Political Theory of Work and Labor

The term “politics” traditionally refers to actions that have some sort of public significance, as opposed to sites and activities considered private, personal, and intimate. This course challenges such a public-private distinction by exploring the politics of three domains typically considered part of the private sphere: work, family, and consumption. Discussion and course assignments will be oriented around three clusters of questions that correspond to our three private spheres: (1) What are the structures of power in the workplace, and are these structures the product of institutions, ethical norms, or cultural practices? (Or all three?) How do people typically resist such structures? (2) What is reproductive freedom, and are pro-choice arguments overly reliant on negative conceptions of freedom? What would a broader conception of reproductive freedom look like? (3) Does consumption inhibit or enable social change? What is the relationship between our everyday acts of consumption and larger political phenomena, such as climate change? Are the terms “consumer” and “citizen” antithetical? The course draws on a series of classic and contemporary texts to immerse students in the influential conceptual vocabularies developed to take stock of such questions. Students engage with theories of conspicuous consumption, the Protestant work ethic, alienation, reproductive freedom, commodity fetishism, and relational autonomy, among others.

Course Description

This is a capstone seminar for students interested in political theory, public law, or American politics, with emphasis on preparing students' written work for presentation, including seminar presentations and peer review. Throughout the semester, all students will complete a significant research paper on a topic they develop, by working on multiple intermediate assignments building up to a draft and then final version of the paper. Students are encouraged to develop a paper connected to themes from class, but may ultimately write about any topic (developed in conversation with John) relevant to the fields of political theory, public law, and/or American politics.

The topical focus for the class is " Theories and Politics of Work and Labor, " involving both historical and contemporary critical scholarship on the nature of work and labor, and their relation to politics. We will investigate such questions as: what is work?; what is labor?; why do we work?; what is the relation between the realm of work and that of politics?; how are work and labor gendered and racialized?; is work necessary?; should we work?; what should we do if and when (human) work and labor are no longer necessary?; how and why do work and labor generate various forms of hierarchies?; is work always dominating?; can work ever be free? The first section of the course examines canonical political theories of work and labor in conversation with contemporary scholarship on questions of gender, race, and colonialism in relation to those theories. The second section examines two phenomena in the history of American labor: the racialization of the white working class and 20 th century labor law. The third section of the class examines contemporary and future issues of work and labor, especially the gendering and racialization of labor, hierarchy and domination in the workplace, and anti-work politics, with a focus on work that is at the same theoretically and empirically grounded. The final section of the course will be comprised of peer review and student research presentations. We will also focus on your own futures of work and labor throughout the semester, in the form of two professional and career development sessions led by Jessica Fox-Wilson from LAPC.

Ultimately, this course is designed to both generate a critical perspective on the past, present, and future of work and to cultivate sustained research and writing skills.