Sociology Essay: Popularity of Low Paid Casual Jobs Among Young people

Question

Task: Instructions:
Write a 2,000 word response in sociology essayformat to ONE of the following questions:
Many young people undertake low paid casual work. Referring to Marxist ideas how is this work “alienating”? Thinking about Weber’s ideas on rationalisation, to what extent are bureaucracies inevitable in contemporary societies?

How do discourses of fatness discipline individuals? What are the effects and how might individuals resist? What are some of the consequences of the internationalisation of universities and the related global competition for students within higher education?
Is globalization a cause or product of the movement of people across borders?
Why are the concepts of precarity, humanitarianism, and citizenship relevant for forced migrants?

Answer

Introduction
The contemporary western society is affected by different new trends that have gained prevalence within the society. This sociology essay aims to focus on the topic of low paid casual jobs gaining popularity among the young people and hence will analyse the impact that this aspect has in general. Further, the analysis will be influenced by the concept of Marx to understand how this specific aspect contributes towards alienating. There will be discussion on the need of low paid casual jobs in young people’s lives and hence the impact it has on them and the entire society will be analysed based on Marxist ideas. The relationship between the need to progress and growth and that of alienation will be established with the adequate discussion on various concepts ideas suggested by Marx.

Discussion
The number of young people interested in engaging in low paid casual jobs is increasing with time. It is primarily necessary to understand the need of these young people to settle for these casual jobs. Further, these low paid casual jobs contribute towards the success of the organisation as it is beneficial in terms of getting the work done without engaging into any kind of long term commitments (Comninel, 2019). There are different aspects associated with this entire topic. It is necessary to research on each of these perspectives to gain better understanding of the topic.

When in school or college, students are generally financially dependent on their parents and hence they have limited access to financial sources. As a result of which, students tend to look for opportunities to earn extra cash that will contributes towards supporting them in meeting their demands and requirements without being dependent on anybody. Children tend to develop the sense of individuality after the age of 15 and hence they desire to make efforts to earn their own living. Developing sense of individuality is positive aspect however; this entire system has a significantly negative impact on the concerned individual and their career.

Primarily, these young people tend to get distracted and get caught in the greed to earn better and earn more. These low paid and casual jobs do not help these individuals to strengthen their resume and further does not contribute towards gaining long term progress in their respective career (Mayer, 2019). The educational qualification and that field that the job is associated with mostly differ and hence this conflicting aspect has a negative impact on the individual’s resume. These low paid jobs are majorly offered on the basis one’s efficiency to perform different physical based tasks as these young people do not possess any qualification or experience that will benefit them in terms of performing any task within an organisation.

Lack of professional efficiency impacts the quality of job that an individual achieves. From the career perspective, these low paid casual jobs has a negative impact on the career of these individuals as they tend to get both physically as well as mentally exhausted with the part time job and hence it significantly impacts the quality of life that the individual lives and further impacts the education aspect as well (Lavalette and Ferguson, 2018). As a young individual, they must have both energy as well as motivation to get better in their individual lives. These low paid jobs make these individual feel demotivated towards focusing on their life and the progress that they main attain in their lives.

On the other hand, these individual are not supposed to have access to so much money and hence they tend to get engaged in different kind of addictions and activities that have a negative impact on their lives. The easy accessibility to financial sources further makes them a rebel and hence they do not engage in any kind of constructive thoughts about their future. It can be hence stated that these low paid casual jobs are a significant hindrance in the progress of these individual’s growth and progress in life. Lack of recognition and lack of access to financial sources are the two major aspects that has been identified as the factors responsible for the need of engaging in low paid casual jobs in the young people in specific.

From the business organisation’s perspective, it is highly beneficial for them to appoint part time workers. Part time workers tend to charge low in terms of remuneration and it is not mandatory for the business organisation to offer these part time workers with all the benefits that they offer their permanent employees. This option of employment that lacks the need of commitment from the employer and assures quality of work is an approach that most of the organisations have been considering to gain advantage in the long run.

Lack of need of investment on skill acquisition and trainings to be offered to these part time workers is a great advantage. On analysing the labour market it has been identified that low-paid workers require training for further growth in their professional careers (Holborow, 2018). However, lack of training and educational qualification contributes towards these employees to gain stagnancy within their professional careers. Labour costs increase with the aspect of trainings being offered to them and hence organisations avoid the aspect of trainings. However, this further impacts the quality of performance delivered by the employees.

Another aspect needs to be taken into consideration; the young generation tends to experience unemployment due to various factors. These employees hence develop a sense of insecurity which hence impacts their physical as well as mental health. It is during this phase that people consider engaging in different part time jobs which helps them to maintain their living with whatever they manage to earn (Yoldas, 2018). It can be stated that this is a positive aspect associated with these casual and part time jobs where people have the opportunity to engage in employment however, this aspect contributes towards developing changes in the family income. The ideology of Marx suggested that every individual needs to engage themselves in any kind of employment as part of a social convention and it will be wrong to look at it as an economic necessity (Lohmann and Marx, 2018). Further, it has been highlighted that the issues associated with employment of people in the society includes issues with both quality as well as the quantity of work. Further, the issue associated with employment has been considered to be associated with low wages. The political economic concept of Marx recognises the aspect of waged labour as a significant aspect associated with the capitalist mode related to production.

It can be hence stated that the significance of work lacks recognition since the era when Marx developed this concept. The need of employment has been identified as the necessity of shelter, food and clothing. This aspect is majorly applicable for the young part-time employees. In a poor family, the waged family member is held responsible for the health and well-being of the other family members. There has been discussions associated with parenting as well, where the children are expected to be raised with the attributes that will contribute towards supporting them acquire standard and secured employment options.

Further, it is necessary to emphasize on the aspect that it is the society that influences all the individuals to engage in employments in order to be efficient to meet their own needs. Within a capitalist society the services and goods are not distributed equally and various political as well as social conventions influence these distribution procedures (Marchal and Marx, 2018). It is further necessary to highlight that the society generally tends to respect people who have money and hence the relationship between economic stability and social stability can be focused on. The access to money through part-time jobs helps young people to gain recognition within the society.

However, it is necessary to focus on the aspect that every individual needs to focus on engaging in employment that will assure them lifetime of work. The basic expectations associated with a waged employee demands the sense of responsibilities that will contribute towards developing a socially mediating role of employment. Further, an individual can efficiently fulfil their dreams and desires with a secured employment in the long run. However, a short term employment or an employment that fails to assure job security in the long run will not be able to contribute towards fulfilling these desires and demands.

As per the theory of alienation by Marx highlights that social alienation of people is created due to the change in human nature which is further considered to be a consequence associated with living in a society that comprises stratification of social classes (Marx, 2021). It can be hence stated that every individual focuses on being part of a specific social class through the path of employment. Further, an employed individual tends to lose the efficiency to determine the actions that will contribute towards achieving the objectives associated with their concerned lives. The employment on the other hand significantly influences these courses of actions.

Marx further considers an employee as an economic entity that contributes towards the organisation as well as the nation’s progress (Fisher, 2012). The aspect of part time workers can be hence discussed with the help of the class concept within the society. Social class is an important aspect associated with the society and further every individual desires to be part of a social class that is higher compared to the social class that they belong to at present. The aspect of employment serves the only pathway that can address the gap between these two social classes. There are different political as well as economic aspects associated with the concept of alienation.

Marx considered that there is an inextricable link between exploitation and alienation. The pre-condition of alienation is considered as exploitation. Both these aspects of alienation as well as exploitation are considered to be the foundation of capitalism. It can be hence stated that one of these issues cannot be resolved without addressing the other issue. Alienation is hence considered to be a social-economic aspect that has the efficiency to get transferred from one class to another. Alienation is hence considered to be above exploitation as it manages to successfully highlight the contradictions associated with capitalism from a humanist perspective.

Based on the concepts of Marx it can be stated that these low paid casual jobs contribute towards the aspect of alienation as the young people get majorly influenced by their respective employers and hence get distracted from their lives. Further, these part time jobs significantly contribute towards the capitalist mode of production. The activities of the employee is majorly diverted as well as dictated by bourgeoisie. The characteristics of human beings and the human desires are some of the aspects that need to be further taken into consideration. Lack of ambition and the ability to settle for less are some of the aspects that will contribute towards the aspect of alienation (Fisher, 2012). Hence, it can be stated that the philosophical aspects need to be taken into consideration to understand the impact of part time jobs on alienation.

Conclusion
It can be hence concluded that low paid, part time, casual jobs have both positive as well as negative aspects associated with them. It is essential to focus on both these aspects to be able to understand the aspect of alienation and its relationship with these low paid jobs. The analysis on the basis of Marxist ideology highlights that the human behaviour cannot be generalised, the change in human characteristics and behaviour impacts the desire and the dreams of a human being. As a result of which people have different priorities associated with the social class that they desire to be part of or the kind of employment that they desire to engage themselves in. Further, the aspect of societal power has been identified as well. It has been noticed that issues like unemployment and economic instability significantly impacts the desires of an individual and hence often people consider being associated with these low paid jobs just for the sake of employment.

Reference
Comninel, G.C., 2019. Alienation and emancipation in the work of Karl Marx. Palgrave Macmillan.
Fisher, E., 2012. How Less Alienation Creates More Exploitation? Audience Labour on Social Network Sites.tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 10(2), pp.171-183.

Holborow, M., 2018. Language, commodification and labour: The relevance of Marx. Language Sciences, 70, pp.58-67.

Lavalette, M. and Ferguson, I., 2018. Marx: Alienation, commodity fetishism and the world of contemporary social work. Sociology essayCritical and Radical Social Work, 6(2), pp.197-213.

Lohmann, H. and Marx, I. eds., 2018.Handbook on in-work poverty.Edward Elgar Publishing.

Marchal, S. and Marx, I., 2018. Stemming the tide: What have European Union countries done to support low-wage workers in an era of downward wage pressures?.Journal of European Social Policy, 28(1), pp.18-33.

Marx, K., 2021. Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. [online] Marxists.org. Available at: [Accessed 1 June 2021].

Mayer, J., 2019. List of Open Resources Used by UNC Faculty Grantees.

Yoldas, D., 2018. Marxism and Religion: An essay to reconstruct the Marxist Approach to Religion. ???????????