Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin: Past Futures of Work (I)

Workshop 2021/2022 | Working Futures

Past Futures of Work (I)

October 28–29, 2021

Debates about the “future of work” have picked up speed in recent years, triggered not only by the digital transformation and ecological issues, but also by the shifts in working practices in the course of the Corona virus pandemic. But the “future of work” has long been a topic that fascinated economists, sociologists and philosophers, and it has been a topic of broader political and cultural discussions already in the past. While some thinkers predicted dystopian scenarios involving mass unemployment and subjection to all-powerful machines, others hoped for improvements, for instance, in the form of radically shortened working hours. Yet others started practical experiments, such as utopian settlements with integrated working communities. Returning to such “past futures of work” helps to contextualize and historicize the current debates about the future of work. This workshop will explore examples and cases of “past futures of work” from around the globe and discuss their meaning for the present.

The workshop will be held in a hybrid format.

Workshop Report