The Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh is proud to present the “Youth, Labor, and Neoliberal Governmentality in East Asia” symposium on March 5-6, 2010. The main goal of this symposium is to explore how young people have been affected by the deregulation of national economies in East Asia. As opposed to understanding youth unemployment and underemployment as social anomalies, we will analyze these phenomena as the new faces of labor. We will ask what it means for youth to become part of the workforce in a context in which forces of economic deregulation simultaneously narrow down opportunities for secure employment and unleash possibilities for new forms of work that are less predictable but more conducive of creativity. The symposium will feature three scholarly panels scheduled for Friday morning and afternoon (March 5) and for Saturday morning (March 6).
Funding provided by: Global Academic Partnership Program (an initiative of the Global Studies Program at the University Center for International Studies and the Office of the Provost) and Japan Iron and Steel Federation and Mitsubishi Endowments at the University of Pittsburgh.
Special thanks to Muge Finkel and Hiroshi Nara for their enthusiastic participation in the organization of this symposium. The organizers would also like to thank Nicole Constable, Dennis Hart, Brenda Jordan, Melissa Reed, and Richard Scaglion for their generously given advice. We are also tremendously grateful to Elizabeth Benvin, Dianne Dakis, Elizabeth Greene, Michelle Jarvis, Amanda Robinson, and Deborah Werntz. Without their hard work, expertise, and patience this symposium could not have been organized.