Call for participants

Labour Transfer Summer School: Establishing links between research and labour activism 2nd edition
Buggerru, Sardinia, Italy,15 to 20 June 2023

The Labour Transfer Summer School (LabourTransfer) is an independent not for profit international initiative of global labour scholars interested in collaborations, synergies and knowledge exchange between academia and social organizations aiming at producing emancipatory knowledge on labour and social issues.

LabourTransfer gives students and participants a chance to exchange their research interests with academics, labour activists and trade unionists from all over the world.

The learning objectives of LabourTransfer are twofold:
1) to provide a new and sui generis learning environment for labour activists and organisers and for postdoctoral, doctoral and master students specialising in labour studies from different disciplines.
2) to create a global network of students, scholars, institutions, unions, and activists committed to the advancing of knowledge about society and economy from a labour perspective.

The following are the themes studied and discussed: global labour history, labour regime analysis, workers’ inquiry and co-research, technology and collective organization, workers’ control and self-management, sex and domestic work, trade unionism and global unionism, labour anthropology, labour law, Gramsci and labour.

Confirmed speakers for this year’s edition include: Mark Anner, Penn State University; Kate Hardy, Leeds Business school; Jamie Woodcock, Essex Business School; Liam Campling, Queen Mary University, Adrian Smith, Sussex Business School, Eleanor Kirk, Glasgow University, Maurizio Atzeni, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Patrick Neveling, Bournemouth University, Stefano Bellucci, International Institute of Social History, Cayetano Nuñez, Universidad de Valencia.

The idea of the summer school is that of conjugating research and relax. Buggerru, where the school is located, is a small lovely place by the sea in Sardinia. However, Buggerru is also symbolically important for labour history. It was a mining city where workers organised a boycott to demand better working conditions. In response, the army was sent in and three workers were killed while many others injured. That Sunday 4 September 1904 is still remembered today because The Buggerru Massacre sparked the first general strike of Italian history.

School’s attendance is free. Students pay only to cover hotel accommodation and meals (for the duration of the school) and transfer from Cagliari to Buggerru. This year’s total price is 450 Euros.
A total of twenty participants will be selected on the basis of a letter of motivation and a CV. A limited number of bursaries will be available for participants without institutional support, unemployed or in precarious working conditions. We particularly welcome applications from scholars and activists committed to research/activism transfer of knowledge, from or with research on the Global South and with grassroots organising experience.

Applications will be open until the 15th of January 2023. Selected participants will be notified of their acceptance to the school by the 22nd of January 2023. For further information and to apply please send email to: labourtransferschool@gmail.com