CfP: Thinking the future of work in agriculture. Second International Symposium on Work in Agriculture

Call for papers, deadline 15 January 2020

ISWA - September 27th-30th 2020, Clermont-Ferrand (France)

Opening November 15th 2019 / Closing January 15th 2020

1.3 billion people work in agriculture, the sector representing 25 % of the total employment in the world. Work in agriculture faces continuities, such as i) the ongoing model of a dominant family-based activity but also with a high contribution of wage earners to the work (42 % of farmworkers are salaried); ii) the large diversity of work contents due to the various production systems (vegetables, crops, indoor or outdoor livestock, etc.) and to the various models of work organization (taylorism, cooperation, externalization of tasks).

But work in agriculture also faces changes referring to various dynamics :  i) the emergence of « firm models » with a large use of contractors, as a new figure of highly productive farms; ii) the development of agroecological farming systems combining a large diversity of production systems and regular interactions between farmers and consumers ; iii) the more and more meaningful contribution of migrants to farm work particularly in many OECD countries; iv) the end of ignorance of the negative impacts of chemicals on workers’ health ; v) the consolidation of global chains and its reflects on work and labor governance; vi)  the use of new technologies (robots, sensors, internet) that modify work rhythms, workload and the skills required under the paradigm of Agricultures 4.0.

These changes and continuities question the future of work in agriculture: employment, gender equity, health, professional identities, skills, organization, farming models, working conditions and quality of life at work. Are sufficient knowledge, useful frameworks and tools provided to follow up the changes of work in a sustainable way?   Are the various dimensions of work (employment, health, organization…) connected to build prospects for decent work in the future ?

The 2nd Symposium welcomes research, education and extension contributions. The Symposium welcomes various disciplinary approaches of work such as Economics, Ergonomics, Medicine and Health Sciences, Design, Sociology, Management, agrarian sciences and Farming Systems). It proposes conferences ; workshops including oral presentations and poster sessions ; round tables ; participatory discussions and a tool bazard to debate on the different dimensions of work, to explore cross cutting issues, dealing with a deep understanding of the work in agriculture continuities and changes, exploring future scenarios and providing resources for the future.

The call for communications will cover 8 themes, leading to 8 workshops. Each of them is detailled by a group of convenors :

  • Workshop 1 - Employment
  • Workshop 2 - Health and Work in Agricultural Activity
  • Workshop 3 - Rural Development
  • Workshop 4 - Gender issues in agriculture
  • Workshop 5 - Wage-earners
  • Workshop 6 - Forms of work organization in farms
  • Workshop 7 - Farming models and professional identities
  • Workshop 8 - Innovations and adaptation to changes

Submission guidelines

The application form must be submitted before  15 January 2020

to iswa2020call@gmail.com

As they are the only element used by the scientific committee for selecting and managing the papers, the abstracts must be informative (2 pages max.) about the challenges, the scientific questions treated in the studies, the methods and the results.  They must be written in English.

The scientific committee will direct the selected abstracts towards two possible communication formats:

  • a long written paper (35.000 characters including spaces) with an oral presentation.
  • an extended abstracts attached to a poster presentation (a maximum of 8.000 characters including spaces)

Scientific Committee

  • BOONABAANA  Brenda Makerere University  Uganda
  • CHAUVAT Sophie Idele France
  • CONTZEN Sandra School of Agricultural, Forest & Food Sciences Switzerland
  • COURNUT Sylvie UMR Territoires France
  • DEDIEU Benoit INRAE France
  • DIAO CAMARA Astou ISRA Senegal
  • DORIN Bruno CIRAD India
  • FORREST ZHANG Qian Singapore Management University Singapore
  • HOSTIOU Nathalie UMR Territoires  France
  • KINSELLA James University of Dublin Ireland
  • KLERKX Laurens WUR Netherlands
  • LAURENT Catherine INRAE France
  • LUNDQVIST Peter SLU Sweden
  •  MALANSKI  Priscila State University of Maringa Brazil
  • NEIMAN  Guillermo  Conicet Argentina
  • NETTLE Ruth  University of Melbourne Australia
  • PIET Laurent INRAE  France
  • SANTHANAM-MARTIN Michael University of Melbourne Australia
  • SCHIAVI Sandra  State University of Maringa Brazil
  • SRAÏRI Mohamed-Taher  Institut Agronomique Hassan II Morocco
  • ULBRICHT Leandra  Federal Univ of Technology  Parana  Brazil
  • UMSTATTER Christina Agroscope  Switzerland
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