The Work and Family Researchers Network (WFRN) invites submissions for the 2014 Conference, Changing Work and Family Relationships in a Global Economy, to be held June 19-21, 2014 at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City. We seek fresh and innovative scientific contributions on work and family issues from investigators in diverse disciplines. We value all disciplinary perspectives on the issues, including, but not limited to, anthropology, business and management, economics, family studies, political science, psychology, public health, social work, sociology, and related fields. The voices of all stakeholders are needed to understand and address work and family issues to advance knowledge and practice. We also encourage policy advocates, policy makers, and work-life practitioners to submit evidence-based contributions. New for 2014 is the addition of practitioners to the program committee, in an effort to encourage practitioner and policy-oriented submissions and promotion of researcher and practitioner/policy maker collaboration.  Also new is organizing the meeting to kick off with a preconference of meetings of Early Career Scholars, WFRN officers, committees, and member volunteers on June 18.

Submission deadline to WFRN Conference website: October 18, 2013.

The 2012 inaugural conference was a huge success! There were over 750 presenters and 125 sessions that discussed the latest work and family research from around the world. Approximately 30% of the attendees were from outside the U.S., and represented more than 30 countries. Like the 2012 conference, we expect that the 2014 conference will draw many global attendees in addition to providing numerous opportunities for networking and sharing ideas with colleagues.

Fresh and innovative submissions responsive to the conference theme of Changing Work and Family Relationships in a Global Economy are especially encouraged. The global economy is transforming the way work is done.  Work intensification and wide variation across societies in over- and under-employment is creating new issues for individuals, families, employers and nations. Advancing technology blurring work and home and social boundaries, the growing power of social media, and the coming of age of the “Digital Natives” are reshaping the fundamental meaning of “work,” “family,” and “life.” Increasing globalization and the growing footprint of transnational companies and growing international work and social systems, requires looking both within and across cultures to understand changing work and family relationships. Indeed, cultural values surrounding gender, norms concerning collectivism and individualism in achieving the greater good, and national attributions as to whether work and family issues are best served by government, employer or individual initiatives require scientific and practical scrutiny and evidence-based debate.

Learn more about the WFRN conference, including confirmed speakers, specific goals, types of sessions, and submission process at: http://workfamily.sas.upenn.edu/content/call-papers

The Industrial and Labor Relations Review is calling for papers for a conference and subsequent publication devoted to work and employment relations in health care. Conference co-organizers Ariel C. Avgar (Illinois), Adrienne E. Eaton (Rutgers), Rebecca Givan (Rutgers), and Adam Seth Litwin (Johns Hopkins) will assist the journal’s regular editors in developing the issue.

Scholars interested in participating should submit a paper to the conference organizers by November 15, 2013. Authors whose papers are accepted will be invited to a conference sponsored by the University of Illinois, School of Labor and Employment Relations and the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, to be held in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on March 14 and 15, 2014. Conference expenses will be partially subsidized. Papers presented at this conference should be suitable for submission to external reviewers. Based on the organizers’ recommendations, discussions at the conference, and fit with the issue, a subset of authors will be asked to submit their papers to the ILRReview with the expectation that their papers will be published in the special issue once they pass the external review process. Papersthat reviewers deem of good quality that are not selected for the special issue will be considered forpublication in a regular issue of the journal.

[additional details are available after the jump]

Continue reading “ILR Review Conference and Special Issue on “Work and Employment Relations in Health Care”” →

We would like to remind everyone about our exciting mini-conference in August and the upcoming deadline (Feb 15th) to submit abstracts.  Below is the full Call for Papers and description of the event. We’d really like to get a large number of submissions to make for a lively and engaging conference.

So please, submit your abstract today and please also share the announcement and submission request with your students, colleagues and wider networks.

Looking forward to seeing you all in NYC.

Best,

Steve McKay – smckay@ucsc.edu
Carolina Bank Munoz – carolinabm75@gmail.com
David Fasenfest – critical.sociology@gmail.com

CFP: Mini-Conference:
Labor and Global Solidarity – The US, China and Beyond
The Labor & Labor Movements Section of the ASA and the Society for the Study of Social Problems are pleased to announce a Mini-conference entitled Labor and Global Solidarity – The US, China and Beyond to be held concurrently with the ASA and SSSP meetings in New York City on Monday, August 12th, 2013.  The conference will be held at the Joseph A. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies, City University of New York (18th Floor, 25 West 43rd Street).
The conference is co-sponsored by: the Asia and Asian American Section of ASA; the Labor Studies Section of SSSP; the Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies at CUNY; the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education; the Manhattan College Labor Studies Program; Critical Sociology; the Labour Movements Research Committee (RC44) of the International Sociological Association; and the China Association of Work and Labor of the Chinese Sociological Association.
The one-day mini-conference will bring together scholars and practitioners to address the changing landscapes of work and labor organizing at multiple scales, from the local to the transnational.  Facing the global re-organization of production chains, the expansion of precarious work, hostile political climates, and the continued world-wide economic malaise, workers and their allies nonetheless continue to act, from escalating unrest across China, to new models of organizing in NYC, to greater cross-border solidarity, North-South and South-South.
To engage these developments and spark discussion, the conference will include panels on both local, global and transnational labor issues and organizing strategies.  We also seek a mix of activists and academics.  Finally, the mini-conference is an opportunity for international exchange as five labor scholars from China will be participating throughout the event and across the different panels.  Papers including the U.S. and China are especially welcome, but topics and evidence from all over the world are appropriate.
We invite submissions of abstracts (min. 300 words) or full papers on a broad range of topics related to local and global labor, but are particularly interested in submissions that address the following themes of the conference:

• Labor in China
• Insurgency and Institutions
• Organizing (im)migrants – here, there and in the diaspora
• South–South Solidarity
• Transnational Labor Organizing – How & When does it Work
• Informal work, informal worker organizing
• Monitoring international supply chains from the shop floor(s)
• Responses to global economic crisis

To submit an abstract or paper, please send it to the conference co-organizers:  Carolina Bank Munoz (carolinabm75@gmail.com), David Fasenfest (critical.sociology@gmail.com), and Steve McKay (smckay@ucsc.edu).  Abstracts or papers are due February 15, 2013.  If submitting an abstract, full drafts of accepted papers are due June 30th, 2013.  Papers presented at the conference will also be considered for publication in a planned special issue of the journal Critical Sociology and/or in a separate edited book.  Conference participants will be responsible for covering their own travel and lodging expenses (though meals for participants on the program will be provided).  The conference will be free and open to the public.