Conferences

2021 ASMI Annual Conference

(Online) 3-4 December 2021

LABOUR AND THE MAKING OF ITALY FROM CAVOUR TO COVID

 (A worker at the Weber factory in Bologna assembling a carburettor needle valve. Bologna, February 1950. Photographic archive, UDI Bologna)

This year ASMI annual conference will explore meanings and transformations of work in modern and contemporary Italy, including labour’s shifting geographies, discourses and representations. The decline of the Fordist factory and the diminishing centrality of factories into people’s life and Italy’s national identity triggered in the 1980s and 1990s a temporary decline in the study of labour. However, growing interest in issues such as homeworking, the feminization of work, precarity and “non-lavoro”, cognitive work, new digital professions, transnational flows of labour migration have recently signalled a revival of the field with original and thought-provoking research being carried out in history, political science, sociology, cultural studies and anthropology. Taking stock of this innovative and increasingly interdisciplinary scholarship, the conference will examine the key role played by work in Italy’s political, economic, cultural and social developments since unification and will provide a space to further encourage dialogue on work-related themes across disciplinary boundaries.

This conference will be held online, and Zoom links will be circulated to attendees signed on with Eventbrite tickets prior to the 3rd December. The conference is free. However, we encourage participants to support and join ASMI. ASMI membership is annual and includes a subscription to Modern Italy (four issues per year – Cambridge University Press)

The conference will include two keynote lectures:

Friday, 3 December, 9:30: Andrea Sangiovanni (University of Teramo): 'Il lavoro immaginario. Le rappresentazioni mediali del lavoro in Italia dal miracolo economico ad oggi'.

Saturday, 4 December, 11:15: Maud Bracke (university of Glasgow): 'Feminist thought and the question of work in the 20^th Century'.

On the last day, there will be a screening of 'Ragioni Politiche. Incontro con Vittorio Foa', directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci and scripted by Giuseppe Bertolucci with Paul Ginsborg. Prof. Ginsborg will be present for some remarks.

You can find the complete programme and the links for the online sessions by following this link. You can also find more info on the panellists and keynote speakers here.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any queries and requests for clarification.