Spring 2019 - LBST 330 D300
Selected Topics in Labour Studies (3)
Class Number: 7413
Delivery Method: In Person
Overview
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Course Times + Location:
Jan 3 – Apr 8, 2019: Fri, 9:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
Vancouver
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Instructor:
Tom Walker
jtwalker@sfu.ca
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Prerequisites:
Strongly Recommended: LBST 101 and/or 301.
Description
CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:
Selected topics in areas not currently offered within the undergraduate course offerings. Students may take more than one offering of LBST Selected Topics courses for credit, as long as the topic for each offering is different.
COURSE DETAILS:
Controversy over the regulation of the hours of work has marked labour relations from the earliest days of industrialization and sustained economic growth in Great Britain in the early nineteenth century. In Canada, Great Britain, and the United States, the enactment of major labour legislation and periods of intensified unionization have coincided with movements for the ten-hour day, the nine-hour day, the eight-hour day and the 30-hour workweek. During the last half of the twentieth century, however, the historical trend toward shorter hours retreated, as has – coincidentally or not – union density.
This course will critically examine the history, politics, economics and rhetoric of working time, particularly as it affects wage labour, social reproduction and the collective bargaining regime. We will examine the relationship between working time and productivity, technology, health, leisure, household work, education, consumerism, culture, social justice, political participation and mitigation of environmental harm.
COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:
By the end of this course, students will have learned:
- how cultural attitudes toward work and leisure evolved in the period of industrialization;
- how historical campaigns for shorter hours shaped unionism and labour legislation;
- the status of controversies regarding the economics of working time;
- how campaigns for shorter work time engaged with other social and political movements;
- the relationship between hours of waged labour and unpaid household work in the gendered division of labour;
- what historical trends reveal about changes in working time internationally.
Grading
- Seminar participation 20%
- Midterm exam 1 20%
- Midterm exam 2 20%
- Research essay/annotated bibliography 40%
NOTES:
Grading System: Undergraduate Course Grading System is A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, F, N (N standing to indicate the student did not complete). Intervals for the assignment of final letter grades based on course percentage grades are as follows:
| A+ 95-100 | B+ 80-84 | C+ 65-69 | D 50-54 |
| A 90-94 | B 75-79 | C 60-54 | F 0-49 |
| A- 85-89 | B- 70-74 | C- 55-59 |
Materials
REQUIRED READING:
Required readings for this course include articles and book chapters that can be accessed through links published on the Canvas syllabus page.
RECOMMENDED READING:
A list of supplementary readings will be included in the long syllabus.
Registrar Notes:
SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.
Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS