LABOR AND LABOR MOVEMENTS SECTION'S EXCHANGE WITH CHINESE LABOR SOCIOLOGISTS
The Labor and Labor Movements Section of the American Sociological Association and the Chinese Association for Work and Labor initiated a scholarly exchange in 2012, with funding support from the Ford Foundation. Activities have included a visit of US scholars to China in December 2012 (for a report on this visit, click here) and a visit of Chinese scholars to the US in August 2013. We plan further visits and an exchange of information through our regular newsletters, and we seek to promote research collaborations across the two countries. We welcome contributions, for column on labor and labor sociology in China for our section's newsletter. To submit materials for the China column, please contact Sarah Swider, sswider@gmail.com. To get in touch with the Labor and Labor Movements Section's China Liaison Committee, please contact Chris Tilly, tilly@ucla.edu.
RECENT EXCHANGE: 2016 ASA Labor and Labor Movements section Mini-Conference
Precarious Work: Domination and Resistance in the US, China, and the World - Summary
The LLM and Chinese Association of Work and Labor (CAWL) held a one-day mini-conference before the start of the 2016 ASA Annual Meeting.
Participants included the Labor and Labor Movements section, a delegation of Chinese sociologists from CAWL, Society for the Study of Social Problems, Critical Sociology, Global Labour Journal/Int’l Sociological Association Section RC44 (Labor Movements), plus a bunch of other ASA sections as cosponsors: Asia/Asian Am, Collective Behavior/Social Movements, Inequality/Poverty/Mobility, OOW, and PEWS. Also a number of local Seattle cosponsors, including activist groups.
Summary of the ASA Labor and Labor Movements section Mini-Conference - Precarious Work: Domination and Resistance in the US, China, and the World
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.
Participants included the Labor and Labor Movements section, a delegation of Chinese sociologists from CAWL, Society for the Study of Social Problems, Critical Sociology, Global Labour Journal/Int’l Sociological Association Section RC44 (Labor Movements), plus a bunch of other ASA sections as cosponsors: Asia/Asian Am, Collective Behavior/Social Movements, Inequality/Poverty/Mobility, OOW, and PEWS. Also a number of local Seattle cosponsors, including activist groups.
Summary of the ASA Labor and Labor Movements section Mini-Conference - Precarious Work: Domination and Resistance in the US, China, and the World
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.
