FOENANDER PUBLIC LECTURE 2009: What Makes for Meaningful Work in the 21st Century: Terms, Conditions and Contexts

PRESENTER: Professor Barbara Pocock
TOPIC: What Makes for Meaningful Work in the 21st Century: Terms, Conditions and Contexts
TIME: 6:30pm with refreshments at the conclusion of the lecture
DATE: Wednesday 21 October 2009
VENUE: Theatre A, Elisabeth Murdoch Building, The University of Melbourne
SEMINAR CONTACT: foenander-lecture@unimelb.edu.au
Attachments: FoenanderFlyer.pdf (PDF 435KB)

ABOUT THE LECTURE

Australians are giving more and more time to paid work. Many employees draw much meaning in their lives from their paid work – whether it is from their pay, the tasks they do, the difference these tasks make to others or their communities, the skills they exercise, the things they make or learn, or the relationships, laughs or social connection work brings. What kinds of meaning do we draw from work, how much does it matter, and how does meaning vary – between people, over the life course, and compared to other things we do and are?

This lecture will reflect on how the meaning of work varies between jobs and by socio-economic status. It will consider how the terms, conditions and contexts of work add to, or detract from, the meaning of work in our lives. The lecture will argue that particular terms, conditions and contexts matter a great deal to the meaning we draw from work, and that what the makers of these terms and conditions do – employers, unions and governments – can help make work more meaningful in lives that are increasingly shaped by the stamp of work.

Professor Barbara Pocock is Director of the Centre for Work + Life, at the University of South Australia. Barbara’s research has included work, industrial relations, trade unionism, pay and pay equity, vocational education and inequality in the labour market. In 2003 she was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship to study the intersections between work, family and community. Barbara has published many books, articles and book chapters and given visiting lectures in the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Switzerland, and China. She is actively involved in policy development and public commentary on work issues in Australia, and undertakes many public contributions on these issues each year. She is Deputy Chair of The Australia Institute, a member of the Strategic Council of The Climate Institute, a member of the Festival of Ideas Committee in Adelaide, and has been President, Vice-President and Conference Convenor of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ).

Foenander Lecture Series - a history

Foenander Lecturers and Topics - Past Speakers