We are currently advertising a fully funded PhD studentship, with an international supervisory team made up of myself and Jenni Cauvain from Nottingham Trent University and Timothy Raeymaekers from the University of Bologna. Funding covers fees, a stipend, and additional funds to enable the candidate to spend time at both institutions. Further details below, please circulate to anyone who you think may be interested, and I’m happy to be contacted with any questions at tom.vickers@ntu.ac.uk.
Ecologies of Labour: A case study
This project will explore the potential for working practices to be reimagined in ways that are ecologically sustainable, perhaps even regenerative, and which produce benefits for more-than-human societies. Despite extensive evidence that human activities have produced an ecological and environmental crisis, and the central role of labour within human-environment interactions, responses to the environmental crisis by western academia and policy-makers have so far largely been limited to consumption and, within production, to outputs, processes and materials.
Humans have practised more ecologically sound forms of labour for thousands of years, taking a multitude of forms across the world, but under the hegemony of modern Western capitalism much of this has been repressed, denigrated as ‘backward’, or simply forgotten. In other cases, innovative practices have been developed but these are largely small scale, poorly resourced, and under-valued.
Focusing on a specific form of labour chosen by the applicant, which might be traditional, indigenous and/or based on recent innovations, this project will explore its origins, the relations it produces between labourers and themselves, other members of society, and nature, and its potential to contribute to the future of work. As part of their proposal applicants are encouraged to consider the potential for embodied forms of knowledge, cultural transmission of labouring practices, and the social relations that govern access to the material resources required for this labour.
Application deadline: Friday 12 January 2024, closing at 12 pm.
Full details and to apply: https://www.ntu.ac.uk/study-and-courses/postgraduate/phd/phd-opportunities/studentships/school-of-social-sciences-studentships/ecologies-of-labour-a-case-study