Textbook: (only for you to get ideas, but it is not compulsorily required by the lecturer as References of these essays) (1) Bamber,G., Lansbury,R. and Wailes,N. (eds, 2004) International and Comparative Employment Relations: Globalisation and the Developed Market Economies, 4th edition, Allen and Unwin, Sydney (The Chapter 1, that’s an Introduction to “Globalisation”, think will be very helpful on Topic1 of individual country essay. If you want this topic and need a softcopy of Ch1, let me know, or probably you can find it yourself at your end) (2) Hall,P. and Soskice,D. (eds, 2001) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. New York: Oxford University Press. 1. Individual country essay (Reading Lists on following 3 topics can be provided on request as i can include them in this section. However, you can have you own preference on referencing, I don’t care too much, just make sure the essay answers the question :) Weighting: 40% Due: 2 May 2008 Format: essay, no more than 2500 words Answer one of the following questions (please refer to three lecture notes for lecturer’s brief explanation on the topics of “Globalisation”, “Varieties of Capitalism” and “Comparative Industrial Relations Theory” in terms of your chosen essay topic- don’t know how to forward you these lecture notes and reading lists of these 3 toipcs, please advise me!): Topic 1. “Globalisation” is producing a convergence of employment relations policies and practices across the world”. Discuss this statement with reference to one of the countries covered in this unit of study (you can choose one country from US, Britain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Korea, PR China) (please refer to Lecture Note 1) Topic 2. Critically assess the usefulness of the varieties of capitalism approach for understanding employment relations by examining the extent to which it can capture key features of employment relations in one of the countries covered in this unit of study. (I think this is more difficult, please refer to Lecture Note 2) Topic 3. Outline the main changes that have taken place in employment relations in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since the late 1970s. To what extent is the current PRC employment relations system able to cope with the pressures associated with rapid economic development? (A Reading List on Chinese Employment Relations is provide below as I know it might be very difficult for you to locate articles on this topic, but you don’t have to choose this topic, just choose the one that makes sense to you)