Work, Industry and the Industrial Society
What this domain tests
This section examines work and industrial organisation: formal and informal employment, labour markets, trade unions and newer service and gig work. Questions test how work is socially organised, not only technically defined.
Core concepts
- Formal and informal work: formal work has contracts, social security and legal protection; informal work lacks secure protection.
- Organised and unorganised sectors: organised enterprises are registered and regulated; unorganised enterprises are not. A worker can be informal even inside an organised firm.
- Taylorism: scientific management that breaks work into simple, timed tasks.
- Fordism: mass production with standardised goods and relatively stable wages; post-Fordism involves flexible production and services.
- Trade unions: collective organisations that bargain over wages and conditions.
- Gig work: platform-mediated, task-based work with uncertain earnings and little social security.
Worked example
A garment factory supplies branded clothing but hires most sewers through contractors without written contracts. Reasoning: the factory belongs to the organised sector, yet the workers are informal. The brand’s global supply chain gains flexibility while the workers bear the risk. Analysing only the factory’s registration would miss the employment relationship.
Traps that cost marks
Do not equate informal work with unorganised enterprises. Do not assume industrial society consists only of factories. Do not treat trade unions as always disruptive; they are collective bargaining institutions. Avoid claiming gig work is automatically “free” or “flexible” for workers.