Labor Studies Division
Summer 2019 Newsletter
Gillian Niebrugge-Brantley, Chair
Melanie Borstad, Editor


A WORD FROM THE CHAIR
      
      This will be my last message as Chair; I want to thank you for giving me this opportunityÑeven if in many cases it was only by not voting against me in the election two years ago; this has been a genuine growth experience and in nearly all ways a very happy one.  Most especially it is happy because my original impressions of two peopleÑHector Delgado and Michele KoontzÑas exceptionally able and ethical individualsÑwas confirmed again and again at a closer range than I had had before, and because I met so many dedicated and creative scholars truly concerned about the place of work in individual and collective human life. 
      
      The best thing the Division accomplished in my time as Chair was acting to create the structure of a two-person leadership teamÑa Chair and Vice Chair who would be selected from graduate students or post-docs.  Our new Chair is Jackie Zalewski (West Chester University of Pennsylvania) and Vice Chair Todd Vachon (Rutgers University).  I think this action doesnÕt just double, but triple or quadruple the DivisionÕs ability to respond to opportunities.  I believe this change will sow rich dividends for the Division; please do your part by attending the Division meeting Annual Meeting Friday, August 9, 4:30-6:10 p.m. Grand Ballroom where we will symbolically speaking pass the gave to this new team.
      
      The thing that we did not achieve and that I believe SSSP needs to mount a full effort on is more public visibility.  SSSP members are generating important research and analysis but it is not becoming part of a public sociology.  My concern over this moved me to nominate Noreen Sugrue, a past chair of the Division, as a candidate for SSSP President because Noreen is a fount of ideas for how we can effectively reach a broader public and an audience of policy makers.  I was also pleased that in his candidate statement, Section member Corey Dolgon expressed a similar concernÑand we reproduce his statement at the end of  this newsletter.
      
      I hope many of you will participate in the Division by suggesting sessions you would like to see at next yearÕs meetingÑyou can do this by writing our new Chair Jacqueline Zalewski or vice chair Todd Vachon (see below for emails).  For me a key issue I would like to see us address is the inherent but usually unacknowledged conflict between ideals of Òthe dignity of workÓ and the emphasis on Òupward mobilityÓ that is part of nearly every political candidateÕs interpretation of their own biography.  Even my personal choice, Elizabeth Warren, praises work while arguing that at one point of family crisis her father could Òonly get a job as a janitor.Ó  
      
      Every time I hear that disclaimerÑmy dad or my mom Òwas onlyÓ--I wonder how does that sound to somebody who is a janitor or whose dad or mom is a janitor.  I was raised in a family that held to the ideals of Òthe dignity of workÓ and that the measure of a person is their ability to do their best in whatever station they find themselves; my grandmother was a hospital cleaning woman, my parents rose up the proverbial ladder as part of the post-WWII prosperity that raised the living standard of so many Americans, and I also worked as a cleaning woman when I was in college.  One may want more pay or an easier way to earn a living but the work of being a janitor is absolutely essential and can be rewarding:  there is a real pleasure in getting something genuinely clean; the work is demeaning only when one is paid poorly for it or is made to do it under circumstances that make Ògenuinely cleanÓ a hopeless ideal.  
      
      I think we need to stop talking about many jobsÑusually manual laborÑas merely waystations on the way to something better, or things someone did in order to prepare the way for the child (who now speaks to us as an adult office seeker).  The dignity of work rests on the understanding of the deeply material bases on which we all build our lives. Our focus should be on paying people for the work they do, not on building a society where essential work is demeaned as Òjust something one does while planning on something better.Ó 
      
      Finally, a special thank you goes to Valerie Adrian and Melanie Borstad for their careful and cheerful service as newsletter editors and social media monitors
       
Best to you all, in solidarity, Gillian ÒJillÓ Niebrugge-Brantley

OPPORTUNITIES TO INFLUENCE DIVISION ACTIVITIES

> The first big chance is right now:  if you have an idea for a session that you would like Labor Studies to sponsor in 2020 (each Division gets 10 sessionsÑthree on our own, one thematic, and six shared with another Division), please write incoming chair Jackie Zalewski, jzalewski@wcupa.edu
> Second, attend the Division Meeting and let us know what you would think are the important labor issues that the Division should be addressing.

STATE OF THE DIVISION

      The Labor Studies Division as of  June 29, 2019 has 134 members (a slight gain over the 124 members we had at the time of the Spring Newsletter 2018).  For the 2019 Annual Meeting In the past year, the Division has prepared a full slate of ten sessions (SSSP awards each Division three autonomous paper sessions and up to seven paper sessions co-sponsored with other Divisions).  This slate rests on the diligent work of people who proposed sessions and people who volunteered to administer sessions, frequently going the extra mile to find papers to complete panels or to create additional sections of a session to accommodate papers.  Their names are listed in the summary of Labor Studies sessions at the end of this newsletterÑcheck it out.
Ê	
This yearÕs Harry Braverman Award Committee of Tracy Dietz (Chair), Melanie Bush, and Manjusha Nair, reviewed four submissions: 
      Anthony Huaqui, University of Massachusetts Ð Amherst, ÒTowards a critical Theoretical Framework of Worker ResistanceÓ
      Foster Kamanga, Kansas State University, ÒFDI Inflow and Gender Employment Inequality in Global South: A Cross-regional and Sectoral AnalysisÓ
      Sarah Mosseri, University of Virginia, ÒCommunions of Crisis:Ê Trust in the Context of Work InsecurityÓ
      Andrew Wolf, University of Wisconsin-Madison, ÒPassive Privatization: Understanding Urban Regulatory Response Ð or lack thereof Ð to the Uberization of the American CityÓ
The committee selected as winner Andrew Wolf  who is presenting his paper in Session 151:ÊChanges in Workers' Rights organized by Melanie Borstad and Cassandra Engeman.  

MEMBERSÕ LIVES AND ACHIEVEMENTS.   
      Two of our members experienced especially significant transitions:  Corey Dolgon was chosen as SSSP President-Elect (2019-2020); President (2020-2021) and HŽctor Delgado announced his retirementÑthough he will continue to serve as SSSP EO:

      We take the liberty of sharing HŽctorÕs email reply to the call for newsletter items because it so reflects both the commitment and the modesty and humility that he brings to his duties as Executive Officer for SSSP.
      As of July 1, 2019, I will be retired (although I will continue to serve as SSSP's EO).Ê I just had a chapter on unions and immigrants (aptly titled "Unions and Immigrants") published in The Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies (Routledge 2019), edited by Steven J. Gold and Stephanie J. Nawyn. The culmination of nearly fifty years in higher education, both in administrative and faculty/scholarly capacities. My most important scholarly contribution was my book, New Immigrants, Old Unions: Organizing Undocumented Workers in Los Angeles (Temple University Press, 1993). It generated a lot of interest in and spurred research on the unionization of undocumented and other immigrant workers.
      None of the above is momentous, but if you need to fill up space in the newsletter, this could help.Ê
      We hope you all agree that this does much more than fill up space.

Corey ran on a platform emphasizing the need to create structures that will make SSSP a more vital force in the debates currently engulfing the US and the world; he wrote,  ÒI believe we need an organizational 3-5 year plan of how to better integrate our research and practice into the mainstream consciousnessÓ and that we must Òtighten up who we are as an organization and how we practice and communicate our values and our intellectual work.Ó  For more on CoreyÕs vision, please see the reprint of his candidate statement with which we end this newsletterÑit is a bracing conclusion!

And in what has been a banner year for him, Corey was named winner of the 2019 Joseph B. Gittler Award Òfor significant scholarly achievements on the ethical resolution of social problems.Ó  (The Award was established in 2007 under terms of a bequest by Joseph Gittler, a sociologist who in a 60-year career served on the faculty of numerous schools around the world, including Duke University, the State University of Iowa, George Mason University, the University of Rochester, Ben Gurion University in Israel and Hiroshima University in Japan).

Melanie Borstad, our newsletter editor, has graduated with her MasterÕs in Sociology from California State University Los Angeles this last May. Her thesis is a quantitative study using secondary data and focuses on how capital expenditures in different categories of technology impact under-use of time and wage variance within service sector industries. Melanie was recently hired at RAND Corporation as a Field Survey Specialist and will be working with the Survey Research Group while applying to PhD programs for Fall 2020 to work towards her ultimate goal of becoming a Data Analyst.
Eli R. Wilson recently published two articles derived from his six-year ethnographic research projectÊonÊrestaurant workers in Los Angeles: "Tip Work" in Symbolic Interaction, and "Portfolio Lives" in Qualitative Sociology. He is currently completing his book manuscript entitled Serving Across the DivideÊ(on contractÊwith NYU). Dr. Wilson's newest project is alsoÊunderway on labor dynamics and career pathwaysÊin the US craft beer industry.
Todd Vachon continues his studies of the complex relation between labor and the climate crisis, co-authoring three academic studies, writing two public sociology editorials, and being interviewed three overall times as an expert commentator.
Vachon, Todd E. and Michael Wallace. 2018. ÒRed State, Blue State: Neoliberalism, Politics, and Public Sector Union Membership in the U.S. States.Ó Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and SocietyÊhttps://academic.oup.com/cjres/article-abstract/11/3/519/5146442ÊÊ
ÊVachon, Todd E. and Sean Sweeney. 2018. ÒEnergy Democracy: A Just Transition for Social, Economic, and Climate Justice.Ó Pp. 63-72 in Glen Muschert et al. (Eds) Agenda for Social Justice: Global Solutions. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. https://www.sssp1.org/file/2018/Global_Agenda_for_Social_Justice.pdf
ÊHyde, Allen and Todd E. Vachon.* 2018. ÒRunning with or against the Treadmill? Unions, Institutional Contexts, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in a Comparative Perspective.ÓÊEnvironmental Sociology.Êhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23251042.2018.1544107
ÊEditorials
Vachon, Todd E. 2018. ÒWorkers, Unions Must Take the Lead on Climate Change.ÓÊStar Ledger, November 2. https://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/10/how_workers_unions_can_take_the_lead_on_climate_ch.html

ÊVachon, Todd E. 2019. ÒA Green New Voice for Workers.ÓÊHartford Courant, March 9.
Êhttps://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-vachon-green-voice-0309-20190309-iyqamuxtffd47jxabnwxqreqhm-story.html

Todd was Interviewed about the Green New Deal and his research on labor and climate change for stories published in Bloomberg Law, The Atlantic, Axios, and The Labor Press.

ÊÒGreen New Deal Is Likely to Splinter Labor Unity.ÓÊBloomberg Law, February 21.Êhttps://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/green-new-deal-is-likely-to-splinter-labor-unity

ÊÊÒGreen New Deal Would Reshape Blue-Collar Jobs, Training.ÓÊBloomberg Law, March 1.   Êhttps://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/green-new-deal-would-reshape-blue-collar-jobs-training

ÒNew Calls for a Climate Strike in the Face of Coming Climate Catastrophe.Ó Labor Press, May 19. http://laborpress.org/new-calls-for-a-general-strike-in-the-face-of-coming-climate-catastrophe/

ÒThe Think Tank Struggling to Write the Green New Deal.Ó The Atlantic, June 12. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/06/whats-green-new-deal-nobody-knows/591391/
Ê
ÒThe Struggle to Write the Green New Deal.Ó Axios, June 13. https://www.axios.com/green-new-deal-policy-writing-d299558e-bdd2-4557-a75c-4b047b12c08c.html 

LABOR STUDIES SESSIONS AT SSSP 2019
Session 026:ÊSustainability, Green Jobs, and Justice 
Date:ÊFriday, August 9	Time:Ê12:30 PM - 2:10 PM 		Room: Hudson Suite
Sponsors:ÊEnvironment and Technology Labor Studies 
Organizer, Presider & Discussant:ÊTodd E. Vachon, Rutgers University
ÒAre Union Members More or Less Likely to be Environmentalists: Some Evidence from National Surveys,Ó ToddÊE.ÊVachon, Rutgers University and JeremyÊBrecher, Labor Network for Sustainability
ÒEnvironmental Justice: Averting the Environmental Apocalypse,Ó AngusÊNurse, Middlesex University
ÒLabor Implications of Changing Environmental Consciousness: A Case Study of Single-use Plastics,Ó RyanÊRicciardi, George Washington University
ÒPower to the People: Toward Democratic Control of Electric Power Generation,Ó SeanÊSweeney, City University of New York and ToddÊE.ÊVachon, Rutgers University
Session 037:ÊEnvironmental Health and Labor 
Date:ÊFriday, August 9 	Time:Ê2:30 PM - 4:10 PM 		Room: Hudson Suite
Sponsors:ÊEnvironment and Technology Labor Studies 
Organizer, Presider & Discussant:ÊErin E. Robinson, Canisius College
ÒChild Labor in the Fashion Industry in Mexico,Ó PatriciaÊMurrieta and LeonardoÊA.ÊGatica, University of Guadalajara
ÒExpanding the Scope of Place-Based Environmental Justice Scholarship: Communities, Health, and the Workplace,Ó AlexisÊEconie, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ÒPower, People, and Progress: Just Transition and Environmental Justice Movements Aligned,Ó ErinÊE.ÊRobinson, Canisius College
ÒWhite Collar Locals: Ethnic Identity and Boundary-making in a Honolulu Government Workplace,Ó EliÊR.ÊWilson, University of New Mexico
Session 065:ÊWork in/and Family 
Date:ÊSaturday, August 10	Time:Ê8:30 AM - 10:10 AM		Room: State Suite 
Sponsors:ÊFamily & Labor Studies 
Organizer & Presider:ÊJennifer Haskin, Arizona State University
ÒCorporate Women and Public/Private Dichotomy: Problems, Solutions and Modifications,Ó SreyashiÊGhosh, Indian Statistical Institute
ÒHouseholds and Work in Their Economic Contexts: State-level Variations in Gendered Housework Performance before, during, and after the Great Recession,Ó ShannonÊN.ÊDavis, George Mason University and TheodoreÊN.ÊGreenstein, North Carolina State University
ÒParenting and Artistic Occupations: The Influence of Race, Class, Gender, Age, and Marital Status on Balancing Work and Family in the Arts,Ó AbbyÊI.ÊTempler Rodrigues, Missouri State University
ÒThe Valuation of Housework or, Where Have All the Housewives Gone?Ó JillÊNiebruggeÊBrantley and PatriciaÊLengermann, The George Washington University
ÒÔWe Practically Have No Family Time TogetherÕ: Work and Parenting Stressors among Mexican Immigrant Mothers,Ó GabrielaÊLe—n-PŽrez, Virginia Commonwealth University and AmyÊL.ÊNon, University of California, San Diego

Session 081:ÊOrganizing Labor 
Date:ÊSaturday, August 10	Time:Ê10:30 AM - 12:10 PM		Room: Riverside Suite 
Sponsors:ÊConflict, Social Action, and Change/ Labor Studies 
Organizer & Presider:ÊErin M. Evans, San Diego Mesa College
Description:Ê This session focuses on issues related to organizing workers across labor sectors. 
ÒDe-unionization within the ÔBlue WallÕ: The Declining Currency of the Union Voter Premium,Ó AmeliaÊL.ÊFortunato and JosephÊR.Êvan der Naald, The Graduate Center, CUNY
ÒGender and Organizing,Ó MaryÊL.ÊDungy-Akenji, Loyola University Chicago
ÒJob Satisfaction: Does Union Membership Make a Difference?Ó AntoineÊD.ÊRoberson, California State University, Los Angeles
ÒMaking Space: Space and the Experience of Work in Family Child Care,Ó KimberlyÊLucas, Brandeis University
ÒThe Political Economy of Exploitation in Global Seafood Supply Chains: Ecology, Power, and Forced Labor in Thai Fisheries,Ó TimothyÊP.ÊClark, North Carolina State University
Session 085:ÊTeachers on the Rise: How Educators Mobilized their Communities 
Date:ÊSaturday, August 10	Time:Ê12:30 PM - 2:10 PM		Room: Grand Ballroom 
Sponsors:ÊEducational Problems/ Global/ Labor Studies/ Sociology and Social Welfare/ Sport, Leisure, and the Body/ Teaching Social Problems/ Youth, Aging, and the Life Course
Organizers:ÊJohn O'Connor, Central Connecticut State University
Fiona Pearson, Central Connecticut State University
Moderator:ÊEric Blanc, New York University
Description:Ê Teachers across the nation have been standing up to governors, school boards, and union leaders, demanding higher wages and better working conditions. In the past year, these teacher/local struggles have focused on better learning conditions for students, including capping the expansion of charter schools within communities. We have invited teacher activists who participated in these strikes to join in a panel discussion regarding the lessons of these state-level attacks and the prospects for future mobilizations. The panel discussion will be moderated by Eric Blanc, a former public school teacher, journalist, and NYU graduate student in sociology, as well as the author of recently published Red State Revolt (Verso). 
Panelists:
Jenny Craig, Ohio County West Virginia Education Association
Ismael Armendariz, Oakland Educational Association
Rebecca Garelli, Arizona Educators United
Daniel Barnhart, United Teachers of Los Angeles
Session 102:ÊDisability and Labor 
Date:ÊSaturday, August 10	Time:Ê2:30 PM - 4:10 PM		Room: State Suite 
Sponsors:ÊDisability/ Institutional Ethnography/ Labor Studies 
Organizers:ÊJennifer D. Brooks, Syracuse University
Doron Dorfman, Syracuse University
Alison Fisher, York University
Presider & Discussant:ÊJennifer D. Brooks, Syracuse University
Description:Ê The relationship between disability and labor is complex and multidimensional. Disability can be viewed as both a discursive category, and as a social relation that is actively organized and coordinated through relations of power, similar to race, class, and gender. Thus, disability, as a social category, shapes how individuals both produce and consume labor. Structural and individual-level barriers to the labor market participation of individuals with disabilities have led to their dramatic unemployment/underemployment rates. This lack of participation in the labor market has simultaneously resulted in and maintained the belief that individuals with disabilities are ÔunfitÕ labor producers--furthering their occupational and social segregation. People with disabilities also rely on the labor produced by others (such as caregivers, personal assistants, family members, surrogate mothers, friends, partners, and others) to fully participate in social life. This type of labor is often unpaid and goes unrecognized. To examine the relationship between disability and labor, this session seeks papers that cover a wide range of topics including: the exploration of structural and individual-level barriers to labor market/economic participation, intersectionality, dilemmas related to consumption of labor, the unpaid/unrecognized nature of care work, workplace experiences (both of people with disabilities as employers and as employees), and how policies and texts* shape the experiences of people with disabilities as both labor producers and consumers. *We define text as both discourses (in the Foucaldian sense) and various other texts (collective agreements, codes of ethics, even mundane 'texts' such as bus schedules, computer interfaces, etc.).
ÒDisabled and Poor in the Bay Area: How SSI and SSDI Beneficiaries Work around and within Current Labor Incentive Programs,Ó KatieÊSavin, University of California, Berkeley
ÒImplications of ADA Disability: Examining the Association between Functional Limitations, ADA Disability, and Labor Force Participation,Ó JenniferÊD.ÊBrooks, Syracuse University
ÒPublic Disability Benefits as Harm Reduction: Income as Part of Complex Care Management,Ó ArianaÊThompson-Lastad, University of California, San Francisco, MarkÊD.ÊFleming, University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco, MeredithÊVan Natta, Duke University, SaraÊRubin, University of California, San Francisco, IreneÊH.ÊYen, University of California, Merced and University of California, San Francisco, JanetÊK.ÊShim and TessaÊM.ÊN‡poles, University of California, San Francisco and NancyÊJ.ÊBurke, University of California, Merced and University of California, San Francisco
ÒSelf-determination in Transportation: The Route to Social Inclusion for People with Disabilities,Ó JessicaÊA.ÊMurray, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Session 116:ÊCRITICAL DIALOGUE: #MeToo in the Workplace
Date:ÊSunday, August 11	Time:Ê8:30 AM - 10:10 AM		Room: Promenade Suite 
Sponsor:ÊLabor Studies 
Organizers:ÊJen Lendrum, Wayne State University
Tracy Lynn Vargas, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Presider:ÊTo Be Announced, TBD
ÒÔRighteousÕ Programming in Increasingly Fascist Times: Anti-discrimination Programs on U.S. Campuses,Ó WendyÊSimonds and RachaelÊMcCrosky, Georgia State University
ÒÔWhat, Was I Supposed to Give up My Career?Õ: The Working Worlds of Women in Casino Gaming Management,Ó ShekinahÊHoffman, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
ÒAccelerant: Risk Exposure, Media Coverage, and Organizational Safety in the Forest Service,Ó EmilyÊR.ÊHaire, Colorado State University
ÒGender in the Early ÔNew LeftÕ: Interpersonal Dynamics in SNCC, the Black Panther Party, and SDS/WUO,Ó SarahÊM.ÊHanks, The Graduate Center, CUNY
ÒSexual Harassment Narratives: Teaching #MeToo in the University,Ó KimberlyÊM.ÊMurray and BrianÊMatthews, Texas A&M University-Texarkana and JonÊD.ÊCool, Texas A&M University Texarkana
Session 127:ÊCRITICAL DIALOGUE: Neoliberalism and Globalized Labor 
Date:ÊSunday, August 11	Time:Ê10:30 AM - 12:10 PM		Room: Promenade Suite 
Sponsors:ÊGlobal/ Labor Studies 
Organizers:ÊLigaya Lindio McGovern, Indiana University
Noreen Sugrue, The Latino Policy Forum
Presider:ÊNoreen Sugrue, The Latino Policy Forum
ÒGlobalization and Empowerment of Women and Girls,Ó BarbaraÊWejnert, University at Buffalo, SUNY
ÒTransborder Precariousness: The Context of Precarious Employment in Mexico and the United States,Ó Mar’aÊVignau-Lor’a, University of Washington and DiegoÊContreras-Medrano, University of Oregon
ÒGendered Wage Disadvantages and South-south Migration: An Analysis on Argentina,Ó AidaÊVillanueva, The University of Texas at Austin
ÒTemporary MigrantsÕ Stratified Sense of Belonging: The Case of Textile Market in Dubai, United Arab Emirates,Ó Hee EunÊKwon, University of California, San Diego
ÒBecoming ÔNew ImmigrantsÕ: Vietnamese Marriage Migrants in Taiwan and Their Labor Strategies,Ó NgaÊThan, The Graduate Center, CUNY
ÒNeoliberalism, Militarism, and the Labor Movement in the Philippines,Ó LigayaÊLindioÊMcGovern, Indiana University


Session 151:ÊChanges in Workers' Rights 
Date:ÊSunday, August 11	Time:Ê12:30 PM - 2:10 PM		Room: York Suite 
Sponsors:ÊLabor Studies/ Law and Society 
Organizers:ÊMelanie Borstad, California State University
Cassandra Engeman, Stockholm University
Presider:ÊCassandra Engeman, Stockholm University
Discussant:ÊMelanie Borstad, California State University
ÒLabor Protections in Low-Wage Paid Care Work: Assessing New Strategies in U.S. Cities,Ó IsaacÊJabola-Carolus, The Graduate Center, CUNY
ÒLosing the Freedom to Organize Collectively: Tracing Stories of Labor Struggle through U.S. Department of Labor Forms between 2012-2018,Ó LolaÊLoustaunau, University of Oregon
ÒPassive Privatization: Evaluating Regulatory Response to the Uberization of the American City,Ó AndrewÊB.ÊWolf, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Winner of the Labor Studies DivisionÕs Student Paper Competition
ÒExploring the Role of Labor Market Intermediaries: Parallels between the Temporary Help and ÔGigÕ Industries,Ó AshleyÊBaber, Loyola University Chicago
THEMATIC: Session 163:ÊIlluminating Power Effects in Labor Relations 
Date:ÊSunday, August 11	Time:Ê2:30 PM - 4:10 PM		Room: York Suite 
Sponsor:ÊLabor Studies 
Organizers:ÊKyla Walters, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Eli R. Wilson, University of New Mexico
Presider:ÊEli R. Wilson, University of New Mexico
ÒThe Passion Paradigm: The Ideology of Work Passion amongst Young Professionals in the New Economy,Ó LindsayÊJ.ÊDePalma, University of California, San Diego
ÒRethinking Workplace Resistance and Power: An Intersectional Approach,Ó AnthonyÊHuaqui, University of Massachusetts Amherst
ÒGeometries of Power: How Emotions Structure Power Relations between Independent Service Providers and Customers,Ó TimothyÊAdkins, University of Illinois at Chicago
ÒA Lesson Plan for Labor? How the Teacher Strikes Could Revive the Union Movement,Ó JohnÊO'Connor and AndrewÊIanni, Central Connecticut State University
ÒMapping Privatization and Exploring Its Effects on Income Inequality,Ó NathanÊMeyers, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Session 172:ÊThe Future of Work in the Digital Age 
Date:ÊSunday, August 11	Time:Ê4:30 PM - 6:10 PM		Room: York Suite 
Sponsor:ÊLabor Studies 
Organizers:ÊEmily Coombes, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Jacqueline M. Zalewski, West Chester University
Presider:ÊJacqueline M. Zalewski, West Chester University
ÒAlgorhythmic Control and Consumer Redlining at U.S. Dollar Stores,Ó TracyÊLynnÊVargas, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
ÒInfrastructural Power over Creative ÔWorkÕ: The Labor Processes of Content Producers and Office Workers in the YouTube Economy,Ó MichaelÊL.ÊSiciliano, University of Southern California
ÒPlatform Capitalism and the Restructuring of an Off-shore Economy: The Case of Middle Managers,Ó DevikaÊNarayan, University of Minnesota
ÒPopulation Health and the Emerging Technopolitics of Data-Driven Care,Ó TaylorÊM.ÊCruz, California State University, Fullerton
ÒTechnological Development in Routine Task Industries: How Wage Inequality and Underemployment Impact Workers,Ó MelanieÊBorstad, California State University

FULL TEXT OF COREY DOLGONÕS CANDIDATE STATEMENT
Friends, Colleagues and Comrades: I have been a part of SSSP for almost 20 years. I was drawn to the organization while a member of Al and Betty McClung LeeÕs other organizational creationÑthe Association for Humanist Sociology [AHS]. But in both cases, more so in SSSP, I often felt the activist and social justice roots that inspired me to pursue sociology got buried by the professionalization of contemporary academia. The ÒstudyÓ of social problems led to sharing and disseminating research in increasingly upscale hotels to increasingly smaller audiences and then publishing in journals with increasingly smaller impact. 

In 2012 I decided to get more involved in SSSP to see if I could make a difference. I was inspired by A. Javier Trevi–oÕs Presidential Address on ÒService SociologyÓ in 2011. Trevi–o called for a Ònew ethos of sociologyÓ that emphasized a discipline with a Òmoral character.Ó Sociology, for him, needed to Òcreate opportunities for all of us, as citizens, stakeholders, activists, and academics, to play active roles in the amelioration of social problems.Ó For me, that meant not only continuing my community organizing and community based teaching, but also trying to encourage a more politically engaged discipline of sociology. In 2012, I became chair of the Teaching Sociology Division. 

In 2013, aside from leading the division and remaking the newsletter, I offered a pre-conference workshop on engaged teaching and learning. I had recently co-authored an article for the Journal of Applied Social Sciences linking the public sociology movement with the civic engagement movement entitled, ÒCivic Engagement and Public Sociology: Two 'Movements' in Search of a Mission.Ó We concluded that sociological engagement with political organizationsÑlocal and globalÑwere both Òplaces of struggleÓ that provided rich sources of sociological theory and action, as well as potential visions of what a more just social world might look like. 

In 2015 I was elected to the Editorial and Publications Committee and in 2016 elected Chair of that group. I worked closely with the Editor of Social Problems, Dr. Pamela Quiroz and led the search for our new editors, Annulla Linders and Earl Wright II. We also guided the most recent publication of the Global Agenda for Social Justice and our new partnership with Policy Press.

I have continued to present and organize sessions and most recently worked with Labor Divisions Chair, Jill Niebrugge-Brantley, to win a grant that allows SSSP members around the country to bring my Òsinging lectureÓ on folksongs and the U.S. labor movement to campuses around the country. These lectures have also been a part of my combining teaching and organizing with sociological analysis and creative, interdisciplinary work. 

I believe the organization has proven it has the capacity to study social problems effectively and produce scholarship with the potential to impact social policy and practices. But I want to be president to continue the recent trend (and perhaps recover the original intentions) of a sociology fully engaged in social justice struggles and in search of what President Luis Fernandez calls Òabolishing social problems entirely.Ó 

Aside from supporting the operations of the organization and the sustainability of our publications and annual meetings, I would like to take on four major initiatives as President. 

1) First, I think it is important that, as a professional organization, we practice what we preach and make sure that democracy, equality, and justice characterize the way we work, not just what we study. I would like to initiate an ethical audit of sorts with a group of selected members who will study the organizations policies and practices and ensure that we are aware of and initiate best practices and policies regarding things such as: labor conditions and practices for our own staff as well as the many organizations we partner with; sexual harassment and gender equity; environmental practices and related issues. I would hope that SSSP could become a model for progressive, professional organizations. 

2) Secondly, I would hope we can continue to build on our successful publications and promoting the work we already do. The last few years we have had explicit themes that challenge us as individual sociologists and as an organization and a discipline to be more engaged as public intellectuals and activists. I would like us to develop a strategic plan as an organization for how we might better publicize and disseminate the research AND activism that sociologists produce. I believe the journal, under Pamela Quiroz and with the excellent social media work of Kasey Hendricks and others, has started SSSP in effective directions. But I believe we need an organizational 3-5 year plan of how to better integrate our research and practice into the mainstream consciousness. I would like to spearhead this effort. 

3) While we tighten up who we are as an organization and how we practice and communicate our values and our intellectual work, I want to make sure that we continue nurturing a new generation of engaged, activist scholars moved by the simultaneous challenge of rigorous research and principled action. On the one hand, I would like to resurrect some of the work undertaken by the now defunct ASA committee on Public Sociology and join forces with groups like the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Civic Engagement [IARSLCE] and Imagining America [IA]. These groups have produced effective models and strategies for integrating community engaged and public intellectual work into the promotion and tenure guidelines at institutions around the country. We must support the work of activist scholars by making sure that institutions can evaluate and reward it effectively, not be prejudiced against it on bureaucratic or political grounds. 

4) Finally, and along these lines, the organization must be prepared to protect and support the increasing number of our colleagues who come under attack for doing engaged and activist work. We must develop a rapid response policy that enables SSSP and its officers to speak out and lend support to individuals who are threatened by hate groups or even by their own institutions who react to such intimidation by further punishing, alienating or stigmatizing those faculty already victimized. While rewards and tenure policies may help support and legitimize our work, we know that being an engaged scholar interested in both service and abolition will always be dangerous. As an organization, SSSP must be better prepared for the kinds of political struggles that are increasing and will only intensify during this period of creeping fascism. We must be prepared. 

Thanks for taking so much time to read a bit about me and some thoughts I have for the organization. I hope to be a part of bringing these initiatives into fruition regardless of the outcome of the election.



PLEASE SEND US YOUR UPDATES FOR THE NEXT NEWSLETTER 
WE LOVE RECOGNIZING OUR MEMBERSÕ ACHIEVEMENTS!!

Visit us on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/sssplaborstudies/

And on Twitter
@SSSPLaborStudies





1