Alternate Routes, in collaboration with the Department of Sociology and Business Law at the University of Bologna, is pleased to announce our latestSpecial Issue and Conference Call for Papers, which will be held at the University of Bologna from June 11-13, 2018. This year’s theme is: Austerity Against Democracy: Work, Welfare and the Remaking of Global Capitalism.
We would appreciate greatly if you could share this with faculty and graduate students in your departments and across your networks.
A full description of the call for papers is below. You can also visit www.alternateroutes.ca for a PDF version of the CFP and to access the online submission form.
As a reminder, in addition to two special issues celebrating 40 years of Alternate Routes — Austerity Urbanism & the Social Economy, and (with Pluto Books) Reading Capital Today: Marx After 150 Years — we recently released a number of new book reviews. To access them, or if you are interested in reviewing a book yourself, please visit our website today.
We look forward to seeing you at the University of Bologna next year!
Very best wishes,
Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research
Austerity Against Democracy: Work, Welfare and the
Remaking of Global Capitalism.
Organizers: Carlo Fanelli, York University; Stephanie Luce, City University of New York; Marco Marrone, University of Bologna; Federico Chicchi, University of Bologna
When: Monday June 11th to Wednesday June 13th, 2018
Where: University of Bologna, Italy
Although neoliberals have long accepted that constraints on democracy may be necessary to defend capitalist markets, the march toward total privatization and commodification of social relations has intensified in the decade of austerity following the 2008 Great Recession. This includes tax shifting for competitiveness, reduction of welfare state provisions, workplace concessions and widespread monetization of public assets. A growing body of literature has also documented the rise of nonstandard and precarious work – that is, forms of employment with limited social benefits and statutory entitlements, low wages, uncertainty of job tenure, and high risks of ill health. The deterioration in the quality and character of work has also been noted in the increasing flexibilization of workers, lack of control over its terms and conditions, limited access to career ladders, deunionization, and predominance of temporary, contractual, and part-time labour. While the anti-democratic and anti-worker thread coursing through neoliberal theory and practice is not new, its ever evolving manifestations merit further scrutiny.
Alternate Routes and the Department of Sociology and Business Law at the University of Bologna invites panel and paper proposals for its upcoming annual conference. To encourage broad intellectual engagement and debate, we are seeking proposals on a wide range of topics relating to these trends, including but not limited to
• The Welfare State: Past, Present, Future
• Income Transfers and Redistributive Labour Market Policies
• Labour Market Restructuring, Participation and Un(der)employment
• Precarious Work and Labour Exploitation
• Unpaid and Informal Labour
• The Gig Economy and Platform Capitalism
• Interactive and Caring Work, Household and Emotional Labour
• Mobile Work and Mobile Workers
• Unions, Equity and Affirmative Action
• Workplace Democracy and Labour Rights
• Movements Against Austerity: New forms of Organization and Political Resistance
To submit your proposal, please visit http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/pages/view/Conferences. Submissions must be received no later than December 31st, 2017. A selection of papers will be considered as part of a special issue publication of Alternate Routes. Conference Registration Fees: Permanent/Full-time Faculty $200€; Contract Faculty and Graduate Students: $150€.
