Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
| Master in human resource management, professional focus in HR policy and management | 4 crédits | |||
| Extra courses intended for exchange students (Erasmus, ...) (Faculty of social sciences) | 4 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
How did platforms (such as Airbnb, Uber or Deliveroo) become legal in Europe? Have they always been allowed? Isn't Uber an unfair competition to taxi drivers? Sociology of work tackles questions about many aspects of the working experience: the activities of workers, their experience, but also a set of rules that structures this cooperation. The question of regulation is at the core of these rules: how are states setting boundaries to regulate, frame, and provide guidance towards some activities? Through this course, you will learn the stakes of regulation, throughout the question of platforms.
Our course is organized around 3 main chapters.
The first chapter, "Regulating and negotiating, socio historical perspectives" aims at giving a broad context around our questions. Those stakes are particularly important in a capitalist and liberal society structured by globalization. Throughout this theoretical chapter, we will slowly build the topic of our main focus during this course - platform or gig work.
The second chapter will tackle the issue of regulation at both a national and European scale. We will study how lobbies have encouraged the development of platforms. Then we will move on to the protection of those gig workers by unions. This chapter will end with a collective debate in class, doing a mock negotiation in Uber headquarters.
Our third chapter is centered on local regulation and deregulation. We'll see how inhabitants start protests against some of those companies, especially Airbnb. Eventually, the rise of algorithmic regulation will be studied, as self-regulation by those companies. However, this algorithmic regulation seems deeply unsatisfying, as it creates inequalities. Are workers condemned to exploitation? And is deregulation a fate, in a liberal context?
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
- You will practice oral, reading and writing skills in English.
- You will gain knowledge on sociology of work. At the end of this course, you will be able to identify international and national variations, their historical depth in a globalized context. You will also know the stakeholders of regulation: state, platforms, unions, lobbies, workers.
- You will develop your sociological analysis, understand, and analyse complex work transformations, with a critical approach.
- You will gain key HR skills, such as negotiation. This course will be very useful professionally, in order to have a better understanding on each party's interests and have a thorough overview on change in work.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Lessons will alternate lecture times and in-class activities.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Further information:
This course will be taught on campus.
Course materials and recommended or required readings
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus
- MyULiège
Further information:
Powerpoint presentation will be uploaded online for students at the end of each chapter.
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Further information:
Final exam: January
Oral exam
The exam will be an individual oral presentation, structured, making you reflect on key concept of this course followed by a discussion with the teacher.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
Contacts
Marianne Le Gagneur
Marianne.legagneur@uliege.be