6 ECTS credits
162 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1021422CER for all students in the 2nd semester at a (C) Bachelor - specialised level.

Semester
2nd semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Possible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Enrollment Requirements
Students who want to enroll for this course, must have passed ‘Critical thinking in Sociology’ and must have obtained at least 30 ECTS-credits on bachelor level.
Taught in
English
Partnership Agreement
Under interuniversity agreement for degree program
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Sociology
External partners
Universiteit Gent
Educational team
Meike Brodersen (course titular)
Activities and contact hours
24 contact hours Lecture
12 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
126 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

This course provides an in-depth analysis of work and employment in the epoch of ‘advanced capitalism’ (1990-2020). Throughout the course, a worker-centred, European, cross-national perspective is adopted.

Students will receive a short introduction to the process of industrialisation, the growth and development of capitalism, mass production-mass consumption society and its subsequent structural crisis.

The starting point for our in-depth analysis of current debates in the area of work and employment is the recurrent finding that for many people work has become more intense. We will analyse the concept of “job quality” and compare job quality over time and between European countries. These empirical findings will provide the justification for an in-depth exploration of four driving forces behind differences and evolutions in job quality: (1) recent developments in the capitalist mode of regulation; (2) new models of work organisation; (3) the role of technology in shaping people’s work environment; and (4) tendencies towards labour market flexibility and dualization.

From the diagnosis resulting of the analysis of driving forces of change, students will be challenged to think about possibilities for the future of work in a post-capitalist society.

Additional info

The students will be provided with an electronic reader. The content of this reader shapes the course material that is discussed during the lectures and summarised in the course handout (slides). All course material will be provided on the learning platform Canvas

Advised/optional literature: Edgell, S., Gottfried, H. & Granter, E. (2015). The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment, Sage Publications, London.

Teaching Methods

- Lecture: collective contact-dependent moments during which the lecturer engages with learning materials
- Independent or External Form of Study (Self): independent study
- Seminar, Exercises or Practicals (Practical): collective or individual contact-dependent moments during which the students are guided to actively engage with learning materials

This description of the teaching methods is indicative, in order to assess the expected study load.

Lecture: 24 h (8*3h)

  • Ex-cathedra lectures, interchanged with interaction/discussion on the learning content

Practicum: 12h (4*3h)

  • Discussion sessions and presentations on the literature
  • Preparation of assignments

Self (126h)

  • Keeping track of the learning materual
    •     theory, 2h for every lecture (52h - 26*2h)
    •     processing learning material through study - 26h
  • Preparation of exam 48h (6 days of 8h)
Learning Outcomes

General competences

  1. The students are acquainted with the sociological study of work and employment – and the main theoretical debates and perspectives in this field;
  2. The students know the most important actors, institutions and sub-domains in the world of work and employment;
  3. The students are familiar with the most important evolutions and cross-national variations in job quality characteristics;
  4. The students understand the most important individual and social consequences of the organisation of work and employment in pre-industrial, industrial and late-industrial societies;
  5. The students understand the most important evolutions and conflicts around the organisation of work within employing organisations (meso-level) and within society at large (macro-level);
  6. The students understand the underlying causes and explanations or current debates and conflicts in the domain of work and employment;
  7. The students can critically apply the theoretical and conceptual framework that has been offered in this course in order to develop their own vision of the future regarding human work.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Written Exam with a relative weight of 75 which comprises 75% of the final mark.
  • Paper with a relative weight of 25 which comprises 25% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Evaluation:

  • Paper (25%)
  • Wirtten exam (75%)

The result for the evaluation component ‘paper’ can be transferred to the second term in case the student passed on this component in the first term.

Further details on the evaluation procedure will be explained in the course outline. This course outline is posted on the learning platform, Canvas.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Social Sciences: Sociology