Events
The Work and Equalities Institute runs a wide variety of different events and activities, and collaborates with a range of stakeholders.
Fairness reimagined: Multidisciplinary perspectives about work
Date: 21 - 22 January 2025
Speakers: Professor Karen Niven, Professor Richard Hyman and Dr Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick, Professor Gary Younge
Venue: Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester
Overview
The conference aimed to bring together academics and practitioners to discuss how questions of fairness and equality are being reimagined to humanise and improve work in what remains a socially, politically and economically challenging landscape.
Fairness and equality are urgent matters in the changing context of work and are central to achieving growth, development and social justice. Against this backdrop, multidisciplinary dialogue between diverse actors and projects is essential to identify sustainable directions and discuss the challenges of articulating an inclusive and transformational language of fairness that is sustained by concrete initiatives, commitments and accountabilities to create a credible roadmap for positive, transformational change.
The conference looked to contribute to our understanding of these challenges, exploring and showcasing how workers, organisations, unions, regulatory actors and others are engaging with contested ideas about fairness and using windows of opportunity to mobilise views, approaches and action.
Programme and session updates
Day 1: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
- 9.45am: Keynote Address
“Tolerating Evil: The Role of Bystanders in Workplace Bullying”
By: Professor Karen Niven (Sheffield University Management School)
Explore the 'darker' side of workplace relationships, focusing on bullying and aggression. - 4pm: Launch of Work-Net International
A global network of 31 research centers on work and employment will officially launch with:- Panel Discussions: The importance of interdisciplinary and comparative research.
- 5.30pm: Formal launch by Professor Jill Rubery, Professor Duncan Ivison, and a senior ILO officer.
- 6pm: Drinks reception and combined conference dinner.
Day 2: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
- 10.45am: Plenary on Social and Political Change in Work and Regulation
Part 1:- Professor Richard Hyman (LSE) & Dr Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick (Birkbeck)
Topic: The evolving agendas of the European Trade Union Confederation. - Professor Damian Grimshaw (King’s College London) & Andrea Marinucci (ILO)
Topic: Insights from the latest ILO Flagship Report on collective bargaining. - Watch the video
- Professor Richard Hyman (LSE) & Dr Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick (Birkbeck)
- 4pm: Closing Keynote Address
“Equal Opportunities, Not Photo Opportunities”
By: Professor Gary Younge (University of Manchester)
Dive into the role of diversity and representation as routes toward institutional change and equality.
Watch the video
For full sessions, rooms and timings, please read the conference schedule.
Please also read the Book of Abstracts.
If you have any questions, please contact fairwrc@manchester.ac.uk.
De-Mystifying Impact: What is it, who’s doing it, and how do we capture it?
Speakers: Hannah Clarke, Callum Wood, Joanne Summers, Julie Froud, Kiefer Lambert
Date: Wednesday 2nd April 2025
Abstract
Alongside publications and grant capture, researchers are increasingly expected to demonstrate the real-world applications and ‘impact’ of their findings within organisations, policy making processes and wider society. In REF 2021, impact case studies contributed 25% to the overall assessment (up from 20% in 2014), and a strong performance on impact can improve an institution’s overall ranking. However, defining and measuring impact remains challenging, and many researchers who are not involved in REF impact case studies may be unsure about how to build their impact activities and profile.
About the presentations
This was an internal event for WEI staff and students. The video recording of the event and the PowerPoint presentation are available below for internal WEI staff and students only.
The value of human labour
This session presented an interdisciplinary discussion of critical issues confronting human labour under Covid-19.
The Covid-19 pandemic is having a profound impact on work and working lives. This has ignited an important debate on the value of human labour, which has increased awareness of the criticality of a wide range of jobs, many of which have been traditionally undervalued, both politically and socially.
The UK government’s definition of ‘key workers’ amount to 7.1 million adults, many of which are underpaid, working in insecure jobs and operating in public-facing roles. Among key workers, Black, Asian, and working-class groups make up a disproportionately large share, leaving them far more exposed to infection. Additionally, sectors dominated by female workers, such as retail and hospitality, have been hit hard by variations of lockdown, placing them at increased risk of both job loss and furlough. Uncertainty surrounding schooling and childcare provision adds an extra burden.
Speakers included:
Francesca Gains: Professor of Public Policy, Academic Co-Director of Policy@Manchester and member of the Greater Manchester Women and Girls’ Equality Panel.
Martí López-Andreu: Senior Lecturer in HRM and Employment Relations, Newcastle University, and an associate member of the Work and Equalities Institute.
Cristina Inversi: Research Fellow in Labour Law at Università Statale di Milano and a member of the Work and Equalities Institute Institute.
Tony Dundon: Professor of HRM and Employment Relations at Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, and Visiting Professor at the Work and Equalities Institute.
Sheena Johnson: Professor of Work Psychology and Wellbeing at the University of Manchester. She heads up the Fair Treatment at Work theme in the Work and Equalities Institute, and the Social Change and Ageing theme in the Thomas Ashton Institute, University of Manchester.
View presentation slides
- Gender, growth and devolution: Francesca Gains.
- Bogus self-employment and Covid-19: Martí López-Andreu.
- #HereToDeliver: Tony Dundon and Cristina Inversi.
The value of human labour 2
The second session continued the interdisciplinary discussion of critical issues confronting human labour under Covid-19.
Abbie Winton: final year doctoral researcher at the Work and Equalities Institute. Her research explores retail work and sociotechnical change, with a current focus on the crisis and the shaping impact this could have on the future of work within the sector.
Debra Howcroft: Professor of Technology and Organisation at the Work and Equalities Institute and Editor of New Technology, Work and Employment.
Jill Rubery: Professor of Comparative Employment Systems and Director of the Work and Equalities Institute.
Jo McBride: Professor at the University of Durham.
Miguel Martinez Lucio: Professor at the Work & Equalities Institute and Editor of New Technology, Work and Employment.
Anthony Rafferty: Professor of Employment Studies at the University of Manchester and a Deputy Director of the Work and Equalities Institute (WEI).
Stefania Marino: Senior Lecturer in Employment Studies at the University of Manchester.
- Listen to the podcast.
View presentation slides
- Beyond work intensification: Jo McBride and Miguel Martinez Lucio.
- Sharing the load: Jill Rubery and Isabel Tavora.
- Conflicting Covid narratives: Abbie Winton and Debra Howcroft
- COVID-19 and the importance of migrant labour in the UK: Stefania Marino, Anthony Rafferty and Miguel Martinez Lucio