International Change
STUDENT:
COURSE: 2001HUM
International Change and the Social World I
ASSESSMENT: Item 1
WORD COUNT: 1565
Transformations in work change societies.
In today’s modern capitalist societies, nearly every aspect our lives are structured around the notion and routine of work. Work has the ability to influence how we interact with society and our position within it, from where we decide to live, to the types of activities that we choose to participate in. In our capitalist society life is structured around a means of producing a profit in a market economy and advancing ones position in the social structure.
This form of living is a stark contrast to the structure of what we will call traditional societies, where even the term ‘work’ was virtually non-existent (Schwimmer, 1980). These societies were formed around notions of kinship and the idea of belonging, a society where status and class did not exist (Griffith University, 2011, pp. 15). Work was not considered a routine but rather it was inextricably interwoven with ideas of reciprocity, routine and leisure. The ideas of profit and paid labour did not exist in these societies, as the lack of an economy did not arise the need. Looking at the ways that the routine and ideas about work have changed can show us how society has developed into the modern capitalist society that we see today.
The Indigenous people of Australia can be seen as an example of a traditional society, where there was no definitive notion of work. Jack McLaren, as discussed by Henry Reynolds (Reynolds, 1981), states that the Indigenous people of Australia, when forced to work by European settlers proclaimed ‘that in their habitual mode of life they worked not at all’. These types of traditional societies had set methods of survival that didn’t require ‘work’ as we see it today, rather it was a part of everyday routine where ‘each activity can be named specifically but there is not
COURSE: 2001HUM
International Change and the Social World I
ASSESSMENT: Item 1
WORD COUNT: 1565
Transformations in work change societies.
In today’s modern capitalist societies, nearly every aspect our lives are structured around the notion and routine of work. Work has the ability to influence how we interact with society and our position within it, from where we decide to live, to the types of activities that we choose to participate in. In our capitalist society life is structured around a means of producing a profit in a market economy and advancing ones position in the social structure.
This form of living is a stark contrast to the structure of what we will call traditional societies, where even the term ‘work’ was virtually non-existent (Schwimmer, 1980). These societies were formed around notions of kinship and the idea of belonging, a society where status and class did not exist (Griffith University, 2011, pp. 15). Work was not considered a routine but rather it was inextricably interwoven with ideas of reciprocity, routine and leisure. The ideas of profit and paid labour did not exist in these societies, as the lack of an economy did not arise the need. Looking at the ways that the routine and ideas about work have changed can show us how society has developed into the modern capitalist society that we see today.
The Indigenous people of Australia can be seen as an example of a traditional society, where there was no definitive notion of work. Jack McLaren, as discussed by Henry Reynolds (Reynolds, 1981), states that the Indigenous people of Australia, when forced to work by European settlers proclaimed ‘that in their habitual mode of life they worked not at all’. These types of traditional societies had set methods of survival that didn’t require ‘work’ as we see it today, rather it was a part of everyday routine where ‘each activity can be named specifically but there is not