LERA 70th AM - 20th PhD Student Consortium 2018 |
LERA 20th Annual PhD Student ConsortiumLabor Problems of Our Age and Emerging Channels of Worker VoiceSaturday, June 16, 2018, 8 – 11:30 am
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20th PhD Student Consortium Co-Chairs:
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Duanyi YangMassachusetts |
Brandon GrantUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
Alexander KowalskiMassachusetts Institute of |
Yao Yao University of Toronto |
The field of industrial relations was born in the last part of the 19th century out of the motivation to solve the “Labor Problem,” which arose as the ever-expanding market fostered the emergence of industrial production. Pioneer IR scholars constructed various remedies to empower workers and solve the Labor Problem of their age.
The changing nature of work in our age has, however, introduced new challenges to the workforce, economy, and society. The rapid advance of technology has had and will continue to shape the employment relationship and national distributions of income and wealth. For the increasing number of foreign-born and minority workers in the workforce, their fears have been deepened by anti-immigrant rhetoric and events such as those experienced in Charlottesville, Virginia. Recently, we have more and more evidence that sexual harassment is pervasive in and outside the workplace. The “Labor Problem” has thus multiplied into “Labor Problems,” which various disciplines have taken up as subjects of study.
All of these contextual changes have raised fundamental challenges for what may now be more appropriately labeled the field of work and employment relations. As part of this field, we need to better understand the new strategies adopted by employers to organize work in the service and knowledge-based economy and the strategies workers have adopted in response. We need to better understand how workers are organized in the immigrant community and the issues that low wage workers face. We need to better understand why workplace harassment victims are reluctant to speak up and how human resources is failing victims of workplace sexual harassment. Only after we have a better understanding of the new Labor Problems of our age can we work together to come up with solutions to empower our workforce.
We invite leading scholars studying work and employment relations to discuss these challenges and counterbalancing forms of worker voice and advocacy in our PhD Consortium. We will hear insight from leading scholars, hold open-ended discussions with PhD students on major research trends and opportunities, and, together with young scholars, analyze issues related to publication, job market, and career concerns.