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Call for papers

Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics - SASE 

The New School - New York City, USA, 27-29 June 2019    
Abstract submission deadline: 14 January 2019

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Digitalizing and Fragmenting Labor: What Changes for (In)Equality and Diversity?

This Mini Conference aims to foster a discussion about the mutual entanglement of digitalisation and fragmentation to shed new light on the re-production of inequalities and diversities in contemporary and future societies. While much has been said on how technology transforms work, more debate is needed about how these processes interact with social (in)equalities and diversities. Supplementing this general line of questioning, we particularly welcome contributions that explore the following three areas:

1. Changes in the Occupational Structure
Digitalization, automation and technological change have profound structural impact on the labour markets in terms of shifts in the size of occupational categories and evolution of task contents. In this panel, we welcome papers addressing the following key areas of debate:
• What are the consequences of digitalization and fragmentation on labour market sectors and occupations? How do they interact with labour market segregation based on age, gender and ethnicity?
• How is digitalization transforming the task content of jobs? Which groups of workers are more vulnerable to automation and job replacement?

2. Changes in Careers and Employment Relations
Digital economy and algorithmic management techniques are reshaping work trajectories as well as the employment relationship. Emerging job positions and careers might be increasingly shorter, instable and uncertain. In this panel, we are interested in papers that investigate:
• What is the role played by ethnicity, age and gender in job access, labour market attachment and career development? 
• How is digitalization challenging labour market regulations and social protection systems? Which social groups are able to secure better working conditions and which are more vulnerable and precarious? 
• What are the consequences in terms of collective representation? How can trade unions and other union-like organizations promote equality and diversity in a digitalized economy?

3. Changes in Work Practices and Everyday Life
Digital economy is changing work practices and blurring the boundaries between paid and unpaid work, professional and private life. On the one hand, the use of new technologies is expected to improve work-life balance and increase worker autonomy. On the other, increased surveillance and weakening of workers’ bargaining power can result in unpredictable and long work hours. This panel welcomes contributions that explore the following lines of enquiry:
• How are digitalization and online platforms changing the way work is organized? How do these changes affect different social groups? 
• How do digitalization and fragmentation affect job quality, occupational wellbeing, and work-life balance? How are different categories of workers experiencing the blurring boundaries of professional and private times and spaces? 
• In a digitalized and fragmented work, what organisational policies are needed to promote equality and diversity at work?

We invite theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions. An intersectional approach is encouraged, acknowledging that age, gender and ethnicity are not distinct and isolated realms of experience. We invite contributions from the global North and South, and across fields of study, that explore how digitalization and fragmentation of work provoke important questions on the nature of inequalities and diversities in the areas of (i) occupational structure, (ii) careers and employment relations, (iii) work practices and everyday life.

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ABSTRACT SUBMISSION INFORMATION

- Abstracts for submissions to mini-conferences should be no longer than 1000 words. All submissions need to include 3 key words. 

- Submission is through the SASE website: https://sase.org/event/2019-new-york-city/#submissions

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CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS

Annalisa Murgia ([log in to unmask]) is associate professor in Sociology at the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Milan, Italy. She is the Principal Investigator of the ERC project SHARE: Seizing the Hybrid Areas of Work by Re-presenting Self-Employment (2017-2022). Her current research interests are articulated in three main directions. The first one explores the role of subjectivity in shaping individual biographies, paying specific attention to precarious workers. The second research area investigates the emerging forms of organising in relation to the current crisis of the traditional models of collective representation. The third line of research lies in the debate on the construction of gender differences in organisations. Her work has been published, among others, in Organization, Gender, Work & Organization, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Management Learning, Journal of Cultural Economy, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. She recently co-edited the volumes Mapping Precariousness, Labour Insecurity and Uncertain Livelihoods (Routledge, 2017), with E. Armano and A. Bove, and Gender and Precarious Research Careers: A Comparative Analysis (Routledge, 2019), with B. Poggio.

Agnieszka Piasna ([log in to unmask]) is senior researcher in Economic, Employment and Social policies research unit at the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels, Belgium. She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge. Her research interests lie in the areas of job quality, labour market policies and regulation, working time, and gender issues. She coordinates research in the framework of the ETUI project on contingent and platform work. She also served on the European Statistical Advisory Committee. Her work has been published, among others, in Human Resource Management Journal, Social Indicators Research, Development and Change, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Post-Communist Economies. Recent books include Myths of employment deregulation (ETUI, 2017), with M. Myant, and Unemployment, internal devaluation and labour market deregulation in Europe (ETUI, 2016), with M. Myant and S. Theodoropoulou.

Rossella Bozzon ([log in to unmask]) is postdoctoral researcher at the CERIC - Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change of the Business School, University of Leeds, UK. She is member of the ERC Project SHARE: Seizing the Hybrid Areas of Work by Re-presenting Self-Employment (2017-2022). Her research interests include welfare state and labour market transformations, non-standard employment relations, poverty and economic deprivation dynamics, gender inequalities and quantitative methods. Her work has been published, among others, in Journal of European Social Policy, European Societies, European Educational Research Journal. 

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GENERAL INFORMATION

- Conference website: https://sase.org/event/2019-new-york-city/#general 

- Mini-Conference Themes: https://sase.org/event/2019-new-york-city/#mini 

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IMPORTANT DATES

- 14 January 2019: Abstract submission deadline
- Mid-February 2019: Notification of acceptance
- 27-29 June 2019: SASE Annual Meeting in New York