Global Studies Association - North America: Conferences

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18th Annual Global Studies Association of North America Conference, co-sponsored by Loyola University Department of Sociology

Globalization & Technology: The Impact on Work & Class
Loyola University
Philip H. Corboy Law Center
25 East Pearson, Chicago

June 6-8, 2019

According to the United Nations, globalization is widening the income gaps within and between countries, and increasing the precariousness of employment, with reductions in wages, jobs, and labor rights. Companies take advantage of fluid borders to cut not only supply costs, but labor costs as well. Technological advances once meant an end to blue-collar work as factory workers were replaced with robots that could do the work faster and more efficiently at a much lower cost, but now it also means white-collar, office-based workers and professionals are at risk of losing their jobs as well. Now robots can do everything from building cars to cleaning floors, mowing lawns, and cleaning swimming pools, as well as performing intricate medical operations and providing high-tech security. Computers can perform calculations and move money around the globe in nanoseconds. And as global assembly lines have increased, workers’ incomes have stagnated, inequality has risen to astronomical levels, and the middle class has been splintered as jobs have disappeared. All of this has created a worldwide backlash, especially in developed economies, as many voters say they are losing out or seeing little of the benefits that globalization supposedly brings. This conference will explore employment and wage problems created by globalization, and the impacts it is now having on every economic class.

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This conference will explore employment and wage problems created by globalization, and the impacts it is now having on every economic class.

Send your 100-word abstract in the body of an email to gharris234@comcast.net no later than April 8, 2019. Please include your full name, affiliation, and active email address.

NOTE: We accept all topics pertaining to globalization and its effects on every aspect of our lives, and you do not need a complete paper or project in order to present at the conference.

The Future of Globalization Conference
Renmin University, Beijing
September 20 - 23, 2019

Organized by The Network for Critical Studies of Global Capitalism, in cooperation with the Institute of Philosophy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing.

Globalization is facing a pivotal moment in history. Since the economic crisis of 2008 it has faced serious turbulence, challenged for its vast economic and social problems, as well as its environmental destruction. New political movements have appeared to displace or upset long-ruling traditional parties in the West. And women, constituting a large sector of the new labor force for global manufacturing, continue to struggle for an equal place at home and in society. Traditional Western globalists have offered no strategy except to continue their failing model of development. But new roads have emerged that propose radically different possibilities. "The Future of Globalization" will analyze and debate various models of globalization and its alternatives.

Among future alternatives to consider are the following:

(1) The danger of populism with mass appeal to reactionary nationalism, militarism, misogyny and racism. Such a future is evident in the rise of right-wing movements in Europe, as well as the ascent of Donald Trump. An important character of this trend is accumulation by militarization, disposition, and expulsions.

(2) A re-balancing of political and economic globalization to a multi-polar transnational order. This would encompass a greater role for China in world affairs through its One Belt One Road Initiative for global development. It would also encompass deeper integration into the transnational economy of the global South, and consequently the rise of their influence in world affairs.

(3) A new round of transnational accumulation based in green sustainable technologies, the development and application of AI technologies, robotization (automation), and the deepening of bio-technological innovations. A significant sector of the transnational capitalist class is making large commitments in these areas, including both private and state sectors in the US, Europe and China. The global capitalist market is promoted as the developmental model for these technologies.

(4) A transformation of capitalism based in socialist, feminist and environmental ideologies and social movements. An international order based on state sovereignty, equal exchange, common efforts to confront the planetary crisis of environmental destruction, as well as gender and economic inequality.

Contacts:

Jerry Harris, National Secretary of the Global Studies Association/North America, Chicago, USA
Email: gharris234@comcast.net

Marek Hrubec, Director, Centre for Global Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
Email: marek.hrubec@gmail.com

The Network for Critical Studies of Global Capitalism
Web site of the Network: https://netglobalcapitalism.wordpress.com/

Previous conferences were held in Europe (Prague), Australia (Brisbane), and Latin America (Havana).

PREVIOUS GSA NORTH AMERICA CONFERENCES

LOCATION:	Howard University, Washington, DC
DATE:	June 6-8, 2018
TITLE:	Globalization, Race, and the New Nationalism
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts
	Conference Flyer

LOCATION:	The University of California, Berkeley, Clark Kerr Campus
DATE:	June 14-16, 2017
TITLE:	Global Social Movements: Left and Right
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts

LOCATION:	The University of Texas at Austin, Texas
DATE:	June 9-11, 2016
TITLE:	Crossing Borders: People, Capital, Culture
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts

LOCATION:	The University of Toledo, Ohio
DATE:	June 12-13, 2015
TITLE:	Globalization: The Urban Crisis and Economic Democracy
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts

LOCATION:	Loyola University, Chicago, IL
DATE:	June 6-7, 2014
TITLE:	End of U.S. Hegemony?
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts

LOCATION:	Marymount College, Ranchos Palos Verdes, CA
DATE:	June 7-9, 2013
TITLE:	Surviving the Future: Owning the World or Sharing the Commons
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts

LOCATION:	University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia
DATE:	May 4-6, 2012
TITLE:	Dystopia and Global Rebellion
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts

LOCATION:	Loyola University, Chicago, IL
DATE:	May 20-22, 2011
TITLE:	The Global Crisis: Through the Lens of Class, Race and Gender
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts

LOCATION:	University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
DATE:	May 7 - 9, 2010
TITLE:	Global Crises and Beyond
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts

LOCATION:	Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida
DATE:	May 8 - 10, 2009
TITLE:	Globalization and the Struggle for Peace and Human Rights
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts
ORDER BOOK:	Perspectives on Global Development and Technology Special Issue: The Global Struggle for Human Rights

LOCATION:	Pace University, New York City, New York
DATE:	June 6 - 8, 2008
TITLE:	The Nation in the Global Era: Nationalism and Globalization in Conflict and Transition
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts
ORDER BOOK:	The Nation in the Global Era Conference Documents

LOCATION:	University of California - Irvine, California
DATE:	May 17 - 20, 2007
TITLE:	The Contested Terrains of Globalization
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts
	Conference Poster (11" x 17")
	Conference Poster (8.5" x 13")
ORDER BOOK:	Contested Terrains of Globalization Conference Documents

LOCATION:	DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
DATE:	May 12 - 14, 2006
TITLE:	Alternative Globalizations
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts
ORDER BOOK:	Alternative Globalizations Conference Documents

LOCATION:	University of Tennessee - Knoxville, Tennessee
DATE:	May 13 - 15, 2005
TITLE:	Crosscurrents of Global Social Justice: Class, Gender and Race
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts
	Conference Poster (PDF, 993 KB)

LOCATION:	Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
DATE:	April 23 - 25, 2004
TITLE:	Globalization, Empire and Resistance
DOWNLOAD:	Conference Abstracts
In 2004 Brandeis University hosted the third North American GSA conference on Globalization, Empire and Resistance. It was a progressive conference embracing a variety of critical, and radical perspectives on globalization. Many leading scholars from all over the world explored the many effects of globalization-as well as alternative visions. Featured speakers included: Seymour Melman - One of America?s most respected scholars on capitalism and U.S. militarism from Columbia University spoke on ?The Permanent War Economy?. Leo Panitch - Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy at York University, Toronto, co-editor of the Socialist Register, and co-author of Global Capitalism and American Empire spoke on ?Global Capitalism and American Empire?. Sam Gindin - Packer visiting Chair in Social Justice at York University, Toronto, former head of research and assistant to the President, Canadian Auto Workers? Union, and co-author of Global Capitalism and American Empire spoke on ?Labor Resistance in the Era of Globalization". William Tabb - Professor of economics at Queens College, New York, Monthly Review contributor and author of "The Amoral Elephant" spoke on "The Global State and Economic Institutions". Jose Maria Sison - Former senior research fellow and professor at the University of the Philippines, co-founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines spoke via video satellite from Holland on ?War, Imperialism, and Resistance from Below?. Leslie Sklair - From the London School of Economics, and author of "The Transnational Capitalist Class" spoke on ?Globalization, Imperialism and the International System?. Edna Bonacich - Professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego, and co-author of "Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry" spoke on ?Labor, Immigration and Global Production?.

LOCATION:	University of California - Santa Barbara, California
DATE:	May 1 - 4, 2003
TITLE:	Towards a Critical Globalization Studies: Continued Debates, New Directions, and Neglected Topics
	> See images from the conference.

LOCATION:	Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois
DATE:	May 10 - 11, 2002
TITLE:	Globalisation and Social Justice
In May of 2002 the very first annual conference of the North American GSA was held at Loyola University in Chicago. Jointly sponsored by the GSA and the department of sociology at Loyola University, the conference theme was ?Globalisation and Social Justice?. It proved to be a highly successful event with over fifty papers and workshops, covering a broad spectrum of themes concerning issues of global social justice. The keynote speakers were also excellent and included Leslie Sklair, one of GSA/UK?s vice presidents, who played a prominent role at the conference as a whole. The quality of the papers was extremely high and they generated many hours of intensive and exciting discussion and argument. Academics from an impressively wide range of disciplines and research areas came from far and wide across the United States. However, there were also a number of speakers and participants who were political activists, such as current or former trade union organizers or people presently involved in various fair trade campaigns linked partly to student protests around the campuses of the US. Despite the clearly focused sense of realism among the conference participants concerning the vast problems of social division, social exclusion and conflict that are currently only too evident in the world at the present time and the anxieties about the quality of world political ? and especially American ? leadership, an encouraging atmosphere of guarded optimism in relation to the real possibility of increasingly effective alliances and political struggles against global poverty was also quite evident. It was gratifying to encounter quite a number of GSA members who managed to attend the Chicago conference including three from Britain, one from Canada and three from the USA. One of the key events scheduled at the conference was the inauguration of the North American chapter of the GSA. The first GSA branch or chapter to be established outside the UK. More than twenty people attended this special meeting and after some discussion the new branch was duly set-up. What was particularly encouraging was the number of postgraduate students who were prepared to become involved in helping to establish the new North American branch of the USA and, moreover, presence among these postgraduates and other participants who were people living in the USA but who had strong links with countries in Central America and South East Asia. They quite rightly insisted that right from the outset the new branch must concern itself as deeply as possible with the problems and themes of Southern peoples and countries if be a truly global association are to have any meaning. From the Global Studies Association Newsletter, Issue 2, July 2002 Paul Kennedy, GSA Secretary