We have made the decision to cancel the final two Futures Thinking events in the Hilary term programme. This means that the events on 27 February and 12 March will not be taking place and will not be rescheduled. As this term’s “theme” is the future of work, this might offer us all an opportunity to ask ourselves a few of the questions we must perhaps inevitably always postpone for another day.
We invite you to consider the following:
- What is the purpose of work, why do we do it, and how might concepts of labour in the digital age be refocused to reflect humanitarian commitments?
- What will pay and working conditions mean in the coming decades?
- Who will have access to work in higher education and what will grant them that access?
- As the architects for the new Schwarzmann Centre for the Humanities are announced, for how long will it make sense to think of universities as places?
- How is the meaning of labour changing, in both the academy and gig economies? How might the academy respond?
- Why and how does stigma persist around academic versus academic-adjacent (alt-ac) positions?
- How do the working conditions for those employed in higher education impact on students’ experience?
- What do the answers to these questions mean for the steps we need to be taking now?
We will keep sharing our Speculation & Percolation audio-visual podcasts in the meanwhile, and will share further details about our forthcoming plans and projects in the coming weeks. We wish all of our members, followers and supporters the best, and send our particular wishes to precarious staff.
