On June 1st, QMUL's Mile End Institute was pleased to play host to the launch of a new book by its Deputy Director, Tim Bale. Jointly edited with Elin H. Allern from the University of Oslo, Left-of-Centre Parties and Trade Unions in the Twenty-First Century is published by Oxford University Press and focuses on the relationship between the two sides of the labour movement in twelve countries in four continents.
With the help of the Political Studies Association's Labour Movement's specialist group, we were able to bring together the co-editors, several of the authors involved - including Jenny Jansson (who wrote the chapter on Sweden), Simon Otjes (on the Netherlands), Phil Larkin (on Australia) and Roland Erne (on Switzerland) - and some top-quality discussants, including John Kelly, Mark Wickham Jones, Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick and John Callaghan.
Discussion ranged widely over the countries covered and over the findings of the book's comparative chapters, returning again and again to the relative merits of the resource-exchange model they employ and the more norms-based and historical approaches taken by other studies. Whatever, there was plenty of healthy but always good-natured debate for the audience to enjoy.
You can find the presentations: Presentation 1 [PDF 1,225KB] and Presentation 2 [PDF 796KB] produced by the two co-editors, along with some pictures of the event, here. Anyone interested in the book, can find out more by going to OUP's website.