Discover the causes of global employment inequalities, how workers gain a voice through unions, and the future of work itself. Help build workers’ rights and a better future for employment and society. With the world of work in unprecedented flux, the role of workers’ rights has never been more pressing, as society grapples with issues such as how to ensure better employment equity and safety.
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On this course, you will get an introduction to the world of ‘work and employment studies’ (WES), from experts at the Work and Equalities Institute at the University of Manchester, the Department of Work and Employment Studies at the University of Limerick, and Liverpool University Management School.
You’ll explore how global employment conditions have become ever more fragmented and unequal, before examining the different frameworks of power and politics that relate to your workplace, learning how employees can find a voice through trade unions.
Ultimately you’ll explore what the future of work and equalities themselves could look like – and how employment could become more just.
Syllabus
Week 1: Introductions: power, work and employment studies
Week 2: History, global capitalism and the importance of contexts
Week 3: The state, the law and equality
Week 4: Who speaks for whom?
Week 5: The future of power, politics and influences at work
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Explain the dimensions of work and employment studies as a discrete field of study
- Describe different models of power that affect employment conditions
- Assess the way Government (e.g. the State) regulate employment equalities
- Discuss the way new technologies can influence employment relationships and work conditions
- Evaluate different systems for worker voice
- Debate different developments and scenarios that can affect the future of work
Who is the course for?
This course would appeal to workplace representatives and trade unionists, as well as those who work or volunteer for social and political movements concerned with labour and citizenship rights.
It would also benefit policymakers and policy influencers.
