Format/Structure

This workshop seeks to open a conversation about what work currently is and how it can be re-framed in the context of just socio-economic transitions. It will use creative writing exercises around multiple concepts to reimagine alternative visions of futures of work as labour and institution.

Long Abstract

At a time when the labor market is flooded with “bullshit jobs"", when the labor essential to regenerating our planet is increasingly invisible and undervalued, and when public discourse and sentiment on technological development focuses primarily on the threat to our livelihoods, it is more urgent than ever to recalibrate our understanding of work and the institutions that shape it.

What is work? Why do we work? Who defines work and who creates it? The answers are shaped by dominant neoliberal narratives of business and labor, and by the institutions created within capitalist societies. As a result, many of us are alienated from both the purpose and the consequences of our labor, to the detriment of ourselves, society, and the planet.

The institution of work is central to any socio-economic transition. Organizations act as vehicles of collective action, and the ways they are designed determine both the interactions and relations within them and the broader impacts they have on the world.

In this workshop we will try to surface the norms and myths embedded in the current institution of work, around entrepreneurship, ownership, value, work-life balance, and careers. Building on this reflection, participants will collaboratively imagine alternative visions of work and re-write the narratives surrounding business-as-usual, exploring how these can be re-institutionalized in work futures.