Researching work and learning: rethinking the centre, rethinking the margins

The Researching Work and Learning Conference (RWL5) will be held in Cape Town, South Africa in December 2007.  The conference will aim to provide the space for rethinking `work`, ‘knowledge’ and `learning` within a context where the global economy increasingly challenges the traditional dichotomies between home-life and work-life, between employment and unemployment, paid work and unpaid work.

In southern African, as in many parts of the world, the social and economic impact of globalisation is uneven and contradictory. A core of ‘insiders’ who form part of global economic networks, or have been drawn into new regional elites represents the ‘centre’; the ‘margins’ comprise a growing proportion of people who have lost their formal jobs and are precariously attached through activities in the informal economic sector, or are excluded as part of the unemployed periphery. In this part of the world, poverty and unemployment are the major social issues, compounded by the HIV/Aids pandemic. 
 
Growing inequality both within and between countries requires us to pose some questions anew:

what do we mean when we talk about ‘work’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘learning’?
who are we referring to when we talk about the changing identities and roles of educators and learners?
what are the key organisational and institutional sites that mediate learning and the production of new knowledge?
What theoretical perspectives might allow us to think more inclusively about work, knowledge and learning in the current global context?

The aim of the RWL5 conference will be to promote a truly global conversation about researching work and learning which enables us to rethink the `centre` and rethink the `margins` from a variety of countries and perspectives. At the same time the conference will strive to inject local southern African research issues and debates into the discussions, not in order to be parochial, but to deepen and enrich our understandings about `work` and `learning` globally.