"Labor in a Globalizing Era"

March 4-5, 2005
Blackburn College
Carlinville, IL 62626

Scope of the Symposium

The Blackburn College Labor encourages interdisciplinary study of labor and work. Its members are composed of individuals drawn from a wide variety of disciplines in the Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Humanities. The Center supports a minor in Labor Studies, promotes scholarly work in Labor Studies, and sponsors artistic events centering on labor and work.

Globalization refers to a set of processes involving the global movement of financial capital, economic goods and services, and to some extent, labor itself. For many commodities, it makes sense to speak of global pricing mechanisms, global supply and demand, and global regulatory schemes among others. This sense of globalization advances primarily due to the power of transnational economic actors, the political support of powerful states supporting economic liberalization, and the institutional constraints of international governmental bodies.

Labor is affected by all of these. The numbers and types of jobs shift around the globe with movement of capital. National governments react in various ways to employment changes. In turn, international organizations form and function in ways that respond to the globalization of the economy and its effects on labor.

We encourage interdisciplinary perspectives from graduate students and faculty alike, on all issues relating to the impacts of globalization on the nature of labor and work, not limited to any region or time period. Presenters might focus on any of the following or related topics.

• Economic costs and benefits of globalization
• The psychology of work and the work ethic
• The history of workers’ movements
• The meaning of work and comparative ethics of work
• Evolving management-labor practices
• Literary studies of work
• International and national governmental responses to labor rights and unionization.
• Impacts of free trade agreements on workers
• Conflicts between globalization and traditional cultural values relating to work
• The effects of immigration on local labor markets
• The future of labor, economics and business practices
• Relationships between labor, gender, race and/or ethnicity

Please send a one-page letter of interest and a one page abstract by December 15, 2004 to: