Labor Studies 690L - Work and The Labor Process

This course provides an overview of the historical and contemporary literature on work and the labor process. We begin with the work of Marx and Taylor, and how, in the 1970s and 80s, their work was reframed and recast by Braverman, Burawoy a number of scholars. We then explore the renaissance in ethnographic research that has taken place over the last two decades as scholars have responded to the rise of the service sector, the growing precariaty of work, platform work and globalization in a post-Fordist world, and the new theoretical frameworks that are emerging. Our approach is intersectional?looking at how race, ethnicity, gender and class both shape and are shaped in the labor process. Our approach is also multidisciplinary drawing broadly from sociology, labor studies, women's and gender studies and political science.