Conference Announcement

High Road Runs Through the City:
Advocating for Economic Justice at the Local Level
Sept. 27-28 2007 Buffalo, NY  

Recently local government has been the focus of many efforts to address growing concerns about economic inequality. For example, many US cities have enacted local living wage ordinances in an effort to promote more equitable economic development. However, local initiatives for economic justice frequently raise questions about local governance and the relationship between democratic decisionmaking and economic policymaking. Many cities have failed to enforce their living wage ordinances; many local economic policies are made outside of democratic processes; local governments are often constrained by “subsidy wars” encouraging a race to the bottom; and local politics is often dominated by narrow interests.

The University at Buffalo Law School, the Baldy Center on Law and Social Policy and Cornell University ILR announce an interactive conference to bring together scholars in a variety of disciplines with activists and policymakers to explore the possibilities and challenges for developing progressive economic policies in local government. Organized by UB Law professors Martha T. McCluskey, Sara A. Faherty and Samuel D. Magavern, the conference will be held on September 27-28, 2007 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Buffalo.

Panelists will include Peter Enrich, Northeastern University School of Law; Susan Jones, George Washington University School of Law; J. Phillip Thompson, III, MIT Urban Politics; Annette Bernhardt, NYU Brennan Center for Justice; Jen Kern, ACORN Living Wage Resource Center; Greg LeRoy, Good Jobs First, Stewart Acuff, AFL-CIO; Stephanie Luce, University of Massachusetts Labor Studies; Joel Rogers, University of Wisconsin. Panel topics will include Shadow Governments and Privatization; New Frontiers for the Living Wage; Subsidy Reform; Building Lasting Institutions from Progressive Coalitions; Green Cities; and Global Connections. Journalist Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy, will give a keynote address.

For more information, visit:
www.ilr.cornell.edu/wied/highroadrunsthroughthecity/ or contact Martha McCluskey, Professor of Law and William J. Magavern Fellow, State University of New York at Buffalo, mcclusk@buffalo.edu