WORKING LIVES RESEARCH INSTITUTE ANNUAL REPORT 2012
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
WLRI Aims
Contents
The WLRI undertakes academic,
Director’s introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
applied and socially committed
How the WLRI works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
research and teaching emphasising
Staff and doctoral students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
equality and social justice into all
2012 Research at WLRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Researching labour markets – restructuring, segmentation, migration and the employment relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
aspects of working lives.
Researching identities, representation and organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
We work for and in partnership with trade unions and other social
Researching the quality of work and working lives 8
Publications 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
movements and for charities and
Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
research councils and government
Journal articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
departments internationally, within
Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Europe and in the UK.
Book Chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Impact events in 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Teaching and learning at the WLRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Pictures in this report are from an exhibition about economic restructuring and a sense of identity from a project financed by the European Commission linking research in six European areas: Corbeil-Essonnes – Evry in the greater Paris region (France); the south of Nuremberg in Bavaria (Germany); Elda and Alcoy in the Alicante region (Spain). The three others are coal-mining areas: the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire (Great Britain); Katowice in Upper Silesia (Poland) and Zonguldak in Central Anatolia (Turkey). The WLRI’s Sylvie Contrepois developed and designed the SPHERE exhibition.
WLRI Seminars in 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Some WLRI research partners in 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 WLRI Financial Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 www.workinglives.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Cover images, clockwise from top left: Polish woman mineworker, © Arkadiusz Gola; Man holding racing pigeon, Darnall Pigeon Club, Sheffield, 1976, © Peter Dewhurst; Worker in a shoe factory, Spain 1970s, © Carlson Multicultural festival, France, 2006, © Lionel Antoni
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BRITAIN: Although successive governments have claimed that the idea of social class is dead, this view is not shared by a majority of people in the Dearne Valley. Many believe that the prejudice they experience in their search for work and the power relations to which they are exposed, are about class. PHOTO: ©RUSSELL WALL, 2010
Director’s introduction 2012 was the year in which the Working Lives Research Institute celebrated its tenth anniversary. This was a really good event, with nine seminars on the best of the recent WLRI research and one public lecture taking place, alongside continuous showings of three WLRI DVD films and one major photographic exhibition being launched – all on the same afternoon in November. It was good to see former colleagues from the WLRI and from ISET as well as colleagues from IPSE, and I’d like to thank everyone who came as well as those who spoke. Really positive things were said about the WLRI by Professor John Gabriel, the Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities, by Matt Dykes, Wilf Sullivan and Tom Wilson of the TUC, and by the local Islington MP, Jeremy Corbyn. The commitment of the WLRI staff over the ten years to researching for social justice was publicly saluted. What the WLRI’s birthday shows is that, despite the merchants of accommodation to rising inequality and to ever narrowing definitions of what research is about, it is still possible to keep research alive that is focused on the need for social justice at work, in an institution which, in the eyes of the elite is a ‘second tier’ university. This is largely because WLRI staff members have a political commitment to defending those experiencing injustice and to challenging those who believe in the inevitability of the marketisation of all human relationships. Our survival, in a year that began with all staff at the university being told their jobs were at risk of
redundancy – followed by the university having its Highly Trusted Status to recruit overseas students being arbitrarily removed by the UK Border Agency, and saw the removal of the Women’s Library to another university, is remarkable. Regretfully, as a result of the difficulties described above, we lost two key members of our administrative staff, Sonia Allouache and Janet Emefo, both of whom were redeployed to other parts of the Faculty and who had carried out dedicated and highly committed work for WLRI over many years. In October we also lost Andrea Winkelmann-Gleed, who had made a significant research contribution across several different projects and who moved to a new post at the University of the East of England. Hopefully, the uncertainty which we have had to operate in over recent year may now be coming to an end. The strong level of student recruitment of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities in which we are now based, may help provide a really needed degree of protection and calm together with WLRI’s entrance as an autonomous unit within the new Faculty umbrella research institute, FAIR. That acronym stands for Faculty Advanced Institute for Research, of which I am also the Director. This new structure will enable the different research institutes to work together and to share opportunities as well as the challenges that 2013 will bring. Steve Jefferys
TURKEY: The whole of the Zonguldak community expressed its solidarity with the miners from the area when they fought for an increase in wages from very low levels PHOTO: IBRAHIM DEMIREL
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How the WLRI works The Institute was established in August 2002 as an independent multidisciplinary unit within the London Metropolitan University. It it now based within the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and is a distinct centre within the Faculty Advanced Institute for Research (FAIR). Its purpose is to undertake socially committed academic and applied research into all aspects of working lives, emphasising equality and social justice. The WLRI bridges the academic and non-academic worlds and has close links with the TUC Library Collections, a unique Special Collection based at the University. The WLRI’s researchers work on projects within London, nationally within the UK, across Europe and internationally. These focus on the following interdisciplinary and interlocking issues around three main themes:
Researching labour markets – restructuring, segmentation, migration and the employment relationship ●●Labour market divisions on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality; ●●Discrimination; ●●Employment practices and employment law; ●●Migrant workers, refugees, asylum seekers and work; ●●Changing organisations in the global economy; ●●Changing forms of work in a knowledge-based society; ●●Globalisation, locality and labour markets.
●●Organisation and management including human resource management.
Researching the quality of work and working lives ●●Health (especially in restructuring) and psycho social issues in work ●●Training and lifelong learning ●●Work/life balance At any one moment the Institute is involved in between five and ten externally-funded research projects. These are funded by many academic and non-academic organisations, including EU Framework 7 (DG Research) and the EU DG Employment, the UK Research council, the ESRC, as well as by the TUC and Britain’s largest trade unions, Unite and Unison, and many others and by several charities. Our research leads to written reports for the funders, photographic exhibitions, films, seminars and conference presentations, newspaper or academic journal articles and training sessions. Outputs are also fed back into the Institute’s associated teaching programmes, our Professional Doctorate programme in Researching Work and our teaching on other courses within the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, including the CPD on Union Learning and on BA and MA courses in Trade Union and Labour Studies.
Researching identities, representation and organisation ●●The histories and agency of working people, minorities and social movements and their organisations, nationally, within Europe and globally; ●●Industrial relations, accommodation and conflict at work; ●●Employee representation and voice at work; ●●Social dialogue and partnership;
GERMANY: The AEG factory in Nuremberg, bought by the Swedish group Electrolux in 1994 used to employ 1,750 people (compared to 6,000 in the 1970s) and manufactured washing machines and dishwashers. Its work has been outsourced to Poland and Italy. PHOTO ©BERNY MEYER
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Staff and doctoral students In January 2013 the Institute had 14 staff and a further 15 internal and external research associates. Eight of the staff work full-time for the University while the others work between one and four days a week. WLRI academic staff
Paul Hampton
Part-time (supervisors: Nigel Morter – FSSH, Jefferys)
Olgu Karan
Full-time (supervisors: Henry, Allan Williams)
Nick Clark
Senior Researcher
Sylvie Contrepois
Reader (Europe)
Steve Jefferys
Director, Professor of European Employment Studies
Professional doctorate students at thesis stage
Leroi Henry
Senior Researcher
Jennifer Akinsuyi
Part-time (supervisors: Cilla Ross, Irene Gedalof – FSSH)
Janroj Keles
Researcher
Benjamin Agyemang
Leena Kumarappan
Researcher
Part-time (supervisors: McKay, Colgan)
Sonia McKay
Professor of European Socio-Legal Studies
Chris Blunkell
Part-time (supervisors: Williams, Morter, Jefferys)
Eugenia Markova
Senior Researcher
Eileen Brownlie
Anna Paraskevopoulou
Researcher
Part-time (supervisors: Frances Tomlinson CLBS, C. Ross, Jefferys)
Cilla Ross
Reader
David Coley
Part-time (supervisors: C. Ross, Jefferys)
Nigel Carter
Part-time (supervisors: Henry, Jefferys)
Dan Dowling
Part-time (supervisors: Richard Ross – FSSH, Jefferys)
Tish Gibbons
Part-time (supervisors: McKay, Linda Johnston – CLBS)
Brian Kelly
Part-time (supervisors: C. Ross, Jefferys)
Darren O’Grady
Part-time (supervisors: Clark, Jefferys)
WLRI support staff Jawad Botmeh
Research Manager
Linda Butcher
FAIR Senior Finance Officer
Roushanthi Sivanesan
Finance Officer
Max Watson
Research Manager
PhD students Kouider Djilali
Full-time (supervisors: McKay, Allan Williams – Surrey, Jefferys)
Karina Golovko
Full-time (supervisors: Fiona Colgan – CLBS, Jenny Newton – FSSH)
Working Lives Research Institute Annual Report 2012 5
2012 Research at WLRI The research under way at any one time at the Institute is always diverse in terms of its funding, scale and focus, but reflects our concern for socially committed academic and applied research into all aspects of working lives – contemporary and historical. Gender, race, ethnicity and class – as well as other social divisions and bases for mobilisation – are central to our research. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of
this research is demonstrated by our contribution to three broad and overlapping areas at regional, national, European and international levels. The examples listed below are not exhaustive, but hopefully give a flavour of the research into working lives we carried out in 2012. All of these projects can be explored in more detail on our website.
Researching labour markets – restructuring, segmentation, migration and the employment relationship Funder
Project title
Current or final results in brief
DG Employment (EU)
Crisis Social Dialogue and Renewals in Restructuring
DG Employment (EU)
Arts and Restructuring
The three-country project involved academics and practitioners from France, Belgium and the UK in meeting regularly to consider the ways in which art forms have been used to represent restructuring. Its final dissemination event took place in Paris in March 2012.
ESRC
Undocumented migrants, ethnic enclaves & networks (UNDOCNET)
This two year ESRC funded project is collaboration between WLRI and City University. The research focuses on Bangladeshi, Kurdish/Turkish and Chinese migrants in London to explore the networks that those without documents utilise. A successful mid-term project workshop was held in November 2012 when two of the project’s three films were presented.
EFFAT, European trade union federation
Precarious work
The research focused on precarious work in the sectors of Agriculture, HORECA and Food, Drinks and Tobacco. While the project was completed in August 2011, dissemination continued throughout 2012.
DG Employment, Social Affairs & Equal Opps.
Regulation & Enforcement of Posted Workers Employment RIghts
Using interviews with stakeholders and posted workers across five countries, this study seeks to evaluate the means of enforcing the rights of posted workers in the host countries. The final workshop took place in London in February 2012.
DG Employment (EU)
Social regulation between contractors & subcontractors in the industrial sector during restructuring times (ANACT)
Whether the increased use of sub-contracting and outsourcing leads to a worsening of working conditions was considered by researchers in this five-country European project that focuses on employee terms and conditions within the manufacturing sector. The recommendations were put to a final conference of social partners and government agencies in Lyons in February 2012.
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Funder
Project title
Current or final results in brief
DG Employment (EU)
Precarious work and social rights
A 12-country study which through interviews, case studies and questionnaire surveys aims to provide a useable definition of precarious work and proposals for a floor of applicable basic social rights. The project commenced in May 2011 and ended following an international workshop on March 30 2012.
Acas
The future implications of migrant labour for employment relations
A policy paper prepared for ACAS as part of the future of workplace relations series was published in early 2012
Erasmus EU
Global health and migration
WLRI is one of eight partner institutions across Europe which won funding to run a two-week school in Bologna for medical and social science doctoral students in July 2011 and 2012 with 30 students attending. The school will run again in 2013.
DG Employment (Legal unit)
Students and precarious work
A seven-country survey and qualitative research into the work that students carry out, the extent to which it is precarious (potentially weakening labour market conditions for all workers) and whether students view their work as precarious
Researching identities, representation and organisation Funder
Project title
Current or final results in brief
Acas
Addressing discrimination in the workplace on multiple grounds – the experience of trade union Equality Reps
Through interviews with public sector Equality Reps this exploratory project identified the complexities of tackling issues of multiple discrimination given the current legal framework. The findings will be published as an Acas report, that proposes areas for further research.
UNISON
Hidden workforce project
The project, which ended in 2012, highlighted the exploitation of hidden workers – those working in outsourced services. The focus was on the organising challenge for the trade union, UNISON, to identify barriers to support and to show how UNISON organisers and activists can support ‘hidden’ workers
Co-funded by the European Fund for Integration of Third Country nationals, Community Actions 2009
MEDIVA: Media for Diversity and Migrant Integration
A six-country European project seeking to strengthen the capacity of the media to reflect the increasing diversity of European societies and promote immigrant integration. The MEDIVA project generated a set of media monitoring indicators (in eight languages) that can provide the basis for a self- and other-assessment and future monitoring mechanisms in the media, and ended with a big London training event and a final conference in Brussels in June 2012.
Nuffield Foundation
Migrant Domestic Workers’ Employment Rights
The project compares what employers tell the UK Borders Agency about domestic workers’ pay and conditions in visa applications with what workers report actually receiving. It also examines workers’ knowledge and views of means of enforcing their rights at work. Conducted in association with Justice for Domestic Workers.
Working Lives Research Institute Annual Report 2012 7
Funder
Project title
Current or final results in brief
EU DG Research Framework 7
SPHERE – Space, place and the historical and contemporary articulations of regional, national and European identities through work and community in areas undergoing economic restructuring and regeneration
The research showed that while restructuring away from the regions’ traditional occupations did weaken the older identities forged out of work and place, there were also very many traces of the past in the ways in which workers understood their current lives and the areas in which they lived. Photographic exhibitions were organised in France, Poland and the UK in 2012 and a permanent exhibition installed at Londonmet in November 2012.
UNISON
Impact of Government spending on Unison’s members
The project interviewed UNISON members to gather their stories on the impact of recession on their work and personal lives. The research report was published by UNISON in July 2012.
EU DG Employment
The Challenge of Racism at Work
Revisiting a five-country study by the WLRI carried out between 2003-5 looking into how trade unions deal with racism at work. What has changed in the last ten years? What difference has the recession made?
Researching the quality of work and working lives Funder
Project Title
Current or final results in brief
ICSW – ITF Seafarers’ Trust
Port Welfare Committees and National Welfare Boards
Research into why some PWCs successful, while others face enormous obstacles inputted into an ICSW training programme in 2012.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Responses to forced labour in the EU
This nine-country European project went beyond the focus of much research on human trafficking for the purpose of commodified sex to examine how far forced labour takes place in other areas of the labour market where extreme forms of labour exploitation have received little attention. The project reported issues around unclear and/or the lack of legal legislation in different countries, the misinterpretation of the notion of forced labour, and the lack of experience in dealing with forced labour. The report will be published in 2013.
British Library
Saving Sudan’s trade union endangered archives
A three year cooperation with the British Library ended in 2011 with an exhibition in Sudan of trade union historical documents that would otherwise have disappeared entirely. A book on the project was published in the Sudan in 2012.
European Public Sector Union
Training, jobs and decent work for young people
Through interviews with EPSU affiliates and use of national and EU statistical sources, WLRI evaluated the role of three sectors (public administration, public utilities and health) in employing young workers, and the extent to which precarious work features in young workers’ employment. It found that the public sector had largely stopped employing young people. Its report will be published in 2013.
The impact of urbanisation on coastal environments
This eight country study jointly with the Cities Institute began by identifying the relationships between changes in social and natural environments, in terms of sea level changes, migration and population changes, and is still continuing.
European Commission
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Publications 2012 Books Kirk, J., Contrepois, S. and Jefferys, S. (eds.), Changing Work and Community Identities in European Regions Perspectives on the Past and Present, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Clark, N., Contrepois. S. and Jefferys, S., ‘Collective and individual alternative dispute resolution in France and the UK’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol 23, No 3, February, pp. 1-17.
Book chapters Coates, C. ‘Os arquivos sindicais na Grã-Bretanha’, pp 115-127 in Marques, Antonio Jose and Stampa, Inez Terezinha (eds), Arquivos do mundos dos trabalhadores: coletânea do 2º seminário international o mundo dos trabalhadores e seus arquivos: memória e resistência, São Paolo: Central Unica dos Trabalhadores / Arquivo Nacional
Holgate, J., Keles, J and Kumarappen, L, Visualizing ‘community’: an experiment in participatory photography among Kurdish diasporic workers in London, The Sociological Review, Volume 60, Issue 2, pages 312–332, May. Holgate, J., Keles, J., Pollert, A. and Kumarappen, L, ‘Workplace Problems Among Kurdish Workers in London: Experiences of an `Invisible’ Community and the Role of Community Organisations as Support Networks, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Volume 38, Number 4, pp. 595-612(18)
Coates, C. ‘TUC Library Collections’, various pages in Redmond, K. (ed) Born and bred: stories of Holloway Road, London: Rowan Arts. Also audio interview at www.storiesofhollowayroad.com/stories-home
Holgate, J. Pollert, A., Keles, J. and Kumarappan, L. (2012) Union decline and voice among minority ethnic workers; do community support networks help fill the gap? Urban Studies. 49 (3): 613-630. Holgate, J., Pollert, A. Keles, J. and Kumarappan, L. (2012) De-collectivisation and employment problems: the experiences of minority ethnic workers seeking help through Citizens Advice. Work, Employment and Society. 26 (5): 772-788.
Markova, E. and McKay, S. ‘Migrant workers in Europe’s media’, Journalism Practice, DOI:10.1080/175 12786.2012.740244
McKay, S. ‘Precarious work in Europe – a growing problem’ Emilia Romagna – Europe, CGIL. Paraskevopoulou, A., Markova E., Williams, A and Shaw, G. ‘Migration and Innovation at the Bottom End: Understanding the Role of Migrant Managers in Small Hotels in the Global City’, Mobilities, Vol.7 No.3.
Journal articles
Koeper, B. and G. Thomson, ‘Restructuring: a European perspective on the political implication sof the developing understanding of the ffect of restructuring on the health of workers with specific reference to Germany and the UK’, Zeithschrift fur Arbeitswissenschaft, 4, November, pp 314-321.
McKay, S., ‘Rohini Hensman, Workers, Unions and Global Capitalism: Lessons from India’, Labor History, 52:4, 535-562.
Contrepois, S., ‘Industrial Decline, Economic Regeneration and Identities in the Paris Region’, pp 57-90 in Kirk, J., Contrepois, S. and Jefferys, S. (eds.), Changing Work and Community Identities in European Regions Perspectives on the Past and Present, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Contrepois, S., Jefferys, S. and Kirk, J., ‘A Skyline of European Identities’, pp 217-231 in Kirk, J., Contrepois, S. and Jefferys, S. (eds.), Changing Work and Community Identities in European Regions Perspectives on the Past and Present, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Kirk, J., Contrepois, S. and Jefferys, S., ‘Approaching Regional and Identity Change in Europe’, pp 1-22 in Kirk, J., Contrepois, S. and Jefferys, S. (eds.), Changing Work and Community Identities in European Regions Perspectives on the Past and Present, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Working Lives Research Institute Annual Report 2012 9
PHOTO : CLAUDE BRETEAU
Reports Clark, N., “Regulation and Enforcement of Posted Workers’ Employment Rights” WLRI, 2012/5 Henry, L., Jefferys, S. and L. Kumarappan, ‘UK national context of racism and discrimination in employment on grounds of ethnicity or national origin (2003 – 2012)’, WLRI, December, p 30. Jefferys, S., ‘Shared business services outsourcing: Progress at work or work in progress?’ WLRI Working Paper 11, May. Jefferys, S. (ed.), ‘Working Lives in Marxism and History: Hobsbawm, Saville and Thompson’, London: WLRI. Kumarappan, L. McKay, S. and Moore, S. ‘The impact of austerity on UNISON members 2012.’ UNISON. June, p 78. McKay, S. Future implications of migrant labour for employment relations, Acas policy paper, Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, January 2012
FRANCE: The historic Darblay paper works in Essonnes is demolished. Right: The factory in 1910
McKay, S, Jefferys, S. Paraskevopoulou, A. and Keles, J. Study on precarious work and social rights, European Commission.
SPAIN: Women migrants in a workers’ district of Elda PHOTO: PEDRO CRUCES
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Impact events in 2012 Date
Person
Event
Nos.
Comment
30 November
Nick Clark, Sylvie Contrepois, Janroj Keles
Precstude concluding seminar
25
Presentations of preliminary results of project, at Brussels
28 November
Anna Paraskevopoulou
London Metropolitan University
40
Immigration to the UK – a presentation to German students
22 November
Steve Jefferys
10th Anniversary
50
Speech to WLRI 10th Anniversary event at Londonmet
16 November
Steve Jefferys
TUC Public Service Network Meeting
50
Invited speaker on ‘Is the tide turning on public service outsourcing?’ at TUC, London
11 November
Sonia McKay
Seminar of the European Commission at Airbus
30
Labour relations in Great Britain
23 October
Sonia McKay
UCL Laws
30
Invited speaker on Understanding and tackling precarious work’ joint seminar with Guy Standing.
8 October
Chris Coates
CILIP meeting – Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
50
Invited speaker on the TUC Library Collections
6-8 September
Janroj Keles
2nd International Conference on Kurdish Studies ‘The Kurds and Kurdistan: Considering Continuity and Change’
50
‘Mediated homeland politics and transnational ethnic audiences: The case of Kurdish and Turkish migrant’. Presentation at Exeter University.
28 June
Sonia McKay
British Universities Industrial Relations Association
60
Keynote speech on Precarious work in Europe – understanding trends and exploring alternative mode at Leeds University
22 June
Sonia McKay
Keele University
50
Invited speaker on Precarious work to Alumni event
15 June
Eugenia Markova
MEDIVA Final Conference
30
Presenting the issues of diversity in media employment at the final MEDIVA event in Brussels
15 June
Steve Jefferys
Monocle Internet Radio broadcast
14 June
Anna Paraskevopoulou
London Metropolitan University
50
Immigration to the UK – a presentation to German students
8 June
Nick Clark
ETUI/EPSU seminar
20
Presentation of final results of research on young workers in public services, in La Roche-en-Ardenne, Belgium
8 June
Cilla Ross Sylvie Contrepois
Launch of UK Sphere Exhibition
20
Speeches at Goldthorpe Library exhibition launch in Dearne Valley
24 May
Steve Jefferys
European Human Resource Directors Circle
40
Invited speaker on Conflict resolution in Europe Today at Annual HRD Circle meeting, Lisbon
? Increasing working time through greater accessibility, interview in London
Working Lives Research Institute Annual Report 2012 11
Date
Person
Event
Nos.
Comment
18 May
Sonia McKay
Faculty of Laws, University College London
100
Invited speaker on Re-socialising Europe and the mutualisation of precarious work
25 April
Sonia McKay, Anna Paraskevopoulou
Business school, Londonmet
20
Invited speakers on ‘Working precariously’
23 April
Eugenia Markova
Migration Conference, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Germany
60
Invited speaker; presented a paper on the cross-border mobility between Bulgaria and Greece
20 April
Sonia McKay
Europe 2020: the Struggle with Poverty and Social Exclusion of Workers
60
Invited speaker at Warsaw Conference
30 March
Sylvie Contrepois
SPHERE exhibition launch
25
‘New and Old Identities in the local community’, Evry, France
30 March
Sonia McKay
Final conference
40
Presented research report on Precarious work and social rights.
19 March
Nick Clark
EPSU Youth Network
20
Presentation of preliminary results on young workers in public services, in Brussels
10 March
Sylvie Contrepois
Social Movements Conference
25
What happened to the social actors in the old industrial companies, Essonne Departmental Archive, France
8 March
Nick Clark
COMPAS seminar on migrant access to services
35
Invited speaker on Nuffield Domestic workers project, at Oxford
27 February
Nick Clark
PostER project seminar
30
Presentation of national reports on posted workers, in London
11 February
Sylvie Contrepois
SPHERE project Conference
60
Presentation of research project at Essonne Departmental Archives, France
1 February
Chris Coates
TUC / Londonmet event at Congress House
21 January
Janroj Keles
International Kurdish Social media Network conference,
80
Invited speaker on “Diaspora and New Media: Re-mediating Kurdishness in networked transnational communities” in London.
16 January
Sonia McKay,
‘Beyond labour regulation’ conference
20
Invited speaker on methodological problems in migration research at Middlesex University
16 January
Anna Paraskevopoulou
‘Beyond labour regulation’ conference
20
Invited speaker on precarious work at Middlesex University
100
Launch of Britain at Work: voices from the workplace 1945-1995
POLAND: The province of Silesia was renowned for miners’ militancy. Today a wide range of occupational and social groups like these Tesco supermarket workers are demanding better working conditions and expressing this in a variety of ways PHOTO: ARKADIUSZ GOLA
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Teaching and learning at WLRI September 2012 saw the graduation of a number of CPD in Union Learning students at the Barbican Centre. Funded by unionlearn these students travelled down from the north of England to accept their awards from the Vice Chancellor. This is our fourth graduating cohort and each student is looking forward to applying their new knowledge to their work as union activists and representatives. The programme is continuing into the next academic year in London with more trade union students.
The Professional Doctorate in Researching Work goes from strength to strength. Our second cohort joins the first cohort of students who are currently progressing on to the penultimate stage of their thesis. Cohort 2 has completed three taught modules. On a number of occasions during this academic year the two cohorts have joined together to share ideas and research experiences as well as attend lectures and seminars. In some cases members of the first cohort are offering themselves informally as mentors to their Cohort 2 colleagues. This type of collective endeavour really helps to generate am active research culture and it is one that we encourage at all times. Both cohorts have availed themselves of a number of skills development opportunities available through the university Graduate School and we are looking forward to a third cohort joining us in 2013.
CPD (Union Learning) students celebrate their awards, 2012
WLRI Seminars in 2012 Social Capital, Professor Ben Fine, 13 January 2012 Marx and the ‘place’ of work, Professor Martin Upchurch, Professor of International Employment Relations, Middlesex University, 16/3/12 Borderless Europe and limited space: transnational practices of Latvian migrants in Guernsey, Aija Lulle, WLRI, Londonmet, 16/3/12 Weber, Capitalism and Work , Dr Peter Hodgkinson, Londonmet, 17/3/12 New Capitalism? The Transformation of Work, Dr Kevin Doogan, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol. 18/5 Young People and Work, Dr Lefteris Kretsos, University of Greenwich 19/5 Working-class whiteness from within and without: an auto-ethnographic response to Avtar Brah’s ‘Scent of Memory’, Professor Lynn Thomas, Londonmet, 21/9 The Ideology of Globalisation: Challenges for Trade Unions and Workers Professor Carol Thornley, University of Keele, 22/11/12
Working Lives Research Institute Annual Report 2012 13
Some 2012 WLRI research partners Academy of Sciences, Institute of Sociology
Sofia
Bulgaria
Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS)
London
UK
Agence nationale pour l’amelioration des conditions de travail (ANACT) Association Travail, Emploi, Europe, Société (ASTREES)
Lyon Paris
France France
Istituto di Ricerche Economiche e Sociali
Rome
Italy
Kings College
London
UK
Labour Asociados SLL
Madrid
Spain
Lentic, Liege University
Liege
Belgium
Observatoire Responsabilité sociétale des enterprises (ORSE) Paris
France
Pompeu Fabra University Law School
Barcelona
Spain
BAUA (Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), Dortmund
Germany
Project Consult GmbH
Essen
Germany
Central European University
Hungary
Public and Commercial Services Union
London
UK
Komisja Krajowa NSZZ “Solidarność”
Gdańsk
Poland
Centre for the Study of Democracy
Budapest Sofia
Bulgaria
Centre for Industrial Relations, Keele University
Keele
UK
SIPTU trade union
Dublin
Ireland
Charité – Universitätsmedizin
Berlin
Germany
City University
London
UK
Sofia University “St Kiment Ochridski”
Sofia
Bulgaria
CGIL/IRES Emilia Romagna
Bologna
Italy
Solidarnosc trade union
Warsaw
Poland
Technical University of Munich
Munich
Germany
Communication Workers Union (CWU)
London
UK
Trades Union Congress
London
UK
European University Institute
Florence
Italy
Umeå universitet
Umeå,
Sweden
Faculty of Medicine, University of Bologna
Bologna
Italy
Unionlearn
London
UK
UNISON
London
UK
FNV trade union
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
UNITE the Union
London
UK
Gabinet d’Estudies Socials
Barcelona
Spain
Genre, Travail et Mobilites (GTM-UMR-CNRS)
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Madrid
Spain
Paris
France
Università Ca’ Foscari – Dipartimento di Filosofia e Teoria delle Scienze
Venice
Italy
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
University of Cardiff
Cardiff
UK
University of Catania, Faculty of Laws
Catania
Italy
University of Greenwich
London
UK
University of Latvia
Riga
Latvia
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Brussels
Belgium
University Paris 1
Paris
France
University of Thessalonika
Thessalonika
Greece
Italy
University of Valencia
Valencia
Spain
Hungary
Uniwersytet Slaski, Silesia University
Katowice
Poland
Warsaw University
Warsaw
Poland
Göteborg University (Department of Working Life Science)
Gothenburg
Sweden
Hoger Instituut voor de Arbeid (HIVA – K.U. Leuven)
Leuven
Belgium
International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations (IMIR)
Sofia
Bulgaria
Institut d’Administration des Entreprises, Université Paris 1
Paris
France
Institut fur Arbeitsmarktund BerufsforschungInsitute
Nuremberg
Germany
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies
Rome
Institute of Sociology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest
14 Working Lives Research Institute Annual Report 2012
WLRI Financial Summary 11-12 £000s
10-11 £000s
Income Research project income Fees from teaching Central university salary transfers Central university non-pay transfers Total income
541 78 336 0 955
641 77 448 0 1,166
Expenditure Project-funded staff salaries Central university staff salaries Project-related costs Institute-related costs Total expenditure Balance before University overhead Central university overhead Surplus (deficit)
388 336 92 19 835 120 134 (14)
528 435 109 25 1,098 69 133 (65)
09-10 £000s 693 10 438 24 1,165
708 401 130 24 1,263 (98) 147 (246)
08-09 £000s 985 55 392 12 1,444
641 380 115 25 1,161 283 99 184
www.workinglives.org The fast changing world-wide-web has kept us on our toes this year and the WLRI website and our associated social media presence has continued to expand. The bulk of our students find us online, and we maintain a high hit count on our web-pages, and our network of ‘Friends’ on Facebook and ‘Followers’ on Twitter grows almost daily. Our website not only has all our current (and archived) research listed and detailed, plus biographies and contact details for all staff – past and present – we also advertise our available courses, upcoming events online. Twitter: In 2012 we joined the ‘twitter verse’, with @Working_Lives as our twitter username, and started building our profile and disseminating our work in just 140 characters. We expect to be using Twitter much more in 2013, so follow us, ‘Retweet’ and use the hashtag: #working_lives Facebook profile: After a slow start on Facebook in 2011, this year we began to systematically update our pages and fast attracted over 100 ‘Likes’ and gained over 400 ‘Friends’. For the first time we announced an event on Facebook before sending out an official email invite and we also uploaded the photos from the ten year celebrations event onto FB and made them public. So, to keep bang up to date with WLRI, you should ‘Like’ us and be our ‘Friends’ on Facebook.
Gallery: this section displays works taken by professional photographers and artists who visualise working life in a variety of ways. It also includes material produced directly by WLRI staff for our own research. Please note that from 2012 onwards you will find many more photos on our Facebook pages (see above) too. Youtube/Audio Visual: We now have eight films on our ‘Youtube Channel’ and embedded on our website on the ‘Audio Visual’ section. Most recently we launched a 30-minute film in two languages about ‘Workers and industrial change in six European regions’. WLRI Working Papers: This section includes the WLRI Working Paper Series, where colleagues submit papers arising from our research for discussion and debate. This includes the topical paper ‘Shared business services outsourcing: Progress at work or work in progress?’ WLRI News & Events: These sections archive the special e-newsletters and individual news items we regularly send out to keep our readers up to date with our latest. The contacts email list gets bigger and bigger too, and is now well over the 1,500 mark – so if you’re reading this for the first time and want to know more, you can subscribe to our news online.
Working Lives Research Institute Annual Report 2012 15
Working Lives Research Institute Faculty of Social Studies and Humanities London Metropolitan University www.workinglives.org workinglives@londonmet.ac.uk 31, Jewry Street London EC3N 2EY UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7320 3042 • Fax: +44 (0)20 7320 3032