HRM students at the International Studies in Working Lives (ISWL) Doctoral Colloquium

The 16th annual meeting of the International Studies in Working Lives (ISWL) summer school was held in Paris from September 13-15 at the University D'Evry, Paris. Strathclyde is one of the leading partners in this unique International Doctoral School, bringing together sociologists, social psychologists, economists and historians, and has been supported by the SBS for the last four years.

Doctoral students Douglas Martin, Mhari Wallace, Rachelle Pascoe-Deslauriers and Andrew Bratton from the Department of Human Resource Management all made presentations of their research to great acclaim. They were supported by Dr Kirsty Newsome and Professor Paul Stewart from the Department. The ISWL team are preparing a bid for Marie Curie Internal Training Network funding for the 2012 submission.

Student experience is central to the ISWL summer school which brings together a range of doctoral students from Britain, Belgium, France, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Sweden to discuss their work on labour, work and the employment relationship in its many guises. Each cohort has come away with great motivation and confidence inspired by a range of encounters with students and staff from other European contexts. This year's key address presentation was given by Michael Burawoy, Sociologist and President of the International Sociological Association.

Rachelle Pascoe-Deslauriers said, "The conference as a whole provided an opportunity to gain initial experience of presenting my own research, to gather and contribute to peer feedback and to situate my own project within the research trends in pan-European labour studies."