Working/ Struggling/ Organizing

Koordinator*innen

  • Astrid Biele Mefebue, University of Göttingen, Germany, astrid.biele[at]sowi.uni-goettingen.de
  • Andrea D. Bührmann, University of Göttingen, Germany, andrea.buehrmann[at]uni-goettingen.de
  • Laura Fantone, UC Berkeley, United States, lfantone@berkeley.edu
  • Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, University of Giessen, Germany, e.gutierrez-rodriguez[at]sowi.uni-giessen.de

  • This stream considers perspectives on belonging and othering specifically in the working contexts of heterogeneous and globalized societies. It is grounded in a concept of ‘work’ in its broadest sense, reconciling meanings of work as (self-) employment, reproductive labour and civic engagement. The overall question posed is how social categorisation leads to different outcomes of economic and social participation based on different backgrounds and due to existing and reproduced power relations (suppression, privilegisation and discrimination as linked, for example, to institutional racism and in- and exclusion within gendered/racialized heteronormative work cultures).

    The notion of ‘organising’ refers to how individuals in ‘a modern world’ (due to processes of individualisation) are pushed to organise themselves, whether through mobility and migration, self-employment or self-organisation, including reconciling ‘work and life’ through labour unions. This take on ‘organising’ also refers to how individuals are organised by organisations (enterprises, NGOs), through, for example, gendered/racialized organisations, antidiscrimination practices and diversity management.
    The notion of ‘struggling’ refers to challenges and activities on an individual or organised level to realise and promote social and economic participation independent of belonging or ascription to specific dimensions of diversity, such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, family status, dis/ability, religion and age.

    Taking into account an intersectional perspective and assuming power relations as systems of oppressions and granted privileges, this stream welcomes contributions that deal with:
  • how individuals are influenced through their social positioning/the social categories to which they are ascribed in contexts of work and organisation and how they struggle with them
  • the role of (working) organisations with reference to how relationships and contexts of in- and exclusion are created within them.

  • 1. Remembering/Representing/Signifying
  • 2. Destructing/Reconciling/Transforming
  • 3. Teaching/Learning/Facilitating
  • 4. Legislating/Politicising/Institutionalising
  • 5. Networking/Solidarising/Bridging
  • 6. Playing/Watching/Observing
  • 7. Embodying/Performing/Affecting
  • 8. Investigating/Analysing/Measuring
  • 9. Healing/Coping/Caring
  • 10. Believing/Moralising/Reasoning
  • 11. Working/Struggling/Organizing


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