Continuity and change in social contestation will bring together experts and activists to discuss how different types and forms of social contestation play or could play roles in determining how political and economic power is reworked and resisted in the workplace, market and international arenas.
The online event will take place between 15.00-16.15 GMT and will consist of a series of contributions by our speakers followed by a Q&A.
The speakers at the event will be:
Teodoro Criscione is a Ph.D. student in Network Science at the Central European University and a researcher of CCUBI-NetFi team at the Freiburg Institute for Basic Income Studies (FRIBIS). He is affiliated with RAMICS (Research Association on Monetary Innovations, Community, and Complementary Currency Systems) and IJCCR (International Journal on Community Currency Research). He is interested in community-led sustainable development projects, focusing on community self-reliance, empowerment, and resilience. His research is focused on social, community, and complementary currency systems.
Allison Gill is a human rights lawyer, researcher, and advocate. She joined Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ-ILRF) in August 2019 as the Senior Cotton Campaign Coordinator, leading strategy for a multi-stakeholder coalition to eliminate forced and child labor in cotton production in Central Asia, and to open space for organizing and workers’ rights. She recently took the post of Forced Labor Program Director. She will share her experience working with the global coalition against forced and child labour in the Uzbek cotton sector.
Tom Hunt is Deputy Director and Policy Research Associate at the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) at the University of Sheffield. He is a Senior Fellow at Unions 21. Tom is co-leader of SPERI’s Labour and Decent Work research theme. His research focuses on the changing nature of work and the effects for workers. He will focus on the continuities and innovations in the role of traditional workers organisations in labour rights movements.
Finn Lau, better known with his online username I want Lam Chau, is an activist from Hong Kong that promoted the so-called Lam Chau strategy, supporting the continuation of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Finn is presently in exile in London, where he went after being arrested during the 2020 New Year’s Day March and released. He will share the experience of Hong Kong pro-democracy activism and its influence on people’s everyday life in the city. Besides being an activist, Finn is also a chartered UK surveyor, specialising in infrastructure development and investment with working experience across Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK.
The event is directed to academics and PhD students from SPERI and the SPERI DRN, the University of Sheffield, the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership, and more generally to academics and experts in critical political economy and social/labour activism.