ILRIC 7350 - Sociology of Work

(crosslisted)
(also DSOC 7350)

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Enrollment limited to: graduate students.

E. Friedman.

The study of work - and specifically wage labor - has been integral to sociology from the earliest days of the discipline. Although capitalism has evolved over the past century+, work remains a prism that reflects various cleavages, inequalities, and possibilities that permeate society. In this sense, work is one of the key categories of sociological inquiry and can serve as an index of a broad array of structural conditions.

In this course we review the major theoretical and empirical trends in sociology of work. After establishing the basis of various lines of inquiry within the canon, we proceed to cover scholarship from labor process theorists working within the rubric of monopoly capitalism. However, this scholarship failed to account for the often unwaged and highly gendered work of reproduction, an object of study that grew out of 1970s feminism. After covering this literature, we will then shift our attention to forms of work that have emerged in the context of de-industrialization and neoliberal globalization, while expanding our perspective to include the South. Particular attention will be devoted to the precarious and immaterial forms of labor that are the hallmarks of contemporary work regimes. Throughout the course we will assess the consequences of the ongoing generalization of wage labor, as well as how different social groups have widely varying experiences in the workplace dependent on race, class, gender, and sexuality.