The seminar improves the understanding of the standard employment relationship (SER) and its relevance within labour law and society. Therefore we will track features of individual employment regulations in historical and comparative perspective, mirror the intersection with collective labour regulations, and explore inclusive and exclusive aspects of the SER. Furthermore, to estimate how many people benefit from labour protection and assess labour market structures, we will contrast de jure and de facto implementation of past and present labour regulations in OECD countries and countries of the Global South.
As the seminar is closely linked to the project “Worlds of Labour” we will also give insights in and discuss the application of theories and methods.
A tow day excursion is planned to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Berlin in combination with a visit to the local office of the International Labour Organisation ( ILO). Probably the expenses for the trip will be compensated to a major extent.

3-6 ECTs are possibly to be achieved
Deakin, Simon F. (2007) »The Evolution of Labour Law: Calibrating and Comparing Regulatory Regimes«, International La¬bour Review, 146, 3/4, S. 133–162.
Emmenegger, Patrik (2014), The power to dismiss: Trade unions and the Regulation of Job Security in Western Europe, Oxford usf.: Oxford University Press.
Teklé, Tzehainesh (Hrsg.) (2010), Labour Law and Worker Protection in Developing Countries, Oxford usf.: Hart Publishing/Genf: ILO

The aim of this course is to provide a profound understanding of comparative welfare state research in advanced western countries from a historical and comparative perspective. Students will be able to understand, systematize and critically discuss different theories to explain the origins and development trajectories of social policy-making. Why do some governments provide higher benefit generosity for instance for sickness and unemployment than others? Besides a theoretical understanding about the role of domestic institutions and actors in shaping the welfare state, the course will further discuss different varieties of welfare state models. What are the main characteristics of different models and how have they changed over time? Finally, we will look at the main challenges welfare states are facing such as globalization and public debt and examine recent reform trajectories. For successfully completing the course students will have to actively participate in weekly sessions, read the mandatory literature, and fulfill the class assignments. The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State (2010) edited by Castles et al. (2010) and published by Oxford University Press serves as a good source for consultation. To pass this course with 4 or 8 CPS, you will have to conduct a group project including a presentation (40%) and submit a written assignment (60%) at the end of the course.

This seminar will address the relationship between social class and gender-based forms of stratification in modern societies and in historical perspective. Overall, the question of interest is why the inequalities at the intersection of class and gender in paid and unpaid work persist across industrialized societies despite some impressive policy achievements over the past half century. The primary literature source will be the book “Gender-Class Equality in Political Economies”. In this book, Lynn Prince Cooke places gender inequality in a context that is historically shaped by the intersections of multiple inequalities and the particularities of six countries: Germany (East and West), Spain, Australia, the UK and the US. Gender-class inequalities persist in paid work hours, wages, and the division of housework. The study shows how values, choices, and behaviors of individual men and women in various national contexts are enabled and constrained by state policies that effectively structure relative group advantage and disadvantage from birth through old age.