Continuities and Discontinuities in Work and Employment
BSA Work, Employment & Society Conference 2025
8-10 September 2025
University of Manchester, UK
About the Event
“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.”
Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Continuities and discontinuities are at the heart of discussions about the sociology of work and employment. Within the unsettling fast pace that characterizes contemporary societies, workers and organizations often long for continuity whilst grappling with its ambiguities and paradoxes. The promise of discontinuities can be appealing given their seemingly novel, improved and transformational quality, inviting us to think about possibilities and opportunities to overcome, move on and evolve. Continuities, however, give us a sense of familiarity and control, the kind that can provide comfort and a sense of protection against uncertainties and unknowns. At the intersection of continuities and discontinuities lie important tensions where knowledge about life, work and employment are entangled, highlighting the complex, inseparable junctures that shape existence.
The landscape of life, work and employment has been shaped by continuities and discontinuities that have emerged from the constant state of economic, technological, social and cultural transformation. The last 50 years have been characterized by increasing geopolitical uncertainty and social revolution (1970s), socioeconomic changes brought by free market economic systems (1980s), technological developments, such as the emergence of Web 1.0 (1990s), and recessions and economic crises (2000s). The last two decades have seen complex and accelerated world transformations, through changes in geopolitical power, communication (e.g., social media and digital transformation), as well as ongoing conflicts that continue to unsettle ideas about self-determination (e.g., the Israeli devastation of Gaza and the Russian invasion of Ukraine), and recent global crises, such as Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
These events have altered the way we think about continuities and discontinuities in life, work and employment across time, space and place, highlighting the importance of engaging with the interconnected simultaneous dualities created by continuities and discontinuities, and reminding us that we inhabit spaces where multiple fractures and fluxes coexist with different ideas, dreams and expectations of stability, hope and transformation. On the one hand, the pressures of social and economic acceleration, driven by technological developments, impose constant and rapid dynamics that promote discontinuities and present them as essential to ideas of societal and organizational progress. On the other hand, continuities play a central role, helping us to reaffirm our sense of self and claim spaces of belonging within structures of life, work and employment.
To advance discussions in the sociology of work and employment, we need to better understand what underpins continuities and discontinuities and their role in facing unknowns and navigating uncertainties. Furthermore, we must explore their implications for understanding(s) about relational practices, norms, established routines, arrangements, structures, dynamics and processes, including taken-for-granted assumptions and accepted grand narratives about work and employment.