Overview

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:

“Men make their own futures but not of their own free will; not under circumstances they themselves have chosen but under the given and inherited circumstances with which they are directly confronted.” —Karl Marx  

“Change. You don't have to do it. Survival is not mandatory!” —Dr. W. Edwards Deming  

“Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window”. —Peter F. Drucker  

“The future ain’t what it used to be.”—Yogi Berra  

We workers, citizens and consumers live in an unprecedented era of ongoing multiple global crises, requiring us to navigate the unchartered waters of uncertain, dramatic, accelerating change. These crises include: chronic unemployment or underemployment; new forms of precarious work in the gig economy; widening inequalities leading to more poverty, hunger  homelessness, and violence; ceaseless economic volatility, a “climate change emergency” associated with the new geological era of the Anthropocene, and now, sporadic pandemics effectively paralyzing the global economy. In this online course, we will critically explore dimensions of the “future of work” in the context of these multiple recurring crises, with a particular focus on identifying the (a) causes (or “drivers”) of change, (b) implications for work and workers and (c) potential solutions to various scenarios of the future of work.

Taking on a multi-disciplinary approach, we will consider the projections of futurists—past and present—through the lenses of labour studies, political economy, sociology, economics, business, geopolitics and public policy. The course is organized around three parts. In the first part, we examine foundational conceptions of work, labour and employment in our neoliberal capitalist system, striving to identify key ongoing trends informing the future such as feminization of the workforce, flexibilization, digitization and roboticization, telework, and emergent forms of precarity. The second part of the course centres on building a strong theoretical and historical understanding of future of work studies, as well as on applying the various methodological tools employed in Futures Analysis. In the third part, we turn to an exploration of the various future-of-work predictions—always uncertain—in select case studies of economic and social sectors and specific occupations. Finally, we will consider alternative futures that seek to remedy the problems of precarity, inequality, exploitation, climate catastrophe, inter alia, that have been plaguing our crisis-ridden neoliberal capitalist era. Some solutions illuminate the ideas of post-capitalism, post-work, reshoring, just transitions to a green economy and green jobs, and basic annual income.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Understand and critically assess the multidisciplinary theories employed for studying the future of work and precarious work, inclusive of mainstream economic and critical theories;
• Apply various methodological tools used to explore the unforeseeable future of work, such as extrapolations; Delphi techniques, genius forecasting, and imagining futures scenarios;
• Identify, extrapolate and critically evaluate current trends related to the changes in: the nature of work, workplaces, labour management practices, division(s) of labour; inequalities and social justice; unionization and labour organization, and labour policies;
• Ably discuss the varied and intersectional impacts of a variety of structural forces—e.g. disruptive technologies, neoliberal capitalism, and globalization—on different sectors, workers, classes, genders;
• Communicate and write ideas in a coherent, persuasive and manner, evidencing critical thinking;
• Build new “21st century skills” inclusive of critical thinking, ingenuity, and technological competency;
• Gain valuable numeracy skills in reading and interpreting graphs, tables, charts, and statistics;
• Work collaboratively via various online technologies to problem solve and construct creative solutions.  

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

Universal Access Remote learning for this semester requires a computer or tablet, camera, and internet access. Most laptops and desktops are running OSX and Windows. Tablets may be Android, iOS or Windows based. Headsets are advised but not necessary. Note that students have access to free Office 365 or Adobe Creative Cloud found here.

REQUIRED READING: