You are cordially invited to the third lecture in the Lecture Series on Invisible Work, organized by the Aesop Chair in collaboration with the Centre de recherche en éthique. For this third lecture, we are pleased to welcome Lisa Herzog (University of Groningen) for a presentation titled “Against Careers.”

Abstract: This paper argues against work being organized in “careers,” with individuals being expected, over the years, to climb up a ladder of increasing income, power, and status in one specific area of paid work. This organization of work creates an “ideal biography norm” that disadvantages many groups who cannot fulfil it, e.g. active parents and other groups doing “invisible” work. After defining what I mean by “careers” and what kind of critique I raise against the concept, I briefly set out the historical background of how today’s understanding of careers developed. This shows that many arguments that spoke in favor of careers in the past no longer hold. Today, work being organized as careers threatens at least two sets of values: equality of opportunity, understood across people’s whole life, and value pluralism. As an alternative, and to rescue what still stands from the historical arguments in favor of careers, I suggest a model of “merit without careers,” in which certain functional requirements for jobs remain in place, while giving up the assumption of linearity, leaving behind the “ideal biography norm” as the “normal” case. This would better align the organization of work with the values of equality of opportunity and value pluralism.

The event will take place on May 19th, 2026, at noon in room 422 of the Department of Philosophy at the Université de Montréal (2910 Boulevard Édouard-Montpetit, Montreal, QC) in hybrid format.

Please register via the following link. To participate via Zoom, click here (Meeting ID: 704 532 7051; passcode: 9Me2EW). 

The Lecture Series on Invisible Work is an initiative by Denise Celentano (University of Montreal), holder of the Aesop Chair, in collaboration with the Centre de recherche en éthique. For more information, please contact Denise Celentano (UdeM) denise.celentano@umontreal.ca or Dominic Martin (UQAM) martin.dominic@uqam.ca.

General information about the Lecture Series: The concept of invisible work describes the forms of work that fall outside the traditional model of waged employment and are not recognized, in a monetary and/or symbolic sense, to the point that even their nature as “work” is often disputed. Invisible work takes place behind the scenes of more recognized and valued work. Given its liminal nature with respect to long-established categories, it serves as a prism for exploring a number of issues, from recognition to social segregation to the critical questioning of the normative assumptions behind what is supposed to count as “work.” The notion of invisible work promises to shed light, as it were, on the mechanisms of valorization that operate behind social cooperation. This series of lectures, open to the public, explores the subject from both a philosophical and interdisciplinary perspective.

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Annual Intensive Research Workshop

The aim of the Social Justice Theory Workshop is to enable sustained exploration in the theory of social justice. It addresses topics such as the articulation of ideals and principles of economic, political, gender, race, environmental, and cultural justice; the critique of inequality, domination, exploitation, and alienation; and the illumination of political institutions, practices and processes of transformation that might foster progressive change.

Workshop papers will be pre-circulated, and participation implies a commitment to reading the papers in advance.

This workshop is organized by Pablo Gilabert and Peter Dietsch, in association with the Social Justice Centre (Université Concordia), the Centre de recherche en éthique (Université de Montréal) and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Victoria.

The 10th edition of this intensive research workshop will take place on May 28 and 29, 2026, in room MB 14.250 at Concordia University’s John Molson Pavilion, located at 1450 Guy Street in Montreal, Quebec.

The workshop will be in person. Places are limited and registration is required. If you would like to participate, please contact Christiane Bailey at the following address before May 1st : sjc@concordia.ca.

Speakers:

• Peter Dietsch (University of Victoria) and Thomas Rixen: “How to Catalyse the Green Transition: Insulation, Expansion, and the Politics of Distribution”
  – Commentator: Matthias Fritsch (Concordia University)
• Pablo Gilabert (Concordia University) : “Why We Should Support Working Artists”
  – Commentator: Louis-Philippe Hodgson (York University)
• Cristina Lafont (Northwestern University) : “Inequality and the Human Rights Project”
  – Commentator: Dominique Leydet (Université du Québec à Montréal)
• Sanjay Reddy (New School for Social Research) : “Intergenerational concern in a new key »
  – Commentator: Mauro Rossi (Université du Québec à Montréal)
• Gina Schouten (Harvard University) : “On Educational Opportunity”
  – Commentator: Andrée-Anne Cormier (École Nationale d’Administration Publique)
• Vid Simoniti (University of Liverpool) : “Democratic control of cultural change through images”
  – Commentator: Ryoa Chung (University of Montréal)

For more information, please consult the following link.

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