Overview
Required Text: Benanav, A. (2022). Automation and the Future of Work. United Kingdom: Verso.
Topic Menu for Exam 1:Complete two essays of no more than 2000 words combined (no minimum)
in response to two of the following topics , and combine them into one document. Due as noted in your course Canvas site, via e-mail (as an attachment) and through the Canvas site for the course (Turnitin). 1. In broad terms, compare and contrast the “Marxist”, “symbolic interactionist”, “feminist”, and “institutional(ist)” theoretical perspectives on “work”, discussed in WORK, Chapter 1 (Introduction). 2. In broad terms, compare and contrast the various approaches to the study of the “labor process” discussed in WORK, Chapter 2. 3. Based on WORK (Chapter 1), JOBS (Chapter 1), and Wharton (2022) (Chapter 1), present and discuss the distinctive features of sociological approaches to the study of work. 4. Drawing as necessary on WORK (Chapters 2 and 3), JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2), and Wharton (2022) (Chapters 1 and 2), and recommended readings (on Canvas), discuss the features of “standard” and “nonstandard” employment and employment relations, from the point of view of their desirability for different “kinds” (to be specified by you) of workers. 5. Drawing as necessary (and desired) from WORK (Chapters 2 and 3), JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2), Wharton (2022) (Chapters 1 and 2) and recommended readings (on Canvas), discuss “flexibility” as it pertains to work and employment conditions and relations. 6. Drawing as necessary (and desired) from WORK (Chapters 2 and 3), JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2), Wharton (2022) (Chapters 1 and 2) and recommended readings (on Canvas), discuss the different modes of “control over the labor process”. 7. Drawing as necessary (and desired) from WORK (Chapters 2 and 3), JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2), Wharton (2022) (Chapters 1 and 2) and recommended readings (on Canvas), discuss the features of “Fordism” as a system or regime of work, employment, (inter-) organizational, and governance relations. 8. Drawing as necessary (and desired) from WORK (Chapters 2 and 3), JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2), Wharton (2022) (Chapters 1 and 2) and recommended readings (on Canvas), discuss at least two varieties of “post-Fordist” systems or ‘regimes’ of work, employment, (inter-) organizational, and governance relations. 9. Drawing as necessary (and desired) from WORK (Chapters 2 and 3), JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2), Wharton (2022) (Chapters 1 and 2) and recommended readings (on Canvas) discuss the various dimensions of “neo-liberalism” as they pertain to work and employment conditions and relations. 10. Drawing as necessary (and desired) from WORK (Chapters 2 and 3), JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2), Wharton (2022) (Chapters 1 and 2) and recommended readings (on Canvas) discuss (and critically) evaluate the distinction between “service” and all other types of work, as it pertains to contemporary conditions and trends in societies like ours.