The aim of this course is to understand the social nature of labor and to analyze the transformation of work within its historical, economic, and cultural contexts from a sociological perspective. Students will be encouraged to critically engage with core issues such as changing modes of production from pre-industrial society to the present, labor processes, class structures, division of labor, alienation, labor movements, and the intersection of gender and labor. The course also aims to provide students with the analytical tools to examine the contemporary transformations of work under globalization, digitalization, and flexible employment practices.

The Sociology of Work course focuses on understanding the social, cultural, and historical dimensions of labor. It explores how modern forms of work emerged with the Industrial Revolution, how labor is organized, and how these processes intersect with categories such as class, gender, ethnicity, and identity. The course covers key concepts such as labor process theory, modes of production, bureaucracy, Taylorism, Fordism, post-Fordism, flexibility, neoliberal restructuring, and new labor regimes. It also investigates the evolution of trade unionism, the sociological foundations of working-class movements, and the new forms of inequality produced by contemporary work structures such as remote work and the platform economy.