Shifting categories. Unsettling the way we think about work (I)
November 05–06, 2020
Work gets constantly categorized and classified. It is described as “skilled” or “unskilled”, “formal” or “informal”, “essential” or “non-essential”, “good” or “bad”. Work-related categories are embodied in laws, social norms and practices, formal and informal institutions, thereby shaping the realities of employers and workers. As such, work-related categories are intertwined with questions of power, prestige, and the distribution of material and immaterial benefits. The ongoing process of transformation of work over the three last decades has put into question many established categories and raised new ones. The Corona pandemic, with its large-scale effects on our societies, has emphasized and given a special visibility to these processes of (re)categorization.
During this workshop the members of the Working Futures research network reflect on the various ways in which work is categorized and how these categorizations have been shifting in the last decades. The workshop marks the start of a joint research project that is intended to lead to a publication on the Categorization of Work.
This workshop will take place virtually
Participants
Laure
De Verdalle
CNRS, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin
Sasha
Disko
Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technische Universität Berlin
Isaie
Dougnon
Fordham University, New York
Roberto
Frega
CNRS, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin
Lena
Hipp
Universität Potsdam und Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
Bruce
Kogut
Fellow
2012/2013
Columbia Business School, New York
Martin
Kuhlmann
Soziologisches Forschungsinstitut Göttingen an der Georg-August-Universität
Michel
Lallement
Fellow
2020/2021
Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, Paris
Constance
Perrin-Joly
Université Paris 13, IRIS
Léa
Renard
Freie Universität Berlin
Theresa
Wobbe
Universität Potsdam