Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin: Past Futures of Work (II)

Workshop 2021/2022 | Working Futures

Past Futures of Work (II)

12.–13. Mai 2022

The “future of work” has long been a topic that has 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. This international conference will return to such “past futures of work” in order to contextualize and historicize the current debates. The conference will examine examples and cases of “past futures of work” from around the globe and discuss their meaning for the present. It builds on a workshop held in October 2021 and aims to further explore the topic of "past futures of work" through a dialogue between international scholars. The event is part of the work of the research network "Working Futures" at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.