The politics of work in Europe
Steve Wright
8 points
* 2 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton
*
Prohibitions: PLT3260
Objectives This subject sets out to enhance students' ability to: understand the various dimensions which workplace reform has assumed in Europe since the seventies; construct a comparative basis against which to gauge restructuring within their own places of employment; assess the strengths and weaknesses of those conceptual frameworks which seek to explain the latest cycles of workplace restructuring.
Synopsis The question of workplace reform has acquired increasing policy relevance throughout the industrialised world over the past decade. This subject will introduce students to the various dimensions which workplace reform has assumed in Europe since the seventies, as well as to a number of the conceptual frameworks which seek to explain the latest cycles of workplace restructuring. In emphasising the profoundly political nature of this process, the questions of workplace change and labour market restructuring will be approached from a range of angles: the role of new technologies; the place of hierarchies based upon gender, ethnicity, and skills acquisition; the pattern of responses to be found across different industrial sectors, from automobile production to banking; the policy implications for key public actors (the private sector, government bodies, unions).
Assessment second year Essay (2500 words): 40%
* Tutorial paper
(1500 words): 20%
* Examination (2 hours): 40%
Assessment third year Essay (2500 words): 40%
* Tutorial paper (1500
words): 20%
* Examination (2 hours): 40%
* Third-year students are
expected to demonstrate that they have read more extensively and their written
work is expected to be more analytical.
Preliminary reading
Ferner A and Hyman R (eds) Industrial relations in the new Europe Basil Blackwell, 1992
Hyman R and Ferner A (eds) New Frontiers in European industrial relations Basil Blackwell, 1994
Thompson P and McHugh D Work organisations: A critical introduction Macmillan, 1990
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