The network has a special stream at the 2023 International Labour Process Conference which will be hosted by the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow from 12th – 14th April 2023. The stream is titled Labour and/as value in the context of global crisis: ethnographic insights and invites contributions that critically engage with the concept of value and its relation to labour, work and workers. As Anthropology of Labour Network, we seek to contribute from our ethnographic analysis and theorisations around value and labour as processes embedded in social relations. We also aim at engaging with different theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary approaches, allowing reflections that expand the theory of value beyond the circuit of capital, into other realms of social life, including activities that have often been perceived as not being part of the capitalist mode of production and consequently devalued, such as reproductive, informal, and emotional forms lf labour. Critically reflecting on and interrogating the concept of value, its relation to labour, and how different forms of labour (and other human activities) are valued can constructively inform discussions around issues such as fairness, decent conditions of work, inequality, and commodification.

The ILPC is one of the largest international conferences, which focuses on studies of labour, work and employment, and industrial relations. However, the fields of labour studies, industrial relations, and related disciplines have not engaged in serious dialogue with anthropology and its theoretical and empirical contributions. This special streams is an opportunity for the Network, and anthropologist who focus on labour and work, to enter into and engage in dialogue with other disciplines.

Submit an abstract to the special stream

Decolonising the revolution for our times: Radical traditions, Marxist movements, and the climate struggle
University of Amsterdam, and International Institute of Social History
15-16 June 2023

A two-day conference that will discuss the failures of global neoliberalism and capitalism that have resulted in the urgency of current climate crisis, the increasing precarization of labour, and (fossil) fascism. The need for strong anti-systemic movements that can radically challenge the relational structures of capitalism as a social and ecological regime in order to reposition ordinary people as protagonists of history seems greater than ever. Read the Call for abstracts here. Deadline 15 January 2023 (get in touch with organisers if you have difficulties meeting the deadline).

Transversal value chains: Labour and capital linking different Europes
CERI, Paris
8 October 2021
Convenors: Denys Gorbach (Sciences Po Paris), Don Kalb (University of Bergen)

Our workshop centers around the notion of commodity chains. By focusing on changes happening at and between different scales of these chains, we want to uncover processes that stitch together the ‘lumpy’ (Cooper 2005) configuration of labour and capital that is known today as ‘Europe’.

See the workshop programme here.

(Remote) work and Covid: mobility, safety, and health at the time of the pandemic
Tallinn University, Estonia
17-18 June 2021

A two-day conference organised by Tallinn Anthropology and EASA Anthropology of Labour network is looking for contributions on how the global pandemic is changing labour across the world. Read the call for abstracts: deadline of 1st March 2021.

See conference programme here.

Politics and Ethics of Platform Labour: Learning from Lived Experiences
13-14 April 2021

A two-day conference organised by the University of Cambridge, UK. Read the call for abstracts: deadline of 1st February 2021.

Key issues in the anthropology of labour in the context of flexible capitalism
Workshop for the Anthropology of Labor Network in collaboration with Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology
University of Amsterdam, Sep 30 - Oct 1, 2019
This two days event was co-organised with Focaal-Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, a peer-reviewed journal combining ethnography, processual analysis, local insights and global vision in relation to wider spatial networks of capitalism.
See conference programme here.
The workshop is supported by EASA, Focaal, and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).
(Photos by JR @JRart)