LABOR JUSTICE AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF WORK

Keynote speakers:
Lisa Herzog (Groningen)
Nicholas Vrousalis (Erasmus Rotterdam)

Submission deadline: April 15.

Work and labor relations are quickly changing, and so are philosophical views about their nature, value, and suitable regulation, which this conference seeks to explore. Should activities like care, volunteering, or data creation count as work? Which are the goods, material and otherwise, that work provides access to? Is there a right, maybe a human right, or a duty to work? Which wrongs, if any, do phenomena like gig work, automation, algorithmic management, the polarization of work, or the decline of the labor share entail? How should traditional means like unionism, collective bargaining, or the right to strike be revamped to address such wrongs? Should the state foster a shorter working week, workplace democratization, self-employment, or a UBI in response to them?

We invite submission of abstracts on these and related themes from early career philosophers (i.e., those who have not yet obtained their PhD or received it within the past eight years). Abstracts of 500 to 1000 words should be sent to [email protected] by April 15. We expect that those whose abstracts are selected, who will be notified two weeks after the deadline, TO provide a full draft of their papers by July 1, to allow circulation to attendees and in-depth discussion during the conference.

The workshop will take place on July 22-23 in Barcelona or, if health conditions remain unsafe, online. If the workshop eventually happens in person, accommodation--not travel, alas--will be covered by the project Justice and Work: A Normative Analysis of Nonstandard Forms of Employment, which the Spanish Ministry of Science, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Spanish Research Agency fund.