Dear All,
Please see the call for papers below – I would be grateful if you could circulate widely.
Best wishes,
Kate Sang
AIRAANZ 2015 conference
Stream Proposal: Gender, Recession and the Transformation of Work.
Convenors:
Abigail Powell (UNSW Australia)
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Natasha Cortis (UNSW Australia)
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Kate Sang (Heriot-Watt University, Scotland)
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James Richards (Heriot Watt University, Scotland)
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This stream will bring together a series of papers exploring the gendered impact of recession and workplace reform. In Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, and other wealthy
countries, the public and private sector cutbacks initiated in response to the global financial crisis (GFC) are transforming employment conditions and relations, at the same time that the welfare cuts of conservative governments are undermining capacity to
achieve social and economic security through the welfare state.
Women’s employment is particularly vulnerable to the dual dynamics of welfare retrenchment and economic recession. Austerity measures may adversely affect those in low paid and precarious work, and fuel a proliferation
of casual, precarious employment and zero-hours contracts, which also threaten those with the lowest incomes. Welfare reforms may require citizens to take up employment with poor industrial protections, raising particular conflicts for those needing to combine
paid work with caring responsibilities.
Furthermore, the gender segregation of the labour market may exacerbate the gendered effects of sectoral and industrial reform. In particular, cutbacks to public sector organisations, which in many countries are
female dominated, reduce opportunities for quality employment in this area, which has traditionally been a haven of secure employment and work-life balance. However, less is known about women and men’s heterogeneous experiences of these changing working conditions,
and the impact on life outside of paid employment.
Possible themes for papers include, but are not limited to:
·
Gendered experiences of the withdrawal of social and industrial protections, including for example:
o
In-work poverty
o
Precarious work
o
Negotiating work and family
o
Unemployment
·
Understanding of how other social identities such as ethnicity, disability and age may result in heterogeneous experiences of paid employment
·
Feminist resistance and challenges to austerity politics in the workplace and in public policy
·
Cross-cultural comparisons of the impact of recession and workplace reform
Depending on the quality of papers, we hope to organise a special edition of a journal or possibly an edited book.
Dr Kate Sang
Lecturer in Management (MB1.35)
PGR Coordinator (Business Management)
School of Management and Languages
Heriot Watt University
0131 451 4208
Co-Chair of the Feminist and Women's Studies Association, Founder of Feminist Academics International
Founding editorial board member of Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Equality and Diversity: An International Journal
http://ipedjournal.com/