To Heterodox Economists

 From Mike Zweig

Address all questions to Mike at [log in to unmask]

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                            HOW CLASS WORKS - 2004
                            CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

                       A Conference at SUNY Stony Brook
                               June 10-12, 2004

The Center for Study of Working Class Life is pleased to announce the How
Class Works ? 2004 Conference, to be held at the State University of New
York at Stony Brook, June 10-12, 2004. Proposals for papers, presentations,
and sessions are welcome until December 15, 2003 according to the
guidelines below. For more information, visit our Web site at
http://www.workingclass.sunysb.edu.

Purpose and orientation. The conference seeks to explore ways in which an
explicit recognition of class helps to understand the social world in which
we live, and ways in which analysis of society can deepen our understanding
of class as a social relationship. Presentations should take as their point
of reference the lived experience of class; proposed theoretical
contributions should be rooted in and illuminate social realities. All
presentations should be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience.

While the focus of the conference is in the social sciences, presentations
from other disciplines are welcome as they bear upon conference themes.
Presentations are also welcome from people outside academic life when they
sum up social experience in a way that contributes to the themes of the
conference.  Formal papers will be welcome but are not required.

Conference themes. The conference welcomes proposals for presentations that
advance our understanding of any of the following themes.

     The mosaic of class, race, and gender. To explore how class shapes
     racial, gender, and ethnic experience and how different racial, gender,
     and ethnic experiences within various classes shape the meaning of
     class.

     Class, power, and social structure. To explore the social content of
     working, middle, and capitalist classes in terms of various aspects of
     power; to explore ways in which class and structures of power interact,
     at the workplace and in the broader society.

     Class and community. To explore ways in which class operates 
outside the
     workplace in the communities where people of various classes live.

     Class in a global economy. To explore how class identity and class
     dynamics are influenced by globalization, including experience of
     cross-border organizing, capitalist class dynamics, international labor
     standards.

     Middle class? Working class? What's the difference and why does it
     matter? To explore the claim that the U.S. is a middle class 
society and
     contrast it with the notion that the working class is the majority; to
     explore the relationships between the middle class and the working
     class.

     Class, public policy, and electoral politics. To explore how class
     affects public policy, with special attention to health care, the
     criminal justice system, labor law, poverty, tax and other economic
     policy, housing, and education; to explore the place of electoral
     politics in the arrangement of class forces on policy matters.

     Pedagogy of class. To explore techniques and materials useful for
     teaching about class, at K-12 levels, in college and university 
courses,
     and in labor studies and adult education courses.

Proposals for How Class Works ? 2004 Conference

     Proposals for presentations must include the following information: a)
     title; b) which of the seven conference themes will be addressed; c) a
     maximum 250 word summary of the main points, methodology, and slice of
     experience that will be summed up; d) relevant personal information
     indicating institutional affiliation (if any) and what training or
     experience the presenter brings to the proposal; e) presenter's name,
     address, telephone, fax, and e-mail address. A person may present in at
     most two conference sessions. To allow time for discussion, sessions
     will be limited to three twenty-minute or four fifteen-minute principal
     presentations. Sessions will not include official discussants.

     Proposals for sessions are welcome. A single session proposal must
     include proposal information for all presentations expected to be part
     of it, as detailed above, with some indication of willingness to
     participate from each proposed session member.

     Submit proposals as hard copy by mail to the How Class Works  - 2004
     Conference, Center for Study of Working Class Life, Department of
     Economics, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384 or as an e-mail attachment
     to <[log in to unmask]>.

Timetable. Proposals must be postmarked by December 15, 2003. Notifications
will be mailed on January 15, 2004. The conference will be at SUNY Stony
Brook June 10-12, 2004.  Conference registration and housing reservations
will be possible after February 15, 2004. Details and updates will be
posted at http://www.workingclass.sunysb.edu.

Conference coordinator:
     Michael Zweig
     Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life
     Department of Economics
     State University of New York
      Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384
     631.632.7536
     [log in to unmask]