The LEST General Seminar
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?
Here, “work” is not to be understood 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. In fact, 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.
Register for the 2026–2027 public seminars
Whether online or in person, sign up at this form, for SG3, SG4, SG5, SG7 and SG8
Organisation
Organisation of the seminar
By bringing together a range of empirical case studies and disciplinary approaches, this programme for the LEST’s general seminar thus aims to explore, collectively, how the boundaries of work are being redefined today – what is recognised as such, or not, and by whom, and what this entails – as well as contemporary forms of organisation, emancipation, interdependence and global transformation.
Eight sessions in a variety of formats, on Mondays from 10.00 am to 12.30 pm
- SG1 the back-to-term seminar to put our intellectual worlds into practice (21 September, internal seminar): to bring our key figures together and share their insights, and to lay the foundations for a dialogue.
- SG2 the induction seminar for new students (12 October, in-house seminar)
- SG3 putting forms of engagement into practice (7 December, public seminar)
- SG4 putting the world to work to feed it (4 January, public seminar)
- SG5 putting knowledge into practice (15 February, public seminar)
- SG6 the doctoral seminar for the defence of a thesis (22 March, in-house seminar)
- SG7 putting people to work as a means of discarding them (10 May, public seminar)
- SG8 The LEST-CEREQ seminar on the practical application of data and data from practical application (14 June, public seminar)
Public seminars 2026–2027
For the thematic sessions, each seminar will feature two or three different presentations, with the aim of fostering dialogue between different approaches, circulating ideas and exploring the ways in which these processes of “putting into practice” unfold, are organised, evolve or are challenged depending on the context. Next, we want to try to build bridges, rather than maintaining boundaries between disciplines, through group discussions in the form of world cafés. The aim of these discussions will be to foster dialogue between scientific traditions that are sometimes quite distant from one another, and to transform any potential friction between analytical frameworks into resources for rethinking the way work is carried out.
The meeting on 7 December examines contemporary forms of engagement as processes through which individuals and groups are mobilised, and explores the tensions between emancipation and being called upon to contribute, between organisation and mobilisation, and between representation and the aspiration for change. It thus invites us to reflect on how aspirations to transform social orders themselves become an object of labour, coordination and, at times, co-optation. Who does the work when we become engaged? Can engagement be co-opted as a resource? What is activist work?
The meeting on 4 January explores how the world is put to work to feed us, focusing on issues of production, exploitation, and ways of (co-)inhabiting the world. This session aims to examine the processes through which the world – be it the soil, living organisms, so-called natural resources, bodies or territories – is put to work to ensure food security. If we conceive of food and agriculture as a form of labour: who feeds whom? Who or what are we putting to work?
The meeting on 15 February focuses on the practical application of knowledge. This session examines the processes by which knowledge is produced, mobilised and circulated within society. We will collectively explore the tensions between knowledge production, professionalisation, expertise and the capacity to act. What forms of knowledge are legitimised or valued, and for what purposes? Who produces knowledge and who “endures” it?
The session on 10 May focuses on the commodification of labour as a form of discarding. What forms of discarding accompany the commodification of the world’s labour? Whether it be waste, sewage, sacrificed territories or the invisible activities associated with their management and circulation. Does any form of putting the world to work necessarily produce waste? What does this tell us about the functioning of contemporary production systems?