From: David Gray [[log in to unmask]]

CALL FOR PAPERS: DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL FEBRUARY 20th.

Rethinking Labour: Labour, Affect and Material Culture
April 18th 19th and 20th 2008
Clinton Institute of American Studies, University College Dublin

Plenary speakers:

Andrew Ross, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis and Program in
American Studies, New York University: “The New Geography of Work”

Sherry Linkon and John Russo, Co-Directors, Center for Labor and
Working-Class Studies, Youngstown State University: “Learning About
Labour: A New Working-Class Studies Perspective”

Tim Strangleman, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research,
University of Kent: “Identity, Meaning and the Representations of
Labour: Rethinking Attachment and Loss at Work”

Recent studies have placed increased emphasis on the affective
dimensions of labour. Social scientists, social theorists and historians
have explored the ways in which affect shapes social relations,
representation and identity in the labour process. At the same time
material culture has received renewed attention as an important factor
in shaping experience and behavior at work. The purpose of this
conference is to explore the historical and contemporary implications of
the labour/affect/material culture nexus and to generate discussion of
what the “affective turn” holds for our understanding of labour. How are
particular forms of affect produced and managed in the factory, the
office and service work locations? How does material culture shape
habits, dispositions and affective processes in the workplace? How does
affect shape identity, performance and authority in particular kinds of
work? And how might an analysis of the relationships between affect and
material culture i
nform labour history, the sociology of work, literary studies,
aesthetics, social theory, public history and other fields that examine
labour?

We invite papers that address any aspect of the historical and
contemporary relationship between labour, affect and material culture
but especially welcome work that crosses disciplinary borders. Papers
are invited on, but are certainly not limited to, the following subjects
and areas:


Class
Ideology
Structures of feeling
Emotions/feelings
Aesthetics
Workplace community
Ethics, conduct and performance
Visual culture and visuality
Authority and legitimacy
Race and ethnicity
Governmentality
Literature and literacy
Gender and Sexuality
Representation
Historiography
Nation/alism & Transnationalism
Identity production
Policy and economics

Please e-mail abstracts (200-300 words) for 20-minute papers to
[log in to unmask] by Friday February 22nd. We also invite abstracts for
panels of 3-4 presenters. Applicants will be notified concerning
acceptance by February 25th. In the e-mail, please include the following
information:

Presenter(s) name(s)
Title of paper(s)
Institutional affiliation(s)
Contact information
Audio visual requirements

Questions or further information: David Gray, Post-Doctoral Fellow,
Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin,
Belfield, Dublin 4: [log in to unmask]

Visit the Clinton Institute website: http://www.ucd.ie/amerstud/

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