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Consumption Work and Societal Divisions of Labour

Contemporary global developments in work and employment are transforming labour and reshaping relations between workers, creating new webs of interconnection across the world. The objective of this European Research Council funded research programme is a radical renewal of the foundational concept of 'the division of labour', by situating traditional understandings of the technical allocation of tasks within an expanded theoretical framework. Two additional dimensions of differentiation and interdependency of work activities are proposed, namely across socio-economic modes (market, non-market, etc.) and across the economic processes of production, distribution, exchange, and preparation for consumption.

people recycling

The approach will be developed by researching the new terrain of consumption work: all work undertaken by consumers necessary for the purchase, use, re-use and disposal of consumption goods. The research will investigate how the work of consumers is shaped by its articulation with that of providers, and vice versa. Three contrasting empirical probes are chosen for the questions each raises about consumption work and its increasing socio-economic importance: domestic broadband installation, food preparation and household recycling of waste. Analysis will centre for each on the varying nature of the interface and interaction between consumption work and systems of provision in five comparator countries (UK, Sweden, France, Taiwan, South Korea) selected for their contrasting welfare regimes. The research programme is global, comparative and historical, aiming at reconceptualisation of the division of labour through substantive empirical research and integrative theoretical analysis. It will advance comprehension of ongoing socio-economic change and establish consumption work as a field of enquiry

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