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Call for Papers: Work and Play

From the Tennis Court Oath to Nuit Debout, work and play have been instrumental in organising socio-political life in the French Republic. Culturally too, work and play are formative of identity, inviting reflection on the power relations at stake in the construction and deconstruction of identities. Inviting proposals for papers on this theme, this conference seeks to bring together a broad range of disciplinary approaches to consider theories, representations, practices and interconnections of work and play in France and the rest of the French-speaking world. Traversing sociological, political, anthropological as well as aesthetic and cultural spheres, the conference theme is intended to stimulate debate across a far-reaching horizon of enquiry.

Proposals for 20-minute papers are invited on the following, non-exhaustive areas:

  • The politics of work and play: labour and leisure
  • Class relations, social movements
  • Issues of identity: gender, sexuality, bodies, language
  • Psychologies: deviance, rebellion, depression, humour
  • Theories and practices of ‘performance’
  • Aesthetics of work and play: experiment, adaptation
  • Spaces of work and play; actual, virtual
  • Philosophies of work and play
  • Sport, games
  • Unemployment, sloth
  • Work, play and time

We invite both proposals (250 words max.) for individual papers and for panels, which should consist of three presenters and a named chairperson. All papers will last 20 minutes and may be delivered in English or French. Postgraduate students are strongly encouraged to present papers.

Postgraduate Essay Prize

Postgraduates presenting at the conference are encouraged to enter their papers for the ASMCF Postgraduate Essay Prize. The Prize includes a £50 cheque and an invitation for the winner to submit their paper to the Association’s journal, Modern & Contemporary France. If you would like more information about the prize, please contact the ASMCF Postgraduate Representative, James Illingworth: jillingworth01@qub.ac.uk

A publication connected with the theme of the Conference is planned.