The International Labor Process Conference (ILPC) is broadly focused on work and employment relations in the context of the broader political economy, with an emphasis on employee perspectives and theory-led empirical research. Most proposals for papers are submitted to the general conference and are only themed by the organisers for the final programme at a later stage. During the past few years, the conference has begun to incorporate streams into the program. While there is no intention to become a fully-streamed event, we have found that additional streams have been an important and intellectually stimulating aspect of our conference. We are formally setting forth a call for streams to be included in the 2013 conference to be held at Rutgers University, USA, March 18-20.
Since streams only represent a portion of our conference, we cannot accept all streams that are proposed. To facilitate the acceptance process we are instituting a review process for potential streams. Acceptance of streams is based on a competitive process in which streams are evaluated based on 2 main criteria (in addition to the substantive focus of the proposed stream):
The focus of the stream will involve issues not normally covered in the range of topics of the Labor Process Conference, or treats these topics in a novel way. Examples of traditional topics would include:
Labour process theory and other critical perspectives of work relations
- Workplace and corporate restructuring
- Changing forms of employment relations
- Gender, ethnicity, and class at work
- New technology and work organization
- Control strategies, power, consent and culture in organizations
- Emotional, aesthetic and other new forms of labour power
- Changing skills, knowledge and occupations
- Voice at work, employee participation and involvement
- Industrial relations, representation, trade union strategies and organizing
- Resistance and misbehavior
The stream will broaden the audience for the conference and attract scholars who may be new to the event.
Some stream topics from recent years include: Lean in Ideology and in Practice; Global Value Chains and Labour Process Analysis; Climate Change, Green jobs, the Labour Process and Labour Movement Responses; and The Comparative Political Economy of Work and Employment Relations.
Stream Proposal should include:
- Detailed description of the proposed stream (including title and key conveners)
- A discussion of how the stream will address the criteria for inclusion listed above
If you are interested in organizing a stream for the 2013 conference please send a proposal for that stream to Heather McKay hmckay@work.rutgers.edu by August 1, 2012.
Download PDF of Call for Streams