Coordinatore: Luigi Pellizzoni (Università di Pisa)
The idea of post-work comprises, and often intertwines, claims about less work, about more pleasurable work and about withdrawal from unjust work relations. The case for post-work is not new but has been recently gaining momentum, against a backdrop characterised by contradictory phenomena, namely: a) a growing centrality of work as pivotal to personal life trajectories, social citizenship and service provision; b) a growing precarisation of work, both in terms of individual careers and of the challenges of innovation to established jobs and employment structures; c) climate change and related calls to a transition towards more sustainable societal arrangements. Though addressed by some scholars – such as André Gorz, who, like others, dwells on the link between ecological damage and capitalist labour relations – the connection between work and ecology has hardly been thoroughly elaborated so far; even less regarding the advent of a post-work society. However, with the crisis of work (a+b) hitting as hard as the ecological crisis (c), tackling the meaning of post-work and its relationship with sustainability becomes urgent, especially considering traditional reticence or ambiguity over whether the case for post-work is concerned with alienated work or with necessitated work, and what technology and labour relations can ensure the overcoming of either without entailing a further increase in environmental impacts. The session aims to collect both theoretical contributions assessing the extent to which, and how, ongoing debates over work and post-work are considering the ecological challenge, and empirical contributions on experiences that address this issue in practice. Papers may expand e.g. over UBI and degrowth, alternative work relations and innovation, prefigurative practices, climate mobilizations and just transition, productive and reproductive (human and nonhuman) labour and the politics of care.
Contatti coordinatore : Luigi Pellizzoni (luigi.pellizzoni@unipi.it)