I plan on changing the trajectory of some of the blog posts in 2005. I’ll still post on current developments and other items of interest here and there, but I plan on using the blog a little differently than I did in 2004. There are two reasons. First, I start teaching my labor relations class again, and I’ll use the blog as a space for some of some class collaboration.
Second, I will use the blog as an “open-source” space to work on a couple of writing projects. The basic plan is to journal a little on two projects and hopefully post working drafts of chapters on the blog for comment, criticism and refinement of my ideas. I am going to get drafts of each project completed (and hopefully published) this year. My hope is that by journaling and drafting portions on the blog that I can get some feedback from the blogosphere about the projects, and perhaps stay a little more disciplined in the writing process.
The first project is a book with the working title of “Transforming Unions.” A pretty regular theme on my blog over the last few months has been the future of the labor movement (especially my critique of the New Unity Partnership consolidation plan). This book will outline my ideas for transforming the labor movement. Last week I did some dictation and pulled the relevant posts off the blog (there were many) so that now I have a pretty good working draft started.
The second project is an article (possibly a book, we’ll see) that I have been thinking about and intermittently researching for several years. I plan to present a critique of labor law through the prism of Austrian economic thought (Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, etc.) I’ll contrast some of the key work from the Chicago school (especially Epstein), some of the other law and economics treatments of labor law (I’ll probably stick to traditional labor law, although some employment law – at will versus just cause in particular – will certainly come up) and hopefully develop a reasonably cogent set of principles for labor law rules based on Austrian economic principles.
Ah, I can see the hit-meter just spinning like crazy…
