An observatory to study labour narratives

Over the last forty years, labour has undergone profound transformations, including displacement of work, the switch to digital technology, the automation of industrial and agricultural processes. These changes resulted in high unemployment rates, particularly in southern European countries, and a global reconfiguration of the relationship between people and work. They are also anthropological in nature, with people constantly renewing their approaches to work. Such evolutions have become an increasingly expanding subject of study for the humanities and social sciences across multiple fields.

Why study labour narratives?

Despite their topicality and intersectionality, labour narratives are still hardly recognised as a field of study. The aim of OBERT is to make this field of study recognisable at national and international level. The term 'work narratives' refers to the various forms, strategies, means and media that individuals and communities use to express, recount and share their experiences, perceptions and visions of work. These narratives can take a variety of forms, from oral testimonies to written texts and audiovisual creations, offering a rich range of perspectives on how work is perceived, experienced and interpreted across different cultural and temporal contexts. Once these narratives are identified as a coherent object of study, it goes without saying that they can be analysed from a number of angles: literature, sociology, politics, economics, and so on. The idea is to give each researcher the opportunity to access and study labour narratives from their own disciplinary field, while at the same time creating a discursive approach that is interdisciplinary and transnational.

It was with this aim in mind that the Observatory was created, so that it could become a place where different research profiles could come together around common themes. Many people are already interested in the issue of labour narratives, but they work in isolation. Through OBERT, a network of scientists is emerging, who are contributing together to the creation of knowledge around these particular narratives.

How does it work?

The Observatory provides support for scientific projects undertaken by researchers. Once a topic is selected, such as "Women, Gender and Work", which is currently underway, there are several stages. Firstly, researchers meet to discuss and establish the main issues at stake, the most effective approach, carry out bibliographical research, debate the methodological approach in order to lay the foundations for collective research. Then, a call for papers will be issued to the broader community to prompt different formats and points of view. Building on the proposals submitted by researchers, OBERT organises study days and seminars to fuel debate and exchanges on the theme. These events are open to all and broadcast online.

Study days and seminar series will offer useful venues for researchers to share and test their results, before turning them into more tangible scientific outputs in the form of publications in academic journals or books, in order to enrich the field of study of labour narratives and maximise the visibility and impact of OBERT’s activities. This cycle is repeated on different themes, which may lead to the publication of books, such as the forthcoming Représentions artistiques du travail des femmes.

In the future, OBERT would also like to be in a position to respond to calls for projects using the results of its own research.

Labour narratives: an infinite range of possibilities

Although the Observatory is 'European' because of its geographical location, it aims to address international labour narratives in their broader sense. This means that not only the scope of the Observatory is global from a geographical perspective, but also that is aims to study labour narratives across multifarious media: far from being limited to literature, we intend to cover photography, cinema, tv series, and visual arts.

One of the roles of the humanities is to seek out and highlight alternative narratives to counterbalance the mainstream discourses. The Observatory serves to support more researchers in this effort and in enhancing the visibility and social impact of alternative discourses on the subject of labour and its derivatives. The aim is twofold: to understand what happened before, and at the same time to promote alternatives as a means of bringing about change.