SDG Detail

SOCIOL 208 : Economy and Society

Undergraduate course

Project description

Examines the changing relations between work and life outside of paid employment. Particular attention is paid to new forms of expropriation that profit from claiming private ownership of collective effort, ideas and cultural forms. These developments are crucial to understanding and contesting social inequality, globalisation, organisational restructuring and new technologies. Course material is drawn from international literatures and is grounded in an understanding of contemporary New Zealand.

Year 2020

Location New Zealand

Organization University of Auckland

Project aims

Project outcome

By the end of this course, students will be able to: Understand some of the key meanings of work from the history of political economy (Capability 1.1, 2.1, 2.3, 6.1 and 6.3) Identify the different assumptions about human beings and social situations that accompany different concepts of work (Capability 1.3, 2.2, 2.3, 4.2, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3) Understand the shifting relations between work and "non-work" (Capability 2.1 and 6.1) Understand the meaning of the concept of "the work of others" and the economic, social and political consequences of this concept (Capability 1.3, 2.3, 3.1, 4.2, 5.2 and 6.1) Develop the groundwork of a critical understanding of work that places work within the context of the capitalist political economy (Capability 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3)