MANCEPT Workshop: Employment, Justice, and the Future of Work

Employment, Justice, & The Future of Work

MANCEPT Workshops, September 11th-13th, 2023
University of Manchester

Organizers: Brian Berkey (Wharton, UPenn), Ben Ferguson (Warwick), & Nici Mulkeen (Newcastle)

Most healthy adults typically spend one third of their waking hours at work, five days a week, for half a century or more. Jobs are at the centre of our lives. They provide us with an income, services, and, at least for many, identity. They are also the source of a great number of our relationships.

But there is an increasing number of harmful and pernicious behaviours and circumstances that people are being subject to in the workplace:

• Toxic relationships (discrimination and harassment)

• Domination, manipulation, and exploitation

• Casualisation and instability in the ‘gig economy’

• Racial and gender pay gaps

• ‘Bullshit jobs’ and ‘shit jobs’

• Low pay

• Exclusionary practices and policies

• Rise of robots and AI eliminating and reshaping jobs, creating fear of future unemployment.

Several questions follow from this:

1. What rights are people entitled to with respect to both the benefits and harms of work?

2. Do people have a right to work?

3. Should people be compelled to work?

4. Can justice require individuals to perform certain kinds of work?

5. Who is responsible for toxic workplace environments?

6. How are the benefits and burdens of work to be justly distributed?

7. What protections should be implemented against the harm or wrongs associated with work?

8. Should workers have the right to bargain away workplace protections for increased pay or for other protections?

9. Do all workers have the right to strike?

10. How should we provide people with an income and services in the future?

This workshop aims to bring together researchers working on these and related questions.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words to Brian Berkey ([email protected]). The deadline for submissions is 1st June.

We will notify successful applicants by the 13th of June. If you are a graduate student, MANCEPT have a number of fee-waiver bursaries which you can apply after acceptance (the deadline is the 27th of June).