Change and Development in Industrial Society - CBSE Notes for Class 12 Sociology ch. 5 (12)

Which was the last film you saw? We are sure you can tell us the name of the
hero and heroine but can you remember the name of the sound and light
technicians, the make up artists or the dance choreographers? Some people like
the carpenters who make the sets are not even mentioned in the credits. Yet,
without all these people, the film could not be made. Bollywood may be a place of
dreams for you and me, but for many, it is their place of work. Like any industry,
the workers there are part of unions. For instance, the dancers, stunt artists and
the extras are all part of a junior artists association, whose demands include 8
hours shifts, proper wages and safe working conditions. The products of this
industry are advertised and marketed through film distributors and cinema hall
owners or through shops in the form of music cassettes and videos. And the
people who work in this industry, as in any other, live in the same city, but
depending on who they are and how much they earn, they do very different things
in that city. Film stars and textile mill owners live in places like Juhu, while extras
and textile workers may live in places like Girangaon. Some go to five star hotels
and eat Japanese sushi and some eat vada pav from the local handcart. The
residents of Bombay are divided by where they live, what they eat and how much
their clothes cost. But they are also united by certain common things that a city
provides - they watch the same films and cricket matches, they suffer from the
same air pollution and they all have aspirations for their children to do well.
How and where people work and what kind of jobs they have is an important
part of who they are. In this chapter, we will see how changes in technology or
the kind of work that is available has changed social relations in India. On the
other hand, social institutions like caste, kinship networks, gender and region
also influence the way that work is organised or the way in which products are
marketed. This is a major area of research for sociologists.
For instance, why do we find more women in certain jobs like nursing or
teaching than in other sectors like engineering? Is this just a coincidence or is
it because society thinks that women are suited for caring and nurturing work
as against jobs which are seen as ‘tough’ and masculine? Yet nursing is physically
much harder work than designing a bridge. If more women move into engineering,
how will that affect the profession? Ask yourself why some coffee advertisements
in India display two cups on the package whereas in America they show one
cup? The answer is that for many Indians drinking coffee is not an individual
wake up activity, but an occasion to socialise with others. Sociologists are
interested in the questions of who produces what, who works where, who sells
to whom and how. These are not individual choices, but outcomes of social
patterns. In turn, the choices that people make influences how society works.
Class 12 Sociology: • Class 12 Sociology
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