Events

Breaking Down Chinese Walls: The Changing Faces of Labor and Employment in China

September 26-28, 2008
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York

This conference brings together both established and young scholars from around the world who are currently doing "cutting edge" research on labor issues in China. In addition, graduate students from around the world will also showcase their current research at this conference.

Hardly a day goes by without extensive coverage in the world press regarding working conditions and other labor issues in China. The purpose of this conference is to examine a variety of labor issues in analytic terms, based on new research. Thus, we will examine the changes in the institutional regulation of labor and work, the changes within the labor movement, including labor unions and their new strategies, informal workers groups and their strategies and how these groups intersect with other civil society organizations.

The conference will also examine the changes in work organization and shop-floor practices in a variety of industries such as automobiles, oil and gas, retail and large-scale manufacturing.

Selected papers from the conference will be included in a volume edited by Sarosh Kuruvilla, Ching Kwan Lee and Mary Gallagher, and will be published by a reputed university press. Selected articles will also be considered for publication at leading industrial relations journals subject to the journal's peer-review process.

In addition, this conference is the first step in creating a sustainable network of China labor scholars. In the longer term, we expect that the network will be able to do larger projects together.

Invited Paper Presenters and Discussants

• Marc Blecher, Oberlin College
• Anita Chan, Australian National University
• Lance Compa, Cornell University
• Mary Gallagher, University of Michigan
• Amy Hanser, University of British Columbia
• Dimitri Kesseler, Ethical Trading Initiative
• Lu Jialing, Tsinghua University
• Wu Jie-Min, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
• Hilary Josephs, Syracuse University
• Li Kunchin, National University of Singapore
• CK Lee, University of Michigan
• Mingwei Liu, Rutgers University
• Albert Park, Oxford University
• Jian Qiao, China Institute of Industrial Relations
• Bill Taylor, City University of Hong Kong
• Lu Zhang, Johns Hopkins University

Student Presenters

• Kuie-min Chang
• Edgar Chen, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
• Julia Chuang, University of California, Berkeley
• Kristin King, University of Michigan
• Thomas Peng, National Tsing-Hua University
• Sarah Swider, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Jing Wang, University of Toronto
• John Zinda, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Organizers

• Sarosh Kuruvilla, Professor of Comparative Industrial Relations, Collective Bargaining & Asian Studies, Cornell University
• Ching Kwan Lee, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan
• Mary Gallagher, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan

The conference schedule is full and there are no additional spaces for presenters.

If you are interested in attending the conference, please register here. If you are not from the Ithaca area please reserve a hotel room without delay. There is a shortage of available rooms in September.

Conference Schedule

• Friday, September 26: Conference Session 8:30am-5:30pm; Conference Dinner for Presenters - Kahin Center, 640 Stewart Avenue
• Saturday, September 27: Conference Session 8:30am-5:30pm, ILR Conference Center - Room 423 
• Sunday, September 28: Additional Sessions 9am-1pm, ILR Conference Center - Room 423
  

** The full conference program will be posted in early June.

This conference is made possible with generous funding from the:

• Waks Family Fund for International Education & Research
• Pierce Memorial Fund, School of Industrial Labor Relations, Cornell University
• Jeffrey S. Lehman Fund for Scholarly Exchange with China