[artinfo] CfP: special issue on the Precariousness of Knowledge Workers

[Analytica Publications]

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
The Precariousness of Knowledge Workers

Volume 10 No 2 of Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation will be a 
special themed issue on The Precariousness of Knowledge Workers: 
hybridisation, marketisation and subjectification in global value 
chains

The notion of 'knowledge worker' has become the focus of a rich range 
of debates in a variety of scientific approaches and disciplines, 
from sociology to economics, from political science to neomarxism, 
all offering their own particular conceptual tools and 
perspectives.Unlike the traditional professions that were 
consolidated in the last century, 21st knowledge work is undergoing a 
process of  hybridisation. With a growing variety of different types 
of work contract, knowledge workers constitute a type of professional 
work that is
increasingly exposed to the logic of the market and are increasingly 
required to auto-activate their own resources, empathy and individual 
autonomy (Gorz, 2003; Morini, Fumagalli, 2010). The ambivalences 
embedded in these forms of production - in which new forms of 
exploitation and control and new sense constructions coexist at the 
same time (Rullani, 2004; Bologna, 2011) - show
the double face of  contemporary capitalism, which urges subjects to 
put their own lives into production but also leaves room for passion 
and creative capacities (Boltansky, Chiappello, 1999; Marazzi, 2010; 
Karppi et al., 2014). Following this perspective, global capitalism 
can continue to accumulate but can also overflow, spreading 
pervasivelyr through different (technological) devices, while 
simultaneously opening up a multitude of times and spaces (Thrift, 
2005) in which subjects struggle to find their position.

In knowledge based industries, work is circumscribed by the cognitive 
frames of creativity the imagery of subjects, but simultaenously 
demands adaptability, in a context in which deregulation and 
individualisation are now normal. The ethics of self-activation are 
therefore inextricably intertwined with the demands of 
intensification, neostandardisation and self-commodification. In this 
framework, the organisation of knowledge work is increasingly 
subordinated to the disciplines imposed by global production chains 
(Berger, 2008; Huws,
2014) leading not only to the intension of work and the 
transformation of the capabilities required of workers, but also to 
the creation of new forms of affective labour (Hochschild, 1983; 
Hardt, 1999; Hesmondhalgh, Baker, 2008) which blur the boundaries of 
work (Gill, Pratt, 2008; McRobbie, 2011).
The aim of this Special Issue is to develop a critical discussion on 
knowledge workers' conditions and subjectivities in the new global 
division of labour. We welcome paper submissions from diverse 
theoretical and methodological perspectives on the following themes:

representations and experiences of knowledge workers in the global 
tertiarised societies;
mechanisms of subjectivation and strategies to seek to avoid and to 
resist them;
risks of precariousness and proletarisation that might derive from a 
professionalisation driven by global and glocal markets;
knowledge workers' collective practices, with particular attention to 
new forms of collaboration, sociality and social features of welfare 
and their limitations and potentialities.
Submission guidelines can be found 
<http://analyticapublications.bmetrack.com/c/l?u=4E9E9AD&e=6A11C4&c=14F0F&t=0&l=7C3357A&email=HB5lZ3Z11tfguidxRToH3Ps7hTsoafv0>here.

This issue will be edited by:
Annalisa Murgia, University of Trento, Italy 
<mailto:annalisa.murgia at unitn.it>contact
Lara Maestripieri, Fondazione Feltrinelli, Italy 
<mailto:lara.maestripieri at gmail.com>contact
Emiliana Armano, University of Milan, Italy <mailto:emi_armano at yahoo.it>contact

The editors are happy to discuss abstracts prior to submission. 
Please submit to the editor 
<mailto:ursulahuws at analyticapublications.co.uk>contact
by July 28th, 2015
<http://analyticapublications.bmetrack.com/c/l?u=4E9E9AE&e=6A11C4&c=14F0F&t=0&l=7C3357A&email=HB5lZ3Z11tfguidxRToH3Ps7hTsoafv0>
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UNTHEMED ISSUES

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