Thursday, February 25, 2021 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM EST
Zoom Virtual Event
Make sure to join us virtually at the Cultural Studies Colloquium for a talk by Jamie McCallum, Associate Professor of Sociology at Middlebury College, titled "Labor's Forgotten Fight: Renewing the Struggle for Shorter Hours Under Neoliberalism."
Below is a summary of his talk:
"The annual hours of labor in the US declined for over a century, then began to reverse course, rising steadily since the 1970s. But this wasn't an even process. Scheduling norms became uneven and subject to frequent change, and many workers today, even before the pandemic, seek more hours.
This talk, based on McCallum's book Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work is Killing the American Dream, examines this historic shift and the possibilities for a labor movement to gain a greater control over work time. Such a movement was never just about increased leisure, but the right to organize a less work-intensive society. In his talk, McCallum will also draw on his recent research to consider how the pandemic might have impacted labor's ability to renew its original mission—shorter hours."
Jamie McCallum is associate professor of sociology at Middlebury College. His research and teaching interests emerge from both scholarly inquiry and activist commitments. His latest book Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work is Killing the American Dream is available now.
