News

A number of Digit researchers and associate fellows were speakers at the Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), held between 9-11 July 2022 in Amsterdam.

Professor Jackie O’Reilly, Digit Co-Director, was the SASE president in 2022 and delivered a presidential address, ‘Fractious Connections in a Disruptive Age’. In this talk, she discussed what fractious means and how we can identify and address the ways that we are divided or connected. She also spoke about coordination (and organised anarchy), control, concepts of anarchy and activism (as resistance), norms & values and theories of how change is possible.

Professor Vera Trappmann delivered a keynote speech prepared with Professor Mark Stuart, Digit Co-Director, on ‘Platform Labour Unrest in a Global Context’. They presented new research showing that platform worker resistance is growing globally, contrary to earlier predictions that platform-mediated work would make worker resistance less likely.

The following papers were also presented:

• Unions, Technology and Varieties of Capitalism: Divergent Trade Union Responses to Digitalization and Automation across the European Retail Sector – Dr Wil Hunt, University of Sussex, Dr Steven Rolf, University of Sussex
• State Platform Capitalism and the Sino-US Rivalry – Dr Steven Rolf, University of Sussex (also organiser of the session)
• Automation and the Fall and Rise of the Servant Economy – Dr Astrid Krenz, University of Sussex
• The Contradictions of Transparency That Surround the UK’s Gender Pay Reporting Regulations: The Case of Women Working in the Banking Sector – Dr Rachel Verdin, University of Sussex
• Digital Confidence and Attitudes to Technology; An E.U. Study – Dr Ann McDonnell, Sussex University
• Meet the Author session with Dr Charles Umney, University of Leeds
• Women, Work and Care through the Covid-19 Pandemic – Prof. Jennifer Tomlinson, University of Leeds
• Modern Slavery: Invisibility and Socially Exclusion of Female African Domestic Workers in the Middle East. – Dr Ayomikun Idowu, University of Sussex
• Digital Entrepreneurship on Retail Platforms: A Way to Formalise Employment for Young People in the UK and Africa – Dr Ayomikun Idowu, University of Sussex Business School; Monica Richards, Kings College London
• Job Queues Labour Queues: A Comparative Analysis of Employment Strategies in a Residential Care Facility and Luxury Hotel – Prof. Jill Rubery, University of Manchester, Eva Herman, University of Manchester
• Bargaining on the Frontline: International Case Studies on the Role of Collective Bargaining in Protecting Frontline Workers in Health, Social Care and Food Retail – Prof. Jill Rubery, University of Manchester, Dr Abbie Winton, University of Manchester Eva Herman, University of Manchester
• Women & Gender Forum Organisational Meeting, organised by Prof. Jackie O’Reilly and others, as well as a Women & Gender Forum Lunch
• Prof. Jill Rubery was a discussant for the Featured Panel – SASE Tribute: In Memory of David Marsden
• Prof. Jackie O’Reilly was the session organiser for the featured speaker Nandita Sharma (University of Hawaii at Mānoa) – “National citizenship and the Institutionalization of Postcolonial Racisms”, as well as – Activist Room: Making Space for Black Women Writers, and Featured Speaker Alice Mah (University of Warwick) and Joana Setzer (Grantham Research Institute, London School of Socio-Economics) – “Tools of Climate Mobilization and Resistance”, as well as Book Reading with Sharon Dodua Otoo – “Ada’s Realm”

Further reading

Conference website
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