Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YD, UK.
E-mail: ias@lancaster.ac.uk
Trade Unions in the "Information Age"
28-29 June 2006
Please note, this research programme has now concluded and these pages are maintained here as a record of the activities of the Institute for Advanced Studies.
Co-ordinators: Dr John Hogan (Hertfordshire), Dr Steve Fleetwood (Lancaster), Professor Peter Nolan (Leeds)
Developments in union presence on the internet, the routine use of electronic
communications and the sponsorship of practitioner and academic reflection
upon the possibilities and ‘perils’ provide clear indication
of future possibilities. There is now a widespread availability of communication
technologies that can be utilized at relatively low and distributed cost
and accessed in transit and from the home, with processing and storage
capacities that are growing exponentially and which can be readily deployed
for the receipt, storage, auditing, manipulation and broadcast of information
globally. Through intervention into these communicative spaces visibility
is greatly enhanced, allowing for the auditing of the performance of individuals
and institutions. The retention of memories and traditions that hitherto
had so easily been broken or lost is also placed within grasp as never
before. This drive to innovation can challenge established power relations
and be internalised within labour institutions by the adoption of servicing
and organising facilities which specifically address the need to operate
outside of the disciplinary constraints of hostile workplaces and which
recognise that the captured market of the occupationally concentrated
community is no more.
The workshop attracted a mixture of speakers including academics, editors
of key labour focused web-sites; trade union activists, and personnel
from the TUC. The meeting was supported by an on-line
facility to allow participation and contribution by those unable to
attend in person.
John Hogan and Steve Fleetwood are now looking for a publisher to produce a collected edition from the papers.
Participants
- John Hogan, University of Hertfordshire, Trade Unions in the “Information Age”
- Eric Lee, founder of Labour Start Labourstart and Internet based labour solidarity
- Chris Bailey, Founder and Co-ordinator of LabourNet The Liverpool Dockworkers' Strike 1995-98 and the Internet
- UK Fire speakers Firefighting in Cyberspace
- Roger Seifert, University of Keele, United They Stood: the story of the UK fire-fighters’ dispute 2002-2004
- John Hogan and Andreja Zivkovic, University of Hertfordshire, Fire-fighting in Cyber space: An exploration of Internet Use for mobilisation and democratic accountability
- Sandra Jones, University of Melbourne, Actors in Industrial Relations: A Networked Future
- Andreja Zivkovic and John Hogan, (2006) The Time-Space Dynamics of Communicative Practice: ICTs and Balkan Trade Unions
- Steve Little, Open University Business School & Centre on Innovation, Knowledge and Development, Social Movements and New Technology: A Challenge to the Existing Order of Business
- Paul Nowak, TUC, Unionreps.org.uk and the Union Ideas Network
- John Wood TUC: Using the internet to reach non-members
- Wayne Langley, Service Employees International Union, The Interactive Local – Union Organization in the Digital Age
- Alan Williams, University of Glamorgan, ICTs and Trade Unions: the case of USDAW
- David Beaumont, ICTs, Union Transparency, Activism and Bargaining Power: Lessons from the Frontline
- Craig Phelan, University of Swansea, The Knights of Labor and the Open Source Tradition
- John Hogan, Trade Unions and the Internet: Present and Future Prospects
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