Given the meeting theme this year, Worlds of Work, the 2008 Program Committee sought to plan of a series of plenary sessions which focus on the interconnections between work—broadly conceived—and society. Work is one of the most basic of social activities and institutions and has far-reaching correlates and consequences. The dialogue in the plenary sessions will be rich with statistics, expert opinions and personal observations on issues related to "work."
Organizer: Arne Kalleberg, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Presider: Marshall Ganz, Kennedy School, Harvard University
Panelists: Steve Greenhouse, New York Times
Sara Horowitz, Freelancers Union, NYC
Bruce S. Raynor, Unite Here
The 103rd Annual Meeting opens on the evening of July 31 with a panel presentation featuring Steve Greenhouse of the New York Times; Sara Horowitz of the Freelancers Union (NYC) and Bruce Raynor of Unite Here. The panel will discuss the future of the American labor movement. Organized labor has been on the decline for decades and the working class as a whole has suffered consequently. As we close another decade and experience the end of the current presidential administration, our chronic problems have become an acute crisis. Can ways be found to turn this around, to rebuild a labor movement that can defend and advance the interests of American working people? One hopeful sign is that a serious discussion is emerging in both leadership circles and among the ranks about the future direction of labor. Join us as the panelists engage in a frank, wide ranging exchange of ideas.
Steve Greenhouse is a reporter for the New York Times. Greenhouse has written extensively on labor issues. His reporting has covered issues such as: the New York City Transit Strikes and the impact of Wal-mart on labor and wage issues. Greenhouse is the author of the new Knopf book, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.
Click here to listen to the April 2008 radio interview with Steve Greenhouse and Tom Ashbrook for NPR's On Point.
Sara Horowitz founded Working Today in 1995 to represent the needs and concerns of the growing independent workforce. Working Today built Freelancers Union to pioneer a new form of unionism, and the organization now has 70,000 members nationwide. Freelancers Union seeks to update the nation’s social safety net, developing systems so that all working people can access affordable benefits, regardless of their job arrangements. As executive director, Sara takes an entrepreneurial approach, pursuing creative, market-based solutions to pressing social problems.
Bruce S. Raynor is the General President of UNITE HERE, the union representing nearly half a million workers in the hospitality, gaming, apparel, textile, retail, distribution and laundry industries in North America. Described as a “rising star in the labor movement” ( BusinessWeek, April 7, 2003), Raynor has distinguished himself as a creative, aggressive and strategic organizer with a broad understanding of the role of labor in the North American economy and society. In addition to being a pioneer in the area of corporate campaigns, in particular the campaign against textile giant J.P. Stevens early in his career, Raynor also serves as Secretary of the Council of Institutional Investors.
Organizer and Presider: Arne Kalleberg, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Panelists: Christopher Jencks, Harvard University
Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect
Donna E. Shalala, University of Miami
Globalization, the spread of neo-liberal political ideology, and growing population diversity are three of the major drivers producing change in work and society in the 21st century. Increasing inequality and insecurity have made the attainment of a good job, a comfortable retirement, home ownership, affordable health care, and a better future for one's children problematic for millions of Americans. The percentage of people living in poverty remains high despite the economic boom of the 1990's, and the middle class has become increasingly vulnerable. A distinguished panel--featuring Christopher Jencks (Harvard University), Robert Kuttner (from the American Prospect), and Donna Shalala (President of the University of Miami)--will engage in a discussion on reinventing the “American Dream.”
Christopher Jencks is the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is a well-known sociologist who has written extensively on inequality and its correlates for over three decades. His recent research deals with the costs and benefits of economic inequality and the extent to which economic advantages are inherited.
Robert Kuttner is the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect magazine, Robert Kuttner writes for the magazine regularly on a variety of issues. Mostly, however, he focuses on economic policy, both domestic and international. His editorial column is distributed to 20 major newspapers nationwide. It was awarded the John Hancock Award for excellence in business and financial journalism. Kuttner is also a recipient of the Jack London Award for labor journalism.
Donna E. Shalala is the Professor of Political Science and President of the University of Miami. Shalala has more than 25 years of experience as an accomplished scholar, teacher, and administrator. In 1993 President Clinton appointed her U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) where she served for eight years, becoming the longest serving HHS Secretary in U.S. history.
ASA Awards Ceremony and Presidential Address [+ Details]
Saturday, August 2, 4:30 – 6:15pm
Presider: Douglas McAdam, Stanford University
ASA President Arne Kalleberg will present his Presidential Address on the afternoon of August 2, in conjunction with the ASA Awards Ceremony. All attendees are invited to this plenary session and to the Honorary Reception afterwards to honor President Kalleberg and the 2008 award recipients.
Globalization and Work: Challenges and Responsibilities [+ Details]
Sunday, August 3, 12:30 – 2:15pm
Organizer: Arne Kalleberg, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Presider: Michael Piore, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Panelists: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School
Erik Olin Wright, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Globalization has produced important challenges for organizations, societies, communities and individuals. These challenges create opportunities and responsibilities for managers, political leaders, and citizens. Three eminent social scientists--Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Erik Olin Wright, and Michael Piore--will discuss some of the major challenges related to work that are produced by an increasingly global marketplace for large corporations, local communities, and the state.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, where she specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Her strategic and practical insights have guided leaders of large and small organizations worldwide for over 25 years, through teaching, writing, and direct consultation to major corporations and governments. The former Editor of Harvard Business Review (1989-1992), Professor Kanter has been named to lists of the "50 most powerful women in the world" (Times of London), and the "50 most influential business thinkers in the world" (Accenture and Thinkers 50 research).
Erik Olin Wright is an analytical Marxist sociologist, specializing in social stratification and in egalitarian alternative futures to capitalism. His work is concerned mainly with the study of social classes, and in particular with the task of providing an update to and elaboration of the Marxist concept of class, in order to enable Marxist and non-Marxist researchers alike to use 'class' to explain and predict people's material interests, lived experiences, living conditions, incomes, organizational capacities and willingness to engage in collective action, political leanings, etc. In addition, he has attempted to develop class categories that would allow researchers to compare and contrast the class structures and dynamics of different advanced capitalist and 'post-capitalist' societies.
Michael Piore is the David W. Skinner Professor of Political Economy at the Massachusetts Institutes of Technology (MIT) and the current president of the Society for the Advancement of SocioEconomics. His extensive writings have addressed the broad interplay among economics, politics, and society through the study of topics such as: low income labor markets; the impact of technology on work; migration; labor market segmentation; and the relationship among the labor market, business strategy and industrial organization.
Visit Erik Olin Wright’s homepage for information on the “Real Utopias Project.”
Barriers and Bridges: A Dialogue on U.S.-Mexico Immigration [+ Details]
Sunday, August 3, 8:00 – 9:45pm
Organizer: Arne Kalleberg, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Presider: Julia Preston, New York Times
Panelists: Doug Massey, Princeton University
Jorge G. Castañeda, former Foreign Affairs Secretary of Mexico
The flow of people across national borders produced by changes in work has created challenges for social, economic, and political policies seeking to cope with immigration. Two eminent scholars--Douglas Massey and Jorge G. Castañeda--will examine the complex issue of immigration from both U.S. and Mexican perspectives. In doing so, they will address broader aspects of the debate over immigration currently begin raged in political circles in the United States and Mexico. The dialogue, rich with statistics, expert opinions and personal observations, are a great reason to attend this evening plenary session.
Julia Preston, a national correspondent for The New York Times has traveled across the country covering the immigration beat. Preston served as deputy investigations editor, United Nations Bureau chief and a foreign correspondent based in Mexico, where she worked on a team that won a Pulitzer prize.
Douglas S. Massey is currently a professor of Sociology at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and is an adjunct professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Massey specializes in the sociology of immigration, and has written on the effect of residential segregation on the black underclass in the United States.
Jorge G. Castañeda is a politician and academic who served as the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2000-2003. He received the French Baccalaureate from the Lycée Franco-Mexicain in Mexico City. He has worked as a professor at several universities, including the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, the New York University, and the University of Cambridge. He also authored more than a dozen books, including a biography of Che Guevara, and he regularly contributes to newspapers such as Reforma (Mexico), El País (Spain), Los Angeles Times (USA) and Newsweek magazine.
