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Course Description

The theme of POLS 453 for Winter 2027 will be exploitation. Charges of exploitation are common but somewhat puzzling, as the transactions involved can be mutually beneficial, as compared to not interacting at all, which the parties involved may have no obligation to do. The first part of the course will cover the leading theories of exploitation (Marxist, market-based, respect-based), the central case of sweatshop labour, and the question of whether / how social structures or institutions can be exploitative. The second part of the course will be based on student presentations on specific cases of alleged exploitation, e.g. commercial surrogacy, prostitution, student athletics, price-gouging, volunteer armies, organ sales, drug pricing.

Image: Boris Gorelick, Sweatshop, ca. 1935–1937, lithograph, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, 1998.61 (public domain).