ESRC Research Seminar Series 2009/10: Unfree Labour
This seminar series is designed to foster a sustained consideration of debates surrounding unfree labour in the modern global economy and, moreover, to further a strongly interdisciplinary approach to the study of this issue. It brings together and builds upon perspectives from a variety of disciplines and approaches – philosophy, political theory, development studies, development economics, migration studies, gender studies, sociology, social anthropology and area studies – in order to focus debate on new ways of thinking about unfree labour and its place in modern capitalism. The core questions around which the agenda for the seminar series coheres are the following:
In philosophical and theoretical terms, how can we frame the concepts of freedom, unfreedom and coercion as the foundations for understandings of unfree labour relations? In what ways can we push forward the ongoing debates about the place of unfree labour in modern capitalism? What are and should be the theoretical foundations on which unfree labour is defined and measured in global policy frameworks?
30 Jan 09
Theoretical and philosophical challenges in framing the study of unfree labour: sets the parameters of the debate and the framework for the series by considering the theoretical and philosophical debates on freedom and unfreedom, coercion and exploitation, and the challenges of defining and measuring unfree labour in the modern global economy.
1 May 09
Forms of unfree labour in the modern global economy: seeks empirically to explore the various forms that unfree labour takes in the global economy in light of the theoretical and philosophical discussions of seminar 1, considering the coherence and contemporary utility of such notions as the ‘new slavery’, indenture and forced labour. These discussions will be enhanced by participants’ detailed empirical knowledge of a variety of countries and regions, and the various spheres of economic activity most associated with unfree labour relations.
30 Oct 09
Gender and unfree labour: explores the gendered forms that unfree labour takes and uses gender as the key lens through which to address the range of complex issues associated with trafficking and human smuggling, including the trafficking of women and children in the global sex trade. Discussions here will include the issues surrounding ‘kinship’ as the social foundation of forms of unfree labour.
29 Jan 10
Migration, labour-intensive growth and unfree labour: considers the crucial nexus between migration and unfree labour in the global economy, with a strong contextual emphasis on global manufacturing and service industries, as well as agriculture. The key question for this seminar concerns the place of unfree labour in the contemporary global agenda of labour-intensive growth and how we should understand capitalist relations in this context.
30 Apr 10
Unfree labour in global policy debates: engages with current debates in international organisations and other bodies surrounding the definition and measurement of unfree labour, and the manner in which predominant understandings inform approaches to the treatment of unfree labour as a pressing issue for global governance.
29 Oct 10
Theoretical and policy implications: wrapping-up seminar, pulling together both the scholarly and the policy implications of our work, organising the published output from the seminar series and developing plans for ongoing collaborative activity in this area.
Please direct all enquiries about this series to Nicola Phillips.