AS LABOR MARKETS BECOME increasingly stratified, the role of social rights in mitigating inequality is uncertain.  Some businesses may support a greater role for government in providing certain benefits, precisely to provide them with greater flexibility in compensating their employees. On the other hand, the decline of a broad middle class in many places may well undermine a politics that can help sustain social programs. Privatization in many arenas can also exacerbate the forces of inequality. The panelists in this seventh annual DCC conference grapple with these questions from both a national and global perspective, considering the obstacles and opportunities for preserving and expanding social rights in the contexts of the recent financial crisis, the increased mobility of workers across national borders, the growth of lowly paid service-sector jobs in such fields as domestic labor, and the emergence of “middle income countries” within the global economy. 

PROGRAM

9:00-10:30 - WELCOME and PANEL 1: "Labor Rights and Welfare Rights after the Financial Crisis"

Chair: Julia Lynch (Penn Political Science)
Antje Schwennicke (DCC Postdoctoral Fellow)
Jonathan Hopkin (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Discussant: Roberta Iversen (Penn School of Social Policy & Practice)

10:45-12:15 - PANEL 2: "Labor Migration, Citizenship, and Social Rights"

Chair: Rogers Smith (Penn Political Science)
Rhacel Parreñas (University of Southern California)
Martin Ruhs (Oxford University).
Discussant: Howard Chang (Penn Law School)

1:30-3:00 - PANEL 3: "The Social Rights of Domestic Labor"

Chair: Mark Stern (Penn School of Social Policy and Practice)
Jennifer Klein (Yale University)
Premilla Nadasen (Barnard College)
Discussant: Robin Leidner (Penn Sociology)

3:15-5:00 - PANEL 4: "Social Rights and Labor in Middle Income Countries"

Chair: Emily Hannum (Penn Sociology)
Rina Agarwala (Johns Hopkins University)
Richard Locke (Brown University)
Discussant: Devesh Kapur (Penn Political Science)