Shared Goals, Diverse Approaches: Methodological Pluralism in Labor Studies

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

While historically a core topic in social inquiry across disciplines, studies of labor and trade union politics rarely take center stage in methodological debates within the discipline of political science. Despite this, labor studies remains one of the most heterogenous and diverse research agendas with regards to methodological and epistemological commitments. This panel includes a series of papers highlighting the diversity and complementarity of approaches to labor studies within political science and related fields. Katerina Manevska will present ongoing research using quantitative analyses to assess the relationship between workers' political behavior and employee voice in the Netherlands. Biko Koenig highlights the benefits of ethnographic and interpretative approaches for understanding labor from “inside out,” drawing on his extensive experience with urban workers centers, political campaigns, and interviews in rust-belt areas. Ian M. Hartshorn addresses the promises and perils of archival research for the political scientist and addresses new and evolving sources of archival material at the International Labor Organization and the International Institute for Social History. Johnnie Lotesta uses case study and interview methods to cast a new light on dominant theories of union decline in the United States. Together these papers present labor studies as a thriving and pluralistic field at the heart of salient debates in political science about populism, social movements, inequality, political power.

Sub Unit

• Division 46: Qualitative Methods

Cosponsor

• Related Groups / Labor Politics

Individual Presentations

• Unions, Work, & Labor from Ethnographic & Interpretive Perspectives - Biko Koenig, Franklin & Marshall College

• Archival Research in Labor Politics: A New Golden Age? - Ian M. Hartshorn, University of Nevada, Reno

• Worker Voice to Political Voice: Quantitative Evidence from the Netherlands - Katerina Manevska, Radboud University; Agnes Akkerman; Bram Geurkink; Roderick Sluiter, Radboud University Nijmegen; Antonia Stanojevic

Chair

• Ian M. Hartshorn University of Nevada, Reno

Discussant

• Laura C. Bucci Saint Joseph's University