OPENING
PLENARY
Work on the Brink: Utopias, Dystopias
Our starting point: The world of work is currently undergoing profound transformations, driven by a range of disruptive forces. These include the climate crisis, the rise of digital technologies, the fragmentation of the workplace, persistent racial and gender inequalities, demographic shifts, and the rise of populist politics, among others. These disruptions are reshaping not only the nature and quality of work but also the lives of workers, as well as the organizations and communities in which they operate. Our goal throughout the conference was to better understand these effects, the challenges they present, and the responses—including actions, experiments, and resilience—deployed by actors within the world of work to adapt.
To address this challenge, we introduced the core themes of the conference through an opening plenary that broke from the usual format. Rather than lengthy, traditional speeches, we highlighted a diverse range of perspectives, drawn from key strands of our research programs. This plenary emphasized creative thinking, the ability to think outside the box, and the capacity to translate these insights into practical approaches for improving work—recognizing that these efforts can yield both positive and negative outcomes. The overarching theme of the plenary was “Work on the Brink: Utopias, Dystopias.“
The plenary was expertly chaired by Gregor Murray from the University of Montreal and featured insightful contributions from Amanda Coles (Deakin University), Mathieu Dupuis (Université Laval), Judy Fudge (McMaster University), Jorge Carrillo (El Colegio de la Frontera Norte), Ian MacDonald (Université de Montréal), Isabelle Ferreras (UCLouvain), Tamara Lee (Rutgers University), and, in a surprising twist, an energetic rap performance by David Peetz from Griffith University, Australia.
