BTX3117 · Global regulation against the dehumanisation of work

Overview

In this unit, you will explore a different way of thinking about workplace regulation, with the starting point that workers are not just economic actors, but people with digital and environmental footprints as well as personal lives and responsibilities. You will examine regulatory responses to real-world challenges that affect you and others as workers, including AI-driven management and automation, climate-related risks, and increasingly diverse and fragmented working and personal lives. You will engage with global regulatory developments to understand how different regulatory systems within countries, industries and firms are responding to these challenges. You will also consider the limitations of these approaches and be invited to imagine alternative futures for workplace regulation. By the end of the unit, you will be able to critically assess whether existing regulatory interventions adequately protect workers’ dignity, safety, security and wellbeing in a technologically evolving, climate-affected, and insecure and atomised labour market, and to explain how workplace regulation might be redesigned to better respect workers' humanity.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

Learning outcomes

1. assess the effectiveness of existing and emerging regulatory approaches that address the dehumanisation of work
2. evaluate how different socio-economic, cultural and institutional contexts shape the development of regulatory protections against the dehumanisation of work
3. analyse tensions between regulatory values such as dignity, autonomy, employer control, and economic adaptation and how these influence the design of regulatory solutions
4. design persuasive and context-specific solutions to address contemporary challenges affecting workers' humanity in diverse regulatory settings.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated readings, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities. You are expected to complete all pre-class activities prior to your scheduled class, and post-class activities should be completed after your scheduled class. Learning activities may include a combination of teacher directed, peer directed and online engagement activities.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.