Steve Machin, LSE

Maria Koumenta, Queen Mary University of London

Alex Bryson, UCL

This special issue honours the legacy of Professor Sir David Metcalf, a prominent labour economist and industrial relations scholar at the LSE who shaped the field over four decades. The journal seeks theoretically grounded empirical research that embodies his scholarly approach to understanding economic and policy dimensions of industrial relations.

The call welcomes contributions addressing core labour economics topics including union activity, wage structures, workplace disputes, firm performance, minimum wage policies, worker mobility, immigration effects, and labour market governance. The initiative combines a conference and subsequent journal publication, reflecting Metcalf's commitment to rigorous, policy-relevant research.

Appel publié par British Journal of Industrial Relations. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Trade unions
• Pay and payment systems
• Conflict and dispute resolution
• Productivity and firm performance
• Low pay and minimum wages
• Labour market transitions
• Immigration
• Labour market regulation and enforcement

Timeline

• Invalid DateTime: Final submissions deadline for BJIR special issue
• July 31, 2026: Deadline for submission of extended abstract (1,000 words) or paper
• August 31, 2026: Notification of acceptance for conference
• November 15, 2026: Conference paper drafts (10,000 words) due
• December 3, 2026: Conference held at LSE

Jens Arnholtz, :

Bjarke Refslund, :

Power resource theory explains how workers can draw upon various resources to influence their working conditions and employment relations. Though originally developed in the 1970s, the theory has experienced renewed interest among scholars, activists, and labour movements. However, applying this framework to contemporary capitalism presents significant challenges requiring further development.

This special issue invites contributions advancing power resource theory through critical engagement and empirical investigation of new contexts and groups. The issue particularly seeks to address modernization challenges, including moving beyond focus on male manufacturing workers in the Global North to incorporate analyses of gender, ethnicity, migration, and employment relations in other regions, as well as emerging theoretical questions about resource effectiveness, relational dynamics, strategy, scaling, and heterogeneous interests among workers and employers.

Appel publié par British Journal of Industrial Relations. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Usability and effectiveness of different power resources depending upon the situation
• Interaction between different power resources and their compositional effects
• Power resources of employers and their impact on worker mobilization
• Relational dimension and configuration of power resources
• Interaction between power resources of workers and employers
• Methodological approaches to studying observable resources while recognizing relational aspects
• Relationship between power resources and workers' strategies
• How available power resources influence strategy adoption
• Power resources as enablers or obstacles to strategic innovation
• Temporal and geographical scale of power resource analysis
• Links between local short-term struggles and national or global long-term transformations
• Application of power resource theory to transnational labour struggles, production chains, and fragmented production
• Divergence of interests among workers and implications for power resource theory
• Diverging interests among employers across industries, regions, and value chains
• Coalitions between workers and employers versus intra-worker coalitions
• Role of the state and political system in employment relations
• Leverage of different power resources vis-à-vis state regulation and policies
• Work as a source of resource mobilization and interest formation
• Analysis beyond white male manufacturing workers including gender, ethnicity, migration, and intersectionality
• Employment relations in different parts of the world

Timeline

• April 15, 2026: Extended abstract submission deadline
• October 15, 2026: Full paper submission deadline
• February 1, 2027: Final submission deadline