Full course description
Course Introduction
This course explores the political limits placed on working class power in the US over time and its effect on workers and their organizations. An essential part of the course will focus on the different ways in which power and class intersect in the American political structure, where socioeconomic limits are transformed into political constraints. Using the American political structure as the backdrop, students will examine basic concepts of power and how concepts of power translate into practical political boundaries that must be overcome if labor is to grow and expand its influence in the American political process. Essential to the discussion is the debate of how power is exercised in American society and the deep rooted political implications of power.
Interested in the full series? Check out the Program, Union Leadership and Administration Certification.
Learning Outcomes
After completing the modules, you will be able to:
- Explore various perspectives on power, politics, and implicit assumptions about power and politics in organizations.
- Explain the long-term effects of labor's decline in membership and influence.
- Recognize the strategies which strengthen organized labor's position within the current institutional framework
Module Topics Include
- Workers, culture, and social class
- The politics of power: Capitalism as private government
- Civic engagement in decline
- White nationalism, the working class, and organized labor
- Setting the state for neoliberalism
- The Voting Rights Act of 1965
- How to win
Course creator
This course was designed and developed by the Marquita Walker, Ph.D. interim chair and associate professor in the Department of Labor Studies, School of Social Work. As an Interim Chair and Associate Professor of Labor Studies at Indiana University, I bring over three decades of experience in research and education to the table. My interests lie in studying social stratification, income inequity, poverty, and e-learning as they pertain to workers and workers' education. I have published multiple articles and book chapters on these topics, and have presented my work at numerous national and international conferences.