Montecatini Terme, Italy 29-31 July 2025<\/p>\n
This 3-day International Conference is organized by the International Urban Symposium-IUS<\/a>. The Conference aims to address variations of the socio-economic, fiscal, legislative and political forces that define the condition of the \u201cguaranteed\u201d and that of the \u201cnon-guaranteed\u201d and examine the efficacy and legitimacy of both policy and political rhetoric. We invite scholars from the social sciences to participate in this event with ethnographically based papers to address key topics in this field.<\/p>\n We invite scholars from the social sciences to participate in this event with ethnographically based papers to address key topics in this field.<\/p>\n 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; 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 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. This difference stands today, although in some countries the status of the secure employed is weakening as a consequence of the drive to de-regulation.<\/p>\n Mainstream studies based on an in-depth understanding of on-the-ground activities have brought out complex and ramified interactions between formal and informal activities in the economic field and evidence on actors who are guaranteed but also engage in moonlighting, performing economic activities that are the traditional remit of the non-guaranteed.<\/p>\n Anthropologists and qualitative sociologists have convincingly investigated the difference in the way in which the traditionally precarious\/non-guaranteed and those who have newly joined such a status \u2013 from industries that hitherto were considered guaranteed monthly payers to the emerging digital fields \u2013 cope with their new-found socio-economic reality. This line of analysis contributes significantly to the current discussion on work, employment, formality and informality, legality vs legitimacy, and on how digitalization, algorithmic management and AI applications are reshaping work and the job market.<\/p>\n Not all the \u201cnon-guaranteed\u201d are, of course, underprivileged and downtrodden. For example, successful self-employed professionals or entrepreneurs may happily bear the lack of guarantees 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 are treated as second-class citizens.<\/p>\n Key Topics<\/strong>:<\/p>\n \u2022 Employment, Unemployment and Work, including informal activities, the under-employed, the unemployed, the self-employed; Deadline for Paper Proposals:<\/u><\/span> Titles and 200-word Abstracts should be submitted by<\/strong> Friday<\/strong> 21\u00a0<\/sup>March 2025<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n Deadline for Panel Proposals:<\/u><\/span> Proposals should include: 1) The Panel Title and 150-word Abstract; 2) At least 4 papers (including titles and 200-word Abstracts), and should be submitted<\/strong> by<\/strong> Friday<\/strong> 21\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>March 2025.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Proposal should be sent to<\/u><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0i.pardo@ kent.ac.uk<\/span> and g.b.prato@kent.ac.uk<\/span><\/p>\n Further Information and Registration Details<\/u> are available at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.internationalurbansymposium.com\/events\/2025-conference\/<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Montecatini Terme, Italy 29-31 July 2025 CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS This 3-day International Conference is organized by the International Urban Symposium-IUS. The Conference aims … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[171072],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2022 Inequality between the \u201cguaranteed\u201d and the \u201cnon-guaranteed\u201d, and future job markets;
\n\u2022 The non-guaranteed who get by and the successful non-guaranteed, including entrepreneurs and professionals;
\n\u2022 Positive and negative drivers of the Gig economy and non-traditional employment contracts, including \u201czero hours\u201d, fixed term or temporary work, agency work, seasonal work, moonlighting and multiple jobs;
\n\u2022 Impact of digital technologies. Digital apps, online and remote working, digital nomads, AI platforms and \u201cghost workers\u201d;
\n\u2022 Interactions between the formal and the informal in the socio-economic field and their legitimacy, or lack of it;
\n\u2022 The coping strategies of the traditionally non-guaranteed and the newly non-guaranteed and the legitimacy of informal strategies;
\n\u2022 Non-economic resources in both surviving and thriving;
\n\u2022 The weight of bureaucratic regulations. How they are negotiated and the role of gatekeepers of knowledge and access;
\n\u2022 Access to credit, formal versus informal sources of credit, and the risks associated with the latter;
\n\u2022 Regional Disparities in employment and entrepreneurship and why such situations occur;
\n\u2022 Socio-economic, psychological, emotional implications of lack of guarantees.<\/p>\n