Call for Abstracts DL 15 February 2017.

 

The deadline for abstract submission has ended.

The theme for the Conference, Work and Labour in the Digital Future addresses the digitalization of the work and the upheavals of current and future work, as well as the changing nature of work across occupations, industries and countries. Digitalization concerns not only the contents of work, the modes and ways of doing work, but also the future of labour and what kind of society will we create through digitalization.

The gig economy and platform economy put into question the ways work is currently organized. Jobs created through technological progress have been to large extent restricted to skilled workers and the number of new jobs created through digitalization and new technologies has been relatively small. We can justifiably ask if the digital revolution can provide real and rising incomes with reasonable levels of equality, or will it create new and unforeseen divisions in societies.

How to think about work and labour in the digital future? The theme for WORK2017 calls for bold analyses of the contours and boundaries of work and working in ways which demand new understanding, both theoretically and empirically. These changes include, but are by no means limited to:

• Shifting meanings of work, employment, underemployment and unemployment
• New forms of work; self-employment, entrepreneurship; precarious employment
• Work in the gig economy and platform economy
• Technological development and changing work
• Unemployment in the platform economy
• Skills, capabilities and future of work
• Shifts in work and working life patterns
• Education and work
• Job crafting
• Technology and future of jobs
• Labour, work and money
• Global economy and work
• Work and time and working time; temporality of work
• Health and wellbeing at work
• Theorising work in the platform economy
• Future of work and welfare society
• Legal aspects of work, employment and unemployment

The questions outlined above concern the changing role and place of work and labour. The questions include also those relating to the very definition of work as well as its meanings and contents in the digital era.

It is against this background that this conference seeks to explore Work and Labour in the Digital Future. It does so from a variety of perspectives and disciplinary approaches, including interdisciplinary approaches associated with critical labour studies, new economic sociology, feminist theory, post-colonial studies, social and cultural theory, sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, philosophy, critical health studies and gender studies.

The Conference will host over 20 streams on work including new streams proposed by participants. Find a more detailed description of the streams here.

We look forward to seeing you in Turku in August 2017!

On behalf of the organizing committee,

Anne Kovalainen, chair
Professor
University of Turku
work2017@utu.fi

The first conference on research on work, WORK2013, followed by the second conference, WORK2015 in Turku, Finland brought over 400 participants from all over the world with excellent keynote and paper sessions. WORK2017 will stand out with the interdisciplinary theme of digital future.