Alberto Ferrucci

 The Lionello Bonfanti Pole is organising a two-day workshop on 2 and 3 May with Professor Jennifer Nedelsky, Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto. Title of the workshop:

Giving Care: (A) Time of Economic Change, Starting from Work

In their seminal book, Part-Time for All: A Care Manifesto (2023), Jennifer Nedelsky and Tom Malleson address the enduring challenge of work-family conflict, offering innovative solutions that examine its diverse manifestations across cultural, social, and economic contexts. With a particular focus on the inequalities faced by caregivers, they advocate for a fundamental shift in priorities, urging society to engage in collective reflection: “Rethinking what is important by talking together about how we want to work, how we want to provide care, in short, how we want to live”.

The intersection of work and care remains a pressing issue in many countries, where structural challenges persist—including contractual precarity for care workers, inefficient labor organization, and exploitative conditions—that contribute to new forms of inequality and poverty. Addressing these issues demands a comprehensive reevaluation of labor policies and care infrastructures to promote greater equity and sustainability in both professional and domestic spheres.

However, the relationship between care and work extends beyond traditional roles associated with care work, such as nurses, doctors, or caregivers. Instead, it emphasizes labor as a form of care and service, reflecting the principles of civil economy, which regards work not as one activity among many but as a transformative space essential for human flourishing.

Building on these reflections, this two-day event aims to serve as a platform for dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and co-creation. The program is designed to engage and welcome experts, researchers, students but also people interested in the fields of ‘care and labor’, featuring a variety of participatory activities. Highlights include the presentation of innovative ideas in a “Fair of Extraordinary Ideas”by selected speakers, a documentary screening and debate, and firsthand accounts from organizations showcasing replicable models of best practices.

It is a great honor to announce that Jennifer Nedelsky, Professor Emerita of Law and Political Science at the University of Toronto, will join us in person at the Polo Lionello Bonfanti to deliver a keynote lecture in collaboration with the Economy of Francesco (EoF). 

Over the course of these two days, participants will also engage in opportunities for conviviality, in-depth discussions, and the fostering of new synergies. The event, therefore, represents itself an opportunity to explore alternative practices of work and care, aligning with Pope Francis’s assertion in the Laudato Si’ encyclical: “Every form of work is a concept of the relationship which we can and must have with what is other than ourselves.”