The British Sociological Association

Early Career Workshop on the Sociology of Work and Wellbeing

A BSA Early Career Forum Regional Event

18 September 2026
Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, UK

About the Event

The event will be an Early Career Researcher (ECR) paper development workshop on the theme: ‘The Sociology of Work and Wellbeing’. Hosted at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, home of the Wellbeing Research Centre, this workshop will host up to 25 ECRs for an opportunity to present and develop their research papers on the theme and network with other ECRs in the South of England.

The workshop will explore how to revitalise sociological perspectives on work and wellbeing. The sociology of work has long been uniquely concerned with the question of wellbeing, more so than other fields of sociology. Yet in academic and policy debates on wellbeing, psychology, economics, and mainstream management studies dominate. Recent contributions (e.g. Tausig, 2013; Chamberlain et al., 2025) have gone some way to summarising the field as it stands now. However, several avenues remain either underexplored or disconnected from one another. This workshop will strive to enhance and strengthen the sociological voice on the topic by supporting empirical research and expanded theorisation.

The workshop will emphasise career development, including: a meet-the-editors session with the editors of leading British journals that publish the sociology of work; opportunities to network with other ECRs; and a panel or keynote with senior scholars to construct a longer-term view on the sociology of work and wellbeing.

Call for Papers

We invite papers for a one-day paper development workshop on the theme of the Sociology of Work and Wellbeing. The workshop will explore how to integrate and revitalise sociological perspectives on work and wellbeing.

Sociologists have long been concerned with questions of human flourishing, with classic insights emerging from analyses of concepts like anomie, alienation, and disenchantment. Yet over time, broader notions of wellbeing and flourishing have increasingly been narrowed to subjective experience, how people feel, often at the expense of richer accounts of social life.

The sociology of work has been a notable exception. Across diverse empirical traditions, it has consistently engaged with both the experiential and structural dimensions of wellbeing, from job satisfaction to processes of social control and exploitation. This commitment remains evident today. Sociological research has been vital for identifying the harms of new forms of employment, precarity, platforms, and technological control; as well as producing landmark studies of organisational interventions.

Existing attempts at synthesising the sociology of work and wellbeing have focused on where the field is most methodologically mature: work quality or quantitative research with subjective wellbeing metrics. In doing so, the risk is that the full richness of sociological research on work and wellbeing remains overlooked, fragmented, or with normative debates underexamined.

This workshop welcomes all sociological contributions on the topics of work and wellbeing to meet this aim: how and why work is experienced as good or bad, how individuals navigate these conditions, and how such experiences are shaped by broader social structures.

Our review of extant scholarship notes four streams:

• Subjective wellbeing and its connections with social and workplace variables
• Job quality and the conditions which produce workers’ welfare
• Critical engagement with the harms of capitalist means of production and as a site of social inequality
• Pragmatic investigations on how workers, families and professions navigate, find meaning, and justify work with respect to their sense of the good life

Beyond this guiding summary, we also invite creativity over what wellbeing means in sociological research on work, employment and organisations. We encourage theorisation beyond dominant psychological theories regarding what and how work – in general; different types; and different dimensions – is good or bad for us; and how that links to additional normative priorities in identity, justice, meaning, morality, and power.

We welcome both theoretical and empirical research, and encourage methodological diversity. We are especially keen to read research which engages with policy issues of the day, such as job quality and employment rights, economic inactivity, artificial intelligence, working time, polarisation, migration, ecological crisis, and productivity.

As a BSA Early Careers Workshop we are especially seeking contributions from junior researchers, including Masters students, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior faculty.
The workshop will provide opportunities for networking and includes a meet-the-editors session at prospective journals (including Sociology, Work, Employment and Society, and British Journal of Industrial Relations) to help researchers prepare their work for publication.

Deadlines and Response

Deadline for submission: noon on 18 June 2026 (BST)

Please submit title of paper and extended abstracts of up to 800 words to the organisers. We will assess your abstracts partly on how confident we are that the research for the paper will be complete by the time you present, so please provide an assessment of progress of your research in your abstracts.

We will return a decision on your abstract by 18 July 2026, when registration will open.  Registration will close on 18 August 2026.

Registration

Attendees will be charged £5, which will include lunch and refreshments. We have a small transport bursary available; for details please contact the co-ordinators.

Registration for this event will open in due course.

Indicative bibliography
Abbott, A. (2018). Varieties of Normative Inquiry: Moral Alternatives to Politicization in Sociology. The American Sociologist, 49(2), 158–180.
Bailey, C., Madden, A., & Lips-Wiersma, M. (2024). Experiencing meaningful work through worthwhile contributions: A critical discourse analysis. Human Relations, 00187267241255581. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267241255581
Bolton, S. C., & Laaser, K. (2013). Work, employment and society through the lens of moral economy. Work, Employment and Society, 27(3), 508–525. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017013479828
Chamberlain, L., Hughes, E., & Donnelly, R. (2025). Bridging the Gaps in Work Quality Research: A Multi-Level Interdisciplinary Review. Work, Employment and Society, 09500170251325790. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170251325790
Cole, M. (2007). Re-Thinking Unemployment: A Challenge to the Legacy of Jahoda et al. Sociology, 41(6), 1133–1149. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038507082319
Delgaty, A., & Wilson, E. R. (2024). The Hidden Strains of ‘Cool’ Jobs. Sociology, 58(2), 351–368.
Doellgast, V., Bidwell, M., & Colvin, A. J. S. (2021). New Directions in Employment Relations Theory: Understanding Fragmentation, Identity, and Legitimacy. ILR Review, 74(3), 555–579. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793921993445
Goldthorpe, J. H., Lockwood, D., Bechhofer, F., & Platt, J. (1968). The Affluent Worker: Industrial Attitudes and Behaviour. Cambridge University Press.
Green, F. (2026). Hard at Work: Job Quality, Wellbeing, and the Global Economy. Oxford University Press.
Griesbach, K. (2025). Positioning Stories: Accounting for Insecure Work. American Sociological Review, 90(3), 493–520. https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224251328393
Halford, S., & Strangleman, T. (2009). In Search of the Sociology of Work: Past, Present and Future. Sociology, 43(5), 811–828. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038509341307
Kalleberg, A. L. (2018). Precarious Lives: Job Insecurity and Well-Being in Rich Democracies. Polity Press.
Kelly, E. L., & Moen, P. (2020). Overload: How Good Jobs Went Bad and What We Can Do About It. Princeton University Press.
Ringqvist, J. (2024). Integrating Collective Voice within Job Demands–Resources Theory—Josef Ringqvist, 2024. Work, Employent & Society. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170241254306
Tausig, M. (2013). The Sociology of Work and Well-Being. In C. S. Aneshensel, J. C. Phelan, & A. Bierman (Eds), Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health (Second, pp. 433–455). Springer Dordrecht.
Veenhoven, R. (2008). Sociological Theories of Subjective Wellbeing. In M. Eid & R. Larsen (Eds), The Science of Subjective Well-being: A tribute to Ed Diener (pp. 44–61). Guildford Publications.