166-246 Work and Society: Australian Experiences in a Global Context

Note

Available as 166-346 at 3rd-year level.

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

25 points of 1st-year Sociology

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

The subject provides an overview of the structure and organisation of the workplace in industrial and post-industrial societies including: the division of labour, the emergence of management techniques and roles, the nature of employment practices, workplace power and unionisation, and the impact of globalisation. The subject would undertake to equip students to critically analyse the work of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Parsons, Mayo, Mathews, Touraine and Harvey. These theoretical claims and critiques would be applied to the Australian experience in the twentieth century and to empirical work drawn from North America, Western Europe and Asia. Students who complete this subject should be able to: understand the development of industrial sociology since 1850; make effective use of contemporary studies of the transformation of the workplace; undertake research on the structure and significance of the division of labour and management in Australia; have a good knowledge of research on comparative workplace change in Australia, North America Europe and Asia; be able to design and implement a fieldwork project to explore the impact of globalisation on work experience.

Assessment

Field work and written work totalling 5000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A book of readings will be made available in the first week of semester.