Colleagues 

The latest issue of the ILR Review is now available at the link below, with free downloads.  It features a special cluster of articles on skill shortages and skill gaps in the US and abroad and their contribution to unemployment and economic recovery.

Sincerely
Rose Batt and Larry Kahn, Editors

 

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ILR Review
March 2015; Vol. 68, No. 2



Articles
Skill Shortages, Mismatches, and Structural Unemployment: A Symposium
Lawrence M. Kahn

Skill Gaps, Skill Shortages, and Skill Mismatches: Evidence and Arguments for the United States
Peter H. Cappelli

Is Skill Mismatch Impeding U.S. Economic Recovery?
Katharine G. Abraham

A Road Map to Vocational Education and Training in Industrialized Countries
Werner Eichhorst, Núria Rodríguez-Planas, Ricarda Schmidl, and Klaus F. Zimmermann

Internal Labor Markets Under External Market Pressures
Jeong-Yeon Lee

How Institutional and Organizational Characteristics Explain the Growth of Contingent Work in China
Xiangmin Liu

Efficiency in Employee-Owned Enterprises: An Econometric Case Study of Mondragon
Saioa Arando, Monica Gago, Derek C. Jones, and Takao Kato

High-Performance Work Practices and Core Employee Wages: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Plants
Francesca Sgobbi and Gian Carlo Cainarca


Book Reviews
Book Review: Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism
Robert Boyer

Book Review: The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism
Mari Sako

Book Review: The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
James B. Rebitzer

Book Review: Unequal Time: Gender, Class, and Family in Employment Schedules
Matthew M. Piszczek

CFP: World Society, Planetary Natures, 3/1/15
 https://planetarynatures.wordpress.com/

courtesy of Phillip Hough <phough2@fau.edu>

World Society, Planetary Natures
Crisis and Sustainability in the Capitalocene and Beyond
Binghamton University, July 10-11, 2015

An international conference sponsored by the World Society Foundation

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Christian Parenti, Harriet Friedmann, Larry Lohmann, Tony Weis, and Jason W. Moore

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS IS MARCH 1, 2015

Since 2008, a broad consensus has emerged among scholars of global change: ours is an era of “converging crises.” Popularly expressed in the language of “triple crisis” – climate, energy, and finance – there is considerable uncertainty as to how these crisis-tendencies fit together, and if they are nearly so independent as the language of convergence suggests. If many scholars view the unfolding turbulence of the 21st century as an era of multiple crises, others have turned towards a different way of seeing crisis. This emerging alternative seeks to unify dimensions of human and extra-human natures in the world history of the present – as in the distinctive approaches of the Anthropocene and world-ecology perspectives. Through this different way of seeing, a crucial question has taken shape: Are we living the Age of Humans (the Anthropocene) or the Age of Capital (Capitalocene)?

World Society, Planetary Natures seeks to bring together scholars of global social change and global environmental change in the pursuit of new syntheses of “political economy” and “political ecology,” broadly conceived. The conference therefore privileges a double engagement: 1) with the core concerns of world-historical and global studies; and 2) with a broader multi-disciplinary community focused on global environmental change, past and present.

The conference pursues three major goals. First, we encourage a serious intellectual cross-fertilization between scholars engaged in the study of global social change and those engaged in the study of global environmental change. Second, the conference will facilitate a sustained exploration of the relations unifying the differentiated moments of 21st century crisis. These include not only the “triple crisis” argument, but comprise a wide range of crisis tendencies – such as food, inequality, employment, and social reproduction – as well as to the emergent possibilities of “commoning.” Third, the conference welcomes creative elaborations of globalization – in its manifold historical and contemporary expressions – as “ways of organizing nature.” In contrast to seeing neoliberalism as acting upon global natures, this alternative encourages a view of globalization as developing through the web of life. Such an alternative rethinks aspects of recent (and longue durée) world history as new human-environment configurations in which humans make environments, and environments enter into the constitution of power, re/production, and inequality. This entails the socio-ecological reconstruction of taken for granted “social” phenomena, such as the Washington Consensus, financialization, the European Union, or the rise of the BRICS. To investigate, analyze, and narrate historical change as if nature matters – as producer no less than product of capital and power – implies a much more decisive shift than commonly recognized: in our theoretical frames, methodological choices, and narrative strategies.

We welcome papers, panels, and proposals related – but not restricted to – the following topics:

The Financialization of Nature: Commodities, Carbon markets, Conservation, etc.

One, Two, Many “Sovereignties”: Food, Land, Energy, and Beyond

Planetary Urbanization

Cheap Labor, Unpaid Work, and the Crisis of Human Natures

Green Catastrophism and the Theory of Global Crisis

Narratives of Nature, Crisis, and Capitalism

Modernity and Climate Change

Scientific Revolutions and Capitalist Natures

Class Dynamics of Agro-Ecological Change, North and South

Crises: Social, Ecological, or World-Ecological?

Ecology and Imperialism

The ‘Long’ Green Revolution: Renewal or Demise?

Culture as Ecology

Green Keynesianism and the Myth of Sustainability

Industrialization and the Production of Nature

Anthropocene or Capitalocene?

New (and Old) Practices of Commoning

World-Literature and World-Ecology

Value, Nature, and Ontological Politics

Environmental Histories of Capital, Empire, and Commodities

Commodity Frontiers, Past and Present

The Environment-Making State

Markets, Trade, Investment: Does Nature Matter?

Nature as Accumulation Strategy

Crises of Social Reproduction

Neoliberalism’s Crises… or Not?

Surplus Humanities

Climate and Capitalism: Two Crises or One?

Nature and Hegemony

Ecological Exhaustion and War

 
We welcome proposals for individual papers as well as paper sessions and panel discussions. Inquiries and proposals may be sent to: planetarynatures@gmail.com.

Venue: The conference will be held 10-11 July, 2015 at Binghamton University (USA).

 Travel grants: The World Society Foundation sponsors a small number of travel grants for postgraduate students, young researchers, and for participants from Africa, Asia, Latin-America and Eastern Europe (ISA country categories B and C). Travel grants will be allocated on the basis of a competitive assessment of full papers (of about 8.000 words) submitted. Deadline for submission of papers for travel grants is March 1, 2015; papers must be sent by e-mailto:planetarynatures@gmail.com. Applicants receiving travel grants will be notified before 15 April, 2015.

Publication: Outstanding conference papers will be published in a conference volume.

Conference Sponsorship: The main sponsor of the conference is the World Society Foundation (Zurich, Switzerland). In addition the conference is co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology, University of Neuchâtel, the Department of Sociology, Binghamton University, the World-Ecology Research Network. For more information on the World Society Foundation and its activities, please check out the web site: http://www.worldsociety.ch/.

Organizing Committee: Christian Suter, Université de Neuchâtel; Diana C. Gildea; Jason W. Moore, Binghamton University; Benjamin J. Marley (Binghamton University).

Evolving Workplace Relations: Connecting Research to Best Practices
LERA 67th Annual Meeting, May 28-31, 2015, Pittsburgh, Pa.
 
Labor relations play an integral role in the fabric of society. Listen and meet the influential voices on the topics of minimum wage, immigration, worker rights, and other workplace policies.
 
50 sessions focus on the continuing evolution of workplace relations from all perspectives: labor, management, government, policy makers, arbitrators, and mediators. LERA specializes in connecting all stakeholders with research and experiences from in the workplace.
 
Highlights Include...
 
Featured Plenary Speaker
Leo Gerard
President of the United Steelworkers and vice president of the AFL-CIO, Gerard focused the United Steelworkers (USW) on strategic contract bargaining in paper, steel, rubber and other key sectors, while at the same time fighting unfair trade and building clout through political action and domestic and international alliances.
 
Meet the Author
Michael Piore author of the seminal work "Birds of Passage" and the impact of migrant labor in Industrial Societies 
 
Voices From the Evolving Workplace Featuring
                UAW/Ford
      •       James (Jimmy) Settles, Jr., UAW National Ford Department
      •       Bill Dirksen, Ford Motor Co.
 
Visit www.leraweb.org/67thannualmtg to register and for the full program.
 
Other sessions of interest:
      •       International Perspectives on Vulnerable Workers
      •       An Open Forum on Sharing and Reusing Social Science Data
      •       The Changing Workplace in Public Schools
      •       Work in a Democratic Society
 
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services training sessions
      •       How Technology and Labor Relations Might Work Together
      •       The New Generation of Alternative Bargaining Models
      •       The Case Study of Elliott Turbine and the Steelworkers
      •       Labor Dispute Systems Design and Capacity Building Abroad

The School of Labor and Employment Relations at The Pennsylvania State University invites applications for the position of Post-Doctoral Scholar with the Center for Global Workers’ Rights. This is a twelve-month position that begins on August 14, 2015.  The Center for Global Workers’ Rights was established in the fall of 2012 with the goal of promoting scholarly research and scholar-practitioner exchanges on issues related to workers’ rights.  It has a broad focus that includes, but is not limited to, sweatshops, precarious work, labor standards, international labor and employment law, worker organizing, and strategic corporate research and campaigns. Candidates should possess a Ph.D. in a relevant discipline, or a J.D., earned in the last three years, as well as evidence of an emerging research program relevant to the Center’s interests.  Scholars will receive salary, benefits, and a research/travel fund to support their work.  Postdoctoral candidates will be expected to teach one course each semester. This may include teaching for a new Labor and Global Workers’ Right MPS program, which is part of the Global Labour University network. 

Review of applications will begin on March 15, 2015, and continue until the position is filled.
For more information, see: http://lser.la.psu.edu/gwr 

Job ID: 10951

Job Description:
The Department of Social Sciences in the College of Letters and Sciences at National University in San Diego, CA invites applications for a FULL-TIME Sociology position at OPEN RANK (Assistant/Associate/Professor) determined by experience. Initial full-time appointment with benefits is for two years, renewable for longer-term contracts.  The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. in sociology, university-level teaching experience, and evidence of an active research agenda. While areas of specialization are open, we have particular interest in science/technology/medicine, sustainability/environment, and/or globalization. To apply, please send as attachments a current CV, cover letter, and three letters of recommendation to Dr. Margaret Greer (mgreer@nu.edu<mailto:mgreer@nu.edu>). Application deadline: February 28, 2015. Applications considered until position is filled. National University is a private, non-profit university accredited by WASC and an equal opportunity employer.

Best,
Lorna

Lorna Lueker Zukas, Ph.D.
Chair, Faculty Senate
Professor of Sociology
Lead Faculty Global Studies BA
College of Letters and Sciences
National University
11255 North Torrey Pines Road
La Jolla, CA 92037
858/642-8437 . lzukas@nu.edu<mailto:lzukas@nu.edu>

Section on Labor and Labor Movements Call for Awards Nominations.  Head to:
http://www.asanet.org/sections/labor_awards.cfm

Remaining Key Deadlines:
3/31/15: Distinguished Scholarly Article Award
4/1/15: Distinguished Student Paper Award