Building the Future of Work Today - A Labor Studies Perspective

Abstract

What can labor studies contribute to ongoing debates about the future of work? In a recent edited volume, Revaluing Work(ers): Toward a Democratic and Sustainable Future (Schulze-Cleven and Vachon 2021), we put forward a set of propositions that have sparked lively discussions at academic conferences over the past two years. This essay introduces a symposium on "Labor Studies and the Future of Work" that extends these earlier conversations and makes them accessible to the labor studies community. The article clarifies the main arguments and the broader agenda of the book before briefly addressing selected reactions to our claims. Finally, it summarizes the contributions to the symposium by a diverse group of scholars, reviewing what they have to say on the nature and purpose of labor studies as well as its promise for debates about the future of work and workers.