ASA Section on Labor and Labor Movements
Our socials
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Officers
  • Committees
  • Newsletter
  • Awards
  • ASA Annual Meeting
  • ASA Mini-Conference
    • ASA Mini-Conference
  • China Scholarly Exchange
  • Work in Progress Blog
  • Mentoring Program Interest Form
  • Documents
  • Papers & Research
    • Research
    • Conference Papers
  • Teaching Resources
    • Syllabi
    • Assignments/Sources
    • Films
  • Join Section
  • Contact Us
  • Links
    • Search Engines & Current News
    • Labor Journals
    • Labor Unions & Federations
    • Labor Theory
    • Societies and Associations
    • Social Justice
    • Labor Academics
    • Funding & Data
    • Labor Libraries & Archives
    • Publishers
    • Gov't Agencies & Departments
    • Other Links

ASA 2018 Call for Submissions

12/17/2017

 
Our program committee has put together an incredible set of panels that we hope will be the centerpiece of a vibrant 2018 program in Philadelphia. Please submit your own work and/or spread the word far and wide about these panels and the call for submissions:
​
Section on Labor and Labor Movements (http://www.asanet.org/annual-meeting-2018/2018-call-submissions-information )
 
Panel 1: Citizenship and Labor
This panel invites papers that investigate citizenship and labor in domestic and/or international contexts. Labor has played a mixed role in relationship to citizenship. For example, the AFL-CIO did not embrace new immigrants until 1995, and some unions continue to be exclusionary. However, the Labor Movement has played a historically important role in bringing immigrants into its ranks as witnessed in the garment and textile industries. This panel is especially interested in how labor organizations (unions, worker centers, and other worker organizations) engage in practices that expand or enhance understandings of citizenship, Citizenship is broadly defined to include topics related to belonging and nation-state, the exercising of human and civil rights, civic engagement, or political mobilization.
Organizers: Belinda Lum, Sacramento City College (bclum1974@gmail.com), Carolina Bank Muñoz, Brooklyn College  (carolinabm75@gmail.com)
 
Panel 2: Labor, Labor Movements and the Right
From the neoliberal onslaught against labor in the 1980s and 1990s to the ascendant right wing populisms of the 2000s, there is an urgent need for sociological investigations into the roles of labor and labor movements amidst this rightward lurch of politics. In the Global North, protectionist and xenophobic currents are seen in the right’s engagement with workers. In the Global South, the right’s prominence in several countries parallels development of new economic capacities and growing integration into the global political economy. In all cases, right-wing governments have administered (or at least promised) redistribution to some sections of the working poor through social assistance and welfare programs, while others face social dislocation as they dismantle earlier social compacts. As a result, growing income inequality, polarization and violence along racial, ethnic and religious lines have accompanied the rise of the right, exacerbating divisions among workers.
 
This session invites papers that address the varied interactions between the Right, labor and labor movements across different country contexts. Papers may address questions such as: What tactics are deployed by the right to garner support, obstruct or repress labor and labor movements? How does this compare with past periods of right wing growth? How are workers and labor movements resisting these efforts, but also how might they be participating in or facilitating certain types of right-wing politics? What new unities, divisions, and capacities are arising in workers’ movements in the face of these challenges?
Organizers: Smriti Upadhyay, John Hopkins University (smriti.n.upadhyay@gmail.com), Rina Agarwala, John Hopkins University (agarwala@jhu.edu)
 
Panel 3: Race and Labor and the 50th Anniversary of the Memphis Strike
In February 1968, 1,300 black Memphis sanitation workers struck for safer jobs, better pay, and union recognition, carrying signs that said “I am a man”. Rev. Martin Luther King visited Memphis repeatedly to support the strike, and on one of those visits, on April 4, 1968, he was assassinated. Despite vicious union-busting by the city government, the workers went on to win the strike.
 
Fifty years later, race and racism remain divisive issues among US workers, especially in the US South, where racial divisions have undermined recent organizing drives. Though migration has reconfigured the racial-ethnic mix of the country, the color line described by Dubois remains strong, as the Black Lives Matter movement and the election of Donald Trump have spotlighted. As we meet on the 50th anniversary of the Memphis strike, this session will be an opportunity to reflect on race and labor in the United States, and how and why their relationship has changed—and not changed—over the last 50 years. The session invites both historical and contemporary papers. We welcome a wide range of race-related papers including those that address organized labor (unions and other labor organization forms), cross movement collaborations, working-class communities and neighborhoods, and the impact of and challenges to racial hierarchies in the workplace (including processes of discrimination and struggles around affirmative action). We also welcome research that explore intersections of race with gender, ethnicity, class, and other social categories in the world of work.
Organizers: Chris Tilly, University of California Los Angeles (tilly@ucla.edu)
 
Panel 4: Section on Labor and Labor Movements Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
Sarah Swider (University of Copenhagen)
sswider@gmail.com
​

Call for Articles: Improving Employment and Earnings in Twenty - First Century Labor Markets

12/11/2017

 
The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Edited by:
Erica L. Groshen, Industrial and Labor Relations School, Cornell University
Harry J. Holzer, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University 


Labor market institutions and policies are key determinants of social and economic outcomes such as poverty, inequality, and economic growth. This
call for papers
is for an issue of The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences which will examine recent labor market trends and policies in the U.S. and what they mean for future growth and inequality in earnings.
Submitted papers should review recent trends and developments and synthesize the research findings on their causes; speculate on how these factors may shape labor markets in the coming years; and offer policy sugges- tions. We seek non - technical, forward - looking papers that are accessible to both social scientists and policy - makers. The papers will be categorized into those addressing: shifting demand and supply in the labor market; worker - oriented institutions and policies; and new developments in firms and their future implications.
Prospective contributors should submit a CV and an abstract of their study (up to two pages in length, single or double - spaced) along with up to two pages of supporting material (e.g., tables, figures, pictures, etc.) by January 19, 2018 at 5pm ET/2pm PT.
Click here for a description of the topics covered in this call for papers, for guidelines on submitting a paper, and the issue ’ s schedule.
Questions should be directed to Suzanne Nichols at:
journal@rsage.org




Call for Papers: 54th International Conference on Labor and Social History

12/10/2017

 
Workplace Democracy Revisited: Labour and Practices of Participation, Workers ’ Control and Self - Management in Global Perspective
Linz/Upper Austria, 6 - 8 September 2018

The attempts to extend democracy from the political sphere to labour relations and the broader economy ( Self - Government in Industry , as G.D.H. Cole wrote in 1917) keep resurfacing in various forms and under different names throughout the existence of both modern industry and agriculture. Producer cooperatives have been an alternative form of enterprise organization in capitalist economies at least since the 19th century. Very differ- ent schools of thought supporting workers ’ “ associationism ” – socialist, anarchist, Christian – have seen work- er - run enterprises as the basis of a more egalitarian society. Communist revolutionaries envisioned workers ’ councils as the building block of post - capitalist political and social structures ever since soviets came to promi- nence in the 1905 and 1917 revolutions in Russia, but also a range of revolutionary stirrings in the aftermath of World War I (Germany and Austria 1918 - 19, Hungary 1919, Italy 1920, etc.). After the failed attempts of rev- o l u t i o n a r y c h a n g e i n E u r o p e , t h e G e r m a n , A u s t r i a n a n d C z e c h o s l o v a k i a n s t a t e s i n t r o d u c e d n e w l e g i s l a t i o n s enabling workers ’ participation and representation on the enterprise level to various degrees.
During the Cold War countries, such as Israel, Algeria, Peru and, most prominently, Yugoslavia, at- tempted to carve out a third way model of development by implementing workers ’ self - management structures in their economies. Many postcolonial state building projects in Africa and beyond fused the idea of workplace democracy with local communal traditions. Workers ’ self - management also served as an inspiration to dissi- dents in Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland), while closely related terms such as autogestion and even operais- mo became leitmotifs within the 1968 movement in Southern Europe as a vision of a more democratic social- ism. Numerous welfare state models in the European countries, ascribed to the political “ West ”, developed partly far - reaching legal bases for workers ’ participation, often relying on the concepts introduced by the legis- lative reforms immediately after World War I.
In the 1980s, the self - management ideals of liberation in the most developed capitalist societies and in factories worldwide often metamorphosed into management tools within the framework of neoliberal politics. While many activists in (state - )socialist Eastern Europe envisioned workplace democracy as an opportunity to introduce economic democracy from below, notions of workplace autonomy were also used by the pro - market reformists inside the communist parties to decrease guaranteed workers ’ rights. During the 1990s, when it seemed that the ideas of workers ’ engagement in economic decision - making lost validity, a movement of fac- tory occupations emerged in Argentina and other countries in Latin America, provoking a new wave of interest and debates about the perspectives of workplace democracy in the 21st century.  

State of the Art and Research Gaps
As this short historical outline shows, initiatives for democratization of labour relations were carried by vast- ly disparate social actors under diverse types of labour regimes and political rule in many different parts of the globe. Not surprisingly, a substantial research literature on these phenomena has developed. Yet, studies of workers ’ activation tend to have a narrow focus when it comes to the socio - economic complexity and the geographical scope of workplace democracy. Firstly, the topic has traditionally attracted left - leaning social scientists and heterodox economists inclined to look at the political organizing of the working class and eco- nomic performance of the enterprises respectively, thus overlooking labour relations and the inner workings of workplace democracy. Secondly, the studies were habitually framed in the context of individual nation states with the most illustrious historical projects claiming workers ’ emancipation attracting the greatest at- tention. The attempts to produce overviews on the history of workers ’ participation, control and self - management practices in different countries usually amounted to collections of individual case studies with moderate comparison, disregarding mutual influence, transnational exchange and transfers.
Conference Goals
In order to contribute to closing some of these gaps, the 2018 ITH Conference poses the following two strate- gic goals (with some potential topics listed below):
1.) To unpack and categorise the often interchanging terms and conceptualizations of workplace de- mocracy such as self - management, control, participation, co - determination and autogestion (in different languages) by tracing their evolution globally and relating them to particular geographic locations, cul- tural contexts and historical conjunctures:
  • Classifying various examples of workplace organization without conventional management. We want to approach the debates about terms and concepts not only from a theoretical point of view, but as a theme of historical enquiry through concrete case studies. The categorisations should account for the aspirations of the involved actors (autonomous coalitions, trade unions, employers/management, and the state), aim- ing to realize their interests within the existing order, going beyond the given boundaries or various in - between solutions.
  • The circulation of ideas about economic democracy across the borders of nation states. Did individual enterprises, labour movements or states that adopted workplace democratization as an official part of their policies make conscious efforts to promote their models internationally and what impact did they make?
  • Experiences of workplace democracy in the periphery. What were the peculiar challenges that advocates of workplace democracy in the Global South, yet also in economically underdeveloped societies and re- gions of the Global North, and in the state socialist countries had to face? Factors to be kept in mind in- clude the peculiar features of the working class, the lack of technical expertise for the daily running of the production process and the widespread informal economy.
  • The inclusion and categorization of experiments to democratize and control the organization of agricultur- al work, service sector as well as the less known instances of workers ’ involvement in the industry, re- gardless of whether they portrayed themselves as revolutionary or not, such as the instances of coopera- tivsm linked to traditional communal forms of economic organization in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
  • The prominence of workplace democracy as a topic inside the transnational institutions and initiatives, such as the United Nations, ILO, socialist internationalisms, Non - Aligned Movement, etc.
2.) To examine workplace democracy beyond the political history of workers ’ movements or business history of alternative management models by investigating the actual practices of workers ’ involve- ment, decision - making and work conditions in concrete cases:
  • The altered ways in which workers conceived of themselves, their enterprise and communities after the introduction of some form of workplace democracy. Was there an increased identification with the work collective, improved work efforts, appearance of voluntary labour, broadening of concerns for social or political issues, or different forms of inequalities within the enterprise?
  • The main challenges associated with the collective participation in workplaces: mock involvement, con- tested decision - making processes, inefficiency, lack of accountability, parochialism, bureaucratization, clientelism, emergence of unofficial leaderships, etc.  
  • The new concepts and definitions of economic performance and individual work efforts: What were some of the ways in which workers ’ ran enterprises, defined ownership rights, measured and distributed net in- come, wages, social service funds, etc.?
  • The relations between individual self - managed collectives and the broader economy and society: What were the models and difficulties of expanding democratic economic decision - making beyond individual enterprises, and connecting economic democracy to political institutions and everyday tasks in the sur- rounding communities? What effect does the market have on workplace democracy?

SUBMISSION
Proposed papers should include:
  • abstract (max. 300 words)
  • biographical note (max. 200 words)
  • full address und e - mail address
The abstract of the suggested paper should contain a separate paragraph explaining how and (if applicable) to which element(s) or question(s) of the Call for Papers the submitted paper refers.
The short CV should give information on the applicant ’ s contributions to the field of labour history, broadly defined, and specify (if applicable) relevant publications. For the purpose of information, applicants are invited to attach a copy of one of these publications to their application.
Proposals to be sent to Lukas Neissl : lukas.neissl@doew.at


TIME SCHEDULE
  • Submission of proposals: by 28 January 2018
  • Notification of acceptance: 9 March 2018
  • Full papers or presentation versions: by 5 August 2018


PREPARATORY GROUP
Dario Azzellini , ILR School, Cornell University, Ithaca
Frank Georgi , Centre d ’ Histoire Sociale du XXème Siècle/Université Paris 1 Panthéon - Sorbonne
Goran Musić , Central European University, Budapest
Lukas Neissl , ITH, Vienna
Brigitte Pellar , Vienna
Anne Sudrow , Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam
Advisers:
Marcel van der Linden , International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam
Susan Zimmermann , ITH, Vienna  

THE ITH AND ITS MEMBERS
The ITH is one of the worldwide most important forums of the history of labour and social movements. The ITH favours research pursuing inclusive and global perspectives and open - ended comparative thinking. Fol- lowing its tradition of cooperating with organisations of the labour movement, the ITH likewise puts emphasis on the conveyance of research outside the academic research community itself. Currently ca. 100 member in- stitutions and a growing number of individual members from five continents are associated with the ITH.
  • Information on ITH publications in the past 50 years: http://www.ith.or.at/publ_e/publ_online_e.htm
  • Subscription to the ITH e - newsletter published twice a year: http://www.ith.or.at/rundb_e/r_index_e.htm
  • Download of the ITH membership application form: http://www.ith.or.at/mitgl_e/mitglieder_e.htm  


Call for Articles: Understanding the Rise of Low - Wage Jobs and Nonstandard Work Arrangements

12/10/2017

 
The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Issue on New Developments in American Job Quality: Understanding the Recent Rise of Low Wage Jobs and Nonstandard Work Arrangements,Edited by David R. Howell, The New School and Arne L. Kalleberg, University of North Carolina 

The question of job quality has emerged as a key challenge for researchers and policy - makers in the 21st century. The growing realization that the quality, not just the quantity, of jobs is central to addressing a myriad of social and economic problems — such as economic development, family formation and social integration, poverty and inequality, and individual well - being — has put this age - old topic on the front burner for social scientists.
This issue of RSF will focus on two important dimensions of the quality of jobs created in the past three dec- ades in the United States. First, there has been an expansion of low - wage jobs, a phenomenon that has been documented by numerous studies, many of which have been sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation. This proliferation of low - wage work, especially among younger workers, has contributed to the weakening of the middle class, reversing the dramatic improvements experienced by the middle of the income distribution in the three decades following World War II.
Second, there has been a dramatic increase in nonstandard jobs such as temporary help agency workers, on - call workers, contract workers, and independent contractors or freelancers. Many of these jobs are uncertain, unstable and insecure, in which employees bear most of the risks of work (as opposed to businesses or the govern- ment) and receive limited social benefits and statutory protections. Recent studies document an increased inci- dence of alternative work arrangements, especially among workers hired through contract firms. While some nonstandard jobs may be good ones — such as well paid consultants who have high control over the terms and conditions of work — most such jobs are characterized by low pay, low security, and poor working conditions.
This journal issue aims to bring together papers that examine three main topics related to job quality in the United States: the causes of the increase in low - wage and nonstandard jobs; their impacts on workers and their families; and policies that are needed to enhance the quality of low - wage and nonstandard jobs. We discuss each topic area in turn, and illustrate the kinds of papers that we encourage for this journal issue.
Anticipated Timeline
Prospective contributors should submit a CV and an abstract (up to two pages in length, single or double spaced) of their study along with up to two pages of supporting material (e.g., tables, figures, pictures, etc.) no later than 5 PM EST on December 20, 2017, to:
rsfjournal.onlineapplicationportal.com

All submissions must be original work that has not been previously published in part or in full. Only abstracts submitted to rsfjournal.onlineapplicationportal.com will be considered. Each paper will receive a $1,000 hono- rarium when the issue is published. All questions regarding this issue should be directed to Suzanne Nichols, Director of Publications, at journal@rsage.org and not to the email addresses of the editors of the issue.
A conference will take place at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City on June 8, 2018. The selected contributors will gather for a one - day workshop to present draft papers (due in a month prior to the conference) 

and receive feedback from the other contributors and editors. Travel costs, food, and lodging will be covered by the foundation. Papers will be circulated before the conference. After the conference, the authors will sub- mit their final drafts on or before August 1, 2018. The papers will then be sent out to three additional scholars for peer review. Having received feedback from reviewers and the RSF board, authors will revise their papers before January 10, 2019. The full and final issue will be published in September 2019. Papers will be
published open access on the RSF website as well as in several digital repositories, including JSTOR and UP- CC/Muse.
Please click here for a full description of the topics covered in this call for papers.





2018 Labor and Labor Movements Section Awards: Call for Nominations

12/9/2017

 
Distinguished Scholarly Article Award
DEADLINE: 3/01/2018

The LLM section is sponsoring the Distinguished Scholarly Article Award for outstanding scholarship for the best article published between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017. The article is open to both qualitative and quantitative orientations and can reflect work that is U.S. - based or global in scope. Section members are strongly urged to nominate articles for the prize. Self - nominations are welcome. In order to be considered by the committee, the author (or authors) must join or be members of the Labor section. Nominations must in- clude an electronic copy of (or link to) the article, and all nominations must be received no later than March 1, 2018 . Please send all nominations to the chair of the award committee, Penny Lewis, at penny.lewis@cuny.edu



Distinguished Scholarly Book Award
DEADLINE: 2/1/2018

The LLM's section's book award goes to what the Book Award Committee judges "the best book published in the sociology of work, the labor process, the working class, labor unions, or working class movements, based on original research." To qualify, the book must have been published between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017, and the author must be a section member at the time of nomination. No more than one book nomina- tion per person. Please send your nomination to the committee chair, Joshua Bloom at jbloom@pitt.edu, no later than February 1, 2018 . Upon receipt of your email nomination, you will be provided with the mail- ing addresses of the award committee members. Nominators/Nominees/Publishers will have until March 1, 2018 to send hard-copies to the seven (7) committee members .


Distinguished Student Paper Award
DEADLINE: 3/01/2018

The LLM section's Distinguished Student Paper Award goes to the best paper written by a graduate student between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017. All methodological orientations and substantive topics relat- ed to labor and/or labor movements are welcome. Published papers, papers under review, and unpublished article-length manuscripts are eligible. Authors must be enrolled students at the time the paper was written and cannot have won the student paper award in the previous 3 years. In addition, authors must be members of the LLM section at the time of submission. The winner receives $150. Section members may self - nominate, and faculty should encourage graduate students to submit promising work. Nominations must include an electronic copy of the paper and must be sent no later than March 1, 2018 to the Distinguished Student Paper Award committee chair, Jasmine Kerrissey, at jasmine@soc.umass.edu



    Postings Blog

    Here you will find all announcements related to: Jobs, Calls for Papers, Conference News/Announcements, Funding/Awards/Fellowships

    Archives

    August 2021
    December 2020
    July 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

    Categories

    All
    Call For Authors
    Calls For Papers
    Conference Announcements
    Funding/Awards/Fellowships
    Funding/Awards/Fellowships
    Jobs
    Nominations
    Other
    Section News
    Section News

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.