‘In the Hold’ c.1913-4 David Bomberg (Tate Gallery)

This interdisciplinary colloquium, hosted by the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, starts from the proposition that neo-liberalism has intensified the capital/labour division producing a phenomenon of ‘anarcho-capitalism’, in which the flexibility of work in the “post-industrial” era disguises its impact on working lives. The colloquium is an engagement between law, politics and social theory. Its themes will be addressed from a variety of perspectives including the question of social rights, the identification of value, and the connection between technology, work and intellectual property rights. Through these perspectives it will investigate the ways in which the interaction between law and technology in the neo-liberal period has changed the concept of work and its legal regulation.

Date: 2 December 2016
Time: 9.40am – 4pm
Location: Birkbeck, Unviersity of London. Room 101, 30 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DQ

Programme:

9.15     Registration

9.40     Introduction and Welcome

Session One: Chair – Diamond Ashiagbor, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London.

9.45 Wageless Labour and Surplus Populations, Emilios Christodoulidis, School of Law, University of Glasgow

Commentator: Alex Colas, Department of Politics, Birkbeck, University of London

10.45 Value Beyond Measure? Labour, Social Reproduction and Alternative Valorisations, Donatella Alessandrini, School of Law, University of Kent

Commentator: Kate Bedford, School of Law, University of Kent

11.45   Break

Session Two: Chair – Natalia Delgado, School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London

12.00 Acceleration, Measurability and Competition: The Impact Of Technology on Intellectual and Manual Labour (Notes on a Strategy to Defeat the Hegemony of Anarcho-Capitalist Ideology), Teresa Numerico, Department of Philosophy, Communication and Performance, University of Roma Tre

Commentator: Jason Edwards, Department of Politics, Birkbeck, University of London

13.00   Lunch (provided)

Session Three: Chair – Henrique Carvalho, School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London

14.00 Copyright, Trade Unionism and Labour, Jose Bellido, School of Law, University of Kent

Commentator: Dermot Hodson, Department of Politics, Birkbeck, University of London

15.00 Labour and the Production of Intangibles: The Old Wine of Intellectual Property in the New Bottle of (Anarcho)Capitalism? Fiona Macmillan, School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London

Commentator: Stewart Motha, School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London