5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

The reflection on working time and exploitation is not new, but perhaps certain forms of resistance, objection and desertion are. These concern both young people who refuse to participate in a generationally punitive and increasingly greedy and exploitative labour market, and the new phenomenon of the so-called "great resignations" which seems to originate from the stop imposed by the pandemic. The pandemic as a moment of rupture should be considered in the light of a growing demand for flexibility of the labor supply that is probably in this case reworked in terms of reappropriation of spaces, life and autonomy.

With the hypothesis of a rejection of working conditions and therefore of life it should be also considered an attempt to subvert the order of values imposed with practices of objection and desertion from the system.

Theoretical and empirical contributions are expected taking into account differences in gender, age, territory, class and education:

Great resignation (myth and reality)

Critical Analysis of Available Data and Sources

Expectations of mobility and recognition not met

Abandonment of urban areas, smart working and a more sustainable life balance.

Great resignation or reshuffle (the reshuffling of the mixtures of forms of work both in labour market trends and in individual trajectories).

Poor work and workers in poverty (difficulties in economic autonomy, existential planning, in leaving the family or returning to the families of origin).

Labour and workers and their essential lack of representation.

Quiet quitters, silent resignation, withdrawal from the labour market or change of location