Admission requirements
Description
This course is about the experiences of labor during the capitalist transformation of Asian societies over the past two centuries. In this period, increasing numbers of rural migrants voluntarily or involuntarily left for paid work in factories, mines, plantations, and homes of upper- and middle-class families. These workers performed a wide range of labor under different laboring conditions and employment relations. But what many of these workers shared was their exclusion from political representation and their inability to escape the oftentimes racialized labor categories.
This course asks: How did capitalism shape the way these workers work? How did race, gender, and labor intersect in different Asian societies? How did workers confront the inequalities and exclusions they faced? How have these past inequalities persisted or ended in the present time? We’ll address these questions through readings and class discussion on these themes: slavery and indentured labor, domestic work, technology and work, gendered division of labor, experience of dignity, and the politics of belonging.
In this course, we treat Asia as both a source of empirical knowledge and a site of theorization. Towards this end, we augment our exploration of the Asian experiences with additional readings on theories of labor and capitalism (for e.g. liberal theory of wage labor, labor process theory, world-systems theory, and social reproduction theory), and critiques of these theories from the perspectives of Asian historical and contemporary experiences.
Course objectives
Participants in this course can:
Describe patterns of work, labor mobility and labor relations in Asia.
Identify main issues confronting labor in Asia in the past and the present.
Evaluate theories of labor and capitalism.
Present orally and moderate discussion on topic related to course subject.
Design a research project on a contemporary or historical topic related to labor in Asia.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment
Presentation / Attendance / Participation: 25%
Midterm Paper: 25%
Final Paper: 50%
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
In order to pass the course, all students must obtain an overall mark of 5.50 (=6) or higher. A new version of the paper assignment may be written if the overall mark for the course is “5.49” (=5) or lower. If students take this option, they must choose an alternative topic. They will not be permitted to resubmit the same paper. The deadline for this version will be determined in consultation.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized
Reading list
Readings will be announced on Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office Herta Mohr