News from Analytica

12th Occasional Newsletter October 2006
    
Analytica news

One recent and long overdue achievement has been the updating and relaunching of our website, now on analyticaresearch.co.uk 

IIt is not quite as fancy as the previous one but easier to keep up to date. Please let us know if there is any extra information you would like us to add or if you find any dead links. Having done most of the work on a PC with a dodgy screen, it was a bit of a surprise to see that the colour scheme was not at all what we planned, but I hope that it is at least functional. 

We have also upgraded our email system and now have new email addresses too (one the model: <firstnamesurname>@analyticaresearch.co.uk), but the old ones still work for the time being. 

WORKS project

The WORKS project held its first international conference in Crete in September. Watch the WORKS website http://www.worksproject.be for a conference report.

A report of the huge literature review we carried out in the project's first year is also now available, entitled The Transformation of Work in a Global Knowledge Economy: Towards a Conceptual Framework, a report from the WORKS Project, edited by Ursula Huws with many co-authors, 2006. It will also be published soon in hard copy.

We hope that before too long the glossary of key concepts that we developed as part of this work will also be online on the WORKS website.

Professorial lecture

The text of my inaugural professorial lecture entitled Begging and bragging: the self and the commodification of intellectual activity  is now available online at http://www.workinglives.org/docs/ursulahuwsinaugural.pdf .  Several people have emailed to say that it reflected their own experiences. The question is, though, what can we do about it? Watch this space 

New Journal

The first issue of our new international peer-reviewed journal, Work Organisation Labour and Globalisation will be published in December. It will also be available as a book, with the title The Spark in the Engine: Creative Workers in a Global Economy. The contents include exciting new articles by Andrew Nash, author of No-Collar: The Humane Workplace and Its Hidden Costs, Vincent Mosco, author of The Political Economy of Communication, Richard Shearmur, co-author of The Periphery in the Knowledge Economy, Bob Hughes, author of Dust or Magic: Creative work in the digital age, PLUS Armando Fernández Steinko on the political consciousness of new media workers in Madrid, Catherine McKercher on trade unions in Hollywood, Bettina Krings on gender and creative work in Germany, Leif Schumaker on working conditions in the video games industry, Ashika Thanki on racism in employment in the media industries ... and more. 

Yes, I know that in the past I have argued strongly against the way in which the academic journal has become institutionalised and indeed against the very idea of  peer review, so you could say that this ia a case of 'if you can't beat them, join them'. We thought long and hard before setting up the journal and the reasons for publishing in this form are as follows:

• the pressure on those with academic jobs to publish in peer-reviewed journals is now so great that most simply do not have the time and energy to do anything more than meet their targets. With this publication we can, we hope, help them to reach a broader audience whilst doing not endangering their careers.
• although each issue will also be published as a book, we thought that making it clear that it is in fact a journal makes it possible to avoid too rigid an editorial 'line' and opens up a space in which people can disagree with each other and encourage a debate
• by making the journal explicitly interdisciplinary (the editorial board includes distinguished figures from the fields of sociology, geography, economics, political science as well as people from policy bodies) we are deliberately stretching the concept of 'peer review' beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries. Our contributors are not being asked to write for us instead  of the normal discipline-based journals they usually write for but as well as these - to insert their ideas into a larger mainstream and encourage broader dialogues.
  

Our hope is that the journal will become a central reference point for people wanting to develop a broader understanding of the changing international division of labour, whether they are inside or outside academia.

For further information and details of how to subscribe, go to http://www.cybertariat.com or http://www.analyticapublications.co.uk  You can either take out an automatically renewable subscription, using PayPal, or pay for a one-year (2 issues) or 3-year (6 issues) subscription on a one-off basis using a credit card or PayPal PLEASE NOTE special introductory subscription rates offering very attractive savings on the normal price, including subsidised postage costs. Those who are still nervous about paying online can send us their order with credit card details or (in the UK) a cheque in the post for the requisite amount (see below)at Analytica Publications, 46 Ferntower Road, London N5 2JH, UK.

Subscription details for journal

Subscriptions for Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation are priced as follows. Please note all prices include postage:

UK subscribers: £25 for one year (2 issues) and £60 for three years (6 issues)

Subscribers in the rest of the EU: €55 for one year (2 issues) and €110 for three years (6 issues)

US subscribers: $72 US for one year (2 issues) and $140 US for three years (6 issues)

Canadian subscribers: $85 CA for one year (2 issues) and $130 CA for three years (6 issues)

Australian subscribers: $108 AU for one year (2 issues) and $195 AU for three years (6 issues)

Subscribers in the rest of the world: $80 US for one year (2 issues) and $130 US for three years (6 issues)

NOTE

All contents of this newsletter are copyright © Ursula Huws, 2006. However, you are free to pass it on to anyone for non-commercial purposes provided the text, including this copyright notice, is not changed. If this is forwarded to you and you would like to subscribe, please send an email to analytica@dial.pipex.com with the word 'subscribe' in the subject line. To unsubscribe, send an email to analytica@dial.pipex.com with the words 'delete me' in the subject line.

Ursula Huws