We at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex,  are pleased to announce a one-day workshop, June 5th,  on
 Neoliberal Welfare State, Precarity,  and Development: Transnational Solidarity, Rights,  and Activism for Global Workers on Decent work and Dignified wages.
 
Abstract:
In the light of growing precariousness and declining wage conditions both in the Global North and the Global South, this workshop focuses on how informal institutions, such as unregulated labour markets, recur in the discourses of development within the Global South and neoliberalisation of the welfare state in the Global North. Therefore, the workshop sheds lights on how informal and formal institutions mutually exchange and connect to sustain such large scales of global inequalities, and what new forms of global social movements, solidarities, resistances and protests can result from this. The workshop concurs with the idea that precarious working lives within the world of capitalism, with its formal regulatory institutions, remain under-theorised as people are becoming increasingly dependent on wage-based economies. As secured  forms of work have come under threat from globalisation, corporatisation, financialisation of welfare and debts; development/replacement/compensation schemes such as cash-based transfer and universal basic income have come to take their place in some countries. These have occurred so recently, it is difficult to fully grasp their magnitude and long-term impacts.  
 
We invite contributions that discuss how the distinctions of Global North and Global South might not be effective in addressing the rise of precarious forms of work at a global level. The workshop will analyse conceptions of new forms of solidarity networks across global workers. It will focus on critical and interdisciplinary discussions of precarity around issues affecting both the Global North and the Global South. We invite papers focussing on the Global South workers from multiple sectors of the informal economy and also the industrial north, such as Japan, North America, Europe.  Some of the topics (not restricted to):  quality and experience of citizenships, relations with the the welfare state, and questions of decent work and dignified wages on zero hour contracts, gig economy, workers’ rights,  implications of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) laws in the EU, and the just about managing households in U.K. and beyond.
  
Please submit an abstract of up to 150-250 words, along with a three-line author bio and affiliation by April 29th. We also invite interests for the role of discussants from across the faculties, including postdoctoral and early career scholars. Partial financial support (for participants and discussants from within UK and Europe) is available. 

Refreshments and lunch will also be provided. 

Financial support for international participants (outside of Europe) is not available but we will accept pre-recorded presentations. 
 
Please send your submissions and informal queries to Smita Yadav, at [log in to unmask]