June 25-27 2025 | Pre-conference PhD Day: June 24
University of Exeter in Cornwall, Penryn Campus, Cornwall
Submit your abstracts here
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Professor Al Rainnie, University of South Australia
Professor Jane Wills, University of Exeter
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In recent years the more dangerous and unpredictable international picture has (re)focused attention on place and geography as terrains of conflict, crisis and contradiction in industrial relations. The interlocking geopolitical, financial and environmental crises remind us that place is not simply abstract space or a social relation, but a concrete and physical location in which people and things are based and to which groups and individuals feel a strong sense of belonging. It is on this basis that place represents not just a context for conflict but an opportunity to change work for the better.
The pandemic and recent wars have led to a potential ideological shift from the prioritization of interconnectedness to the foregrounding of economic security and national sovereignty. Even as new forms of solidarity have emerged, international solidarity has been more difficult to sustain as borders have been reinforced or contested. In some cases, these geopolitical and geoeconomic shifts have seen the international division of labour reshaped by the reconfiguration of established global value chains. The place- based character of these shifts, focused on geographies of material resources and concentrations of capital and labour, necessitate a new focus on local and national responses to global processes of transformation.
Countries like the UK have seen the state increasingly take a new role with reference to economy and society – from a new spirit of industrial strategy to a new story about the role of work and workers in a changing world. The agenda of the new Labour government, from the Modern Industrial Strategy to the Employment Rights Bill, is emblematic of the opportunities and tensions inherent in this emergent political economy. In other cases, the withdrawal of the state or devolution of powers has created space for local and municipal forms of governance and impetus for place based innovations at improving working and living conditions of residents – sometimes on the basis of a just transition as in recent legislative innovations in Wales and Scotland. This has led to increased demands for programmes designed to provide better work in cities and regions, such as the Good Employment Charter in Greater Manchester.
This place-based approach is particularly important in the domain of green jobs. In some cases, existing carbon intensive industries are met with the prospect of job loss and uncertainty around the possibilities of reskilling. In others, areas that have long dealt with the fallout from previous rounds of deindustrialization sense the promise of good work in new processes of green reindustrialization. What is clear from recent political upheavals is that unless growth captured by economic indicators is felt locally – materially and emotionally – by workers and their families, other paths for the restoration of ‘past glories’ may prove more attractive. Industrial relations, therefore, has a key role to play in translating abstract industrial policies into concrete gains for workers and communities on the ground.
Whilst we are interested in the broadest array of papers addressing all aspects of industrial relations, the location of this year’s conference in Cornwall provides the ideal context to consider the specific consequences of place for the study of the politics of work. A historic nation whose mineral and metalliferous wealth put it at the forefront of the first industrial revolution, Cornwall began a protracted deindustrialisation before most of the rest of Britain and the rest of the world even got going and, crucially, before the institutions of the modern labour movement could imprint themselves on its class and industrial relations.
Having unevenly developed since, Cornwall’s place-based natural advantages today locate it at the cutting edge of another industrial revolution – net zero. Cornwall is founded in a unique granite bedrock home to globally significant reserves of tin, lithium and tungsten and sources of geothermal heat that could power the green and digital transitions. It also has in abundant supply the clear skies, windy coasts and deep waters that could underpin developments in space technologies, offshore wind and marine engineering.
These advantages cannot be detached from place. But once again there are no guarantees that any industrial revival will inaugurate a better or more decent future of work for a part of the world home to some of the most deprived communities in northern Europe and which harbours dreams of devolution and independence. As such, this very particular peninsula at the far west of Britain acts as the perfect setting to bring together the themes of geography and place in the future of work and industrial relations at a time of crisis and change, and to explore how strategies for good work can be located and grounded.
The organising committee of the 2025 BUIRA Annual Conference encourages submissions that respond to the issues raised above as well as all papers of interest to the field of industrial relations. A non-exhaustive list of potential questions that papers might seek to answer include:
- What is the impact of the politics of place on workers and their representatives?
- How do we build coalitions for better work within communities?
- How are industrial relations being shaped by geopolitical competition and contestation?
- How do struggles to impose and overcome borders impact upon work, workers and industrial relations?
- What are the implications of the reshaping of global supply chains for work, workers and industrial relations?
- What are the implications for work, workers and industrial relations of the contest to control infrastructure like digital networks and platforms?
- How do industrial relations relate to industrial strategy and industrial policy?
- To what extent does the local or regional level offer a basis for regulating industrial relations and promoting good work?
- To what extent do new imperatives by the state create scope for advancing the cause of workers and attempts to regulate for good work?
- What are the consequences for workers of increasing investment in industries that intertwine economic and geopolitical drivers, such as energy or the extraction of metals and minerals?
- To what extent can the green transition ensure good work?
We also invite papers that reflect on contemporary issues that go beyond the aforementioned questions, with particular encouragement to those who reflect on the policy implications and relevance of their work.
Key dates for your diary
- Friday 14th February – deadline for submission of abstracts of 250 words
- Monday 9th March-Friday 14th March – decisions on abstracts communicated and registration opens
- Monday 14th April – deadline for registration
Location
BUIRA 2025 will be a primarily residential conference on the University of Exeter’s picturesque Penryn Campus near Falmouth, Cornwall – conveniently located for an extended stay in one of the most beautiful and interesting coastal areas of the country. Beaches, coast paths and the lively port town of Falmouth are only a stone’s throw away. The conference dinner and dance on Thursday 26th June will take place at the famous Greenbank Hotel overlooking the River Fal, Flushing village and Falmouth Docks.
To showcase Cornwall beyond the tourist hotspots we have arranged two free but first-come-first-served field trips further inland on the afternoon of Friday 27th June, travelling by bus to two pioneering industrial sites at the forefront of the return of mining to Cornwall: Cornish Metals, a tin mine near Redruth and Cornish Lithium, a lithium extraction start-up near St Austell.
Accommodation
The standard registration fee includes bed and breakfast accommodation in well-appointed summer visitor rooms on the campus itself from the evening of Tuesday 24th June to the morning of Friday 27th June, plus lunches and evening meals – making the overall cost a relative bargain. You can find out more about the accommodation from providers Cornwall Plus. Attendees are also welcome to book their accommodation independently at a local hotel or B&B, some of which are detailed here.
Registration
In order to register for the conference you must first join BUIRA – if you are not already member please use the following link to join (£40 for current academics and £20 for PhD students and retired academics) https://www.buira.net/membership/
Registration will open on 14th March
If you are member please register with one of the following options:
Registration including bed and breakfast accommodation
Academics – members: £360
PhD students – members: £180
Registration fees without bed and breakfast accommodation
Academics – members: £210
PhD students – members: £80
Travel and transport
Penryn is around 6 hours from London by road or rail, so attendees are advised to consider travel options in advance of registration. If you come by car, free parking is provided on campus as part of the delegate rate. If you wish to take the train, the main line from London runs to Truro which connects to Penryn via a regular branch route onwards to Falmouth. As regards air travel, London and other city airports operate domestic flights to and from Newquay airport from which car hire, taxi or minibus services connect to Penryn. Once in Penryn, the port town of Falmouth is only a short distance away by bus, train or foot. More details about the campus and getting there can be found here.