Work and Democracy in the Global Society

3 unit(s) Cross-list: LABRST 730 One cannot understand work and democracy without grappling with their containers, economy and politics, or the political economy. This course concretizes what it means to employ a global perspective on the evolving relations between work and democracy. Suturing the interconnections, or what Lisa Lowe terms “the intimacies” of four continents, we trace the (trans)formation of work from the histories of the transatlantic slave trade, European colonization, and international workers movements to transitions to the Fordist economy and neoliberal globalization. Concurrently, we unpack the notion of “democracy” by interrogating the ideas of freedom, autonomy, liberal democracy, and neoliberalism through the works of the Black Radical Tradition, Indigenous studies, the Marxist tradition, and post-colonial studies. Reflecting on the dialectics of work and democracy, our goal is to piece together our current conjuncture of abolitionist futures, insurgent anti-authoritarian, and anti-austerity struggles in order to enable its diffractions."