Working Futures
International Conference on “Solidarity at Work”

14-15 November 2019
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
Call for Applications
Deadline for submission: 30 April 2019

Launched in 2018 by the Wissenschaftskolleg and the International Research Center Work and
Human Life Cycle in Global History (re:work), the transnational network Working Futures brings
together sociologists, historians, philosophers, economists, law experts and anthropologists to
discuss current transformations in the world of work and the epistemological challenges they
raise for the historical and social sciences. The goal of the network is to create a space for mutual
exchange and understanding with respect to the futures of work, as well as work of the future,
among scholars from different disciplines and countries while centered around a Franco-German
nucleus. It endorses the premise that thinking about the futures of work requires an in-depth
knowledge and analysis of its contemporary mutations (the concrete forms they take, their causes
and repercussions). To this end, the network has developed an approach which examines the
transformations of work at the intersection of four processes: siliconization, financialization,
ecologization and democratization.

Conference Theme
The term “solidarity” seems to have fallen out of theoretical fashion despite the fact that it has a
long history of describing the shared struggles of those oppressed by economic or political power structures. This conference aims to explore the past, present and future of “solidarity at work” on both the conceptual and empirical level. Its focus is on the world of work, which it wants to investigate from a transnational perspective. How have the concepts, conceptions and categories
of solidarity shaped labor and the labor movements of different countries? What about the divergent conceptual meanings and practices in these assorted contexts? How have power relations as well as people’s everyday life been changed by the various practices related to
solidarity? How do technological and managerial changes help to shift ideas and practices of solidarity? Do we see new forms emerging? Who are the agents of “solidarity at work” and what are the concrete mechanisms involved? More broadly, what are the levers and brakes of solidarity in the workplace today?

We want to explore these themes along three axes:

1) The History of the Concepts, Conceptions and Categories of Solidarity from a Transnational Perspective“Solidarity” is a concept that is easy to caricature because of its abstractness. But there are also
more concrete conceptions and categories of solidarity that guide social practices and are embedded and expressed in them. Why has the concept of solidarity, narrowly defined as workplace solidarity, seemed to have lost its resonance? Has it been supplanted by other concepts such as “commons” or Gemeinwohlwirtschaft? Which actors are involved in the production of
categories of solidarity and in which social fields do these categorization processes take place? The first panel is interested in the genesis of such concepts, conceptions and categories and their long-term development in different countries. While the transnational network Working Futures focuses on a comparison between France and Germany, we also invite submissions that take into account other national traditions or transnational comparisons.

• 2) Past and Present Practices of Solidarity at Work

​How do workers and other agents translate the abstract idea of solidarity into concrete practices, and what effects do these practices have? What impact does the increasing role of automatization and digitalization have on the conception and practice of solidarity not only in the workplace but in everyday life? The second panel is interested in exploring those certain case studies from the past and present which throw light on what “solidarity” means in practice. In addition we want to
analyze whether these case studies can be understood by the traditional concepts, conceptions and categories of “solidarity” as well as just how theory and practice have influenced each other.

• 3) Future Solidarity at Work

Many commentators predict that the world of work will become increasingly fragmented not
least because of new technologies which disrupt the traditional workplace and hence undermine
the social ties among co-workers. But we also see new forms of solidarity in play. Are these
merely new expressions of the old concept of solidarity, or do we need new certain conceptual
tools for grasping these phenomena? This third panel is interested in both descriptive and
normative accounts of new forms of solidarity and what “solidarity at work” could mean in the
future.

Submission
Interested researchers are invited to send their proposals (800-1000 words) together with a CV,
contact information and a list of publications to the following address: rele@wiko-berlin.de
Deadline: 30 April 2019
Notification of acceptance: 1 June 2019
Accommodation and travel costs will be covered for participants in the conference.

Convenors
Sasha Disko (Center for Metropolitan Studies, TU Berlin)
Lisa Herzog (TU Munich)
Bénédicte Zimmermann (Centre Georg Simmel, EHESS & Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin)

The ASA Community and Urban Sociology Section is pleased to announce a one-day conference on Inequalities and Social Justice in the 21st Century City to be held on Friday, August 9, 2019 at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service. Researchers will present projects in different thematic panels throughout the day and the conference will also host graduate student roundtables, where graduate students get the chance to meet and receive feedback from more senior scholars. 
Throughout the world, cities have become sites of the most extreme manifestations of social and economic polarization. In the United States, for example, as cities are experiencing “revitalization” in the forms of increased in-migration and investment, they are simultaneously setting records for unaffordability and homelessness, while racial segregation has remained stubbornly persistent. Similar dynamics are present in large cities throughout Europe. In some cities in the Global South, spectacular forms of wealth have come to coexist with stark poverty. In many cities, new and old inequalities have combined with vulnerability to climate events to produce new forms of environmental injustice. The mechanisms driving these new inequalities are myriad– from the growing interconnectedness of the global economy to the financialization of urban economies— even if their consequences are not well understood.  Even less-well understood are the ways that cities can provide the staging grounds for alternatives that reduce or mitigate these inequalities, or produce social justice.  Yet, across the political spectrum, city-based alternatives have captured the imagination as providing a meaningful sites for connection, integration, and democracy. Whether we are speaking of progressive administrations, social movements, innovative policies, pragmatic leadership, or action on climate change, cities have emerged for many authors as a privileged site for innovative action and emergent social justice. 

In keeping with the 2019 ASA Theme, Engaging Social Justice, we invite urban scholars to critically reflect on new and old urban inequalities and also on their alternatives.  Seldom does the scholarship on inequalities interact with the literature on alternatives, and here we invite that dialogue.  Is a socially-just city possible?  We welcome scholars engaging mainly with research on inequality as well as those principally focused on alternatives, with the aim of developing conversation across and within these scholarly communities. This one-day conference will bring together members of the ASA Community and Urban Sociology Section as well as other scholars studying these--andmany other—compounding urban issues. New York City is a particularly interesting context in which to have these conversations, given its diversity, inequality, and history of social justice politics. We encourage papers that focus on:

• Spatial segregation
• Gentrification and neighborhood change
• Markets and urban inequality
• Race, class, gender, and intersecting inequalities in urban areas
• Housing access and affordability
• Climate change and environmental justice
• Urban resilience
• Crime, policing and alternatives
• Participation and urban inequalities
• Municipalism and its limits
• Urban social movements and new urban inequalities
• Policy alternatives to emergent forms of urban inequality

While we pose our agenda relative to the idea of the city, we welcome intersecting research on suburban, rural, and online communities, in recognition that inequalities do, and social justice must, cross all boundaries.

Extended abstracts should be submitted to cuss2019conference@gmail.com by March 30, 2019, with the subject line “Abstract submissions.”  Participants will be asked to register and pay an onsite registration fee of $20 for faculty and $10 for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Lunch will be provided.

Organizing Committee:  Gianpaolo Baiocchi (NYU), Kiara Douds (NYU), Rachel Dwyer (OSU), Jacob Faber (NYU), Davon Norris (OSU), and Gerard Torrats-Espinosa (NYU).

Best,
​Davon