In 2026–2027, LEST is launching a new cycle of its general seminar series, focusing on a cross-cutting theme: putting the world to work.
The concept of ‘putting the world to work’ aims to examine, from a multidisciplinary perspective, the processes through which elements of the world (humans, non-humans, infrastructure, knowledge, objects and communities) are engaged in the dynamics of producing, reproducing and transforming the world.
Which work placement(s)?
What does it actually mean to put the world to work – under what conditions, for whom, and with what consequences?
The term “work” is not to be understood here solely in the sense of employment or economic activity, but rather as a broader analytical category, enabling us to grasp a diversity of forms of social engagement and coexistence. Indeed, work is permeated by relationships of economic exploitation and social oppression, as well as by bonds of solidarity, which are today inseparable from production, the subjugation of the world and the mobilisation of living beings as resources.
From this perspective, the concept of “putting people to work” – which is deliberately polysemic and ambiguous – refers to a variety of processes. It can refer to material, sensory and infrastructural dynamics surrounding work, for example, those enabling agricultural production, waste management, the exploitation of living organisms or data processing. It also encompasses institutional and organisational processes for the preparation and control of work, drawing on educational and vocational systems, mechanisms of expertise, public policies, and all manner of intermediary actors. ‘Putting to work’ may also refer to political and subjective processes that question, challenge or redefine the contours of work, and the frictions generated in relation to dominant social orders.
This approach, centred on labour, also enables us to examine the widespread crises within a socio-economic system under strain, characterised by the depletion of terrestrial and human socio-reproductive functions. Finally, it highlights the contradictions inherent in all activities and which run through these dynamics – for example, between emancipation and control, valorisation and destruction, participation and invisibilisation.
The session on 10 May is entitled “Putting people to work as a means of discarding them”. What forms of waste are associated with the commodification of the world? Whether it be waste, sewage, sacrificed territories or the hidden activities involved in their management and circulation. Does any form of commodification necessarily produce waste? What does this tell us about the functioning of contemporary production systems?