Montecatini Terme (Tuscany), Italy, 28-31 July 2024
Convenors: Italo Pardo and Giuliana B. Prato, University of Kent, UK
CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS
This 4-day International Conference is organized in collaboration with the International Urban Symposium-IUS. The Conference aims to address variations of the socio-economic, fiscal, legislative and political forces that define the condition of the “guaranteed” and that of the “non-guaranteed” and examine the efficacy and legitimacy of both policy and political rhetoric.
Across the democratic world, there is an outstanding difference between the guaranteed and the non-guaranteed in the socio-economic field. Traditionally, the former enjoy secure employment, trade-union protection and the attendant ramified benefits (sick leave, maternity or paternity leave, paid holidays, pension rights, and so on); the latter must fend for themselves, enjoy little or no protection and deal daily with the existential jeopardy of not having a steady salary and with the personal and collective consequences of the anxiety bred by persistent uncertainty. Things get worse for those who work informally only and are faced with an organization of society that contributes to making precariousness their state of being.
Not all the “non-guaranteed” are, of course, underprivileged and downtrodden. For example, successful self-employed professionals or entrepreneurs may happily bear the lack of guarantees and precariousness in exchange for their independence, freedom of action and financial rewards. Still, at the lower socio-economic level, the traditionally non-guaranteed may often feel and indeed be treated as second-class citizens.
Key Topics:
• Employment, Unemployment and Work, including informal activities, unemployed workers, “the precariat”, the “Gig economy”, digital work, digital nomads, moonlighting, the under-employed and the unemployed;
• The impact of AI technology on the job market and on mass employment;
• Inequality between the “guaranteed” and the “non-guaranteed” and the debate they raise on recognising and actually creating future markets;
• Interactions between the formal and the informal in the socio-economic field and their legitimacy, or lack of it;
• The coping strategies of the traditionally non-guaranteed and of the newly non-guaranteed and the legitimacy of informal strategies;
• Non-economic resources in both surviving and thriving;
• The weight of bureaucratic rules and regulations. How they are negotiated and the role of gatekeepers of knowledge and access;
• Access to credit, Formal versus informal sources of credit, and the risks associated with the latter;
• Regional disparities in employment and entrepreneurship and why such situations occur.
Deadline for Paper and Panel Proposals: Monday 11 March 2023.
Further Information and Registration Details are available at: https://www.internationalurbansymposium.com/events/2024-international-conference/