When purchasing any product for our consumption, there is an associated idea: the direct and indirect intervention of many workers. So, when we buy a soccer ball, we know that there are a number of productive activities connected with it. Division of Labor
All these processes and activities can be expressed with one idea: the division of labor.
In primitive human communities there was already a rudimentary notion of the division of labor
The men were dedicated to hunting and fishing, as well as manufacturing tools and defending their community against aggressors. At the same time, the women performed other tasks: raising children, gathering fruit and making utensils for daily life.
in the capitalist system
Capitalist system theorists such as Adam Smith in the 18th century argued that the key to the development of wealth in a nation lay in the division of labor. This division involves the specialization of workers in very specific tasks. With this productive model typical of capitalism , craft activities were left aside, as with just one producer, various tasks were carried out.
The division of labor in Marxist philosophy
Karl Marx argued that the division of any labor activity inevitably led to an unequal distribution of wealth. Thus, while some have the means of production (capitalists), others become subjugated and aligned individuals (workers).
On the other hand, as a result of the division of labor, they end up creating different social classes. This fact is the basis of what Marx called the class struggle, that is, the historical confrontation between the oppressors and the oppressed.
For Marx, this situation is unfair and must be overcome by a communist system where there is no private property and the means of production belong to the community.
The division of labor for Emile Durkheim
This nineteenth-century French sociologist approached the division of labor from the cooperative relationship between the individual and the living community. This relationship has two planes:
1) solidarity in primitive societies based on mutual support among individuals who form a community;
2) solidarity in complex societies, where each individual has a specific role in the general framework of a large social gear .
