2016 ASA Labor and Labor Movements section Mini-Conference

Precarious Work: Domination and Resistance in the US, China, and the World - Summary

(Closing plenary audience.)

Summary of the ASA Labor and Labor Movements section Mini-Conference - Precarious Work: Domination and Resistance in the US, China, and the World

Visit http://www.irle.ucla.edu/events/PrecariousWork.php for more information this exciting event!

Friday, August, 19, 2016
Broadway Performance Hall
Seattle Central College
Seattle, WA 98122

​On August 19th, over a hundred and twenty LLM section members and their colleagues gathered at the Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood for the mini-conference onPrecarious Work: Domination and Resistance in the U.S., China, and the World. The conference was initiated by the LLM Section, the International Sociological Association (ISA)’s Research Committee on Labor Movements (RC44), and the Chinese Sociological Association’s China Association of Work and Labor (CAWL). Building in part on the ongoing scholarly exchange between the LLM section and the CAWL - a collaboration that the LLM section is committed to foster in the years to come - the conference program focused on the United States and China but included a wide range of global cases and perspectives.

More than 50 scholars from 13 countries presented research on the nature of precarious work, precarious worker mobilization, the regulation of precarious work, and precarious work in the Chinese context. The CAWL organized a delegation of 8 outstanding Chinese labor scholars to come to Seattle and present their research at the conference. Through our fundraising efforts and the generous support of our co-sponsors, the conference organizing committee was able to provide travel fellowships to cover airfare and hotel for 5 Chinese scholars as well as hotel costs for other delegates. In addition, the representatives from the LLM section and the CAWL held an informal meeting to discuss specific plans and steps for further collaboration in the next 2-3 years following the conference. 

Also in attendance were over a dozen activists and union members involved in Seattle’s thriving labor movement. The conference featured an opening keynote address delivered by Katie Quan, retired senior labor specialist at the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center and a founder of the International Center for Joint Labor Research at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. The afternoon closing plenary featured  a panel discussion with eminent labor scholars and experts Gaochao He, (International Center for Joint Labor Research), Sterling Harders, (Vice President of SEIU 775), and Janice Fine (Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations). 

The mini-conference concluded with the annual LLM-sponsored ASA reception, in which attendees convened in the building’s foyer and lovely street-side courtyard to enjoy food and drink and build community. The reception also included local activist guest speakers Kelly Coogan-Gehr (Director of the Washington State Labor Education and Research Center), Charlie Collins (assistant professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington and co-leader of the Faculty Forward union organizing campaign at UW), and David Parsons (president of United Auto Workers Local 4121 representing 4,500 academic student workers on all three campuses at UW).

By all accounts, the conference was a resounding success. The LLM section wishes to thank all who attended and presented at the event. And, especially thanks to the event organizers and all the volunteers who donated their time and energy to the event. ​

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(​Left to right: Gaochao He, Sterling Harders, Janice Fine, Chris Tilly.)

​Meeting with members of ASA Labor and Labor Movements section and China Association for Work and Labor (CAWL).
Left to Right: Chris Rhomberg, Lu Zhang, Sarah Swider, Xiuyin Shi (president, CAWL), Junfu Li, Meng Quan, Chris Tilly.