SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Notes of the Plenary Session on 5 December 2007 are now available.

See link under the Home Section.

 

 The Universities of the Western Cape and Cape Town,

invite you to diarise the

5th International Conference on Researching Work and Learning 

to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, 2 - 5 December 2007


VENUE:    Stellenbosch Protea Hotel
DATE:    2-5 December 2007


For information regarding Registration, Flights or Car Hire please contact


Tania Davids or Illana Kruger at XL Millennium Travel
Tel: +27 21 590 7900 
Email: taniad.millennium@galileosa.co.za or  illanaf.millennium@galileosa.co.za


For information regarding Accommodation please contact


Shannon Gaskin at Tusk Events & Promotions 
Tel: +27 21 591 1260 
Email:  shannon@tuskevents.co.za 


For information regarding Airport Transfers and Tours please contact


Calvin Johannes at African End Tourism
Tel: +27 21 913 7789
Email: calvin@tourassist.co.za

 

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.

Key Dates

Mid May 2007

Deadline for submission of abstracts – for guidelines visit the website.
Mid June 2007

Notification of acceptance of abstracts.
Mid July 2007

Submission of papers for refereeing (optional).  Where necessary, authors revise in September and resubmit for inclusion in Conference Proceedings.

Mid September 2007

Submission of revised and non-refereed papers for inclusion in Conference Proceedings.