Still the resurgence of class conflict?
Organizers
Still the resurgence of class conflict?
New identities, new interests, new worker mobilisation - A conference in memory of Alessandro Pizzorno
The labour movement, which had placed social rights at the centre of political struggles, has long been considered in decline: first, following its own success, with the apparent pacification of the class cleavage under the so-called Fordist compromise between labor and capital in the mid-XX Century; then, under neoliberal attacks, with a narrower role and influence. However, the Great Recession saw a revival of social and economic issues for social movements, and more recently the experience of the pandemic has seen the emergence of new worker identities (‘key workers’) as well as a surge of contention in changing labour market conditions. In this conference, we will reflect on the long-term trajectories of labour movements through a variety of crises and in the context of increasing inequalities. Fifty years after the end of the research project on that cycle of workers’ protests, Pizzorno’s theoretical and empirical research on labour (and other) conflicts is still relevant for the understanding of the rise, peaking and decline of class conflicts. In particular, his elaboration to the emergence of new identities and of new forms of representation resonates with parallel changes and innovations that can be observed today. The conference aims to reflect on both the works of the 1970s and the most recent research on labour movements to mutually enrich the understanding of both.
On Friday 17th November, 4:30 pm, the presentation of the book La maschera dei classici - Leggere i maestri della teoria sociale by Alessandro Pizzorno edited by Gianprimo Cella will follow.
Speakers
- Lucia Amorosi - Scuola Normale Superiore
- Bianca Beccalli - Università degli studi di Milano
- Lorenzo Bosi - Scuola Normale Superiore
- Lorenzo Cini - University of Cork
- Colin Crouch - University of Warwick
- Donatella della Porta - Scuola Normale Superiore
- Lisa Dorigatti - Università degli studi di Milano
- Roland Erne - University College Dublin
- Joana Hofstetter - Scuola Normale Superiore
- Richard Hyman - London School of Economics
- Guglielmo Meardi - Scuola Normale Superiore
- Chiara Milan - Scuola Normale Superiore
- Mario Pianta - Scuola Normale Superiore
- Philippe Pochet - European Trade Union Institute Bruxelles - Ciampi Visiting Scholar
- Ida Regalia - Università degli Studi di Milano
- Marino Regini - Università degli Studi di Milano
- Emilio Reyneri - Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca
- Philippe Schmitter - European University Institute
- Michael Shalev - Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- David Soskice - London School of Economics - Ciampi Visiting Scholar
- Lorenzo Zamponi - Scuola Normale Superiore
Programme
16 th NOVEMBER
Introductory session, 2:00-3:00 pm
Donatella Della Porta and Guglielmo Meardi - Scuola Normale Superiore
Still the resurgence of class conflict? An introduction
Session 1 - ‘The resurgence of class conflict’: mobilisations in the 1970s and the 2020s
Part 1 3:00-5:00 pm
Chair: Mario Pianta
Colin Crouch - University of Warwick
The 1970s: the beginning of the end of autonomous working class politics.
Emilio Reyneri - Università di Milano Bicocca
The demographic, economic, social and ideological bases of the great class conflict in Western Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. A coincidence of seven conditions that occurred only one time in the history.
Joana Hofstetter - Scuola Normale Superiore
“New frontiers of collective labour identities: the long struggle for sex worker unionization in Germany”
Part 2 5:30-7:00 pm
Chair: Daniela Chironi
Richard Hyman - London School of Economics
Occupational Structure, Collective Organisation and Industrial Militancy: 50 Years On
Marino Regini - Università degli Studi di Milano
Between sociology and political economy: Pizzorno’s analytical toolkit in the study of industrial conflict and trade union action
Michael Shalev - Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Mass mobilization by the numbers, then and now
Discussant: Lorenzo Zamponi Scuola Normale Superiore
17 th NOVEMBER
Session 2 - The politics and representation of labour in the 1970s and the 2020s
Part 1 9:00-11:00 am
Chair: Chiara Milan
David Soskice - Ciampi Visiting Scholar, Florence and London School of Economics, London
Innovation, Coalitions and Class Conflict in the Knowledge Economy
Philippe Pochet - European Trade Union Institute
European trade unions and climate change: a dynamic and complex relation
Ida Regalia - Università degli Studi di Milano
Labour movement: new problems of representation
Part 2 11:15 am-1:00 pm
Chair: Lorenzo Bosi
Roland Erne - University College Dublin, Ireland
Resurgence of class conflict but not on factory floor. Socio-economic protests in the era of the EU’s new economic governance regime
Lucia Amorosi - Scuola Normale Superiore
Intersectional labour struggles to overcome fragmentation. Rediscovering class at the intersection of gender, race, and age.
Discussant: Bianca Beccalli - Università degli Studi di Milano
Session 3 - What next for labour conflicts?
2:30-4:00 pm
Chair: Guglielmo Meardi
Lisa Dorigatti - Università degli Studi di Milano
Challenging solidarities: trade unions and logics of collective action in precarious times
Lorenzo Cini - University of Cork, Ireland
New theories and politics for working class organizing in the gig and precarious world of work
Discussant: Philippe Schmitter - European University Institute