Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2025 - LBST 201 OL01

Workers in the Global Economy: Globalization, Labour and Uneven Development (3)

Class Number: 2614

Delivery Method: Online

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Online

  • Instructor:

    Serdar Kaya
    ska99@sfu.ca
    Office: Online
    Office Hours: Mondays, 10-11am

  • Prerequisites:

    Strongly Recommended: LBST 101.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Explores how people experience paid and unpaid work in the global economy. Focuses on processes such as migration and economic structuring, and applies critical development studies and critical geopolitics to study labour and employment. Explores links between capitalism, urbanization and labour struggles. Examines labour internationalism and global labour rights. Students with credit for LBST 230 under the title "Workers and Global Capitalism" or "Work and Employment in a Globalized World" and IS 221 may not take this course for further credit. Breadth-Social Sciences.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course examines the evolving dynamics of work and labour in the global economy, connecting historical regimes like colonialism and slavery to contemporary phenomena in the intersection of globalization, technological advancements, and uneven development. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the course explores how capitalism, urbanization, and geopolitics shape the nature of work and global production networks. Students will engage with key topics such as migration, economic restructuring, platform capitalism, and the gig economy, with opportunities to focus on particular cases to apply the theoretical insights learned in class. Through evidence-based analyses and case studies from diverse regions and sectors, the course highlights workers' struggles, resistance, and organizing strategies, emphasizing how global processes perpetuate and challenge hierarchies of class, gender, ethnicity, and citizenship.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

By the end of the course, students will be able to (1) assess the connections between historical labour systems, such as colonialism and slavery, and contemporary issues like globalization, migration, and technological change, (2) assess how globalization, economic restructuring, and digital platforms reshape work, labour markets, and employment patterns, and (3) assess how labour dynamics intersect with class, gender, ethnicity, and citizenship to perpetuate or challenge social and economic inequalities. Further, students will be able to (1) develop skills to research and analyze labour patterns, considering diverse global contexts, and (2) produce a final written project that is clear, well-organized, and evidence-based, and offers analysis on a chosen aspect of labour migration.

Grading

  • Analytical Challenge 20%
  • Analytical Challenge presentation 10%
  • Midterm Project 20%
  • Midterm Project presentation 20%
  • Case Study Project 20%
  • Case Study presentation 10%

NOTES:

Grading: Where a final exam is scheduled and the student does not write the exam or withdraws from the course before the deadline date, an N grade will be assigned. Unless otherwise specified on the course syllabus, all graded assignments for this course must be completed for a final grade other than N to be assigned. An N is considered as an F for the purposes of scholastic standing.

Grading System: The undergraduate course grading system is A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, F, N (N standing indicates student did not complete course requirements). Intervals for the assignment of final letter grades based on course percentage grades are as follows:

A+ (95-100) | A (90-94) | A- (85-89) | B+ (80-84) | B (75-79) | B- (70-74) | C+ (65-69) | C (60-64) | C- (55-59) | D (50-54) | F (0-49) | N*

*N standing to indicate the student did not complete course requirements

REQUIREMENTS:

Analytical Challenge: This exercise is designed to evaluate your analytical skills in addressing a complex issue related to global labour. The exercise will present a real-world scenario, and challenge you to analyze the situation, evaluate evidence from multiple perspectives, identify trade-offs and potential consequences, and construct a well-reasoned argument for your proposed solution.

Midterm Project: Each student will complete a take-home midterm project and present it, explaining their process and conclusions.

Case Study: Each student will conduct a case study on global labor. Topics will be assigned randomly during Week Two. Students are expected to work on their assigned cases throughout the semester. The case study will involve in-depth research and analysis of a critical global labor issue, focusing on economic, social, and political dimensions. The exercise includes a comprehensive written analysis, which incorporates reflective journal entries documenting key milestones, challenges, and insights from the research process. Additionally, students will prepare a recorded presentation summarizing their findings.

Detailed instructions on the above assignments are available on the online platform.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Taylor, Marcus; & Sébastien Rioux. (2018). Global labour studies. Polity.

Bales, Kevin. (2012). Disposable people: New slavery in the global economy. University of California Press.

Muñoz, Carolina Bank; Bridget Kenny; & Antonio Stecher (ed.). (2018). Walmart in the global South: Workplace culture, labor politics, and supply chains. University of Texas Press.


Connelly, Catherine E. (2023). Enduring work: Experiences with Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program. McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Mezzadri, Alessandra. (2017). The sweatshop regime: Labouring bodies, exploitation, and garments made in India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 258.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Davis, Mike. (2017). Planet of slums. Verso.

Milanovic, Branko. (2016). Global inequality: A new approach for the age of globalization. Belknap.

Sassen, Saskia. (2001). The global city: New York, Tokyo, London. Princeton University Press.

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website 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

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.