Work, Labor, and Political Economy
Faculty and students working in this area explore multiple dimensions of work, labor, and political economy and how they intersect with other arenas of social life. By interrogating the boundaries of work (whether through analysis of carework, domestic labor, graduate student work, or student athlete labor), by exploring the relationship between employment and social inequalities (such as age, gender, and class), and by analyzing how work mitigates—or exacerbates—social problems (such as crime or precarity), UB researchers reveal new dimensions of this central social institution.
Sub-fields
Gender and work are mutually constitutive social constructions. Scholars in this field examine various forms of gendered labor and gender inequality in paid and unpaid work.
Faculty
Researchers in this area examine the role of employment and education in crime and criminal justice system involvement. Specific research topics include: how education and employment status redirect one’s criminal trajectory; the relationship between socioeconomic mobility and changes in crime across the life course; and how involvement with the criminal justice system affects subsequent educational and occupational attainments.
Faculty
Scholars in this field examine the dynamics that shape the world of work--including precarity, inequality, and coercion--as well as the social policies that produce, reify, or remedy such dynamics.
Faculty
Researchers in this area examine a wide range of labor movements in both American and global contexts, from the foundational forms of labor protests, unionizing, and living wage campaigns to new frontiers such as how workers conceptualize their rights as workers and labor organizing in the informal economy and the sphere of social reproduction
Faculty
Scholars in this field analyze the macro political, economic, and ecological conditions that have shaped global patterns of accumulation and social reproduction.
