Introductory description

How is work changing? How are emergent technologies, climate change and the crisis in care affecting global work? This module explores how the sociology of work understands paid and unpaid work in global capitalism. Students will read contemporary discussions about work, alongside 'classic' texts in the sociology of work to understand how work is changing - and to understand how the questions we ask in the sociology work affect the kinds of insights we produce. The module covers four broad - and interconnected - themes: technology, care, environment and precarity, to give students an in-depth understanding of the complex problem of how work is currently organised, and the grave challenges to ideals of 'decent work'.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

1. Introduction to the sociology of work.

A. Technology
2. The automated office - how technology has changed work
3. Are the robots coming? Factory work and technological change.

B. Care
4. The family, the state, the app: how is care work organised?
5. The injuries of work: dealing with fatigue, stress and burnout

C. Environment
6. Repair, recycle, export: when is green work also decent work?
7. Jobs Vs Environment or a Just Transition? Unions and green work.

D. Precarity and adverse incorporation
8. Modern slavery and adverse incorporation
9. Prison labour and the value of work.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• understand key theories and debates in the sociology of work
• critically assess commentary on 'the future of work' and the changing nature of work
• understand how technological and environmental changes are affecting work
• understand and critically assess the precarious nature of contemporary work, including understanding modern slavery
• understand and critically assess care work
• Critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the sociology of work

Indicative reading list

Adkins L, Dever M, (2016) The Post-Fordist Sexual Contract: Working and Living in Contingency, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke
Agarwala, Rina. "An economic sociology of informal work: the case of India." Research in the Sociology of Work 18 (2009): 315-42.
van Doorn, Niels. 2017. ‘Platform Labor: On the Gendered and Racialized Exploitation of Low-Income Service Work in the “on-Demand” Economy’. Information, Communication & Society 20(6):898–914.
Fortunati, L. (2007). Immaterial Labor and Its Machinization. Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization, 7(1), 139–157.
Gregson, N. et al. 2016. ‘Doing the ‘Dirty Work’of the Green Economy: Resource Recovery and Migrant Labour in the EU’. European Urban and Regional Studies 23(4):541–55.
LeBaron, G. (2015). Unfree labour beyond binaries: Insecurity, social hierarchy and labour market restructuring. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 17(1), 1-19.
Palumbo, L. (2017). Exploiting for Care: Trafficking and Abuse in domestic work in Italy. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 15(2), 171-186.
Parrenas, R. S. (2015) Servants of Globalization: migration and domestic work. Stanford University Press.
Pettinger, L. (2019) What’s Wrong with Work? (ch 1, 5, 7 esp).
Satheesh, S. (2021) Fighting in the Name of Workers: Exploring the Dynamics of Labour-Environmental Conflicts in Kerala. The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Labour Studies.
Susskind, D. (2020) A world without work? Technology, automation and how we should respond.
Taylor, R. F. (2004). Extending Conceptual Boundaries: Work, Voluntary Work and Employment. Work, Employment and Society, 18(1), 29–49.
Vora, K. (2009) Indian transnational surrogacy and the commodification of vital energy Subjectivity (2009) 28: 266
Zatz, N. (2009). Prison labor and the paradox of paid nonmarket work. Economic Sociology of Work, 18, 369-98.

International

The module studies work across the globe, and explores the interconnections and interdependencies of work in different places.

Subject specific skills

Critical reading of a wide range of academic and non academic material - new capabilities in the analysis of contemporary changes to global work.
Critical reading of theoretically and methodologically diverse material - enhanced capabilities in understanding epistemic claims of sociologists.
Discussion of sociological readings - enhanced capabilities in making sociological arguments.

Transferable skills

Enhanced capabilities in: comprehension of complex argument, development of independent lines of analysis, public speaking, writing.