GE Cluster M24A,B,CW
Work, Labor and Social Justice in The U.S.
| Lecture Schedule: | Tuesday, Thursday 2:00 p.m.–3:20 p.m. – DeNeve Auditorium |
| Faculty: | Kelly Lytle Hernandez, History Tobias Higbie, History Geraldine Moyle, Writing Programs Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, UCLA Labor Center |
This course focuses on the social and political dimensions of work, with particular emphasis on the workplace as contested terrain in the long struggle for social justice. More than simply a private economic arrangement, work — in terms of how it is organized and how it is valued — has ramifications that reach beyond individual experience to engage basic questions at the core of a democratic society. Throughout our history, how workers are treated on the job, and indeed the very work they do, has served as a proxy for their social status, political power, and group identity within the larger society. Thus, as working people have mobilized to transform and improve the workplace, they have advanced the cause of social justice, and in so doing, enlarged the scope of citizenship to incorporate workers’ rights.
Throughout the year, we examine the meaning of race, gender, and immigration status in the American workplace. In Fall quarter, we present a history of the American working class, from the 1870s to the 1970s, focusing on change and resistance at the grassroots, and emphasizing the perspectives of workers. Topics include: structural changes in the economy; social control in the workplace; determinants of collective action; incorporation of immigrants; interventions by the federal government; struggles for economic citizenship; and the shifting fortunes of labor unions. In Winter quarter, we trace the emergence of the post-industrial economy, addressing such issues as deindustrialization, deunionization, globalization, service sector growth, and income inequality. We also examine how changes in the contemporary workplace have impacted particular groups, including low-wage workers, white-collar professionals, women workers, and recent immigrants, both legal and illegal. In Spring quarter, students enroll in small-group seminars to pursue issues raised by the course in greater depth.
Course Format
The course also features:
- A diverse array of guest speakers, including union organizers, activists & workers as well as local & visiting scholars with expertise in labor history, economic trends, & immigrant workforce participation.
- Regular notification about opportunities to participate in social justice activities, both on & off campus.
- A spring seminar devoted to service learning and offering the opportunity to participate in the work of local organizations involved in social justice, social change or social services.
Spring Seminars – Previous seminar topics have included:
- U.S. Immigration Policy and the Labor Market
- Working for Paradise: Work, Labor, and Social Justice in Los Angeles, 1890-1990
- Culture, Power, and Resistance in White-Collar Work
- Race, Citizenship, and Migrant Labor in Comparative Perspective
- Gender and Labor in the Global Economy
- Learning Through Action in the L.A. Labor Community
Foundation Area General Education Credit
Upon completion of all three quarters of the cluster, students will receive credit for 2 courses in Foundations of Society and Culture (1 in Historical Analysis and 1 in Social Analysis) and 1 course in the Foundations of Arts and Humanities-Literary and Cultural Analysis.
