Development Studies: Labour and Activism

Students are encouraged to examine critically the relationship between labour, capitalism, development and poverty. We investigate labour in the contemporary social and economic development of the Global South as well as established and emerging social movements of labour in local, national and international spaces. You will learn to identify and evaluate the relationship between collective agency, policy and vice-versa.

We work in a seminar/tutorial formats that encourage critical thinking and participation via an emphasis on the relationship between theory and practice. Programme lecturers are not just research active.

We are also activists and have experience of participation in labour and social movements across the world - Latin America, Africa and Asia and Europe and have on-going contacts with such movements as well as with NGOs and international organisations.

Why study MSc Development Studies (Labour and Activism) at SOAS?

• we are ranked second in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Rankings 2022)
• SOAS is ranked in the top 5 universities in the UK for producing a CEO or Managing Director, according to new research
• our staff are well-placed to work with you on applying a deep understanding of collective movements to the challenge of working in development, development-related organisations and beyond into education and corporate social responsibility at various levels and scales
• students can draw on SOAS’s unique experience to specialise further in particular regions and topics. Regional expertise at SOAS allows students of MSc in Labour, Activism and Development to specialise in some of the most dynamic parts of the developing world
• students also benefit from the wide range of modules on offer, both within the department and across the School, allowing them to create individualised interdisciplinary programmes
• the programme’s emphasis on transferable analytical skills will be of great benefit to graduates who return to, or take up, professional careers in international organisations, government agencies and non-governmental organisations and movements
• the department has a Labour, Movements and Development research cluster which carries out research activities linked to labour, social movements and development

Highlights

• a placement with an active labour or social movement organisation
• labour process and organisations: development trajectories and divisions in the South
• a comparative history of labour and social movements in countries such as China, Korea, India, South Africa, Brazil and the Middle East
• corporate social responsibility initiatives, codes of conduct and anti-sweatshop campaigning
• the impact of neoliberalism and globalisation on workers in the South
• informalisation of labour, casualization and precarious work and the rise of the Gig economy
• feminisation of labour
• the worst forms of exploitation: forced labour, child labour and Modern Slavery
• rural labour, migrant labour and labour in Export Processing Zones
• household and reproductive labour
• the International Labour Organisation, international labour standards and decent work
• practices and theories of local, national and international labour campaigns
• an assessed group project that allows students to apply acquired knowledge to ‘virtual’ practice

Who should apply?

The MSc Development Studies (Labour and Activism) programme is for students who wish to understand how labour and collective agency impacts on core processes of development. Our students acquire skill sets that combine theory and practice of labour, social movements and how they interplay with key developmental themes and interventions.

The programme is relevant to students with a strong background in the social sciences in their first degree as well as practitioners and activists from a wide spectrum of organisations and approaches.