230050 VO Work and employment - Sociological foundations and current research topics (2016S)

Ever since the early days of sociology, work has been one of the discipline's main concerns. This is because societies are characterised by specific forms of division of labour and by the social relations within which people work. As a separate sub-discipline, sociology of work emerged after World War II first under the heading of industrial sociology. It is devoted to researching the development of the capitalist labour relationship and forms of management control, gender relations in working life, the degree of security or precariousness of occupational positions and the forms of interest representation and industrial relations. The course provides an introduction to the German and English speaking sociology of work. In doing so, it presents various theoretical approaches and concepts and discusses research findings on selected issues. These include in particular flexibility and precariousness, changes in relationships of recognition and occupational identities and the quality of work in inter-firm networks and global value chains.