Work and Economic Life

Ask a child what 'work' they hope to do when they grow up, and the answer will almost certainly describe paid employment -- a job. That is the most common understanding of work in the modern world, but it is also an oversimplified one. A great deal of the work that keeps households and communities running is never recorded as paid employment at all: much of what is called the informal economy -- transactions that fall outside regular, registered employment, sometimes involving cash for services and often involving the direct exchange of goods or services -- never shows up in official employment statistics. Sociology therefore defines work more broadly, as any expenditure of mental or physical effort, paid or unpaid, aimed at producing goods or services that meet human needs. …