Objectives and Details:          This course will introduce students about different phases of industrialisation and the development-implications of each of these stages, from the vantage point of labour. The discussions in the course will include debates on appropriate strategies and experiences of industrialisation in a broad sense and also deal with labour concerns under various forms and regimes of work organisation. Accordingly, the major themes covered in the course will include: Division of labour, Taylorism, Fordism, Post Fordism, Flexible Specialisation; Subcontracting, Lean Production Systems; Labour Process Analysis; Emergence of Service Economy; Outsourcing and Offshoring; Global Production Systems; Gig Work; Industry 4.0 and so on. By explaining the implications of various industrial/work regimes, the course will enable the students to have a better understanding of the contemporary world of work with due focus on labour standards, terms of work and workers’ welfare. The teaching and learning will be done through multiple ways including: class room lectures; screening of movies; analyses and discussions on media clippings and relevant material available in the public domain; preparation of case studies and so on.

Course Outcomes:

On successful completion of the course, the students will be able to:

1. Understand the centrality of the work organisations that shape the labouring conditions at various phases of industrialisation.
2. Comprehend the basic tenets and theoretical underpinnings of various processes, phases and forms of industrial organisation.
3. Relate work situations, working conditions and labour standards of the contemporary world of work
4. Critically assess the temporal transformations in labouring scenarios and to understand the likely implications for work and workers

Brief Description of Modules:

Module 1:

 

Earlier Conceptulisations on Industrial Efficiency, Labour Productivity and Work Organisation:  Efficiency Maximisation and Worker Welfare - Adam Smith’s Conceptualisation of Division of labour; Scientific Management (Taylorism) and its implications for labour; Taylorist norms and contemporary world of work

 

Module 2:

Fordism, Post-Fordism and Subsequent Developments – Mass Production, Standardisation and Cost Minimisation in Fordist Regime; Rise and Fall of Fordism; Learnings from Great Depression; Emergence of Lean Production Models; Flexible Specialisation; Subcontracting; Labour Process Analysis; Harry Braverman’s Conceptualisations of Deskilling and Alienation of Labour; Michael Burawoy’s Alternative Conceptualisations; Emergence of Service Sector; Feminisation of Workforce; Emotional Labour

Module 3:

 

New Paradigms of Work Organisation:  New International Division of Labour, Outsourcing and Offshoring; Global Production Systems; Industry 4.0; Gig Work; Telecommuting/Work from Home; Co-working Spaces

 

 

 

 

Assessment Details with weights (Tentative)

 

Assessment	Type	Weightage
1	Preparation of a Term Paper, based on literature review	50 %
2	Preparation of a Dossier on Suggested themes and Viva Voce	50 %

 

Readings

 

Balliester, T. and Elsheikhi, A., (2018), “The Future of Work: A Literature Review”, ILO, Geneva.

Bhowmik, Sharit (2012): Industry, Labour and Society Paperback, Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad.

 

Braverman, H. 1974, Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century, London: Monthly Review Press. Introduction, Chapter 4 & 5.

 

Burawoy, Michael (1979): Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Gereffi, G. (1994): "Capitalism, Development and Global Commodity Chains" in Leslie Sklair (ed): Capitalism and Development.

 

Hochschild, Arlie Russell (1983): The Managed Heart: Commercialisation of Human Feeling, University of California Press, California.

Kaine, S., Josserand, E. (2019): ‘The organisation and experience of work in the gig economy’, Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 61 No. 4, pp. 479–501

Saval, Nikil (2014): Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace, Doubleday, New York

 

Scully-Russ, E., and Torraco, R. (2020). The Changing Nature and Organization of Work: An Integrative Review of the Literature. Human Resource Development Review, 19(1), 66–93

Standing, G. 2009. Work after Globalization: Building Occupational Citizenship. Cheltenham: Edgar Elgar Publishing Limited.

 

Williamson, Oliver E. (1980): The organization of work a comparative institutional assessment, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 1, Issue 1