The Global Transformation of Work: Market Integration, China's Rise, and Labor Adaptation Conference
Wed, 03/16/2016 – Fri, 03/18/2016
Janice H. Levin Building, 94 Rockafeller Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854
(March 17-18)
&
Rutgers Business School, Bove Auditorium - Rutgers Newark
(March 16)

*This conference has already taken place. Please use the information below for reference only.

The evolution of the global economy has entered a new phase. As national boundaries have become more permeable and businesses’ local moorings loosened, increasingly transnational competition has challenged labor market institutions, triggered political realignments and shifted firm-level tasks worldwide. Which strategies have they used to engage with shifting ideas, interests and institutions? What kind of innovations in the governance of work have their efforts engendered?

This conference launches a Center for Global Work and Employment that brings together Rutgers SMLR with the School of Labor and Human Resources at Renmin University of China. Given that China has been at the center of markets’ global integration, it provides an important entry point to a debate on transregional trends. Once China abandoned planning in favor of free enterprise and openness to global markets, it quickly became the world’s largest exporter. Chinese businesses have since built on dominant positions in manufacturing to expand their service offerings and overseas operations. More broadly, the country’s metamorphosis has supported broader structural shifts – including the IT-enabled modularization of global value chains, the expansion of transnational financial markets and the private sector’s turn toward self-regulation – which have in turn helped China succeed.

Paper Streams

There will be two paper streams at the conference. The first one focuses on processes of interaction among collective actors, while the second one examines stakeholder choices within the context of multinational corporations (MNCs).

Stream 1: Collective Action in the New Global Economy
Stream 2: Foreign MNCs in China and Chinese MNCSs Abroad
View conference papers.  

Plenary Sessions

Plenary sessions provide opportunities for conference participants to engage across streams and probe linkages between levels of aggregation.

Schedule of Activities and Location

Click here for the conference schedule.

Contact

For questions, please contact Mingwei Liu or Tobias Schulze-Cleven

Image of Logos for the conference on March 16, 2016