Foundations of Business and Society
AS/SOSC 2340/49 6.0
F/W 2021-2022
Course Director: Prof. Richard Wellen
rwellen@[Link]
Course Description:
This course provides a critical, broad and interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship
between business and society. Among the topics covered will be the social and historical
foundations of modern business systems, theories of market society, the nature of the firm,
corporate governance, business ethics, globalization of economic institutions and issues of social
change related to work, gender, economic development, the environment, the social power of
business and socio-economic inequality. Much of the second term will extend our understanding
of these topics by covering policy issues connected with the rise of digital platforms (Facebook,
Google, etc..), increasing inequality, proposals for new types of business regulation, climate
change and the challenges of globalization.
Since this course is part of the core curriculum for the Business and Society program, we
will adopt an interdisciplinary approach to our subject matter. In general, the methods and
approaches of social science inquiry, including normative (moral and ethical) theory and policy
analysis will be emphasized.
In the 2020-21 academic year the lectures for this course will be taught remotely and
posted on the eClass site on Friday before the topic week. Some tutorials will be taught in-person
and and the rest will be taught remotely using Zoom.
Students will be expected to read two or more reading selections each week, which will
mostly include academic journal articles and book chapters, supplemented by other material
from periodicals and web sites. Required assignments will include short analytical responses to
readings, one essay per term, one take-home test in the middle of the first term and a take-home
final exam in the final exam period. On the exams, students will be evaluated on their ability to
prepare essays and short explanatory answers in response to questions that will be based on a
‘study sheet’ distributed in advance.
Course Director Information:
Richard Wellen
Division of Social Science
Office hrs: Mondays 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (or by special appointment)
Your Tutorial Leader’s Information:
All information about your tutorial leader will be posted on the EClass site.
Required Materials:
Book:
Birch, et al., Business and Society: A Critical Introduction (selections)
Other:
All students will be required to use eClass to access materials for the course. Information
about the assignments will be posted throughout the term. All readings except for the full
hard copy version of the textbook listed above are available from the course EClass site.
Many readings will be posted as pdfs that can be downloaded from the EClass site, while
others will be available through links from the EClass site. Copies of the PowerPoint
slides used in lecture normally will be posted in the weekly topic section by the day
following the lecture.
Tests, Assignments, Exams: Value Due Date
First term take-home test 15% Nov. 8
First essay (2000 words) 15% Jan. 10
Proposal and Bibliography 5% Feb. 18
Second term paper (3000 words) 22.5% March 29
Final Exam (3 hrs) 22.5% April Exam Period
Class participation 10%
First term tutorial assignments 5% T.B.A.
Second term tutorial assignments 5% T.B.A.
Participation Marks:
Class participation grades will be based on attendance, participation in – and contributions to -
online tutorial sessions and forums. No student can take full advantage of this course component
without engaging in tutorials, including making an active contribution and demonstrating that
they have prepared by doing readings and viewing and listening to lectures.
Schedule of Readings and Lecture Topics
(the date listed is the Monday of the week in which topics will be covered in the lecture and
tutorials):
Week 1 - Sept. 13 Course Introduction
Week 2 - Sept. 20 Contending Views of Capitalism
• Heilbroner & Thurow, “Three Great Economists.”
• Stanford, “The Politics of Economics”
Week 3 - Sept. 27 Competition: A Closer Look
• Heath, Selections from The Efficient Society
• Stanford, “Competition”
• Sagoff, “Schumpeter’s Revolution: The Creative Destruction of
Economics.”
Week 4 - Oct. 4 Origins of “Big Business”
• McGraw, “American Capitalism.”
• Heath, Selections from the Efficient Society, pp. 142-146
• Mickelthwait and Woolridge, “The Triumph of Managerial Capitalism.”
Week 5 - Oct. 18 The Corporation and the Business System
• Weinstein, “Understanding he Roots of Shareholder Primacy: the
meaning of agency theory and the conditions for its contagion.”
• Birch, “The Corporate Revolution.” (reading required for SOSC 1340,
but should be reviewed for this course)
• The Economist, “Coase call: The Theory of the Firm.”
Week 6 - Oct. 25 Canadian Political Economy
• Belshaw, Selections on Canadian Economic History from “Canadian
History: Post-Confederation.”
• Stanford, “Why Linkages Matter” (pp. 65-71)
Week 7 - Nov. 1 Contemporary Challenges for the Canadian Business System
• Nicholson, “Canada's Low-Innovation Equilibrium: Why It Has Been
Sustained and How It Will Be Disrupted.”
• Stanford, “Staples Dependence Renewed and Betrayed: Canada’s 21st
Century Boom and Bust”
Week 8 - Nov. 8 Corporate Governance (First term Take-home exam due)
• Salazar, “Corporate Governance.”
Week 9 - Nov. 15 Beyond Shareholder Primacy?
• Bower and Paine, “The Error at the Heart of Corporate Leadership.”
• Braun and Buller, “Welcome to the Age of Asset Manager Capitalism.”
• Lowry, “Could Index Funds be ‘Worse than Marxism’?”
• Breunig, “Common Ownership is Actually Good.”
Week 10 - Nov. 22 Corporate Transformations
• Davis, “Corporate Power in the 21st Century.”
• Khan, “What Makes Tech Platforms so Powerful?” pp. 14-17
• Slaiman, “Why Dominant Digital Platforms need more Regulation.”
Week 11 - Nov. 29 Regulating Business: Theories, Models and Challenges
• Wellen, “Business, Regulation and Policy” (pp. 195-211)
• Baldwin, Cave and Lodge, “Why Regulate?” (pp. 15-24)
Week 12 - Dec. 6 Corporate Social Responsibility
• Birch, “Corporate Responsibility” (ch 5 of Business and Society a
Critical Introduction).
• Bakan, “The Corporate Liberation Movement.”
Second Term
Week 13 - Jan. 10 Perspectives on Business Ethics
• Wellen and Birch, “Ethics and Business”
• Sandel, Markets and Morality (selections)
Week 14 - Jan. 17 Cases in Business Ethics (read at least six)
• Velasquez, “Business Ethics, Concepts and Cases, 4th edition (selections
on the Ford Pinto case).”
• Maxmen, “Self-driving car dilemmas reveal that moral choices are not
universal”
• Denton, “Is the trolley problem derailing the ethics of self-driving cars?”
• Tangdall. “Google’s handling of the ‘Echo Chamber’ Manifesto.”
• Leefeldt, “How ‘big data’ gives insurers a giant edge over consumers.”
• Kitroeff, Gelles and Nicas, "Boeing engineer says 737 Max safety system
vetoed over cost"
• Rici and Amorim, "Ethical and Practical Considerations Surrounding
Mandatory Vaccination
• Ghaffary, The controversy behind a star AI researcher's departure from
Google
Week 15 - Jan. 24 The Economics of Climate Change
• Zenghelis, “Decarbonization: Innovation and the Economics of Climate
Change”
• Elkins and Zhenghelis, "The costs and benefits of environmental
sustainability"
Week 16 – Jan 31 The Politics of Climate Change
• Green and Denniss, “Cutting with both arms of the scissors: the
economic and political case for restrictive supply-side climate policies.”
• Hickel and Hallegatte, "Can we live within environmental limits and still
reduce poverty? Degrowth or decoupling?"
Week 17 - Feb. 7 Contesting Business Power in the Digital Economy
• Rahman and Thelen, “The Rise of the Platform Business Model and the
Transformation of 21st Century Capitalism.”
• Ezrachi and Stucke, “Edistortions: How Data-opolies are Dissipating the
Internet’s Potential.”
Week 18 - Feb. 14 The Social Impact of Data-Driven Business
• Bogen, “All the ways hiring algorithms can introduce bias.”
• Rahman and Teachout, From Private Bads to Public Goods: Adapting
Public Utility Regulation for Informational Infrastructure.
• Fukuyama, "Making the Internet Safe for Democracy"
Week 19 – Feb 28 Inequality and new Business Models
• David Weil, “Income Inequality, Wage Determination and the Fissured
Workplace.”
• Haskel and Westlake, “The long-term economic trend no one’s talking
about.”
• Macfarlane, “Why the distribution of wealth has more to do with power
than productivity.”
Week 20 - March 8 Work in a Digital (and Pandemic) Economy
• Howcraft and Rubery, “Gender Equality Prospects and the Fourth
Industrial Revolution.”
• Vallas and Schor. "What do Platforms do? Understanding the Gig
Economy."
Organizing for Change in Digital Capitalism
Week 21 - March 15
• Crouch, “Redefining labour relations and capital in the digital age.”
• Jolly, “Collective action and bargaining in the digital era.”
• Jin, Shroff, Duke Kominers, "A Labour Movement for the Platform
Economy"
Week 22 – Mar. 20 Business and Exclusion
• Hossein, “Business and Social Exclusion.”
• Block and Galabuzi, “Persistent Inequality: Ontario’s Colour-Coded
Labour Market.”
• Statistics Canada, Covid-19 in Canada: A one year Update on Social and
Economic Impacts
Week 23 – Mar. 27 Critical concepts of Globalization
• Stanford, “Globalization”
• Martin, et al., “Globalization at a critical conjuncture?”
Week 24 – Apr. 4 CSR in the context of Globalization
• Scherer and Palazzo, “Globalization and Corporate Social
Responsibility”
• Ruggie, “Multinationals as Global Institution: Power, Authority and
Relative Autonomy.”
Late Submission Penalties:
All late submission of assignments will be penalized at the rate of 2% (out of 100) for each
weekday.
Assignment Submission:
All written assignments must be submitted in electronic form using Turnitin. You are responsible
for saving and maintaining a copy of all of your assignments.
General Course Guidelines and Policies
(a) Accessing Lectures and Participating in Tutorials:
Viewing lectures and participating in online tutorial activities are important for those who wish
to do well in the course. Lectures include material not covered in readings, and not all material
from the lecture will be reproduced in the PowerPoint slides that will be posted each week.
Tutorial participation is important for learning and discussing the material in the course and
preparing for your assignments. Weekly optional 45 minute Q&A sessions will be conducted by
the course director at 10:30 a.m. every Monday (except during reading week abn one or two
other weeks in each term) in order to review lecture material and take questions from students.
(b) Academic Honesty:
Violations of standards of academic honesty are not tolerated in this course. The minimum
penalty for plagiarism or a similar violation is a 0/100 on the assignment. Students will be
required to complete the on-line tutorial at [Link]
Please remember that academic honesty does not simply men presenting the work of others as
your own but also re-submitting work you completed in another course for credit in this course.
(c) Grade Reappraisal:
Students who wish to receive further explanation about a grade they have received on an
assignment must speak with their TA first. If you feel that the grade is still not justified after
meeting with your tutorial leader then you may contact the course director who may review the
grade or ask for a written submission from the student about why they feel the grade should be
changed. Changes to originally assigned grades may result in a higher or lower mark. The
department’s formal grade reappraisal procedure process may only be invoked after final course
grades have been officially assigned.
Important Dates:
Sept. 21 – Automatic Enrolment period ends. Until this date you do not need (nor will you be
given) permission to enroll in the course by the Course Director.
Oct. 5 – Last date to enroll with permission from Course Director. We will not normally enroll
tutorials above 25 students.
Feb. 11 – Last date to drop the course without receiving a grade.
Feb. 2 – April 10 – Course Withdrawal period.
Relevant Campus Services
THE WRITING CENTRE
S329 Ross (416 736-5134).
The Writing Centre will offer on-line drop-in and workshop resources to help you prepare for
writing assignments. Check out their website at [Link]
SPARK – STUDENT PAPERS & ACADEMIC RESEARCH KIT
[Link]
Spark is a comprehensive web site that contains a number of resources and on-line modules that
can help students develop strategies and skills for academic writing and research. Some of these
materials will be reviewed in class by your instructors.
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE OPEN LEARNING CENTRE (ESL-OLC)
[Link]
The Centre is open twelve months a year to all York students, registered in degree programs, and
is free of charge. Services are available online during the 2020-21 academic year.
STUDENT COUNSELLING AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRE [SCDC]
416-736-5297
[Link]
SCDC offers a range of services to students including personal counseling, skill development
workshops (on time management, stress management and test preparation) and support for those
with learning disabilities and other counselling needs(112 BSB x33409.
