Employment Creation and Decent Work
Code
Weight of the course
Period
Course Leader
Lecturer
Teaching Methods
Exam
Contact
ISS-4224
8 ECTS
TERM 2
Rolph van der Hoeven
Rolph van der Hoeven, Roy Huijsmans, Freek Schiphorst, Karin
Astrid Siegmann
Participatory Lectures, Workshop
Assignment(s): 45%, Presentation: 10%,
Written examiniation: 45%
Tanya Kingdon
Learning Objectives
At the end of this course, students are able to
•
Identify causal channels for how global economic integration and structural adjustment
policies have influenced the availability of productive employment, incomes and decent
work;
•
Understand the impact of the labour market’s regulatory framework and targeted policy
measures on labour market outcomes;
•
Distinguish major processes that lead to the marginalization of various societal groups, such
as women, youth and migrants, in the labour market and identify adequate policy responses;
•
Apply the knowledge imparted about the indirect and direct factors influencing employment
generation and decent work to the labour market analysis of individual country case studies
Course description
This course provides an introduction to indirect major factors and targeted policies influencing the
availability of productive employment under decent working conditions. The course is
interdisciplinary with economic and sociological perspectives of labour. The focus of the course is
on the national level, but the issues it deals with span both the context of a growing globalization
and interlinkages between different markets as well as the role of informal institutions, such as
social norms, for productive and decent job opportunities. This focus implies that, after reviewing
global economic trends and their implications for the availability of productive employment and
decent working conditions in Block 1, the course will look in detail at the flanking role of national
policies and labour market institutions (Block 2). Block 3 is devoted to important policies for
employment creation and the guarantee of decent working conditions and regulation that provides
a social floor to the labour market and Block 4 takes a detailed look at labour market
discrimination faced by a variety of societal groups. Subsequently, in Block 5, selected country
examples will be reviewed.
Indicative Readings
Ocampo, J.A. and Jomo, S.K. eds. (2007) Towards full and decent employment. London: Zed
Books.(obligatory)
Auer, P., Ü. Efendioðlu and J. Leschke, eds (2005) Active labour market policies around the world.
Geneva: ILO.
Bourdillon, M., D. Levison, W. Myers and B. White (2010) The Rights and Wrongs of Children's
Work. New Brunswick, New Jersey, London: Rutgers University Press.
Hart, G. (2002) ‘Reworking Apartheid Legacies. Global Competition, Gender and Social Wages in
South Africa, 1980 -2000’. Social Policy and Development Programme Paper. Geneva:
UNRISD.
Van der Hoeven, R., ed. (2011) Employment, Inequality and Globalization, A Continuous Concern.
London: Routledge.