The Social Question in a Global Perspective

Conference

Researchers from India, Brasil, Africa, Hungary, the Netherlands and other countries will rethink the concept of the working class and the ways in which it can further its interests. Traditional forms of collective action that have developed in the North Atlantic region are gradually losing much of their impact. New forms are emerging, though these are often still at an embryonic stage.

The classical conceptualization of the working class, of workers’ collective action and trade unionism, was based on the Standard Employment Relationship that has been dominant in North America, Europe, Japan and Australasia. This conceptualization led to the ‘classical’ model of collective bargaining, which has shaped the world’s traditional labour movements. It is now increasingly undermined by the rapid spread of ‘informal’ or ‘precarious’ labour in the global North. 

The real norm or standard in global capitalism is insecurity, informality or precariousness, and the Standard Employment Relationship is an historical phenomenon which had a deep impact in a limited part of the world for a relatively short period of time.

Presenters

• Jan Breman, University of Amsterdam (Professor Emeritus)
• Marcel van der Linden, University of Amsterdam 
• Ching-Kwan Lee, UCLA Department of Sociology
• KP Kannan, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
• Ghanshyam Shah, Indian Institute of Advanced Study
• Andreas Eckert, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Ben Scully,  University of Witswatersrand, Johannesburg
• Kevan Harris, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies
• Liana Carleial, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brasil 
• Don Kalb, Central European University, Hungary
• Henry Bernstein, SOAS, University of London
• Kees  Schuyt, University of Amsterdam (Professor Emeritus)
• Abram de Swaan, University of Amsterdam (Professor Emeritus)
• Göran Therborn, University of Cambridge (Professor Emeritus)

Registration 

If you would like to participate, please send a message to Marcel van der Linden or Jan Breman. 

Organisers

This conference organized by the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research and the International Institute of Social History in collaboration with Re: Work Berlin and the University of Hamburg. 

Location 

International Institute of Social History
Cruquiusweg 31
Amsterdam
T. 0031-(0)20-668 5866

Published by  AISSR