Eddie Webster offered a talk via teleconferencing from South Africa, on his current research, relating to workers and globalization.

Eddie Webster is emeritus professor of sociology and founder and director of the Society, Work and Development (SWOP) Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. His research interests include: the evolving labor relations system in South Africa, labor market segmentation and the impact of deep level gold mining on the occupational culture of miners. He is a founder of the South African Labour Bulletin, was a member of the review committee on Labour Market Commission, 1996.

Professor Webster is the author of various chapters in books, journal articles and research reports. A list of published books includes the following: Co-authored with Rob Lambert and  Andries Bezuidenhout Grounding Globalization: Labour in the Age of Insecurity (2011, winner of the Distinguished Scholarly Monograph Prize, awarded by the American Sociological Association Labor and Labor Movements section); co-authored with Glen Adler, Trade Unions and Democratisation in South Africa 1985-1996 (1999); Cast in A Racial Mould - Labour Process and Trade Unionism in the Foundries (1985); and co-authored with Lawrence Schlemmer, Change, Reform and Economic Growth in South Africa (1978)