Labor Project Description
During this project, we initially started with studying Adam Smith known as the father of Capitalism. After sufficiently studying Adam Smith, the transition into reading various articles and other primary source media about the industrial revolution began. The Industrial Revolution gave us the perspective of the state of labor conditions back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Then we used the knowledge we had gained from the past of labor to apply it to the present labor issues of our time. Initially, we were given the case study of Flint Michigan and the recently closed GM motors assembly plant hosted by the town. This collapsed the economy of the area because up until that point vast regions of the town had been employed by the plant. This led us into the transition into current economic structures and labor issues of our current time period. As seen in the timeline above we studied different sub-economic structures present in our current global economy. There were also presentations of the various challenges that labor faces today such as increasing financial inequality as our middle class dwindles after the industrial revolution. Another example is the automation of certain jobs in factories and in certain parts of the services industry. After doing all of the background research, we transitioned into making podcasts about related topics to labor in the 21st century as the main project. My groups topic being how local businesses play a role in our economy.
Project Reflection
The greatest challenge during this podcast project was the amount of group dysfunction that our group experienced. During this project about halfway through the podcast creation process, I felt that working solo would have given me a better final product in the end. This challenge my group never completely overcame. It was hard to get certain members to communicate with the group, and also it was difficult to get some members to find the motivation to contribute to the final product of the group. It was especially during the times when Parker, Nick and I would go and interview for the podcast that I felt confused about the level of communication which occurred. We seemed to always leave behind Delaney whom I attempted to draw an answer out of as to whether or not she would like to come on the interview. However, she is always so quiet, and among an entirely male group, I often felt that she was overlooked. It was mainly this group dynamic that occasionally bothered me as Delany was not given any roles in the actual creation of the podcast. I also struggled to create communication about who was doing what with actually editing the podcast initially. I found that only under the final pressure of the deadline did the group begin to seriously communicate and work cohesively on the podcast. How we ended up resolving the issue of communication in a way was the pressure of the deadline finally getting to all group members, and creating a frantic but cohesive work environment.
In the event that I could do this project again, I would work either by myself or with a different group to achieve a different dynamic. I would redo this project solo because there were many poor decisions made when budgeting time for the different aspects of the podcast creation process. I was frustrated by how we interviewed one of the local business owners without being totally prepared. They could have been interviewed after school because they were the parent of one group member. It was certainly small daily decisions and time budgeting like this which I think made the final product less professional and refined. I think that we could have created better questions for our initial interview. We as a group struggled in the department of actually completing work in the beginning. Formulating professional thoughtful questions that drew out thoughtful, in-depth, and unique answers was a struggle for our group initially. It was only after the first interview that we realized how awful the questions we had made really were. I think that smaller interviews with more perspectives from industries other than just the food industry would have made for a better, well-rounded final product. I would also be open to doing this project again but with either a different group or a different group dynamic. I believe that the balance of people who procrastinate regularly (including myself) was abnormally high. The group was made of more externally showing personalities, because of this Delaney's small voice could not even hope to penetrate and redirect the group dynamic. I realize now that at the beginning of this project, I needed to step into a stronger leadership role to help the group work more fluidly and pace the amount of work that had to be done.
I gained the perspective of how labor today in most industrial areas is tied to a single industry and if that industry collapsed there can be negative repercussions on the employees that work there. I also learned that there are various grassroots economic movements such as the local economic system the gig economy. These economies can help to increase stability under economic strain. I learned about how while the American workforce may be better trained, many United States companies are moving their manufacturing overseas because the Chinese labor costs are lower. Before discussing current labor issues we first learned about past labor issues during and leading up to the industrial revolution. We first gained some perspective on how labor issues have evolved in the past during the industrial revolution we used historical thinking sheets to help receive information about various documents discussing the labor issues of the time. This gave us perspective and a deeper understanding of how the industrial revolution set the setting for the current labor issues we face today. During this project, we had a debate on current labor issues involving the case study Flint Michigan and the recently closed GM motors assembly plant that the town hosted. GM has closed several plants in the US and moved them overseas to China. After the debate, we created mini research presentations in groups to better understand a variety of economic models and economic challenges. There were presentations on the economic structures of the Gig, Local, and Artisan economies. Then there were presentations on some of the current labor shifts and happenings of today, Migrant Workers, Wealth Inequality, Automation, and Globalization. Though these presentations I learned more about the current economic structures taking place among the global economy such as the gig economy consisting of short-term contracts. The local economy of small businesses supporting each other in a complex financial network and then there is the artisan economy made of small businesses which produce handcrafted products. After learning about the sub-economic structures of various economies we learned about how labor fits into the current economy. The subjects discussed for labor were Migrant Workers, Economic Inequality, and Automation. These new challenges we face as a labor force in the 21st century are controversial and have many sides to them. Automation of many industries has brought both an increase and a decrease in some areas. Migrant workers have more government and wage equality issues. and then finally economic inequality has been growing in the US as our industrial revolution middle class disappears.
In this project, I was most proud of my introduction which I recorded and edited to our group's podcast. This was the first part which was legitimately edited for the creation of our podcast and I enjoyed seeing my groups reaction to it when I came to class with it. They were all very impressed with how professional sounding it was. As Nick Glotfelty, one of my group members stated, "It sounds like a and actual radio person." This made me very pleased because of how I had just thrown it together over the short timescale of one night and it later during the critique was given little to no modification between its original recording and the final product. I wish I had done more recording that night because of my seeming ability to be able to produce a radio announcer's voice. However, I thought that including the voices of my group members would be better during the interview segments of the podcast.
I constantly faced one major struggle during this project, I was not as actively helping my group work towards the goal of a podcast. Initially, I was procrastinating and not taking an active role in directing the group. I realize now that the group did need more direction to get momentum on the initial steps of creating the podcast. I certainly keep thinking about the awful questions which we formulated for our initial interview, and how much was lacking in the questions' ability to draw thoughtful relevant answers out of those we interviewed. I certainly grew at the end of this project when the pressure of the deadline grew nearer and I became forced to lead in the creation and editing of our podcast. If I were to have done this project over I would have applied more of the direction and leadership which I found near the end of this project to the initial question formulating and interviewing segment of the project. Next time I do a similar project and find similar group dynamics I will know to take an immediate leadership role to give direction to the group.
The greatest challenge during this podcast project was the amount of group dysfunction that our group experienced. During this project about halfway through the podcast creation process, I felt that working solo would have given me a better final product in the end. This challenge my group never completely overcame. It was hard to get certain members to communicate with the group, and also it was difficult to get some members to find the motivation to contribute to the final product of the group. It was especially during the times when Parker, Nick and I would go and interview for the podcast that I felt confused about the level of communication which occurred. We seemed to always leave behind Delaney whom I attempted to draw an answer out of as to whether or not she would like to come on the interview. However, she is always so quiet, and among an entirely male group, I often felt that she was overlooked. It was mainly this group dynamic that occasionally bothered me as Delany was not given any roles in the actual creation of the podcast. I also struggled to create communication about who was doing what with actually editing the podcast initially. I found that only under the final pressure of the deadline did the group begin to seriously communicate and work cohesively on the podcast. How we ended up resolving the issue of communication in a way was the pressure of the deadline finally getting to all group members, and creating a frantic but cohesive work environment.
In the event that I could do this project again, I would work either by myself or with a different group to achieve a different dynamic. I would redo this project solo because there were many poor decisions made when budgeting time for the different aspects of the podcast creation process. I was frustrated by how we interviewed one of the local business owners without being totally prepared. They could have been interviewed after school because they were the parent of one group member. It was certainly small daily decisions and time budgeting like this which I think made the final product less professional and refined. I think that we could have created better questions for our initial interview. We as a group struggled in the department of actually completing work in the beginning. Formulating professional thoughtful questions that drew out thoughtful, in-depth, and unique answers was a struggle for our group initially. It was only after the first interview that we realized how awful the questions we had made really were. I think that smaller interviews with more perspectives from industries other than just the food industry would have made for a better, well-rounded final product. I would also be open to doing this project again but with either a different group or a different group dynamic. I believe that the balance of people who procrastinate regularly (including myself) was abnormally high. The group was made of more externally showing personalities, because of this Delaney's small voice could not even hope to penetrate and redirect the group dynamic. I realize now that at the beginning of this project, I needed to step into a stronger leadership role to help the group work more fluidly and pace the amount of work that had to be done.
I gained the perspective of how labor today in most industrial areas is tied to a single industry and if that industry collapsed there can be negative repercussions on the employees that work there. I also learned that there are various grassroots economic movements such as the local economic system the gig economy. These economies can help to increase stability under economic strain. I learned about how while the American workforce may be better trained, many United States companies are moving their manufacturing overseas because the Chinese labor costs are lower. Before discussing current labor issues we first learned about past labor issues during and leading up to the industrial revolution. We first gained some perspective on how labor issues have evolved in the past during the industrial revolution we used historical thinking sheets to help receive information about various documents discussing the labor issues of the time. This gave us perspective and a deeper understanding of how the industrial revolution set the setting for the current labor issues we face today. During this project, we had a debate on current labor issues involving the case study Flint Michigan and the recently closed GM motors assembly plant that the town hosted. GM has closed several plants in the US and moved them overseas to China. After the debate, we created mini research presentations in groups to better understand a variety of economic models and economic challenges. There were presentations on the economic structures of the Gig, Local, and Artisan economies. Then there were presentations on some of the current labor shifts and happenings of today, Migrant Workers, Wealth Inequality, Automation, and Globalization. Though these presentations I learned more about the current economic structures taking place among the global economy such as the gig economy consisting of short-term contracts. The local economy of small businesses supporting each other in a complex financial network and then there is the artisan economy made of small businesses which produce handcrafted products. After learning about the sub-economic structures of various economies we learned about how labor fits into the current economy. The subjects discussed for labor were Migrant Workers, Economic Inequality, and Automation. These new challenges we face as a labor force in the 21st century are controversial and have many sides to them. Automation of many industries has brought both an increase and a decrease in some areas. Migrant workers have more government and wage equality issues. and then finally economic inequality has been growing in the US as our industrial revolution middle class disappears.
In this project, I was most proud of my introduction which I recorded and edited to our group's podcast. This was the first part which was legitimately edited for the creation of our podcast and I enjoyed seeing my groups reaction to it when I came to class with it. They were all very impressed with how professional sounding it was. As Nick Glotfelty, one of my group members stated, "It sounds like a and actual radio person." This made me very pleased because of how I had just thrown it together over the short timescale of one night and it later during the critique was given little to no modification between its original recording and the final product. I wish I had done more recording that night because of my seeming ability to be able to produce a radio announcer's voice. However, I thought that including the voices of my group members would be better during the interview segments of the podcast.
I constantly faced one major struggle during this project, I was not as actively helping my group work towards the goal of a podcast. Initially, I was procrastinating and not taking an active role in directing the group. I realize now that the group did need more direction to get momentum on the initial steps of creating the podcast. I certainly keep thinking about the awful questions which we formulated for our initial interview, and how much was lacking in the questions' ability to draw thoughtful relevant answers out of those we interviewed. I certainly grew at the end of this project when the pressure of the deadline grew nearer and I became forced to lead in the creation and editing of our podcast. If I were to have done this project over I would have applied more of the direction and leadership which I found near the end of this project to the initial question formulating and interviewing segment of the project. Next time I do a similar project and find similar group dynamics I will know to take an immediate leadership role to give direction to the group.