The theme of Women’s Worlds 2011 is “Inclusions, exclusions, and seclusions: Living in a globalized world”. Why? Where globalization and women are concerned, provocative questions abound:

• Does globalization include, exclude, and/or seclude women?
• As global hierarchies realign, how are gender roles and identities evolving?
• How are social identifications like power, privilege, citizenship, and nation affected?

Ours is an increasingly integrated world – one where boundaries are shifting under growing flows of capital, goods, power … and people. Who and where we are as individuals and communities becomes less clear within this contemporary, globalized context.

Around the world, women are grappling with changing political, cultural, economic, social, and environmental realities. And the effects of numerous crises – be they economic, ecological, or health-related – intensify obstacles to women’s equality.

Globalization has contributed to the destabilization and marginalization of women and communities. Yet certain consequences have yielded positive results for women. Globalization has meant enhanced communications and organizing – trans-national connectivity that must be deepened as women’s organizations and networks struggle to sustain themselves and maintain resilience in the face of forces that oppose women's equality.

Women’s Worlds 2011 will be a place for the exploration of these complex matters through reflection, learning, and sharing a variety of ideas and experiences – especially those of women most deeply affected.

The conference will take place on the downtown campus of Concordia University in the heart of multilingual, multiethnic Montreal, in the midst of a multitude of cafes, bookstores, restaurants, boutiques, museums, art galleries, B&Bs, and hotels. Concordia is also not far removed Montreal's three other universities: McGill, Montreal, and UQAM (University of Quebec in Montreal). It is also walking distance or a short metro or bus ride to the Old City, the well-restored centre of Canada second oldest cities and one of the oldest urban centers in North America.

Sessions begins on Friday, June 29th with the opening reception the evening of June 28th.

Paper and session proposals on different themes and perspectives are most welcome.  We welcome your online submissions!  All submissions should be approximately 250 words.  In addition, you submission should contain your affiliation and contact information.  Please specify if you are a graduate student.

All submissions should be sent to:  morris.altman@vuw.ac.nz. The subject line should read ASE Montreal Conf 2010 sub (surname of submitter) i.e.:  ASE Montreal Conf 2010 Sub (Altman).

The deadline for submissions if February 1, 2010.  You will notified by February 28, 2010, whether or not your submission has been accepted for presentations.

All sessions will take place at Concordia University, downtown campus.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Professor Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
Graduate Program in International Affairs
The New School

Prior to coming to the New School, she was a Research Fellow at Harvard
University's Kennedy School of Government.
From 1995 to 2004, she was director of the UNDP Human Development Reports.
Founder and Editor of the Journal of Human Development
On the editorial board of Feminist Economics.

Professor Pierre Fortin
Department of Economics

Université de Québec a Montréal (UQAM) His research interests include wage and price dynamics, economic fluctuations and growth, adolescent behaviour, taxation, fiscal and monetary policies, social policy and population economics. He is now particularly interested in Identity, Social Interactions and Well-Being.

In 1995 he was recently selected by the Quebec Association of Business Economists as "the most influential Quebec economist of the last decade".
He is a past President of the Canadian Economics Association.

 

The Canadian Worker Co-op Federation ("CWCF") is pleased to announce its 2009 national Conference: operations

• The focus at the 2009 CWCF Conference will be on practical training and sharing which will be highly relevant for worker co-ops. An additional focus this year will be on how worker co-ops can be part of the solution, survive and even thrive in times of economic crisis such as the current period, as well as in the face of environmental crisis. Last but not least, we will focus on having fun: WC Trade Fair, WC Jam Session, time for socializing together, etc.
• Keynote speaker will be Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, who has stated that one of the three most influential people in her life was Moses Coady, founder of the Antigonish Co-operative Movement.
• Video link from the CICOPA Conference occurring in Geneva, Switzerland, sharing information on what's happening with worker co-ops internationally. (CICOPA in the international worker co-op federation.)
• Focus on welcoming a diversity of participants including immigrants, aboriginal people, youth, etc.
• Participatory training workshops, including "Worker Co-ops 101", and on various issues of relevance to running a worker co-op - for worker co-op members, co-op developers, and the general public. There will be information on resources available to assist in developing worker co-operatives.