York University
Department of Sociology
Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
COURSE OUTLINE
ISSUES IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF LABOUR (AP/SOCI 4620 6.0 B)
Course Director: Pat Armstrong
Office: 2118 Vari Hall
Time: 2.30-5.30, Thursdays
Place: McLaughlin College 114
Office Hours: 12.30-2.30 Thursdays
Phone: 416 736 2100 ext 22550
E-mail: patarmst@yorku.ca
Overall Objectives and Content: The course is designed to consider critically theoretical and
policy debates about labour, as well as evidence about work distribution, construction and
rewards, within a feminist political economy framework. The focus will be Canada but a Canada
located within an international context. Of course students will be invited to introduce other
perspectives and other countries into the readings, discussions and their papers.
The course begins by exploring basic questions about labour, primarily through a theoretical
lens. In addition to examining the social construction of data on labour, the first half of the
course will focus on the forces at work in constructing labour. The second half will explore
specific aspects of work, drawing on the theoretical aspects discussed in the first semester.
Gender, race, class, disability and sexual orientation, among other social relations, will be part of
each class rather than of separate sections. In addition, both hidden and explicit assumptions will
be examined in terms of their role in constructing and understanding work.
Students are expected to develop an understanding of theory, evidence and policy in relation to
labour and to debate their merits, based on the literature.
Required Readings; In order to ensure readings are accessible, each class has assigned readings
that are available on line. However, a book which offers a more extended discussion of theory
and/or evidence is included in each section and students are encouraged to seek out these
readings as well. Students are expected to read at least 60 pages for most weeks. Additional
readings may be assigned.
Format: Three hour seminar
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Evaluation:
1. Students are expected to participate fully in every class, coming prepared by assigned
reading to engage actively in classroom discussions and by identifying in writing both an
issue that emerges from the readings and a question for classroom debate. (worth 10%)
2. Using the Gender and Work Data Base and/or the Comparative Perspectives Data Base,
students will develop an analysis of an issue that emerges from the data. The paper must
follow the requirements for a submission to Studies in Political Economy or the
Canadian Journal of Sociology. The paper is due I the final class of the first term.(worth
40%)
3. In the second term, students will submit a proposal and a final paper. The paper should
take up any issue raised in class, developing an argument that may be either theoretical,
empirical or both. The argument must be based on the literature rather than on personal
opinion and develop an argument that builds on the literature. The two page, double
spaced proposal is due in the class before the February break (worth 10 %) and the final
paper is due in the last class. (worth 40%).
4. All written work must be submitted in hard copy. Electronic submissions will not be
accepted as an alternative to paper copies. Late papers without valid reasons will be
subject to a penalty of 2% a day.
Academic Honesty and Integrity
York students are required to maintain high standards of academic integrity and are subject to the
Senate Policy on Academic Honesty:
http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/policies/document.php?document=69
September 11. 2014
This first class will focus on introductions and a detailed discussion of the course outline,
creating the possibility for changes in the outline in response to student interests.
September 18, 2013. What is Work?
What is work seems like a simple question. However, the answers involve complex theoretical,
empirical and policy issues. In this class, we will begin to explore these complexities, but it is a
discussion that will continue throughout the semester.
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Armstrong, Pat and Hugh Armstrong (1990), Theorizing Women's Work Toronto: Garamond
Press
Glucksmann, Miriam A. (1995) Why ‘Work’? Gender and the ‘Total Social Organization of
Labour’ Gender, Work & Organization Volume 2, Issue 2, pages 63–75, April
Bezanson, K. and M. Luxton Eds.(2006) Social Reproduction: Feminist Political Economy
Challenges Neo-Liberalism . Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Magdoff, Harry (2006) The Meaning of Work: A Marxist Perspective Monthly Review
monthlyreview.org/2006/10/.../the-meaning-of-work-a-marxist-perspecti
September 25. Why Work?
Gill, Flora (1999) The meaning of work: Lessons from sociology, psychology, and political
theory The Journal of Socio-Economics 28(6):725-743. .
Gindin, Sam and Leo Panitch (2013) The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy
of American Empire. London: Verso
Saunders, S.L . and B. Nedelec (2014) What work means to people with work disability: a
scoping review. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation 24(1):100-10, March doi:
10.1007/s10926-013-9436-y.
Sayers, Sean (2005) Why work? marx and human nature Science and Society 69(4):606-616,
October.
October 2. Counting work
Armstrong, Pat and Hugh Armstrong (2006) Public and Private: Implications for Care Work
Sociological Review 53.s2 (2005): 167-187.
Block, Sheila and Grace-Edwards Galabuzi (2011) Canada's Colour Coded Labour Market
Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
www.policyalternatives.ca/.../Colour%20Coded%20Labour%20Market.p...
Shier, Michael John R. Graham and Marion E. Jones (2009) Barriers to Employment as
Experienced by Disabled People: A Qualitative Analysis in Calgary and Regina, Canada
Disability & Society 24(1):63-75 DOI:10.1080/09687590802535485
Statistics Canada (2012) Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report Ottawa: Supply
and Services Canada www.statcan.gc.ca/ips/data-donnees/89-503-XPE-eng.htm
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October 9. Playing with Numbers
Guided by those directly involved in the production of the Gender and Work data base and the
Comparative perspectives data base, the class will learn to work with the numbers.
October 16 and 23 Forces at work 1. Capital and markets
a) Capital
Harvey, David (2014) Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism. New York:
oxford University Press. Prologue: The Crisis of Capitalism This Time Around, pp ixxiv. Available on line at davidharvey.org
Eisenstein, Zillah (2014) An Alert: Capital Is Intersectional; Radicalizing Piketty’s
Inequality
http://www.awid.org/News-Analysis/Issues-and-Analysis/An-Alert-Capital-isIntersectional-Radicalizing-Piketty-s-Inequality
Piketty, Thomas and Arthur Goldhammer (2014) Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Cambridge: Harvard University Press. This as a huge book but you can access the central
arguments by looking at reviews in reliable sources like the Guardian the Economist, the
New York Times, The Nation
b) Markets
Soros, George (1997) The Capitalist Threat The Atlantic Monthly 279, (2); 45-5,
February.
Wainright, Hilary (2014) The Tragedy of the Private. The Potential of the Public
www.tni.org/sites/.../alternatives_to_privatization_en_booklet_web.pdf
October 30 and November 6 Forces at work 2. States
a) As employer
Axworthy, Thomas S. Julie Burch Crisis in the Ontario and federal public services
Policy Options, March 2010
CBC News Federal job cuts: Tracking the rollout - Politics swww.cbc.ca/news/.../federal-job-cuts-tracking-the-rollout-1.1138401
Sanger, Toby (2011) Battle of the Wages: Who gets paid more, public or private sector
workers? Ottawa: Canadian Union of Public Employees http://cupe.ca/battle-wages-whogets-paid-more-public-or-private-sector-workers
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Yalnizyan, Armine (2014) What The Federal Government Could Do If It Really Wanted
To Reduce Youth Unemployment Submission to The House of Commons Standing
Committee on Finance Study of Youth Unemployment April 7, 2014
https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/what-federal-government-coulddo-if-it-really-wanted-reduce-youth-unemployment#sthash.dZrfqz0d.dpuf
Ross, Stephanie and Larry Savage, eds. (2013) Public Sector Unions in the Age of
Austerity. Halifax: Fernwood
b) As regulator
Fudge, Judy and Leah Vosko (2001) Gender, Segmentation and the Standard
Employment Relationship in Canadian Labour Law, Legislation and Policy Economic
and Industrial Democracy 22:271-310
Sran, Garry with Michael Lynk, James Clancy and Derek Fudge (2013) Unions Matter:
How the Ability of Labour Unions to Reduce Income Inequality and Influence Public
Policy has been affected by Regressive Labour Laws Ottawa: Canadian Foundation for
Labour Rights http://nupge.ca/content/labour-rights
Thomas, Mark (2009) Regulating Flexibility: The Political Economy of Employment
Standards. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
November 20 and 27 Forces at work 3
a) Unions
Armstrong, Pat and Hugh Armstrong (2009) Contradictions at Work: Struggles for
Control in Canadian Health Care, pp. 145-67 in Leo Panitch and Colin Leys, eds.,
Morbid Symptoms: Health under Capitalism. Pontypool Wales: Merlin Press and New
York: Monthly Review Press, 2009
Behrens, Matthew, ed. (2014) Unions Matter Advancing Democracy, Economic Equality
and Social Justice Toronto: Between the Lines
Schenk Christopher (2014) Unions and Democracy Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/unions-anddemocracy#sthash.Y5TUYrzG.dpuf
b) Professions
Armstrong, Pat and Hugh Armstrong (1989) Sex and the Professions in Canada” Journal
of Canadian Studies 27(1):118-35
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Beck. John and Michael F.D. Young (2005) The Assault on the Professions and the
Restructuring of Academic and Professional Identities: a Bernsteinian Analysis British
Journal of Sociology of Education 26(2):183-197 DOI: 10.1080/0142569042000294165
Bryson, Alex and Morris M. Kleiner. 2010. The Regulation of Occupations. British
Journal of Industrial Relations 48(4):670-675.
Witz, Anne (1992) Professions and Patriarchy London: Routledge
December 4, Forces at work 4. Communities
Two kinds of communities play a role in the organization of work. One is usually called the
voluntary sector or the third sector and the other is advocacy groups.
BC Teacher’s Federation (2006) A Chronology of Advances in LGBT Rights in Canada, and in
BC http://bctf.ca/SocialJustice.aspx?id=610
Cho, Karen et all (2012) Status Quo? The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada
www.cinemapolitica.org/.../status-quo-unfinished-business-feminism-can...
Evans, Michell and John Shields (2000) Neoliberal Restructuring and the Third Sector:
Reshaping Government, Civil Society and Local Relations Working Paper
http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/cvss/AODAforms/WPPapers/WP10%202000%281%29%20
Neoliberal%20Restructing%20and%20the%20Third%20Sector%20AODA.pdf
Reaume Geoffrey(2012) Disability History In Canada: Present Work In The Field And Future
Prospects Canadian Journal of Disability Studies 1(1)
January 8 Work Organization-Lean production
Landsbergis, Paul A.; Cahill, Janet; Schnall, Peter (19990The impact of lean production and
related new systems of work organization on worker health. Journal of Occupational Health
Psychology, 4(2):108-130, April. doi: 10.1037/1076-8998.4.2.108
Lewchuk, Wayne and David Robertson (1996) Working Conditions under Lean Production: A
Worker-based Benchmarking Study Asia Pacific Business Review 2(4:69-81)
DOI:10.1080/13602389600000020
O’Brien, Robert. ed.(2008.) Solidarity First: Canadian Workers and Social Cohesion.
Vancouver: UBC Press
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January 15 Work Organization-Flexibility
Gillian Creese, Isabelle Dyck and Arlene Tigar McLaren (2008), “The ‘Flexible’ Immigrant?
Human Capital Discourse, the Family Household and Labour Market Strategies” Journal of
International Migration and Integration ( 9):269-288.
MacDonald, Martha (1991) Post-Fordism and the Flexibility Debate Studies in Political
Economy 36:177-201, fall
Fudge, Judy and Fiona MacPhail (2009) The temporary foreign worker program in Canada:
Low-skilled workers as an extreme form of flexible labour Comparative Labor Law and Policy
Journal, (31): 101-139,
Man, Gida (2004) Gender, work and migration: Deskilling Chinese immigrant women in Canada
Women's Studies International Forum 27(2):135-148, June-July
Pupo, Noreen, Dan Glenday and Ann Duffy, ed. (2011) The Shifting Landscape of Work.
Toronto: Nelson.
January 22 Work Organization-Time
Adam, Barbara. 2004. Time Cambridge: Polity, 2004.
Baines, Donna (2004) Caring for Nothing Work Organization and Unwaged Labour in Social
Services Work Employment & Society 18(2, June 18):267-295 doi: 10.1177/09500172004042770
Duxbury, Linda, Christopher Higgins and Bonnie Shroeder (2009) Balancing Paid Work and
Caregiving Responsibilities: A Closer Look at Family Caregivers in Canada Ottawa: Human
Resources and Skills Development Canada
Thompson, E.P. (1967) Time, Work Discipline and Industrial capitalism Past and Present 38:5697. https://libcom.org/files/timeworkandindustrialcapitalism.pdf
Warren, Tracey (2003) Class and Gender-based Working Time? Time Poverty and the Division
of Domestic Labour Sociology November 37 (4):733-752
January 29 Work Organization-Control
Braverman, Harry (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the
Twentieth Century. New York: Monthly Review Press
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Thompson, Paul and George Callaghan. (2001) Edwards Revisited: Technical Control and Call
Centres. Economic and Industrial Democracy 22(1):13-37.
Thompson, Paul and Diane van den Broek. (2010) Managerial Control and Workplace Regimes:
An Introduction. Work Employment & Society 24(3): 1-12.
Weststar , Johanna (2009) Worker Control and Workplace Learning: Expansion of the Job
Demand-Control Model Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society 48(3):533–548,
July
February 5 Work Organization Precarity
Law Commission of Ontario (2012) Vulnerable Workers and Precarious Work: Final Report
www.lco-cdo.org/en/vulnerable-workers-final-report
Lewchuck, Wayne (2013) Poverty and Employment Precarity in Ontario Hamilton: McMaster
University http://www.socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/pepso
Vosko, Leah , Martha Macdonald and Ian Campbell eds.(2009) Gender and the Contours of
Precarious Employment London: Routledge
Yates, Charlotte A.B. (2005) Segmented Labour, United Unions? How Unions in Canada Cope
with Increased Diversity Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research Winter 11( 4):
617-628
February 12 Skill
Skill is a critical, and contested, issue not only among academics but also in policy and practices.
What people get paid, what they are allowed to do, not only alone but also with others are all
related to the way skills are negotiated and defined.
Armstrong, Pat (2013) Puzzling Skills Canadian Review of Sociology 50(3):256-83, August
Grugulis, Irena and Steven Vincent. 2010. Whose skill is it anyway? Soft Skills and Polarization.
Work, Employment & Society 23(40):597-615.
Hampson, Ian and Anne Junor. 2010. Putting the Process Back in. Rethinking Service Sector
Skills. Work, Employment and Society 24(3):526-545.
Hochschild, Arlie Russell (2012) The Managed Heart. Commercialization of Human Feeling
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lloyd, Caroline and Jonathan Payne. 2009. ‘Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing’:
Interrogating New Skill Concepts in Service Work- The View from Two UK Call Centres. Work,
Employment & Society 23(4):617-634.
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February 26 Wages
Chaykowski, Richard P. and George A. Slotsve (2202) Earnings Inequality and Unions in
Canada British Journal of Industrial Relations 40(3):493–519, September DOI: 10.1111/14678543.00244
Cornish, Mary (2014) Ten Ways to Close Ontario’s Gender Pay Gap Ottawa: Canadian centre
for Policy Alternatives https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/10-ways-closeontario%E2%80%99s-gender-pay-gap
Mandryk, Josh (2014) The Case for a Stronger Fair Wage Policy in Ontario
https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/case-stronger-fair-wage-policyontario#sthash.H33CF8P1.dpuf
March 5 Benefits
Kodar, Freya (2004) Pension (In) Securities, UnpaidWork, Precarious Employment and the
Canadian Pension System. Atlantis 28(2):93-102, spring-summer
http://journals.msvu.ca/index.php/atlantis/article/view/1200/1134
Marshall, Katherine (2003) Benefits of the Job Perspectives on Labour and Income 4(5)
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-001-x/00503/6515-eng.html
OECD (2007) Benefits and Wages http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/benefitsandwages2007.htm
March 12 Health and Safety
Baines, Donna (2004). "'Case Studies in Women's Occupational Health in the New Labour
Market: Social Services, Stress, Violence, and Workload." Canadian Woman Studies. Volume
23, 3: 157-164.
Karasek, R. A. (1979). Job demands, job decision latitude, and mental strain: Implications for job
redesign. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 24, pp. 285-308.
Lewchuk, Wayne, Marlea Clarke, and Alice de Wolff (2011) Working Without Commitments:
The Health Effects of Precarious Employment. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s
University Press,
Messing, Karen, Katherine Lippel, Diane L. Demers and Donna Mergler (2000).
Equality and Difference in the Workplace: Physical Job Demands, Occupational Illnesses, and
Sex Differences. NWSA Journal (National Women’s Studies Association) – fall, Volume 12,
Number 3:21-49.
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March 19 Violence
Banerjee, A., Daly, T., Armstrong, P., Szebehely, M., Armstrong, H., LaFrance, S. (2012).
Structural violence in long-term residential care for older people: Comparing Canada and
Scandinavia. Social Science & Medicine, doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.10.037
Berdahl, Jennifer L.and Celia Moore (2006) Workplace harassment: Double jeopardy for
minority women. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(2):, 426-436., March doi: 10.1037/00219010.91.2.426
Pizzino Anthony (2000) Dealing with Violence in the Workplace: The Experience of Canadian
Unions Security Journal 13, 53–62; doi:10.1057/palgrave.sj.8340057
March 26 Looking back
Fraser, Nancy (2014) Behind Marx’s hidden Abode. For an Expanded Conception of Capitalism
New Left Review 86:55-75, March/April
April 2 Looking ahead
OECD (2014) 2014 OECD Economic Survey of Canada Paris:OECD
http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Overview%20_CANADA_2014.pdf
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