ILPC 2027

45th International Labour Process Conference - Spaces of Work and Resistance

We are pleased to announce that the next International Labour Process Conference will take place at the University of Cádiz (UCA), Spain, through the research group “Transformations and Conflicts in Contemporary Societies”, and with the support of the Faculty of Social and Communication Sciences and the Institute for Research in Social and Sustainable Development (INDESS). On site activities will be held at the UCA Jerez campus. Jerez de la Frontera is world-renowned for its wines and wineries, its horses and for being the birthplace of flamenco art; but beyond that, city and the province of Cádiz have been historically a territory of vigorous labour struggles and radical forms of collective action. Reaching the UCA Jerez Campus is highly convenient for international delegates. The region is served by three accessible airports—Jerez (XRY), Seville (SVQ), and Gibraltar (GIB). Additionally, Jerez is connected to Madrid via comfortable, direct high-speed trains, making the journey from the capital just under 4 hours.

Abstract Submission
Abstract submission through the ILPC 2027 platform will open at the start of September 2026 with a deadline of 31st October 2026. Decisions of acceptance will be made by early December 2026. Paper abstracts might be submitted to the general stream or to special streams. Sumit your abstract here

General stream: Call for papers 
ILPC is among the most important global events for research, analysis, and empirical and theoretical discussion in the field of labour studies, the labour process and capitalist transformations. Each year, the conference brings together scholars and policymakers in sociology, business and management, industrial relations, organisational analysis and other disciplines to present their research, promote international collaborations and initiate processes of shared knowledge creation. The conference welcomes papers on any aspect of labour processes, labour markets, labour organising and labour reproduction. Illustrative examples of topics include:

• Labour process and other critical theories of labour issues
• Labour mobility and its implication for managerial rules and labour process
• Migrant workers and forms of organizing and resistance in the workplace and beyond
• Industrial relations, representation, and trade union strategies
• Labour process and reproduction process
• Power, inequality and labour market segmentation
• Worker’s voice, or silence, participation, mobilization and solidarities
• Skills, knowledge and labour process
• Gender, race, ethnicity and class at work
• Technology, control the corporation and autonomy
• Changing forms of employment relations in a global perspective (e.g. unfree, forced, informal)
• Time, space and the labour process
• Political economy, workplace regimes, global value chains and mobility
• Welfare states, social policy, and the disciplining of labour
• Gendered divisions of labour, digitalized care, and the green transition

Abstracts are externally evaluated and should be between 350 and 500 words. Key words should be given that indicate the focus of research and the methods used. The abstract should contain clear information about theoretical orientation, findings, methodology, and what contribution is being made to knowledge. Abstracts of papers that are concerned solely with theoretical or conceptual matters will need to provide clear information on how they address and advance relevant debates. We encourage contributions from the Global South and North.

Conference theme
The 2027 conference focuses on Spaces of Work and Resistance. Despite significant advancements in studying the dynamics of control and resistance within the workplace, the crucial role that space plays in shaping work and employment relations is often overlooked or taken for granted. ILPC 2027 explicitly seeks to ground the analysis of capitalist control, work intensification, and workers’ struggles within their geographically and historically situated contexts, challenging a-spatial or universalist perspectives of capital and exploitation. This perspective demands moving beyond the factory or office merely as a backdrop. Space can be conceptualised as a constitutive element of capital accumulation and labour relations. From a Labour Geography standpoint, control is enacted and resistance is articulated not just through organizational structures and technologies, but also through the production and contestation of space. This includes, among other things, the dynamics of global supply chains, the offshoring and re-shoring of work, the role of cities and regions in creating specific labour landscapes, and how digital infrastructure reconfigures the spatial dimension of labour control. 

Integrating a socio-spatial perspective into Labour Process Theory can help us to empirically examine how spatial management strategies —such as the creation of Free Zones, the subcontracting in the gig economy, or remote work— serve to differentiate and fragment the working class. This raises crucial questions about the social reproduction of labour and everyday life. How does the geographical distance between home and workplace, or the nature of urban versus rural environments, impact workers; capacity to build solidarity and mount resistance? We also seek to explore the role of borders, both national and symbolic, in the commodification of migrant labour and how workers’ struggles become territorialized in response to the spatial hegemony of capital. The 2027 ILPC welcomes papers that critically explore the interconnections between space and the labour process across a wide range of topics, including precarious work and housing, community unionism, cross-border labour mobilizations, the political ecology of work, the multi-scalarity of organising, and the spatial impact of new technologies on the job. This conference aims to generate a vibrant dialogue that strengthens the future of critical labour studies research, addressing how space not only constrains but also creates new opportunities for workers; resistance and emancipation.

Special Stream Announcement
This year’s conference there will be special streams on the following topics:

• Strikes, Labour Organisations and Strategic Knowledge: Data, Power and Worker Mobilisation
• Spaces of Care Work: Control, Agency and Resistance
• Challenges of integrating labour control and workplace regime perspectives. Applications to migrant worker consent 
• Women in Male-Dominated Workplaces: Labour Processes, Gender Relations and Collective Resistance
• From the ‘Unusual Suspects’ to a New Research Agenda? Rethinking Labour Agency, Space and Organisation across the Global North and South

Please find out more about the specific content of the CfPs for the Special streams on here

Proposals for Symposia
Apart from single abstracts we also welcome panel format proposals for a small number of symposia (of 1.5 hours’ duration) addressing the conference theme. Proposals should be between 750 and 1000 words, encompassing a detailed description of the structure and (potential) contributors (with a short note as to whether they have already confirmed their availability) as well as a statement about how the symposium will contribute to the conference theme. International collaborations are especially welcome. Symposia proposals may be sent through the conference platform by 31st October 2026. Authors may contact the conference organisers beforehand for an informal discussion.

Preconference doctoral workshop
ILPC also has a great tradition of welcoming PhD students and focusing on the needs of early-stage researchers. ILPC 2027 will feature a pre-conference workshop dedicated to PhD students who wish to gain knowledge of labour process analysis, its history and debates. It will also provide an informal environment in which to share experiences and develop relationships. Doctoral papers are not streamed separately at the conference. You will be asked to identify whether you are a doctoral student on registration and whether you wish to attend the doctoral workshop. The cost of attendance is included in the (reduced) conference fee.

Work in the Global Economy preconference paper development workshop
Work in the Global Economy (Bristol University Press) is the interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal that builds upon a tradition of shared scholarship and a commitment to theory building and rigorous empirical enquiry that has been exemplified by the annual International Labour Process Conference (ILPC). Work in the Global Economy will offer a paper development workshop for early-career scholars interested in publishing their papers. During the workshop, senior scholars will provide feedback on papers in small groups. To participate, a working draft of the paper must be submitted by February 28. We ask scholars interested in participating to fill out the following form (in addition to the abstract submission to the conference) by the deadline of October 31, 2026: https://forms.gle/6YCbShRMJa9RVZeD9 In addition, all ILPC attendees are strongly encouraged to consider submitting papers from the conference to the journal. For more details on the goals of the journal and how to submit see.

Venue and organisation
The University of Cádiz (UCA) is a dynamic and modern public institution with a deep-rooted history, serving as a key centre for research and innovation in Andalusia. The Conference will be mainly held in the Jerez Campus, which is identified as a hub of Social and Legal sciences. For more information please see.