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Work in Crisis (ANTH30021)
Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5Not available in 2018
Overview
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In the age of automation fulfilling, remunerative, and stable jobs are hard to find. What are the social consequences of the precariousness embedded in the “gig-economy”? This subject explores work, and its transformation, from an anthropological perspective. The first part of the subject will examine different historical and cross-cultural experiences of work, and will culminate in a discussion of wage labour and Fordism as material, ideological, and affective constructs. In the second half, the subject will focus on the impact of financial crises and technical innovations on marginalized groups. Discussing ethnographic studies of deindustrialization in the Mid-West, Greece, and India, among others, the course will interrogate what the future of work looks like, and what kind of communities will it generate.
Intended learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of the subject, students should:
- Demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of how anthropologists approach work as an object of study.
- Critically analyze and compare theories about the diverse social and cultural meanings that work has been accorded at different times and at different places.
- Acquire knowledge of the interplay between automation and precariousness in the context of post-world war economies.
- Articulate the political and economic relations between the development of finance and processes of de-industrialization.
- Communicate effectively in written and oral formats, and collaborate in groups with people of diverse disciplinary and cultural backgrounds.
Last updated: 3 November 2022