Organizing and Protest in Political Crisis

Center for Work and Democracy Fall Conference + "Degenerations of Democracy" Book Launch

Date: Aug. 26–27, 2022

Location: ASU Tempe campus, Memorial Union, Ventana Ballroom (241C) and virtually on Zoom

Register here: https://na.eventscloud.com/ereg/newreg.php?eventid=702578&

The Center for Work and Democracy’s Fall Conference considers what can be done to preserve democratic society and improve conditions for working people in a context of authoritarian threat, diminished political rights, concentrated wealth and violent policing. Many of the institutions that once amplified the voice and power of working people, such as unions and civic associations, are in crisis, while both political parties have enabled growing socioeconomic inequality and the erosion of citizens’ rights (though to differing degrees), even as they fail to implement technocratic or common sense solutions to pressing problems like climate change and declining life expectancy. What can organizations and activists do to make the world a better place in the midst of these metastasizing crises? The conference will bring together successful activists, organization leaders, organizers and academics to reflect on what has been accomplished and what needs to be done.

Keynotes by Marcia Howard (vice president, Minnesota Federation of Teachers; community leader, George Floyd Square; English teacher, Roosevelt High School) and Dave Regan (president, United Healthcare Workers West/SEIU).

The late afternoon panel on Friday will feature a book launch for Craig Calhoun, Dilip Gaonkar and Charles Taylor’s new book, "Degenerations of Democracy." Craig Calhoun (university professor, Arizona State University) will be discussing his and his co-authors' effort to come to grips with democracy's crisis, and Cedric de Leon and Stephanie Mudge will comment on the book.

Other participants include:

• Ruth Milkman– Distinguished Professor of sociology, The Graduate Center, CUNY; author of Immigrant Labor and the New Precariat (Polity, 2020)

• Cedric de Leon– professor of Sociology and director of the Labor Center, UMass Amherst; author of "Crisis! When Political Parties Lose the Consent to Rule" (Stanford 2019)

• Cedric Johnson– professor of Black Studies and Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago

• Rashad Shabazz– associate professor of African and African American studies, Arizona State University

• Stephanie Mudge– associate professor of sociology, the University of California, Davis

• Sheri Davis-Faulkner– associate director, Center for Innovation in Worker Organization, Rutgers

• Monica McDermott– associate professor, The Sanford School, Arizona State University; author of "Whiteness in America" (Polity, 2020)

• Heidi Gottfried– associate professor of sociology, Wayne State University

• Johnnie Lotesta– assistant professor of sociology, Appalachian State University

• Jared Abbott– director, Center for Working-Class Politics

• Sara Gia Trongone– PhD candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin Madison

• Benjamin Fong– Honors Faculty Fellow in the Barrett Honors College; associate director of the Center for Work and Democracy, Arizona State University

• Maria Esch– graduate student, School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University; research assistant, the Center for Work and Democracy

• Sacha Hillhorst– doctoral candidate, Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science

• Lisbeth Espinosa– field coordinator, Health Care Rising Arizona

• Ben Tracey– director, Healthcare Rising Arizona

• Benjamin Case– postdoctoral research scholar, the Center of Work and Democracy, Arizona State University

Email mcesch@asu.edu for more information.

The Center for Work and Democracy is a research center housed in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. The Center engages in research and education that contributes to understanding the politics of working people in the United States. We study protest, institutional politics, organization building, and the changing shape of capitalism in modern America. Director: Michael McQuarrie, Associate Director: Ben Fong, Community Research Director: Sujey Vega, Staff Researcher: Muriel Payraudeau, Postdoctoral Fellow: Ben Case, Activist-in-residence: Jeanelle Austin, Research Assistants: Maria Esch and Jorge Hernandez. Advisory board members: Craig Calhoun (chair), Mary Margaret Fonow, Rashad Shabazz, Scott Brooks, Cedric Johnson, David Rolf, Yolanda Bejarano, Rebecca Garelli, David Rolf, Miranda Nelson, and Cedric DeLeon. Faculty Affiliates: Monica McDermott, Steven Beschloss, Mike Selmi, Indulata Prasad, Eric Swank, LaDawn Haglund, Nancy Jurik.