Man, work and society

Occupational sociology has become a new and vital subdiscipline within sociology. The field, which may be defined simply as the application of sociological principles to the realm of work and occupational life, appears to be organized around five major substantive themes.

The first theme deals with the social nature of work and related phenomena such as leisure, play, recreation, retirement, and unemploy ment. The second is concerned with the analysis of occupational structure, changes within it, and causes of these changes. A third major theme, the study of individual occupations, commonly deals with the institutional complex of the occupations-recruitment and training, the adjustment problems faced at various stages of the career, the interpersonal relation ships at work, and related phenomena. The fourth is the analysis of how the occupational structure and individual occupations articulate with other segments of society. This includes the relationships between occupations and systems of social stratification as well as relationships between styles of life and occupations. Finally, a fifth theme is the study of a particular occupation to highlight an important problem in the broader society. For example, we may study the newspaper reporter to see what is happening in mass communication, and the presidency to gain insight into the opera tion of political structure.