Course Information

Instructor: Dr. Timur Ergen (iawlehre@uni-bremen.de)
Institution: University of Bremen, Institute Labor and Economy (iaw)
Course Code: 08-SOZ-BA-2-Soz-SP-3
Language: German
Semester: Winter 2026/27
Schedule: Mondays 14:00–16:00, weekly (from 19/10/26)
Location: UNICOM 3.3390

The course introduces the sociology of work. It covers theoretical foundations, central dimensions of paid work and working life, and current controversies about the changing world of work. Its guiding question is how modern societies organize, distribute, and regulate work, and how the relationship between work, associations, market, and state has shifted historically.

The course is organized in three parts. A first part covers classical and more recent theoretical foundations of the field: the division of labor and productivity; exploitation and alienation; the ethic of the calling; the commodification of labor as a ‘fictitious commodity’; control and deskilling in the labor process; and emotional labor. A second part addresses the institutional embedding and social constitution of work in economy and society, from occupations, skills, and professions through labor markets and forms of work organization to the role of trade unions and collective interest representation and the relationship between paid work and the welfare state. The final part turns to current debates on the changing world of work: migrant labor, platform work, and the institutional dualization of labor market regimes and working conditions.

Besides providing an overview of key concepts and findings of the sociology of work, the course familiarizes students with the variety of sociological approaches to work, ranging from the classics of social theory through comparative institutional analyses to ethnographic and quantitative studies. Where possible, topics are related to the German case, for instance codetermination and free collective bargaining, the dual vocational training system, or the expansion of the low-wage sector.

Course Materials
  • Complete Syllabus — Full course syllabus (in German) with detailed information and requirements

Assessment

Discussion of the readings is the core of the seminar. If you do not plan to read the texts and come to the sessions prepared, you will get extremely little out of the seminar – next to nothing, in fact. All students are therefore expected to read all assigned texts and to participate regularly and actively. To get credit, students must (1) read all assigned texts, (2) take an active part in the seminar discussions, and (3) pass an oral examination at the end of the semester.

Offline Commitment

The seminar is designed as a social offline space. We work with printed texts, and with pens and paper. By common agreement, laptops, tablets and phones stay unused during our sessions. We also do without language models, whether for summaries, for preparation, or for written work. If you print the ca. 440 pages we read in the seminar at the SUUB, the full reader will amount to around €22. The offline commitment has nothing to do with hostility to technology. At its core, the craft of the social sciences consists of reading texts, working your way through them, and writing texts of your own: following an argument, systematically questioning it, and developing your own arguments. This ability only comes with practice, and it is increasingly under pressure because summarizing, phrasing and structuring have become so easy to outsource. Whatever you outsource, you will not learn. The effort of reading a difficult text multiple times, or of rewriting a clumsy paragraph again and again, is not a detour on the way to a clear thought. It is an important form in which thinking itself takes place, and it lies at the center of studying the social sciences at German universities.

Part I: Grundfragen & klassische Perspektiven

Session 1: Arbeit – Begriffsgeschichte

October 19, 2026

Required Reading:

  • Conze, Werner, 1972: „Arbeit“. In: Brunner, Otto, Werner Conze und Reinhart Koselleck (Hg.): Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe. Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland, Bd. 1, Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, S. 154–215.

Session 2: Smith – Arbeitsteilung

October 26, 2026

Required Reading:

  • Smith, Adam, 1976 [1776]: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapters I–II. Oxford University Press, S. 11–25.

Session 3: Weber – Berufsethik

November 2, 2026

Required Reading:

  • Weber, Max, 1920 [1904/05]: Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus. In: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie I, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, Kap. I.3, „Luthers Berufskonzeption. Aufgabe der Untersuchung“, und Kap. II.2, „Askese und kapitalistischer Geist“.

Session 4: Marx – Entfremdung

November 9, 2026

Required Reading:

  • Marx, Karl, 2009 [1844]: Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, S. 82–98 (sowie der dazugehörige Kommentar von Michael Quante, S. 247–263).

Session 5: Polanyi – Arbeit als fiktive Ware

November 16, 2026

Required Reading:

  • Polanyi, Karl, 2001 [1944]: The Great Transformation. The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Beacon Press, Kap. 6–8.

Session 6: Braverman – Die Degradierung der Arbeit

November 23, 2026

Required Reading:

  • Braverman, Harry, 1977 [1974]: Die Arbeit im modernen Produktionsprozess, Frankfurt/New York: Campus, Kap. 5 & 6.

Session 7: Hochschild – Emotionsarbeit

November 30, 2026

Required Reading:

  • Hochschild, Arlie Russell, 2024 [1983]: „Die manipulierten Gefühle“. In: Wolfgang Menz und Martin Seeliger (Hg.), Soziologie der Arbeit. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, S. 288–314.

Part II: Die institutionelle Einbettung von Arbeit

Session 8: Spielarten der Dekommodifizierung

December 7, 2026

Required Reading:

  • Esping-Andersen, Gøsta, 1999: Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, Kap. 2, „The Democratic Class Struggle Revisited“ (S. 15–31), und Abschnitt 3.4.

Session 9: Abbott – Professionen

December 14, 2026

Required Reading:

  • Abbott, Andrew, 1988: The System of Professions. An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Kap. 1, „Introduction“, und Kap. 10, „The Construction of the Personal Problems Jurisdiction“.

December 21, 2026 – January 3, 2027: winter break

Session 10: Prekäre Arbeit

January 4, 2027

Required Reading:

  • Kalleberg, Arne L., 2009: „Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition“. In: American Sociological Review 74 (1), S. 1–22.

Part III: Gegenwärtige Debatten

Session 11: Migrantische Arbeit

January 11, 2027

Required Reading:

  • Waldinger, Roger und Michael I. Lichter, 2003: How the Other Half Works. Immigration and the Social Organization of Labor, Berkeley: University of California Press, Kap. 1, S. 3–28.

Session 12: Plattformarbeit

January 18, 2027

Required Reading:

  • Schor, Juliet B., William Attwood-Charles, Mehmet Cansoy, Isak Ladegaard und Robert Wengronowitz, 2020: „Dependence and Precarity in the Platform Economy“. In: Theory and Society 49, S. 833–861.

Session 13: Dualisierung

January 25, 2027

Required Reading:

  • Emmenegger, Patrick, Silja Häusermann, Bruno Palier und Martin Seeleib-Kaiser, 2012: „How We Grow Unequal“. In: dies. (Hg.): The Age of Dualization. The Changing Face of Inequality in Deindustrializing Societies, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, S. 3–26.