Time Schedule:
Christopher S Parker
POL S 249
Seattle Campus
Conceptual and theoretical issues in the study of labor and work. Role of labor in national and international politics. Formation of labor movements. Historical and contemporary role of labor in the modern world. Offered: jointly with HIST 249/SOC 266
Class description
Description: This interdisciplinary course focuses on workers: employed and unemployed, legal and illegal. It considers their strategies for improving their employment and political conditions, particularly their unions. The class offers various perspectives on the formation, internal organization, and influence of labor organizations in different industries, national settings, and historical periods. It considers changes in: the labor process; the international political economy; the racial, gender, and skill composition of the labor force; the power of workers; and the opposition to unions and workers� rights. It addresses alternatives to unions in promoting worker rights and interests. Experiences of west coast workers and their unions will supplement the readings to clarify the relationship between theory and the actual experience of work and unions.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Text: Nelson Lichtenstein, State of the Union; Fernando Gapasin and Bill Fletcher, Solidarity Divided; Gay Seidman, Beyond the Boycott; Beverly Silver, The Forces of Labor .
Class assignments and grading
Assignments: There will be a mid-term, a final, and a paper. Those in service learning will have somewhat different paper requirements than those engaged in a research paper.
