Projects
What We Do
With purpose and impact
Taking steps to make a difference
The Center for Work and Democracy pursues research projects that advance the Center’s mission. These projects are determined by our affiliates and our advisory board and are executed using social scientific and historical methods. The projects that we pursue often surround topics that deserve more academic attention or ones that are responsive to specific requests from stakeholders, affiliates, and partners.
Currently our projects span topics from labor organizing, to working-class politics, to protest, and more.
Ballot Initiatives
The Ballot Initiatives Project explores the current fight over voters’ access to the ballot initiative process.
George Floyd Square
Our project on George Floyd Square uses interview-based and ethnographic data to understand the nature, roots, and dynamics of protest and rebellion in American cities.
"We support movements that are articulations of the aspirations of working people, whether or not they aim to form workplace organizations. So we have and continue to support movements for racial justice, immigrant rights, climate transition, and climate justice"
– Michael McQuarrie, Director
All projects
George Floyd Square
The George Floyd Square Project
George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020 sparked a global wave of protests against police violence and brutality. In Minneapolis itself, it sparked a cross-…
Non-NLRB Strategies and Practices for Labor Movement Renewal
Approval for labor unions and interest in labor organizing are both at historic highs, but there is a persistent gap between that energy and its translation into working people's…
Majority Rules: The Battle for Ballot Initiatives
The Ballot Initiatives Project explores the current fight over voters’ access to the ballot initiative process. In recent years, labor unions, rights advocacy groups, and grassroots organizations…
The Green New Deal and the Future of Work
Craig Calhoun and Benjamin Y. Fong convened a meeting of scholars and activists on the subject of the "Green New Deal and the Future of Work" at the end of 2019. They felt that while the Green New…
Moral Economy
The moral economy project is a collaborative deep dive on the economic values and orientations of contemporary American working people. We aim to excavate popular economic views and aspirations,…
The Free State of George Floyd