Lecturer: Prof Lucien van der Walt

Course: The Political economy of Contemporary Capitalism

The world today is marked by major transformations. Class compromises in the Western world between labour and capital, and centred on Keynesian welfare state / KWS policies, have broken down. Centrally planned “Soviet” (so-called “Communist”) economies have largely disappeared, as have systematic policies of economic protectionism and ISI/ import-substitution-industrialisation in the postcolonial world. Inequality has greatly increased within, and between, countries, and a series of economic shocks - notably, the global financial crisis from 2007 onwards - have increased unemployment while reducing economic growth rates. Yet there has also been substantial industrialisation and economic growth in parts ofLatin America,Asia, andAfrica, as well as the expansion of a range of oppositional movements, including resurgent (as well as new) trade unions.

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CONTEMPORARY CAPITALISM 2013

Last Modified: Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:22:58 SAST

Lecturer: Gilton Klerck

Course: Labour Relations

Course handouts to be issued in class...

Last Modified: Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:42:44 SAST

Lecturer: Claudia Martinez-Mullen

Course: Sociology of Work

This course examines the sociology of work, by locating the workplace within larger economic and political processes. Although it touches on the labour process (and on Labour Process Theory), that is not the focus. The core content of the course includes: a) the relationship between the workplace and the larger ‘mode of production’ and ‘social formation’; b) the differences between pre-capitalist and capitalist societies, and how these shape the workplace in each epoch; c) the dynamics of capitalist society, including the relationship between production, distribution, consumption and social reproduction; d) the relationship between work, class, ideology, family and the state; e) work and labour in various capitalist contexts: modern and ‘pre-modern’, ‘free’ and ‘unfree’, industrial and non-industrial, paid and unpaid, domestic and public, formal and informal, agrarian and urban. 

Sociology of Work 2013

Last Modified: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 09:46:40 SAST