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HOW CLASS WORKS - 2006
CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

A Conference at SUNY Stony Brook
June 8-10, 2006

The Center for Study of Working Class Life is pleased to announce the 
How
Class Works – 2006 Conference, to be held at the State University of New
York at Stony Brook, June 8 - 10, 2006. Proposals for papers,
presentations, and sessions are welcome until December 15, 2005 
according
to the guidelines below.  For more information, visit our Web site at
<www.workingclass.sunysb.edu>.

Purpose and orientation: The conference seeks to explore ways in which 
an
explicit recognition of class helps to understand the social world in
which we live, and ways in which analysis of society can deepen our
understanding of class as a social relationship. Presentations should 
take
as their point of reference the lived experience of class; proposed
theoretical contributions should be rooted in and illuminate social
realities. All presentations should be accessible to an 
interdisciplinary
audience.

While the focus of the conference is in the social sciences, 
presentations
from other disciplines are welcome as they bear upon conference themes.
Presentations are also welcome from people outside academic life when 
they
sum up social experience in a way that contributes to the themes of the
conference.  Formal papers will be welcome but are not required.

Conference themes: The conference welcomes proposals for presentations
that advance our understanding of any of the following themes.

The mosaic of class, race, and gender. To explore how class shapes 
racial,
gender, and ethnic experience and how different racial, gender, and 
ethnic
experiences within various classes shape the meaning of class.

Class, power, and social structure. To explore the social content of
working, middle, and capitalist classes in terms of various aspects of
power; to explore ways in which class and structures of power interact, 
at
the workplace and in the broader society.

Class and community. To explore ways in which class operates outside the
workplace in the communities where people of various classes live.

Class in a global economy. To explore how class identity and class
dynamics are influenced by globalization, including experience of
cross-border organizing, capitalist class dynamics, international labor
standards.

Middle class? Working class? What's the difference and why does it 
matter?
To explore the claim that the U.S. is a middle class society and 
contrast
it with the notion that the working class is the majority; to explore 
the
relationships between the middle class and the working class, and 
between
the middle class and the capitalist class.

Class, public policy, and electoral politics. To explore how class 
affects
public policy, with special attention to health care, the criminal 
justice
system, labor law, poverty, tax and other economic policy, housing, and
education; to explore the place of electoral politics in the arrangement
of class forces on policy matters.

Pedagogy of class. To explore techniques and materials useful for 
teaching
about class, at K-12 levels, in college and university courses, and in
labor studies and adult education courses.

How to submit proposals for How Class Works – 2006 Conference

Proposals for presentations must include the following information: a)
title; b) which of the seven conference themes will be addressed; c) a
maximum 250 word summary of the main points, methodology, and slice of
experience that will be summed up; d) relevant personal information
indicating institutional affiliation (if any) and what training or
experience the presenter brings to the proposal; e) presenter's name,
address, telephone, fax, and e-mail address. A person may present in at
most two conference sessions. To allow time for discussion, sessions 
will
be limited to three twenty-minute or four fifteen-minute principal
presentations. Sessions will not include official discussants.

Proposals for sessions are welcome. A single session proposal must 
include
proposal information for all presentations expected to be part of it, as
detailed above, with some indication of willingness to participate from
each proposed session member.

Submit proposals as hard copy by mail to the How Class Works  - 2006
Conference, Center for Study of Working Class Life, Department of
Economics, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384 or as an e-mail attachment 
to
<[log in to unmask]>.

Timetable:  Proposals must be postmarked by December 15, 2005.
Notifications will be mailed on January 17, 2006. The conference will be
at SUNY Stony Brook June 8- 10, 2006.  Conference registration and 
housing
reservations will be possible after February 15, 2006. Details and 
updates
will be posted at http://www.workingclass.sunysb.edu.

Conference coordinator:
Michael Zweig
Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life
Department of Economics
SUNY
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384
631.632.7536
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