 Like the Youngstown center, The Center for Study of Working Class Life took an interdisciplinary approach to investigating the meaning of class in contemporary society, although with a stronger emphasis on “tools of the social sciences.” Starting in 2002, their How Class Works conference became the biennial complement to the Youngstown center’s working-class studies conference.The Youngstown conference met every other odd year, and How Class Works met every other even year, multiplying opportunities for cross-disciplinary interaction and collaboration.The Working-Class Studies Association began to develop in early 2003 in the course of planning that year’s Youngstown conference.