Conferences
9–11 September 2026, Bath, UK
Work, Employment & Society (WES) Conference 2026
Work, Employment & Society (WES) Conference 2026—Work and Employment in the Great Reshuffle: Navigating the Polycrisis is a conference taking place from 9 to 11 September 2026 at the University of Bath School of Management.
Work is often one of the places where wider crises first become visible and where their consequences are felt most directly. Today, those crises are converging. Climate degradation, geopolitical instability, technological acceleration, demographic change and growing strain on systems of care and social protection are intersecting rather than unfolding separately. Together, they are unsettling employment relationships, labour institutions and the conditions under which work is organised, governed and experienced.
At the same time, the ‘Great Reshuffle’ points to a broader renegotiation of work itself—from expectations of security and identity to the institutions that organise work and employment. For the sociology of work, this moment invites renewed scrutiny of how labour markets, workplaces and systems of governance are being reorganised.
This year’s conference will bring these debates into focus with two plenary panels:
- AI, Digitalisation, and Labour in the Polycrisis: Global and Institutional Perspectives
Dr Mohammad Amir Anwar (University of Edinburgh) and Professor Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven).
- Digital Labour, Social Reproduction, and the Politics of Precarity in Contemporary Capitalism
Professor Patrizia Zanoni (Hasselt University) and Professor Gabriela Alberti (University of Leeds).
https://www.britsoc.co.uk/events/key-bsa-events/work-employment-and-society-conference-2026/
