In Exchange – Issue-6 we feature Q and A with Paula England, Professor of Sociology, New York University. Paula’s work highlights the Importance of a gender analysis. She was keynote speaker at the Australian Social Policy Conference last year, where she spoke about the uneven yet persistent nature of gender inequality in the labour market. In this issue, I asked her about gender inequality, work and family balance and the contribution that economic sociology could make in developing more equitable approaches to social and economic policy.
Mike Rafferty is well known for the report he prepared with Serena Yu for the ACTU: Shifting risk – work and working life in Australia. This report has been extremely influential in understanding the shift of risk onto individuals, from employers and the state. In this issue he discusses his current research on Risk, Retirement and Low-Paid Workers.
We profile post-graduate scholar Sharni Chan whose research examines the individual consequences of precarious work societies. Courtesy of Cambridge University Press, we also feature an excerpt from the recent book Market Society: History, Theory, Practice by Ben Spies-Butcher, Joy Paton and Damien Cahill.
This is my last issue as editor. After six issues the time has come to pass on the role. Over the years we’ve featured Q and As with Ross Gittins, Steve Keen, Rafael Marques, Andrew Leigh and Lisa Adkins.
We’ve highlighted the work of leading researchers including: Michael Gilding, Richard Woolley, Barbara Pocock, Supriya Singh, Mark Daniels, Grazyna Zajdow, Jo Barraket, Ben Spies-Butcher, Ian McDonald, Norbert Ebert, and Jocelyn Pixley. And we’ve showcased post-graduate researchers: Christopher Baker, Margery Mayall, Maarten Rothengatter, Ben Manning, Eve Bodsworth, Bagus Aryo, Zuleika Arashiro, Anuja Cabraal, and Paul Priday.
Courtesy of Scribe we’ve also featured book excerpts and opinion pieces by David Love, Kevin Phillips, Joseph Heath, John R. Talbott, and Dan Gardner.
Our newsletter has highlighted the diversity of work done by sociologists, economists, and political economists in opening up understandings of economic activity and phenomena.
It has been a great opportunity to showcase the work of Australian and international researchers and to promote broader understandings of economic phenomena. Thanks must go to Peta Freestone and Lee Glezos who were fellow editors over the past few years, to the contributors for their generosity in sharing their work, and to the readers and subscribers who demonstrate that there is a strong interest in sociological perspectives on economic life.
onomic Life Thematic Group seeks expressions of interest in a national symposium on the socio-economics of the mining boom in Australia, to be held sometime between September and December of this year (depending upon availability). We are interested in any research which extends beyond the narrow economic analysis of the boom. This includes research on mining communities, fly-in fly-out workers, Indigenous communities, gender and mining, and the political economy of the boom.
The 2012 International Association For Feminist Economics Annual Conference will be held next June in Barcelona, Spain. Submissions must be completed by February 1st, 2012. Submissions can be made through the
A reminder that the deadline for unrefereed papers for our session at the Society of Heterodox Economists Conference in Sydney is this Friday. If you have any questions please email Ben Spies-Butcher ben.spies-butcher@mq.edu.au.