To Read Submitted LaborTech Papers, click here

The program committee for the 2006 LaborTech conference is soliciting papers from labor and technology researchers, activists, workers, and educators. The conference will be organized under three themes, with each theme being explored through panel discussions, hands-on/training workshops, academic paper presentations, and participatory strategy workshops.

THEMES:
Management's Use of Technology and Worker Resistance (Surveillance, Union Busting, Outsourcing,
Globalization)
Workers' Technology and Class Struggle (Labor Media and Internet Tools)
Democratic Communication Rights (Internet Access and Digital Divides)

Proposals should be made in one of the following categories in the requested format. Each proposal should include the conference theme to which it best applies. Proposals should be uploaded on the conference website (http://www.labortech.net) by October 15th, 2006. Decisions will be announced by September 30.

ACADEMIC PAPERS: A one-page abstract of the paper, including a title, authors and affiliations, and a description of the paper's main points. Full papers for all accepted abstracts should be uploaded by the authors onto the conference website prior to the beginning of the conference. Paper sessions will be assigned discussants.

STRATEGY PROPOSAL: A document of any length proposing action and/or organizational strategies related to one of the three themes, for discussion during the strategy workshops and by website visitors.

ABOUT LABORTECH: LaborTech brings together labor and community activists from the U.S. and around the world, along with academics who support an activist agenda, to explore the use of computer, video, and other communications technology to build the labor community and its media. The first LaborTech conference was held in 1990, and since then the conferences have taken place generally every other year in locations throughout the United States and Canada. While past LaborTech conferences recruited presenters by invitation only, this year LaborTech is soliciting proposals for papers and conference presentations.

CRITERIA FOR ACCEPTANCE: We are looking for research and ideas that are not only provocative and original, but that also have a practical focus relevant to working people and the goals of labor movement, and/or related collective movements. The underlying assumptions are that a healthy labor movement is a worthy goal, whether in the Americas or abroad, and that the creative use of modern communications technology can help workers and unions grapple with today’s challenges. In that context, we welcome papers concerning communications technology and workers that contribute to the practical knowledge and theory of labor activists, educators and community allies, written in a style that is accessible to a broad, non-academic public.

AUDIENCE: Labor and community activists from the U.S. and other nations, as well as academics friendly to labor and its goals.

WHO CAN SUBMIT?: Anyone who has relevant knowledge and/or experience in a labor, academic or community context. With a few exceptions, you should be prepared to attend the conference and join a panel discussion where you present key ideas from your paper. You are welcome to submit a paper that isn’t written in English, but we will need to translate all presentations into English. We cannot guarantee translation support, or that professional simultaneous translation will be available at the conference.

PROCESS: Please upload your proposal electronically to http://www.labortech.net. We aim to publish a selection of the academic papers, as well as summaries of the other sessions, in an edited, peer-reviewed volume in hard-copy and/or online versions.

DEADLINE: for one-page proposal: Novmber 1, 2006
Full paper or summary for discussion on the web site: November 10, 2006

NOTIFICATION of ACCEPTANCE: November, 2006

PROGRAM COMMITTEE: [need approval from invitees, possibly others too]
Steve Zeltzer, Producer, Labor Video Project & LaborNet Steering Committee
Carl Bryant, NALC Local 214 and TV214
Nancy Brigham, UAW Local 1981 member, web designer and programmer
Art Shostak, Department of Sociology, Drexel University
Dorothy Kidd, Department of Media Studies, University of San Francisco
Karin Hart, CWA Local 9415 and Labor Studies Program, Laney College
Michael Perelman, Department of Economics, California State University, Chico
Francisco Javier Cendejas Campos, Student, Stanford University
John Parulis, Bright Path Video
Todd Davies, Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University & CPSR

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