Work and human activities

Research into work and human activities explores the profound changes that affect the forms, conditions and legal framework of work and social relations at work. A number of factors are behind these changes:

• the spread of digital technology and artificial intelligence - the "4th industrial revolution",
• the redistribution of production locations around the world which involves the conflicting dynamics of delocalisation and re-location combined with national sovereignty issues,
• the state of global resources,
• changes in consumption patterns and lifestyles particularly in relation to environmental concerns, social protection expectations and technical and technological innovations,
• workplace hierarchy models between employee autonomy and responsibility.

In 2022, CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences set up a Study Group on Work made up of researchers from different disciplines and research centres. Thierry Berthet, CNRS research professor and director of the Institute of Labour Economics and Industrial Sociology (LEST) (LEST, Aix-en-Provence) and Delphine Mercier, CNRS research professor and Deputy Director of LEST are in charge of coordinating this study group's work. The group has been tasked with mapping research on this subject, identifying priority themes and thought about the strategy that needs to be implemented to operationalise this priority subject and encourage collaboration between laboratories and between disciplines. The results of the group's work will be published in a white paper by the end of 2024.

In connection with this initiative, CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences has also joined with the IMÉRA to set up a chair on The Worlds of Work (2023-2024 and 2024-2025).

Finally, in 2023 CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences is financing the "RESTEZ” prospective network working on a social experiment aiming at creating a territory with zero long-term unemployment.

Research centers and networks