Half day debate and discussion: Celebrating and critiquing John Kelly’s Rethinking Industrial Relations

Wednesday 5 December 2018

Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change (CERIC), University of Leeds

It was just twenty years ago that John Kelly’s Rethinking Industrial Relations (1998) was published. It is one of those rare books to be found on many of the bookshelves of people working in the field of industrial relations. To reflect on the book’s significance, we brought together a number of researchers and scholars to create a special issue of the journal, Economic and Industrial Democracy, to both celebrate as well as constructively critique the contribution Rethinking Industrial Relations has made to subsequent studies of union organising and mobilisation.

At its heart, Rethinking Industrial Relations is a forceful and robust critique of the employment relationship and employment relations under capitalism. The book adopts a radical and Marxist perspective––not from the school of academic Marxism––but from activist and political interventionist perspectives, which explains why its interest has spread beyond the academy.

We want to push forward the debate and discussion we started in the special edition – not by repeating what was said there by its contributors but rather by asking scholars and practitioners to comment on the papers and to provide questions for discussants (and the audience) to think about future application – both in the academic and in unions and social movements.

You are invited to take part in this event and join us for what looks like an enjoyable and thought-provoking day in Leeds in early December.

Gregor Gall and Jane Holgate

Wednesday 5 December 2018: Leeds

12.00-12.05 Mark Stuart, CERIC director welcome

12.05-12.30 Why Rethinking Industrial Relations is worth celebrating and critiquing
Speaker: Gregor Gall

12.30-1.45 Unions and social movements – can they ever be brothers and sisters in arms?
Speaker: Heather Connolly. Discussant: Miguel Martinez Lucio
Chair: Gabriella Alberti

13.45-14.00 Break

14.00-15.15 What kind of ‘union organising’ is needed for union renewal?
Speaker: Ian Manborde. Discussant: Melanie Simms
Chair: Ian Greenwood

15.15-15.30 Break

15:30-16:45 How do workers articulate their grievances in a period of strike quiescence?
Speaker: Jean Jenkins. Discussant: Eleanor Kirk
Chair: Charles Umney

16.45-18.00 Reflections on rethinking Rethinking Industrial Relations
Ralph Darlington and John Kelly discussion facilitated by Jane Holgate

18.00Drinks

Contributors

Gabriella Alberti, Associate Professor, Leeds University Business School

Heather Connolly, Associate Professor, University of Leicester

Ralph Darlington, Emeritus Professor, University of Salford

Gregor Gall, Visiting Professor, Leeds University Business School

Ian Greenwood, Associate Professor, Leeds University Business School

Jane Holgate, Professor, Leeds University Business School

Jean Jenkins, Reader, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University

John Kelly, Professor, Birkbeck, University of London

Eleanor Kirk, Research associate, University of Glasgow

Ian Manborde, Equality and Diversity Organiser, the Equity union

Miguel Martinez Lucio, Professor, Manchester Business School, Manchester University

Melanie Simms, Professor, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow

Mark Stuart, Professor and CERIC director, Leeds University Business School

Charles Umney, Associate Professor, Leeds University Business School