SP442 Half Unit
The Future of Work and Social Policy
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Thomas Biegert
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in International Social and Public Policy, MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Development), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (LSE and Fudan), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Migration), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Non-Governmental Organisations) and MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Research). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
All Social Policy Courses are ‘Controlled Access’.
Other than for students in the first category below, when applying for a course all students are required to provide a written statement explaining why they wish to take that course.
Statements are considered by the Course Convenor and, where merited by the statement, places are offered in the following priority order:
1. Students for whom the course is a ‘core course’ on their Programme Regulations (these students should already be allocated to the course in LSE for you – i.e. no written statement is required).
2. Students for whom the course appears as an ‘optional core course’ on their Programme Regulations (where students have to choose between a small number of core options).
3. Students for whom the course appears as an optional course on their Programme Regulations.
4. Other Social Policy students.
5. LSE students from Departments other than Social Policy.
Please note: The number of students that can be accommodated on most courses is limited. If a course is over-subscribed, places will be allocated at the Convenor’s discretion, based on student statements. Therefore, you are advised to have an alternative course in mind in case you are unable to secure your first-choice course selection.
If offered a place on a Social Policy course, please accept the place as early as possible. NB: Offers will ‘time-out’ after 48 hours and the place will be offered to another student. If you wish to reject an offer, please do so as early as possible so that the place can be offered to one of your fellow students.
Close of Course Selection is on the 10 October 2025 (dependant on availability of course places).
Please Note: No places will be offered on Social Policy courses UNTIL 1pm on 29th September 2025.
For queries contact: socialpolicy.msc@lse.ac.uk
Course content
Work is the central mechanism for the distribution of economic capital in most societies today. It also plays a crucial role in the distribution of non-material goods such as status. A range of social polices embed the world of work, e.g., by regulating access to it or securing individuals when they are out of work. Moreover, in many societies, policies are financed through taxes on income from work. This course starts from the observation that the world of work and employment has seen important shifts over the past decades. Some detect a growing precarization of work in post-industrial societies. In many low- and middle-income countries informal work plays an essential role. Technological change has led to a polarisation of the workforce locally and globally. Projecting out technological change, some fear that automation will lead to dramatic job-loss in the not-so-distant future. Most recently, the COVID19 pandemic led to dramatic reorganization of work routines. Against this backdrop, this course takes an internationally comparative perspective to engage with the questions of what role social policies have played in embedding the world of work in the past and how they will have to adapt to face the challenges that are suggested to come.
The course is structured in three blocks:
First, the course will start by discussing how we define work (e.g. by asking about the difference between paid and unpaid work and gendered consequences of the distinction), then assessing the central role work plays in contemporary societies in low, middle, and high income countries, and by analysing how social policies embed work in different ways across contexts.
Second, the course will investigate the social implications of recent changes in the world of work, such as precarization, informality, digitalization, and technological change, and then cover different perspectives on how we might expect the world of work to change in the mid and long run.
In the third and most substantial block the course will then discuss potential strategies for social policies to deal with the challenges of recent and future developments. The course will consider different proposals that range from “fixing things so that the can stay as they are" to more transformative and utopian ones.
Teaching
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
All teaching will be in accordance with the LSE Academic Code which specifies a "minimum of two hours taught contact time per week when the course is running in the Autumn Term (AT) and/or Winter Term (WT)". Social Policy courses are predominantly taught through a combination of in-person Lectures and In person classes/seminars. Further information will be provided by the Course Convenor in the first lecture of the course.
Formative assessment
Case analysis / study in Autumn Term Week 9
Students will be expected to produce 1 case study in the AT.
Indicative reading
- Autor, D.H., Mindell, D.A. and E.B. Reynolds (2021): The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Task Force on the Work of the Future, issuing body.
- Brynjolfsson, E. and A. McAfee (2014): The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company.
- Grint, K. & Nixon, D. (2015): The Sociology of Work. Oxford: Polity. (4th edition)
- ILO (2022): Present and Future of Work in the Least Developed Countries. Geneva: International Labour Organization.
- OECD (2019): The Future of Work. OECD Employment Outlook 2019. Paris: OECD.
Assessment
Essay (100%, 3500 words) in Spring Term Week 3
A summative essay in the form of a policy proposal written from the stance of a researcher for an independent policy organisation of a maximum of 3500 words will inform 100% of the final mark.
Key facts
Department: Social Policy
Course Study Period: Autumn Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 34
Average class size 2024/25: 17
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Communication