Language and Work: The Post-Pandemic Evolutions of Categorizations Toward (Un)Employment and Working Conditions

This session questions the variability of discourses and new classifications and categorizations of work, its organization and (un)employment, in a (post-)pandemic context.

The pandemic shed light on new forms of work organization, like remote working, while its definition may lead to debate. At the same time, new forms of employment modify the direct relationship between employer and employee, and new organizational models are reinvented ("télémédecine" [online health consultation by Medical Doctor], "click and collect", "économie des plateformes" (platform economy)). The crisis management also questioned work by separating what is essential and what is not, underlying front line occupations, these "pandemic war heroes" who enabled to the Nation State to keep social bonds. Between war, sanitary, or democratic rhetorics, the role of Welfare State and public discourse were also interrogated. The delimitations of the power of science as a source of legitimacy and sanitarization of social discourse decided what is allowed from what it is not allowed, what is normal from what it is not normal, which lead to a stigmatization of deviant behaviours.

Contributions for this session will aim to shed light the diversity of qualifications and classifications of work and employment toward a diversity of countries, actors (State, firm, trade union, association, workers) and linguistic contexts. The objective is to analyse the effects of the pandemic on categorization of (un)employment and working conditions.