Labnet: How Class Works - 2008 conference CFP

[labnet at lists.labourhistory.net]

[Cross-posted, with thanks, from H-Labor. AB]

From:    mzweig at notes.cc.sunysb.edu

Please note that we have redesigned and updated  the Website for the Center for Study of Working Class Life . You will need to create a new
bookmark for the page  on your browser although the old URL - www.workingclass.sunysb.edu - still works.

PLEASE POST AND FORWARD TO ALL INTERESTED
HOW CLASS WORKS - 2008
CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

A Conference at SUNY Stony Brook
June 5-7, 2008
The Center for Study of Working Class Life is pleased to announce the How Class Works  – 2008  Conference, to be held at the State University
of New York at Stony Brook, June 5 - 7, 2008.   Proposals for papers, presentations, and sessions are welcome until December 17, 2007 according
to the guidelines below.   For more information, visit our Web site at <www.workingclass.sunysb.edu >.

Purpose and orientation:  The conference seeks to explore ways in which an explicit recognition of class helps to understand the social world in
which we live, and ways in which analysis of society can deepen our understanding of class as a social relationship. Presentations should take
as their point of reference the lived experience of class; proposed theoretical contributions should be rooted in and illuminate social
realities. Presentations are welcome from people outside academic life when they sum up social experience in a way that contributes to the themes
of the conference.  Formal papers will be welcome but are not required. All presentations should be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience.

Conference themes:  The conference welcomes proposals for presentations that advance our understanding of any of the following themes.
The mosaic of class, race, and gender . To explore how class shapes racial, gender, and ethnic experience and how different racial, gender,
and ethnic experiences within various classes shape the meaning of class. Special focus: the legacy of Theodore W. Allen's work on the
invention of the white race and its implications in the new racial and ethnic mix of 21 st  century U.S. society.

Class, power, and social structure . To explore the social content of working, middle, and capitalist classes in terms of various aspects of
power; to explore ways in which class and structures of power interact, at the workplace and in the broader society.

Class and community . To explore ways in which class operates outside the workplace in the communities where people of various classes live.

Class in a global economy . To explore how class identity and class dynamics are influenced by globalization, including experience of
cross-border organizing, capitalist class dynamics, international labor standards.

Middle class? Working class? What's the difference and why does it matter? To explore the claim that the U.S. is a middle class society and contrast
it with the notion that the working class is the majority; to explore the relationships between the middle class and the working class, and between
the middle class and the capitalist class.

Class, public policy, and electoral politics . To explore how class affects public policy, with special attention to health care, the criminal
justice system, labor law, poverty, tax and other economic policy, housing, and education; to explore the place of electoral politics in the
arrangement of class forces on policy matters. Special focus: class, health, and health care.

Class and culture : To explore ways in which culture transmits and transforms class dynamics.

Pedagogy of class.  To explore techniques and materials useful for teaching about class, at K-12 levels, in college and university courses,
and in labor studies and adult education courses. 


How to submit proposals  for How Class Works – 2008  Conference
Proposals for presentations must include  the following information: a) title; b) which of the eight conference themes will be addressed; c) a
maximum 250 word summary of the main points, methodology, and slice of experience that will be summed up; d) relevant personal information
indicating institutional affiliation (if any) and what training or experience the presenter brings to the proposal; e) presenter's name,
address, telephone, fax, and e-mail address. A person may present in at most two conference sessions. To allow time for discussion, sessions will
be limited to three twenty-minute or four fifteen-minute principal presentations. Sessions will not include official discussants.  Proposals
for poster sessions are welcome.  Presentations may be assigned to a poster session.

Proposals for sessions  are welcome. A single session proposal must include proposal information for all presentations expected to be part of
it, as detailed above, with some indication of willingness to participate from each proposed session member.

Submit proposals  as hard copy by mail to 

the How Class Works - 2008 Conference 
Center for Study of Working Class Life
Department of Economics
SUNY, Stony Brook, 
NY 11794-4384 

or as an e-mail attachment to michael.zweig at stonybrook.edu.

Timetable:   Proposals must be received by December 17, 2007. Notifications will be mailed on January 16, 2008. The conference will be
at SUNY Stony Brook June 5- 7, 2008.  Conference registration and housing reservations will be possible after February 15, 2008. Details and updates
will be posted at http://www.workingclass.sunysb.edu .

Conference coordinator:   Michael Zweig
Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life
Department of Economics
State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384
631.632.7536
michael.zweig at stonybrook.edu



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