In this issue we proudly announce several new important publications from WLRI staff; our excellent RAE results for 2008; a new Professional Doctorate in Researching Work; and the first ESRC collaborative PhD studentship at WLRI. As always, we have put the latest audio recordings of recent seminars online, and we highlight a project that is utilising photography to capture the way minority ethnic workers seek advice and support in the workplace.

We hope you enjoy this issue of WLRI News, and encourage your feedback and comments. Please forward this to you workmates and contacts, and encourage them to subscribe by going here. Email your comments and suggestions to: workinglives@londonmet.ac.uk

Mary Davis, deputy director of Working Lives, published a revised, updated and expanded edition of this classic feminist account of British labour history 'Comrade or Brother?: A History of the British Labour Movement' in Feb 2009, with Pluto Press.

John Foster, Emeritus Professor, University of the West of Scotland, said: "The book stands comparison with A.L.Morton's 'People's History' and G.D.H. Cole's 'Common People'. But it is more than just this. It is in a real sense a history for our own times." "This book is ideal for its purpose. I only wish it had been available in the decades when I was teaching trade union courses."

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John Kirk, Senior Research Fellow at WLRI, published 'The British Working Class in the Twentieth Century: Film, Literature, and Television', February 2009.

Although many writers have insisted on the death of class, and in particular the demise of the working class, The British Working Class in the Twentieth Century: Film Literature and Television draws extensively on the theoretical insights of Raymond Williams and the British cultural studies tradition to challenge suggestions that class is no longer relevant for literary analysis. It examines how the lives and experiences of working-class people have changed over the past century, and how these changes have been depicted and explored in a range of fictional and non-fictional texts.


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Allan Williams, Professor of European Integration and Globalization, and Vladimir Balaz (Visiting Professor, ISET), published International Migration and Knowledge in February. This book builds on several research projects that the two authors have undertaken in recent years on skilled labour migration, entrepreneurial migration and innovation, especially in Central Europe.

It integrates the findings from these projects into an overview of the role of international migration in knowledge creation and transfer. The authors stress knowledge rather than skills for two reasons. First, because the skills literature makes a false dichotomy between skilled and unskilled workers, whereas they argue for a focus on the knowledgeable migrant.

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Edited by Dr Sonia McKay, of WLRI, Refugees, Recent Migrants and Employment: Challenging Barriers and Exploring Pathways was published in October 2008 by Routledge, and launched in February at the conference on Undocumented Workers' Transitions.

Upheavals in vast areas of the world have led to a growing number of international refugees, a significant proportion of which have made their way to the West. At the same time, economic and social pressures, together with skills and labour shortages, have encouraged the migration for work of millions of workers worldwide. Although there has been a constant media focus on these two groups, little is known about their labour market experiences.


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Researchers on the ESRC-funded Ethnic Minority Representation at Work project have been working with a well-known photojournalist to capture visual images of three minority ethnic communities in London. The project explores how identity, community and social networks interlink to provide support and advice for individuals who find themselves faced with problems at work and we hoped to capture some of these themes through the use of photography.
(photos: Jim Hodson)

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Both seminar series continued during February and March, and the audio recordings have all been posted online on our audio page here.

In February, Dr Juli Vullnetari, Research Fellow, Sussex Centre for Migration Research (SCMR), University of Sussex and Dr. Nick Mai, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of European Transformations (ISET), introduced "Migration and Development: the case of Albania". And on March 4th, Prof. Les Back, Deputy Head of Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London gave a seminar on "Obama and the Politics of Hope".

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