Labor and Development in East Asia

Catalog description

East Asia has been the most economically dynamic region in the world since the end of World War II. Starting with Japan, one country after another has undergone a phase of rapid industrialization and economic development, on a scale and at a pace unmatched in history. This course focuses on the role that labor has played in East Asian development, attending to the socio-political conditions of working-class emergence as well as the dynamics of worker resistance and labor movement institutionalization. We will cover Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and China, analyzing the specificity of each while also highlighting the interconnected nature of labor and development in each society.