Paris, 19-21 June 2025
Deindustrialization, which began affecting North America and Northwestern Europe in the 1950s, unevenly impacted various workforces. These groups, which have experienced mass layoffs and relocations due to globalization and trade liberalization, include both men and women, national and immigrant workers, and racialized individuals, some of whom have been replaced by lower-paid, less protected labor forces. This powerful movement gained momentum in the late 1970s and early 1980s, at a time when the labor movement was at its peak and social democratic parties held power, particularly in Western Europe.
In this context, deindustrialization profoundly destabilized the labor movement and left-wing parties, which faced an immense political, strategic, and intellectual challenge. This challenge arised from the disappearance of an industrial model that provided a framework, the crisis of countercyclical economic and social policies, and, last but not least, the erosion of their electoral base. Simultaneously, chauvinistic or xenophobic reactions, which traditionally accompany economic and political crises, have multiplied, aiding the consolidation of far-right movements that denounce the presence of immigrants, unfair foreign competition, and even local populations or entire regions perceived as burdens taking advantage of the social welfare system.
While some of these issues regularly capture media and public attention, it is clear that proper historical analyses linking these different elements are still lacking. The same applies to comparisons between regional and national situations.
The aim of this conference is to shed light on these different contexts from a historical perspective, and to rearticulate these contemporary phenomena to understand how different forms of deindustrialization challenge issues of race, immigration, and nation. It also seeks to explore how these processes transform the political responses that can be offered to these issues. Case studies focusing on a particular situation, territory, or group are welcome (in Europe and North America during the late 20th-early 21st century but also in the global South). We also encourage papers that cross categories, compare territories, or vary the scales of analysis.
Several non-exclusive avenues of inquiry may be explored:
Race, nation, and immigrant labor
Workforce categories evolve and differ from one territory to another, particularly on both sides of the Atlantic. In Western Europe, a "color line" analysis may not always apply, as nationality often distinguishes foreigners, some of whom may be "white." Therefore, particular care must be taken when using categories based on context and territory. It is also important to examine how these labor forces navigate deindustrialization, how companies or public policies may target them, and how these men and women at work respond, highlighting any specificities. Historical perspectives on the different processes of integration through industrial labor of immigrant populations and their descendants, and conversely, the phenomena of ghettoization partly resulting from economic and social difficulties related to deindustrialization, could be interesting and novel study themes.
Between powerlessness and action, between blindness and awareness: what responses from workers’ movements?
Labor movements, in their political, union, or even associative components, are very diverse and may follow multiple ideological traditions (progressive, socialist, communist, Christian, etc.). Their influence also varies according to periods, sectors, and territories, while some of their components may exercise power. These diverse situations raise numerous questions: What struggles are being fought (and with what repertoire of action and at what scale)? What issues are addressed and which are ignored? Which labor forces are prioritized and which are more or less neglected? What policies are adopted (job rescue? industrial policy?)
Populism, far-right, and deindustrialization
One of the most striking political phenomena linked to contemporary forms of deindustrialization is the growth of nationalist or far-right populist movements, especially in former industrial regions. Here too, numerous questions arise: Why is this phenomenon more visible in certain countries and regions and less so in others? How can the rise of far-right populism, rather than left-wing populism, be explained? The goal would be to attempt to provide explanatory keys for the establishment of nationalist and racist movements in certain deindustrialized regions: What discourses on deindustrialization are proposed? What relationship to the nation is expressed? What methods are used to establish these movements? How is the former working class viewed, and on what basis is the distinction between "Us" and "Them" made? Which segments of the working-class electorate do they manage to attract?
Practical Details
A selection of presentations will be published in a collective volume by the University of Toronto Press. Presenters wishing to contribute to this publication will be invited to submit their presentation text three weeks before the conference.
Please send your proposals (approximately 300 words) and a brief CV to deindustrialization@concordia.ca by November 5, 2024. Results will be communicated at the beginning of December 2024.