Anthony Giddens • Sociology 6th edition

Student Resources

Chapter 20 — Work and Economic Life

1. Which of the following is not a term for work that takes place outside the formal paid employment sector?
   a) the casual economy
   b) the parallel economy
   c) the black economy
   d) the informal economy
2. What is the concept used by Karl Marx to explain workers’ loss of control over their labour power in capitalist societies?
   a) anomie
   b) pauperization
   c) de-skilling
   d) alienation
3. How do industrial sociologists characterize Fordism and Taylorism?
   a) high risk systems
   b) high trust systems
   c) low trust systems
   d) low risk systems
4. What was Piore and Sabel's (1984) term for ‘the second industrial divide'?
   a) flexible production
   b) post-Fordism
   c) mass customization
   d) group production
5. Which one of the following is not an explanatory factor for the general decline in trade union membership since the mid-1970s?
   a) the 1980s recession in global economic activity
   b) the increasing intensity of international competition
   c) the election of right-wing governments
   d) the merger of unions in different employment sectors
6. In the developed countries, more people are employed in the service sector than manufacturing, with a tiny percentage working in agriculture. Globally, which sector now employs the fewest people?
   a) services
   b) industrial manufacture
   c) agriculture
7. There are some important gender inequalities in paid employment and the chapter identifies three of these. Which one of the following is not one of the three?
   a) the division of household labour
   b) occupational segregation
   c) the wage gap in favour of men
   d) women’s concentration in part-time jobs
8. Which American Marxist theorist wrote Labor and Monopoly Capitalism (1974), arguing that technological development under capitalism deskills workers?
   a) John Westergaard
   b) Manuel Castells
   c) Harry Braverman
   d) Andre Gorz
9. According to Alan Blinder, which one of the following is not likely to face increasing challenges if his radical off-shoring thesis proves correct?
   a) accountancy
   b) computer programming
   c) banking services
   d) airline pilots
10. Which statement below most accurately describes the global unemployment rate?
    a) the unemployment rate has decreased significantly since the 1970s
    b) the unemployment rate remains historically low
    c) the unemployment rate remains historically high
    d) the unemployment rate is not known
11. The term informal economy is used to describe:
    a) work where no money changes hands
    b) the activities of small businesses
    c) transactions outside the sphere of regular employment
    d) organisations with less rigid rules and procedures
12. The estimated value of housework to the UK economy is:
    a) £70 million
    b) £700 million
    c) £70 billion
    d) £700 billion
13. According to the UK Census, how many job titles are there in the British economy?
    a) 2,000
    b) 12,000
    c) 20,000
    d) 29,000
14. Occupational gender segregation is used to explain:
    a) the belief that women control the private sphere
    b) women's increasing labour market participation
    c) the allocation of men and women to different types of job
    d) relations between men and women in the workplace
15. Which of these is NOT regarded as a feature of Fordism?
    a) the use of job rotation schemes
    b) the moving assembly line
    c) the 'five-dollar day'
    d) products targeted at a mass market
16. Which of these types of industrial conflict is the odd one out?
    a) sabotage
    b) strike
    c) overtime ban
    d) work to rule
17. In which of the following years was trade union membership lowest in the UK?
    a) 1921
    b) 1933
    c) 1950
    d) 1984
18. According to the Rowntree Foundation, which group of workers experienced the greatest increase in job insecurity in the 1990s?
    a) managers
    b) entrepreneurs
    c) professionals
    d) supervisors
19. Which one of these statements is NOT a definition of the knowledge economy?
    a) much of the workforce is now involved in physical production of goods
    b) the economy is dominated by the constant flow of information and opinions
    c) this is a phase of development beyond industrialism
    d) investment in public education and software development is more significant
20. Which ethnic group has the highest unemployment rate in the UK?
    a) Pakistani
    b) Bangladeshi
    c) Black African
    d) Black Caribbean

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