Appel à communications > Call for papers

19th International Conference of Sociology of Work  

 Madrid, July 7-10, 2026 

Call to Communications 

'Circulations, divisions, localisations'

The contemporary world of work is traversed by a transversal dynamic of circulations and inscriptions, formal or informal, material or symbolic, visible or invisible, which act as so many mechanisms of organization (of production processes, territories, professional groups, etc.) and fragmentation (of groups, territories...). These circulations, which encompass movements of goods, capital, technologies, people, ideas and representations, are subject to regulation and deregulation at different scales: global and local, social, productive... Circulations that are inscribed in a heterogeneous way in the territories they cross, in a more or less stable way, contributing to redefining the divisions of labor, as well as the dependencies between territories. And that they are also at the center of corporate strategies, public policies, professional negotiations and collective mobilizations, and evolve and recompose themselves over time according to a complex interplay of flows, tensions, conflicts and new social, economic, political and ideological configurations. Understanding these complex dynamics requires rethinking work and its sociologies based on a decidedly international and multi-positioned dialogue.

The XIX International Conference on the Sociology of Work, which will take place in Madrid in 2026 (JIST 2026), is an opportunity for sociologists of work from French-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries to reflect and exchange on the "global" that crosses their own objects of research. The theme chosen "Divisions, spatial inscriptions, circulations of labour" covers the traditional forms of the international division of labour and global value chains (North-South, centre-periphery), but more broadly all the new forms of recomposition of the social geographies of work and the fragmentation of work processes and workers' collectives (outsourcing,  subcontracting, formality-informality, productive-reproductive, legal-illegal...). It points to the decentralization of the axes of production and circulation of goods on a global scale, while discovering the existence of productive processes in central regions that integrate forms of work considered peripheral ("the South in the North"), and vice versa, with the peripheral regions occupying a central place in the production of capital. This phenomenon can be attributed in part to the emergence of new socio-spatial configurations (new divisions of labour linked to the phenomena of metropolisation, absorption of territories by new productive specialisations - cultural, industrial, logistical - cities in decline, etc.), as well as to the massive mobilisation in all countries of the world of a labour force from elsewhere.

Since the 2008 crisis, important fractures within the neoliberal project have been revealed in the countries of southern Europe, while new ghosts are haunting the world, feeding the uncertainty about the sustainability of the wage situation in various productive sectors of the countries of the North, in an international context marked by authoritarianism and the repression of protest mobilizations and the pressing threat of climate collapse. Meanwhile, new managerial discourses are emerging, driven by techno-optimistic imaginaries that accompany the development of artificial intelligence, algorithmic control, automation and decarbonization... These are discourses that mask the reproduction of inequalities, patriarchal violence, racism and the emergence of new forms of precariousness, wear and suffering at work.

But wage relations, which are diverse and plural depending on the country and the region, are developing in a dynamic and conflictive way, with the emergence of new oppositions and resistances, even lines of flight. There are many forms of labour mobilisation (salaried work, self-employment, paid and unpaid care work, etc.) that call into question the actors that contribute to organising this formal de-employment and point the finger at States and companies, but also question the set of political and social regulations that make them possible. In this sense, attention can be focused on the (sub)cultures of work, on (in)formal socializations, on the development of concrete processes of mobilization and organization (popular, labor, professional, etc.) within the same abstract wage relationship. At the same time, it is opportune to explore the new social movements, as well as the moral economies that emerge in the "other" spaces of work (domestic, urban, popular, peasant economies, etc.) and, more broadly, the different grammars and repertoires of mobilization that assert themselves alongside the sphere of so-called "classical" work: environmentalism(s), feminism(s), postcolonial movements, etc.

Madrid, located in the so-called European semi-periphery, occupies an extremely ambiguous position in the global geoeconomic hierarchy: south of the North and north of the South; capital of one of the social democratic projects that still resist, in a residual way, within the European Union, but governed regionally by one of the most extreme neoliberal initiatives on the Western scene. Its main public university, suffocated and threatened by these policies, proposes, with limited means but with a substantial group of committed people, to serve as a privileged meeting place between the scientific communities of all these worlds.

Work is expected on the profitability strategies of contemporary capitalisms and the resistance they arouse, whatever the scales of analysis and the forms they take in the territories where they are rooted, qualitative and/or quantitative research or theoretical reflections that can feed the possible debates gathered in the following axes:

Axis 1. Inequalities and fragmentation of labour and employment markets

 One of the profitability strategies implemented by contemporary capitalism, particularly in the last 30 years, to maintain and increase profit rates is the fragmentation of production processes and the groups of workers that compose them. This fragmentation occurs both between different companies and between regions and countries, constituting what are known as global production chains. These forms of work organization are part of a broader phenomenon, in which the relocation of activities is closely linked to the differential distribution of the wage bill, as well as to the various regulations of local labor markets. Each phase of production cannot be understood in isolation; Its analysis makes it possible to reconstruct the entire production process of a given good and to evaluate its economic and social implications.

In the countries of the North, factories for the final assembly of consumer goods are concentrated, where groups of workers enjoy better working conditions. Either because they participate in the highest value-added phases of the production chain, but also because they play a key role as consumers and have a relatively greater bargaining power. This is in stark contrast to that of workers in the Global South, who are often employed in low-value-added production phases, with precarious working conditions and restricted social rights. This ideal-typical configuration can also be found on a regional or even local scale: at five o'clock in the morning, millions of workers on the outskirts of Bogotá, Paris or Moscow use public transport to reach new jobs in the unskilled tertiary sector. These people have literally put themselves at the service of the skilled workers who live and work in the centres of the metropolises, in the spaces of the new post-Fordist economy. In the world's large metropolises, these processes of polarization of labor markets are closely linked to gender, class, and race relations that are constantly updated in the devices for putting people on the cutting block and assigning them to specific market segments.

At the same time, this fragmentation of production processes reflects a dynamic in which each State elaborates rules and contractual forms adapted to the specificities of each segment and collective. On the one hand, regulations on minimum wages, working hours and working conditions vary from country to country, which contributes to reproducing and reinforcing inequalities between countries. On the other hand, new contractual formulas are being deployed to "regulate" situations that are the product of new "deregulation" (zero-hour contracts, shell companies, service commissions, internships, platform work called "uberized", self-employment, etc.) while millions of workers find refuge in popular and subsistence economies, subject to other forms of regulation that would be pertinent to explore. This reality calls into question not only economic structures, but also the political and social systems that underpin them, as well as long-term strategies to promote greater equity in the globalized labor market. Also, it's about thinking how does the international dissemination of the principles of New Public Management impact the working and employment conditions of civil servants and other employees of the public sector or similar? How do these ideas and management practices circulate on a global scale and change management dynamics within organizations, both public and private? These challenges raise crucial questions regarding the evolution of wage relations regulation and the transformation of industrial relations to address them.

Finally, careers and socio-professional trajectories are profoundly influenced by these transformations. Types of trajectories can vary widely, from linear trajectories in stable sectors to more chaotic and precarious trajectories in highly segmented areas. As a result, many workers may try to navigate different markets, either juggling jobs in the formal and informal economy or trying to develop job skills in fluctuating environments. Some trajectories are marked by upward mobility through the acquisition of new skills, while many face significant obstacles related to structural inequalities that reveal merely horizontal or even descending trajectories. This diversity of trajectories raises crucial questions about access to training and employment opportunities, as well as about the long-term consequences of labour (de)regulation policies on citizens' professional and personal lives. Moreover, how do aggressive activation and blaming policies, often implemented in times of high unemployment, influence the way categories of unemployed workers are perceived and stigmatized? What are the effects of underemployment on people's well-being and their ability to project themselves into the future, especially in a context where precarious forms of employment are increasingly common?

Axis 2: Gender in the economy and work

In recent decades, a number of global feminist policies and movements have propelled "gender equality" into the category of a political priority and a tool for analytical problematization. Numerous initiatives to promote "equal opportunities" have been launched to address the issue of women's participation, remuneration and differentiated careers in the labour market, with particular attention to segregative dynamics that make socio-economic inequalities invisible. But critical sociology knows that, in the capitalist system, equality of opportunity is nothing without the control of the means of production and social reproduction (the latter organized, in a general way, by the sexual division of labor). A first challenge is to analyze the contemporary transformations of gender as an object of public policies, regulating the relations between individuals and social groups that participate or aspire to participate in labor markets, in a context of growing influence of neoliberal rationality. This includes aspects such as the promotion of self-entrepreneurship, the individualization of professional relationships, the rise of the platform economy, as well as the development of teleworking, which has been especially updated by the health crisis in the context of collective bargaining.

It is essential to explore the multiple challenges that guide people's behaviours in labour markets, as well as the unequal experiences of gender relations that structure employment. Sociology has produced an extensive literature on the effects of equality policies and on the gender dimension of employment policies, analysing their impact on people's living and working conditions. This research also focuses on the intersection of gender, class, and race relations in labor markets, on the indirect effects of time and place of work on the times and spaces of personal and family life, as well as on the new laborious figures that emerge from these dynamics.

In a current context marked by profound and continuous transformations in the conception of work and its links with gender, it is essential to continue exploring the relations between gender and work, integrating an international dimension. This provides insight into how equality policies and labour standards are spread globally, often influenced by international conventions and agreements. This analysis also allows us to question how the permanence and reconfiguration of these social relations reveal forms of work that are devalued, degraded or almost free – often invisible – such as domestic work, volunteering, informal work or internships. In addition, it is necessary to examine the impact of major socio-demographic transformations, such as the ageing of the population, the massive increase in wages or the lengthening of the period of professional insertion, on the structure of the employment system and the various social relations that are derive from it, taking into account the international perspectives and practices that shape these developments.

In addition, it is crucial to question the issues related to different generations at work, especially young people, who often experience later integration pathways due to economic and social developments. How do these transformations impact the conditions of integration of the new generations into the labor market? What strategies are you developing to navigate an increasingly unstable work environment? Finally, it is important to consider people leaving labour markets, whether they are older workers or workers in the process of retraining, and to explore the challenges they face in their quest for reintegration.

Axis 3. Migration and mobility regimes

With globalization, the national boundaries of the labor market, which have long been references for sociologists, are being reassembled. Today, migratory flows play a central role in the transformations of the world of work and vice versa, facilitating enriching exchanges between the sociology of work and studies on migratory movements. These dynamics present challenges and opportunities for researchers, who must navigate a landscape in which employment policies and work experiences are increasingly influenced by complex migratory movements. Understanding this phenomenon requires a multidimensional approach that integrates the economic and social factors of migration. However, the sociological analysis of migration must also advance in theoretical and methodological approaches that distinguish between the different forms of mobility, distinguishing between leisure migrations, labour migrations (temporary or stable), forced expatriations, etc. As well as the different migratory strategies (temporary or rooted; alone or with family; to train, improve professionally or for intense capitalization and sending remittances...). An integrated approach to the work trajectories and social and ethnic backgrounds of displaced persons could reveal common dynamics and shared problems.

But cross-border mobility is not explained only by the initiative (voluntary or necessary) of people, but also concerns the role of companies in attracting workers at origin and assigning them to specific markets according to their nationality and migratory status (EU and non-EU, displaced, seasonal pendulum, individually or in groups, etc.). How are labor organizations adapting to and benefiting from this workforce? What can be observed in terms of differentiation of work regimes according to the social characteristics of the labor force: age, gender, class, race? The documents can inform about different types of labour migration and forms of local relocation in sectors such as agriculture, construction, domestic employment, logistics, hotels and restaurants, etc. These aspects raise crucial questions about the future of labour standards and workers' rights. Therefore, the analysis of labour migration and mobility must take into account not only individual trajectories, but also the structures underlying these movements, both locally and globally, in order to understand the contemporary challenges of the world of work.

Finally, the issue of migration does not exhaust the issue of labour mobility schemes. Cross-border work, for example, with thousands of French workers on the move regularly to Belgium, Germany, Switzerland or Luxembourg, reveals socio-spatial reconfigurations of territories where mobility dynamics are redefining the relationship between places of life and employment. At the same time, the explosion of daily mobility linked to work (more and more commuting workers commute daily or weekly interregionally to get to their workplace) gives clues to the fact that capitalism today favours alternative configurations that escape the traditional models of the city-factory. This situation raises questions about the relationship with the lived space and the inscription of resistance in a given territory, by questioning how these territorial dynamics influence the transfers of value between the different economic spaces. What types of socio-productive configurations are emerging today in relation to these mobility regimes and how do these transformations affect the redistribution of resources between territories?

Axis 4: Global Value Chains: Organizations, Disorganizations and Reorganizations of Work (in all its forms)

The world of work has historically served as a privileged field of analysis to examine the power relations that exist within any social structure. Since modernity, the link between capital and labor has been characterized by structural tensions, in which the worker is both a central element in the accumulation of capital and a potential source of conflict. Deepening these relationships is critical to understanding the recent transformations of work, marked by the transition from a Fordist model to a paradigm of flexible accumulation. This change has led to the emergence of new forms of organisation, management and, above all, governance of workers. It would no longer be enough to perform tasks mechanically in a routine context marked by the bureaucratization of work; The new scenarios would require the production and mobilization of docile subjectivities, aligned with the interests of companies and oriented towards the creation of "autonomous" individuals, strongly emotionally involved and, above all, self-regulated. 

Contemporary transformations highlight the coexistence of multiple systems of work organization. At the top of production and circulation chains, we find astonishing technological transformations: the logistics revolution, the new rearticulation of "just in time" with "just in case" (due to the new centrality of warehouses), or the rise of "modular design" in certain mass consumer goods industries. But the essential difference between what is said and what is done at work is also a structural characteristic of production relations: while managerial rhetoric speaks of teamwork, of promoting versatility, "learning" communities, horizontal structures of participation... rather, it is a question of "prescriptions" enunciated under relations of domination articulated by the voluntary cession of the will for a certain time. These developments are accompanied by the emergence of new technologies for the selection and distribution of tasks, often governed by artificial intelligence. Technologies such as "design for assembly and manufacturing" and the use of algorithms for personnel selection allow managerial management that tries to neutralize the classic uncertainties that lurked in the risk of investment and capital: the uncertainty of work and employment. These processes of disorganization and reorganization are also reflected in the implementation of classification-based classification and evaluation systems (relative position in a percentile of productivity, if not directly of profitability, of a worker) that automate the intensification of work through the constant competitiveness of operators. The rise of algorithmic management, as a means of triangulation of power, as well as performance appraisal systems, are redefining not only the contours of work, but also the resulting social structures. These dynamics create new cartographies of the governance of work, where the boundaries between power and authority, as well as between self-activation and subordination, are blurred.

But following the global chain of production allows us to find more "archaic" forms of organization governed by other logics and other forms of relationship (forced labor, modern slavery, etc.) and that are not necessarily found in distant countries. Also, "click-operators", these hands that perform repetitive tasks while waiting for robots to do complex work, are emblematic of this multiplicity of organizational models. Even the rationing of employment can favor, at the initiative of the populations and not far from the large hyper-technological centers, the development of popular and subsistence economies, side by side with the formal economies, but never far from them. For example, workers in the informal economy, such as street vendors or domestic servants, are integrated into global production chains without benefiting from social protection. The actors that regulate these economic spaces deserve special attention, as well as the dialectic between institutional prescriptions and the reaction to them in practice, the reality lived in domestic and popular economies. The dynamics of integration and opposition between the different economic spheres raise pertinent questions about the articulation of plural regimes of labor organizations and divisions of labor and hierarchies within the same social formation. The countercultures born among social groups condemned to subalternity by the mechanisms of social reproduction. The resistances (penetrations and limitations) they propose. In what way does work, in its various manifestations, concretely configure central and peripheral spaces? What role does space play in the (re)distribution of work? Under what conditions does capital reinvest territories? What does the reconversion of highly specialized economic activities mean for these places and their inhabitants? What changes in the forms of work and employment are derived from this, and what population displacements does this entail with the new social problems?

Axis 5. Subjectivities, resistances and forms of mobilization

 Work is both a productive relationship and a space for the production of discourses, desires and affects, inscribed in forms of government that highlight the contradictions inherent in capitalist relations of production. The culture of empowerment and activation policies illustrates a subject that, by appropriating work, reinforces discourses of independence and freedom. However, by asserting their autonomy, workers also individualize social risks, creating paradoxes in which flexibility and freedom often translate into increased self-policing and emotional distress. This contrast raises crucial questions: what tensions arise between freedom and obedience, especially in the context of "typical" and "atypical" jobs? How can discourses on security paradoxically increase the precariousness of workers? And how does the constant call to vocation and uniqueness generate greater psychological pressure?