Call for Papers
The Past, Present, and Future of Labor Education
Special Issue of Labor Studies Journal in conjunction with the 2015 United Association for Labor Education conference in Orlando, Florida, March 25 to 28, 2015.
The Labor Studies Journal has extended the deadline for paper proposals for the upcoming special issue focusing on labor education programs. Please submit proposals by December 22, 2014
Labor education and worker education programs exist across the country. Some are part of certificate- or degree-granting programs, others are presented by unions, and still others are ad hoc community initiatives to address specific crises or needs. Many of these, particularly labor education programs in universities, have been under attack. Other worker-education efforts are finding new life through community groups and activist initiatives. How is the range of worker- and labor-education programs faring? What issues are they most addressing? Which populations are they best serving? How are the challenges facing specific-need programs, such as worker literacy drives, different from university-affiliated certificate programs? Should effort and energy be committed to educating rank-and-file workers or concentrate on leadership? How can worker advocacy groups, unions, and academics work together and complement each other’s efforts? What are examples of labor education programs that lead to new worker action, new leadership, or new responses on the part of unions or management? How can issue-specific programs, such as worker training to avoid wage theft, build on larger-scale programs, and vice versa?
Appropriate paper topics include, but are not limited to:
• education of low wage workers
• academic job councils
• union-based education
• grievance training
• collective bargaining workshops
• context within labor education programs exist
• steward training
• apprenticeship programs
• labor studies and labor management relations in the academy
• undergraduate degrees, certificates, and associate degrees
• skills training
• historical comparisons
• international comparisons
We welcome papers from all methodological approaches, including ethnographies, quantities analysis, case studies from a contemporary and/or historical vantage point, and more in-depth qualitative studies. Purely theoretical analyses of labor education are also welcome.
Papers submitted will be considered for presentation at the United Association for Labor Education Conference to be held in Orlando, Florida, March 25 to 28, 2015. Papers accepted and presented at the conference will then be eligible to undergo a peer review process for possible publication in a special conference issue of Labor Studies Journal.
Please send electronic copies of 800-word manuscript proposals by December 22, 2014 (extended deadline) to the guest editor listed below. Full-length manuscripts are expected by the time of the conference in March, 2015. Presented manuscripts will be peer reviewed following the conference.
Elizabeth A. Hoffmann
Associate Professor of Sociology
Purdue University
[email protected]