Conference March 25, 2021

Isabelle Berrebi-Hoffmann is a sociologist (CNRS, Lise-Cnam), author of Politiques de l’intime. From 19th century social utopias to today’s working worlds (2009, 2016) and co-author of Makers. Social Change Laboratory Surveys (2018).

Since the 1970s, attempts have been made to reinvent work organization, to eradicate subordination, rules, hierarchies and routine. But a careful reading of the history of these experiments – in view of a work defined as creative and free – shows that the dreamed freedom and the price to pay are redefined over time. In her lecture, Isabelle Berrebi-Hoffmann will explore this story of imaginary emancipation and productive practices. She will draw on examples from her sociological work over the past 20 years in the digital worlds and a recent survey of the ecosystem and worlds of artificial intelligence in the Greater Boston and Silicon Valley region.

Video is in french

Isabelle Berrebi-Hoffmann: Between history and utopia. What is free work?