The Impact of Markets and the Division of Labour on Social Cohesion Essay

The Impact of Markets and the Division of Labour on Social Cohesion - Essay Example This paper seeks to find out if markets and the division of labour encourage or discourage social cohesion. Impacts A market can be described as a destination for goods or services intended for sale. This market is composed of customers who are people that are willing and able to purchase the goods or services that are being sold. Social cohesion refers to the ability of people to articulate or embrace each other and co-exist peacefully (Council of Europe 67). It also refers to the ability of various groups of people to hold firmly together consistently. Scholars have revealed that markets and division of labour have had a substantial impact on social cohesion in the current society. Division of labour has led to the separation of markets and employment through the differentiation and separation of production processes (Furze, Savy, Brym & Lie 55). Instead of producing similar goods and services, the various labourers in the market are sub-divided and allowed to deal with the various specialties of the production processes so as to meet the various market demands. An example of this is a shift from mixed farming to either crop or animal production as separate production lines or dividing the entire work of an organization into different work units, each dealing with a specific task. This shift in the production processes seemingly separates people from coming together and engaging in the production process as a larger group. In a manufacturing industry for example, the work units will be organized around the skill requirements for the various steps of production and marketing like product production, packaging, IT management, sales and marketing, customer relations among others. This gives the impression that division of labour discourages social cohesion. However, a closer look on the mechanisms of division of labour reveals it encourages social cohesion both local and globally through the development of the need to exchange and which in turn brings people tog ether (Council of Europe 117). This is to say that division of labour encourages the need for trade. One country could choose to specialize in producing and supplying a given product basing on their natural and capital, for example oil and gas. On the same note, another country will produce tyres and apparel. Such a situation definitely generates some form of dependency in which case the two countries need each other. The one producing oil and gas needs tyres and apparel and the one producing apparel and tyres needs oil and gas. This gives a picture of the processes of imports and exports that is seen in today’s society. In other words, division of labour defines the lines of production and this means that no person will produce all that they need in life. This creates some deficiencies of the products that a person does not produce and thus the need to obtain it from others. After an examination of division of labour, Smith (25) concluded that unlike the savage or the ancien t man, the modern man/woman is highly dependent on the labour of others to satisfy his/her full range of wants. This structure of satisfying human wants has resulted to the need to focus attention to the importance of exchange and therefore the need for increased human interactions both locally and globally. Through international exchanges like imports and exports, people across the globe have been able to come together, interact and co-exist