The Fourth International Conference on Strikes and Social Conflicts will be held at the University of São Paulo in July 10-13, 2018. Its purpose is to discuss the proliferation of protests in contexts of capitalist crisis. In these contexts, the articulation between labor conflicts and other social conflicts becomes more evident; Ethnic, gender and generational issues become more complex and renew interest in collective mobilizations, carrying theoretical and analytical challenges to researchers.
The relationship between crisis and protest is not only established in the present but goes back to the past and points to the future. How do recurring crises of capitalism, which not only have an economic but also a political and ideological dimension, impact strikes and social conflicts? In what way do they affect capital-labor relations, urban and ruraldemands, gender, ethnic and national identities, strugglesaround sexual orientation, or environmental issues?
These and other issues can be discussed from different disciplinary areas and theoretical traditions, covering a diversity of movements, historical times and territories.
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1. Working groups I.
Protests against the economic, political and ideological crisis
The relationship between protests and crises, past and present.The causes of the protests and their short- and long-term impacts in contexts of crisis. The main requests, the repertoires of collective action and the actors mobilized, on a local and a global scale. The popular resistances and the reactions of the right.The growth of conservative movements.
II. Urban social movements
The configuration of the city and the problems of urban life. Neighborhoodand housing (homelessness, squatting) movements, for the improvement of public services, against the eviction of populations, against the genocide of populations. The role of youth in urban movements.
III. Peasant struggles and rural mobilizations
Analysis of social conflicts in the countryside. Disputes over land and access to natural resources (water, gas, minerals, seeds, plants) involving landless populations, rural workers, landowners. The struggles against the expropriation and control of the common goods by the market.The reactions of the agrarian bourgeoisie.
IV. Ethnic and national identities and social conflicts
How social conflicts shape and transform identities over time. Ethnic uprisings against colonialism and "criole" oppression, indigenous struggles for self-determination, for plurinational states and land demarcation, black movement struggles for the recognition of civil, political and social rights.
V. Migratory processes and social conflicts
The impact of migratory processes on the social structure.The emergence and transformation of conflicts.Analysis of the dynamics of socio-cultural integration, the construction of ghettos, xenophobia, racism, etc.
VI. Sexual orientation and gender identity movements
The emergence of feminist organizations and discourses, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movements, their debates and their relationship with other social movements.
VII. The emergence and transformation of protest in socialist states
The experience of protests in Eastern European countries, as well as in other socialist states.Their characteristics and particularities in seemingly "classless" societies.
VIII. Social movements and political change
The interaction between social movements and political transformations during periods of transition from dictatorship to democracy or in revolutionary processes.
IX. Environmental protests
The struggle for the preservation of the environment, its relation with economic policy, with cultural traditions and identities.
X. Labor conflicts and trade unionism
Union conceptions and strategies, strikes and other forms of labor conflict, protests of precarious and disorganized workers, the role of women and youth in labor conflicts.
2. Rules for the submission of papers and important deadlines (read more)
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Date and place: University of São Paulo 10.07.2018-13.07.2018, São Paulo
Deadline: 30.11.2017
Contact: Raquel Varela / Instituto de História Contemporânea Honorary Fellow IISH (Amsterdam) Universidade Nova de Lisboa Study Group on Labor and Social Conflicts Av. de Berna, nº 26 -C 1069-061 Lisboa + 351 21 794 09 21 Portugal socialhistory.org/en/staff/raquel-varela http://ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/pt/ihc/investigadores/item/1242-rcvarela
Mail: raquel_cardeira_varela(ätt)yahoo.co.uk