GLOBALIZATION, LABOUR AND SOCIETY

The course aims to provide an introduction to the phenomenon of globalization (with regard to its economic, social, political and cultural dimensions) and to its multiple and complex relationships with the transformation of work in contemporary societies. The course will allow students to understand the impact of globalization on national and local contexts. The course will also provide useful tools for analysing the international political dynamics that represent one of the focuses of the International Politics curriculum of the bachelor’s degree programme.

The course will allow students to become familiar with the question of globalization, with regard both to the global dynamics of production, trade, consumption and finance, and to the social, political and cultural aspects of the phenomenon. Students will gain knowledge about the consequences of globalization on work processes and about the implications in terms of international mobility, migration and new forms of inequality and conflict.
Students will acquire the ability to analyze the changes in the relationship among national contexts in the global scenario and will learn to understand how macro processes relate to dynamics concerning the local dimension and the sphere of daily life.
Students will also acquire the ability to intervene, exercising independent judgment, in the current lively debate on important issues such as those relating to migration and changes in working conditions.
Finally, the course will allow students to become familiar with the lexicon of the social sciences.

The course has no pre-requirements

The course will begin with an analysis of the concept of globalization and its multiple dimensions and will then address the consequences of globalization on work dynamics.
The main topics that will be addressed in the course are the following:

The concept of globalization: definitions and conceptualizations.
The evolutionary trajectories of contemporary capitalism - with regard also to cognitive capitalism - and the paths of globalization.
Production, trade, finance, consumption and globalization: an analysis of the main issues at stake.
The socio-cultural and political dimensions of globalization.
The main implications of globalization on the international division of labour and on the structure of labour markets. Globalization and delocalization of production activities.
Globalization, new technologies and implications on the transformation of the nature of work.
Global work and migration.
Globalization, new and old inequalities.
The new conflicts in the global scenario of work.
Transnational labour regulation: challenges and prospects.

Williams S., Bradley H., Devadason R., Erickson M., Globalization and Work, Cambridge: Polity, 2013.
Non-mandatory readings might be indicated during the course.

Students will be evaluated through an oral exam aimed to verify the expected learning outcomes previously described.

The course will be carried out through frontal lessons.

Italian

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Circular economy, innovation, work" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development