Critical Social Inquiry 0267 - Labor Economics

This course provides students with an introduction to major conflicting economic theories of labor markets, employment and unemployment and will examine the extent to which these theories are borne out by both statistical and qualitative studies of labor in a major capitalist economy such as the US. You will learn some history of labor in the United States, but throughout the course we will try to evaluate the quality of the evidence for alternative ways of understanding labor in the American economy. We will use a variety of methods in our study: statistical and graphical summaries of economic and social indicators; ethnographic descriptions of work in the factories, offices, laboratories, and hospitals of the modern economy; historical narratives about the development and transformation of labor in the United States; and economic arguments based on principles of social or individual behavior. Our analytical tools will include statistical methods, race, gender and class analysis as well as the analytical tools of neoclassical economics. Labor issues such as the growth of part-time/flexible employment; low wages, unemployment, gender and racial discrimination, wage and income inequality and unpaid labor will be discussed along with debates around minimum wages, immigration and labor unions. At least one year of college-level work is required enrollment in this class.

Power, Community and Social Justice Independent Work Quantitative Skills Writing and Research Students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time.