This archive lists previous events related to the Working Lives Research Institute. Some events will have more information available, which will be indicated by a 'more »' link.
The Summer University brings together practitioners and researchers who are professionally engaged in the development and shaping of ‘work’ - human resource managers, employee representatives, social partner organisations, entrepreneurs, employees and representatives of public agencies, from EU member states, candidate countries and the local region.
For more information please click here
The renegotiation of the gender division of labour was central to the process of industrialisation and to the formation of a working class. Gender remains central to the continual restructuring of capitalist relations. This conference examined the ‘making’ of the other half of the British working class – women - as workers and as trade unionists. This was set within a framework of understanding that the antagonism between the private nature of reproduction and the social nature of production had – and continues to have – a major impact on women’s working lives and struggles.
Presented the research findings and showcased good practice and policy examples together with successful training and support initiatives, enabling the economic integration of BME and refugee communities.
For more information on call for papers please click here.
To view the conference program please click here.
This conference provided a major opportunity for employers, trade unions,
LGBT organisations, government and other stakeholders to discuss lessons
from the research, share experiences and consider how to develop best practise
in this area.
The inaugural lecture of Professor Ursula Huws of the Working Lives Research Institute on the subject of:
'Begging and bragging: the self and the commodification of intellectual activity'.
Please click here for a transcript of the lecture.
The conference discussed the philosophical and legal foundations of the Social
Welfare State; the strategies and developments which endanger it; its potential
and its chances in the contemporary situation, and its future under conditions
of globalised economic power; and possible strategies to defend the Social
Welfare State.
Included Prof. Mary Davis speaking on Attacks on the Social Welfare State (by Companies, the State, international Treaties, Institutions, Organizations, the role of Trade Unions, Works Councils in this context)
Please click here for full details
Preliminary findings from the Working Lives Research Institute research into
the audio-visual industries in London. The seminar reported on recent findings
from a European Social Fund research project on recruitment and employment
in the audio-visual sector in London. The aim of the research is to improve
understanding of recruitment and employment practices that act as institutional
filters to black and minority ethnic workers' access to London's Audio Visual
sector and to make recommendations to overcome them.
Please click for more information...
Based on current debates of equality, ethnicity and integration, the book
analyses the motivation for individuals to migrate, their own experiences
of integration into an existing work team and the contribution they are making.
In Britain the NHS and independent health care sector depend heavily on the
contributions of the migrant workforce to make up for serious shortfalls in
staff numbers and therefore provide an interesting contextual background for
this topical book.
Please click for more information...
The WLRI and the DWP held a seminar on refugee training for work, as part
of an ongoing research project comparing the labour market experiences of
refugees and ethnic minority workers. The aim was to bring together researchers,
policymakers and practitioners to discuss the current standards of training
and to work on improving learning and training to assist refugees into work.
Also to report on progress and present recent findings.
The Conference was jointly organised by the TUC and the WLRI to launch a booklet
containing a number of recommendations for trade unions that have emerged
from the results of a 3-year comparative research project looking at racial
and ethnic minorities, immigration and the role of trade unions in combating
racism. For further information press on the following link....
Helena Wojtczak, Christian Wolmar, and Heather Connelly gave presentations based on their new books. Helena worked as a guard on British Rail for a number of years before writing her book 'Railway Women: Expolitation, Betrayal and Triumph in the Workplace' - the first book length study of railway women in the UK. Christian Wolmar is a writer and broadcaster on railways. He has written several books on the break up of British Rail and the London Underground. Finally, Heather Connolly from University of Warwick spoke about 'The French railway workers' connection: building a new activists' trade union'
For further information please click.
Trade Unions Against Racism present the results of a 3-year comparative research project looking at racial and ethnic minorities, immigration and the role of trade unions in combating racism. The research has been undertaken by an international team from Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, France and the UK who have worked closely with workers and their trade unions in the following sectors: health, retail, public transport and naval engineering, white goods manufacture, tobacco, textiles and construction. For further information please click.
Bernard Friot, Professor of Sociology at Université de Paris X Nanterre, was in London as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor. Bernard is well known for his work on employment and social protection, in particular as concerns the financing of pensions.
- Politics, Labour and the Left in France; Trade union activism
and social movements; Work, politics, trade union activism, social movements
and gender; Constructing unionism: research on workplace activists in France;
French and British trade union responses to globalisation: the case of banking
trade unionism
Women refugees - from volunteers to employees
Launch of summary report and workshop for those with an interest in the voluntary sector, refugee and women’s issues and employment, refugee community organisations, as well as the refugee women who participated in the research to hear about our findings. Please click here to read full report.
Employment Law Seminar Series
The Working Lives Research Institute is pleased to host a new series of employment law seminars focusing on legal developments and current legal problems. Many of the topics run in parallel to the current research portfolio of the Institute and all speakers are leading authorities on their topic areas.
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Workplace Learning:Who Controls the Agenda? A Conference for Union Learning Representatives.
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Following a very successful inaugural seminar in February, the second in the two-year series will take place in London in November. The theme of the seminar will be The Impact of Economic Change and Restructuring on Working Class Communities, Identities and Organisation in Place.
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Employment Law Seminar
The public sector duty to promote equality
Colin O'Cinneide, University College of London
Working Lives Research Institute hosted the launch of Tim Strangleman's book: Work Identity at the End of the Line? Privatisation and Culture Change in the UK Rail Industry. Published by Palgrave Macmillan
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‘Producing’ social divisions: intersectional approaches to researching ethnicity, gender and work - seminar series
Encarnación Gutiérrez-Rodriguez, Hamburg University:
Gouvernementality and the Ethnification of the Social. On Work, Migration
and Bio-Politic.
Working Lives Research Institute held the first event in its new series of employment law seminars focusing on legal developments and current legal problems.
Tribunal procedures - their impact on access to justice
Rebecca Tuck, Old Square Chambers
‘Producing’ social divisions: intersectional approaches to researching ethnicity, gender and work - seminar series
Julia O'Connell Davidson, Nottingham University: Moral Dilemmas of the Global Sex Trade
‘Producing’ social divisions: intersectional approaches to researching ethnicity, gender and work - seminar series
Nirmal Puwar, University of Northampton: Space Invaders At Work: Race, Gender & of course Class
Tony Benn was guest of honour at a reception held at Congress House on Monday 2nd February 2004 to mark the completion of The Union Makes Us Strong: TUC History Online, a partnership initiative between London Metropolitan University and the TUC to open up access to the TUC Library Collections.
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‘Producing’ social divisions: intersectional approaches to researching ethnicity, gender and work - seminar serie
Prof. Mirjana Morokvasic, CNRS and Université de Paris X: “Being your own Boss" – Documentary and Talk about Self- Employed Filippina Migrants in Tokyo
Professor Sherry Linkon & Professor John Russo of The Center for Working Class Studies, Youngstown State University Ohio gave a talk on the development of the new interdisciplinary field of working class studies. more »
After securing new funding to study trade union recognition agreements and the effectiveness of trade union use of Union Learning Funds, the Working Lives Research Institute advertised to fill a one-year post.
‘Producing’ social divisions: intersectional approaches to researching ethnicity, gender and work - seminar series
Eleonore Kofman, Nottingham Trent University: Gender, Migration and Knowledge Economies/ Societies
Associate Working Lives Institute member Jane Martin (DEd) was academic organiser of a conference in Cambridge (12 – 14 December), entitled ‘Education and the Social Order: revisiting the legacy of Brian Simon’. The conference, organised by the History of Education Society, was also the launch of Women and Education 1800 – 1980, by Jane Martin and Professor Joyce Goodman (King Alfred’s College), published by Palgrave Macmillan. The book examines and celebrates the achievements of Elizabeth Hamilton, Sarah Austin, Jane Chessar, Mary Dendy, Shena Simon and Margaret Cole, educational activists who resisted gender roles to make substantial contributions to public education policy, practice and philosophy.
The Working Lives Research Institute advertised to fill four new posts on two major new research contracts it had just won.
Jinthana Haritaworn, South Bank University: The ‘Thai’ restaurant as a paradox space of cultural identification: negotiating classism, racism, sexism and cultural identity.
Kiran Kalsi, London Metropolitan University: Asian Women in Business, Changing Roles and Identities
The Camera at Work: Polly Toynbee in conversation with Mary Davies.
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The Working Lives Research Institute's first public meeting was held on May 16. Historians Eric Hobsbawm, John Saville and Dorothy Thompson spoke to an audience of 200 on Marxism and History.
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Working Lives Research Institute was set up on August 1 following the presentation of a bid made to a special University of North London committee by Christine Coates, Mary Davis and Steve Jefferys.
» dowload Final Bid document (100K Word document)
