Introduction to Labor and Society provides an overview of the field of Labor Studies and examines work, workers, and the collective responses of workers mostly through the lens of social justice. The field of Labor studies analyzes issues facing workers and labor from a multi-discinpilnary perspective, drawing on and synthesizing fields of sociology, history, economics, political science, business, and industrial relations. We will explore the definition of workers and why labor is worth studying by investigating the concept of class. The course will look at workers' and labors' place in the social structrue and how the American work ethic has affected the labor movement over time.  

Building on our understanding of labor as an historically constituted social movement, we will examine theoretial models assoicated with the labor movement and explore the current state of the U.S. employment relationship as it pertains to economic inequality, poverty, equity or fairness, the minimum wage and the earned income credit, and the joint employer standard.