Precarious work, Precarious life: Unemployment and work in the context of neoliberalism

This event has ended.

Workshop summary

With 40 years of neoliberal policies driving record levels of un/underemployment, informal and precarious work now shape economic development and social welfare in Brazil. Suitable participatory tools are needed to support progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) towards understanding economic innovations in work, the environment or and everyday experiences of social and economic precarity.

This UK-Brazil ECR Researcher Links Workshop will bring together 13 Early Career Researchers in the UK and 13 from State of São Paulo, Brazil working on the topics of precarity, work, UN SDGs, neoliberalism and subjectivity who seek to develop conceptual and methodological participatory approaches to research in these areas.

Across three half-days, we will address the need for research innovation on precarious work and un/underemployment in Brazil, building internationally robust policy-relevant and place-based partnership approaches. We will seek to enhance new forms of citizen and stakeholder involvement, as well as identify innovative responses from local communities. Given our current context, attention will be paid to the sustainability of local and citizen groups, using lessons learnt from Covid-19.

The workshop will build a mentorship network with the support from four professors/senior researchers (Professor Valerie Walkerdine and Dr. Shailen Nandy from Cardiff University and Professor Leny Sato and Fabiana Jardim from University of São Paulo) with extensive experience in these areas. Mentorship will involve two follow-up meetings and collaboration in a toolkit e-book for participatory academic and NGO research with precarious workers. We hope this workshop will initiate ongoing exchange and collaboration between participants as they further their research in this area.

To apply, please complete the online form here before the 6th September