firm
9.
external risk: Dangers that spring from the natural world and are unrelated to the actions of humans. Examples of this are doughts, earthquakes, famines, and storms.
10.
family capitalism: capitalistic enterprise owned and administered by entrepreneurial families.
11.
flexible production: process in which computers design customized products for a mass market.
12.
Fordism: The system of production pioneered by Henry Ford, in which the assembly line was introduced.
13.
global inequality: the systematic differences in wealth and power between countries
14.
global-outsourcing: a business practice that sends production of materials to factories around the world. The components of one final product often originate from many different countries than the one in which the product is ultimately put together and sold. Factories from different countries must compete with each other to obtain business.
15.
globalization: the development of social and economic relationships stretching worldwide. In current times, we are all influenced by organizations and social networks located thousands of miles away. A key part of this is the emergence of a world system; for some purposes regarding the world as forming a single social order
16.
high-trust systems: organization or work setting in which individuals are permitted a great deal of autonomy and control over the work task
17.
industrial economy: economic transactions carried on outside the sphere of orthodox paid employment.
18.
informative society: a society no longer based primarily on the production of material goods but on the production of knowledge. The notion of the information society is closely bound up with the rise of information technology
19.
institutional capitalism: capitalistic enterprise organized on the basis of institutional shareholding.
20.
international division of labor: the specialization in producing goods for the world market that divides regions into zones of industrial or agricultural production or high- or low-skilled labor.
21.
international governmental organization: (IGO), an international organization established by treaties between governments for purposes of conducting business between the nations making up its membership
22.
international nongovernmental organization: (INGO) An international organization established by agreements between the individuals or private organizations making up its membership
23.
knowledge economy: a society no longer based primarily on the production of knowledge. Its emergence has been linked to the development of a broad base of consumers who are technologically literate and have made new advances in the computing, entertainment, and telecommunications part of their lives.
24.
knowledge society: another common term for information society. A society based on the production and consumption of knowledge and information.
25.
low-trust systems: organizational or work setting in which people are allowed little responsibility for, or control over, the work task.
26.
managerial capitalism: capitalistic enterprises administered by managerial executives rather than by owners.
27.
Manufactured Risk: Dangers that are created by the impact of human knowledge and technology on the natural world. Examples of this are global warming and genetically modified foods.
28.
monopoly: a situation in which a single firm dominates in a given industry.
29.
occupation: any form of paid employment in which an individual regularly works.
30.
oligopoly: The domination of a small number of firms in a given industry.
31.
portfolio workers: a worker who possesses a diversity of skills or qualifications and is therefore able to move easily from job to job.
32.
post-Fordism: a general term used to describe the transition from mass industrial production, characterized by Fordist methods, to more flexible forms of production favoring innovation and aimed at meeting market demands for customized products.
33.
postindustrial society: A notion advocated by those who believe that processes of social change are taking us beyond the industralized order. This type of society is based on the production of information rather than material goods. According to advocates, we are currently experiencing a series of social changes as profound as those that initiated the industrial era some two hundred years ago.
34.
postmodern: quality of a technologically sophisticated society that is preoccupied with consumer goods and media images
35.
service society: a concept related to the one of postindustrial society, it refers to a social order distinguished by the growth of service occupations at the expense of industrial jobs that produce material goods
36.
social change: alteration in basic structures of a social group or society. An ever present phenomenon in social life, but has become especially intense in the modern era. Origins of modern sociology can be traced to attempts to understand the dramatic changes shattering the traditional world and promoting new forms of social order.
37.
strike: a temporary stoppage of work by a group of employees in order to express a grievance or enforce a demand.
38.
Taylorism: A set of ideas, also referred to as "scientific management," developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, involving simple, coordinated operations in industry.
39.
technology: the application of knowledge of the material world to production; the creation of material instruments (such as machines) used in human interactions with nature.
40.
transnational corporations: business corporations located in two or more countries
41.
transnational or multinational corporations: business corporations located in two or more countries.
42.
union density: a statistic that represents the number of union members as a percentage of the number of people who could potentially be union members
43.
welfare capitalism: practice in which large corporations protect their employees from the vicissitudes of the market.
44.
work: the activity by which people produce from the natural world and so ensure their survival. Should not be thought of exclusively as paid employment. In traditional cultures, there was only a rudimentary system, and few people did this for money. In modern societies, there remain types of this that don't involve direct payment
