Module description
With the crisis of the neoliberal consensus, and even more so in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, the international political economy of production has become a heated political issue. This module brings back production and labour relations as an area of enquiry connected to the study of world order. We first discuss how to study a ‘global commodity’. In order to do so, we investigate how competing political economy currents address the relationship between labour and production against the backdrop of the development of the global economy. We then cover a selection of contemporary issues: automation and work organization, global production restructuring and global production networks, extractivism and the ecological rift, the rise of new centres of accumulation in Asia, migration and racialization, and the impact of the global financial crisis in Europe. In this light, we address contemporary debates about the future of labour and the labour movement in an age of catastrophe. The module combines lectures and student-centred activities.
*Please note that module information is indicative and may change from year to year.
Assessment details
One 3,000 word essay (100%)
Educational aims & objectives
The module aims to:
- Introduce students to theories and issues around the importance of production and labour in the global economy;
- Provide a deep empirical understanding of the organisation of production today, including the shifting of manufacturing from North to South, the development of global value chains, and the reasons for increasing labour activism;
- Enable students to critically examine conventional approaches to the study of work, encouraging them to question and challenge established paradigms;
- Develop students' analytical skills to assess the impact of international political and economic forces on production dynamics, including the role of states, transnational corporations, and global institutions, and their implications for workers, sustainability, and socioeconomic development.
Learning outcomes
When students have completed this module, they should be able to:
- Evaluate the relationship of labour and production within broader socioeconomic and political transformations;
- Develop a long-term understanding of global production networks/global value chains;
- Select and use sources on industrial and labour relations;
- Identify influences and constraints on competitiveness and labour market policies;
- Develop a global perspective on workers’ movements and trade union organisation.
Teaching pattern
One-hour lecture and one-hour seminar, weekly
Indicative teaching schedule
PART 1 – Global commodities: history and theories
Week 1: From Mercantilism to Classical Political Economy
Week 2: Marx: labour, capital and accumulation on a world scale
Week 3: Neoclassical economics: work, scarcity and comparative advantage
PART 2 – Contemporary issues
Week 4: Automation and work: Taylor, Ford, and Toyota
Week 5: The global restructuring of production
Week 6: Extractivist ecologies and resistance
Week 7: Migration, race and gender
Week 8: Workers and China’s global factory
Week 9: Working into poverty in Europe
Week 10: The future of labour
Note that this teaching schedule is indicative and subject to change.
Suggested reading list
- Borjas GJ (2012) Labor Economics 6th edition. McGraw-Hill Higher Education
- Dicken P (2015) Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy 7th edition. Guilford Press
- Silver B (2003) Forces of Labor: Workers' Movements and Globalization Since 1870. Cambridge University Press
- Spencer D (2009) The Political Economy of Work. London: Routledge.
- van der Pijl K (2015) Handbook of the International Political Economy of Production. Edward Elgar
- Williams E (1945) Capitalism and Slavery. The University of North Carolina Press