#10 January 26, 2024

« Enabling workers to govern their work »

Time: 5am San Francisco-Vancouver | 6am Mexico City | 8am NYC-Montréal | 9am Santiago | 2pm Paris–Johannesburg | 5.30pm New Delhi | 7pm Jakarta | 10pm Sydney 

Location: online 

Speakers: Antoine Bonnemain (Lecturer – Maître de Conférences at the University of Clermont Auvergne, France), Denise Kasparian (Assistant Professor and Researcher at University of Buenos Aires and National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina), Michelle Miller (Director of Innovation, Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School)

Chair: Isabelle Ferreras (FNRS, University of Louvain, #DW Core group member)

While some proposals for democratizing work focus on representative forms of democracy, e.g., board members elected by employees, others focus on the direct involvement of workers on the ground. Skeptics often hold, however, that this is only feasible – if at all – for highly skilled employees. But is this really so, or is it a prejudice based on misguided ideas about meritocracy? What does it take to enable workers to truly participate in the governance of their own work? What frictions must be expected, and how can they be overcome? And what role can other actors (activists, unionists, researchers, etc.) play in enabling work governance by workers? 

Antoine Bonnemain is a lecturer at the University of Clermont Auvergne, France. His work in occupational psychology and ergonomics focuses on the relationship between work, health, and empowerment. For the past 12 years, he has worked on these issues in cooperation with the Psychologie du Travail et Clinique de l’Activité team at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris. In his research, he is experimenting with the generalization of « conflictual cooperation » between professional groups and their entire hierarchical line, based on company requests, to develop the quality of work. Recent publications of his show how conflictual cooperation could help redefine professional relations around the quality of work in organizations to develop deliberation.

Denise Kasparian is a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council and an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. She is a sociologist with a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. Her latest book, Co-operative Struggles (Brill, 2022) expands the theoretical horizons regarding labor unrest by proposing new categories to make visible and conceptualize conflicts in the new worker cooperativism of the twenty-first century.

Michelle Miller is the Director of Innovation for the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. She joined the Center after a decade as the co-founder and co-director of Coworker, an organization that nurtures early-stage worker-led organizing across multiple industries. Coworker’s support for workers at companies like Starbucks, Google, Uber, and REI, among many others, secured wins for wage increases, scheduling reform and hazard pay. During this time, Michelle also pioneered the labor movement’s research and response to the proliferation of software and technology tools being used to manage and surveil workers and working class people. In 2015, Michelle was honored to co-host the first ever White House Town Hall on Worker Voice with President Barack Obama. Michelle is also a Visiting Social Innovator with the Social Innovation + Change Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is on the boards of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and Arts and Democracy and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

The recording is available in English on this page and below: