We are delighted to extend an invitation to our final ERU seminar of this academic year, featuring the work of Dr. Jonathan Preminger on “Nationalist Industrial Relations and the Ethnic ‘Other’: A Critical Border Studies Perspective.” Please find below the event details and an abstract of the presentation.
Event Details:
ERU Seminar: “Nationalist Industrial Relations and the Ethnic ‘Other’: A Critical Border Studies Perspective”
Date: 14th June
Time: 12:30 BST
Location: Room 0.22/3 PTC0.22/3 PTC (in-person) and Online (zoom)
Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Preminger
Abstract:
Based on the initial findings of an ongoing research project, this paper will argue that concepts and perspectives from critical border studies can provide crucial insights into the employment relations of noncitizen workers. Where industrial relations scholars focus on the response of ‘national’ institutions to migrants, and studies of global value chains focus on differential power resources and representation for worker groups in disparate countries, critical border studies draw our attention not only to the constitutive process of passing through borders but also the politics of being in borderlands. The employment of noncitizen Palestinians by Israelis is an ideal case for exploring this approach: constrained by myriad shifting borders, both physical and legal; able to access different organisations; and regulated by various institutions; Palestinian workers find themselves permanently in unstable borderlands, negotiating and renegotiating their position vis-à-vis employers and the state. Thus, going beyond common perspectives on migrant labour, the paper discusses multiple, contradictory, changing and contested borders and border spaces, with their rules inconsistently applied, as they impact the ethnic ‘other’.

Jonathan Preminger is senior lecturer in Management, Organisation and Employment at Cardiff Business School and author of Labor in Israel: Beyond Nationalism and Neoliberalism (ILR Press, 2018). His research interests include employment relations, trade unionism, the sociology of work, and employee ownership. Jonathan is a member of the Associate Board of Work, Employment and Society, and co-convener for the Work, Employment and Economic Life study group in the British Sociological Association.
For those attending in person, we are pleased to inform you that tea/coffee and cake will be available. Those participating online can follow this link to register: https://cardiff.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIufuuqqT8rHtLt0MSMLzt3nwBvMav00SV8