he Sociology of Labour Markets
The aim of this course is to advance students’ knowledge of labour markets through the study of theories, debates and advances in sociological (including social historical) research on industrial labour markets, and their contemporary post-industrial transformation. Labour markets are approached sociologically as historical constructions for coordinating the commodification and competitive exchange of labour power, and for governing control over the transformation of labour power into labour effort within an organization of work. While drawing insights from the sociology of markets, labour markets differ from other markets in three main ways – in relation to systemic asymmetries between sellers and buyers of labour power, in the fictional commodification of labour, and in the spatial and temporal differentiation of the exchange and transformation of labour. In the Winter Semester 2019/2020 the course will include a stronger focus on migration labour markets. A detailed list of topics and dates will be decided after the first meeting of the course on October 17, 2019.
Course Structure
Part I The Institutionalization of Industrial Labour Markets
- Course Introduction, Theory, History
2 Employment Systems as Social Institutions
3 The Differentiation of Labour Market
Part II Post-industrial labour markets
5 The Re-Commodification of Labour
6 Transformations of Labour Markets as Social Institutional Change
7 The European Labour Market |
